that hitherto yee have been labouring but in the fire as to the producing any work of Reformation which God allowes of yea and going rather backwards from what was once attained to loosing and plainly contradicting the true and honest principles of your worthy Predecessors which one thing rightly considered may evidently demonstrate to you that your work hath not been nor is of God The presence of God having been very eminently with the Author of these Papers in his enquiry after these things this his service may be very useful for you and will be so found and acknowledged by those whose eyes shall be opened to behold how the Lord comes forth in this day of his power to try every work of man and by the foolish things of the World to confound the wise And to what is there said as to that particular annent the qualifications of a true Minister I shall only add these few words that which so was necessary from the beginning that which we have heard and seen and handled with our hands of the word of Life even the power and presence of the Lord in his people do we whom in scorn yee call Quakers declare unto you as the only essential qualification of a true Minister of Christ. And if this be it yee are so affraid of that through the increase of this the spirit of Prophesie the true Church and Ministers of Christ shall suffer loss your fear upon this account is groundless for these must stand and only in that way must they prosper so as that the gates of Hell shall never prevail against them but if your fear be for the fall of that supposed Church which they the hirelings I mean and yee so contend for both among your selves and with others which is truly Antichristian and no better then undoubtedly your fear is coming upon you and for preventing of it as yee may suppose it is no marvel that ye so fall in with them for the defence of Rome and her Ministry or else as some who have been and yet are famous among you have both spoke and written that yee must not only lose your Church and ministry but your Baptism and the Bible which the witness of God in your Consciences cannot but tell you how much yee did sometime detest and abhor so to say or think untill of late through the growing light of this day in these and in many other truths of the like nature your skirts are so discovered and your heels made bare and your way so hedged up of the Lord that yee cannot escape either to own Rome as your mother Church and so to return to her again or fully to part with and come out of her for ever and thence not to bring with you a stone of hers either for a foundation to Zion or for a corner nay she must not be healed any more which yee have been for a long time so endeavouring but destroyed for ever Ier. 51.9.26 and the time draws near and yet thereby neither the Church nor Ministers of Christ nor the true Baptisme nor the holy Scriptures of truth nor any other of his true Ordinances shall thereby sâ—ffer loss but great and glorious advantage to them who wait for it And because there be some with whom I have had sweet fellowship in the Lord who its very like would have expected some other thing from me then such sharp and peremptory expressions and conclusions against them and the way of the so called Kirk of Scotland in which I was bred with them and had my beginning in the way of Godliness I know very well as things now stands with you yee may think so of what I have said as also that it may be yee would rather have expected some account of the grounds moving me to and the advantages that I either looked for or have found by such a thing Now to speak shortly a word to this I trust for it yea I am not without hope in it that the day is coming and frequently have I sought it of the Lord on your behalf when ye shall so come to see the truth of what I say and the necessity that on your account was on me for it as that ye shall willingly acknowledge that it was the greatest evidence of my dear and tender love in the Lord to you which next to his glory led me to it and that otherwise I should have been wanting of the expression of that true and sincere love which still I have unto you as to the advantages I have found which might be also offered as the reasons whereby I was moved of the Lord to make that so strange a change as yee account it in owning these despised people called Quakers I need say but little if what is in this and the following Papers be well considered of and I know it is my place to lie low in the fear of the Lord and to speak but little as to advantages or any progress that I have made and I acknowledge no man hath more matter so to do yet in this case I may not be silent but must in the fear of the Lord give this my Testimony to the pretious people and the truths of God asserted by them that they do truely and really both profess and practice the new and living way in which holiness by mortification and subduing a body of sin and death is attained and have indeed come to the discovery of these things even the life and power which throughout the dark night of Apostacy hath lyen much hid and hath been but very little felt or known yet such is the goodness of God to that pretious people count of them and call them what yee will the true power and life of holiness is more truly known to them and eminently holden forth by them then by any people else that have come forth since the Apostles dayes and a greater measure do they yet wait for and as they are faithful it will be multiplied on them for the presence of the Lord is with them and all their opposers must fall before them Dear Friends consider then how far yee have been mistaken concerning them and with groundless jealousies carryed on with prejudice against them as grosly erronious blasphemers and the like Nay nay friends it is not so and upon search yee shall find it far otherwayes let your informers who many of them sinfully take things on report without tryal and others who for maintaining of your own interests have made lies their refuge let such say what they will they are and will be found a blessed people who as instruments in the Lords hands may be called the repairers of the breach and the restorers of the paths to dwell in they own dearly and rejoyce in the use of the holy Scriptures and desire to live up to the practice of all the truths of God declared in them Beware then what yee say or think of them and that yee approve
Elements to melt with fervent heat and the drying up of the Sea and the making all old things to vanish and the creating the new Heavens and the new Earth wherein dwelleth Righteousness and the making all things new It 's the relieving the Creation of God which hath long travelled under the bondage of Corruption It 's the coming forth of the Woman cloathed with the Sun and a Crown of twelve Starrs upon her head and the Moon under her feet out of the Wilderness And her getting victory and Dominion with her seed which hold the testimony of Jesus the spirit of Prophecy Rev. 19.10 the great quarel of the adversary against her Rev. 12. over the Dragon Beast and false Prophet It 's the discovery fall and utter overthrow of mystery Babylon the mother of Fornications who hath bewitched the whole earth with the Golden Cup her Merchants hath handed forth into them who dwell thereupon whereby they have adulterated and gone a whoring from God and the pure holy life of Jesus Christ and the chast leadings of his spirit and the true spiritual glory hath been lost from among them who drunk of the cup of her sorceries and a false imaginary glory set up in its room which is the Image of the Beast over which the Saints get victory which false glory stands in some of the words and formes of truth patched together with the inventions of men by the cunning and art of the whorish spirit which is very taking and specious to the eye of man whereby it comes to pass that this whorish woman hath been taken for the spouse of Christ and her Merchants for his Ministers The day of God is the pulling up by the roots every plant which is not of the Lords planting and the fire of the fierce wrath and indignation of God passing thorough the bryars and thorns for the consuming of them and the plowing up the fallow ground and preparing and digging and dunging of it whereby it may become good and fruitful that the pure and tender plant and seed of truth sown therein may grow up and become a tree filled with the fruits of righteousness and holiness this seed hath long lyen as it were barren in the earth which hath been as a Wilderness and brought forth the Vines of Sodom and Grapes of Gomorah but now the Lord hath looked upon the earth and pittied it for the seeds sake and hath sent forth and is sending his servants to till and dress it that it may be for the Lord and master of it a garden of pleasure and now the truth which hath been long holden down in and under unrighteousness is arising and shall arise throughout the whole earth in victory and dominion over all And we the Lords People called in derision Quakers and mocked and persecuted by the World as all the Children of God before us have been because we are not of them and they know us not do witness this day of God come and broke up among us in pure perfect brightness to the fulfilling all these things aforesaid every one in their measure and yet more abundantly to be fulfilled and his Kingdom revealed with power and great glory in our hearts and the Lord hath brought back our Captivity as the streams of the south whereat we are as those that dream for joy and we who sat by the Rivers of Babylon hanging our harps upon the Willow Trees are now returned to Zion having our hearts and our mouths filled with the Songs thereof and our Harps harping the sweet Praises of our God in the Land of our Nativity And the Lord hath redeemed us out of Kindreds Nations Tongues and People to be a peculiar people unto himself a choice Generation a royal Priesthood and holy Nation zealous of good works to shew forth the Praises of him who hath called us out of darkness into his marvelous Light which hath shined forth in beams of Glory through the darkness in us to the dispelling and swallowing up thereof by its brightness and the Light is very dear and precious unto us and we cannot deny it notwithstanding all the opposition we meet with from a wicked perverse World shut up in darkness and because they in the state they are in cannot comprehend it therefore they mock persecute and blasphem both it and the vessels thereof and they would have us to disown the Light and cease to bear our testimony unto it because they hate the Light themselves being it reproves their evil deeds and makes manifest the hidden things of dishonesty which they are loath should be known therefore they would have the Light quenched stopt and buried least their wickedness be seen hence it is that people of all Professions ranks orders qualities and degrees Rulers Teachers Priests and People Scribes Lawyers Doctors and Disputers of this World have and do oppose the Light and such who testifie of it least their pride pomp ambition lust tyranny deceit covetousness and other evil deeds which are rife among them should be made manifest and men of all callings hate the Light for deceit treachery unrighteousness hath seated and spread it self over all and taken a dominion in the Earth and is loath to quit it and therefore it puts into the hearts of all its subjects to oppose the Light which if it get footing in the earth will put a period to its raign and finish transgression and bring in everlasting Righteousness And the Devil sets men upon the opposing the Light least it bind him and cast him out of his place and spoile his house and break his Kingdom dashing it as a potters vessel into pieces and the Whore mystery Babylon the mother of Fornications hates the Light and puts into the hearts of the Kings and powers of the earth to make war with the Lamb the Light and the Children of it for that is it which discovers the cup of her Fornications and sorceries unto men and makes manifest her whorish mire whereby she may be discerned and when she is known the same Kings and Princes and great ones on the earth who upheld her shall come to loath and hate her and burn her flesh with fire and now glory to the Lord who hath shewed us Light and placed it in our hearts and hath raised and is raising it up over all opposition whatsoever in us and by this Light we have discovered the Whore the Antichrist the Beast the Dragon the subtle Serpent the false Prophet with all their subtle workings and deceivableness of unrighteousness we have seen the Land of graven Images and the wilderness where there is no way we have so long walked in hungry and thirsty and our souls fainting in us and our tongue failing with thirst and the light hath given us an out-gate shewed us an entrance into the way of life and path of righteousness holiness which the Vultures eye can never reach this path at the beginning appeared to us very strait
which is of the Lord's Spirit perswading the hearts of people to be one with us in principle and practice and to stand up with us living witnesses for the name and truth of the living God which he is revealing and we assuredly know all the weapons that are formed either against the truth or the witnesses of it shall not prosper and the Lord shall make to himself a glorious name in the earth and we the people of the Lord whom he hath formed for himself shall shew forth his praise and the Lord will make it manifest that we are his and that he hath raised us up and put his Spirit in us and that he dwells in and among us to all the Kindreds and Nations of the Earth and they who will not see shall see and be ashamed and confounded for their envy at the people whom God hath blessed and will bless for ever and ever and no deceit nor violence shall prevail against them And therefore now O ye people of Scotland know ye that the day of God is broke up among us the people of the Lord called by you in derision Quakers but who indeed tremble at the Word of his power when it is sounded forth from the Throne of Majesty yea and the mighty dreadful terrible God of strength power and Majesty Victory and Dominion hath determined to shake the Heavens and the Earth and all the powers thereof to the utter confusion and fall of whatsoever standeth up in opposition against the seting up of his eternal Kingdom of Righteousness in the hearts of the Children of Men and the little stone cut out of the Mountain without hands shall grow and fill the earth and become a Mountain and it shall dash to pieces the Image of Clay and Iron Brass Silver and Gold and the Land of graven Images shall be smitten and all the Gods of the Heathen famished and all the Idols shall be broken and cast into the holes of the rock and Dagon shall not be able to stand before the Ark nor Babylon before the spouse of Christ which is coming forth to face all their enemies fair as the Sun and terrible as an Army with banners yea cloathed with the Sun and the Moon under her feet And the Lord is making a work in this day which shall make all ears to tingle and every heart to faint and fail that will not bow at the arm of his power stretched forth The day of the Lord is come and he is preparing himself to battle as a strong man as one awakned of out sleep who hath long suffered the reign and Kingdom of darkness and as one that cryeth out in the dread of his strength by reason of Wine and he is making bare his arme and covering himself with zeal as with a cloak now will I arise now will I lift up my self saith the Lord and who is able to stand up and make war with him whereof prepare to meet thy God O Scotland in the way of his judgments and repent repent repent of your iniquities from the highest to the lowest for the controversie of the dreadful God of power the zealous angry God who will not acquit the guilty is against the one and the other of you without respect of persons because of your abominations whereby his pure holy Spirit hath been grieved and provoked against you Oh Scotland Scotland the cry of thine iniquities hath come up before God into his throne and he is weary with forbearing to execute the fierceness of his wrath upon you though ye be not weary with sining but are drawing iniquity as with Cart-ropes and filling up the measure even to the brime Wherefore a Cup of trembling trembling saith the Lord God shall be put into thy hands if thou speedily repent not thou shall drink shall not escape and it shall be more tollerable for Sodom and Gomorab in the day of judgment then for you forasmuch as you have sinned against more Light and have had more warnings from the Lord one way and another and he hath borne with you long and strived much with you by his Spirit to reclaim you and would have healed you but ye will not be healed and oh how have your hearts turned back as a deceitful bow and shrunk from that measure of simplicity tenderness and zeal for the Lord that was once among you and because yee took up a profession of God above all the Nations of the Earth and have so treacherously backslidden therefrom in the day of tryal therefore is your sin exceedingly aggravated before the Lord and he will punish you above all the Nations of the earth if ye break not off from your sins by speedy and unfeigned repentance And now ye who mock at the quakings and tremblings of the people of God who feel the load of wrath ready to break out upon you and sink you down to the bottome of Hell and would faine stand in the gapes and hold off the wrath and are in great travel because of the dreadful day they see coming upon you and many times are crying unto God for mercy unto you when ye are adding drunkness to thirst and persecuting them and saying tush tush no evil shall befall us where is the promise of his coming ye shall be made to tremble and your loyns to shake and the joynts of your knees with Belshazar reading the hand writing against you to smite one against another and paleness shall come up upon your faces and pangs as of a woman in travel take hold of you and the Lord will roar out of Zion against you and tear in pieces as a Lyon and who will then be able to deliver you out of his hand and that comfort and peace will be far from you which we the Lords people do witness after all our fears and tremblings for the cup we have drunk at his hands is sweetly tempered with mercy and judgment and in measure he debateth with us and stayeth his rough wind in the day of his East and our hearts which once trembled for fear and dread and sorrow are now made to rejoyce with trembling at the powerful and glorious appearance of him in our souls so that we have been made to sing unto him that song we will praise thee O Lord for though thou wast angry with us thy anger is turned away and we are comforted And yet now O Scotland the Lord hath bowels of tender pitty and compassion towards thee which many times I have felt and do feel with many others and he is much put to it so to speak concerning thee what to do with thee and his mercy and judgement are at a kind of holy contest and wrestling about thee How shall I give thee up how shall I deliver thee O people of Scotland how shall I make thee as Admah and set thee as Zeboim my heart is turned within me my repentings are kindled together which word hath often sounded through me towards
thy Inhabitants O Scotland from the Lord who yet remembers the kindness of thy youth and the love of thy espousals in former dayes and the tenderness and simplicity and uprightness of heart that was among many of you then with a pure zeal for his Name And oh what meltings and breathings of soul was after the living God! and nothing could satisfie but his living presence which also no doubt hath been in a measure by some enjoyed but oh how have ye forsaken your first love and turned down-right enemies against that which was once your very life and is the life of those ye are persecuting at this day and blaspheming to wit the revelation of the Light Life Power Love and Spirit of God in our souls which filleth us with heavenly comfort joy unspeakable and full of Glory Oh how have ye forsaken the fountain of living waters and digged to your selves broken Cesterns that can hold no water Return O back-sliding Scotland for this I do declare unto thee in the name of the Lord he hath yet thoughts of loving kindness unto thee and a seed there is in thee which is very dear and precious unto him and he cannot forget it more then the tender-hearted mother the fruit of her womb and though she should forget yet the Lord will not forget thee for thou art set as a seal upon his heart and writ upon the palms of his hands O thou beloved seed and he will give redemption unto thee and raise thee up out of the holes and caves of the earth where thou hast lain so long buried as in the grave and the Lord hath raised and is raising up his seed in some already who are a kind of first fruits unto him and he hath brought us to walk in the light of his countenance and rent the vails and given us to behold his lovely amiable face with joy and made us an entrance into the blessed Land of Promise and we have eat abundantly of the good of the Land and the finest of the wheat and honey out of the Rock hath been given unto us and we have drunk of the wine and tasted the Vine-grapes thereof and the Land is a good Land and though there be Giants and the sons of Amaleck in the way yet it is conquerable and we cannot but report well of it and God hath blessed our testimony and shall bless it to hundreds and thousands who yet are not able to hear us nor will they because of the anguish of soul under the hard yoak of Pharoah in the Land of Egypt and house of bondage but God will break and is breaking the yoak of oppression from off the neck of his seed and will give it victory and dominion over all And now blessed are they who know and hearken unto the joyfull sound of the everlasting Gospel which publisheth peace and bringeth good tydings of salvation and proclaimeth the acceptable year of the Lord and the day of vengeance of our God to comfort all that mourn to appoint unto them that mourn in Sion to give them beauty for ashes the oyle of joy for mourning the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness that they might be called trees of righteousness the planting of the Lord that he might be glorified And now O Scotland prize the day of thy visitation and know the things that belong to thy peace before they be hid from thine eyes and the day of grace sett upon thee and put away thy abominations out of the fight of the holy pure God which are matter of provocation unto him against thee And whereas thou hast often assayed a Reformation unto the Lord but it hath never come to be perfect and thorow and ye have been so far from going forward that ye have shrunk back and turned again with the dog to the vomit wherefore now at last return to the Lord with whom there is yet mercy and plenteous redemption and reform thoroughly unto him who will not receive halfes off your hands And now I will shew you councel from the Lord which I do declare in bowels of dear and tender love unto you what ye shall do in order to a cleanly perfect and through Reformation Above all mind the Light of Christ in your Consciences and heed it diligently in its motion and shinings forth thorough the darkness and as ye give obedience to it in what it reveals unto you for duty and shun what it discovers to be evil it will more and more arise and shine forth in pure transparent brightness from one degree of glory to another and lay hold upon the darkness to the dispelling of it and swallowing it up wholly in the womb of its brightness and the Light will shew you the foundation on which ye shall build Jesus Christ the Wisdom and Power of God and the Word of eternal Life the chief corner stone from which the Light comes and it leads to him and will bring you into acquaintance with him and the leadings and teachings of his Holy Spirit to which yee shall do well to keep Chast else the Serpent by his subtlety will again ensnare you and Mystery Babylon will bewitch you with the cup of her Fornications And oh your not keeping chast to the Lord hath often marred the work in your hands and if ye come not in the future to keep closely and chastly to him ye shall never prosper in any of your attempts and all shall be but lost labour And take up the cross to every thought desire imagination motion and affection of your own hearts and this will steer your course aright and guide your feet in every step and stay and ballance your minds and hold down every thing which would arise out of the wrong ground and the pure Light will shine forth in your minds thus stayed under the cross with glorious beams of brightness and sweetly manifest unto you all whatsoever the Lord requires of you and as ye must not be forward in running on without the leadings of Christ the head in you so be not backward nor slow in following after him nor sit down by the way saying in your selves thus far will we go and no further Oh this hath also been a snare unto you and mind the pure holy living power more then the form and wherever the power and Spirit of life doth not move or appear in the forme disown it and stand against it and whatever form or appearance the living power leads into or moves in be for it and own it and as ye come to live and walk in Gods fear it will beget more and more a discerning in you to know and feel the power and distinguish manifestly the dead dry and life-less form and appearance from the living and be willing to be searched as with Candles thoroughly and hide nothing which the Lord requires to be given up nor keep up any thing whatsoever that his controversie and indignation is against and rid you of