were not to regard they abusing it and when Oliver Cromwel wincked at you both I well remember your carriage and was an eye-witness of much of it with many hundreds how many Protestations were made in your Synods south and north and when the one party or faction would depose such a man or men from the so called Ministerial function the other party would bid him or them preach and maintain uphold and defend him and now the Churches authority not being backed with the Magistrates sword ye could break through it as Cobweb and some of you whom your Parishes would not receive yet yee urged your selves upon them whither they would hear or forbear All this and much more is fresh in the memory of thousands and this day hath abundantly discovered you And oh that yee could take shame and confusion of face to your selves and read the language of the Lords work in this day which would be answered with his witness in your Consciences saying with these Ier. 8.14 let us be silent for the Lord hath put us to silence for a more excellent Ministry the Lord hath brought forth in this day even that of his own spirit whereto yee have been and are great strangers and yee have need to learn the first principle of the Oracles of God which is the light of Christ shining in the dark heart although yee have been so long teachers of others and the Christ whom yee have preached so many years yee have him yet to learn and if ever yee receive a part of the true Ministry yee must come to know him revealed within you which for the time is a parable to you and yee call it delusion And now oh yee people of Scotland know that the Lord in his great mercy to your souls hath brought this day over your Teachers to let you see they were but broken â—â—sterns and their fair profession and many good words whereby they made merchandize of you hath much opposed and withstood the appearance of Jesus Christ and that which letted is much removed out of the way now and the Lord is come to teach his people himself and to gather them into his unchangable truth which is not subject to the windings and turnings of your teachers and the pure fountain of the water of life hath been opened unto us and we drunk thereof to our unspeakable refreshment and satisfaction and we cannot any more come at your pudled waters 14. And your fathers the Primitive Protestants acknowledge no head in the Church but Christ Jesus and they maintained the power and authority of the Church to be altogether independent from and not subordinate to the Magistrates power and Iohn Welshe and others of his brethren bore a testimony to this in his day for which together with their testimony against Prelacy they were imprisoned at Blaknes as appears by a letter of his with several that 's extant at this day and now how far have ye shrunk from this testimony of your predecessor judge ye your selves who call him in your Church-prayers supream Judge in all cases and over all causes Civil and Ecclesiastical There is also two other weighty particulars which is well known to have been maintained by many primitive Protestants both denyed by you viz. That Christians ought neither to swear nor fight with any carnal weapon both which were asserted by those called the Lollards of Kyle as ye may read in the book of the Reformation of the Church in Scotland but the setter forth of the aforesaid book hath added to their words to the first Article which is according to their assertion as it was found in the Records of Glasgow That in no case it is lawful to swear he hath added to wit Idely rashly or in vain and to the other That Christians should not fight for the Faith is added if not driven thereto by necessity which two additions manifestly appears to be put to by the publisher of the book and that they are not these mens words for that they are printed in another character and he alleadges their enemies to have depraved them for he sayes These Articles together with several others were found in their Records but his alleadgance is not so fair being he had no sufficient ground therefore and the Articles are true and sound without his additions and it 's a perfect contradiction which neither the Lollards of Kyle or any rational man could affirm to say we must not swear at all or in no case it is lawful to swear which is universal and exclusive and then to put a limitation thereto but in such cases viz. idely rashly and in vain I say these two propositions It is lawful in no case to swear It is lawful in some case to swear are a perfect contradiction and no rational man can affirm both for either the one or the other must be false and so the Lollards saying in no case it is lawful to swear it is clear that they were not only against swearing idely rashly or in vain which neither their adversaries denyed so that it needed not be a point of Dittay against them but against swearing in any case or at all So by these 14. or 16. Articles let all in whom there is any measure of ingenuity or simplicity try your present Church constitution and with the Light wherewith Christ hath enlightned you examine and ye will find that though ye call your selves the reformed Church ye are far from the first Reformers and that the whole Protestant Church in Europe hath much degenerated from the primitive Christians and Protestants both in principles and practices and is become quite another thing retaining the name like an old rotten Ship that hath been so often clamped and clouted that all the former timbers are worn out and others put in their place yet keeping the name and somewhat of the form and shape and ye have sailed long up and down in this old rotten Ship which is just upon the splitting and suffering shipwrack and it were happy for you if ye would swim forth out of her for your lives and the greatest loss of all is of the Spirit and Life of your first Reformers as appears by your fruits and conversations at this day Is not that fidelity honesty and simplicity much lost and quite decayed that some yet living remember was in the Land and treachery falshood guile and deceit come in the room thereof and one brother cannot trust another and love is waxen cold and much selfishness crept in and the profession or Religion made a meer cloak of maliciousness and that temperance and sobriety in words diet and apparel that was among many is quite gone and wantonness gluttony and drunkenness whoredom cursing and swearing and prophaning of the name of God and fearful oaths come in stead thereof and tyranny and oppression more then among savages and yet people given to such wickedness are accounted your Church-members and partake of all the Church-priviledges
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
not in the least their persecuters And if as yet yee cannot receive what they offer yet beware to reject it or to judge of it because yee cannot as yet close with it the time may come when yee shall both see and receive it If the work they are about be of God as undoubtedly it is then it must prosper beware therefore to be found any more in opposing of it least yee also be found fighters against God As for me I am but a child and as one of yesterday yet through Grace I am what I am and as I own that state wherein I was when I walked with you for truly I can say there was a measure of singleness and sincerity within me in it and therefore I may not disown it nor any while they so continue there if they be not wilfully opposing further discovery yet this I verily know and can truly say I then was and now am called of the Lord to go further forgeting the things that are behind to press forward for the prise of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus and this is that I aim at and which thorough the help of my God in this way so much by you so slighted and despised as I keep faithful to what I know of it I have more hope of attaining then ever Now that I may come to a close I have but a few words more to say to such of those to whom these Papers are directed who are gone beyond Sea if at any time this shall come to their hands which is to desire them in the fear of the Lord to consider seriously what is therein said unto them in particular and if without prejudice in soberness they wait for it I am hopeful it shall be said unto them how came yee here and what do you here seeking to uphold that which I am pulling down and to bear down that which I am setting up this is not your work return from whence yee came and it shall be shewn unto you Dear Friends for so are yee to me whither yee will hear or forbear yet know of a truth I speak not unto you without a warrant Written in the 11 th Month in the year 1664. Alex. Iaffray A Lamentation over and an Expostulation with the People of Scotland for their so gain-standing and opposing the appearance of God among the Lord's People called in derision Quakers And for their foul Defection and Apostacy from what the primitive Protestants and Reformers were whose successors they boast themselves to be yea and from what they have been but of late dayes themselves OH oh people of Scotland great is my sorrow of heart for you and when I consider your state and condition many times my soul mourns and pangs take hold of me as of a woman in travel and I cannot cease but take up a lamentation over you if possibly any of you hereby may be reached and awakened out of the deep slumber of security whereinto ye have fallen to consider your wayes and turn unto the Lord from whom ye have deeply revolted and against whom ye are fighting in this day and his appearance ye are calluminating blaspheming opposing as witnesseth too manifestly your savage and cruel dealings with the Lord's people whom he hath framed for himself and who do and shall shew forth his praise to the ends of the earth Oh oh your cruel mockings your hard speeches your inhumane usage of them one way and another is noticed and marked before him yea it is writ as with a pen of iron and a point of a Diamond and the least grain weight of their sufferings by him is regarded and he will be avenged of their enemies and repay them double yea great is the indignation and wrath of the Lord against you verily I have felt it yea I have seen it and many others with me burning like a very Sea of fire and brimstone ready to break out upon you as certainly it will do and sweep you away to the bottomless pit if ye do not prevent it by speedy and unfeigned repentance Alas unthankful People do ye so requite the Lord is this the fruit ye bring forth to him after he gave you deliverance from your enemies and peace and rest round about remember and call to mind the rock from whence ye were hewed out of and the pit from whence ye were digged and consider your poor low and despicable condition and your fore-fathers estate in the day of your and their nativity when the Lord first visited you in Egypt the daâ—kness of Popery I mean and gave unto your fathers a little Goshen where they had light when the Egyptians such as remained Papists were choaked with the thick darkness and after when the Lord called them forth out of Egypt and they begun to remove having a red Sea before them Pharaoh Antichrist in the Pope and his complices behind and mountains on every side yet the Lord was with them and did fight on their behalf and they saw great wonders in Egypt and in the Wilderness but with many of them God was not well pleased for they tempted him exceedingly whereby the Lord was provoked to swear against them that such should not enter into his Rest and Oh how have ye their posterity lusted in your hearts to return into Egypt because of the onyons and garlick and flesh-pots thereof and others of you would not go forwards at the command of the Lord but ye would sit down in the Land which God never appointed for your rest for it was but the wilderness and ye made to your selves of it a resting and dwelling place where ye thought to have planted Orchards and Vineyards and to have eaten of the fruit thereof whereby it came to pass that ye loathed the Manna from Heaven and the Lord became wroth and ceased to rain of it any more down upon you and ye did eat of the fruit of your own doings and your Vineyards which ye planted brought ye forth abominable fruit whereby your souls were distasted and many of you became to be past feeling of God and the Manna from Heaven became such a mystery unto you as it is at this day that ye own such a thing delusion and blasphemy and the cloud by day and the firy-piller by night which the Lord gave to your fathers to lead them have you turned your backs upon and shut your eyes that ye might not see and the Lord was provoked to remove it from you and it ceased to appear and your foolish hearts were so darkened that ye denyed altogether such a thing and at this day ye call it a fancy viz. the Revelation of God's Spirit Oh oh how are ye degenerated into a strange Plant who were a noble Vine a right seed how have ye turned from that which was the rock that followed your fathers was their stay was their Manna was their Leader and Guid their Moses but have ye not said with them who
there succeeded a people who saw over these who compiled or rather Englished the Service-book and they disowned it as they did also all other set forms of Prayer and cryed them down as dead lifeless things and they were for a worship in Spirit thus is was but even of very late dayes in Queen Elizabeth and King Iames the sixth and such were nick-named by their enemies Puritans and they affirmed that the Spirit of the Lord was only to teach them to pray and worship and not any Book or Man whatsoever and were not set forms of Prayer cryed down also in Scotland as lifeless barren things and the service-Book denyed and now have ye not again licked up that vomit and through your Cities men set up mostly also scandalous in their conversations at such hours of the day or night to read a set form of Prayer and is there any material difference betwixt this and the Service-book And have not your brethren in England taken it up again and when it 's offered to you to read will ye not also do the like there is no question of it but most of you will and worse also when ye are put to the tryal and oh what a mysterie is it to you praying and singing in the Spirit are ye not become so impudent as to mock this also as I have oft witnessed my self when your Church-members hath been so shameless as to cry in the very streets at us when passing by When came the Spirit last upon you give us a Prayer from the Spirit And do ye not flatly deny praying and worshipping in Spirit who deny Enthusiasm which is to say being interpreted for it 's a Greek word the inspiration of the Spirit of God which is the only flame that kindles up holy 〈◊〉 in the soul after God and you who can prate and talk unto God without a Book in your Pulpits and chief places of the Synagogues and elsewhere in your own wills and times and in the wills and times of others from a rhetorical strain as if ye were complementing some great Prince your prayers are as life ' ess and spiritless as those said of the Mass-book and were ye come truly to the spirit of prayer ye would know a bridle to your tongues without which your Religion is but vain and that the Spirit of God which bloweth as well when and where it listeth is also as far from being limitted to set times as to set forms and we read not in the whole Scripture that the Lord hath appointed any set times of prayer under the Gospel to his people at all whose great and most important work is to wait the movings of the Spirit of Life from God at all times whether to pray or give thanks or to any other spiritual exercise and blessed are they who come hither for they shall know that it is not in vain to wait upon the Lord for we have waited patiently upon him and have witnessed and do witness the pourings forth of the spirit of Prayer and praise supplications and thanksgivings filling our hearts and souls night and day to the God of our life and true prayer is the gift of God which cometh not at all in mans will or time and therefore the season is to be waited for which God hath kept in his own hand and hath the key of the heart to open it when he pleaseth and the key into the house of prayer where is the throne of grace without access to which in the drawings of the Spirit-of life man hath no acceptation with God nor his service or worship all is but idolatry and abomination only such who come to God through the Mediator and Intercessor Christ the Life feeling the living drawings thereof in the particular are accepted of him and made joyful in the house of prayer and hath it not been the regret of some among you and may be yet when ye are in a sober mood that the spirit of prayer is much lost and a dry complementing of God come in the room thereof 3. Were not your fore-fathers the primitive Protestants and Reformers a separated people did not they disown the Popish Assemblies and their preaching and worship as idolatry and forsake it and did not those called Puritans both in England and Scotland separate themselves from the other party who stuck to the Service-book and other superstitions and did not the sober people in Scotland in the former times of Prelacy separate from the Prelatical Assemblies and their Conformists did they not meet apart and talked together of the work of God on their own hearts and worshipped God in Spirit and his blessing and presence was among them while they kept chaâ—t to him and mixed not with Idolaters Now have ye not apostatized herein also and mixed your selves in with the profane rabble of the world as bad and worse then Papists Turks Pagans which hath provoked the Lord to withdraw from among you and ye can pray and sing and communicate with such Is not this Babylon indeed which is to say Confusion and is not our separation from you also as justifiable as the separation of your fathers from Papists being we have found you to be of the same spirit and mostly of the same principles and practices with them and generally as wicked loose scandalous prophane and covetous and abounding with all manner of iniquity as they and are not all such Idolaters is not thee vetous man an Idolater whereas covetousness is idolatry as saith the Scripture and are not all Idolaters to be denyed as to any fellowship with them in worship and your fathers did not plead such dirty stâ—ff as you the Professors have learned now to do to shun the Cross for keeping the Popish and Prelatical party their Assemblies Service-book worship alledging That they sit in Moses chair and therefore are to be heard and we may like their good and leave their evil Such reasons prevailed not with your fathers nor ought they for the Christians come not at all to the Scribes and Pharisees who sit in Moses chair but meet apart unless to bear a testimony against them and bad men with all their good words can never edifie a soul in faith or true knowledge which is life eternal all they can do is to edifie in the notion and feed the wrong part and spirit which delights in the notion of truth and is satisfied in the notional knowledge out of the life and the finest truest words out of a bad mans mouth can never reach the seed of God either to the raising of it up or refreshing it but on the contrary burdens and kills as said the Apostle of the false Apostles who had the letter and were Ministers of it out of the Spirit and Power and the letter sayes he kills and so we have found it in our experience but these above-mentioned arguments have prevailed with you so that ye are herein also apostatized from them 4. Your
came in and the tongues of the sons of men were confounded so that they could not know nor understand one another And now ye who talk of the tryal of the Ministry have ye not lost the touch-stone of tryal which was among the primitive Christians and was lost but is found again among us even the spirit of discerning whereby we feel the true Minister in the power and discern him from the false so that his fairest yea soundest words that he hath stoln from the Saints cannot deceive us and this was Paul's rule to try them who boasted to be the true Ministers and were not I will know said he not the words of them that are puffed up but the power here was a deeper search then into the best of words into the power what power they spoke from if from the Dragons power and the ravening Wolves power within them which may stand with the finest words which aâ—e the sheeps cloathing wherewith that power decks it self to deceive and so to devour the ignorant or if from the Lamb's power the power and Spirit of Christ and from grace in the heart Oh is not that a parable unto you we cannot judge the heart say ye nor know the spirit within man which manifests you to be strangers unto the anointing whereby spirits can be tryed and to the spiritual man which judgeth all things and though sometimes ye would give it forth to the people that ye are not against the teachings of God's Spirit to you the Teachers I speak yet ye plainly deny it both in word and practice and ye have no other means to uphold your selves whereby to purchase your Hires and your Dignities and Honour which comes from below but to keep poor people in ignorance from the teachings of God therefore ye cry out so much against the Light calling it delusion and bididng people beware of it for if any people were come to the Light in their particulars they would turn their back upon you and deny you your Hires and then your Kitchins would not smoak so as now nor would ye be so gorgious and sumptuous in your gaudy Apparel nor your Wives either which is a shame for to see and the grief of many sober people to think upon your pride and vanity the cry whereof hath come up before God to his throne and ye may read your doom Isa. 3.24 25 26. and were it not that ye deny the teachings of God's Spirit why pass ye so many years course at Schools to learn from men what ye may say to the People and why buy ye so many books and have your book-dayes and take no imployment but your books except when some few hours in the first day of the week ye talk to people what ye have gathered and collected together out of old Authors or then what some of you which are better Artists have moulded together by the forge of your own imaginations and natural understandings or when ye were and that very sparingly too some little time in that you call your Catechizing and Visitations of Families and the bad fruit of all this shews its much lost labour and ye could be better imployed in holding a Plow or digging in a field or any other honest occupation then to be deluding poor people whom ye are ever learning and yet ye are never able to bring them to the knowledge of the Truth and the gross palpable ignorance of your Parishioners all abroad the Nation with their wicked lives shews they are evil master-stead and that ye are not taught of God your selves else your teachings would have better effect and why will ye not suffer such who are not book-learned nor passed their course at your Colledges to learn the trade of it to preach the Gospel were ye for the teachings of God's Spirit would ye limit him to use only bookish Clergy-men for the Ministry when the Spirit of the Lord instructs a man though he could not read a letter is he not well learned is he not an able Minister who hath his ability given him of God though man hath not taught him and yet ye cannot away with this and why persecute ye such who are taught of God and ye dare not say but their practice answers their profession and that they are better taught then your disciples are though they come not at you to learn and what means the form and manner of your Sermons when ye will take a sentence of Scripture or common head as it is called and branch it out as Aristotle's or Ronius Logick hath taught you and it is one main piece of tryal to young-men coming forth to the Ministry to make a Logical Analysis as it is called upon such a piece of Scripture as is allotted unto him and he is counted a brave Preacher who can handle his Text in such a Scholastick method and an honest plain man who is not acquainted with your School-method nor topical places such as Aristotle an Heathen hath taught you out of which as so many 〈◊〉 ye gather together your points of Doctrine Observations Reasons Motives Means Uses Applications Amplifications I say an honest simple plain man who is not acquainted with such trifles but can speak feelingly of the work of God on his heart should he come and speak among people ye will laugh him to scorn and say of him he hath neither rhime nor reason he speaks confusedly and non-sense he hath no method he is not worth the hearing and yet by such foolishness of preaching many hundreds at this day are converted unto God for the power of God hath accompanied such poor foolish mens Ministry and the Lord hath made them true Pastors to feed the people with knowledge and understanding and they have been instrumental to bring people to Jesus Christ the great Bishop and Shepherd of their souls whereas ye have nothing to feed the people with but wind and airy notions and at best words of truth ye have stoln out of the Scripture which spoke out of a mans mouth not declaring in nor the power of God accompanying the words are but a killing letter and let any sober spiritual minded man in the least measure judge if such things above-mentioned which are made the qualifications of a Minister and usually practised by them smells of mans wisdom or of the evidence and demonstration of the Spirit or if any of the Apostles or Prophets used such things who were taught of God 9. Your fathers the primitive Protestants were against Tythes and that Ministers should have temporal possessions as an Hire for their preaching so said Iohn Wicklife and they had not their hundreds and thousands allorted to maintain them far less would they force people against their wills to give them maintenance and poynd them or put them to horn and imprison them as ye will do And your fathers did bear a notable testimony against the greediness and covetousness of the then Priests as we do against you for
in Synods with them and coming in the ordering of Church affairs together and your obeying their commands a disowning them Nay yee cannot say it except yee bewray your exceeding folly well then ye neither own them nor disown them and is not this the detestable neutrality yee vowed against and if perhaps some of you have not given any oath or promise to these men and it is rare if it be so yet your practice is as real a breach as an hundred oaths and promises and whereas yee say obedience may be given to their lawfâ—l commands I answer such as are not lawfully constitute Rulers but Usurpers as many of you affirm no command proceeding from them is lawful as such though never so lawful upon the matter for there are a great many Circumstances required more then the matter of the thing commanded to make it lawful one maine is that the imposer of the command have a just and lawful authority and power from God thereto for there is no power but from him the powers that be are ordained of God Romans 13. And as for your alledging these things are not so weighty required of you as that yee should be put from your preaching I answer admitting yee were true Preachers or Ministers for I argue according to your own principles yet e're the least circumstance yee should yield unto 〈◊〉 which is sinful and forbidden of God yee were to give up the service of your Ministry were it never so useful for that yee are not to ballance your Ministry with the smalness of the things upon the matter on the one hand and the service yee can do on the other but to look alwayes to the command of God and the honour of his name and truth which is weighty enough to down-weigh all other considerations though never so weighty 13. And your Fathers the Primitive Protestants affirmed that when any thing contrary to sound Doctrine was set up and brought in the Ministers who stand upon the watch tower should not keep silence but testifie against such a thing and forewarn the people to be aware thereof and they judged silence to be a sinful connivence witness the Protestations made several times against such things and but of late dayes the Protestation made at the Cross of Edenburgh on the 22. day of the Month called September in the year 1638. wherein they largely shew backing what they spoke with pertinent Scriptures to that purpose that they ought not to be silent Likewise it was a principle among them the first Reformers that they should not forbear to preach though all the powers on earth should forbid them whatever punishment could be inflicted upon them therefore and it was their practice also for they put their lives in hazard and many of them lost their lives bearing their testimony and they accounted the winning of souls of people of more worth then the saving their bodily lives and as yee may read in the History of the Reformation in Scotland to such who queried why was not obedience given to the Magistrates command it was answered its better to obey God then man as Peter answered the Rulers of the Iews Now such of you of the National Ministry who stuck to take the Canonical oath or to make an active complyance with the Bishops as the rest of you have done yet have yee not shamefully shrunk he ein yee who could open your mouths wide against these things now set up before they were brought in among you when there was no hazard of speaking and talk boldly against the Bishops and their corruptions and spend a good part of the hour glass on such a purpose but now are yee not shrunk dumb with a panick fear that hath overtaken you and yee have quit your Ministry at the command of man far unlike the good Shepherd that flees not when the Wolf comes but stands up to defend the flock from the Wolf and laies down his life for the sheep but the hireling flies because he is an hireling as yee have done and have yee not rather obeyed man then God if ever the Lord called you to your Ministry had man power to have taken it from you is it not too manâ—fest a proof that your call and power to preach was but of men who as they gave it you can take it from you as they have done and yet poor men ye think ye are suffering for a testimony of a good conscience but alass it 's a thred-bare testimony so to speak and as it stands the Lord will not take it off your hands for have yee not chosen a lesser suffering to shun a greater your stipends are taken from you but is that enough to make you leave off feeding the flock I speak according to your own principles regard yee no more their souls nor your bodily maintenance or is there any other put in your Pulpits is that enough either can yee not preach elsewhere then in a Pulpit may yee not preach in a field or from house to house as did Paul and many others yea your Fathers did so or do the people refuse to hear you then yee have but badly learned them they are not taught so much love as to stick to their Pastor when the wolf comes but should yee not preach to them whither they will hear or forbear as Ezekiel did and was commanded of the Lord so to do or have they commanded some of you to go over Seas should yee have obeyed that unjust command or if they had taken you away by violence what hinders but yee may return to the flock were not the fear of man over you I know nothing in the will of God but prisonment or death or some such outward violence could hinder a true Pastor from the Flock or hath the so called Church commanded you silence but if their sentence be unjust as yee think it is should yee have obeyed it and yee have but a poor plea when yee say it 's for peace sake yee so do for the peace which is in hazard for the testimony of the truth is but false and so not worth the keeping but that it was not the peace sake of your Church or any reverence to their authority though this be your main defence but the fear of man that hath prevailed with you to quit your charge manifestly appears by your practice but a very few years ago when you called Church men could either 〈◊〉 the Magistrate or when he winked at you then yee were busie with your Protestations and yee became divided into two parties or factions called Protestators and publick resolutioneâ—s and your brethren charged you who either protested or adhered to the Protestation with breaking the peace of the Church and disobedience to its Authority and in that day yee could roundly answer them that yee were to be more careful for the preservation of the truth then of a peace that could not stand therewith and their authority yee
with you and when any such die the cry goes through your streets there is a faithful brother departed c. or when any of them hath a child to be sprinkled the Priest will cause him to rehearse the Articles of his Faith and he hath no more faith nor so much as the devil for the true faith purifies the heart and lodges in a good conscience Oh horrid abomination and is not the zeal among Professors quite withered and deadness laziness stupidity security neutrality carelessness and sottishness generally overgrown them and all manner of iniquity abounds POSTSCRIPT ANd now ye who accuse us in derision called Quakers by you as Apostates and that we have denyed our fore-fathers Faith try your selves and parallel your fathers principles and practices with your own and also with ours and ye shall find ye are degenerated from them exceedingly as we were while with you but through the grace of God are we recovered and brought to witness the Spirit and Life of the primitive Protestants and Christians and in all 16. above-mentioned Articles we agree with them and ye disagree with them and ye cannot instance to us one particular wherein we dissent from them warranted from the very letter of Scripture for these things wherein we have forsaken them we have discovered by the Light which hath opened the Scriptures to us to have been but the inventions of men and Babylons more subtile cup of fornications which because that the day was not so broken up among them as among us now they did not discern but now the Light hath shined forth in such clearness that we have seen to the bottom of all Babylons treasures and were they living in this day they would concur with us in disowning these things and I am satisfied in it they have been accepted of the Lord according to their faithfulness but supposing ye were not shrunk from any of their principles it 's in vain for you to think that God will take that off your hands he received from them winking at their weaknesses in the day of ignorance for that which makes a people acceptable with God is their faithfulness to the dispensation of knowledge in their day and their answering his requirings therein and following him whithersoever he leads of which ye are very short and this is your condemnation Written in the 10th Month from the Tolbouth of Aberdeen G. K. True and righteous Iudgement from the God of judgement separating the precious from the vile concerning the late proceedings of the people of Scotland in the matter of their Reformation from and their covenanting against Prelacy with the corruptions and popish Superstitions accompanying it as also concerning their Church constitution Ministry Worship and Government set up by them after the pulling down of the former and discrying it as Antichristian wherein likewise the Lords controversie with them in laying them by and suffering this day to come over them is shewed in which their building is also laid in the dust and its the will of the Lord that it never be again rebuilt GIve ear unto me O ye people of Scotland of what quality or degree whatsoever and I will shew you the true and righteous judgement of God from whom I have received it and by whom I am moved to declare it unto you for your good concerning your late proceedings in the matter of your reformation from and your covenanting against Prelacy and the corruptions and popish Superstitions accompanying it and other particulars above-mentioned A zeal there was in many of you Rulers Teachers and People in that day for the Lord and his name and truth which he did tenderly regard and it was marked before him though the most of you all along minded more your selves and how to compass your selfish covetous and ambitious designs then his honour and ye made the name of truth and Religion a meer clock to cover and mask your hypocrisie with yet a true simplicity and uprightness of heart was among others of you and ye did well in disowning and departing from such men who gave themselves forth to be the Lord's Ministers and servants but they ran and he sent them not and their covetousness and ambition and seeking how to please men for their own ends and not his honour nor any true zeal for him set them on such a work to Lord it over the people which he had forbidden and it is abomination to him together with the many things accompanying them which they gave forth for his ordinances good order decency and comliness in the Church but were the meer inventions of men and Babylons golden Cup of Fornications and that ye vomitted up and refused any more to drink of this cup or to admit of such things as his Ordinances or belonging to his worship or as if he allowed it whereby your iniquity is exceedingly agravated before God and his indignation and jealosie burns as fire against you for your returning thereto and because of the iniquity of such men their pride pomp covetousness tirany and ambition his wrath kindled against them and he poured contempt and desolation upon them for the cry of their wickedness together with the Prayers and â—upplications which came from many in that day because of them ascended up into his Throne in the time of their great affliction of Spirit to see his Truth and Name so much dishonoured and the Lord heard and regarded and delivered them from that which was their trouble and grief of heart and he removed that out of the way which was a great let unto his work and glorious appearance in the Land and after the removal thereof the Lord put a fair oppertunity in your hands to have been blessed instruments in his work whereby had ye improved it ye should have been at this day a glory in the Earth a Praise a Renowne and a Blessing and your memory should have endured as a sweet savor unto all succeeding Generations But he had many things against you whereby he was provoked to lay you by also so that ye should not be honoured nor ever shall be in the state ye are in and way of your proceedings as instruments in his glorious work which he hath purposed to bring and is bringing forth in the earth even a work of wonders and admiration whereby he will make to himself a name everlasting therein and give matter to all the simple-hearted of thanksgiving and praise for ever and ever and this work he is bringing forth this day in the midst of you and yee are so far from joyning issue with him therein that ye are all opposing it but it shall go on and prosper over the heads and bellyes of all gainsayers on the face of the whole Earth and if yee repent not and give way unto his determination he will bring this word to passe against you Behold ye dispisers wonder and Perish And now hear the righteous judgment of God concerning these things he hath to
nearer the letter of the Scriptures then that other cast down by you yet it was as far from being the Temple or House of God being not of his Spirit for this ye had gone from in your own particulars and at length became so impudent as to deny such a thing could be expected to wit the leadings of the infallible Spirit of Christ to teach you and guide you infallibly in your proceedings and ye set the letter of the Scriptures above it and in it's room together with your own imaginations for ye being gone from the Spirit of Truth the eye which read the Scriptures aright came to be put out and the false eye opened which read them backward and the Scriptures were perverted by you to a wrong sence or meaning and ye drew them to the square and rule of your opinions which the erring mind through Satans suggestion had begot in you and now ye fathered your opinions upon the Scripture and they were but the brats of your own imagination And oh what were the materials of your building were they living stones polished and smoothed by the power of God or rather were they not the most rude profane rabble and multitude of the world the same whereof the Prelatical and popish frame was composed of and who were the builders were they men taught of God standing in his wisdom was your Ministry a spiritual Ministry were they able Ministers of the new Testament not of the letter but of the Spirit such as the Scriptures speak of were they called from heaven by the Revelation of Christ or rather was not your Ministry even such as the former of mens making which stood in man's wisdom and taught of men as among the very Papists yea it was even so Oh how little hath the teaching of God's Spirit been regarded were they not accounted able Ministers who could talk upon the letter and give many good and fine words to the people and speak the Saints experiences recorded in Scripture which generally they never knew themselves or if any knew somewhat of that nature as some did it was not principally regarded and men were let pass for Ministers who were gifted with humane learning and gifts under which the best induments of knowledge or utterance which come not immediately from the Revelation of the infallible Spirit of Truth may be comprehended and after ye had quit the Service-book and that way of worship in set forms and denyed them as dead life-less things your humane learning and abilities together with the customary way ye had inured your selves to prompted you to talk and utter many words before God which yet was as far from spiritual worship as the other and if at any time somewhat of the Lord's Spirit moved and breathed among you as it did for the Lord much pittied for his seeds sake yet it was much suffocated and choaked by your running forth after the imaginations of your own hearts ye not knowing the Cross which stayes the mind and gives a check to the forward proposterous spirit which is rejected of the Lord with all its services and because your minding more the words and form and visible things then the living power whereby the Lord was provoked more and more to withdraw from among you and leave your house desolate as at this day it is And your Presbyterian form of Church-discipline Order and Government it was nothing upon the matter better then the Episcopal there being no material difference in the sight of God to render it more acceptable to him beâ—wixt the one and the other neither of you knowing Christ the head in you teaching you by the Revelation of his Spirit to determine of things coming before you so that ye could not say with that Synod Act. 15.28 It seemed good to the holy Ghost and to us but ye went on in the same manner with them of determining of particulars in mans wisdom and by plurality of voices or consents which is but a very fallible way and hath done more evil then ever it did good and it is all one before the Lord whether one or a few should determine particulars as it is among the Bishops or whether many by an equality should do it as among the Presbyterians you being both out of God's wisdom and asking counsel and not out of his mouth and ye called Presbyterian Ministers did step into many things ye 〈…〉 the Bishops out of or things much what alike and of the same nature ye denyed their Lordships and took to your selves selves Masterships both being equally forbidden by Christ ye would not suffer them to Lord it over you but ye would Lord it over the People yea and did as tyrannically as ever the Bishops had done and ye were offended at the Surplices and the Canonical Coats and Belts of their Clergy and yet ye were equally superstitious and vain in your black cloaths and Gowns with Pasments and Ribbons upon them and other superfluity of naughtiness and ye were angry at their Revenues being so great and yet ye stept in also to many of them and some of you had as much by the year as some of them and into their pride covetousness lightness vanity ambition carelessness concerning the work of Jesus Christ and the salvation of poor people whereof ye took up the charge and many other iniquities they were found in for which the Lord was provoked against them ye have taken as it were a succession of and ye thought the Lord should have winked at you and indeed he boâ—e much with you and had respect unto that poor honest tender simple zealous thing that was once among you in a day but he could no longer forbear for the cry of your sins was great and his oppressed seed in your hearts as a Cart pressed with sheaves under your wickedness cryed likewise against you and he heard and brought desolation upon you also and laid all your stately building in the dust and now great is the lamentation and sorrow of your hearts because of the fall of your building and ye are crying in the anguish of your souls for a day again wherein ye may have an opportunity to repair the breaches and build up the old ruinous heaps and ye are saying in your hearts the tyles are fallen but we will build with hewn stones the Sycomers are cut down but we will build with Cedars and make the frame more able and firm then before to stand out the storm But I say unto you in the name and authority of the living God should ye attempt such a thing till ye come to his Light and the leadings of the infallible Spirit of Truth in your particulars it shall not prosper it shall be as with them who attempted the rebuilding the walls of Ierico and have no better success and ye shall but labour as in the very fire and weary your selves for very vanity I have determined saith the Lord God Almighty to race all to the
foundation which is not of my building to pluck up root and branch and all which is not of my planting I have said to my Messengers and servants go ye up upon her walls break down her battlements bull-works for they are not mine level all to the ground and let them not be built for ever and ever Amen saith my soul. And it is God's rich mercy love and compassion that he hath brought this day over you could ye but open your eyes to see it and some shall see that ye may suffer loss in these things which have been and are a loss and snare unto you The 10 th Month 1664. from the Tolbouth of Aberdein George Keith The word of commandement from the Lord which filled me with heavenly joy and comfort came unto me the 30. day of the 10 th Month called December saying Shew unto the people of Scotland my true and righteous judgement concerning the particulars above-mentioned And now however these be received by you I have peace in my God The blessed long looked for day of God broke up amongst us the Lords people called Quakers with a declaration of the Lords loving kindness to us and what he hath done for our Souls in causing the light of his countenance to shine on us And a brief description of our Church Ministry Word Worship order and Government And a Proclamation of the foresaid day of the Lord to the People of Scotland in judgment and mercy With a loving Exhortation unto them and dear and tender counsel concerning what the Lord requires of them in order to a perfect and thorow reformation which they have often assayed but never as yet come at Also a few words to such who expect the breaking up of the day of God and yet deny it broke up among us Written in the fear and will of the Lord and in bowels of love and compassion to the people of my native Country THe day of God is the Revelation of his living and eternal arm in and among the children of men to put an end to transgression and recover lost man to the blessed holy pure innocent state wherein he was created by God who breathed in him the breath of life and he became a living soul it 's the setting up the Kingdom of Jesus Christ the eternal King of righteousness in the hearts of the Sons and Daughters of Adam and the pulling down the Kingdom of Satan who hath ruled over the sons of men as God and swayed his Scepter as an absolute Monarch in the earth It 's the arising of the Son of righteousness with healing under his wings in the shinings forth of his pure Light for the dispelling the the thick Egiptian darkness that hath long covered the earth and brought upon the Inhabitants a sad sore and dismal night wherein the blessed sweet and amiable countenance of God hath been eclipsed and vailed from men whereby they could not live to God for that life is in the light which by the power and prevalency of darkness hath been much shut up so that it hath not shined forth in its glorious brightness upon mankind It 's the pouring forth of the Spirit of the Lord upon all flesh and the breathing of life upon the dead bones that they may stand up and live with flesh and sinews in strength beauty and comeliness of proportion It 's the manifestation and discovery of that great and glorious mystery hid from ages and generations Christ within the hope of glory Jesus Christ in his powerful spiritual glorious heavenly appearance in his Saints triumphing victoriously over death and hell and all the powers of darkness giving to his Saints to sit down with him upon his throne and making them partakers of that glory he had with the Father before the world began It 's the bringing of many from the East and from the West and from the North and from the South to sit down with Abraham Isaac and Iacob in the Kingdom of God and the gathering of his elect seed from the four winds of the earth which hath been long scattered and pended up in the holes and caves thereof lying in death bondage and captivity The day of God is the redemption of his beloved seed and raising it up out of the grave to live in the blessed and glorious presence of its God It 's the marriage day of the Spouse with the Lamb and the bringing of her into the Chamber of Presence and the Banquetting-house where she is entertained with the sweet fellowship and communion of the noble plant of renown the beloved of her souls and under his shadow she sitteth down with great delight and his fruit is pleasant to her taste where she gets access to him in the bed of love and sees his sweet comely soul-ravishing countenance and hears the sweet melodious voice which pierceth the heart with darts of love so that she is constrained to cry Stay me with apples comfort me with flagons for I am sick of love turn away thy face from me for it hath ravished me being filled with the glory of his Majesty that the sight of it is scarce tollerable in the house of clay which often trembles at the Revelation of the weight of glory The day of the Lord is the tabernacling and habitation of himself with men the Immanuel God in us bringing them up out of all visible and corruptible perishing things into fellowship with him and his Son through the eternal Spirit It 's the dispensation of the new Covenant taking place in the earth the tenour whereof is I will put my Law in their inward parts and write it in their hearts and will be their God and they shall be my People and they shall teach no more every man his neighbour saying know the Lord for they shall all know me from the least of them unto che greatest saith the Lord for I will forgive their iniquity and remember their sin no more Jer. 31. And again I will sprinkle clean water upon you and yee shall be clean from all your filthiness and from all your Idols will I cleanse you a new heart also will I give you and a new spirit will I put within you and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh and I will give you an heart of flesh and I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and yee shall keep my Iudgements and do them and yee shall dwell in the Land that I gave to your Fathers and yee shall be my People and I will be your God Ezek. 36. It 's the coming down of the new Ierusalem from above out of Heaven upon the Earth cloathed with the Garments of Salvation the Lambs Glory which is her Light so that She needeth not Sun nor Moon nor Candle and the pure white linnen which is the Righteousness of the Saints It 's the causing the old Heavens and the old Earth to pass away and the
narrow difficult for passage so that many times sore doubtings and fears arise in us lest we should never get thereinto and many temptations have we indured from the suggestions of the great enemy of our salvation saying to us it is in vain to attempt an entrance but now blessed be the God of our salvation an entrance yea an abundant entrance is ministred to us thereinto and the path is becoming more and more easie and spacious and delectable the way of pleasantness and the path of peace is opened and opening wherein the wayfaring man though a fool cannot erre or stray and the Light hath brought us to Iacob's Well where we have found an eternal never fading spring of living water streaming forth into our souls and hearts to our unspeakable joy comfort and satisfaction and it hath brought us into Bethel the house of God the house of prayer and we have been made joyful therein according to the Lord's promise and in this house and Temple of God we have seen the glory of the Lord and had Isaiah's Vision beholding him sitting upon a throne high and lifted up and his train filling the Temple and we have heard the voice Holy holy holy Lord God of Hosts the whole earth is full of his glory and we have been made to cry woe is us for we are undone because of uncleanness and fear and trembling hath taken hold of us so that the posts of the door lyes moved and shaken at the voice of him that cryed and the Angel hath flown unto us having a live coal in his hand taken in the tongs from off the Altar and therewith hath touched our lips saying unto us your iniquity is taken away and your sin purged and in his Temple we have talked of the glory of the Lord and of his loving kindness one unto another and we have blessed and praised the Name of the Lord for his mercy and goodness to the children of men and we have eat and drunk in the house of our God in the mountain of his holiness have we been entertained with the feast of fat things full of marrow of wines on the lees well refined and we have seen the King in his beauty and bread hath been given to us and our water made sure and it faileth not which we drink every one out of our own Cestern and the glorious Lord hath become unto us a place of broad Rivers and we have been brought to the Shepherds tents and seen where he feedeth the flock and causeth it to rest at noon and we have loved the Pasture dearly and intreated the Shepherd that he would make us partake with the flock and lead us to the green field and Paradice of his pleasure and to the streams of that river which is full of water and floweth richly forth to the continual gladning of the City of God and we have desired it of him with the earnest of our souls that we might see the good of his chosen and be remembred with the favour he bears to his people and gladned with the joy of his Nation that we might have whereby to glory with his inheritance and the Lord hath heard and granted the breathings of our souls we asked life of him and he hath given it us and put a crown of pure gold upon our heads even a crown of righteousness and eternal life and he hath put a new song of praise to him who lives for ever and ever in our mouths which none can sing no nor understand but such as are redeemed from off the earth and Palms of Victory in our hands are given to us and Harps wherewith to harp and make melody to the God of our life who hath created us anew in Jesus Christ unto good works and Censers full of incense which are the prayers of the Saints and the Lord hath not suffered does not suffer us to want any good thing he openeth his hands plentifully and filleth us with his blessing and giveth us to drink of the River of his pleasure and the wine which groweth in our fathers Kingdom and how great is his goodness how great is his beauty for Corn hath made the young-men glad and new wine the Maids as it is written and the mountains have dropped down the wine and the Fatts and Wine-presses have overflowed and the Heavens have opened and poured down everlasting righteousness and rained the showers of blessing upon the tender herbs of the Lords planting in the earth and loe the Winter is past the rain is over and gone and the Spring is come wherein the birds do sweetly sing and the voice of the Turtle is heard in our Land and the Fig-tree putteth forth its blossoms and green figs and others are come and coming to perfection and maturity and the Vines with the grapes give a good and pleasant smell and at our gates are all manner of pleasant fruits new and old laid up for our beloved And the fruit of the Tree of Life which beareth twelve manner of fruits and yieldeth it every month hath been manifested unto us the leaves whereof are for the healing of the Nations And we have seen the Bride the Lamb's Wife adorned and trimmed for the approach of her Husband and the new Ierusalem descending from above the Holy City coming down from God out of heaven having the glory of her God and her light is like unto a stone most precious like a Jasper clear as Cristal and we have seen the frame and proportion of this City with the walls and gates of it within which our feet have stood whose builder and maker is God and there is nothing of mans work in it but all purely of him and we have seen to its foundation the Light the Life the Power the Wisdom of God revealed in the hearts of the Sons and Daughters of men the chief corner the foundation stone which the builders among all the Sects and Professions of the whole earth have rejected in this night of darkness whereby instead of building a house or City for God they have reared up a Babylon which must fall and is a falling and shall sink as a mill-stone into the bottom of the Sea and never rise again Amen Hallelujah glory to the Lamb whose work it is And now the Lord hath made us Citizens of this City and stones of this building even living stones polished by the power of God and glewed and knit together by the same power and Spirit of Life where is the pure perfect unity and in the unity the fellowship and communion with God and his dear Son Jesus Christ and one with another is witnessed and the builders are wise builders standing in the wisdom and power of God whereby they are taught to lay every stone and how to polish and square it and they are but tools and instruments in the hand of God for the work is his alone and the Ministry is spiritual and so are the Ministers men taught by
with another in the invisible heavenly life and though at a distance as to the bodily appearance yet nigh to and present one with another in Spirit and partakers together as members of one body in sufferings and afflictions in joy and consolations which as sufferings abound do abound also And now though the Scriptures declare of this word yet they are not that Word more then a Map or description of Rome or London is Rome or London or the image of Cesar is Cesar or bread and wine is the body and blood of Christ which rude draught shadow description and representation of such things and the like may and do borrow the names of the things by them signified or represented and thus the Scriptures may borrow the name of the Word of God and may sometimes be so called as the words or Prophecy of Isaiah is called by himself his Vision and the words of Iohn is called his Revelation whereas they but signified these things and it 's my testimony with thousands we have found another Word then the Scriptures which is not repugnant to them but teacheth the same things and bears a like testimony with them in a more excellent way so that they have a sweet harmony and concord together yet differing as much from them as bread wine corn oyle water light fire differing from a verbal description or likeness of those things And this is no dishonour to the Scriptures but a putting them in their proper place as a declaration of the eternal life which though pointed at by them yet is not to be found in them as the Jewish people foolishly thought and as Professors think at this day for which Christ checked them because they would not come to him to get life of whom the Scriptures testified That it was in him not in them Ioh. 5. And thus much concerning our Ministery and the object thereof or thing which is ministred and preached to wit Christ the living and eternal Word nigh and in the hear and our Worship and Sacrifice we offer up unto God in this Building House Temple City or Church of God is spiritual prayer and praise spiritual even from the pourings forth of the Spirit of Life from God praying and singing and making melody in our hearts and with our mouths and lips also as the Lord opens them with the spirit and understanding in all things making our requests known unto God and giving thanks alwayes for all things through Jesus Christ our life at whose Name our knees are bowed down and our head uncovered and the glory is over all and the Lord hath turned to us the pure language and the pure lip and given us to the throne of glory an abundant access and hath accepted our prayers and savoured a good savour in them and hath largely answered the desires of our souls blessed be his Name and we witness him a God who heareth prayer even to the least desire or breathing of the upright heart and he is worthy to be waited for who hath come to us in an acceptable time and prepared our hearts to seek and his ear to hear and given us strength and ability to wrestle and prevail with him to the break of day and we have not let him go till he hath blessed us and called our name Israel And as the Ministry and Worship of the Church or house of God among us is spiritual so is the Order Discipline and Government among us and we witness the Lord present with us in our Assemblies and the head Christ in us whether few or many passing sound righteous and infallible judgement concerning the particulars that come before us and we take not that blind fallible way of the many Sects and Professions in the world to determine controversies by viz. Plurality of Votes but we look up to the Lord and call upon him to decide the matter and pass righteous judgement and he doth it and each in the measure of the Word of Truth which they have received doth perceive the mind of the Lord therein and believeth it their faith standing in the wisdom and power of God revealing the thing in and to each particular and we are manifest in one anothers consciences and as Epistles written and read in one anothers hearts and we are of one mind and one spirit and life and here is sweet unity concord harmony and agreement not like Babylon and where the Lord goeth not before us and openeth not the particular or particulars unto us we stand still and forbear till we receive his mind who never is nor will be wanting to us in whatsoever exigence And now the power we have is from God alone and his Son Jesus Christ and he bears the government on his shoulders and takes us up into the Throne with himself according to his promise and maketh us a free people Kings and Priests to our God and our power is free and unlimited as to any mans determination upon the face of the whole earth and we own no head in our Church but Christ Jesus nor can we submit our consciences to any man or yield to the precepts and commandements of men out of the will and power of God in a jot though to the loss of our very lives and especially no man or men is to impose on us the least circumstance in the matter of the worship of the living God and the exercise of our consciences therein but what man or men set up in place of authority calls us to what is equitable and righteous betwixt us and our neighbour we are free and holds our selves bound to give all due obedience for conscience sake thereto and the Magistrate who hath his power and authority from God we dearly own and honour and the obedience he requires of us will be answered with the Witness and Word of God in our consciences which if we should disobey condemnation from the Lord should fall upon us And when that which is sinful and unrighteous is urged upon us then God's witness does arise in our conscience and forbids us to yield thereto but to suffer patiently what may be inflicted upon us for our not bowing under the same and not at all to resist with any carnal weapon or outward violence but to commit our cause to him who judgeth righteously and hath said Vengeance is mine and I will repay it and so we have sweet peace and content in our sufferings for our consciences are kept free and we are redeemed to God and bought with a price therefore we cannot be the servants of men and we seek not any worldly power or force to maintain our Church it needeth it not for the gates of hell cannot prevail against the same nor to propagate our Religion for it will never do it and we are to force no mans conscience nor to lay any punishment upon them or put any to sufferings because of their not concurring with us for we matter no uniformity but that
all your Idols of silver and gold all the wares and pleasant things of Babylon and the Jewels and ear-rings ye have of the Egiptians to wit the many Inventions that hath crept in in the night of Apostacy to the ensnaring and bewitching of your people and father nothing upon the Scriptures nor upon God but that which is purely of him and revealed unto you from the Spirit of truth opening and interpreting the Scriptures unto you which holy men of God did write from the Inspiration of his Spirit and can only be understood in and from a measure of the same and put not the name of the Ordinances of Jesus Christ upon Babylons brats which whoso taketh them and dasheth to pieces against the stones blessed shall they be And away with all the Wisdom of this World which God is a confounding and all consultings and reasonings with flesh and blood and judging or determining of things but in the wisdom and councel of God in the Revelation of the Spirit of truth in each particular let that be your rule in all things and ye shall walk surely and put away this dead life-less ignorant prophane scandalous Ministry own no Ministery but such who is taught of God speaks because he believes and ministers from the power and spirit of life and away with makeing any humane gifts or indowments of Learning which is but flesh and must die and wither the qualifications of a Minister and do not limit the Spirit of the Lord in chusing or refusing any for the work of the Ministry they are well fitted whom he enables though foolish and contemptible to the carnal eye and by these foolish weak and despicable things the Lord hath brought and is bringing great things to pass and away with your dead life-less worship praying and singing which comes not from the breathings and movings of the spirit of life from God and away with your mungrel Church patch'd up of the prophance rable of the World let such who fear God separate and come out from among them and disown them for fellow members of the body whereof Christ is the head and have no communion with them in their worship which is Idolatry and away with your sprinklings of Infants it s but of Babylon with many other things the Light of Christ as ye heed it will discover unto you which in the night of darkness hath passed for Gods ordinance but the day hath discovered them to have the Beasts mark and superscription and away with setting Bread and Wine before a prophane wicked multiude who hath nothing but the bare name of a Christian telling them its the Communion of the Body and Blood of Christ it 's abomination to God and away with the carnal false licentious unbounded liberty ye take to your selves in words diet apparel and worldly conversation mind the cross diligently and it will teach you the golden path of Mediocrity or Moderation in all things and away with all respecting of persons and the honour which comes not from God whose service is only to feed the lust of the eye the lust of the flesh and the pride of life and be willing and desirous to see the glory of the pride of all flesh stained and the Lord alone exalted honoured and glorified in and among the Children of men And away with all Uniformity which is not of the Lords Spirit and away with all force and constraint in the matter of Conscience and Religion and away with all carnal weapons either to defend or propagate the truth away with your Lording and mastering and monopolizing ministry who would limit the Spirit of the Lord and make a monopoly of the gifts of God away with your distinctions of Clergy and Laicks and superstitious Habits and attires for discriminating them and away with your set and alloted hires and maintenance for a Ministry and forcing of people to pay them which hath been a great snare unto many and hath lyen nigh all who from a principle of covetousness seeing thereby means of a livelihood hath intruded themselves into the ministerial Function and given poor people to believe they were called of God thereto whereas generally it is a thing well known they get into Parishes by worldly means they setting their friends and relations on work to sollicite and move the Patrons of the Parishes or such most concerned therein to give them entrance and when the thing is granted then he called the Minister steps up into a Pulpit and sayes thus to the people Beloved by the providence of God I am called to be your Pastor and a watch-man over you as one who must give an account for your souls in the day of judgement and the Lord knows it 's not any other principle but a vehement desire thorough love to your souls to teach and instruct you in the knowledge of God and to edifie you in the Faith that hath moved me to come among you and I have received a talent and I must improve it and the ability God hath given me to instruct you together with the great desire I have to use it for your edification I take for a sufficient call from God and I have also the Patrons and the most considerable in the Parish their call Whereas they make it manifestly appear that covetousness hath set them thereon for how soon any of their brethren dies so that another Parish becomes vacant which hath a greater stipend or maintenance they fall upon their first trade of solliciting for an entrance thereto and they stick not to quit the charge of their first Flock and to give their Wife to wit the Kirk which they say they are married to a Bill of divorce though oft-times there be no occasion on her part and it 's not the Patrons or people who hath called them but they first called them and when the people refuses to pay them their allotted hire they pursue them with horning and poinding which shews them to be far from the affection of husbands to their wives or parents to their children or Pastors to the Flock all which they pretend to be and were they good Pastors their Flock would afford them milk and wool not of constraint but willingly so that they needed not either squeeze the pap to the causing it bleed or tear the fleece off before the time of casting it to the pulling the skin in pieces many times and the ability they talk of is not of God but of men and it 's not God's free gift for it hath cost them both much money and time at Schools to purchase it and were it the talent of the Lord it would prove more effectual to the bettering of the people which it does not for at ten twenty thirty forty years end and upwards they are as bad as at the first coming among them and in many places much worse and the vehement desire to do the people good they tell of is but a suggestion of their deceitful