of War those were only Tythes of the Spoil and not by a Command And Christ was according to the Order of Melchisedeck who puts an end to War and destroyes the Devil its Author and redeems out of the Earth And although we are many thousands yet there is not a Beggar among us neither do we read there were any Beggars in the Primitive-Times which Church denyed Tythes and said The Priesthood was changed that took them together with the Law by which they were set up and also the Commandment which gave them So they who take Tythes and they who pay them are both Anti-christs and deny Christ to be come in the Flesh XII Of the HIGHER POWER Moses who had the Law saw over all Transgression and before it was he saw the state which Adam had in the Garden before he Fell he saw his state in the Fall and how Death reigned from Adam to Moses who received the Law which Law passed over all Transgression which Law did answer to the Witness of God in all which was a Command to people that they might not sin and that they might be kept from sin and so from Death which raigns from Adam to Moses which Law passeth over both sin and Death And this was the Higher Power higher than the Transgression which answereth to the Witness of God against the Rebellions which Witness is true holy righteous and equal which Law is just holy and good a true Measure and just Weight this is called the Higher Power this was added untill the Seed came which is Christ and this Law they were to hear even Moses To whom Wisdom was given to make the Pattern and to set forth Figures and Shaddows under the Law till Christ should come Of which Moses said The Lord will raise up a Prophet like unto me him shall ye hear in all things And when Christ himself came he put an end to all those Types Figures and Shaddows and changable things for in him there is no Shaddow who is called Gods Righteousness So the Law was in use untill the Seed came and Moses who had it said God shall raise up a Prophet like unto him and now he is come which we hear to wit the Seed who is the end of all the Prophets who Prophesied of him and so He is the end of the Law for Righteousness to every one that believe So Believers are Members of the true Church of which Christ is the Head So Christ is the end of the Law for Righteousness to every one that believeth Which Christ purgeth his Floor and burneth up the Chaffe commeth with his Fan Baptizeth with his holy Spirit and Fire and bringeth his Wheat into his Garner And Christ is the end of all Oaths which were under the Law and which was before the Law viz. of Oaths which put an end to strife among Men. XIII Of the KINGDOM of CHRIST how it is held up and how not The Kingdom of Christ is not held up by Carnal Weapons for saith Christ My Kingdom is not of this World therefore his Servants fight not Now all you that profess your selves to be Christians and bringers of glad Tydings yet ye are Fighthers with Clubs and Swords about Religion you are not the Servants of Christ who are fighting for an Earthly Kingdom for in Christs Kingdom we must fight with Spiritual Weapons in Patience and Long-suffering And Christ said to his Disciples who would have had fire to come down from Heaven to consume those that were contrary to them as it was in the dayes of the Prophet Elias That they knew not what spirit they were of So they who destroy Mens Lives and doth not save them they are not according to the mind of Christ nor the way of Christ but are under the Condemnation of it neither do they know what Spirit they are of And so they who are Spiritually wise cannot commit their Souls Bodies nor Spirits into the hands of such XIV Concerning Teachers Prophets Pastors Bishops Presbyters c. Teachers Prophets Pastors Presbyters and Bishops ought not to be such as are given to filthy lucre nor covetous nor given to wine nor strikers nor brawlers nor covetous of earthly things nor to teach for filthy lucre nor to contend about words and fables and vain Phylosophy and beggarly Rudiments and Traditions and Doctrines of men nor their Commandements neither ought they to compel People to observe Dayes Meats and Drinks nor such like things nor to bear Rule by their Means nor they ought not to be such who seek their gain from their quarter such were forbidden and such as teach for money and handfulls of Barly and pieces of Bread and such as teach for lucre were forbidden and opposed by the true Prophets Teachers and Apostles and such as wore long Robes and were called of Men Master and followed and loved Salutations in Markâ—ts and the uppermost Roomes at Feasts and such like all such are out of Christ and against such Christ himself cryed Woe woe who said Ye have one Master even Christ and ye are all Brethren And that it should not be so among them as it was among the Gentiles And so all they who have the Scriptures of Christ of the Apostles and Prophets and not in the Power and Spirit that gave them forth and do not obey it which reproves them that they may come into it but stop their Ears and shut their Eyes against it such are like the Pharisees these cannot worship God in the Spirit neither can they pray in the Spirit nor sing in the Spirit but quench it and burthen it and vex it These are out of the Fellowship of the Spirit and out of the Fellowship of God the Father of Spirits Those erre not knowing the Scriptures nor the Power of God And such go hither and thither to change their Way and go from the Spirit of God in their hearts which would lead them to Christ the Way the Truth and the Life So all such who have the Form of Godliness and are not in the Power and Spirit in which they were in who gave forth the words such are to be denyed And the true Praying is in the Spirit and the true Worship true Praysing and true Singing must be in the Spirit So they who grieve and vex the Spirit and quench it they cannot Worship God in the Spirit XV. An Exhortation to all Christendom to mind the Grace of God to wit the Light All ye People in that part of the World which is called Christendom come to the Light wherewith Christ hath enlightned you that with it you may see your Salvation and may know Christ you Teacher the Captain of your Salvation and the Grace which comes by him which brings your Salvation which Grace teacheth us which Grace is sufficient in weakness and temptations which brings the Salvation and by it we are saved And this Grace teacheth us to deny ungodliness and worldly Lusts and to live soberly and
honourable So forsake and come out of all vain Words and all vain Customs and all unprofitable and idle Communications and Talkings for which you are judged and condemned with the Light viz. the Light in your Consciences which reproves you and come into the the new Life in which God is served that your words may be seasoned with grace that by it your hearts may be established that no corrupt communication may proceed out of your mouthes for whatsoever is corrupt is contrary to the Witness of God in your Consciences to Christ the Light which reproves you Therefore away with all the Customes and Fashions of the World which grieve and quench the Spirit of God and repent while ye have time and spend not your time like a Tale come to the Light and sleep not in sin in darkness in seperation from God but prize the time while you have it lest in the end ye come to say we have had time but now it is past but so mind the Power of God the Light of Christ Jesus by which you may redeem it XXXII Concerning False Prophets and Antichrists False Prophets and Antichrists are much condemned in this part of the World called Christendom and they bring the 7th Chapter and the 24th Chapter of Matthew and say that they are but now come To which I Answer that Christ said They should come viz. Antichrists and False Apostles he said to his Disciples that they shall come i. e. to his Disciples and he gave them markes how they should know them A corrupt tree cannot bring forth good fruit nor a good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit And if it were possible they should deceive the very Elect for they have the Sheeps-cloathing And he commanded his Disciples that they should not follow them for they were inwardly ravening Wolves having the Sheeps cloathing And those were Antichrists and False Prophets false Christs and Deceivers who were inwardly ravend from the Light and so from the Seed viz. the true Christ And Christ told his Disciples those should come and before the decease of his Disciples they came as we may read in the first Epistle of John the second Chapter and fourth Chapters he saith Little Children ye have heard that Antichrist should come and even now there are many Antichrists and false Prophets come into the World So Christ had spoken before that they should come and his Disciples said that they were already come who went out from them inwardly ravend from the Spirit and this was above sixteen hundred years since And John who saw them already come he directed the Saints to this annointing in themselves and said to them that they had not need that any one should teach them but as this annointing taught them they should abide in the Father and in the Son And so those Anti-christs false Prophets Wolves false Christs inwardly ravend they bear Pryars Thornes and Thistles which Christ said shall come and his Disciples said they were come and who went out from them into the World And in the Revelations it is said The whole World went after them So they went out from the Church Fellowship Gospel they went out from the Fellowship of the Spirit within being ravend from it they went from the annointing within which should teach them they went from the Law in the heart to wit from the New Covenant and they went from the Kingdom within and they went from the Word which is in the the heart to obey it and to do it they went out from the Light in the heart which gives the knowledge of God in the face of Jesus Christ and so they lost the Pearl hid in the Field viz. the World in their hearts And so the false Prophets went out from the Disciples and as was said before in the Revelations it s said the whole World went after them So John wrote to the seven Churches which erred by permitting Jezabel to teach and to set up Idols and such who said they were Jews and were not but were the Synagogues of Satan So he goes on in the Revelation till he comes to the eleventh Chapter where the Witnesses are slain the two Olives which carried the oyl to the annointing of the Nations the two Candlesticks which holds the Light And in the 12th Chapter the Woman viz. the true Church fled into the Wilderness prepared for her of God that there she should be nourished for a time times and half a time And in the 13th Chapter The Dragon gives his Power to the Beast and the Beast with the Dragons power makes war against the Saints and killed them who were lâ—ft of that Seed who kept the Testimony of Jesus the Spirit of Prophesie who were in him from whom the ravening Wolves had departed Then all that dwelt upon the Earth worshipped the Beast and worshipped the Dragon and both caused and compelled all both small and great to fall down and worship And from hence arose this compelling power to Worship Then the false Prophet and the Whore through the Dragons Power got upon the Beast and caused all Nations to drink of her Cup. So thus the whore arose which went from the Apostles and from their Life Power and Spirit and committed Fornication before the Nations were married to Christ they took the Cup of Fornication of this Whore And she drank the blood of the Saints and Martyrs who were not inwardly ravend and who could not drink of her Cup. Yea she drank the blood of the Saints and Prophets who kept the Testimony of Jesus who were not inwardly ravend And so such doings and works they have set up for the space of fifteen hundred years viz. Killing and murdering and they have dispersed themselves into all Nations as the Apostles they were to go into all Nations And such works the Wolves have wrought in the Sheeps cloathing yea those who are inwardly ravend from the Spirit of God whose fruits are Brambles Bryars and Thorns and such like works those Raveners have done since the dayes of the Apostles being ravend from their Life and Power having the Words of the Sheep the Scriptures but not in the Power and Life which gave them forth therefore Bryars and Thorns appear who devour and kill the Lambs and compels them to worship and use violence upon them and their outward things about Religion which was not the work of the Apostles And so John saith Again the Beast and the Dragon and the False Prophets which hath deceived the Nations which Christ said should come and John said was come who went out from them from which time the World hath gone after them for the space of fifteen hundred years is to be taken Which Beast and false Prophet shall be taken and cast into the Lake of fire and the Nations shall be deceived no more and the Whore the great Whore which hath compelled the Nations to drink the Blood of the Saints is to be taken and her flesh burnt with fire and
these are the Deceivers and false Prophets that shall come in the last times they deny the means and when any witness they have received an unction from the holy one and need not that any man teach them but as the anoynting teacheth them of all things then they cry out these are Seducers and Seduced and so here they deny the Covenant of God and the Promise of God and shew themselves to be the great Seducers that draw from the Anointing and finding their spirits contrary to the Scriptures we cannot but deny them Jer. 31.33 Heb 11.8 1 Joh. 2 20 27. They are such Teachers that say Revelations are ceased and deny Revelations and so deny the Son for no man knows the Father but he to whom the Son reveals him and no man knows the things of God but the Spirit of God and he to whom the Spirit reveals them and the Apostle said It pleased the Father to reveale his Son in him and so he that denies Revelations denies both the Father and the Son and the Spirit these are the Priests who talk of Religion and have gotten a form to trade with and have received things by traditon but are ignorant of God and of the Spirit by which all Saints were ever guided and therefore we deny them Mat. 11.27 1 Cor. 2.11 Gal. 1.16 Phil. 3.15 Therefore all people consider what you do and hold up and worship for the Worship is but one and the Word is but one and the Baptism is but one and the Church is but one and the Way is but one and the Light is but one and the Power is but one but they that are without have many Teachers many Ways many Opinions and Judgments and many Sects but we have but one Priest which is over the houshold of God and therefore are all of one heart and soul Moved of the Lord written from the Spirit of the Lord for the cleansing of the Land of all false Teachers Seducers and Deceivers and Witches who beguile the people and Inchanters and Diviners and Sorcerers and Hirelings and which is for the good of all people that fear the Lord and own Jesus Christ to be their Teacher From them whom the world scornfully calls Quakers but quaking and trembling we own else we should deny the Scriptures and the holy men of God but the Scriptures we own and the holy men of God Therefore we deny all them who deny quaking If you say these things are frivolous things which you have taught us then we have been taught frivolous things all this while but we find all these things frivolous things wind and air and therefore we deny them All people that read these things never come ye more at the Steeple-house nor pay your Priests more Tythes till they have answered them for if ye do ye uphold them in their Sins and must partake of their plagues Some PRINCIPLES of the Elect People of God scornfully called QUAKERS By G. F. A Salutation of Salvation to all People throughout the Christian World that they may Enter in by the Door which is Christ the Light by which Every man is enlightened that cometh into the World by Christ the Light which is the Way to God and the Door by which they must enter into the Father from the World from Darkness and Death and its Power into Covenant with God by Christ the Door And this is the Light by which ye see all the evil Actions which ye have evilly acted and all the ungodly works which ye have ungodlyly commited and all the ungodly thoughts which ye ungodlyly have thought and all the hard speaches and ungodly words which ye have spoken The Light wherewith Christ hath enlightened you is that which maketh manifest all that is contrary to it The same Light maketh manifest the Saviour from whence it comes and it maketh manifest that Christ is the Covenant of Light and Life by which you come to have peace with God The same Light maketh manifest to you if you love it that Christ is the Mediator between you and God The same Light maketh manifest that Christ is the Offering for your Sins and the Sins of the whole World The same Light doth manifest that Christ is the way the truth and the Life and the word of God by which all things were made and Created And the same Light manifests that Christ is the Wisdom of God and Power of God and Sanctification and Justification and Redemption To Sanctifie Justifie and Redeem from that which the Light manifests to be Evil and that which lets and keeps in the seperation from God And this Light is within by which all these things are seen and you that love this Light you will se all these things Love mentioned Christ the Mediator Christ the Way the Life the Wisdom the Sanctifier the Redeemer the Offering for your Sins and the Sins of the whole World In this Light ye will have his Testimony and so he that believes shall have the Testimony and Witness in himself and so ye all being enlightened with this Light receiving it you receive Christ then you do not receive Darkness nor the Prince of Darkness And as many of you as receive Christ he will give you power to become Sons of God mark ye shall have power by which you shall know Son-ship to stand against sin and evil and become the Sons of God Now if you hate this Light and go on in sin and in evil thoughts and evil words works and actions and do not come to the Light which reproves you but love Darkness rather then Light it will be Your condemnation And this is the Light which maketh manifest to every one of you what you have done spoke thought and acted amiss and reproves you for it and if you love the Light you love Christ and you love your Saviour Redeemer Sanctifier and Offering for Sin And you see him who puts an end to sin and destroyes the Devil who brought it in and his Works he that destroyeth and brings in everlasting Righteousness in you But as above mentioned if you hate this Light and go on in sin and evil it will be your condemnation This Light is with you in your Labours and in your Beds and when you are about your Business Trades and Occupations shewing to you all your words and all your thoughts works and actions Which Light if you love it will lead you from the Old into the New Life and from the Alienation and Degeneration from God his Life and Image And with this Light you will see Christ a King to Govern you who hath all Power in Heaven and in Earth given to him And with the Light you will see him a Prophet to open to you and a Priest to offer for you to the Father and in this Light you will see more Light the same shining in your hearts it will give you The knowledge of the Glory of God in the face of Christ Jesus your Saviour And
every man that cometh into the World that with this Light you may see him the Way and may come to walk in the Way of Peace and Life which is the Way to God and which is the New and Living-Way in which the Apostles were out of which Christendom is gone erring from the Light in their own particulars into their own Inventions and Imaginations which is the cause that there are set up so many Wayes among them changable Wayes and changable Worships among them I say who have erred from the New and Living Way So whosoever comes to the Light in themselves they come to Christ they come to the New and Living Way out of the Old and Dead Wayes which are in the Fall from God out of his Image and Power So whosoever comes to his Image and Power they must come to the Light wherewith Christ the Way hath enlightened them all in their own particulars and hear his Voyce and Doctrine So there is not another Way to the Father but Christ the Light which enlighteneth every man that cometh into the World which is the Way yea the New and Living Way So who love the Light they love the Way and they love Christ but they who hate the Light they hate Christ the Way IV. Of the CROSSE The Cross of Christ is the Power of God which is contrary to the World which Cross of Christ the Power of God was among the Apostles which Crucified them from all outward Figures Types Shadows and Inventions of Men. So they who are gone from the Power of God since the dayes of the Apostles have set up many Crosses who have lost the true Cross which is the Power of God The Cross of Christ which is the Power of God Crucifies that state in which Adam and Eve and all their Posterity were in in the degeneration in which Cross is the Power of God by which Cross they come to a state in which they were in before their Fall And in this Power of God the Cross is the Fellowship which is a Mystery which brings to the Beginning in which is Endless Life and this Mystery is in it V. Of the True COMMUNION The True Communion is in the Gospel which is among us as it was among the Apostles in the Spirit and Light by which we have Fellowship with the Father and with the Son VI. Of the GOSPEL The Gospel is the Power of God to Salvation for he that believeth receiveth Power receiveth the Gospel by which Life and Immortality is brought to Light and the Power of God expels that which keeps Life and Immortality from people and captivates their soules spirits and mindes and keeps them in Bondage which Power of God expells it all and sets them Free and gives them dominion over that which burdens them and gives them to feel and to see before that was which hides Life and Immortality from them And by this Power of God Life and Immortality comes to Reign in which is the Saints Fellowship and Church-Fellowship in which they come to be Heires of the Power of God Heirs of the Gospel Heirs of the Fellowship Membrs of the Church and Membrs of one another in the Power of God the Gospel wich was before the Power of Darkness was And now the Gospel must be preached again to all Nations Kindreds Tongues and People who dwell upon the Earth that by this Gospel Life and Immortallity may be brought to Light among them and expel away that which hides it from them by which Power the Gospel which is Salvation which frees the Soules Spirits and Consciences from that which burdens them and to them this is Glad Tydings VII Of FAITH The Faith is one which purifieth the heart which giveth victory and which brings to have access to God and which giveth victory over that which seperates from God in which Faith was the Unity of the Saints in the Primitive Times in which also stands our Unity which Faith is the Gift of God VIII Of BAPTISME There is one Baptism by one Spirit into one Body which plungeth under all the corruption which got up since Transgression which hath made the Separation between Man and God which Spirit leads into one Body from the many Bodies and into one Head from the many Heads of those many Bodies which are in the Fall from God So Baptized with one Spirit into one Body which plungeth under all that which makes a separation from God We are made to drink into one Spirit and this Spirit is within plunging under all the corruptions which are within And the Cross of Christ which is the Power of God is within crucifying the mind which did walk in those things which hides from God and which keeps in the World in the lust of the Eyes the pride of Life and the lust of the Flesh which are not of the Father Now they that mind Earthly things they go from the Power of God within and are Enemies to his Cross which is the Power of God as Paul saith and so many Heads many Bodies many Baptisms are among them who are out of the Power of God the Cross of Christ and out of the One Baptisme with the Spirit into one Body into one Head Christ Jesus the first and the last the beginning and the end and the Head of his Church which is his Body and he is the Saviour of it of which Church we are IX Of PERSECUTION Now concerning the divers Faiths and divers Worships which are in the World and the Persecution about them such Believers and Worshipers are out of the one Faith which giveth victory and have lost the spiritual weapons and are run into the carnal and so are out of the true Worship which is in Spirit and Truth out of which as I said before the Devil is And here are all the carnall weaponed men fighting for their Worship and for Trifles When as the Spiritual weaponed men who have the Word of God and the Sword of the Spirit they strive not with flesh and blood destroy not Creatures by calling to the Powers of the Earth to help them When as carnal minded men who are out of the Church which was in the begining and its weapon and Spirit who deform kill and slay Creatures about their invented Worships Faiths Baptisms Churches Croses and such like which were not the Fruits neither the Works of the Apostles nor of the spiritual weaponed men So all ye that persecute and kill about Religion Church and Worship are not Worshipers of God in Spirit and Truth They are not in the fellowship of the Gospel the Power of God Which was before the Power of Sathan was and they are not in the true faith which giveth victory over that which seperates from God neither are they in the Cross of Christ the Power of God which was before Sathan was which crucifies the flesh and the world and their carnal weapons So all ye who Persecute and kill about Religion you
alienated from the Spirit of God in Babel where the Original of Tongues was in the dayes of Nimrod that Heretick who began to build Babel So Tongues do not make any man a Divine neither a Minister of Christ for that which makes a man Divine as they say is the Word which redeems out of Tongues which was before Babel was and in the beginning before the Fall which knocks down all that which corrupts mans Nature and renews again into the Divine Nature And whosoever are Ministers of the Word and Preachers of the Gospel they are in the Power and in the Word which was before Tongues were This Word brings into the Church-Felowship which is in God into which they are not brought by the Worlds Original which they call the Tongues which shall cease and out of whom we are redeemed neither do they bring into Fellowship with God neither into his Worship nor further than Babel where the Tongues stop But who comes to the Word of God and the Gospel they come to that which was before many Tongues were and shall remain when they shall all pass away XXXVIII Concerning OATHES The Spirit of Christ the Spirit of the Apostles of the Martyrs is risen again which gives Testimony against Swearing and Oathes There were no Oaths at all imposed upon Man before the Fall but only since the Fall for under the Law after the Fall and among the Jews Oaths and Commandments were given To which Christ by whom the World was made which was before the Fall which is the Oath of God which Oathes in the Fall were Types who put an end to strife and brings into quietness and peace and bindes to God without Oathes which Christ put an end to And Christ himself the Oath of God puts an end to all Oaths and brings into the Land of quietness and rest the Spiritaul Canaan and puts and end to strife and destroyes the Devil the Author of strife he who is the Rest the Way Truth and the Life who brings again to God and is the Covenant of God in man hath peace with God which destroyes that which led from God and from Christ and he himself said Swear not at all neither by Heaven nor by the Earth nor by any other Oath He who restores man into that state in which he was in the beginning before the Fall who restores into the Image of God And so in the Restauration there are no Oathes to be used nor Swearing according to his own Doctrine But Yea yea nay nay was to be used among men in all their Communications and what is more then this is evil So that Swearing now is evil And this is the Doctrine of him who restores People into that state in which man was in in the beginning who is the Substance who put an end to Figures And his Disciple Jeams in the 5th Chapter of his Epistle who followed his Counsel who is an Everlasting Counsellor saith Above all things my brethren Swear not neither by Heaven nor by Earth nor by any other Oath lest you fall into Condemnation but let your yea be yea and your nay be nay And this was the manner among them who followed the Doctrine and Command of Christ in the Restauration who were built upon the true Foundation which was first laid in the Primitive times among the true Brethren and was publickly held forth which Manner and Custome Doctrine and Command of Christ Jesus and the Apostles in the Primitive times many of the Martyrs followed held forth and practised among those who were Degenerated and Apostatized from the Life and Power of Christ and the Apostles although they profess the Words And now the Spirit of Christ is risen again and of the Apostles and Saints as in the Primitive times and the Spirit of the Martyrs who bear witness against all Oathes and all sort of Swearing whatsoevever that were used among the Heathens Jews and Apostatized Christians both privately and publickly and bindes to yea and nay in all manner of Communication as Christ and the Apostles taught and and the Saints and Martyrs practised knowing that whatsoever is more than yea and nay is evil and such who Swear are condemned according to Christ and the Apostles Doctrine So we say again That the Spirit of Christ the Apostles and Martyrs is risen again who hath been dead and is dead in and among the Apostates who have the Form but deny the Power from whom we have turned away But now its riâ—en again and lives amongst us Glory and Honour be given to God through Jesus Christ who hath restored to the beginning into the Image of God in which Man was in before he fell before Oathes were For Example Read the Book of Genesis and there you may see that there was no Command given to Adam and Eve before the Fall concerning Swearing neither from Christ who Restores Man again and who puts an END to OATHES before the Law and under the Law and Prophets both whom the Angels which sware worship for Christ saith Swear not at all who is Lord and Master so it is better to obey him than man and in all your Communication let your yea be yea and your nay be nay for whatsoever is more than this cometh of Evil saith he who restores even Christ And in the second Example consider the Apostles who did according to the Command and Doctrine of Christ who said Above all things my Brethren Swear not at all lest ye fall into condemnation Jam. 5. But let your yea be yea and your nay nay in all your Communication And although there was Swearing among the Jews and other Nations and Heathens before the Apostatized Christians used to Swear nevertheless the Apostles and the Brethren obeyed and they must obey the Doctrine and the Command of Christ for if Christ command one thing and Man another It is better to obey the Lord Jesus Christ the Life who is the Restorer Saviour and Redeemer than men This is the WORD of the LORD GOD to you all Concerning the WORD of GOD and the Original what it is BLessed are all those whose mindes are staid upon the Lord for they shall be kept in perfect peace so where the mind is staid upon the Lord there is a perfect peace for it is a whole peace which cannot be broken So here is not only a perfect peace but a blessing a perfect peace which comes from the God of all peace that bruiseth the Serpents head under your feet the troubler and the blessings which comes from the blessed God So all imperfect peace may be broken that is when the mind is staid upon any Creature or in any Creature and not upon the Creator or in any outward things Goods Houses Lands or Inventions of the Vanities in the foolish vain Fashions which the Lust of the Eye and the Pride of Life go into which will defile it and corrupt it when any of these things fail and are not according to
past be sufficient which you have lived according to the Lusts of men and the course of the World that the rest of your time you may live to the will of God taking no though what you shall eat what you shall drink or what you shall put on therein your lives may judge the Heathens and that you may be as the Lillies for nothing you brought into the World neither any thing shall you take out and therefore while the Eye is gazing after every new Fashion and the mind and desire is thirsting to get it when it has it it lifts up its mind and so brings himself under the judgment of them that be in the sober Life and of the World also and to be like one of them Therefore take heed of the Worlds Fashions lest ye be moulded up into their Spirit and that will bring you to slight Truth and lift up the wrong Eye and wrong Mind and wrong Spirit and hurt and blind the pure Eye and pure mind and quench the Holy Spirit and through such foolish Toyes and Fashions and fading things you may lose your conditions And therefore take heed of the World and trust not in uncertain Riches neither covet the Riches of this World but Seek the Kingdom of God and the Righteousness thereof and all outward things will follow and let your minds be above the costly and vain Fashions of attire but mind the hidden man of the heart which is a meek and quiet Spirit which is of great price with the Lord and keep to Justice and Truth in all your dealings and tradings at a word and the form of sound words in the Power of the Lord and Equity in Yea and Nay in all your dealings that your Lives and Conversations may be in Heaven and above the Earth that they may preach to all that you have to deal withal so that you may be as a City set on a Hill that cannot be hid and as Lights of the World answering the equal Principle in all that God in all things may be glorified So that you may pass your time here with fear as Pilgrims and Strangers and Sojourners as having an eye over all things that be uncertain as Cities Houses Lands Goods so as things below they that possess as if they did not and they thaâ— marry as if they did not yet as having a City whose Maker and Builder is God and a Possession of an Inheritance that will never fade away in which you have Riches that will abide with you Eternally Some QUERIES given forth to the Priests or People to Answer if they can 1. HAve any of you the same Spirit and Power as the Prophets and Apostles had 2. Or have you the same Revelation and Inspiration and Spirit of Prophesie and pouring forth of the Holy Ghost or do you own the pouring forth of the Spirit upon Sons and Daughters and is not this the last time in which it should be poured out and the Sons and Daughters should Prophesie and Old men dream Dreams and Young men see Visions 3. Or have you heard Gods voice and Christs voice immediately froâ— Heaven or are you some of them the Lord never sent nor spake unto Answer me these Queries 4. Do you own that Christ that died at Jerusalem to be the Light that enlighteneth every man that cometh into the world and are not all enlightened by him either to their Salvation or Condemnation 5. What and where is that which must give the knowledge of God is it within People or without them Answer me according to plain Scripture 6. Do you teach or preach that whilst a man is upon the Earth he may be freed from sin and the body of death and imperfection and shall be perfect whilst he be upon Earth or do you keep People in the state of your Father Adam and Mother Eve in the Fall or do you bring them to the state before they fell and so to Christ that shall never fall which of these states do you bring them to and keep your flock in in Adam and Eve in the fall or Adam and Eve before they fell or in Christ that shall never fall you must keep your flock in one of these three states and which of them is it Have you brought any of your flock whom you have driven to that condition and state they need no man to teach them that is to the anointing in them the Law in their hearts whereby they need not say one to another know the Lord that is to the Light of Christ that shines in their hearts to give them the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ Jesus and how many have you brought hither 7. What is the Mother of Harlots and what is the Beast she rides upon and what are the People Nations and Multitudes and Tongues the Whore sits upon and what is Mystery Babylon and what is the Woman that went into the Wilderness what was her time she was to be there and what is the Beast and Dragons Worship and what is a Will-worship and what is it to worship Angels and what is that which leads Nature into its Course and so to the glory of the first Body and what is the glory of the second Body and what is that which leads Nature out of its Course and so sets the whole Course of Nature on Fire 8. What is the ground of that which keeps in good manners and what is that which corrupts them and what is the Righteousness the World is reproved off and what are the Judgments and what is that which leads the Saints into all Truth and hath every one the Spirit of God and whether bowing bending dossing hats scraping cringing saying you to one be the honour that comes from above or what is it and whence comes it and whether this before mentioned do not stand in that Nature part and principle which is on fire if it hath not these things and therefore whether or no these things do proceed from that which leads Nature into its Course or out of its Course and what is it that defaces the glory of the first body 9. Whether or no you own Trembling and Quaking at the Word of God 10. Seeing you look upon your selves to differ from many and to be above them let us see wherein and in what it is manifest 11. What is self-Righteousness and what is Man's Righteousness and the Righteousness that is as filthy Rags distinguish these one from another or whether they be all one for our Righteousness is that which was before Adam was whom ye in scorn calls Quakers 12. Whether ever any came to see so far as Balaams Ass who saw the Angel of the Lord 13. What are the Graves and the Tombes and the Sepulchres and the Fowls of the Air and the Nests they sit in which Christ spake of Answer 14. Whether or no to pay Tythes or receive Tythes is not to deny Christ Jesus
to man as he stands in the alienation from God It crosseth his spirit his thoughts his desires his knowledge his reason his understanding even all that is of himself He must therefore conâ—ult with none of these but prefer the little pure Demonstration of the Light of Christs Spirit above all these and stand in the parting with and loss of them all for ever O this is an hard saying who can bear it Surely none but those that are taught and learn of the Father can thus come to give up to and follow the Light of the Son The Law of the Lord is perfest converting or restoring the Soul Psal 19.7 What Law was this or what Law is this Was it the Law of workes in the hand of Moses or is it the Law of Faith in the hand of Christ Doth not Christ enlighten every man that cometh into the World Would not God have all men to be saved and doth he not give to all a proportion of the true Light whereby they may be saved And it is not the property of this Light to convert to God Can any man receive this and be united to this and it not change his nature so that he must needs have a new nature and from that new nature do that naturally which the Jews by all their endeavours with-out this could never do Can any thing convert fallen man to God but Christ hath any thing power to convert to God but his pure Law of Life Can Christ and his Light be seprated Can any man receive his Light and be united thereto and not receive him O that mens hearts and understandings were opened by the Spirit and Power of the Lord For this is a direct riddle to all men who have not Gods Heifer to Plow with to understand it by And so for want of a true understanding it is despised and rejected among the Builders but with us it is elect and precious chosen of God and precious in the eye of our Souls Now this doth not exclude or make void any thing that Christ did in his Body of Flesh here on Earth or that he doth in Heaven for his but this brings unto a Right and into a Possession and Enjoyment of his Purchase For all that are in the Darkness and walk in the Darkness have nothing to do with Christ in truth and reallity what ever they may profess and what hopes soever they may feed themselves with but all that are in any measure of his Light and walk therein they are so far of him and have a right to and share in all that he did in and from the same Light and Spirit And this I dare positively hold forth as a standing Truth which hath been sealed unto me by constant experience that no man can fall in with and obey the Light wherewith he is enlightened but he must deny himself and take up a Cross to his own wisdom and will which Cross is the Cross of Christ which is the Power of God to the Salvation of the Soul And he that takes it up daily and waits upon the Lord therein shall witness the power of the Lord Jesus Christ to the redemption of his Soul ye then he shall be able in true understanding to say This is Light indeed Life indeed Power indeed That powerfull Arm which hath saved me from Sin and breaks the Snares Devices and Strength of the Enemy before me delivering me daily when none else can and when my own strength and wisdom is as nothing I cannot but call Christ the living Power and Wisdom of God revealed in me who will not give his glory to another For he is the Lord God of pure Power and Life for evermore and beside him there is no such Saviour Yea blessed be the Name of the Lord for ever the dayes of mourning after Salvation are over with many and the dayes of reaping and enjoying Salvation are come which shall endure with the Israel of God for evermore Amen Isaac Penington An Incitation to Professors seriously to consider Whether they or we fail in the true acknowledgment and owning of the Christ which died at Jerusalem WE who are commonly called Quakers being a People whom the Lord hath gathered out of the wandrings out of the many Professions out of the several scattered estates and conditions wherein his Eye pittied us and his love found us out into a measure of the eternal rest where we have found that Life that Power that Manifestation of the Eternal Spirits and that redeeming Virtue which we never were before distinctly acquainted with I say having tasted of this haveing known this having felt this and come to a real enjoyment of it in some degree in our several measures we could not possibly conceal this Treasure but in bowels of love and in the movings of the Life and Power of the Spirit have been drawn to testifie of it to them who were left behind groveling under the burthen of corruption and crying out because of the sin and bondage from the powers of darkness who hath in a mist withheld their eyes from beholding that living Virtue which is able to save and doth save blessed be his Name therefrom Now this we have often found That this our Testimony hath not been received in the same Spirit and Love wherein it hath gone forth but the Enemy by his subtilty hath raised up jealosies concerning us and prejudices against us as if we denyed the Scriptures and Ordinances of God and that Christ that died at Jerusalem professing him only in words to win upon others by but denying him in reallity and substance To cleare this latter for my heart is only at this present drawn out concerning that we have solemnly professed in the sight of the Lord God who hath given us the knowledge of his â—on in Life and Power these two things First That we do really in our hearts own that Christ who came in the fulness of time in that prepared Body to do the Fathers Will his coming into the World Doctrine Miracles Sufferings Death Resurrection c. in plainness and simplicity of heart according as it is expressed in the Letter of the Scriptures Secondly That we own no other Christ then that nor hold forth no other-thing for Christ but him who then appeared and was made manifest in flesh Now it would be nakedly inquired into by Professors What is the reason that their jealousies still remain concerning us and why they are still so ready to cast this upon us Certainly if they did know and own the same thing with us in the Spirit and in the Power in the Life and in the Love which is of the Truth this prejudice and these hard thoughts could not remain But if they themselves do not know Christ in the Spirit but only according to a relation of the Letter no marvel though they miss both of the Spirit and of the true intent and meaning of the Letter and Likewise be liable to
clash against the Truth as it is made manifest in others And indeed the Lord hath shewen me in Spirit several times that they themselves are guilty of that very charge and that he will so implead them at his Judgment Seat which they cast upon us even of denying that Christ which died at Jerusalem to be the Christ For he that owneth the words of Scripture as he apprehends or conceives them in the reasonings of his mind and doth not wait to have them revealed in the Spirit keeping out of his own reasonings and conceivings and waiting patiently till the Lord open the thing in the Spirit he setteth up his own conceivings or an Image in his mind of the mind of the Spirit but misseth of the thing it self which alone is known in the Spirit by them who wait upon the Spirit there to receive it and are not hasty to set up their own reasonings and imaginations concerning the thing in the mean time No man can in Truth call Jesus the Lord but by the Spirit But any man that is any thing serious and weighs the Scriptures in the natural part may so learn to acknowledge his coming into the World and that he is Lord and King c. and may thus call him Lord yea and kindle a great heat in his affections towards him but all this out of the Life out of the Spirit is but mans Image which he forms in his mind in his reading the Scriptures and observing things therefrom But the true calling Jesus Lord is from the feeling of his eternal Virtue in the Spirit and finding the Scriptures opened to him by the Spirit in a Principle which is above the Reason comprehends the Reason and confounds and brings it to nothing Again There is no true Knowledge of Christ no living Knowledge no saving Knowledge which hath the eternal Virtue in it but that which is received and retained in a measure of Light given by God to the Creature in the Faith which is the Gift in the Grace which is supernatural and spiritual whereas the resoning part is but Natural And such as have received the Spiritual understanding know it to be distinct from the Natural and we experimentally find a very clear distincttion between Scriptures searched out by the reasonings of the mind and so practises drawn therefrom and Scriptures opened by the Spirit and felt in the Life Now that Professors generally have not received their knowledge of Christ from the Spirit or from Scriptures opened it the Spirit and so know not the thing but only such a relation of the thing as mans reasoning part may drink in from the Letter of the Scriptures is manifest by this In that they are not able in Spirit and Understandind to distinguish the thing it self from the Garment wherewith it was cloathed though the Scriptures be very express therein Speak of Christ according to a Relation of the Letter there they can say somewhat but come to the Substance come to the Spirit of the thing come to the thing it self there they stutter and stammer and shew plainly that they know not what it is Now the Scriptures do expresly distinguish between Christ and the Garment which he wore between him that came and the Body in which he came between the Substance which was vailed and the Vail which vailed it Lo I come a body hast thou prepared me There is plainly He and the Body in which he came There was the outward Vessel and the inward Life This we certainly know and can never call the bodily Garment Christ but that which appeared and dwelt in the Body Now if ye indeed know the Christ of God tell us plainly what that is which appeared in the Body whether that was not the Christ before it took up the Body after it took up the Body and for ever And then their confining of Christ to that Body plainly manifesteth that they want the knowledge of him in Spirit For Christ is the Son of the Father he is the infinite eternal Being one with the Father and with the Spirit and cannot be divided from either cannot be any where where they are not nor can be excluded from any place where they are He may take up a Body and appear in it but cannot be confined to be no where else but there no not at the very time while he is there Christ while he was here on Earth yet was not excluded from being in Heaven with the Father at the very same time as he himself said concerning himself The Son of Man which is in Heaven John 3.13 Nor was the Father excluded from being with him in the Body but the Father was in him and he in the Father whereupon he said to Philip He that hath seen me hath seen the Father What did every one that saw that Body see the Father also Nay not so but he that saw Christ the Son of the living God whom flesh and blood revealed not but the Father only Mat 16.16 17. he saw the Father also O Frinds look to your knowledge of Christ and to your Faith and Knowledge of the Scriptures and to your Prayers also for it is easie missing of the living substance in all these and meeting with a shaddow which may please and make a great shew in the earthly part in the natural understanding and affections but satisfieth not the Soul or that which is born after the Spirit but still the cry there goes out where the Soul is awakned after Truth Substance Life Virtue from Gods Spirit in the Spirit which it alone can feed upon These four things following I am certain of which he that cometh into the true Light shall infallibly experience them there First That nothing can save but the knowledge of Christ even of that very Christ and no other who took upon him the prepared Body and offered it up at Jerusalem Secondly That no Knowledge of Christ can save but the living Knowledge Not a knowledge of him after the Letter which the carnal part may get much of and value it self much by but a knowledge of him in the Spirit which is only given to that which is begotten and born of the Spirit and only retained by that which abides and remains in the Spirit and runs not out into the fleshly reasonings imaginings and concevings about the things mentioned in the Scriptures Thirdly That that man who knoweth not Christ in Spirit nor keepeth close to him in Spirit but through darkness and misguidance of the spirit of deceit called the shinings of his Light his reproofs his checks for that which is evil and his secret motions to that which is good natural This man though he seem to own Christ never so much according to the Letter yet in Truth denies him Fourthly He that denies Christ in his knocking 's and visitations of him in his own heart and before men in the Truths which he holds forth by his Servants and Ministers of his Spirit him will he
exceedingly and Paul a Minister of Christ trembled but they make a scorn of trembling and quaking and shew themselves ignorant and strangers to the Life and Power of God as their Generation ever was who still made a scorn and reproach of the holy men of God that trembled and quaked but the Seed of God and the Prophets and the Servants of the Lord we own and their conditions we witness and therefore all the Priests and them that deny the holy men of God we utterly deny Heb. 12.21 Ezek. 12.18 Dan. 10.10 Jer. 23.9 Psalm 119.120 Hos 13. â— Habbak 3.16 Acts 9.6 Gen. 27.23 They are such Teachers as tell the people that Christ hath not enlightened every one that comes into the world when as Christ saith He doth enlighten every one that comes into the World and hear they go about to make Christ a lyer and John Baptist a false Prophet and deny the Scriptures and they say God hath not given every one a measure according to his ability when at Christ saith He hath done it Christ is the light of the World and by him the World was made and he came into the World and the World received him not it is so now Light shines in darkness and the darkness comprehends it not and this is the condemnation That Light is come into the world the one he loves the Light and brings his deeds to it that they may be made manifest and walk in it there is no occasion of stumbling in him the other he hates the Light because his deeds are evil and this is his condemnation and we witness the Light wherewith Christ hath enlightened every one that comes into the world and by obedience to the Light he is become our Master our Teacher and all who stumble at the Light and deny it are ignorant of the Foundation Stone and know not the first Principle but are shut out from knowing any thing of God and therefore the Priests and all their followers we deny Joh. 1.9 and 3.19 20. Mat. 25.15 They are such Teachers as walk out of the Doctrine of the Apostles and practise of all the Churches Paul saith If any thing be revealed to him that sits by let the first hold his peace for all may prophesie one by one that God in all things may be glorified and you edified and the spirits of the Prophets are subject to the Prophets and God is the Author of Peace and not of confusion and this was in all the Churches of the Saints But now if any man come among them while they are speaking or when they haue done and be moved to speak any thing them of their Church the rude multitude fall upon him with Staves Fists and Punches and Knocks him down with Stones shewing themselves to be of that generation that stoned Stephen to death and the Priests call to the Officers to take him to the Stocks and to carry him before the Magistrate and from thence he is sent to Prison and called a disturber of the Peace here they shew themselves to be no Ministers of Christ and their Assembly to be no Church but in confusion for that which was order among the Saints is disorder amongst them the Church of Christ was never Fighters nor Quarrellers nor Scorners such Churches are the fruits of the Ministry of ENGLAND who were made by the will of man and never sent of Christ and therefore they do not profit the people at all but are Persecutors of the Messengers of Christ and therefore we deny them 1 Cor. 14 32.33 Acts 7. Ver. 23.32 They are such Teachers as have told us we should never be made free from Sin while we are upon earth when as the Apostle saith They were made free from Sin he thanks God and had put of thâ— body of Sin so we find they had told us lyes contrary to the Scripture and the Apostle saith While we were servants of sin we were free from righteousness so in that state we find them and therefore we deny them And they have told us none shall ever be Sanctified nor the body of Sin destroyed nor cleansed from Sin while they are upon earth when as the Apostle said They were sanctified and the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all Sin and the Ministers of God said they reigned as Kings and here they deny the Scriptures and therefore we deny them And they deny the begotten Son of God which Sinneth not and calleth it blasphemy for any to witness that born which Sins not when the Scripture saith He that is born of God Sinneth not neither can he Sin because he is born of God and the seed of God remaines in him and he that commits Sin is of the Devil and hereby are the Children of God made manifest and the Children of the Devil and as he is so are we in this present world and a good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit if the root be holy so are the branches and one Fountain cannot send forth sweet water and bitter he that can receive it let him but the cheif Priests and Elders and Pharisees and Sadduces and Rulers at this stumbled then and so they stumble now at the Light from whence these words were given forth which doth enlighten every one that comes into the world and therefore we deny them Rom. 6.18 and 6.6 Rom. 8.10 1 Cor. 6.11 1 Joh. 1.7 1 Joh. 3.6 9 10. 1 Joh. 4.17 And they aâ—e such Teachers that have told us none shall ever be perfect while they are upon the earth when as Christ saith be ye perfect as your Father which is in heaven is perfect and the Apostle saith By one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified And the Ministry of Christ is for the perfecting of the Saints till they all come to the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ to a perfect man Here we find them to deny the Scriptures and the everlasting offering and all such we cannot but deny and we witness the everlasting offering which perfects for ever them that are sanctified Praises to the Lord for ever who hath sent forth his Son in the likeness of Sinful flesh to condemn Sin in the flesh that in him we might be made the righteousness of God and all that deny perfection and sanctification deny this offering and the gift of God which is perfect and the Ministry of God which is for perfecting the Body and such Ministers are not Members of the Body nor can present any man perfect in Christ Jesus and therefore we deny them Mar. 5.10 Heb. 10.14 Eph. 4.12 13. 2 Cor. 5.21 James 1.17 They are such Teachers as deny the everlasting Covenant and the anointing for if any come to witness that they are taught of God and that he hath written his Law in their hearts and put his Spirit within them and that none need say to them know the Lord then they cry out to the Magistrates and ignorant people
with the Light you will see the Kingdom of Heaven within which never gave consent to Sin and Evil like to a grain of Mustard-seed and to a Leaven which leaveneth into a New Lump And with the Light you will see the Field which is the World placed in your hearts where the Pearl is hid and with what you must dig to find the Pearl the Power of God and what you must sell for its sake to purchase the Field And waiting in this Light you will receive the Spirit of Truth the Comforter to to lead you into all Truth and to bring the Words which Christ hath spoken to your remembrance and it will shew you things to come and it shall receive of those which are Christs and give it unto you So loving the Light you love Christ and receiving it you receive Christ the first and the last For in the Light Christ is seen and handled his Voyce is heard and he is followed So in the Light you will see Christ to be your Teacher who saith Learn of me I am the Way the Truth and the Life by whom Life Eternal is given And you are brought again to Christ the Shepherd who draws you out of the Fall to God into his Image where the Green Pastures of Life are known and fed upon And no man commeth to the Father saith Christ but by me who enlighteneth every man that cometh into the World that by the Light all may believe And saith Christ Believe in the Light whilst ye have the Light that you may be Children of the Light So you being enlightned with the Light which if you believe in it you come to be Children of the Light and Heirs of Promise and Mercy and of the Power of a Life that hath no End And believing in the Light you pass from Death to Life from Darkness to Light and you come to know a Translation from Darkness to Light and from Satans Power to the Power of God and to know the begotten of God into his own Image by his Power as you have been degenerated from God and have lost his Image by the Prince of Darkness and so translated from the Image of God into the Image of Satan from the Power of Christ into the Power of Darkness so you must come to the Light that ye may have another Conversion from Satans Power to God from Darkness to Light to be renewed into the Image of God and this is felt within and as you feel this within you will know the Word of God within in your hearts which is the Word of Faith which the Apostles preached to the Romans which they were to hear obey and do And that is the Word which seperates the pretious from the vile your pretious thoughts affections motions and words from your vile So the Word is in your Hearts and Mouthes to obey it and to do it And it is quick and powerful sharper than a two-edged Sword And you shall not need to say Who shall bring it from Heaven or who shall fetch it from beneath But it is in the Heart and Mouth and this is the Word of Faith which the Apostles preached And the same Word is called a Hammer a Sword and a Fire to beat down to cut down and to burn up whatsoever is contrary to it So it is the same Word which sanctifieth and purifieth and reconcileth to God as beats down and cuts down that which is contrary to God and which seperates betwixt you and God So you may hear obey and do the Word for it is with you in all places and in all your occasions dividing good thoughts from bad good words and motions from bad For if all Christendom would hear and obey the Word in their Hearts which is pure and lives and remaines and endures for ever by which they would come to be born again of the Immortal Seed this Word would keep them from evil Actions and Words which are spoken and acted by them And so by the Word every one should be taught and should know the engrafted Word which is able to save the Soul which beats down and cuts down and burns up that which wars against it and keeps the Soul from the enjoyment of God And so in this Word they should know the annointing in themselves to teach them so that they should not need any man to teach them but as the same annointing teacheth them which teacheth Truth in all things And in this Light and Word which is in the heart they should know the New Covenant of God the Law written in the heart and put in their mindes by which they should not have need to say one to another Know the Lord for all should know him from the least even to the greatest And those are true Christians who come to witness this as thousands in England do witness it in this his Day among whom the pretious Pearl is found and the Field is bought among whom the Law of the Spirit of Life sets free from the Law of Sin and Death Who witness the Ages to come of which the Apostle spoke In which the kindness and exceeding riches of the Grace of God should be manifested again which the Lord in the Primitive Times made manifest amongst the Apostles who sat together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus In which places thousands are now come to sit Glory be to him for ever I. Concerning WORSHIP The Promise of Redemption is from that State in which Adam and Eve their Sons and Daughters are in the Fall driven from God into a State in which they were before they were driven from God to the Church in God Now they that sit down in a State driven from God are People far off from the Church in God Our Worship is in Spirit and in Truth in which the Devil abode not but is out of it who is the Author of strife and unrighteousness amongst People which Truth maketh the Devil to bow and cringe yea and destroys him and it is the Spirit that mortifies sin which makes the Separation from God Now we say that if all Christendom had worshipped God in Spirit and in Truth they had all been in Him out of which the Devil is and had been in the holy Mountain and had felt the Spirit ruling them in their own particulars and had felt the Spirit of Truth guiding and teaching them in them in their own hearts II. Concerning the CHURCH Our Church is in God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ which he Redeems with his own blood without spot or wrinkle or deformity or any such thing which blood we feel in our Hearts purging us from all sin with which blood we feel our Consciences cleansed from dead works to serve the Living God So this blood is witnessed in us and the excellency thereof by which we come to know the price of Redemption III. Concerning the WAY We say that Christ is Our Way which is Light which enlighteneth you and
than that in which Adam stood before the Fall even to himself who never changed and never fell nor never will fall And so they who forget God and do wickedly they are to be turned into Hell For they who forget God and do wickedly they go from the Life and Power of God into the Seperation from him and out of his acceptance for in the Life is the acceptance and so the Power Light and Life goeth over them who go into sin and iniquity which leades from God who was before Transgression was XVIII Concerning ELECTION and REPROBATION Reprobation is an Alienation from the Life and from that which is of God within and from his Voice and Command as Adam and the Jews did and such who despise that which is of God within they despise their Birth-right Such are concluded to be out of true Vnderstanding and true Knowledge and the Witness of God within is grieved and such are dead in their sences from the Life and Covenant of Peace with God and from the Seed which is called the Elect in which the Elect and the Election is known in the Seed Christ before the Foundation of the World which World slew him and they who slew him and now slayes him they were and are Reprobated from the Life who go from the Command of God and they have lost his Image they have lost his Power which keeps over and above and out of the Reprobation And so they who come into the Election the Seed they come out of the State in which Adam was in the Fall into the state in which he was in before he Fell and into an higher state than that into Christ the Seed the Elect. And so they in the Seed in the Elect in Christ the Wisdom of God they comprehend and see the state of Election before the World was laid and the State of Adam before the Fall and the State of Adam in the Fall in the Reprobation and the state of Adam restored again out of the Fall and a State which is higher than that in which Adam was in before he Fell into the Election which is a thing beyond that and the state of the beloved of God is seen in the Seed the Wisdom of God Cain was the first Birth Esau was the first Birth Ishmael was the first Birth Cain killed his Brother about Religion Ishmael was a Scoffer Esau bore the Sword he despised his Birth-right he fought against his Brother Jacob. So Christendom read your Reprobation the first Birth which is born of the Elesh for the first Birth will persecute him who is born of the Spirit So the most part of Christians are seen to be of the first Birth and to remain in the Reprobation from God Cain departed from the Voyce of God and Esau from his Birth-right and Ishmael in his scoffing nature they went from the Good and so from faithful Abraham who was in the Election And so they who are in Cains Ishmaels and Esaus nature are in the first Birth which is not Elected Now as to the Love of God towards one and his Hatred to another before either had done good or evil all this consists in the first Birth who despised his Birth-right which God foresaw which was not the Seed unto which the Love of God is to for ever Therefore know thy self O Christendom and thy Birth that that which hates the Principle of God and his Voice is reprobated he that rebells against Gods command and his Voyce God turneth against such neither doth he hear such who hates the Election and are in the Reprobation from the Seed yea even from the Law it self for the Law keeps a man from sin But the Law it self doth not say that it destroys the Devil but the Seed viz. Christ who is higher than the Law who is the Election and destroys the Devil So who knows the Election they must know the Seed they must know the Birth born of the Spirit Now if all Christendom know the Election they must know the Birth born of the Spirit which will not Persecute For the nature of Cain Ishmael and Esau is one of which the Apostle spoke in the Primitive times which we now also say is one and the Election is one which standeth in the Seed which was before the Foundation of the wicked world was And the Reprobation is one which standeth in the unjust world out of the Truth and the Life in disobedience to the Command of God Therefore know the one Reprobation and the one Election then ye shall know the Seed in which is the Wisdom of God and ye shall know that which goes from his Voyce Power and Command out of the Wisdom of God so whom God loves he loves for ever Know Jacob and know Esau Esau Cain and Ishmael were the first-born and is not Christendom of the first-birth who Persecutes who departs from the good and despises the pure and persecutes the Birth born of the Spirit which God hates And such act out of his Life in the Reprobation out of his Power and Wisdom and out of the Election Christ the Seed the second Birth who was before the Carnal Birth was and remains when he will be gone unto which the Love of God is for ever and unto whom is the Promise which goeth over the outward Birth and destroyes the Devil and his works who went from Truth and led man from God by which the Curse Wrath and Woe came upon Man which Christ the Seed brings the Blessing and gives man to see the blessed state of all things how they were in the beginning and how they were blessed in the beginning and through Christ Man comes up into the power which is his Throne where there 's Blessing and no Curse at all XIX Concerning FEAR and TREMBLING The strong Man hath kept the House long and his Goods have been at Peace but now He is come who is stronger than he Christ Jesus the Stronger who doth dis-inherit and cast him out and spoil his Goods and makes Man the Temple of God that â—e himself may dwell in him an holy Temple and an Habitation for himself to dwell in who maketh the Keepers of the House to Tremble by which power of Christ the Salvation is wrought out with fear and Trembling And so we can say That it is God that workeâ—h in us both to will and to do according to his will and good pleasure In the dayes of the Prophets the Prophet he trembled and staggered like a Drunkard for the Iniquity of the Times and because of the holiness of the Word of the Lord He trembled when he heard his Voyce and when the Lord spake to him he feared greaâ—ly This is the Man whom God regards saith the Prophet Isayas who is of a broken and contrâ—ie spirit and trembleth at his word Who have been cast out by their Brethren who said let the Lord be glorified Who will appear for those that tremble at his Word and
for those that are of a contrite heart who were for Signes and Wonders to both the Houses of Israel when they shall be confounded ashamed and astonished And before you know sin rooted out and wasted out of your flesh and the Earth shaken and removed out of its place and ye brought into that state which Man was in before he Fell you must know the trembling and shaking of that which is to be shaken and the removing of that which is to be removed before Christ the Seed will appear who is the foundation of many Generations and the Rock of Ages who is the First and the Last Who cannot be shaken neither can be changed So that the whole unjust wicked World hath much to suffer before they come to this they must know the Devils to tremble the Heavens to be shaken and the Earth also before he who cannot be shaken will appear by whom the World was made XX. Concerning the BODY of DEATH It s evident that they who plead for a body of Death and Sin about which the world so earnestly jangle and which they plead for as long as they live upon the earth that they also plead for its Author viz the Divel and this is not to plead for Christ who destroyes him who is the Author of sin and the Body of it Object Now if you Object that John hath said If we say that we have no sin we deceive our selves and the truth is not in us Answ John saith If we say we have not sinned we make him a lyar mark but if we confess and forsake our sins the blood of Jesus Christ the son of God cleanseth us from all sin Further he saith He that is born of God sinneth not neither can he because the Seed of God remains in him Because of which Seed he cannot sin for that Seed keeps the Holy so that the Evill one cannot touch him In this the children of God and the children of the Divel are manifest Whose children of both kinds contends and pleads for his own so there is a time in which men may say that they have sinned and have sin and a time to confess and to forsake sin and then a time to know the blood which cleanseth from all sin and then the Birth born which doth not commit sin and the Seed which remaines in him so that he cannot sin for as I said before it keeps the Holy that the Evil cannot touch him And though Paul cryed out of a Body of Death and of a Warfare yet afterwards he gave thanks to God that he had gotten Victory through Jesus Christ over the Body of Death and that the Law of the Spirit of Life had freed him from the Law of Sin and Death And afterwards the Apostle never complained of a Body of Death but he thanked God that he had obtained Victory through Christ who destroyes the Devil the Author of it who destroys Death and its Body and said that he was freed and that there was no condemnation to them who were in Christ Jesus and that the Life that he now lived was by the Faith of the Son of God which Faith gives Victory over Sin Death and the Devil which sin separates from God by which man hath displeased him by which Faith man is purified and hath victory and pleaseth God and hath access to him and is justified and saved Amen XXI Concerning the word THOU to a Single Person It is the manner among us to use the word Thou to a single person and You to more than one as in the Primitive times among the Saints according to Scripture and the Principle of God placed in every man which distinguisheth many from one and hath the proper word both to singular and plural to wit the singular word to a single person and the plural word to more than one according to the true understanding and Spirit of God in every man and the Testimony of all the Prophets But they are degenerated from the Spirit of God they are degenerated from the Scriptures and from their own Translations calling this manner of speaking Thou to one and You to many nonsence and improper when they themselves are gone from the true understanding which whosoever are in it comprehends them who are degenerated from it XXII Concerning putting of the HAT and Bowing the KNEE and Cringings and Complements To put off Hatts bowing Knees Cringing and Complements are from below and Customes and Manners of the World which shall pass away and never came from God neither is that honour wherewith men ought to honour one another for if all men had honoured and esteemed one another they had been of an higher Spirit than the Spirit of the World and of a more noble and generous Spirit Then neither Man nor Woman throughout all Christendom had received wrong or injury if they had esteemed and honoured one another for he that honours men will in no wise hurt them in this consists Breeding and Civillity And every Knee shall bow to me saith the Lord. For this is the cry Worship God and Fear him and Reverence him And if you Object That some in times past bowed them-themselves to an Angel but in the time of the Gospel which is the Power of God which was before the Fall in the state of Reformation and Restauration John was forbidden to bow to the Angel and the Apostels reproved them that bowed to them And although Jacob bowed for a time to his Brother Esau yet it is not said that he bowed to him all his Life time For it is written The Elder shall serve the Younger So the Elder shall bow among the Cringers and Knee-bowers one to another who will kill and envy one another and to them this is a Mystery XXIII Concerning GOOD MANNERS Evil Words and Evil Communications corrupts Good Manners And if Christendom would learn good Manners they must all come to the Light of Christ Jesus to the Spirit of God in themselves and to the Word of God in their hearts and months which will teach them to leave off Evil Words and will lead them from them and to deny them and this is the way to come to Good Manners But they who live in high Expressions and Complements and full of Evil Words and Flatteries and Dissimulations and call such Good Manners their Words and Works testify and manifest that they are Evil and Corrupt and such whose Manners are evil and corrupt they quench grieve and vex the Spirit of God in themselves and hate the Light and will not come to it because it reproves them of their evil words Such do love envy wrath vanity pride rashness hastiness and yet they are found in flattering Expressions and bowings one to another and they call it Good Manners and Honour when all such things are altogether out of that Honour that comes from above and are those things which the Witness of God in themselves testifieth against and testified in the Name of
the Lord that he will bring such honour in the dust and that which he will condemn as unjust The Apostle saith That Women ought not to adorne themselves with gould silver pearls costly attire platting of the hair but to be adorned with a meek and a quiet Spirit which is in the sight of God of great price and the hidden man of the heart c. And if Christendom had minded this it had been more virtuous and more sober and less envious towards one about their Manners XXIV Concerning Objections of the World against the Preaching of CHRIST Object The World Objests and saith That some Preach Christ of Envy and some of Good-will and some of Strife and Contention And that Christ commanded to hear the Pharisees So we may hear say they our Teachers although they be wicked Answ He that hath the Form of Godliness and denyes the Power from such turn away The Apostle bid turn away from Envious men and Contentious men and men of Strife Although there was a time when the Name of Christ was first spread abroad in which time he permitted Envious men to spread his Name abroad But when his Name was spread abroad then he forbad such Envious and Contentious men to Preach and exhorted Timothy to withdraw from and avoid such for they could not bring People into the Power For Envious and Contentious men may Preach the Form and have it but they cannot bring People into the Power And so there came a time before the decease of the Apostles to turn away from such Now as to the hearing of the Pharisees this was before Christ was Offered up and before the fulfilling of the Law for they were Ministers of the Law and so people ought to do as they said but not as they did but when Christ was offered up he commanded them to Preach the Gospel and not to hear the Pharisees and it was the work of the Apostles to bring People to the end of the Law to the Seed into Gospel-fellowship into the Power of God which was before the Power of darkness was XXV Concerning BREAD WATER and WINE Bread Water and Wine are earthly and perishing things for the Bread and Wine which Christ gave at Supper in the Evening which the World takes at Noon those things Christ and the Apostle gave for a shewing forth and a remembrance of his death until he should come And after some of the Disciples had receiv'd it they doubted Whether he was the Christ or not And after the Apostle had given the Supper to the Corinthians in his first Epistle he bad then Examine themselves and so to eat in the remembrance of Christ But in the second Epistle he bad them examine themselves and try themselves whether Christ except they were Reprobates were in them or not Now they may be Reprobates who have taken the Bread and Wine and have had the Water They were Reprobates if Christ was not in them For Bread and Wine is not the Flesh and Blood of Christ which came down from Heaven which flesh whosoever eates lives for ever For People may eat of Bread made of Grain and may drink Wine make of Grapes and yet may dye Reprobates Now they were to take it in remembrance of his Death this was one State and than they were to come to dye with him and this was a nearer state than the taking of Bread and Wine in remembrance of his Death and then they were to arise with him and then to seek those things which were above where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God but Bread Water and Wine are all earthly things and they are not Christ and they who have him they are not Reprobates neither do they need outward things to put them in mind of his Death whenas they are dead with him and risen with him to live with him But they who will not dye and suffer with him such live in the Old Nature and desire to have outward things continually to put them in mind of his Death and such live in Strife and Contention about outward things and shaddows and do not come to Christ the Substance who was before the world was made in whom there is no strife at all but only Life and Peace XXVI Of the SABBATH DAY The Jews they kept the Sabbath-Day a Type and Sign of Rest that both the Man-servant and Maid-servant and Strangers and all Cattel should rest within their Gates a sign of Christ who destroys the Devil the Author of Oppression and gives rest to Man and Beast and to the whole Creation and brings it again into that blessed condition which it was in in the beginning before the Fall Now as to the Saints Meeting together on the first Day of the Week this practice is not denyed but owned by us for who are come to the First Day as they Jews on the Last Day But there is more in the Word XXVII Concerning God-Fathers and God-Mothers and SPRINKLING of INFANTS Concerning God-Fathers and God-Mothers and Sprinkling of Infants and such like things the Scriptures make no mention yet the Scripture saith Repent Teach and Baptize XXVIII Concerning the Word TRINITY Of this word Trinitas there is no mention made in Scripture yet the Scripture speaks of Father Son and Holy Spirit and of Water Blood and Spirit and all these are one among us as in the Primitive time among the Apostles who gave no such outward Names to them as Trinity as the World now doth XXIX Concerning the MINISTRY They that receive from Christ they receive freely and they give freely they pray freely and preach freely and the Ministry is the gift of God and is to be exercised freely and of a free People of their earthly things it is to be Administred freely Heavenly men and bringers of glad Tydings of a Kingdom of which they are Heirs must Minister to the Eternal condition of People And this is the highest Love in the Life XXX Concerning Dayes and Times and Meats and Drinks The Kingdom of God consists not in Dayes Times Meats and Drinks and such like things but in Power Righteousness Faith and Joy in the holy Ghost and People ought not contend and Persecute one another about such things for the Apostles gave not any Commandment or Example that any should do so but on the contrary reproved them who did so and keep People in such things XXXI Concerning MARRIAGES Whom God hath joyned together let no man put asunder and those which he joynes he joynes with his Power even by his Immortal Power with a Band over and above the State which is in the Fall where Men joyn and put asunder about outward and earthly things and jangle and fight about them but this is all in the defiled Bed out of the honourable state which was in the beginning where there was no hardness of heart And Marriage in it self is not condemned but owned and among all them who are in the Power I say it is
Babylon shall be confounded and all Merchants which have Merchandized with her shall howle and lament and cry Alas alas How is this great City fallen For there hath been a merchandizing in this great City which must be thrown down and all the Merchants of this great City have been those that inwardly ravend from the Spirit of God who have built up and plucked down So unto this from which they have Apostatized you must all come before the Sheeps Life be known and so the Witnesses are raised and shall be raised who hold the Light and carries the Oyl to enlighten the Nations and to annoint them yea the Spirit and Power and Fellowship and Worship in which the Apostles were formerly in And the Cry is begun Fear God and give glory to him Come out of her my People lest you be pertaker of her Plagues And the Mourners shall go forth and the Prophets prophesie Who witness the Spirit of God fallen upon them as formerly among the Apostles And the Everlasting Gospel shall be preached to all Nations Kindreds and People XXXIII Concerning an OBJECTION of PEOPLE Objection But many people speak after this manner Have not we had the Gospel all this time till now Answer We say No You have had the Sheeps-cloathing while you are alienated from the Spirit and so not living in the Power which is the Gospel And the Bride the Lambs Wife is coming out of the Wilderness which hath been nourished of God for a time and times and dividing of times preparing for her Husband and the Man-Child is risen to rule all Nations with a Rod of Iron And the Lamb and the Saints shall have the Victory Glory to the Highest and people shall come into Gospel-Fellowship and to the Church of God and Church-Fellowship in the Gospel the Power of God which was before the Power of Satan was which Gospel was among the Apostles in which their Fellowship was and this is Gospel-Fellowship and in the Power of God they are over all false Prophets false Worshippers over the Dragon over the false Church and his Worship which are begotten betwixt us and the Apostles and are gotten beyond them and see their rise who are inwardly ravend from the Spirit and are gone from the Truth as the Devil and the Whore heretofore who set themselves against them who are in the Truth But here is the Faith and Patience of the Saints who seeth the destruction of the Whore the Beast the Dragon and the false Prophet by the hand and power of God who know the Seed of God to raign over all viz. he who is the First and the Last XXXIV Of the JEW Inward and Outward and of a CHRISTIAN in the Power and out of the Power The Uncircumcised Gentiles which have not the Law and yet do those things contained in the Law are better than the Circumcised Jews which have the Law and are more Sober and Moderate and so the Jew within in the Spirit is more Excellent than the Jew without in the Flesh And so a Christan in the Light and Power and Seed of God is more excellent than a Christan in the Form of Godliness and yet out of the Power and more Moderate and Patient XXXV Concerning CHRIST the COVENANT of GOD. Christ the Covenant of God was foretold by the Prophet who said I will give him for a Light and for a Covenant to the Gentiles and he shall be my Salvation to the ends of the Earth yea the New Covenant to the House of Israel and to the house of Judah So this Covenant is made to all People to them who were called the People of God and to the Gentiles also And this is that Covenant of Light unto which John came to bear Witnesse which enlighteneth every one that cometh into the World which giveth Power to all who receive it to become the Sons of God from him who hath all power in Heaven and Earth given to him And this is the Light in which people must believe by which they become Children of God and this is the Light which shineth in Darkness and out of the Darkness which is in the heart which giveth the Knowledge of the Glory of God in the Face of Christ Jesus from whence it comes and this is that Light which they who love darkness hate and will not come to it because it reproves them And by this Covenant of Light to the Gentiles which is Salvation to the ends of the Earth Now we who are Gentiles are become Christians and we obtain Salvation and by Faith in this Covenant we become Children of the Light and by receiving it we receive Power to become the Sons of God But they who hate this Light and love Darkness rather than the Light and do not come to it because it condemns them even this Light is their Condemnation XXXVI Concerning Plots and Conspiracies Plots Conspiracies Insurrections Tumultuous Meetings we utterly abhorre who live peaceably and seek the peace and good of all People upon earth There were about thirty of the fifth Monarchy men who made an Insurrection in England which Insurrection was wickedly laid to the charge of the People of God called Quakers from which Insurrection the Monarchy men themselves declared when they were to dye That we were Innocent yet nevertheless the Diurnals and News-Books have joyned us together with the Monarchy men in that Plot and Insurrection and have published us to the Nations as Plotters though we are Innocent And we say The Lord forgive them for wronging of us The lying Priests and Professors say That we deny the Scriptures and that we deny the Resurrestion and Christ and his Body and that we foame at the mouth and that we bewitch men and bind Ribband about their Armos which are altogether false and lies and from their Father the Devil the Author of them who is out of the Truth in which Truth we are however scandalized by them who are of the Father of Lyes And what evil soever they may bring against us yet we are in the Truth and can rejoyce Praised be the Lord who lives for ever XXXVII Concerning Original Sin The Devil is the Original of Sin which Christ destroyes God is the Original of Righteousness and Christ is Gods Righteousness which endures for ever but the Worlds Original is the many Languages whose Original is Babel which makes Divines as they call them with many Languages set a top of Christ And the Whore sits upon the Waters as it s spoken in the Revelation And John saith The Waters are Nations Multitudes People and Tongues which Tongues they call their Original To which Waters the Gospel must be preached before they can be established And ye are to be redeemed from Tongues and Tongues shall cease saith the Apostle and so from this Worlds Original the beginning of which is Babel and which keeps in Babylon the Saints are redeemed And this hath been set up as an Original among them who are
of Christ and said Like unto him God would raise up a Prophet him should they hear in all things mark in all things we are to be ordered both inward and outward for hearing Christ by whom all things were made And every one that would not hear this Prophet Christ should be cut off for how should they continue or reign And this was the Word that came to Samuel and made him a Prophet who spake to Ely the Priest and reproved his Sons and the Children of Israel and this was the Word that made Saul to Prophesie and Balaam though they erred from it And this was the Word that made all the Prophets to prophesie and to reprove the kings of Israel and their Priests of their Superstition and Idolatrous ways in seting up Groves and Images in High places and reproved all their Monthly Prognostications who spoke and acted from them and not from the Lord. And this was the Word that came to Isaiah by which he Prophesied of Christ and of his Preaching and of his Sufferings and by which Word he reproved the Shepherds which were as greedy dumb Dogs could never have enough seeking their gain from their Quarter and by this Word he saw that all the Children of God should be taught of God and established in Righteousness and Peace and though many tongues should rise up in Judgment against them yet those that were taught of God should condemn them all this power should be given to his children And many weapons formed against them should not prosper God would restrain them And also he saw them that were cast out that trembled at Gods Word to whom God would appear to their Glory and to the shame and to the confounding of them that cast them out for his Names sake as it is at this day And this was the Word of God that made Jeremiah a Prophet by which he saw the New Covenant by which Word he was said to reprove the People and Princes of the filthy and horrible thing commited in the Land that the Priests Preached for Hire and the Prophets prophesied falsly and for reproving them for their Superstition and Idollatry they struck him and put him in the Stocks and Prison and persecuted him in the Dungeon till his Persecutors were carried into Captivity And by the Word Jeremiah saw the number of Seventy yeares of his Persecutors being in Babylons Captivity Elijah by the Word was made a Prophet and by the Word reproved Ahab and Jezebel for their Idolatry and worshiping of Images For which Words sake they persecuted him and the rest of the Prophets and was not he fed of the Ravens by the River And did not they seek to take away his Life and did not he think all the Lords Prophets had been killed and he left alone yet did not the Lord say to him he had reserved so many Thousands that had not bowed the knee to Baal And Elisha the Plowman by the Word was made a Prophet and forsook his Plough and by the Word reproved the Idollatry in his Age of Priests and People And by the Word was Ezekiel made a Prophet by which Word he reproved the Shepherds of Israel that made a prey upon the people and taught them for the Fleece and by the Word he saw that God would bring the people from them that they should be made a pray upon no longer and would gather them from their Mouths and set one Shepherd over them Christ which is witnessed and by the Word he reproved false Prophets that taught for handfuls of Barly and peices of Bread and daubed with untempered Morter and sewed Pillows under the Armholes and by the Word he saw the Patern of the Temple and the return of the Jews And by the Word Daniel was made a Prophet and saw Christ and his Kingdom and how the Saints should take his Kingdom and by the Word he saw such that should rise up against the People of God and by the Word he numbred the yeares of Christ to his time 499 yeares and of his Death and how he should end the Sacrifices and how that Christ should bring up Everlasting Righteousness and put an end to Sin and end the Prophets and Seal up their Visions And by the Word Micah was made a Prophet by which he cryed against the Priests that preached for Hire and the Prophets that prophesied for Money and the Judges that judged for Rewards and such as preached Peace to the people that put in their mouths like the Priests in these times and when they did not they prepared war against them and chopt their flesh and gnawed their Bones as the Priests in this day and time have done but Micah saw by the Word that the Sun was gon down upon such Prophets and Priests and they should have no Vision nor Answer from God therefore such are against Revelations and Visions on whom the Sun is set and gon down upon and then the Night comes upon them And by the Word was Amos the Herdsman made a Prophet who was a gatherer of Fruits and likewise all the rest of the Prophets who spoke forth Divine things and reproved the Superstition and Idolatry in their time and day And by the Word did all the Prophets speak forth Divine things which Word brought them into the Divine Nature and Mind which Word Hammered and Cut down that which corrupted their natures and this was the Word that made so many Fisher-men Preachers of the Gospel which is the Power of God And this was the Word which made Matthew the Toll-gatherer Luke the Physitian and Paul the Tent-maker Ministers and Preachers of the Gospel and Power of God And this was the Word which made Peter to see Joels Prophesie how that God would power out his Spirit upon all Flesh and Sons and Daughters should Prophesie and Young men should see Visions and Old men Dream Dreams and the powering forth of the Spirit upon Servants and Hand-maids that every one should have somthing to speak to the Glory of God And now the Priests and proud Prelates and Bishops and Popes though you have made a trade of the Saints words and the Apostles and Prophets words and gotten a deal of money by them which were fishermen and shepherds words from the Word Yet nevertheless if a company of Shepherds Herdsmen Fishermen Tent-makers and Toll-gatherers should come amongst you to Preach you would say Away with these Mechanick Fellows they have not served seaven yeares Apprentiship at the Colledges which we have set up to make Ministers therefore they are not to set up because they have not served their Apprentiships What say the Shepherds Tentmakers Physitians and Tolegatheres Do you make a Trade of our Friends words who were of our Occupation that never served Apprentiships in Colledges before they spake forth the words you make a Trade of what will you make a Trade of our Friends words who were of our Occupation Away with you to Work and away with
your Colledges for our Brother Paul the Tent-maker said If you will not work you must not eat For would you own Christ if he had come in your day who was called A Carpenters Son You Popes with your Triple Crowns and you Lord Bishops with your Coaches and fat Horses and gorgeous Aparrel with your Black Coats and white Coats and Girdles Are you like to entertain him who is called A Carpenters Son or to cast him and his mother into the Manger in your Stables This was the Word by which John the Evangelist saw Christ which did enlighten every man that came into the world and saw how he became flesh and came to his own and his own did not receive him but to as many as received Christ the Light to them he gave power to become the Sons of God which all they that are Ministers of the Letter made by the seven years Colledges and not the Word hate the Light And by this Word the Minister of the Word preacheth Christs Word Life Death and Resurrection And therefore as John saith in his Epistle That which our Eyes have seen our Hands have handled and our Ears have heard of the Word of Life do we preach unto you that which was from the beginning in the beginning was the Word though since the beginning were the words and letters for the Scriptures of Truth are the words of God and the words of Christ and he that adds to these words saith John in the Revelations God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book So the Word was in the beginning and Christs Name is called The Word of God but Christ is neither called Scriptures nor Writings for Scriptures signify Writings So In the beginning was the Word since the beginning were Writings and Scriptures In the beginning was the Word since the beginning were all false Wayes false Churches false Teachers and in the Word ye comprehend them all The Priest saith That Hebrew Greek and Latine were the Original the many Languages and the many Languages began at Babel which Nimrod the Hunter before the Lord began to build after God had destroyed the Old World with water then would he go build a Tower which should reach to Heaven then God came down and confounded them into many Languages so he hunted before the Lord but the Lord followed him and confounded him in all his work as he will do all the Builders that run before him and so all the Priest that have gotten the many Languages which began at Babel they tell simple ignorant people that they have the Original and are the Orthodox men and get in a different habit from them and say the Quakers are a simple people and despise the Learned Orthodox men who have the Original Give ear O people if these Languages which came up at the confounding of Babel are the Priests Original that makes them Orthodox and Divine then Pilate that crucified Christ was as good an Orthodox Divine as they for when he crucified Christ he writ a Paper in Hebrew Greek and Latine and set a top of him he was as ignorant of Scripture and of Orthodox and Divine matters as you and you as he and the Apostle saith That Tongues must cease then that which makes Orthodox men and Divine as you say must cease according to the Apostles Doctrine and so then Tongues neither are the Original nor make Orthodox nor Divine and John that gave forth the Revelations saith That the Whore and the Beast are set upon Tongues and the Everlasting Gospel must be preached again to all Kindreds and Tongues which were before Babel was who was the first beginner of Tongues Now it is clear that the Gospel must be preached to all Nations and Tongues and that Tongues are not the Original neither do they make Divines or Orthodox men but it is clear that it is the Word which was in the beginning which makes Divines yea Tradesmen which are base and contemptible in the eyes of the proud and them that have gotten Babels Tongues who are confounded by the ministers of the Word which was in the beginning before Babel was for all the Earth was of one Language and Speech before Babel And you that call your selves Orthodox men made by Tongues and say that is your Original who are so blind and cannot see that there was an Original before Babel was for did not Enoch the Prophet the seventh from Adam who prophesied in the Old World before it was destroyed and long before Babel was concerning the coming of Christ in Ten thousand of his Saints as in Jude and Lamech prophesied in the Old World concerning Noah and Adam and others might be instanced before your Tongues which you call your Original were and so we say that the Word of God is the Original which doth fulfil the Scriptures and the Word is it which makes Divines which is called a Hammer but it is a living Hammer and a Sword and Fire but a living Sword and a Fire to hammer cut and burn up that which separated and kept man from God by which Word man is reconciled again to God which is called The word of Reconciliation by this word are men and women sanctified and made clean and this is the Word that makes both men and woman Divines and brings them into the Divine Nature which hammers and cuts down that which corrupted their nature and by this Word aâ—e they brought into a Divine Wisdom Understanding Knowledg Spirit and Power And this is the Word that lives and abides and endures for ever by which the Saints are born again of the Immortal Seed and Word of God who feed upon the Milk of the Word up into a Divine Life Wisdom and Understanding and Divine Nature and by this Word they do see all Flesh to be as Grass and as the Flower of the Field that fadeth and the Word of God that lives and abides and endures for ever which is Christ whose Name is called the Word of God And so to Keep the Word of Patience which is over all the impatient Spirits and then you will know the Word of Life the Word of Patience and Word of Wisdom is Everlasting and abides and endures for ever which all they that be in the Letter out of the Life and Word have neither Patience to themselves nor others for the Word of patience and the Word of Life which is to be kept in all Tribulations was before Death and impatient Spirits were Concerning the Heathen Idolaters naming their Dayes and Moneths THE old Pagan Saxons in their Idolatry Were the first that brought in the names of the Days which those called Christians have retained to this day for they adored Idols and unto them offered Sacrifices and Worshipped the Planets See Vestigans Antiq. and Cambdens Brit. As touching the Idols which these Saxons adored they were divers and though they had many yet seven among the rest they especially appropriated unto the seven
Light is in darkness and erres not knowing the Scripture which declareth of the Light which John came to bear witness off who was not the Light but testified of the Light Which was the true Light which enlighteneth every one that cometh into the World He was in the World and the World was made by him and the World knew him not nor knows him not and he came unto his own and his own received him not but as many as received him to them he gives power to become the Sons of God John 1.6 7 8 9 10 11 12. And this we witness and by the same Light do we discern and testifie against him to be in darkness and blindness and is a deceiver who putteth the Letter for the Light and so draws Peoples minds off from the Light within them to the Letter without them seeking the living among the dead thinking to find Life in the Letter without them as the Pharisees did and will not come unto Christ that they might have Life John 5.39 40. and so they must be shut out of the Scripture as the Pharisees were and he also that saith the Letter is the Rule and Guide of the People of God is without feeding upon the husk and is ignorant of the true Light which was before the Letter was which all the Children of God were and are guided by and spoke and speakes the Letter from which was before the Letter was and with this the Letter witnesseth and who is guided by this cannot walk contrary to the Letter nor deny it but they know how to use it in its place and see in what condition it was spoken and it witnesseth with them both in words and actions and they that have this have and need the mystery within though they cannot read the Letter without nor ever learned as it was with Christ which confounded the Scribes and Pharisees and they who are never so learned without and can read and understand all Tongues and Languages without and doth not read the Scripture within only feed upon the Husk and are ignorant of the Life which is the Mystery which is hid from the wise and prudent and revealed unto the ignorant as it was from the Scribes and Pharisees and high Priests and was revealed to those whom they counted ignorant and cursed and knew not the Law John 7.48 49 And they who take the Letter to be their Rule cannot walk according to it because they are ignorant of the Light which opens and leads into the Life which they who spake them forth lived in but drunkards and swearers and proud and wantonesse and covetoues lustfull enveons ones and all manner of unrighteous persons will take the Letter to talk of and say it is their Rule and Guide but are out of the Life thereof and so by it are condemned and those are the Swine that are feeding upon the husk without Luke 15.15 16. and have gotten the form but are out of the Life and Power and put the shadow for the substance and so lives in darknesse and knowes not whether he goeth but they that read with the single-eye may understand for the Scripture is within and was read within before it was read without Now silence all the Study and Wisdom of Man Concerning BAPTISM The Baptism we own which is the Baptism of Christ with the Holy Ghost and with fire but we deny all other for there is but one Lord one Faith one Baptism one God and Father of all and they who would have one Baptism outward and another inward would have two Baptisms when the Scripture saith the Baptism is but one and whosoever hath the Baptism outward are the same they were before but the Baptism of Christ makes a new Creature and this I witness for I received water upon my face as my Parents told me which they called Baptism but I grew up an Heathen as all other Children do and no New Creature though my Parents were counted Believers among the World and their Priests but now I wittess the Baptism of Christ by one Spirit into onâ— Body and now I witness a New Creature Old things are past away and all things become New And now I see the other to be formal imitation and the Invention of Man and so a meer delusion and all are Heathens and no Christians who cannot witness this Baptism Mat. 15.4 who can witness this denies all other for the Scripture saith the Baptism is but one and who can witnesse this are Believers but who cannot witnesse this are no Believers and so it is that water or no water availeth nothing but a New Creature for all by nature are the children of wrath and except they be born again they cannot enter and as for the Baptism of water which the Apostles used it being a figure for its time the power went along with it and the Disciples received the Holy Ghost when they were Baptized but none can witness this who sets themselves of acting or imitating the Apostles and so takes it up by imitation and their ground is the Letter and are not guided to it by the same Spirit which guided the Apostles and so they are the same after water as before and so now waâ—er or no water availeth any thing but a New Cereature for Water was but for its time though many in darkness have now got the Form and are groping in it for Life but wants the Life and Power and so from such turn away Concerning the LORDS SUPPER The Supper of the Lord we own which is the Body and Blood of Christ which the Saints fed upon and this is Eternal Food and Life and here they all feed upon one and are of one heart and one mind and here is pure and Eternal Union and Communion and this is not Carnal but Spiritual for Saints are Spiritual and their Communion is Spiritual and Eternall and this we witnesse who are of one heart and one mind who are in the new Covenant and herein we discern the Lords Body and here all drunkards are shut out and all lyars adulterers proud covetous lustfull and envious ones and all back-biters revilers extortioners and all deceitfull and unrighteous persons are shut out of the New Covenant 1 Cor. 6.9 10. and are with-out feeding upon the husk and shadow which is carnall for the brâ—ad which the world breaks is carnall and naturall and only feeds the outward carnall body and goeth into the belly and so passeth out into the dunghill and so likewise the Cup which they drink and so the Communion and Fellowship of the World passeth away but this is no nourishment to the Soul but still the Soul lies in death and here is no Communion but natural outward and carnal of several minds and hearts full of filthiness and uncleanness which is the Table of Devils eating and drinking their own damnation not discerning the Lords Body which is Spiritual which the natural man discerns
not And here stands the Worlds Communion and Fellowship which is carnal and cross but their carnal wills and it is turned into envy and for earthly triflles they will go to Law and cozen and cheat and defraud one another for earthly trifles and like People like Priest but if they lye in wait for revenge of one another then they will not take their Sacrament as they call it And here the Devil hath a great hold for he that envies is a murderer and here is the difference betwixt the Worlds Communion and the Saints Communion Life and Death For to be Carnally minded is Death but to be Spiritually minded is Life And here they are without feeding upon the Husk and Shadow without and would destroy the Life and Substance where it appears both Priest People and Rulers and so have a Form of Godliness and denies the Life and Power From such turn away For it is meer delusion to take the Shadow for the Substance Concerning PRAYER The Prayers of the wicked we deny and God denies for it is abominable Prov. 15.8 for Cain the wicked one who was out of the comands of God Gen 4.3 4 5. who was the first-birth he offered up a Sacrifice of the earth but God had no respect to it but Abel the second-birth who was the Righteous his Sacrifice God had respect to so the Prayers of the Faithful and Righteous God doth accept and they avail and what comes from his own which is the second-birth his own is pure and what comes from it is pure and God who is pure doth receive that which is pure but he receives nothing which is polluted or unclean for he is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity For his Sacrifice must be without spot and blemish and that which comes from an unclean heart is spotted and defiled and unclean for nothing that is pure can come forth of an unclean Vessel but who can witness the second-birth and that the Seed of the Woman hath bruised the Serpents head which is the first Promise and faith which purifieth the heart then that which comes out is pure proceeding from a pure single heart and this prayer God receives and he hath respect to it and this we owne and witnesse and this comes from the second birth which is pure for the first birth is unclean and out of the Command of God in the fall in the wrath in the peevishnesse and perversenesse Cain-like and the seed of the Serpent is first in every one and rules the head but the Promise is The seed of the Woman shall bruise the Serpents head so you who are not come to this are still in the fall and are not come to the first Promise so all your self-acting and imitating thinking to merit with your prayers and praises singings and duties and worships and traditions which are all in vain and you are sacrificing to an unknown God a Sacrifice of the earth from the first nature which God hath no respect to and the flaming Sword is set against that to keep from the Tree of Life for both drunkards and swearers lyars proud covetous and all manner of unrighteous persons are offering up sacrifices and are in their formal Worships and Duties thinking that is sufficient to pascifie for their sins and yet doth not repent but saith the Lord Bring no more vain Oblations away with your New Moons and Sabbaths thâ—y are an abomination and my soul loathes them When you spread forth your hands I will hide mine eyes from you yea when you make many Prayers I will not hearken your hands are full of blood Wash you make you clean put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes cease to do evil learn to do well So it is the heart the Lord requireth Prov. 23.16 Jer. 29.12 13. And Where your treasure is there your heart will be also Mat. 6.21 And saith the Apostle We know not how to pray as we ought but as the Spirit maketh intercession with sighes and groans Rom. 8.26 And this is more acceptable to God from an honest single heart than the long Prayer of the Pharisees Concerning the MINISTRY The true Ministry of Christ we own and witness and the Ministers and Messengers of Christ we own and witness but those who have gotten the Letter and Form to Trade with which was spoken forth freely and denyes the Life and Power those we deny their Ministry and all those who go to get humane Learning and are certain years as it were serving a Prentiship pretending to study Divinity and when their time is expired they go among ignorant blind People and gets a certain place and certain wages and so sells that which they studied and got into the brain and those which receive it gets it into the brain and â—o they live upon dust which is the Serpents meat feeding upon the Tree of Knowledge both Priest and People Mic. 3.10 death feeding death and with the notion begets into the notion and feeding the carnal mind with the carnal letter and this is the cause why drunkards swearers lyars proud covetous envious wrathful and contentious ones and all unrighteous persons hath gotten the Letter to talk of or discourse of though in the Ale-house or Tipling-house but this Ministry works no Reformation only hath the Form and leads into the Form and denies the Life and Power which is neither to be bought nor sould for money so from such we turn away who come by the will of Man are approved by the will of Man and are upheld by the will of Man and not by the will of God And their Call and Ministry we deny which is mediate and formal imitation and the invention of Man and so meer delusion and this is the cause why the Land so overflowes with iniquity and all manner of ungodliness and no better Reformation wrought amongst them their Ministry is so dark and dead and cold and yet the Land full of Teachers and yet the People lost for want of Teaching Jer. 23.29 30 31 32. and so they spend their money for that which is not bread and their labour for that which profiteth not Isa 35.2 But who can witness an immediate Call by God from their outward Callings and Countries Lands Livings and Possessions into several Countries to preach the free Gospel as they had received it by the immediate inspiration of the Spirit and speakes it forth as they are moved by the holy Ghost and as the Spirit gives them utterance freely as they have received it freely by which Ministry many are convinced and as they abide in it are converted as many in the Nation can witness to the honour and glory of God who are now New Creatures and this Call we own and witness and this Ministry we own and witness which is immediate and stands in the Will of God and such covets no mans silver nor gold neither could be hired to a
and how then should they be able to sow their Seed and bring forth sin Out of the evil heart proceeds all evil but out of that heart which is throughly Circumcised to love the Lord God wholly evil cannot proceed If Lust be not conceived it cannot bring forth Sin and where the Womb which conceived it is kept dry and barren it cannot conceive again And is not this the Promise of the Gospel That the Womb which was once barren shall be very fruitful and bear abundantly but the other grow feeble and be able to bear no more Oh that People had experience of Gods Power and did believe therein what should stand in the way of it It was Israels sin of old when they looked at their Enemies and saw their footing and strength in the Land which God had promised to Abrahams Seed for an Inheritance they could not believe that they should be overcome O take heed of the same unbelief now Concerning CHRIST Coming to the FATHER by him Receiving him walking in him not in the oldness of the Letter but in the newness of the Spirit and concerning reading the Scriptures aright I am the Way the Truth and the Life No man cometh unto the Father but by me saith Christ John 14.6 MAN in the corrupt degenerate estate is fallen from God hath lost his Image the holy heavenly Image of the Father of Spirits is driven out from his presence dwels in the Land of darkness and confusion under the Government of the Prince of the Power of the Air who rules in and hath power over all the Children of Disobedience Now this should be mans work even to return to the Father to come back out of the prodigal lost state to the Fathers house where there is sufficiency and fulness of true Bread and Water of Life to satisfie every hungry and thirsty Soul The Way whereby a man must come the Truth wherein he must be renewed and the Life wherewith a man must be quickned is Christ the Son of the Living God and he must know him as the Son of the Living God and feel him revealed in him and received by him and so walk in him the Way in him the Truth in him the Life if ever he come to the Father He must not rest in the description of things but feel and know receive and walk in the Thing which by the Spirit of the Lord hath been often formerly and is still described in what words and by what means the Spirit pleaseth But to receive all the descriptions of him that were formerly given forth or all the descriptions that are now given forth that will not do but the Soul that will live by him must receive him and feel the ingrafting into him the holy Root the living Word of Gods eternal Power and must feel this Word ingrafted into his heart so that there be a real becoming one in nature and Spirit with him And then he is truly in the Vine in the Olive-tree and partakes of the vertue and sap thereof he abiding therein and walking in the Spirit Life and power thereof Now hear a man walks not nor cannot walk in the oldness of the Letter but in the newness of the Spirit only Paul notwithstanding all his knowledge of the Scriptures walked but in the oldness of the Letter before Christ was revealed in him And those in the Apostles dayes who had got the form of godliness but turned from and denied the power they walked but in the oldness of the Letter Yea the Church of Sardis for the most part and the Church of Laodicea who had received the right order and ordinances and the true descriptions of things and though they were full and rich and wanted nothing they walked but according to the oldness of the Letter and not in the newness and power of the Spirit of Life But alas how far are many who pretend to Christ in this day from this state who never came so far as to walk in the oldness of the Letter from a true understanding thereof but have only learned and continued to walk in the oldness of their own apprehensions and conceivings upon the Letter Can these in this state possibly understand Truth or know the inward spiritual precious appearances thereof either in their own hearts or others Surely no. Why so Why this is the reason because the measure the appearances of Truth either in themselves or others by their own old apprehension and conceivings upon Scriptures concerning Truth which is not the proper measure of it Now all such are yet in darkness let them pretend what they will and grow never so high in knowlerg exercises and experiences after this manner and so the best zealousest and most knowing of them in this state are but blind leaders of the blind and thus going on shall most certainly fall into the Ditch of perdition O that men could feel that which makes rightly sensible and might lay it to heart For no man can confess Christ how then can he receive him and walk in him but by the holy Spirit And he that knoweth not the Spirit rightly knoweth not Christ rightly and he that doth not know him rightly doth not confess him rightly and none can know him rightly but by the revelation of the Father inwardly The mistery must be opened within or there is no true knowing The mistery of deceit is discovered within and the mistery of Life is discovered within also And though the heart of man in the unregenerate estate is deceitfull above all things and despeartely wicked and no man of himself can search or know it yet that is not the state of the true Jsraelites whom God hath cleansed and taught to deny themselves daily but they have boldness before that God who hath searched them and removed from them the iniquities which he found therein Yea whoever witnesseth Christ revealed within shall find him revealed within for this very end to destroy the works of the Devil there and he is a powerfull Saviour of the Soul from sin and a powerfull Destroyer of the works of the Devil within Now concerning reading the Scriptures mind this It is said of the Jews that when they read Moses or in reading the Old Testament the vail was upon their heart which vail is done away in Christ 2 Cor. 3.14 15. O consider seriously is the vail done away from thee Dost thou read the Scriptures with the unvailed eye dost thou read in the Anointing in Christs Spirit in the pure heavenly Wisdom of the divine Birth It was promised of old that God would take away the face of the covering cast over all people and the vail spread over all Nations Dost thou witness this Promise fulfilled to thee dost thou know the difference between reading the Scriptures with the vail on thee and with the vail off Are the Scriptures opened and unlocked to thee by the key of David so that thou readest and understandest them in the Light
and Demonstration of Gods holy Spirit or is thy own understanding and will at work of it self in searching into the Scriptures If the wrong birth the wrong wisdom the wrong understanding be at work it can gather but that which will feed and strengthen it self and if thou beest not in Christ and dost not read in Christ the vail is not taken away from thee for the vail is only done away in him but thou readest and walkest in the oldness of thy apprehensions upon the Letter and not in the newness of the Spirit and so knowest neither the Scriptures nor the Power of God what ever thou professest to men or dreamest concernning thy self For it is no other indeed Thy knowledge thy apprehensions thy faith thy hope thy peace thy joy being out of the compass of the pure living Truth in which the Substance the vertue the kernel of all is comprised and comprehended for ever are but as so many dreams O that men that are any whit tender and have any sincere desires in them towards the Lord could read that one Scripture Psal 43.3 4. sensible and experimentally O send out thy Light and thy Truth let them lead me let them bring me unto thy holy Hill and to thy Tabernacles what did not David know how to go to the Hiâ—l and Tabernacles of God without a particular sending forth of Light and Truth from God to lead him thither Then may men go unto the Altar of God unto God their exceeding joy and witness his Hill and House their dwelling-place when God by his Light and Truth sent forth from him into them leads them thither The Scriptures are words whose chief end drift and service is to bring men to the Word from which the Scriptures came And when men are there then they are in the Life of the Scriptures and witness the fulfilling of the Scriptures even the executing of the righteous judgments of God upon that spirit mind and nature in them which is contrary to his image and the fulfilling of the Promises and sure Mercies which belong to Christ the Seed and to them who are gathered into and abide in Christ the Seed Here 's the Covenant the new Covenant That which is said or those things which are said concerning the Covenant in the Scriptures are but descriptions of the new Covenant but Christ within the Hope of glory the Spirit within the Fear within the Power of Life within breaking down and reigning over the power of sin and death so that the Lord is served in the dominion and power of his own Life in righteousness and holiness before him out of the fear of sin and death all the dayes of our lives so that captivity can lead captive nor break the Souls peace no more nay not so much as make afraid those that keep their Habitation on Gods holy Mountain here is the Covenant indeed the strength and vertue whereof is witnessed in the Soul as the Soul feels the power of Life revealed in it and is made subject by the power to Christ who reigns in righteousness love mercy and Peace in the hearts of those whom he redeems out of the earthly nature and spirit up to the Mind and Spirit of his Father And here the Psalms Hymns and spiritual Songs the pure Songs the Song of Moses the Song of the Lamb are sung to the Father of Spirits to the Redeemer of Israel which never were sung nor can be sung in any part of Babylon but all those Songs are but Dreames of the night which will be turned into howling and bitter lamentation when the whore that which hath whored from God and is not in the wisdom of his Spirit what ever she may pretend is stripped and the nakedness of her Profession and Religion with all her Duties and Ordinances as she calls them made manifest Concerning the GOSPEL MINISTRATION IF the Gospel be not a Ministration of Words or Letters but of the Spirit Life and Power and if it was the intent of God that men should not stick in Word or Testimonies concerning the things but come to the thing it self and live in the Sons Life and Power and feel the Son living in them Then they are greatly mistaken who think to gather a Rule to themselves out of the Testimonies and Declarations of things in the Scriptures and do not wait upon the Lord to receive the Spirit it self to become their Rule Guide and Way For these are all one The Truth is the Way The Truth which lives and abides in the heart where it is received and entertained is the Way the Rule is the Guide For God is one There are many names but the thing is one The Life the Power the Wisdom in the Father Son and Spirit is all one yea they themselves are one Perfectly one not at all devided or separated but where the Father is the Son is and where the Son is the Spirit is and where the Spirit is there is both the Father and the Son who tabernacle in man in the day of the Gospel And where these are there that is which is to be preferred before all words which was afore them and is in Nature Spirit and Glory above them He that hath the Son hath Life even the Life Eternal which the words testifie of He that hath the Son hath him which is true and he that is in the Son is in him that is true and abiding there cannot be deceived but he that is not there is deceived let him apprehend and gather out of the Scriptures what he can O how is God glorified and how is Redemption and real Salvation of the Soul witnessed in this dispised Dispensation of Truth which God hath held forth in these latter dayes Blessed be the Name of the Lord who hath hid this pure dispensation of Life from the eye of the prudent worldly wise part in every man revealing it only to the babish simplicity which is of his Son and which lives in him and by him Concerning Christs being manifested without and His being also manifested within and how both are owned by them that know the Truth IT is objected against us who are called Quakers That we deny Christ and look not to be saved by him as he was manifested without us but look only to be saved by Christ in us To which this is in my heart to answer to such as singly desire satisfaction therein We do indeed expect to be saved yea and not only so but do already in our several measures witness Salvation by the revelation and operation of the Life of Christ within us yet not without relation to what he did without us For all that he did in that Body of Flesh was of the Father and had its place and service in the Will and according to the Counsel of the Father But the knowledg and beliefe of that since the dayes of the Apostles hath been very much held in the unrighteousness and in the separation
deny before his Father in Heaven O I beseech you do not trifle about these things for they are exceeding weighty lest ye perish from the way for missing of the Saviour ye must needs also miss of the Salvation O that ye knew your state as God knows it to be and as it is certainly known and felt in the measure of his Life and holy Spirit by those whom God hath gathered together and whose eyes he hath opened and preserveth open there Glory be to his Name therefore Yea Glory Glory Glory and everlasting Praises be sung to him throughout all the holy Land ye in the very heights of Sion by the Souls of the Redeemed from henceforth and for evermore Amen whose Mercy Love Grace Wisdom Power and rich Goodness remaineth and endureth for ever by and in which the Redeemed live to his Praise who have overcome by the Blood of the Lamb whose Blood they know what it is and none else knoweth it but they who feel the sprinkling and virtue of it Lo this is our God we have waited for him and how can we but be glad and rejoyce in his Salvation O let all that live by the breath of thy Power and drink of thy Streams sing praise unto Thee and exalt thy great and wonderful Name for ever and ever A brief Testimony for Truth by Tho. Tayler I Shall add somewhat of the Testimony which is written in my heart by the finger of Gods Spirit concerning the People called Quakers Indeed they have met with many reproaches and sore oppositions many wayes since they were a People but notwithstanding all their Bow abides in strength and the hands of their arms have been made strong against the wicked one with all his devices in his several kinds of instruments and their Light is still the same and their God the same who blesseth them from day to day even in the midst of all the revilings slanders persecutions and curses which they have met with from men without and in the midst of all the temptations inward trials and afflictions also which are often met with inwardly Yea we know him to be our God and cannot but trust him having found him to be faithfull to us hitherto and knowing his nature to be such that he cannot but continue his loving-kindness and faithfulness to all who are gathered by him in to his holy inward spiritual Covenant of Life and Peace and who dwells with him therein And truly we are fully satisfied and at rest in him and cannot desire another then he who hath redeemed our Souls from death given us Life brought us out of the Pit wherein was no water into a large place set our feet upon a rock a rock indeed and establisheth our goings in the path of holyness working all our works in us and for us by his Spirit and Power Yea we have the Witness in our hearts even the Witness which never erred nor can deceive which testifieth to and with our spirits our Sonship so that we do not imagine our selves sons from apprehensions upon Scriptures but we feel our selves sons in the true sensibleness and know who David is and reap and inherit the sure mercies of David daily O blessed be our Father O blessed for ever be the Father of Life who feeds who nourishes who waters Who refreshes with the Bread of Life and with the pure living water his Lambs his Babes his plants his tender ones of whom he is daily tender and who are daily tender of his Name and Honour And if any man preach another God then he who creates anew in the true Light and therein puts forth his arm of Salvation Death and Destruction and the Curse are his portion from the hand of the Lord. THE Conclusion GLorious was the Estate of the Church before the Apostacy for Purity of Doctrine for holy Order and Discipline for Love to God one to another and to all men even of Enemies for Faith in God for the Presence and Power of his Spirit among them insomuch as the unbeliever coming among them might find his heart and state reached to and be forced to confess and report that God was in them of a truth for singleness and uprightnesse of Heart meekness and innocency of Spirit and Conversation for zeal for God and his Truth suffering the spoiling of their Goods Imprisonments Stripes and many other wayes both from the Heathen and also from the professing Jews who had been the Church once O what shall I say concerning the beauty and loveliness of that State Ye that would know it O wait to feel it in that which giveth the true sence of it But over this glorious State came a dark thick corrupt night wherein the Kernel was lost and the Shell defaced wherein the House which had been swept and garnished became again recovered and possessed by the wicked spirit And how great hath this darkness been O what a kind of Church hath appeared in the World wherein the spirit of Enmity hath dwelt and acted in men under the Name of Christianity So that instead of loving and seeking the good of Enemies they are ready to rend and tear one another for every little difference and will be Lords over mens Faith requiring men to Practice things in Religeon before the Spirit of the Lord teacheth them so to do which the Apostles did not For though they had from God the express knowledge of what was Truth and could certainly instruct and build men up therein yet they were not Lords over mens Faith but if men were otherwise minded then according to what they knew and taught they could wait and bear with them bidding them walk so far as they had attained and God in his due time would reveal the rest also O that men were come to this Spirit again Then they would be Christians indeed and then they might be known to be Christs Disciples by their loving the Brethren and fellow-Disciples But without this love mens Religion is but as a tinkling Cimbal making a noise and sound of somewhat but not having the true Nature or Virtue of Religion in it Now will it not be a glorious Day when the Spirit of the Lord cleanseth away this thick darkness and causeth the Light of his pure Truth to arise and appear again Why there is such a Day to be wherein the true Church which was reproached and driven into the Wilderness is to come out of the Wilderness again and her Witnesses stand on their feet again and her Seed to spring up in the Power of Life following the Lamb who marcheth on fighting with the Sword of the Spirit the words of his mouth conquering and to conqeur thereby the corrupted Antichristian World even as he did at first the corrupt Heathenish World The Lord will purifie his Temple and cleanse the World by the Plagues of his Angels which he hath prepared making way for the beauty of his Truth and the Church of his gathering wherein he
such are a terror to evil-doers and for the praise and encouragement of those that do well and such bear not the Sword in vain but stand in the Will of God which is cross to their own wills and they Rule for God and not for themselves and this Government is of God and not of Man nor after the will of Man neither takes hold of any tender Conscience nor oppresses it but stands in the place where it is set and some such Magistrates there hath been in the Northern parts of this Nation who witness the Law of God set up in their hearts and feared God and hated covetousness and testified against those who did not and so corrupt Magistrates sought to put them out so let all who are single-hearted judge who are destructive to true Magistracy and Government Concerning SUPERIORITY and HONOUR BREEDING and MANNERS also of the Word THOU to any single Person In the beginning when God made Man he made him to be Lord over all creatures Gen. 1.26 27 28. but not man to be Lord over man Yet he was to be servant of God and when he had disobeyed the command of God God spoke to Adam and Adam spoke to him and God thoued Adam and Adam thoued him and here was the plain language betwixt God and Adam And when God appeared to Moses in the Bush God thoued Moses and Moses thoued him and this was the plain language which ever passed betwixt God and his people in all Ages and thou that disdains to be thoued would exalt thy self above God who thous God in thy formall prayers and scornes to take it thy self therefore thou must come down as Lucifer did but it is Lucifer in thee that is exalted who must not be honoured but must be cast down into the pit and it is he who is head in man who would be honoured and would be superior and would be above God and calls this Manners and Breeding to bow to him and honour him and he hath vented wayes whereby he is honoured and exalted aâ—d worshipped and he calls this Manners and Breeding and who can honour him the most and exalt him the highest those he saith is the best bred and of the best breeding and those he calls Noblemen and Gentilmen and the other he calls Yeomen and common People and Inferioâ—rs though they all honour him but they observe it not so much as the other but their mindes is more set upon the Earth and Earâ—hly things to get wealth and riches and those he calls providenâ— carefull people but he that seeks preferment in the world and would be exalted and set up seek to get his breeding in as excellent manner as he can that so he may get in favour with Lucifer that sits in the Courts and high Places and so long as he pleases Lucifer he will set him up but both he and Lucifer must be cast down into the pit together Obad. 3 4. and here is the ground of the worlds Superiority Nobility Gentility Honour Breeding and Manners and here they Lord over one another by their corrupt wills and here is the ground of all Tyranny and Oppression Rackings and Taxings and Wars and Imprisonments and Envy and Murder and the Persecutions of the righteous all arises from proud Lucifer the Lust in man who would be honoured and all this is in the Fall and under the Curse but Mordechai could not bow to him in Haman and therefore he sought to destroy him and informed the King against him and all the Jewes in the Nation and said they were a scattered people and â—heir Lawes were diverse from all people neither did they observe the Law of the King then he set up a paire of Gallows for Mordechai Esth 6.1 2. but Haman was hanged on his own Gallows and is cast down to nothing and Mordechai is exalted in his stead so there is a time that Mordechai is despised and Haman exalted and there is a time that Haman is cast down and Mordehcai exalted and there is a time that Esau reignes over Jacob and there is a time that the Elder serves the Younger Gen 25.3 and there is a time that Pharoah rules and oppresses the Israelites but there is a time of Israels deliverance and Pharoah drowned in the Sea Exod. 11.9 So there is a time that Antichrist sits in the Temple of God as God and saith he is God 2 Thes 2.4 and Christ lyeth low in the Manger but there is a time that he must be cast into the Pit Rev. 19. and Christ alone exalted He that can receive it let him But in all Ages the children of God could not bow to Lucifer nor his Image and this was the cause why Shadrach Mesech and Abednego was cast into the fiery Furnace Dan. 6. and this was the cause why Daniel was cast into the Lyons den but by the hand of his God whom he alone worshipped and honoured he was delivered and exalted and his Adversaries cast down in his place and this was the cause why the Prophets were alwayes persecuted and imprisoned and the Apostles Acts 7. vers 6. who came to turn the World upside down And this is the cause now why the Ministers and Messengers of Jesus Christ are imprisoned stoned stocked whipped and shamefully entreated whom the Lord is pleased immediately to call from their outward Callings and Countries and sends them abroad into seveâ—al Countries to preach his Name no more after the flesh but after the Spirit and who knows him must know him no more after the flesh but after the Spirit And those come to turn the World upside down being crucified to the World and the World to them and these cannot honor Lucifer nor bow to Lucifer nor worship his Image though there was a time when they did but that was done in Egypt when they knew not God but now Lucifer and his Image is cast down and Christ alone exalted and the pure and perfect Law is witnessed which respects no mans person but God alone honoured and exalted and this we witness For amongst us there are no Superiours after the flesh but Christ is the Head and all the rest fellow-servants And he that would be the greatest should be the least and he that respects persons commits sin And the Angel would not suffer John to bow to him but said he was his fellow-servant and this we witness who are redeemed out of the Kingdom of the Devil from amongst the Children of this World into the Kingdom of the Son who are crucified to the world and the world to us by the Spiritual Cross of Christ in which we joy and glory amongst whom there is no partiallity nor respect of persons but all in union in one though ten thousand and here God alone is King and he alone is honoured exalted and worshipped no more after the flesh but after the Spirit for we have no other God in whom our hearts delight and here proud
Lucifer and his Image is cast out and here all his honour is thrown down and his breeding and manners and fashions and customs and words and wayes and worships which are after the flesh and not after the Spirit whereby he sets up himself and causeth his Image to be worshipped and this is the cause he rages in his Kingdom wheresoever we come and saith we are destructive to all Superiority and Magistracy and Ministry and Honour and Breeding and Manners and turn the world upside down for he knowes where Christ comes he comes to take his Kingdom from him and cast him down into the pit and there he must be tormented quick and all who bears his Image or his Mark and these are some of his marks which he calls Nobility Gentility Honour Breeding Manners and Civility But true Nobility we own the Seed of God is noble wheresoever it is born up and who can witness to the head of the Serpent bruised and the Seed of God born up to reign and rule there is true Nobility there is true Gentillity no more after the flesh but after the Spirit and this is to be honoured for honour is due to this both in Magistrate or Minister Fisherman or Plow-man Heards-man or Shepherd wheresoever it rules without respect of persons and hear fear to whom fear and honour to whom honour and this is no more after the flesh but after the Spirit And here all the true Prophets of God were Noblemen and Gentlemen sprung of the Noble Seed though of the Nobles and Great ones of the Earth they were disdaind and reproached because according to the world they were of lower degree some of them Plow-men some Heards-men some Shepherds and therefore they persecuted them and destroyed them yet they were gentile and bore all Christ was Noble sprang of the Noble Seed though of the Great ones and Nobles of the Earth he was disdained reproached and scorned to be the King of the Jewes because according to the World he was of low degree and supposed to be a Carpenters Son so they spit upon him and disdained him and crucified him yet he was gentile and bore all The Apostles were Noble sprung of the Noble Seed though of the Nobles and Great ones of the Earth they were despised and disdained and reproached because according to the World they were of low degree some of them Fisher-men and the like and came to turn the World upside down so they were despised pâ—asecuted and killed yet they were gentile and bore all But those were all noble sprung of the noble seed and so is all now who are of the same seed and those were all gentile sprung of the gentile seed and those have the nature but not the name and to those belong the true honour not after the flesh but after the Spirit Acts 7 for they denyed the honour of the World and therefore Christ said I receive not honour from men and said to his Apostles Be yee not called Masters neither call any Master upon the earth and though the Princes of this world exercise dominion one over another yet it shall not be so amongst you but he that would be the greatest amongst you let him be your servant Mat. 23.8 9 10 11. and said he How can ye believe which receive honour one of another and seek not the honour that cometh from God onely John 5.44 and here the true honour is no more after the flesh but after the Spirit and here you who are giving and receiving outside earthly honour you are in the unbelief out of the doctrine of Christ cringing and bowing and honouring and exalting the Devil and worshipping the Beast and his Image which all the world wonders after and worships Rev. 13. And as for Manners and Breeding Courtesie and Civility Learn to do us you would have all to do to you and speak every one truth to his neighbour And let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth but such us is good for the use of edifying for evil communication corrupts good manners but let your yea be yea and nay be nay for whatsoever is more is evil Mat. 7.12 Ezek. 8.16 and breed your Children so and here is good Manners and Breeding Curtesie and Civility and who are of the right noble Seed hath this Manners and this Breeding but the Nobles and Great ones of the Earth want this Manners and this Breeding and both Priest and People of all sorts according to the World And here is the ground of all true Nobility Gentility Majesty Honour Breeding Manners Courtesie and Civility no more after the flesh but after the Spirit for the natural man mindes natural things and the spiritual man spiritual things but the natural man receives not the things of God and this we own and witness and the time is coming and now is that before this Seed every knee shall bow and every tongue confess and the Kings and Nobles of the Earth shall be bound in chaines and fetters of Iron and here is also the ground of the Nobility Gentility Superiority Honour Breeding and Manners of the world which is after the flesh but not after the Spirit sprung from proud Lucifer the lust that reigns in man and are not yea and nay but calls it manners to say nay and take it or do it and so they have the name but not the nature and so are Bastards and no Sons who are not sprung from the noble gentile seed and to those Honour is not due neither can we bow unto them for if we should we should set the Devil in the room of God and give unto him that which is due to God which when we were in blindnesse through ignorance we did and so worship the Beast and his Image which all the world worships and wonders after for they that are proud and lofty which is the Image of the Devil for the Devil is the Father of Pride and in gay attire those the world worships and wonders after and extols and exalts into high places but since the Lord hath opened our eyes this we cannot do but testifies against it wheresoever we come both in words and actions and so we are destructive to the worlds Superiority Nobility Gentility Honour Breeding and Manners which is after the flesh and not after the Spirit therefore the Devil hates us in the Nobles and great ones of the world but we give unto Caesar the things that are Caesar and unto God that which is Gods Mat. 22.21 but we cannot give unto Caesar that which is Gods but fear to whom fear honour to whom honour is due He that hath an eare to hear let him hear and understand For saith the Lord if I be a Master where is my fear If I be a Father where is my honor Mal. 1.6 Concerning the Word THOU or THEE First concerning the word thou or thee which all those which are their Priests and Teachers knows