concernes you near consider of it in soberness and yee shall truly find it your very case at this day as then it was theirs that same spirit for the outward in opposition to the inward Ministration acting now as then and heightned in its actings now more then ever O who◠shall that be dead to you or yee to it wherein yee have been 〈◊〉 long held from beholding the Glory of the Lord as it comes forth in the work of this day And how contrary to and inconsistant with it that work was which by might and power yee were leading on though yee had attained what yee so proposed in the furthest and highest extent of that uniformity which yee so endeavoured to have imposed upon all are yee not yet sensible of your mistakes and snares in these matters so as to be made willing to glorifie God as some of you have it may be ingeniously gratified men with a humble confession of your over-reachings and other guiltiness brought upon your selves and the people of these Nations Truly Friends however this may relish with you yet yee will find yee are called to it even to own your shame for so setting up your posts and thresholds by his that so yee may come to have the true forme of the house and fashion thereof shewn unto you Are yee not sensible that as unwise Sons yee have stayed too too long in the place of the breaking forth of Children do yee not yet perceive how that the Bridegroom is really departed and the Children the Children of the Bridechamber called to mourning So will it be before the enjoyments of Christ as the Bridegroom or first Husband be parted with yet this must yee come to know and condescend unto that so yee may be marryed to another even to him raised from the dead Thy dead men shall live sayes the Prophet together with my dead body shall they arise the Dead and the Living body consider for there 's much in it and very much that concerns you nearly to look to for as their mistake who crucified him was their not discerning his living body for if they had but so known him they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory so a mistake in the other persisted in brings under no less hazard then being given up to crucifie him over again eating and drinking of the damnation spoken of 1 Cor. 11. is where this discerning of the Lords body is not rightly made the dead and crucified body from the living body the living soul as its first from the quickning Spirit which follows after the letter and out ward teachings so much cryed up with all the fruits and effects of the one though a very blessed and comfortable enjoyment in its place and kind yet being but that which made nothing perfect it s now no less necessary to be parted with then at that time it was else the comforter as the blessed effect of the other cannot come nor can he be supposed so to become where his immediate teachings are so slighted and cryed out against Many times hath it been in my heart thus to have spoken some few words unto you as these who I dearly love in the Lord and to whom I stand by many bonds obliged if in any service I could be useful but being somewhat sensible what I had to do in my own particular case and not altogether unacquainted with the deceipt of the busie enemy who in this day lies so near ready to draw out the mind to vent its own imaginations and to speak of the things of God without his warrant I have hitherto withholden in expectation of a more fit opportunity and a clearer warrant to go about it which upon the perusal of these ensuing Papers was very clearly given to me And indeed the subject spoken to and the truths asserted in them had been some years ago much on my heart and seriously enquired after and that this search and enquiry was of the Lord attended with a blessing to me I can very clearly testifie and finding the same things for the most part so sweetly and with such a spirit of meekness offered unto you I find it only my duty at present to be concuring in my Testimony as agreeing fully with what in them is said as most fit and necessary to be seriously minded by you Dear Friends it is high time for you to awake and consider what yee are doing there is another thing to be brought forth in this day then yee have yet conceived of And your guiltiness for opposing it is greater then yee are yet aware of nor will your apparent zeal for God and his ordinances which hath with some of you hitherto layen very near your hearts this I do think it hath been and that yet it may be in a measure with some of you where singleness of heart in any measure yet remains serve the turn if yee so persist in the way of provocation Consider if something of the same snare and tentation be not on you as was on them who so zealously contended for Moses and the Prophets the same was their plea and upon the same grounds did they go on to the rejecting and crucifying of Christ as yee some of you ignorantly and others more perversly are in the way to do at this day bear with my freedom for truly I can say it there is no bitterness nor passion at my heart while thus I use it but the deep sence of the dreadful hazard yee are runing hath drawn it from me that if so in the will of the Lord yee may return to your first love and so imbrace the guide of your youth again the missing and departing from whom hath alwayes been the cause of our Fathers the first Protestants their short comings and mistakes of the work of God as well as of ours that they were not in every thing come to own their true guide though in some things they did it and according to the simplicity that was in them they were sweetly ordered by him and accepted of him And thus was it with them and so hath it been with many who succeeded them and was it not so of late among us also yea eminently so it was both in Scotland England and Ireland mainly in this our great sin and guiltiness as the foundation of all our mistakes and failings it s aggravated exceedingly beyond and above what was theirs that the discovery of this duty of waiting to find the immediate direction of our guide in every thing as absolutely necessary and at the very time when more fully and universally then ever formerly it was bestowed being more clearly come and coming forth then to them in that day it was yet now more then ever which is dreadful to think of is it both disowned and persecuted even by them whom I well knew to have sometimes sweetly enjoyed the blessed effects of the spirits immediate teachings in themselves and so to have been instrumental to 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
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
typically dâ—d represent your estate As for this Moses we know not what is become of him let us take our jewels and ear-rings of gold and make it into a god that may go up before us into the Land and now after your long and sore travel in the Wilderness wherein ye have abode many years going backward and forwards wandring up and down having lost the sight of the cloud which pointed you the way and forgotten that rock which followed and accompanied your fathers out of which living waters flowed to their refreshment which rock was Christ and after many of your carkasses have fallen because of unbelief and more are yet to fall It hath pleased the Lord to raise up to us among your selves that Prophet whereof Moses wrote and his Word we have heard sounded forth which is near even in our hearts saying to us by the powerful breath of his Spirit Arise arise this is not your rest it is polluted it will destroy you with a sore destruction and the voice was so powerful that it hath quickned us who were dead with you while we were living and the firy-piller hath appeared to us glory to God for his gift and shineth forth with beams of glory and the Lord hath opened the windows of Heaven and rained down on us the Manna from Heaven which is the food of Angels and not like the Manna which the Iews did eat and died but that which feedeth us unto life everlasting and the rock even the eternal rock and salvation of Gods people is revealed unto us out of which springeth pure living water from the fountain of life and Ioshua which is Jesus is given us for a head to lead us into the Land of Promise an entrance into which many witness at this day and others are in the way and have got a fore-taste of the Vine-grapes of the Land and hath sounded forth a good report concerning the same and many hath believed the report and tryed the truth thereof and found it to be true even some of your selves who were as you whose eyes the Lord out of his infinite mercy hath opened and they have found a place of repentance for all their hard speeches and enmity against the people of the Lord in the time of their ignorance and his work and appearance and have become ashamed and confounded therefore and I know assuredly it shall be so with others who for the present through the ignorance that is in them may be persecuting the Saints of God but alas alas how dangerous and deplorable is the condition of the most part of you for the time with whom our testimony can have no room nor find place in you and the good Land whereof we report has no more credit with you then if it were a cunningly devised Fable even the Kingdom of God and of his Christ in the Revelation of his eternal Light Life Power and Spirit in our hearts which fills us with joy unspeakable and full of glory and satisfies the desires of our souls so that we have true content in the injoyment of our God and have all and abound possessing him in whose favour is life and at whose right hand are pleasures for ever more the streams thereof your thick walled prisons and bolted gates within which ye shut us up cannot hinder from flowing into our souls and for the pretiousness and excellency of his dear and sweet love which he hath caused and does cause us to feel shed abroad in our hearts are we made willing patiently and contentedly to go thorow all the reproach and opposition we can meet with from you if possibly we be made instrumental to reach some of you that thereby ye may be saved with us and induced to walk in the Light of the Lord with us which has appeared and shined forth in its glory and as Solomon said Truly it is a sweet and a pleasant thing to behold the light O how sweet is it how pleasing how refreshing how healing how comforting how sure a Guide what assurance and satisfaction it gives to the soul none knows but such as are come to perceive it in their own hearts this this was it discovered unto your fathers the many gross abominations and superstitions of Popery so that they came to loath and abhor them this led them forth out of Egypt this discovered unto them Babylon the mother of fornications and the cup wherewith she had bewitched them so that they had no rest till they vomited up so much of the same as they perceived to be poysonous And oh had you their posterity kept chast to the leadings of the Lord by his Light which was near unto you as well as unto them even the light of Christ which enlightens every man that comes into the world and shineth in darkness though the darkness cannot comprehend it had you I say kept chast thereto and given it the preheminence above all how unspeakable had your happiness been at this day and now is your misery the greater that ye have adulterated there-from and become so impudent and shameless as to deny it for a leader or to give it the preheminence for have ye not set the letter of the Scriptures above it and made them unto your selves a golden Calf to be a Guide Leader and Rule unto you whereas if ye had given them the proper place setting them under the Light and Spirit of Jesus Christ from which they came and to which they point it being their own testimony that they are not that light but were given and sent forth to bear witness of the light that all in the light not in them might believe I say had you given to them their proper place they had been as jewels and ear-rings of gold unto you and useful in their room whereas through your abuse of them and setting their testimony above the inward and immediate testimony of Jesus which is the spirit of Prophecie Rev. 19.10 they are become your snare and a sealed book unto you that ye cannot read nor understand their interpretation because ye have gone from the key the Light and Spirit of Christ which would have opened them unto you and now they are parables unto you and dark sayings though you call them plain but plain indeed aâ—e they and easie to be understood by the children and Babes of Light and because ye have so gone a whoring from that which would have proved a soveraign remedy and antidote against the wayes and wiles of the Devil and Babilons cup of fornications therefore the light being a holy pure and chast thing hath been provoked much to withdraw and 〈◊〉 have cause to be afraid lest it eternally depart from you and you be shut up in blackness of darkness who hath so forsaken and undervalued your own mercy and misprized the gift of God unto you given you to profit withal and which only can open your eyes and give you the knowledge of the glory of God