appearance of Evil that we may shun it and it shines more and more unto them that obey it unto the perfect day and then such can look into the perfect Law of liberty the Ark of Gods Covenant and not be destroyed nor consumed for it is the pure in Heart that shall see God and live but the Wicked shall not be able to abide the notable day of his coming neither shall they be able to stand in Judgment with him for when God speaks all flesh must keep Silence before him O therefore prepare prepare to meet thy God O Israel and bring thy works before-hand to Judgment lest thou and thy works be burnt up together For Sion must be redeemed through Judgment and her converts cloathed with Righteousness for with the Spirit of Judgment and the Spirit of Burning will the Lord purge away the filth of the daughter of Sion and he will have a clean People zealous of good Works for Faith without works is Dead as the Body is dead without the Spirit and that Faith which doth give victory over the World is the true Faith which is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen therefore did the Apostle exhort them in his day to come up in the true Faith and to put on the whole armour of God that they might be able to stand against all the Wiles of the Devil in the evil day and so having done all to stand with their loins girt about with Truth and so having on the brest plate of Righteousness and their feet shod with the preparation of the Gospel of Peace and above all taking the shield of Faith wherewith they might be able to Quench all the fiery darts of the Wicked for the travel of the Righteous in all Ages was that they might know and witness the true passage through the great Tribulations within the Enemies of the Lord subdued in their own Houses and then they did not question Gods sufficiency in bringing down their outward Enemies for such that have given up their Souls Bodies to serve the Lord can trust him with the lesser as well as the greater for of how much more value is the Soul than the Body for the Body is but for a little moment of time and is cut down and returns to the dust from whence it came but the Soul passeth into the never ending day of Eternity where the Souls of the Righteous shall forever live with the Lord in everlasting Joy and Felicity but the Wicked in everlasting Wo and Misery Oh therefore what great need have we while we are in these Earthly Tabernacles to bring forth Fruits meet for Repentance and to work out our Salvation with fear and trembling that our calling and election may be made sure with the Lord for what have we to do whilst in the Body but to fear God and keep his Commandments which is the whole Duty of man and blessed be the Name of the Lord can a Remnant say When he doth enlarge our Hearts that his Commandments are not grievous but joyous and his way a way of Pleasantness and all his paths Peace O therefore you that would be counted Friends of God and Disciples of Jesus Christ come away whilst the call of the Lord lasteth into faithfulness and leave your Nets and Entanglements in this Life which keeps you a fishing after the things of this World which do perish in the using take up the daily Cross of Christ as the true Disciples did and follow him that he may make you Fishers of men for those that will be Christs Disciples must deny Self and take up the daily Cross of Christ and follow him through the great Tribulations wheresoever he leads them then such may be made Instruments in the hand of the Lord when they are converted to strengthen their weak Brethren and to teach Transgressors his Ways that Sinners may be converted to the Truth for the Lord did not call us into his Vineyard to stand Idle but to work and especially at this time of day now the Name of the Lord is so much prophaned amongst the Heathen by some that have left their publick Testimony to save Self and have not done as holy Daniel did notwithstanding the King's Decree he worshipped his God as at other times with his Windows open towards Jerusalem but if Daniel had reasoned with Flesh and Blood That the same God that could hear in publick can hear in private and so shut up for fear of man till the King's Decree was over where had Daniel's Deliverance been and Gods All-sufficiency seen Oh therefore what have you been a doing in your secret Chambers for the Lord that it cannot yet appear on the house top but are ready to say within your selves That you have not left your Testimony for the Truth but do meet often together in his fear O! arise arise come away for your Rest is polluted for the Lord loaths your solemn Assemblies and rejects all your Sacrifices because it is not of his own preparing therefore it is an Abomination in his sight it is no more than the cutting off a Dogs neck or the offering of Swines Blood for the Lord is jealous for his own Names sake which you should have honour'd in the fight of the Heathen if you had possest what you have profest for what excuse can you make with the Lord O ye Rich men of the Earth when the Lord shall enter into Judgment with you for his great Name 's sake which you should have sanctified in the sight of the People for it was not sufficient for the poor Woman when she was healed by Christ's Virtue of her bloody Issue which all the Physicians of no value could not do to slip away and not make known his Power but she was made at the call of Jesus to come and reverence him in the sight of the Multitude and to confess unto his Power which was beyond the sight of all Visibles and those that followed him no further than for what they could see in his visible Appearance or to receive from him to serve their own ends in the outward and not only and alone for eternal Life could not with all their thronging and pressing of him fetch one drop of Virtue from him to the saving of their Souls Oh! therefore take warning and answer the end of the Lord with his own this day or else it will be more tolerable for the Professors of the times except you Repent than for you which never saw their way to wait upon the Lord in the silence of all flesh without they had an outward Teacher And what if the Lord should enter into Judgment with you and require their Blood at your hands for there are many honest-hearted amongst them that if they knew the Truth they would walk in it and gladly receive it and the day is at hand that they that do not gather with Christ with the
A SALUTATION of my Endeared Love in God's holy Fear and Dread and for the clearing of my Conscience once more unto you of that City of Bristol amongst whom my Soul hath some Years travelled under many a dreadful Exercise which hath made my Bones to shake and my Heart to tremble before the great God of Heaven and Earth who will yet further bring his notable Day wherein all Flesh shall Tremble before him ANd now in the sence of the great Love of God that hath been extended unto you of that City continually first in sending of his Servants amongst you and endued them with Power from on High that it wrought effectually upon many whereby many are brought out of Egypts Darkness and through the Red-Sea spiritually and could sing to the Lord as Moses and the Children of Israel did when the Lord had wrought wonderfully for their deliverance and by a high Hand and a wonderful Power brought them forth And blessed be the Lord God Almighty and honoured be his worthy Name and the right Arm of his strength there are many living Witnesses of these things in this our day Oh dear Friends forget it not but dwell low in the sence of your deplorable states that you were in when first the Lord reached unto you and opened that Eye in you that let you see you were undone forever if the Lord did not arise for your Deliverance when many cryed out for a Saviour or else I perish forever Oh Friends what was too dear for us to part with in that day for the Lord Truly can my Soul say That all that ever my Eyes beheld was nothing to me in comparison to my Souls Redemption Oh! it was precious in my Eve and to this very day the living remembrance of it dwells fresh upon my Spirit at this time and my Heart and Soul loveth the Lord and blesseth his worthy Name forever and for evermore And now the Lord is remembring the Covenant that many made with him in the dayes of their distress Oh! remember remember to pay your Vows to the Lord and look into your Hearts this day and with the Light of the Lord search and see whether you are in Covenant this day with the Lord or no If you are surely you are not this day to serve your selves but the living God that made you for a purpose of his own Glory and redeemed you with his precious Blood And now consider you that are at ease in your Sion and eating and drinking and wearing what seemeth desirable in your own Eyes notwithstanding the Honour of the Lord lies engaged and your Souls in great danger and the Servants of the Lord distressed in your behalf Oh! for the Lord's sake and for your own Souls sake that will perish if you do not speedily Repent and arise and strip your selves and shake your selves from these things and come away while the Call of the Lord lasteth Oh! linger not for the Day of the Lord hasteneth mightily let nothing hinder you make no excuses any longer lest you be excluded out of God's Kingdom and the Door be shut against you Oh! think upon it before the Mid-night Cry come wherein not one Day more will be afforded to work for the Lord Oh then Wife nor Children Lands nor Livings Husband nor Trade Gold nor Silver will redeem one Soul then that doleful Sentence will be sounded Depart ye cursed workers of Iniquity into everlasting Torment prepared for the Devil his Angels Oh the sense of these things lie very heavy upon my Spirit and truly bows my Heart in Reverence before the Lord and Morning and Evening is my Heart afflicted insomuch that I can say as the Prophet said Oh! that my Head were as Water and mine Eyes as a Fountain of Tears that I might Weep day and night for the Vnfaithful that my Spirit might be eased For truly Friends though I am the least amongst many Thousands of the Lord's People and a weak Instrument yet my Soul is concerned this day and my Prayers to the great God of Heaven and Earth are That he would be pleased again to arise and utter his Voice and thunder his Alarm from his holy Habitation and make the Hearts of People to tremble before his wonderful Power and that he will yet afford a Day and try them again and that his Trumpet may once more sound an Alarm to the awakening of their Consciences out of that Spiritual Slumber wherein many are sleeping dreaming it is well with them and that they are Rich and Fat and Full and need nothing when their State is miserable and wretched naked and bare and undone forever if they do not speedily Repent and return with their whole Hearts and cry to God for Mercy and that he will pardon their Iniquities and heal their Back-slidings Oh back-sliding Israel return return before it be too late for the Lord hath long born with thee Oh thou City of Bristol as the Testimony livingly sprung in my Heart a little before thy Distress came upon thee I was constrained to say Oh thou City of Bristol a City of the Mercies of the living God he hath highly favoured thee thou hast had a Day and a Time wherein thou mightst have Inriched thy self with the Treasures of God's Kingdom and mightst have grown strong in the Lord and in the Power of his Might whereby thou mightest have stood in a living Testimony for the Lord with one consent as one Man But now behold the days of thy Distress are at Hand and thy Calamity like an armed Man and now who can bemoan thee or who can interceed the Lord for thee Or who can say to the Lord Why hast thou suffered these things to come to pass because it is in his Justice he hath done it And blessed be his Name forever he is fulfilling the Prophecies of his Servants whom he hath sent early and late to proclaim his dreadful Day in that City and Year after Year and Moneth after Moneth hath the Mind and Will of the Lord been declared and Messenger after Messenger insomuch that many a full Stomach loathed the Honey-Comb and all that seemed to received it made not a right use of it for the Lord's end in sending his Servants in days past was that his People might be fitted and prepared that a Judgment or a Destruction should not come upon his Children at unawares but that they should believe the Testimonies of his Truth and take warning by it and amend their Lives and be bowed in Spirit and humbled under the great God of Heaven and Earth that your Prayers in this state might ascend unto the long provoked God whose Anger is waxen hot and nothing will appease his Anger but true Repentance and that with speed and true brokenness of Heart Oh! is this your state Or are you this day trampling upon the Testimonies of Truth and upon the Sufferings of your dear Brethren and Sisters that are Sufferers this day for the
Testimony of Jesus and are cruelly used Oh! can you forget these things Come put your Hands to the Work and your Shouldiers to the Burden and cry mightily unto the Lord to spare a little and give a little time to renew your strength in him that you may do something for the Lord though but at the last Hour for surely Friends the last Hour to many is very near and the long invited if they miss of this Hour they will never have another Hour to work for the living God and therefore is my Soul concerned and my Heart pained within me and shortness of time is much before me and therefore I beg it of you that you will lay it to Heart before it be too late and consider how soon the Lord can call for your Breath for our Lives here are likened to the Flower of the Field as the Lord said to his Prophet when he said What shall I cry Cry All Flesh is Grass and the Glory thereof as the Flower of the Field And I pray how soon is that withered and the Beauty of it comes to nought And seeing it is so why will People run the hazard of their poor Souls for that which will augment to their perpetual Misery World without end Oh! the Lord grant me my Request and bow his Ear to my Prayer for I am very earnest with the Lord and my Heart is pained within me in your behalf Oh! it is you it it you that should have been as Pillars in the House of the Lord that the weakest might have leaned upon you that your Courage and Valour might have apppeared in the light of the Weak that they might have been encouraged by it that the Strong and the Weak might have gone up together to the Mountain of the House of the Lord where the Lord would have taught you of his Ways and you might have walked in his Paths and he would have fortified you with Might Courage Strength and Valour and your Bow would have abode in his strength so that you would have grown strong in the Lord and in the Power of his Might which he would have given unto you in a bountiful manner had you wholly given up your selves and all that God Almighty had given you and gave way to that noble Spirit that was in Joshua and Caleb who were resolved to follow the Lord they and their Families Oh Friends I can hardly write what ariseth in my Heart as touching this matter but in the fear of the Lord I have this to say Your Eyes should have seen the Wonders of the Lord in a miraculous manner as they did that thus leaned upon the Lord and trusted in his strength and believed in him and then all things were possible and by obeying of the Command of the Lord the Walls of Jeriche fell but if they had reasoned with Flesh and Blood or thought the Instruments too mean or consulted with reasoning they had never seen the Power of the Lord to do his Work neither shall any now this day that reason with Flesh and Blood No no first learn Obedience give up to obey the Lord and then your Eyes shall see the blessed Work of the Lord to be fulfilled in its due time for he is God Almighty and All sufficient therefore let every Heart confide in his Power So dear Friends keep your Hearts with all diligence for out of it are the Issues of Life for we all well know that the People that live most Chaste keep nearest to the Lord and they that are nearest hear most of his Counsel And truly Friends the time is at hand when all shall be distressed for the Lord and the most Faithful will not spare of the heavenly Oyl then it will be too late for any to go to buy Oh! it often riseth in my Heart that yet a little time and Time unto many will be no more for which my Soul is more concerned than for any outward Suffering for surely Friends it is in my Heart to believe that the great God of Heaven and Earth who hath been long provoked and tryed many waves and shaken his Rod over this Nation many a time and nothing will prevail therefore will he arise in his Strength and go through this Nation and will plague the Inhabitants thereof he will bring Terror and Amazement upon them that none shall be able to deliver out of his Hand for he hath long called and they have not regarded he hath long held out his Hand and they have not laid it to Heart and therefore will their Calamity come at a day unawares and because they have not regarded the Call of the Lord when they cry aloud to him he will not regard them Oh! then blessed eternally and happy for evermore will all them be that have obeyed the Lord in their Day and have not their Portion with the Wicked So with my endeared Love unto you and that beyond utterance Desiring and Praying for your Souls Prosperity I remain your Loving Friend Elizabeth Stirredge The 2d Day of the 1st Moneth 1683. For the Friends that have been slack in their Duty towards the Lord in this day of Tryal wherein they should have doubled their Diligence unto the Lord that the Lord and his Truth might have been honoured as it was by his Servant Daniel who believed in his God when the Enemies of the Lord were made to confess that he was the Servant of the Living God TO you that have been Professors of the Truth of God in the City of Bristol a weighty concern hath been upon me in the fear of the Lord to warn you that have made a profession of God and Christ and to be Christs greatest Friends that you may take heed that you be not found this day his greatest Enemies to his Cross which is the Power of God unto Salvation for if we that have made a profession to wait upon God and Christ in the pure silence of all flesh at the Heavenly Jerusalem to be endued with Power from on High should now break Christs Commandments and should not obey him in his requirings then how shall we know his Doctrine and Life then how shall Gods Ensign be set up to the Nations and his Standard of Righteousness to the People How shall they be gathered unto the Brightness of his Rising and to his great and Glorious Appearance from off the barren Mountains and dry Hills where they have been seeking the living amongst the dead and scattered up and downn as Sheep without a Shepherd if we that have known the Lord do not glorifie him as God and let our Light shine to the Nations For though the Candle of the Wicked is often put out yet it is not so with the Righteous who keep in the Just mans path which is a burning a shining Light for it burns up all the combustable matter that lies in their way and shines round about them to expel all darkness and to make manifest every
Whirlewind of his Wrath they shall be scattered and then shall the gathering of the People be unto him from the East West North and South and from the four Winds of Heaven and shall sit down with Abraham Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdom and the Children of the Kingdom that have lived in disobedience be cast out for those that have been first may be last and the last first Oh therefore while you have an hour to work in his Vineyard be diligent in his Work for cursed is every one that doth the Work of the Lord negligently Oh therefore while the last hour lasteth be diligent that you may be cloathed with the Wedding Garment of Righteousness and behold the Lord and live for the long suffering day of the Lord is almost at an end with many and the day of his Judgments near to be poured out upon the Rebellious then the Rebellious in Israel may say Oh that we had given up our all and trusted the Lord in difficulty that we might have seen his great sufficiency and his holy Arm made bare for our Deliverance then will many be ready to cry out like old Israel We will go up to the Land which the Lord promised us Oh! then it will be too late for what was the answer of Moses to them Go not up for you would not go up in the Lords time and therefore he is departed from you and now if you go up your Enemies shall prevail over you Oh! therefore you that have been called by the Name of Israel do not reason away your strength as Sampson and they did and give it into the hands of strangers and then let your Oppressors rule over you but be tender of the Glory of God and have true charity over the seed of God in your own Bosoms and then you shall be far from Oppression for the Lord hath long waited to be gracious and his tender Compassion sails not to his People nor there is no occasion to be offended in the Truth whatever hath happened amongst some that have profest it Blessed be the Name of the Lord Truth is clear in it self and without variableness or shadow of turning and more desirable to the Faithful than ever it was for the more we wait upon God the more our strength is renewed in him and as we grow up in the Faith and wait for the blessed Appearance of our Lord Jesus when he doth appear we can see him as he is and appear with him in Glory and grow up from strength to strength and from one degree of Grace to another till we come to the fullness of the Statute that is to be attained in him and he is glorifying his People more more and cloathing of them with his own Righteousness so that the Upright in heart can say O Lord thou art our Righteousness and by thy Name do we acknowledge thee and because thou hast washt us therefore have we a part in thee and thou in us and worthy worthy is our God to be waited upon and to be had in everlasting Remembrance of all his Saints that are about him and to be reverenced and worshipped in the beauty of Holiness in the Assemblies of his People for his Glory is far above over all the glory of Egypt to those that see him as he is in his invisible Appearance And so the desire of my Soul is that all the Lord's People may be gathered into the Covenant of Life and Light and grow up in the Life and Power of Holiness which is beyond all Declarations of Words and shall remain when Words may cease and Declarations may have an end but the Word of the Lord endures forever So I remain your Loving Friend Prisoner to Bridewell for Truths Testimony Dorcas Dole The 30th Day of the 3d Moneth 1683. O Lord by a high Hand and a stretched out Arm didst thou bring the Children of Israel out of Egypt and made a High-way for thy ransom'd ones to pass over through the great Deep swallowed up their Enemies quick that persued after them so that they sung thy Praise upon the Banks of Deliverance but O Lord how soon did they forget thy great Name and glorious Deliverance when they met with other Difficulties for the tryal of their Faith as if thy Arm was shortned that it could not save them or thy Ear heavy that thou couldst not hear them O! help thy People in this day that we may take warning by their Fall and follow thee fully through all Difficulties that thou mayest honour thy great Name in us in making known thy great Sufficiency in the sight of the Heathen O Lord let us not look back again into Egypt for Graves to bury thy holy Seed in bondage but raise us up more and more in the Resurrection of thy Life and Power that the second Death may have no Power over us O! thou that never slumberest nor sleepest who wast Israel's Keeper and Jacob's Preserver in Straits and great Difficulties watch over thy People for good and help us to Watch and Pray continually unto thee in the motion of thy eternal Spirit for of our selves we can do nothing but when thou dost enlarge our Hearts in and through our Lord Jesus Christ we are able to perform an acceptable Sacrifice unto thee for it is the Breath of Life which thou dost breathe upon our Souls which makes us in the living sense of thy quickning Power to return unto thee that which is thy due all Honour Praises true Thanks-giving for unto thee it doth belong and to the Lamb that sits upon the Throne from me and all that know thee O! therefore fill our Hearts and Souls with thy living Presence that our Souls may still live to Praise thee for thou art worthy to have all Praise Honour and Renown from the rising of the Sun to the setting of the same Amen D. D. ☞ The Way to Health long Life and Happiness Or A discourse of Temperance and the particular Nature of all things requisit for the Life of Man very necessary for all Families The like never before published Printed and Sold by Andrew Sowle at the Crooked-Billet in Hollway-Lane in Shoreditch