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
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
Help in time of Need from the God of Help TO THE People of the so called Church of Scotland especially the once more zealous and professing who have so shamefully degenerated and declined from that which their Fathers the Primitive Protestants attained unto yea and from what they have but of late themselves so zealously asserted and maintained to be the cause and work of God which now they have generally shrunk from the most part actively complying and concuring to the building up again and healing of old Babylon that even by themselves so called and runing into the excess of ryot with the prophane world like the Dog returning to the vomit and the Sow to the puddle after the being once washed others being lying by and cowardly bowing under and giving up themselves to a detestable neutralitie which they in express termes vowed against to the most high God not daring to bear a testimony by their sufferings plentiful occasion being given for that they when having power made others suffer who would not concur with them and all of them almost joyning together as a common enemy against the work and glorious appearance of God brought and more abundantly bringing forth among his people called in derision Quakers by the Ismaels of this Generation who mock at and persecute the true Heirs of the promise as ever it hath so been from the foundation of the World Being certain particulars very weighty and of great concernment for them to consider seriously for their Souls good directed unto them by a true lover of their welfare and prosperity both temporal and eternal a mourner over them in this time of their great calamity and distress who hath oft poured forth his soul before God on their behalf that they might be saved one of their brethren according to the flesh and a true Protestant friend to the good Old Cause against Babylon in whatsoever appearance Writ by George Keith Prisoner for the Truth in Aberdein in the latter end of the year 1664. Isa. 51 18 19 20.23 There is none to guide her among all the Sons whom she hath brought fâ—rth neithâ—r is there any that taketh her by the hand of all the sons that she hath brought up c. Ezek. 10 4. Wilt thou judge them son of man wilt thou judge them c. See the whole Câ—â—pâ—e thâ—â—ughout Jer 5.10 Go yee â—p upon her walls and destroy but make not a full end take awaâ— her Battlements for they are not tâ—e Lords c. Jer. 6.15 Were they shamed when they had committed abomination c. Revel 19.6 7 8 Hallelujah for the Lord God omnipotent reâ—gneth c The Contents or heads of the particulars are as followerh 1. A Lamentation over and an expostulation with the People of Scotland for their so gainstanding and opposing the appearance of God among the Lords 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 2. A Demostration of the Apostacy and defection of the so called Church of Scotland from what their Fathers the Primitive Protestants and Reformers were in Principles to the number of 14. or 16. and in many practises also wherein their Apostacy also and defection from what they have been themselves but in late dayes in several particulars is hinted at and there vile relapse into Popery out of which they were never cleanly extricate is discovered and their treachery laid open in the matter of their Covenant which they cryed up as the glory of their Nation and the concernment and interest of Iesus Christ which now they have trampled under feet as the myre in the street and think shame of it as if it had been a Whores brate 3. True and righteous judgment from the God of judgment seperating 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 〈◊〉 them after the pulling down of the former and discrâ—ing it as Aâ—tichristian wherein likâ—wise the Lords controversie wâ—th thâ—m in laying them by and suffering this day to come over thâ—m 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 4. The blessed long looked for day of God broke up among 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 Writ in the fear and love of the Lord and in bowels of love and compassion to the people of my native Country A Word of Exhortation by way of Preface to the following Purposes from a Lover of the true interest of those to whom they are directed HOw is it that yee do not yet discern this time how long will yee shut out the discoverers of it and so provoke the Lord to shut you further out from beholding them O fear fear to be found any more in that guiltiness which if persisted in may make you to be shut out for ever And let none so look on themselves as to suppose they are past this hazard if so be they yet continue neglecting opposing and persecuting or approving of them who persecute the growing light of this day as it s come and coming forth with power and great glory Truly Friends think what ye will this is the thing I say not the only but the maine and chief thing that 's in the quarrel betwixt God and you your keeping up of Mens Traditions in place of the true institutions of Christ while he now so comes forth to vindicate and restore them your so adhearing to and preferring of the oldness of the Letter to the newness of the Spirit that had its glory but not comparable to this which excels think not that this case and state of things as then it was in the Primitive dayes ended with those that were then so zealous for and loath to part with the Law and outward Ministration thereof in the Letter Nay Friends consider seriously of it in the fear of the Lord lay by your passion and prejudice for it
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
charge you with and have been snares unto you and matter of provocation unto him against you for although a true and tender Zeal in a measure there was in many of your hearts in that day for the Lord and his Name and Truth yet much of a fiery headstrong furious false Zeal not according to knowledge and which was not begot of the Lords Spirit nor kindled at his Alter did company the same and much prevailled over that which was pure and tender and of his begetting and yet he regarded this and because of it he loved and pittyed you and suffered you long till he could bear no longer for ye were become as those yea and worse whom he spued out before you against whom his controversie was and you went forwards in the counsels of of your own hearts and advised with flesh and blood and not with the Lords spirit what yee should do and yee relyed upon the arme of flesh and thought to have reformed the Land with your carnal weapons and power and force and might not considering his determination which he spoke by the word of his mouth to his Prophet of old not by might nor by power but by my Spirit saith the Lord. And yee dealt cruelly and roughly with such as had not freedom nor clearness to go on with you in the manner and way of your proceedings and so yee became guilty of the same iniquity yee cryed unto him against in those men who dealt cruelly and tyranically with your selves and yee constrained many hundreds of poor people in the Land to vow unto God and make a Covenant with you who knew not what they were doing no nor knew him at all and because yee mixed your selves in with a company of ignorant vile prophane and abominable persons without all fear of God and drew them along to concur with you thereby thinking to make your selves stronge and mighty by reason of number and unformity therefore was the Lord provoked against you for he regarded none of these things the vows of the wicked are an abomination to him with all their services and he accepteth no uniformity but that which is of his spirit which knits the members of the body together and admits nothing unto union with the body but that which is of his begeting and but two or three fearing the Lord joyning together in a perpetual Covenant to stand up witnesses for his name and truth are dearly regarded by him but many thousands associating together out of his fear he regards not at all And forasmuch as by your vowing and covenanting yee proceeded to put a stop and limit to the Lords spirit in any further discovery of his name and truth his wrath waxed exceeding hot against you and he loathed both you and your Covenant and suffered it as it is at this day to be trampled under foot and permitted your enemies which were buried in the very dust and their memory almost perished to rise up against you to wit the Prelats and bring you in greater slavery and subjection then ever and now they are doing their work and when it is done they most return to the place whence they came and the time is near and many other circumstances in your proceedings the Lord never own'd nor shall own in which as yee mind his witness in all your Consciences it shall instruct you and also show unto you the hypocritical treacherous deceitful ambitious forward spirit that moved in you and set you on work many times whereby his Spirit was grieved and that of his begetting over topped and oppressed And above all the great controversie of the Lord with and against you was and is that yee got up above the cross of Christ and turned from it the cross which is the power of God which would have kept your feet in a straight even stedy course so that yee should not have declined out of the right path either to the right or left hand and it would have proved a righteous ballance unto you whereby ye might have weighed every motion that arose in your hearts and thereby known what was of the Lords spirit and what was of your selves and of the suggestiâ—â— of the Devil which laid his snares before you and catched you in them and for that ye kept not chast to his Light in your Consciences nor to the leadings of his spirit this was it that which discovered to you the Popish and Prelatical abominations and begat a loathing in you against them so that yee could have no rest till yee came to forsake them and had yee kept chast to this it would have carried you on all along in his work and steered your course from first to last in the streight even righteous path of judgment Oh ye did run well who did hinder you but yeare become so foolish who began in the spirit to end in the flesh and now when yee got up upon the walls and bulwarks of your enemies building and leveled it to the ground when yee had rooted out Prelacy and the many corruptions and superstitions accompanying the same and digged down a good part of Babylons upsetting then yee betook your selves to build and yee thought it should have been a a house for God and it was but another Babylon for yee had gone from the true foundation the light life power and spirit of Christ in your particulars and yee gathered hay and stuble and cast upon it and suffered the earth in you to come over and ye hid the talent the Lord had given you therein even the noble and precious and blessed gift of his Light and the manifestation of his Spirit given to every man to profit withal as saith the Apostle which would have been a sure foundation unto you and would have taught you in the infallible wisdom how to have reared up the building and frame even to the setting of the least stone or pining thereof and it would have cemented and knit every part together and given it a comely proportion and all its due and proper dimensions in height bredth and length and made every stone living and it should have been a glorious building indeed a spiritual house to offer up a spiritual service and sacrifice to God continually and though the winds had blown and the rains descended and the floods had come and assaulted it yet it should have stood which it hath not but hath fallen and the fall of it is great and it hath filled you with amazement confusion and astonishment and darkness hath so overtaken you and the vail is grown so thick over your hearts that you see not as yet cannot see your own folly and that your building was but on the sand and the work of your own imagination out of the wisdom of God and this I am moved of the Lord to declare unto you that it hath been so and though your frame was somewhat more spacious and taking to the eye of man being somewhat in appearance
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
which is of the Lord's Spirit perswading the hearts of people to be one with us in principle and practice and to stand up with us living witnesses for the name and truth of the living God which he is revealing and we assuredly know all the weapons that are formed either against the truth or the witnesses of it shall not prosper and the Lord shall make to himself a glorious name in the earth and we the people of the Lord whom he hath formed for himself shall shew forth his praise and the Lord will make it manifest that we are his and that he hath raised us up and put his Spirit in us and that he dwells in and among us to all the Kindreds and Nations of the Earth and they who will not see shall see and be ashamed and confounded for their envy at the people whom God hath blessed and will bless for ever and ever and no deceit nor violence shall prevail against them And therefore now O ye people of Scotland know ye that the day of God is broke up among us the people of the Lord called by you in derision Quakers but who indeed tremble at the Word of his power when it is sounded forth from the Throne of Majesty yea and the mighty dreadful terrible God of strength power and Majesty Victory and Dominion hath determined to shake the Heavens and the Earth and all the powers thereof to the utter confusion and fall of whatsoever standeth up in opposition against the seting up of his eternal Kingdom of Righteousness in the hearts of the Children of Men and the little stone cut out of the Mountain without hands shall grow and fill the earth and become a Mountain and it shall dash to pieces the Image of Clay and Iron Brass Silver and Gold and the Land of graven Images shall be smitten and all the Gods of the Heathen famished and all the Idols shall be broken and cast into the holes of the rock and Dagon shall not be able to stand before the Ark nor Babylon before the spouse of Christ which is coming forth to face all their enemies fair as the Sun and terrible as an Army with banners yea cloathed with the Sun and the Moon under her feet And the Lord is making a work in this day which shall make all ears to tingle and every heart to faint and fail that will not bow at the arm of his power stretched forth The day of the Lord is come and he is preparing himself to battle as a strong man as one awakned of out sleep who hath long suffered the reign and Kingdom of darkness and as one that cryeth out in the dread of his strength by reason of Wine and he is making bare his arme and covering himself with zeal as with a cloak now will I arise now will I lift up my self saith the Lord and who is able to stand up and make war with him whereof prepare to meet thy God O Scotland in the way of his judgments and repent repent repent of your iniquities from the highest to the lowest for the controversie of the dreadful God of power the zealous angry God who will not acquit the guilty is against the one and the other of you without respect of persons because of your abominations whereby his pure holy Spirit hath been grieved and provoked against you Oh Scotland Scotland the cry of thine iniquities hath come up before God into his throne and he is weary with forbearing to execute the fierceness of his wrath upon you though ye be not weary with sining but are drawing iniquity as with Cart-ropes and filling up the measure even to the brime Wherefore a Cup of trembling trembling saith the Lord God shall be put into thy hands if thou speedily repent not thou shall drink shall not escape and it shall be more tollerable for Sodom and Gomorab in the day of judgment then for you forasmuch as you have sinned against more Light and have had more warnings from the Lord one way and another and he hath borne with you long and strived much with you by his Spirit to reclaim you and would have healed you but ye will not be healed and oh how have your hearts turned back as a deceitful bow and shrunk from that measure of simplicity tenderness and zeal for the Lord that was once among you and because yee took up a profession of God above all the Nations of the Earth and have so treacherously backslidden therefrom in the day of tryal therefore is your sin exceedingly aggravated before the Lord and he will punish you above all the Nations of the earth if ye break not off from your sins by speedy and unfeigned repentance And now ye who mock at the quakings and tremblings of the people of God who feel the load of wrath ready to break out upon you and sink you down to the bottome of Hell and would faine stand in the gapes and hold off the wrath and are in great travel because of the dreadful day they see coming upon you and many times are crying unto God for mercy unto you when ye are adding drunkness to thirst and persecuting them and saying tush tush no evil shall befall us where is the promise of his coming ye shall be made to tremble and your loyns to shake and the joynts of your knees with Belshazar reading the hand writing against you to smite one against another and paleness shall come up upon your faces and pangs as of a woman in travel take hold of you and the Lord will roar out of Zion against you and tear in pieces as a Lyon and who will then be able to deliver you out of his hand and that comfort and peace will be far from you which we the Lords people do witness after all our fears and tremblings for the cup we have drunk at his hands is sweetly tempered with mercy and judgment and in measure he debateth with us and stayeth his rough wind in the day of his East and our hearts which once trembled for fear and dread and sorrow are now made to rejoyce with trembling at the powerful and glorious appearance of him in our souls so that we have been made to sing unto him that song we will praise thee O Lord for though thou wast angry with us thy anger is turned away and we are comforted And yet now O Scotland the Lord hath bowels of tender pitty and compassion towards thee which many times I have felt and do feel with many others and he is much put to it so to speak concerning thee what to do with thee and his mercy and judgement are at a kind of holy contest and wrestling about thee How shall I give thee up how shall I deliver thee O people of Scotland how shall I make thee as Admah and set thee as Zeboim my heart is turned within me my repentings are kindled together which word hath often sounded through me towards