is manifest in them and Paul says That the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal and the free Grace of God saith he Mark that bringeth Salvation hath appeared to all men teaching us that we denying ungodliness and worldly lusts should live soberly righteously and godly in this present world And the Saints they witnessed their reconciliation and were born again they felt and knew that in themselves of which they were born again even Christ in them the Seed incorruptible 1 Pet. 1. 23 24 25. the Word of God which lives and abides for ever by which they were begotten again unto God and quickened by the Word of life even they who were once as dead stones were raised up as living Children unto Abraham and so they came to taste that the Lord was good and gracious to taste and handle of the Word of Life and to 1 Cor. 12. 13. feed upon the Bread of Life and to drink of the Cup of Blessing and so by one Spirit were baptised into one body and were made to drink into one Spirit wherein they worshipped and served the Lord God and had Unity with the Lord in and through the Eternal Spirit and Unity one with another which united their Souls unto each other and unto the Lord God over all blessed for ever Ah dear people you in whose hearts there is true desires and secret thirstings after the living God where-ever ye are scattered among the many Sects and people towards you doth my soul doth my tender soul yearn and stream with love and good-will and for your sakes dear people doth my Soul travel in the womb of Supplication that you might come to enjoy that which you are seeking after and come to possess that you are thirsting for and for your sakes mostly is this written in tender bowells of unfeigned love and pitty to your souls And dear people you that have true desires in you after the Lord and hath been seeking of him where you cannot find him and hath been running from Mountain to Hill and from Hill to Mountain from one broken Cistern to another from one dead Form to another but still are unsatisfied and are sensible that you still notwithstanding your long profession and confession of God and Christ in words and notwithstanding your practicing somethings that you read of which the Saints once performed in obedience of the Spirit of Truth which led them thereunto want the feeling enjoyment of the Love and sweet Peace of God and go groaning daily under the burden of the bondage of sin and corruption and desires to be set free therefrom Oh dear people retire retire with your minds inward you who hath been seeking a God a far off and hunting after the Lord without retire to within and wait to know the Lord God near you to know his pure Truth in your inward parts his pure Spirit in you to lead and guide you teach and instruct you for God is a Spirit and his teachings are spiritual he must be known in Spirit worshipped in Spirit Joh. 4. 21 22 23 24. and in Truth not at the Mountain neither at Jerusalem not in this set Form nor the other Form As lo here and lo there but in the Spirit is the Lord God known and worshipped aright by them who are born of the Spirit And so the Spiritualized people who are born of the Spirit and lives in the Spirit and are taught and led by the Spirit of Truth these are the peculiar people who Worship the God of Truth who is a Spirit in the Spirit and in the Truth and these are acceptable Worshippers with the Lord who own no Worship but his own which he teacheth his people by his Spirit and they that is ignorant of the Spirit of God they are ignorant of the true Worship of God which is in the Spirit and although such may seem to Worship God yet their Worship is not of God nor accepted with God It is the purified Sons of Levy who hath passed through the fire that are purged even as gold is purged and tryed Mal. 3. 1 2 3 4. and as silver is tryed by him the Light of Israel who is as a Refiners Fire and like Fullers Sope that can offer unto God an Offering in Righteousness and their offerings is pleasant unto the Lord but the polluted Sacrifices the halt the blind and Isa 10 17. the lame is abomination unto the pure God of purity who is Blessed Blessed for evermore And dear People who have desires in your after the Lord towards you doth my bowels yearn whereever you are scattered among the many Sects and heaps this is a tender invitation unto you that hath been spending your money for that which is not bread and your labour for that which hath not yet satisfied your Souls but still you are a thirsty for want of drink and an hungry for want of food Oh dear people retire inward retire inward hunt no longer abroad run no longer from one broken Cistern to another wait no longer at the Wells that men have digged draw no longer at them for still you thirst again But oh retire to within turn your minds inward and wait to find and feel that in you which you so carefully with sorrow hath been seeking without you even to know Jacobs Well in you which hath been dammed up with Earth by the uncircumcised whilest you have been hunting abroad therefore turn your minds inward to feel the gift that Christ gives the Water that he gives saith Christ to the Woman of Samaria The water which I will give thee shall Mark be in the John 4. 14. a Well of water springing up unto Eternal life So the Water that Christ gives it 's within therefore turn inward to his pure Gift in your own Hearts to his pure Light in your own Consciences for that comes from him and leads unto him them that doth it love follow and obey the Fountain of living Water who satisfy the thirst of the thirsty and feedeth the hungry with good things Therefore retire inward in your minds and come unto him and learn of him who is meek and low in the heart to wit Christ in you except ye be Maâ— 11. 28. 29 30. Isa 55. 2 3. Reprobates hearken diligently unto him and eat ye that which is good no longer feed upon the husks and let your souls delight themselves in fatness come unto him encline your ear hear and your Soul shall live and enter into Covenant with him who will be your God and you shall be his people And so dear people it is not enough for any to have a profession and a talk of God and Christ in words without the enjoyment and possession of him It is not enough to confess and believe that Christ died at Jerusalem for sinners and he hath done all for you c. for the drunkard and the swearer will say as much as this
the Bread and Wine outward did figure out which the Manna that God gave the Israel of old in the Wilderness was a pure type of the heavenly Manna the living Bread which the birth that is born of God feed upon and lives thereby and grows up into Eternal life The day of gathering is come wherein the Lord God of everlasting bowels of Compassion is a gathering the dispersed and seeking that which was lost â—ek 34. 12 〈◊〉 14 15 16. and bringing back that which was driven away and healing that which was sick and binding up that which was broken but the strong and the fat he is feeding with Judgement The Lord is a gathering people out of the Forms Shells and Shadows wherein many hath long stuck and is bringing of them to the Substance and life its self out of the many Sects and heaps and divers ways into the one pure path into the one way of Life Light Peace Truth and Righteousness who by the one Spirit hath and is 1 Cor. 1â— baptising them who believe in the Light into the one body wherein the unity the ownness and the fellowship is witnessed blessed be his Name The way of the Lord is pure and righteous and unchangable I am the Way the Truth and the Life John 14. Rom. 10. John 12. the 8 châ— saith Christ the immortal Word which saith Paul is nigh in the heart to be obeyed and done This is he the Light the Salvation of God the true Light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world who saith None can come unto the Father but by me I am come a Light into the world saith Christ that whosoever believe in me shall not abide in darkness but shall have the light of life Therefore dear people love the Light and believe in the Light while ye have the Light that so you may become children of the Light and become heirs of an Inheritance incorruptible that will never fade away There is no obtaining the Crown but through the Cross and this you will come to know who come to love the Light Mat. 11. 29. â— 6. 13. thâ— 10. 38. and to be taught of him and to learn of him who is meek and low in the heart and to follow him in the strait and narrow way that leads to life which few there be that finds it and vvalk therein He that will be my Disciple saith Christ must deny himself and take up his daily Cross and follow me This you will come to feel and witness if you be followers of the Light a daily denying of self you will know a denying of your own wills your own desires your own thoughts your own affections your own words and works your own wisdom and righteousness and a dayly taking up the Cross an hourly living in the Cross through which you must come to be crucified to the â—6 14. World its Vanity its Pomp Pastime and Pleasures Sins and Iniquities vain Words Works Fashions and Customes Inventions and Traditions so coming to be crucified with Christ unto the world and to be Baptised into death with him unto sin you will come to live with him unto God in the life of Righteousness in whom then you will find that Rest Satisfaction Joy Comfort and Peace which no man can give unto you So dear people who are seeking and desiring after the Lord God to find peace and comfort to your souls this I leave with you flie not from that which doth judg you in your own hearts for sin and evil and bring trouble upon you and sorrow upon you and woundeth and peirceth you in secret because of Transgression I say love that flie not from it for oh dear people how many is there that when they have been judged and Gods pure light in their hearts for their sins when trouble and sorrow and distress hath seized on them because of their sins which Gods Witness hath set in order before their eyes then hath they run unto vain helps and run unto men for help even to those that could not speak a word in season to them but hath daubed them up with untempered Morter and hath endeavoured to heal their wound deceitfully and hath Preached peace to that which is for judgment and so thereby they have gotten some kind of satisfaction for a time until the Lord wounded them again with the Sword of his Righteous Judgments and then their seeming rest fled away as smoak before the wind and sorrow and trouble took hold on them again as pain on a Woman in travel and then they have run again unto that which could not remove the very cause of their trouble and sorrow they have run to the Scriptures of Truth and therein hath found a promise and this they have applied to themselves for to get peace and rest thereby when alas poor hearts they have not been in that state and condition which that promise which they applied to themselves was unto and so not for them and then they have read what the Saints once did and performed and they set themselves to do the like and to imitate them and so hereby for a time they have gotten some satisfaction some kind of rest and peace until the Lord God did thunder again with Dread and uttered his Voice with Terror which caused the Earth to tremble and their habitation to fall and then dissolation came upon them again and their Fig-leave garment came to be rent and their wound greater then ever it was before and thus they have run from Mountain to Hill from one Physitian to another for healing but they were unto them as Physitians of no value for none of them could rightly heal their wounds until at last they said in their hearts We will seek no more unto man for vain is the help of man But we will return unto the Lord God who hath wounded us and he will heal us who hath broken us in peices and he will bind us up and so returning to the light of Christ Jesus in their own hearts with which the Lord hath wounded them for their sins and brought trouble and sorrow upon them for their iniquities waiting therein in patience upon the Lord God in the way of his Righteous Judgments which was set up in their hearts they came to feel through their believing in the Light and loving the Light by which they were wounded for sin the cause of their sorrow and trouble and wounds taken away by the Blood of Jesus which is his life which they came to feel in them cleansing of them from their sins and washing of them away and so the very cause of their wound being taken away and the corruption purged out then he the tender pitiful compassionate God of Mercy that in mercy towards them had wounded them healed them with the sweet Oyl of joy peace and gladness and now these that were mourners doth rejoyce and they that were heavy-hearted are made glad and
beauty is given them for ashes and the oyl of joy for mourning the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness and are become Trees of Righteousness the Lords own planting bringing forth fruit to his glory and praise who hath thus set them free from their sorrow and trouble These can say Good it is to wait upon the Lord God â—1 26. 8 23 9. in the way of his Judgments Lo this is the Lord whom we have waited for this is our God we have waited for him come let us rejoyce in his Salvation wherewith he hath saved us he hath redeemed us out of the horrible Pit out of the miry clay hath he brought us and set our feet upon a Rock and doth establish our goings who filleth our Souls with the fatness of his house and causeth us to drink of the River of his Pleasure and to suck and be satisfied with the Consolation of the Brest and to milk out and be delighted in the abundance of the sweetness of its vertue Oh what what shall we render unto the Lord unto the Lord our God for his benefits oh what shall we render unto him for his Mercies what shall we render unto him for his loving kindness Oh! let us take the Cup of his Salvation and drink thereof abundantly and in the strength of the vigour of its vertue let us in the meekness of our hearts and and in the lowliness and contriteness of our Souls praise praise the Name of the Lord our God who is worthy of all Glory and Praise for ever and for evermore A few words more unto you dear people who desire more after the love and peace of God then the glory and pleasures of the world Dear people take heed unto that which discover unto you what are your thoughts whither they be good or evil for that is it which must redeem your minds unto God and wait to come to know it to be a stay to your minds and a stop to your thoughts and a bridle to your tongues and to cause a watch before your mouth and to raise a holy fear in your hearts of offending the Righteous God of Righteousness in thought in word in deed And dear people you have so much depended and relyed upon man for teaching retire with your minds inward to the manifestation of the Spirit of God in your own hearts and wait in it to come to know the Lord God to be your Teacher that if you should be separated from those that hath been your Teachers and put into a Hole a Dungeon or Cave of the earth for your Consciences towards God and so be separated from all teaching outward you may then feel find and witness the Lord to teach you to instruct you counsel and direct you comfort and refresh you even by his pure Eternal Spirit in you for all the children of the Lord shall be taught of the Lord and established in Righteousness and great shall be their peace in the God of their Salvation unto whom unto whom be glory glory honour and praise for ever and evermore for he is worthy he is worthy worthy saith my soul unto whom be glory in the highest Amen So dear people for your sakes mostly was these foregoing lines written in obedience to the tender spirit of love in my heart which drew me thereunto and in tender unfeigned love and pure good-will to your souls who have had and still have true desires in your hearts after the Lord and hath been and still are thirsting and hungering after the way of Truth and Righteousness and hath been and still are seeking and hunting among the husks shells and shadows for to find the substance but still fail of your expectation and cannot find true and perfect satisfaction but secretly in your hearts are panting and thirsting after the living water and are weary of feeding upon the husks and begin to say within your selves to each other Come we have been long wandering abroad hunting after the Lord afar of seeking of him in this Form and the other Form running from Mountain to Hill from one Man to another to enquire for him whom our Souls long for but we still want the true enjoyment of him And although man hath told us we should find him there in this Way and in the other Way in this Form and in the other Form in this Ordinance and the other Ordinance wherein we have been tossed about and turned from one broken Cistern to another but still we want true satisfaction for our souls for we want the true enjoyment of the assurance of the Love and Peace of God wherefore come let us no longer hunt abroad nor run any longer from one man to another But oh come let us retire our minds inward and in stillness and quietness in sollidness and seriousness let us wait upon the Lord and he himself will teach us of his wayes and lead us into the path of Righteousness where we shall meet him whom our souls hath long panted after even as the Hart panteth after the water Brooks wherefore let us wait upon the Lord for the Lord is good to the man Lam. 3. 2 that waiteth for him to the Soul that seeketh him Therefore come let us both hope and quietly without hunting any more abroad wait to finde and feel in our selves the salvation of the Lord that so we may in truth come to find and to say He is come he is come and made manifest in us whom our souls longed after and behold his reward is with him even joy comfort peace rest and satisfaction to our souls Lo this is the Lord we have waited for him Lo this is our God whom we have waited for now let us rejoyce and be glad in his salvation and praise his Eternal Name I say dear people towards you is the opening and yearning of my bowels in the casting of this my Mite amongst you in the meekness and humility of my soul and the God of Heaven for his own Seed sake make it a service of good to you And then will the onely end of my soul herein be answered thereby who am your friend and one who desires that you of the barren mountains may be gathered and brought down into the low valley into the fresh pastures of life where you may feed with Gods Babes and Lambs and lie down in the fold of rest and peace that you might finde bread in your own houses and water in your cisterns the oyl in the Cruse that will not fail but will satisfie your souls in drought and make fat your bones that you might become like a watered garden and like a spring of water whose waters fail not Take this as a Salutation of the love good will of my soul to you who am a friend to all people one that owns and desires to tender nourish and strengthen the least appearance of God in any A lover of honesty and uprightness in whomsoever I finde it
but a hater of hypocrisie and deceit A Traveller in the womb of supplication for the restoring and gathering in of the scattered sheep and bringing whom the dispierced of the fold that all may know one sheep-fold and one shepherd From one of the least amongst many of the chosen Generation and peculiar people of God called Quakers whose earthen vessel is know by this Name WILLIAM BENNIT Post-script DEar People you in whose hearts there is some tenderness and conscienciousness towards the Lord God if you because of bye ends and self-interests and through letting in by your reasoning and consulting with flesh and blood the slavish fear of man whose breath is in his Nostrils and can but if by God permitted kill the body doth consent and condescend thereby for to save your selves from or out of sufferings either by body or estate to do and joyn with that which you are really perswaded in your hearts is quite contrary to the mind and will of God and so knows it to be evil and also contrary to your own Consciences hereby in so doing you may engage the Lord God against you in your fearing man more than God and come to loose your tenderness and conscienciousness to God-ward so hardness of heart may come upon you so you wholly die wither away as to all tenderness and conscienciousness towards God even as grass upon the house top But you dear people in whom there is tenderness and conscienciousness towards the Lord God if you be faithful to the Lord in your not joyning with nor consenting to do the thing for any bye ends or private interests whatsoever although it be set up and tollerated and compelled to be done by a Law from man which you are in your hearts truly and really perswaded is evil and contrary to the mind and will of God and also contrary to your own Consciences but rather are willing to expose your selves to suffer whatever the Lord God of Almighty power everlasting strength before whose Eternal Almightiness and everlasting Powerfulness all the strength and power of the Arm of flesh is even like a puff of smoak before a mighty wind shall suffer man who to day is and to morrow is not to inflict upon you you hereby will even engage the Lord God of everlasting bowels of infinite compassion who is and will be a strength to the poor feeble weak and needy a shadow unto them from the heat a refuge unto them from the storm when the blast of the terrible One come upon them like an overflowing flood to stand for you and to help you in your need and in your greatest straights when you as Peter be ready to cry Help Lord I sink to appear to and for you in the greatest measure of his love who right well knows what you have need of to minister strength unto you proportionable to your tryals And hereby dear people your tenderness and conscientiousness may dayly increase and you come to make conscience of that which you have not made conscience of and then you may come to finde and witness that this day of tryals sufferings and tribulations is a blessed day to you and turneth through the mercy and loving kindness of the Lord towards you for your good so that you may come to bless and praise his name for it unto whom be praise and glory for evermore But a woful day to Hypocrites who hath gotten on a garment of profession of God and Christ c. for a cloak to cover their unrighteousness and deceit an unwelcome day to them a terrible day to them for it will stain their crowns and mar their beauty and subdue their strength and slay their power and pull down their strong holds rip off their sheeps cloathing pull down their gay Tombs and painted sepulchres and their rottenness stink and nakedness will appear So be it so be it Amen saith my soul THE END