nor stood in his Counsel therefore have they not profitted the people nor turned them from the evil of their wayes neither are they brought to the knowledge of the Truth by which Freedom and Redemption is witnessed So their Preaching is vain and their Faith is vain and they remain in their sins which separates them from God and are dead while they live and are unrestored and unreconciled and have no assurance of their eternal wel-being And when any comes into a serious Consideration and unto a true sence of the sad state they are in and how they have lived and spent their time all their Life long Then Judgment and Wrath Condemnation and Pangs and the Sorrows of Hell conpasseth them about and then seeing themselves in the perishing state are even at their wits end yet these things they consider not in the time of their prosperity Wherefore all people every where who desire to come out of these Distractions and Confusions and Hurryings and Contentions about Faith and Worship and Ordinances and out of the Pollutions which the World lives in and to come into the Spiritual Worship which is in the Spirit and in the Truth To you I say that is the Spirit of Truth in you all in which God will be worshipped which reproves you of sin in your hearts and as you come into obedience to that it will bring you into the Spiritual Worship For the Spiritual Worship consisteth in Obedience to the Spirit and this is the everlasting Ordinance of God viz. Christ the Light the quickening Spirit for him hath God ordained of old to all that believe and work Righteousness for Salvation So all being exercised in the Light and with the quickning Spirit here you are exercised in the Ordinance of God and here the living Substance is known in which the Shadows Types and Figures end And here the Hand-writing of Ordinances is blotted out And here the Law ends which was contained in Ordinances mark that in Christ the everlasting Ordinance Concerning FAITH ANd the Living FAITH which gives the Saints victory over the World this cometh by hearing of the Word which is nigh unto you all even in your hearts and in your mouthes and as every one comes to hear and obey it you will thereby be begotten in the Faith which was once delivered to the Saints by which they wrought Righteousness and that is the Faith which giveth victory over the World and which worketh by love for the purifying of the Conscience from dead works to serve the living God and without this Faith it is impossible to please God for whatsoever is not of Faith is sin So search your selves and see whether you are in this Faith yea or nay or whether your Faith be not a dead Faith For that which doth not lead to work righteousness is a dead faith for as the body without the spirit is dead so faith without works is dead also yet by works only there is none justified and faith without works is dead for the Faith of Abraham wrought with works and by works Faith is made perfect So let not any deceive themselves with a fained faith or framed in the imagination for that is a vain faith and not able to save you Also beware that your Faith towards God be not taught by the Precepts of men for that will stand you in no stead neither will it give you victory over the Pollutions of the World nor purifie your hearts from sin Wherefore mind the Word which is nigh by the hearing of which Faith cometh even the Living Faith by which the Just live which was once delivered to the Saints and which we earnestly content for Concerning HOPE ANd the living Hope which maketh not ashamed but puryfieth the heart even as God is pure This is not witnessed nor known but through the tribulation patience in the experimental working and operation of the Spirit of Life in the inward parts and Word of Life For by the Word of God which lives and abides for ever are we begotten again unto a lively Hope which we have for an anchor both sure and stedfast in all our Tryals and tossings and hurryings which we meet withal in the World and amongst the hypocritical Professors thereof whose Hope will perish in the day when the Wrath of God is revealed from Heaven upon all who hold the Truth in unrighteousness But he whose Hope is begotten by the operation of the Word and Spirit of Life even he it is that purifies himself even as God is pure So all who desire the Way of Life to knowe and to walk in the Path of Peace which the Worker of Iniquity knows not I say unto you all it is in the midst of the Paths of Judgment which Christ the Light the wisdom of God leads unto So every one the light in your own Consciences minde wherewith Christ Jesus the Son of the Fathers love hath enlightened you and as you Wait in it you will finde it checking and reproving you for sin and iniquity in the secret of your hearts and Consciences and as every one comes to be guided by this Light which is the way it will be an infallible guide unto you to lead you in the way of Righteousness and in the midst of the paths of Judgment and the worker of iniquity you will see judged in your own particulars daily and the Prince of this World will come to be cast out as you dwell in the Judgment and this is the way whereby Sion comes to be redeemed Wherefore dwell in that which judgeth the man of sin in your own particulars and joyn not to that Nature which would lead to work iniquity or unrighteousness but joyn to that which in your own particulars judgeth it and here the Cross you will know which the whole World are Strangers to and then the Old man will come to be weakened and to be put off with his deeds that the New man be put on which is created in Righteousness and true Holiness but this work is not wrought nor effected but though many Combats Trials and great Tribulations which formerly you were not acquainted with while you were lead captive at the Devils will and followed his lusts and the strong man armed kept the house then all was at peace but when the stronger is come the other must be bound and a spoil of his goods must be made and his heritage must be laid waste for the coming of the second Adam Christ Jesus the Light of the World is not to send Peace on Earth but a Sword and then you will hear of Wars and rumors of Wars see then that ye be not troubled for these are but the beginning of sorrow but the end is not yet So as every one are exercised with the Spirit of Truth in your own particulars which reproves you of sin this will lead you into all truth and to work Righteousness and will bring you to fulfil the Royal Law and
will take hold on them and the Sorrows of Death shall compass them about even as before they were deliver'd from their former Troubles and so they will bring themselves under the heavy Yoak of Bondage again and the Countenance of the Lord will be hid from them and a Cloud of Darkness will come over them and Misery will be their Portion from the Lord God who is the Joy of the Righteous and the Rewarder of all who obey him and out of this Condition it will be hard to be removed and to be restor'd again into the Favour of the Lord. And so my dear Friends Prize your Peace with him above all things visible and so walk as that you may be preserved therein And wait upon him in the Gift which you have received from God and you will feel his Everlasting Blessings to flow in upon you and his Mercies and Loving-kindnesses will be renewed unto you Morning by Morning whereby you will be aboundantly refreshed and be kept living unto the Lord and a daily growth you will witness from Strength to Strength and from one Degree of Grace unto another until you appear before the Lord in Sion in compleat Beauty and perfect Holiness And so as you in Patience wait upon the Lord and walk before him in his Covenant of Grace and dwell in his Pure Holy Power and be subject thereunto in all its Leadings and Requirings then you will see the Lord pleading your Cause in the Hearts of your Enemies and working your enlargement and Liberty by his own secret Hand of Power by which he will turn back the powers of Darkness and remove the Seat of Violence and will exalt his own Kingdom and Righteousness in the Earth and Oppression shall be far away for this is his Decree and Determination and those that rise up against him in this day of his Appearance or oppose him in his Work such shall be scattered by the Breath of his Mouth even as Chaff is scattered before the Wind And then shall the Righteous rejoyce and be glad in the God of their Salvation And so you will see that all these Tryals and Sufferings which shall come upon any of you shall work for your everlasting Good and for the Glory of the Lord and shall make for the furtherance of the Glorious Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ who is the Captain of our Salvation and was made perfect through Suffering and is now set upon his Throne at the Right-Hand of the Father to judge the World in Righteousness to whose Scepter and Dominion all Powers Thrones and Dominions must bow and bend and become subject for the Mouth of the Lord hath spoken it And therefore let none faint in their minds because of the present Rage of the Adversary but look unto him who lifts up the Head above the Raging Waves of the Sea and you will see him to arise who will rebuke the Rage of the Devourer and will cause a great Calm And so my dearly beloved Friends Keep in the Covenant of Peace and Life and feel the pure Power of the Lord God Almighty to bound you and compass you about and feel your Unity and Fellowship in it with the Lord and one with another and watch over one another in Love and build up one another in your Most Holy Faith so will you have dominion over the World and come to know the Earth to be your Foot-stool and so in and through him who hath manifested his eternal Love in you you will be more than Conquerors even through his eternal Power who subdueth all thing unto himself that he may Raign over all whose right it is and unto whom the Kingdom doth belong and unto him be Glory and living Obedience for ever Amen And so the Lord God of Power and Love be amongst you all and fill you with his Love and Power that so you may be kept out of the Snares of the Evil One for that hath oft been the Breathing of my Soul for you in secret and that you may walk before him in the Purity of his holy Spirit and be kept unspotted from the World And so in the Bowels of our Lord Jesus Christ do I most dearly and tenderly salute you all who are of the Family of my Father and of the Houshold of Faith and the God of Love and Peace be with you all Barbadoes this third Mon. 1661. I am your Dear Brother in the Patient Long-Suffering Spirit of our Lord and Master and a Traveller for the Redemption of the Oppressed Seed Josiah Coale To the Called of God Every where who are Witnesses of the Eternal Excellency of the SON of RIGHTEOUSNESS Who is now appear'd in his Majesty and Glory in this Day of the FATHER'S LOVE to the Children of Men. The Fourth general EPISTLE MY Dear and Everlastingly well beloved Friends Brethren and Sisters with whom in the Covenant of Life and Kingdom of Peace Glory and Eternal Felicity my soul rests and is at Peace and perfect Freedom where the Glorious Presence of the God of Life who is Jacob's Shepherd is enjoyed and is known to be an open Fountain daily administring of his Heavenly Rich Vertue and Goodness to the consolating and refreshing of our Immortal Souls so that we have no need to complain of Poverty because he who is the Fountain of all Good is continually with us and never ceases to administer into his own according to their several Necessities as in his pure Fear and Power they wait upon him and walk before him And this I know many of you are not unsensible of for whom a Feast of Fat Things is prepared and a Table richly deckt is spread before you where every hungry one may feed and be refreshed and the Breast of Consolation is also known at which every Babe may suck and be satisfied and so all having access unto this you may here be delighted with the aboundance of the Treasure of my Father's Heavenly Kingdom the Windows whereof being now open'd a Blessing is poured forth without measure Oh! that all who profess the Name of the Lord were throughly sensible of this thing then would their souls with us delight in Fatness and their hearts would be enlarged thereby so that they would find Encouragement to run the Way of his Commandements even with Delight and nothing would be counted too dear to part withal for his sake who hath call'd us and is bringing many Sons and Daughters unto Glory and Vertue Wherefore my dearly beloved Friends be ye encouraged to walk on in the Way of the Lord though it be strait to the Earthly Man and be ye content to pass through Evil-Report and Good-Report and let him be your Example in all things who when he was reviled he reviled not again and when he suffered he threatned not but committed it to him who judgeth Righteously as a Lamb before the Shearer is Dumb so he open'd not his Mouth Therefore I say Friends Let none be
he would Pray the Father and he should send them the Holy Ghost the Conforter John 16.7 13. Which should ABIDE with them for ever and they did receive it and were led by it into a Heavenly Habitation Ephes 1.3 For they were made to sit together in Heavenly Places in Christ Jesus So it s hereby clear that the Apostles knew from whence the Spirit came and whither it led them and it s also plain that A. S. either wilfully or sottishly wrests the Words of Christ and by his additious to them would make them import another thing than was intended by him of purpose to divert People from being led by the Spirit of God or to disswade them from adhering to the leadings of it under pretence that they cannot tell whence from God or the Devil it doth come or whither to Heaven or to Hell it goeth when indeed Christ's words in themselves importeth quite another thing as above shewed Wherefore let all mind and obey the Spirit of Truth which will lead into all Truth and condemn sin in the Flesh and will lead out of all Unrighteousness and Errours and Heresies which the Church of Rome is full of and that Spirit which condemns the Abominations of the Whore and all Sin and Unrighteousness that is the Spirit of God and comes from God through the Son of his love who is the Light of the World that lighteth every man that cometh into the World and leadeth up unto God the Father from whence it commeth all who are Taught and Guided by it but condemneth from God all who in Unbelief or in Rebellion do dispight unto it and disobey the Motions thereof But to return to the matter concerning the Churches being Judge First I find A. S. in the beginning of his seventh chapter saying Methinks I hear a Quaker whispering The Light that is in thee is the Judge of all Controversies and the Law and Rule according to which thou must walk Answ I answer Yea The People called Quakers do believe and say That the Light which every man is enlightened with is the Law and Rule according to which every man ought to walk and is the Judge in all Controversies in Matters of Faith for as before All Judgment is committed unto the Son Joh. 5.22 Who lighteth every man that cometh into the World so all Judgment being committed to the Light that lighteth every man the Light that is in every man must of necessity be the Judge of all Controversies And this I further add That all who are Baptized into Christ hath put on Christ and all who are by one Spirit Baptized into one Body though they were sometimes Darkness are made Light in the Lord and so they being in him and he in them are all one even as Christ and the Father is one and he that sanctifieth and they that are Sanctified are all of one by which its clear that Christ in his Church who is Light with him is the onely Judge of all Controversies and indeed this supernatural Light is the true Touch-stone by which all spitits may be tried whether they be of God or not for as the Apostle said Whatsoever makes manifest is light Ephesians 5.13 so that without this Touchstone none can try spirits because an evil spirit may speak good words Again Christ is in all things to be the Example of all Believers and he lighteth every man that cometh into the World John 1.9 so every man being enlightened with the light of his Spirit who is to be our example in all things it must of necessity be that the Light that is in us is this Judge and the Law and Rule according to which all ought to walk Secondly But then A. S. replyes That the Light that is in thee tells thee that thou must hear Christ and Christ tells thee that thou must hear the Church c. Answ I answer Yea the Light that is in us teacheth us to hear Christ who hath enlightened us and also to hear his Church with whom he dwells and that hears him and in whom his Spirit speaks so as I said before I shall not go about to deny the Authority of the True Church but the usurped authority of the Church of Rome I do deny usurp'd I say because she hath been and here is sufficiently proved not to be the true Church to whom Christ gives power and authority both to bind and to loose therefore her authority if usurp'd and she is not to be heard but to be turned away from Thirdly A. S. saith If you object that the Spiritual judgeth all things and the Spirituall is judged of no man I answer that the godly Spiritual judgeth all things c. But I deny that you or any other Sectaries in the World is Godly Spiritual for as St. Augustine saith they have not the Holy Ghost that are out of the Church Reply To which I say that as A. S. hath confessed That the spiritual man judgeth all things its according to my own belief but what doth this avail the Church of Rome who as I have proved is not godly spiritual but is sensual and devilish and is not the true Church but the Whore for although as he saith The godly spiritual is judged of none yet the Whore is judged of all who are godly spiritual and although A.S. denyeth that the Quakers are godly spiritual yet he is never able to prove his affirmation for though they have not the holy Ghost who are out of the Church yet it doth not follow that they have it not who are out of the Church of Rome except she could be proved to be the true Church The contrary whereof I have already proved for the people called Quakers though they are out of the Church of Rome are led by that Spirit which teacheth them to live soberly righteously and godly in this present World as thousands of their Neighbours can bear witness therefore the people called Quakers are godly Spiritual Again That Prophet which is of God is godly spiritual Jer. 28.9 and that Prophet which speaketh a thing and the thing come to pass that Prophet is of God But the people called Quakers have prophesied several things as to the late overturn'd Powers of this Nation * Witness the Book Intituled Good Counsel and Advice Rejected with divers other things which accordingly came to pass as to their sorrow they were made to know therefore they are of God and godly spiritual Fourthly A. S. again said If you say Know ye not your selves how that Jesus Christ is in you except ye be Reprobates 2. Cor. 13.5 I answer The true sence and meaning of this place is this c So here A. S. is again undertaking that which himself saith is the Churches work for saith he in his eighth Chapter the Church is the alone Interpreter of all Scriptures and yet he himself who is but a particular man is here undertaking to give an interpretation or meaning to the
forementioned Scripture by which it is plain that he condemns himself in the things he is doing 5. Again Fifthly he saith That the Spirit of God saith Hear the Church but the spirit of the Devil contradicts and saith Hear not the Church but Christ alone for of Christ saith he it s written This is my beloved Son him hear ye behold the Devil pleads for Christ of purpose to deceive Christions c. Answ To which I answer That I think I need not say much to convince all that reads but A. S. his own words that he is either grosly ignorant or else abominably wilful and wicked for who can believe that the Devil will plead for Christ or perswade people to hear Christ and disswade them from hearing of the Church certainly if he would perswade people to hear the greater he would not disswade them from hearing the lesser And how can people possibly be deceived that hears Christ and obeys him I cannot believe that its the spirit of the Devil that perswades people to hear Christ but rather that its the drawings of the Spirit of the Father that invites them to come unto the Son and to hear him for Christ said None cometh unto me except my Father who hath sent me draw him Joh. 6.44 But A. S. contrariwise in effect saith That the Devil draws people to come unto Christ and to hear him By which he hath manifestly shewed that he is of a contrary spirit unto Christ Therefore A. S. is an Antichrist and one that puts Light for darkness and darkness for light against whom the woe is pronounced Isa 5.20 And although A. S. so much pleads for the Church whom I know all will hear that hears Christ yet upon serious consideration I find its of purpose to deceive Christians and so he hath shewed himself as bad as the Devil he speaks of being found doing the same work of which he seems to accuse the Devil for in his sixth Chapter I find him as afore declared in effect perswading people Not to adhere to the motions of the Spirit of Christ under pretence that they cannot tell whence from God or the Devil it comes or whither to Heaven or Hell it goeth c. And as above he is again perswading people That its a dangerous thing to hear that Spirit that invites them to hear Christ calling it the Devil because it doth not invite them to hear the Church of Rome also But I never read or heard before that any spirit did invite people to hear Christ but the Spirit of the Father and his Spirit said This is my beloved Son him hear ye Mat. 17.5 Therefore that Spirit that invites people to hear the Son of God is not the Devil but the Spirit of the Father and ought to be heard and obeyed by all Sixtly Again S. A. affirmeth that the Spirit of God saith That Carpenters Smiths Masons and other Tradesmen must not meddle with Ecclesiastical things as to Preach or Teach c. But saith he the evil spirit affirmeth the quite contrary by perswading them they may all prophesie one by one But alas then saith A. S. He deceiveth for that place is understood of the real and True Prophets of whose number all the Devils in Hell cannot prove all Tradesmen to be Answ Here A. S. seems to oppose that which for my part I know none affirms for who is there that saith all Tradesmen have the Spirit of Prophesie I know none Yet although all Tradesmen have it not it doth not therefore follow that no Tradesmen have it neither did I ever read that the Spirit of God did forbid Tradesmen to meddle with those things nor doth that Scripture which A. S. quotes confirm any such thing which he affirmes but rather the contrary And we do read in the Scriptures of Truth that Christ did call some of several Tradesmen to Teach the Way of God and to Preach the everlasting Gospel witness St Peter a Fisher-man St Paul a Tent-maker with divers others that might be mentioned so that though all Tradesmen have not the Spirit of Prophesie yet we see that some had and they were not forbidden but commanded to Preach and Teach and therefore they who have the Testimony of Jesus which is the Spirit of Prophesie although they be Tradesmen they may Preach and Teach according to the Gift thereof received for the Apostle said Every one as he hath received the Gift of the Spirit so let him administer 1 Pet. 4.10 Seventhly And saith A. S. the Apostle said Women must not speak in the Church but the Devil saith they may For the Scripture averreth saith he That your Sons and Daughters shall Prophesie this Devil deceiveth the Women-Quakers But alas that Scripture was fulfilled in the Apostles and in the true Prophetesses in their times as Anna Luke 2.28 and now is in such as have the True Spirit of Prophesie which Quakers Wives and Daughters can never prove themselves to have Answ Here A. S. hath confessed that there was Prophetesses in the Apostles dayes and that there now is at this day also and the Apostle spake of Women that were helpers with him in the Gospel Phil. 4.3 So then its undeniable that Women did speak and Prophesie and now may though the Apostles did not Permit Busie-bodies and Tattlers to be asking Questions in the Church but said they should ask their Husbands at Home So the thing disputable is whether or no Quakers Wives and Daughters have the true Spirit of Prophesie concerning which I say this The Testimony of Jesus is the Spirit of Prophesie and many Wives and Daughters of the people called Quakers have received the Testimony of Jesus and knows the Life of Jesus manifested in them as by their fruits of Love Meekness Gentleness Patience Long-suffering c. which are fruits of the Spirit doth appear unto those who have a knowledg of them Therefore they have the Spirit of Prophesie And further several of the Wives and Daughters amongst the people called Quakers have Prophesied of the desolation of the great Whore the Church of Rome and when that comes to pass it will be thereby proved that they have the true Spirit of Prophesie and then shall every Tongue confess to it and in the mean time let none speak evil of the things they know not lest they be found fighters against God Eightly Again A. S. saith That the good Spirit saith It is a Religious Act to Swear by God in a Just Cause but the Evil-spirit contradicts for it s written saith he Sware not at all Behold the Puritanism of this impure spirit but alas he deludeth for God expresly commands Jer. 4.2 Thou shalt Swear the Lord liveth in Truth in Judgment and in justice c. Answ I answer although in the Law and Prophets people were commanded to Swear in Truth and Righteousness and to perform their Oaths to the Lord yet Christ the new Covnant whom God promised should not be according to the
all sufferings for these things last but for a moment and will pass away and be forgotten as they had not been and are not worthy to be compared to the glory that is to be revealed in them who abide faithful for their reward will be everlasting and will endure for ever wherefore above all have an eye unto the Lord and have respect unto the recompence of reward and this will carry you through with chearfulness so that nothing will be dear unto you for his sake who hath shed abroad his rich Love in your hearts and the aboundings thereof I question not but the upright in heart feel daily For the Lord is not slack towards any of his faithful ones but is free and large in his Love and rich in his Mercies and freely extends it even as a River into the hearts of his chosen wherefore be replenished therewith you suffering Plants for this I testifie unto you in the Name of the Lord that the vertue of the Life of Holiness I thus hold forth freely towards you so that none needs faint under the Oppressor but may receive renewedness of strengh to bear yet a season And behold he in whom you have believed will be avenged on your Adversaries and will smite your Enemies in the hinder parts and they shall fall and none shall help them neither shall they rise again If you walk humbly with the Lord and reverence him above all who is the God of Life then shall you have rest from all your Enemies and your Portion shall be the Lord and your Kingdom shall be that which is not of this World which is an everlasting Kingdom and shall never have end So the Lord God of my Life keep you all in Lowliness and Faithfulness and true Humility before him for he who is the Holy One of Israel dwells with such and unto them his goodness extends but especially to them of a clean heart Farewel Written at the movings of the Spirit of the Lord the Eighth day of the Third Moneth 1662 as I was travelling in the Wilderness as without on Long-Island in America and pondering in my heart the things of God and his dealings in times past and also present then the Spirit of the Lord and the Power of the Lord overshadowed me and his glory filled the Temple and be shewed me things not now lawful to be declared J. C. To all who desire to know the Way to the Kingdom of Peace and Righteousness this to you is the Visitation of God THat which was in the beginning before the World was and is now made manifest which we have seen and which we have tasted of and which our hands have handled of the Word of Life and that which is revealed to us in secret of the Spirit of the Lord that do we declare openly even that which we are eye Witnesses of For the Word hath took flesh and dwelt amongst us and we have beheld his glory as the glory of the only begotten of the Father full of Grace and Truth And this is he who is appeared in Spirit and made manifest for this end that the works of the Devil might be destroyed and that by and through him the God of the spirits of all flesh might be revealed for want of whose knowledge the people perish and many in divers parts of the World as I have observed are in great perplexity and some even at their wits end because of the distractions and many cries that are in the World some crying this is the way and other some that is the way and all of them from the Light of the Son of God in their own hearts and Consciences which leads in the way of Life and Peace all who are guided by it and out of all confusion and destruction about Religion and Church-Ordinance and worship and such things about which the World is in heaps and confusion and are prescribing wayes and worships in their own fallen wisdom and would compel all to conform thereunto and so 〈◊〉 bind the Conscience of people to their wills which ought to be left unto the Lord to be exercised by his Power in matters of Worship and Obedience towards him and his Prerogative is to Rule there So that people must either disobey God or the Laws of corrupt fallen Man and whether is better judge ye And this is sad to see and consider because there hath been for so many Years by past so much preaching and so much profession of Liberty of Conscience and the like and that by men of all Professions as they have come into Authority one after another and many and seeming fair Promises have been made by them all that free Liberty of Conscience in things relating to God should be granted and allowed to people of all sorts for the breach of which Engagements with many other divers have already been rooted out and overturned and yet thereby men have not taken warning though besides warnings have oft been given them in render love to perform their Promises and Engagements in these things and all other though much consisteth therein as to their Establishment and on the contrary to their Ruination Neither have they Learned to give the same Liberty to others in things relating to the Conscience as themselves would desire to have and this is not to do as they would be done unto And therein they are short of fulfilling the Royal Law of God Wherefore let all people who are making Laws to compel mens Conscience consider how they are degenerated from God and how darkness hath covered them and hardness of heart hath seized on them so that they cannot have regard unto tender Consciences but in the pride of their hearts would be Lords over the Consciences of others Surely they are not guided by the same Spirit that the Apostle was in the primitive times who said Let every man be fully preswaded in his own Conscience and this was true Liberty of Conscience And notwithstanding all the Profession that there hath been and yet are in the World and the Talk of God and Christ and Redemption and Salvation by him yet now when the Son of God is come is there faith to be found on Earth or are people Redeemed from the Earth or saved from the pollutions of the World I tell you nay for all who err from the Light of the Son of God in them they are in the Alination and Degeneration and are strangers unto God and his Covenant of Peace and Reprobate concerning that Faith which gives the Saints victory over the World and so are drove out into the Earth not redeemed from it but are Bond-slaves to corruption and live in the pollutions of the World And in this state the whole World lyeth notwithstanding all their Profession and talk of Religion which is amongst them and so their fruits plainly manifest it and thereby it is clearly seen that their Teachers were not sent of the Lord neither have they had his Word
Jesus yet it doth not follow according to the sequel of the major that the Scriptures the Faith in Christ Jesus being left out as J. N. hath done are a Perfect Rule for all men to walk by and none other because it s through that Faith which is in Christ Jesus that they are able to make wise c. which Faith he makes no mention of in his Assumption and Conclusion that they are a Perfect Rule c. by which the Falaciousness of his Argument appears And indeed its necessary that all should understand how the Scriptures are able to make wise unto Salvation through Faith c. for the Scriptures here spoken of and which Christ spoke of when he said Ye search the Scriptures c. cannot be otherwise understood then the Scriptures of the old Testament because the other was not then written And those Scriptures of the Prophets were they that testified of Christ who is the great Salvation of God And God said by the Prophet He had given him a Covenant of Light to lighten the Gentiles to be for Salvation to the Ends of the Earth And the Prophets likewise shewed the time when and the place where this Messiah should be born and brought forth in that Body which was prepar'd for him in which old Simeon beheld the Salvation to wit The Light of the Gentiles and the Glory of Israel so that the Scriptures of the Prophets containing in them so many clear and infallible Testimonies of the great Salvation of God and of the time and place of the Appearance thereof they were able through Faith in Christ to make him wise or to give an Understanding that he was the great Salvation of God that was then appear'd according to the Testimonies of the Prophets which from a Child he had known And so on this wise coming to the Knowledge of the great Salvation of God by Faith in him he in the same Faith did doubtless follow him as a Sheep that knew his Voice that so he might receive Life Eternal which he gives to his Followers and become an Heir of that Salvation which through Faith in Christ he was made wise unto and so coming as a Sheep to be a Follower of the true Shepherd he own'd him for his only Guide and his Spirit as the only Zule to walk by and to speak by whose Preaching was thereby even with words that it self taught 1 Cor. 2.13 And this is that Perfect Rule which cannot be corrupted as the Scriptures may as J.N. confesseth and so cannot be said to be a Perfect Rule if corrupted And indeed J.N. is one that greatly corrupts them as he states them thinking thereby to prove them a Perfect Rule even as before shewed The next Argument to prove Scriptures a perfect Rule is That if the Scriptures be given by Inspiration and are profitable for Doctrine for Correction for Instruction in Righteousness that the Man of God may be perfect throughly furnished unto all Good Works then the Scriptures are an Absolute and a Perfect Rule for all men to walk by and none other but the Scriptures are c. therefore c Answ That the Scriptures though not all Scriptures were given by Inspiration of God I shall grant and that they are profitable as aforesaid I shall acknowledge but that they are therefore an absolute and a perfect Rule for all men to walk by and none other as J.N. affirmeth that I do not acknowledge but deny because that may be profitable to man in order to the persecting of him to all Good Works which may not be an absolute and perfect Rule for him to walk by and none other as for instance One man may be profitable to another in teaching and instructing of him by the Spirit of the Lord to walk in the Light and Spirit of the Son of God which the Father hath sent into the Heart that so by that Spirit and the Power of it he may be able to deny all Unrighteousness and be furnished thereby perfectly to perform all Good Wooks herein I say one man may be profitable to another and yet it cannot therefore be said That that man who is so profitable c. is an absolute and perfect Rule for all men to walk by and no other for it were ridiculous so that although the Scriptures be profitable as aforesaid it doth not at all follow as J. N. concludeth that they are therefore a Perfect Rule and no other But that Word Light or Spirit of Truth in the inward parts from whence the Scriptures proceeded and which by the Scriptures we are instructed to walk in to hear and obey which cannot be corrupted as the Scriptures may that is the alone absolute and perfect Rule all men ought to walk by and none other as saith the Scripture Nehemiah 9.20 I gave them my Good Spirit to instruct them And this is that Rule or Leader which Christ directeth to Even the Spirit of Truth which will lead into all Truth Joh. 16.13 the same the Apostle directeth to saying Walk in the Spirit and you shall not fulfil the Lusts of the Flesh Mark What more Perfect Rule can be then that which keeps from the fulfilling the Lusts which bring forth sin for if the Lusts be not obey'd and fulfilled the sin is not acted therefore said the Apostle He that abideth in him sinneth not by all which it appears that J.N. hath not proved that the Scriptures are a Perfect Rule and none other Neither do the Scriptures any where testifie of themselves as a Perfect Rule excluding all other But frequently bear Testimony unto that one antient standing RULE which was from rhe beginning from which the Scriptures were given forth and which they direct unto Again saith J. N. pag. 26. For further Confirmation of this Truth I shall add some few Arguments more that the New Testament Way is a Perfect Rule for all men to walk by and none other Answ This wholly alters the Case for it is not the New Testament Way being a Perfect Rule c. that we are contending against neither will his proving the new Testament Way to be a perfect Rule at all prove the Scriptures to be a perfect Rule except he could first prove the Scriptures to be the New Testament Way which he is never able to do for it s declared in the Scriptures called the New Testament That Christ who is God's Covenant of Light said I am the Way the Truth and the Life Joh. 14.6 Abide in me c. cap. 15.4 And my Sheep bear my Voyce and they follow me and I give to them Eternal Life Joh. 10.27 28. Another New Testament Way or Perfect Rule then this for men to walk in and by I no where read of in the Scripture of Truth but this Way as the New and Living Way which leads to the Holiest of all is frequently borne witness of in the Scriptures which as before I have said contain many Testimonies concerning this Just
primative Christians were taught as by a standing Rule according to which they walked And by which through Faith they were saved as the Apostle testified Eph. 2.8 though many turned from this Grace into Wantonness and did dispite to the Spirit thereof as they do at this day And those are they that Rebel against the Light wherewith every one is enlightned and labours to render it insufficient to save not considering that this is that Grace that hath appeared to all and by which they were saved and which God said unto Paul was Sufficient for him and so they trample under foot that blood of the everlasting Covenant which is Drink indeed by which they that walk in the Light are clensed from all sin But then he saith in page 68. There is an Objection brought against him from 2 Cor. 5. where Paul saith Though he had known Christ after the Flesh yet henceforth know I him so no more But in page 70. he saith The Apostle is so far from denying to know Christ in a Body of Flesh though Glorified that he doth affirm the same to the Church of the Ephesians Eph. 5.30 where he saith We are Flesh of his Flesh and Bone of his Bone but saith he the Apostle did not intend to know Christ in the Flesh attended with all those Infirmities as he was subject to in his suffering Estate Answ If by the Body of Flesh that Christ had he means the Church which the Apostle speaks of which was the Body of which Christ the Power and Word was Head and they Members of then I am one with him for his having that Body after his Ascention I never denyed nor intend to do so but that Body could not be call'd the Saviour for Christ was the Saviour of that Body of which they were Members was yet on Earth And the Apostle was not without expectation of the same Sufferings in measure to attend Christ in those Members of his Body as had attended him before for in Col. 1.24 he saith thus Who now Rejoyce in my Suffering for you and fill up that which is behind of the Afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his Body's sake which is the Church by which it appears that Afflictions did still attend those Members of Christ's Body who as J. N. confesseth was Flesh of his Flesh and Bone of his Bone And such a Body we own Christ had after his Ascension and still hath though not free as yet from suffering Afflictions yet his Body shall be fashioned like unto his glorious Body which is not so confined as he vainly imagins they were Flesh of his Flesh c. This doth not in the least prove that Christ is not in man but rather the contrary for can it be rationally concluded that he should be at a distance from the Members of his own Body No certainly If the Body be divided from the Head it is no more a perfect Body but dead Members So that Christ the Head the Quickening Spirit having men to be Members of his Body of his Flesh and of his Bone we may rationally conclude if we had no other Evidence That he is not at a distance from his Body but present with them and therefore in them as himself said Joh. 14.17 He is with you and shall be in you And in verse 20. At that day you shall know that I am in my Father Mark in the Bosom of the Father and you in me and I in you Well Reader There are many things remaining in this Book of J. N's concerning Christ's being in man and also out of him to which an Answer might be return'd to manifest his Ignorance and Confusion which for brevity-sake I shall omit for it would fill too large a Volumn to publish to the World at this time especially because those same things have been answer'd by us again again yet I cannot well but observe some few things more that his Confusion and Opposing of himself may further appear Concerning the Spirit 's Guidance IN pag. 84. speaking of the Spirit being given to the Saints he saith It is of the same Beeing of the Father and Son and also of the same Nature Power and Tendency of both And in pag. 54. he said ' That Spirit is God Answ If the Spirit given to the Saints be of the same Beeing of the Father and Son as J. N. in this place truly affirmeth then it is of the same Substance of the Father and Son for the same Beeing is the same Substance and the same Substance or Beeing is not divided into several Beeings therefore if the Spirit which is of the same Beeing of the Father and Son be in man then the Father and Son is according to the measure thereof in men also And herein J. N. hath contradicted his own sayings in pag. 78. where he tells us of a distinct Beeing of God and Christ out of all men For if a part of the same Beeing of them be in man how can it rationally be concluded that they are a distinct Beeing from their own Beeing in Man Mark Reader I would not be mistaken but rightly understood in this matter it being a matter of the greatest weight and moment I do not oppose the Beeing of God and Christ out of man in the highest Heavens nor in the lowest Hell because Infinite and Incorruptible but his so being distinct as to exclude his Nature and Presence from man thereby denying his In-dwelling is the thing which I oppose and which J. N. hath confounded himself about because the Beeing of God who is a Spirit and Christ who is the Quickening Spirit cannot be divided and J. N. in pag. 62. also saith Christ cannot be divided And the Spirit of God which is in man being of the same Beeing or Substance with the Father and Son All which is that Infinite Beeing or Substance which the Heaven of Heavens cannot contain it cannot be said they have not a Beeing in man but a measure of the same Beeing or Substance which is not divided ought as properly to said in man as in the highest Heavens And this is that God who is Light 1 Joh. 1.5 who is in all through all and over all blessed forever whom the World by wisdom can never attain to the knowledg of Again If the Spirit be God as J. N. in pag. 54. affirms which is certainly true because God is a Spirit and the Spirit be in the Saints and in Man leading into his most holy Will as J. N. also confesseth in pag. 77 84. Then how can it be said That God that fills Heaven and Earth who is a Spirit dwells not in man as he elsewhere saith Unless he will conclude the Spirit of God to be divided into several Beeings which cannot be therefore his Beeing is not only afar off but near at hand even in man but that lofty One that dwells in the high and holy place is known also with him that is poor c. and his
Delight is with the Sons of men Again If the Spirit in the Saints be as J. N. to the wounding of his own Cause saith of the same nature tendency and power with the Father and Son then there is a sufficient Saviour in man for the Tendency of the Son is to save as J.N. himself I dare say will acknowledge and his Nature is to save which was the end of his coming and he is of power to save For all Power in Heaven and Earth is given to the Son and the Nature of the Father is to save as I have befor shewed out of the Prophets therefore the Spirit that is given into the hearts of People which reproves them for sin being of the same nature power and tendence with the Father and Son is sufficient to save else it cannot be said to be of the same nature tendency and power so that none need go far or look to the Hills and Mountains for a Saviour but look unto him that is nigh who is of power to save even to the Light or Grace that hath appear'd as a Reprover of the deeds of Darkness and this will lead into all Truth and save out of all Unrighteousness and unto them that walk here in Christ the Light not after the Motions of the Flesh but after the Leadings of the Spirit there will be no Condemnation And although this God who is Light and is a Spirit be a God afar off also as being that Infinite Incomprehensible Fulness that fills all things yet all that can be known of him by any man is manifested within man Rom. 1.19 And thus the Confusions and Contractions of J. N. appears who thereby declares that he hath not the knowledg of Christ nor of God to exercise his Faith in nor yet doth he keep to Scripture neither to exercise his Faith therein but is seen and discovered to have his mind and his Faith exercised in Fancies and Imaginations which is the cause of his thus contradicting himself of his affirming so many Absurdities and Blasphemies without sound reason or Scripture Arguments sometimes dividing Christ and his Spirit and sometimes acknowledging them to be of one and the same beeing and sometimes joyn the Spirit and Scriptures and arguing that they cannot be separated and the reasons he gives is because the Scriptures are the givings forth of the Spirit and yet notwithstanding will say Christ hath a distinct beeing from his Spirit which is of his givings forth and thus as fancy leads him he affirms things as in Page 43. he saith If Scripture be denyed to be the Word of God it maketh void the exercise of Faith for Faith must be exercised in the Scriptures or else upon fancy and imagination and in Page 73. he saith if there be no personal beeing of Christ then there is no Christ to exercise Faith in so by this kind of Arguments of J. N. if Faith be exercised in a personal being of Christ it s exercised upon fancy and imagination which is very true for a personal beeing of Christ is not Scripture and he saith Faith must be exercised in Scripture or else upon fancy and imagination But the truth is he cannot tell what the true Faith is nor what it is exercised in sometimes Scripture is the only thing and another while a personal beeing of Christ and what will it be next but even what his Fancy and Imaginations bring forth which he appears full of like one that knows not Christ the Power of God manifested in him who is the Author of true Faith or the begetter thereof and is also the object thereof in which it is exercised and in whom it stands whom all must hear that receive the true Faith which is the victory that overcometh the World and which giveth access unto God in which Faith there is Peace and Joy unspeakable and full of Glory Again in Page 87. mentioning that Scripture which seems as a Block in his way which I perceive he would fain remove Gal. 4.19 till Christ be formed in you and therefore gives this meaning viz. This forming of Christ in the Saints was but to bring them forth into a Gospel-Purity c. this is his Interpretation of that Scripture and a very favorable one too but whereby should they be brought forth into a Gospel Purity Was it not by the Spirit 's operation that was in them which they received by the hearing of Faith Gal. 3.2 which J. N. acknowledged to be of the same beeing of the Father and the Son If so then was not Christ according to Measure who fills all things really in them who hath diversity of operations who came for judgment and to send Fire on the Earth and were they not to be brought forth into that Gospel Purity that J. N. speaks of by his Spirit of judgment and of burning which they had received who came for judgment and to send Fire seeing God signified by his Prophet that the Filth of the Daughter of Sion should be purged away with the Spirit of judgment and of burning Isa 4.4 and this was that Spirit by which the Saints were washed cleansed sanctified and justified when the Apostle told them they were so in the Name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God 1 Cor. 6.11 and they that were thus washed and brought forth into this Gospel Purity they were made a Habitation for God who as J. N. Confesseth is that Spirit even through the Spirit 's operations which is of the same Being or Substance with Christ so that the filth being purged away there was room for him to dwell there and so was really in them formed and they brought forth in his own Image by his own operation with whom the Apostles were Co-workers and therefore travelled for this forming of Christ in them or for the subjecting them in the Faith wholly unto Christ's Goverment that he might raign in them over all who is God Blessed forever One thing more which I find in the close of his Book which he entitules A Caution to all I cannot well pass by with silence where he saith Seeing God has cast us into a day wherein there is such a spirit running too and fro in this Nation that will seemingly own Truth and yet will draw all into a Mystery within man denying Truth according to Truth 's Intent let us therefore labour with our God for his blessed Spirit to guide us into all Truth Answ Mark Reader Is it contrary to Truth 's intent to own the Truth to be a Mystery within man Doth not God love to have Truth manifested in the inward parts Is not Christ the Truth which the Apostle declared to be the Mystery within saying Christ in you the Hope of Glory How then can it be said That that Spirit that owns Truth to be a Mystery within does not own it according to Truth 's intent Surely J. N. hath besotted his Understanding else he would not thus speak
things were honest and of Good Report and by which the Truth might have been adorn'd how readily would you have been made conformable thereunto though you had deny'd your selves therein And then how did the Blessings of God with Peace and Unity one with another abound amongst you Well I hope and doubt not but that you are still like-minded in the same thing many of you and that you have the same Consolation abounding amongst you But if any be otherwise-minded I would have such know that the Truth is of the same worth as ever it was and of as great price with all who really walk therein as ever it was esteem'd by such and this God shall reveal unto them in his Day And if any retain not their first Love Zeal and Fervency but walk disorderly and not according to the Truth of the Gospel which was preached unto you by us in the beginning I say if we or any other shall walk amongst you not according to that Holy Order of the Gospel by which it may be adorn'd and shall refuse the Admonition of the Spirit of Meekness to be humbled for his disorderly walking have no Fellowship with such a one but let him be accounted as a Heathen and a Publican unto you that God may deal with him for his Iniquity according to his Deserts Yet nevertheless against an Elder receive not an Accusation except it be by the Mouthes of two or three Witnesses that nothing be done but that which may tend to the Edification of all and not to the Destruction of any And farther my Friends If any amongst you shall walk not as becomes the Gospel of Christ nor according to that savoury holy Order that the Truth hath led and doth lead into but by any unsavoury Actions or Motions whatsoever shall vary from the Simplicity and Purity of the Truth yet let not that become a Stumbling-Block unto any nor cause any to fall from the Faith which you have receiv'd and through which you have obtain'd Remission of Sins and Immortal Life For the Unfaithfulness or disorderly walking of some will not be a sufficient Excuse for others in the Day of the Lord when they are called to an account but every one who have tasted of the Power and Love of God and have receiv'd the Gift of his Spirit be faithful thereunto that you may improve your Tallent which is committed to you For every one must give an account for himself unto God and none can excuse you before him therefore I say Look not at the Haltings of others though it should be such who have seem'd to be as Pillers nor think to make that a Plea or an Excuse to decline from the Purity of the Holy Way of the Lord for although that may serve for an Argument amongst men yet that will not serve when God shall come to plead with such before whom all Hearts are open and all things naked and bare and he will give to every one a just Reward according to their Deeds Wherefore I say Let every one have an Eye unto the Lord in all things and mind their own state and how it stands betwixt them and the Lord and that will keep them from looking-out and consulting about the state of others who may vary from the Purity of the Truth for hereby the occasion of stumbling comes unto many But rather let the halting of such be as Dreadful Examples unto you to take Warning by that so you may be kept in Fear and Faithfulness in Watchfulness and Diligence lest you fall into the same Temptation and Snare of the Devil For my Friends Whither can any go to find Life Immortal Consolation and Satisfaction to their Souls if they should forsake the precious Truth of which we have born testimony in the Life and Demonstration of God's Spirit amongst you and through which many of you have found Rest to your Souls after many long and sore Travels Truly there is not another thing that can add unto your everlasting Consolation if once any of you should vary or slip aside from that And this I hope and doubt not but that many or most of you are perswaded and satisfied in Therefore continue therein and therein be unanimous in your Service and Obedience unto the Lord that by him his Good Spirit and Word of Grace you may be established forever And as concerning the state of Marriages You know the comely Order of the Church in the primitive Times before the Apostacy began and how the Apostle said If any be called being Married let him nor seek to be loosed nay though he or she had an Unbelieving Wife or Husband but let the Husband render due Benevolence to the Wife and likewise the Wife to the Husband And further By Commission from God he said Let not the Wife depart from her Husband And so say I unto you in the Name and Fear of the Lord Let none give place in the least to that spirit that would beget Inclinations in the Wife or Husband to depart one from another but let every man have his own Wife and every woman her own Husband For whatsoever Pretence or Covering that spirit that would separate them may come under yet it is a spirit of Fornication and it will lead out of the comely Order into the Disorder and into the Defilements and Pollutions of the World and into a Pit and a Snare And for such things sake the Wrath of God will be reveal'd and he will make such Examples of his Vengeance For as the Apostle said The Wife is bound by the Law so long as her Husband liveth and if she depart from him and Marry another Man she is an Adulteress and a Transgressor of the Law And therefore my dear Friends as I said before In that comely Order in which you may adorn the Gospel and be kept in Favour with the Lord and in Unity and Fellowship one with another in his Spirit of Life let all walk together and in your places and stations where the Lord hath set you and order'd you therein abide with him having the Loins of your Minds girt about with the Truth it self and be zealous for the Honour thereof and keep stedfast therein with the Lord in Fear and Faithfulnes in Fervency and Simplicity all being Examples one to another of Chastity and Holiness and Godliness of Conversation that you may also be as Lights unto the World answering the Witness of God in all that none may have any thing against you nor whereof to accuse you but only concerning your Obedience to the Law of your God then will you have strong Consolation in the Lord and great Boldness and Confidence towards him and also in the sight of all men and the Lord will encrease your Spiritual Substance and will also enlarge your Borders by daily adding to your Number such as shall be saved And so the Everlasting God keep you all and be with and amongst you and cause the plentious
Lord and with the Eye of Faith look over all Tribulations unto him that is invisible who will out-last them all and will be with you in them and through them all and also when they shall be no more For certainly Friends God hath determin'd by and through these things to exalt his Kingdom and to get himself a Name in the Earth above every Name that every Knee may bow and every Tongue confess thereunto unto his Praise and Glory And he hath highly Honour'd us in that he hath been pleased to make choice of us and to accept of us to appear on his behalf and by Sufferings to contend for his Cause and to bear Testimony in the Life of his Spirit against all Idolatry and superstitious Inventions which have gotten up in the dark Night of Apostacy for he hath put the spiritual Weapon into our hands by the which the spiritual Wickednesses that are in High Places and the strong Holds of Iniquity must be beat down and in vain do the Inhabitants of the Earth Combine or take Counsel together to stop or limit this Work of God which he hath begun and is carrying on amongst us For he will certainly in the end be too hard for them and they must and shall assuredly fall before him as their Predecessors did in times past who oppos'd his Appearance in our Fore-fathers the Lord hath spoken it And no Weapons that 's form'd by them or that they shall Form shall ever prosper or prevail so as to accomplish their Decree for God hath said it Wherefore my Friends With one Heart with one Mind and with one Spirit serve ye the Lord in newness of Life and continue the Assembling of your selves together in his Fear to wait upon him even as if these did not at all attend you And none be Slack or Backward in your TESTIMONY herein for fear of Sufferings lest hereby you do not only purchase the Displeasure of the LORD against your selves but also weaken the hand of others and thereby obtain'd the greater Condemnation But remember what happen'd to the Fearful and Unbelieving Spies who weaken'd the Hands of Israel of old that they could not enter the promised Land for these things were written for our learning that we should not tempt God as they tempted him and were destroy'd of the Destroyer For certainly Friends this I have long seen and sometimes declared also that if any to whom the Visitation of God's Love hath reached and who are now call'd to bear Witness to the Name of the Lord by assembling themselves together to wait upon him and to worship him in Spirit and have been perswaded in their Consciences by the Light of his Son that it was their Duty so to do I say if such for fear of Suffering for their Testimony therein shall forsake the Assembling of themselves together as the manner of some hath been they will certainly bring upon themselves greater Sufferings even from the hands of men and more grievous to be borne then those which for the assembling of our selves together seem now to be threatned except they wholy conform to worship the Image that is made unto the Beast that had a Wound and doth live and if so then as I said before the Lord God will assuredly find such out which will be more heavy and grievous to bear then the rest And therefore let all be Unanimous in your Testimony for the Lord in this day of trying and proving and be a Strength and an Encouragement one unto another in that Gift of the Spirit of God which from him you have receiv'd and you will certainly find and feel the Lord present with you assisting and furnishing of you with all heavenly Vertues which are needful or necessary for you in your present and future Exercises and the Light of his Countenance you will know to shine in your Tabernacle and that is very precious and pleasant and comely to behold And indeed it s that alone which causeth us to walk chearfully through all Tryals and Exercises and we experimentally know that he hath not fail'd us hitherto but hath been alwayes present with us to deliver us out of many Distresses yea and assuredly will deliver us out of all in his own time which hasteneth when the measure of the Sufferings of our Lord and Master are fill'd up in us for we must be throughly try'd and prov'd by Sufferings and thereby be made manifest unto the Nations about us to be the peculiar People of God before the measure of our Sufferings be full And my Friends It is not the Purpose of God by these Storms and Tempests that beat upon the Building of God or by the Sufferings that attend us to suffer his Heritage or Building to be laid waste No but thereby to beat down all False Building and Out-side Possessions and to lay waste the Hills and Barren Mountains upon which the Whore sits and to make her desolate for they by clashing one against another shall be broken one by another or by biting and devouring one another will be destroyed one of another But you my Beloved who keep stedfast with the Lord through these things shall thereby be manifested in the view of all Nations to be the Building of God whose standing is upon the Rock of Ages the Mountain of his Holiness which all Storms nor the Gates of Hell cannot prevail against and thereby he will also exalt his own House where Israel 's Fold is above all the Hills and barren Mountains upon which we were sometime scatter'd and from which we are now gather'd by the Arm and Power of God that so thereunto the gathering of the Nations may be according to his Promise for was it not foreshewen by the Angel of the Lord unto his Servant John in times past That the Horns of the Beast that should make War with the Saints and whom the Saints should overcome should hate the Whore also and make her desolate My Friends Consider this and in Patience and Confidence that he is Faithful that hath promised let us all wait upon the Lord and be resign'd up to be dispos'd of according to the Counsel of his Will and let him work and carry on and prosper his own Work as he sees meet For it s he alone that worketh all our Works for us and in us and he knows what is best for us and of what we stand in need and no Good Thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly And we who are in the Faith know that all things shall work for our good who love him above all therefore let us give up our All unto him and cast our Care upon him who takes care for us whose Wayes are unsearchable and his Judgments past finding out And so my Beloved Friends Keep to and watch the weighty Foundation which stands sure through all Storms and Tempests and walk together in Love and therein serve one another and let none give place to that
spirit which would exercise Lordship over another for that is not the serving Spirit that is to be submitted unto which begetteth into Love Meekness and Gentleness but that spirit will rather beget a Root of Bitterness which may defile many and therefore not to be heeded But the Love being dwelt in which vaunteth not it self nor seeketh its own but anothers good that begets its own likeness and in this you will stir up and provoke one another to Love and to good and charitable Works and then by you the Gospel of God will be adorn'd and you will have his Blessing and Peace in your hearts which is of more Value and greater Price with the Upright in Heart then all the Pleasure of sin or Gain of Oppression And so by your Stedfastness Faithfulness Sincerity and Simplicity in the Truth you will even engage and provoke the Lord to appear on your behalfs and to plead your Cause with your Adversaries and to shorten the dayes of the Wicked for your sakes And so the Almighty God of Love and Peace be with you all and multiply the Riches of his Grace Mercy and Peace unto you all that the Poor in Spirit may be enriched the Weak and Feeble strengthen'd and the Sincere in Heart established and confirmed And unto him alone I do commit and commend you all by whose Power and Love unfeigned I was at this time constrain'd to send this Epistle unto you to stir you up to Faithfulness Diligence and Zeal towards God and for his Cause in which my love towards you and my care for you is manifested in which I also kindly salute you in the Bowels of Christ Jesus whose Life is my Life and whose Love hath filled my heart in which I take my Solace and Rest From the Common Goal in Kendal the place of my Confinement for the Testimony of Jesus and for the Word of God this 18th of the 7th Moneth 1665. Your Dear Brother in the Tribulation Kingdom and Patience of Jesus Josiah Coale An EPISTLE To Friends The First general EPISTLE DEar and Everlastingly beloved Friends Brethren and Sisters whom in God s Holy Covenant and Power of an Endless Life my soul dearly loveth and to whom I am firmly joyned and united with the Spirit of the Living God which he hath sent into our hearts and by which we have been separated from the Wayes and Worships and vain Tradition of the World amongst whom in times past we had our Conversation and walked according to the Lust of Ignorance as other Gentiles did But now being separated from these things by the Power of an Endless Life and being redeem'd therefrom by the precious Blood of the Lamb without Spot And being made choice of to be a peculiar People unto God to serve him in our Generation and to be a Praise unto him therefore now my beloved Friends have Valour and Boldness and Courage every one in your Hearts and have the Loins of your minds girt about with Truth that you may be armed to fight the Lord's Battels and be able to stand in the Evil Day when you shall be tryed And be you found watching every one in the Light and Gift of the Spirit of the Lord God so will not that Day come upon any of you at unawares but you will be found fitted and prepared to with-stand or resist the Evil One in all his Wiles and Appearances so that he shall not touch or harm your precious Life for the Lord Almighty in whom you have believed and in whom our Trust and Confidence is he will renew your Strength and will be a Buckler unto you in the Day of Battel and there will be no Faintness of Heart nor Fear in your Way but the Mighty POWER of God you will feel by which you will be able to tread upon the Necks of your Enemies both within and without and tread Satan under Foot And so my Friends These things in short were in my Heart to write unto you in the full enjoyment of that Love with which you know right well we have oft been refreshed together assuring you all that the same Blessed Presence and Power and Love of God in which I have been amongst you and by which I have been called from amongst you to bear Testimony to the Blessed Name of the Lord by which we are called even to the Nations afar off is still continued with me in which Love this is farther in my Heart to say unto you although you may very well know it already yet that none may grow forgetful that God hath many Wayes to try the Faith of his People both inwardly and outwardly and oft-times suffereth the Enemy to work and exercise his power for that End and the Enemy will work very subtilly if possible to deprive you of your Peace with God But my Friends You keeping in the Power of an Endless Life with which God hath certainly visited you thereby your Understandings will be kept clear and your Hearts open towards God and there all the Wiles and Subtilties of the Enemy will be seen and discovered and he defy'd and rejected and trampled upon in the Eternal Power of God And herein you will be Victorious and Conquerers over all Temptations and over all Assaults of the Wicked one And herein you will have free Access to God and Boldness towards God and you will all meet at the Throne of Grace in the Unity of the Faith in which you will have Acceptance with the Lord. And here will be no Rent nor Division nor Striving of Spirits Nay that must not enter which would have the preheminence over others for that will cause Divisions but that must live in all and over all which will be Servant to all and therein are the Blessings of the Lord enjoyed and his Peace witnessed and he will fill your Hearts with his Love and cause his Heritage to flourish and will make you as a watered Garden whose Springs do not fail And now my Friends Consider what the Lord hath done for you Hath he done so for any other People upon the Earth or did he more for his People in any Age or Generation since the beginning then he hath done for us Or Are any able to speak more of the Wonders of the Lord and of the Greatness of his Work and of the Strangeness of his Act at this Day then we are who are accounted by the Uncircumcised but as the Off-scouring of all things Nay verily And therefore may it be said That us hath he known above all the Families of the Earth And this my Friends may engage all and constrain all to walk worthy of this matchless Love that the same with which he hath reached unto you and visited you may be continued unto you and may abound in you all one towards another that you may all know you are the Children of your Father which is in Heaven and in this you will be as Lights unto the World and as a
worse Suffering upon them and more grievous to be borne then that which now is threatned Wherefore my Dear Friends Partakers of the Heavenly Calling in Christ Jesus Put on Valour and Boldness and Courage for the Cause of God which we are now engaged in and stand fast in that Liberty wherewith Christ our Lord hath made you free and be nothing terrified because of the Rage of the Enemies of God's Truth but whereunto you have already attain'd there abide and hold fast that which you have already receiv'd lest you lose your Crown and keep out of Consultings with flesh and Blood lest you be thereby entangled with the Yoke of Bondage for the Flesh is weak and not willing to bear Sufferings but the Spirit is willing and as it is enclin'd unto and obey'd and follow'd in its Motions and Leadings it makes willing to bear and endure all things and to suffer the loss of all things for the sake of the Lord Jesus rhetefore let none Esau like sell his Birthright for a Mess of Pottage but like Worm Jacob wrestle with the Lord in his own Strength that you may prevail as Princes and obtain the Inheritance incorruptible that never fadeth away which is the earnest Desire and Prayer of him who dearly loves and salutes the whole Flock of God in every Region and Quarter of the Earth London the 29th of the 6th Moneth of the Year 1667. Josiah Coale To the Elect of God Every where Called and Chosen in Christ Jesus before the World and before Transgression was in which the World lies The Salutation of Love Mercy and Peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ The Third general EPISTLE DEartly Beloved Friends Brethren and Sisters For as much as the Almighty Power and Arm of the Lord hath been stretched forth unto you in this Day of his Love by which you have been gather'd out of the dark Paths which the World walks in and have been cleansed from the Polutions and Defilements which many yet lie wallowing in and have been separated from the Abominations of the World by the Word of his Power which sanctifieth unto himself and hath administred unto you an Entrance into that Kingdom which is not of this World and which fades not away where you are made Partakers of the Durable Riches and Everlasting Treasure with which your Hearts have been filled from day to day and from time to time yea manifold hath his Benefits and Mercies and Goodness been unto you and often hath he caused your Cups to overflow so that you could say in your Hearts That you had received your souls Desire and were fully satisfied and your Souls did Bless Magnifie and Praise the Name of the Lord the God of your Salvation who hath done so great things for you even beyond declaring who brought deliverance unto you in the time of great Affliction and Distress when you were compassed about with many Sorrows and saw none to comfort you when you were even in the horrible Pit and saw your selves at a great Distance from your Maker by reason of Sin and Transgression and were in your own eyes even shut up in Darkness and in Obscurity then did the Distressed cry unto the Lord and he heard the Cries and Groanings thereof and was moved with Compassion towards his own Seed and he arose in his mighty Power and stretched forth his Glorious Arm and reached unto his own Elect and thereby brought Deliverance thereunto And so the Oppressed came to be set free and the Distressed to be set at liberty and this was the Day of Glad-tidings unto you and the acceptable Year of the Lord though a Day of Vengeance came upon the Wicked and Ungodly and upon that part which had led your minds astray and to transgress the pure Law and holy Commandment of the Lord And so my Dearly Beloved The Lord having done so great things for you in bringing you out of the Egyptian Darkness and out of the waste howling Wilderness and hath brought you into a Plentiful Land flow-in with Milk and Honey and with the good things thereof hath he satisfied you and aboundantly filled you time after time therefore now rememember and beware that you forget not the Lord nor his wonderous Works but dwell in his eternal Power by which he hath done these things for you and walk in all Humility before him answering the motion of his Pure Holy Spirit by which you are quicken'd unto Life that you may know it continually to remain in you that so by it you may be kept alive unto God And this Spirit may be your Leader and Instructor in all things so will you have the Testimony thereof in your own particulars to bear Witness for you that you are his Children For they only are the Sons of God that are led by his Spirit and they only have the Testimony of it witnessing for them that are faithful Followers thereof and such enjoy Peace and Consolation from the Lord which is more to be valu'd and esteem'd than all things visible for they are perishing and last but for a Moment but the Precious Truth of the Lord of which you are made Partakers that is Everlasting and liveth and abideth forever therefore let that be prized above all things else which in comparison thereof is but as Dross and Dung and so it was in your eye when full the Glory thereof appeared in you And you know full well what you have parted with to purchase the Possession of it Therefore let none sell his Birthright for a Mess of Pottage but let it be forever in your Eye esteem'd above all things under the Son And let not the Subtilty of the Enemy draw any ones Mind into the love of any perishing thing nor into the fear of the Threatnings of Man whose Breath is in his Nostrils but stand in the pure Fear and Dread of the living God and continually set him before your Eyes and beware of entring into Consultations with Flesh and Blood for thereby you may fall into the Snare of the Enemy and be overcome by his Wiles but give up simply and freely to whatsoever you are called to either to do or suffer for his Name 's sake and for his Truth 's sake in your several Places and Callings that so a Faithful Testimony for his Name may be given by every one who makes mention thereof and that professeth his Eternal Truth and of this be assured He will be your exceeding great Reward but if any draw back or hanker in their Minds and through letting in of Slavish Fears deny the Lord who hath purchas'd them unto himself by his own Blood by which he hath cleansed your Hearts that so you might become a fit Habitation for his own Spirit to dwell in I say If any through the fear of Man deny him in any thing that he calls unto then they lose their Reward and lose their Peace with God and the Pangs and Anguish of Heart
why then should not we all be content and willingly submit unto the hand of the Lord whose Fatherly care is over all his And truly Friends though we may say we have suffered long by the afflicting hand of our Enemies and their stroke hath fallen hard upon many of us and that great sufferings and afflictions seem still to attend us yet my Friends blessed be the Lord my heart is not at all troubled at these things neither do thoughts of fear enter because I see the end of the Lord in it And I know it is not contrary but according to the determination of the Almighty that these things are so Yet I dare not but acknowledge that they by whom these sufferings are inflicted upon us do go beyond their bounds and commission and that is the very thing with will break them when they have filled up their measure Wherefore my beloved Brethen be you all like-minded with me in this matter and settle it in your heart to bear all things with patience and contentedness that may yet come upon you for the farther tryal of your Faith and put on Valour and Courage and Boldness and be strong in the Lord in the Power of his Might and be nothing daunted before the face of your Enemies but let them see your courage in the Spirit of the Lamb and in the Wisdom of God For the Lord is assuredly with us and amongst us and will be an Enemy unto our Enemies And what is it makes a people more dreadful and terrible then to have the Presence of the Lord with them and truly Friends this I know from the Lord and this I have receive from God That he will yet make his people a terror to the Nations round about them and they shall come bowing and bending and shall desire to be at League and Covenant with all those who are and abide in Covenant with God because they shall know that God is with us Therefore all my Friends abide in that where you may have and enjoy the presence of the Lord and know it to continue always with you who will be your everlasting Comforter and your Stay and Strength in all states and conditions and you will not be left comfortless by him though you may be yet further tryed and sometimes it may be cast down yet you will not be forsaken that trust in him and repose confidence in him for he will be always with you and will give you of his Counsel and Wisdom by which you will be directed to walk in the path of peace and all occasions of stumbling will be removed out of the way and you will not at all think it strange that the Lord suffereth you so to be tryed for you will see the end and purpose of God therein and so in submission to his Heavenly Will in all things you will have satisfaction peace joy and content But if the reasoning part enter that will soon darken the understanding and vail the life and the Counsel of God will be obscure to thee thou wilt not see the end of the Lord in his thus exercising of thee and then sufferings will be grievous and hard to be born and the Murmurer will get up that will murmur against God and peace will flye from thee and the afflicting hand of God will be upon thee also because of thy unfaithfulness and such a state is worse then his that never knew the way of Truth Wherefore consult not with flesh and blood but in patience continue to the end in will-doing and none to be weary therein but be circumspect and diligent every one in your minds and spirits and watch unto prayer that you enter not into the temptation when it cometh for your Adversary the Devil goeth about like a roaring Lyon and waits to devour and lurks to destroy the precious life and will lose no opportunity that possibly he can get to make an enterance upon you to deprive you of your treasure Wherefore I say Resist him stedfast in the Faith and be you armed with the whole Armour of God that you may be able to withstand him in all his appearances for now he will best in him with all his force might and will make many great oppositions and assaults both within and without if by any means to beguile you as he did Eve in the beginning but as you dwell in him who is the quickning Spirit in him the Devil hath no part neither can he prevail there so in him your safety is from the devourer for he that is begotten of God into this quickning Spirit and therein abides he it is that keepeth himself and that wicked one toucheth him not And so my dear Friends I am full of unfeigned love to you all and my heart is indeed greatly enlarged towards you with the goodness and Love of God which abounds in me and not in me only but in all the Flock of my Fathers Fold who are faithful and upright-hearted to him a table richly deckt he has spread before us in the midst of our Enemies and what could we more desire then the Lord hath done for us and promised to do He hath begotten us unto himself and nourished and brought us up unto this state in which we now stand and this he hath done by his own right hand of power and hath formed us for his praise to be a peculiar people unto himself And now this he requireth of every one That you walk worthy of his Love that it rise not in judgement against any one and that every one answer his requirings and the leadings and drawings of his Spirit so shall his Love continue with you for ever and you shall be as a watered Garden whose springs do not fail So to the Lord do I resign you up and commit you all to the word of his Grace who will preserve you and keep you thereby who trust in him and the almighty Arm of God be amongst you and prosper and perserve you unto his everlasting Kingdom Amen And this was I moved by the Spirit of the Lord to write unto you as a Salutation of my endeared Love unto you and that the things that must shortly come to pass might be signified unto you before-hand and that you may be refreshed thereby And so in the Faith thereof I rest and remain Written at Kingstone upon Thames the 22d of the 7th moneth 1663. and is to go amongst Friends to be read in their Assemblies in the Lord's fear Your Brother in the Patience and Tribulation of the Lamb Josiah Coale POSTSCRIPT ANd Friends not in any wise to forsake the assembling of your selves together in as much as you know the exceeding benefit you have received thereby and you know full well that it was the usual practice of the Servants of God by whom you were begotten into the Truth and instructed therein of whom some remain amongst you unto this day and some are fallen asleep I say
it was their usual manner to exhort you and to stir you up to that obedience of assembling your selves together And when did you meet together to wait upon God and your hearts kept stayed upon him but that you received your expected end Wherefore let the remembrance of these things encourage you to continue in this well-doing while you have a being and Liberty so to do And though there were such in ages past whose manner was to forsake the assembling of themselves together and some such there are at this day also Yet my Friends let not them be your example to walk by but every one to walk as you had and have them for examples amongst you who begat you into the Truth and by whom the Way of Life hath been made known unto you and be ye Followers of them even as they were and are of Christ For this my Friends I say unto you There are some sprung up amongst us who have in effect laboured to disswade Friends from their usual way and manner of meeting and assembling together with whose spirit and proceedings therein we have not unity but must in the Spirit of Christ Jesus the Lamb of God give testimony against them and forewarn you not to receive that spirit which goeth about to divert you from your usual way and manner of assembling together in which you have had the comfort of the presence of the Lord and received the Justification of Life and thereby your growth hath been much added unto So that certainly my Friends that Spirit which would turn you aside from this godly practise of assembliug together is a dangerous spirit and is not of God whatsoever it pretend or though it cover it self with never so fair expressions Wherefore my dear Friends have Salt within you to savour withal and keep your first Love and your first Faith through which you received life eternal and hold fast your first simplicity and your former integrity and gad not abroad to change your ways but meet together in the Name and Fear of the Lord as your wonted manner hath been so shall you find the presence of God with you in your Assemblies as in the days past and his wonted goodness and love you will feel which will warm your hearts and refresh your souls by which you will be kept living unto him and a good sauour and be to the praise of his Name who is God over all blessed for ever Josiah Coale To all the Babes in Christ AND CHILDREN of LIGHT Who are young in the Truth and but of late convinced of it A Tender Salutation and Exhortation MY beloved Friends Babes and Lambs of Christ with whom I have travelled for the bringing forth of the Birth which is immortal and which is the right Heir of the everlasting Kingdom of God and for the redemption and freedom of the Seed which is incorruptible from under the dark power where it hath been held and lain in bondage and in captivity that it might come forth into its freedom and Glorious Liberty to serve the Lord and to sacrifice in Righteousness unto him I say for the Redemption and Freedom thereof have we laboured and travelled together whom the Lord sent forth amongst you in his own Name and Power and Authority and therein and therewith have we reached unto you and the Spirit of Life from God through us hath breathed upon the Slain in you and entred into the Witness and raised the Dead incorruptible and now the Dead being raised in you and the Living True and Faithful Witness being felt by you wait every one that thereby you may come to be changed and wholly translated that you may become wholly a right Seed that as touching your former Conversation the old Man may be put off and you may be wholly made conformable unto the Death and Sufferings of Christ that so you may live with him and live to God through him and that you may be redeemed from the vain Conversation of the World and fashioned according to the working of his Power like unto the Son of God That as you have born the Image of the Earthly and been made conformable unto the Fashions and Customs of this present sinful World so henceforth you may bear the Image of the Heavenly and be made conformable or subject unto the working or operation of the Heavenly Divine Power of God with which he hath reached unto you and visited you that in all things our Lord Christ may be your example who made himself of no Reputation but humbled himself and became obedient unto Death even the Death of the Cross and is sate down at the Right-hand of the Majesty on High making intercession for them that come unto God by him and so is become the Authour of eternal Salvation unto all them that believe and obey him that he in all things may have the preheminence And so my dear Friends as I said unto you let him be your example to walk by of whose Spirit you have received a measure to be a Guide Rule and Counsellour unto you and none vary from the leadings thereof in any wise nor by any means for then you wander or go into darkness and so lose your way of peace and then trouble will come in upon you and desperation will be ready to get up in your minds or contrariwise a spirit of conceitedness will carry away the mind into a motion or profession of the Truth out of the Life of it and will lead thee to talk of former experiences when thou hast lost the thing by and through which thou gainest that experience which thou once hadst and which thou now talkst of and so thou wilt grow into a form and profession of Truth without the power and life of it and this is not a Sacrifice acceptable or agreeable unto the mind of God but contrariwise altogether disagreeable unto his mind and holy Spirit and his Soul hates it and hath no pleasure therein Wherefore my dear Friends dwell and watch in the Light of the Son of God unto which from the darkness you have been turned that therein every one may be kept in a true and clear sence and discerning of his own present state and standing and there the Power of God is felt which goes over that which would drive into unbelief or desperation in the time of trouble And this same Power or God will also keep down the aspiring mind that would be exalted above the Cross and would intrude into things which is not revealed of God and would be puft up therewith and glory therein all such glorying is vain And this is the Enemy that would not have Christ to reign over him neither will it be subject to the higher Power but will despise the Authority of God and speak evil of Dignities And this must be slain for this spirit hath not the mind of Christ neither would walk as Christ did nor have him for its example but would be
the Name of the Lord and for God that the Spirit of Christ doth not nor never did admit or allow of persecution or of destroying mens lives about Worship and Faith towards God neither are any of them true Christians whatsoever they profess that are found so doing For it is not a bare profession of Christ and of zeal for his cause and crying up Ordinances c. that makes people true Christians or that gives them acceptance with God or will make them well-pleasing unto God But that which makes a man a true Christian is his obedience unto that Spirit which baptizeth into the true Faith by which Righteousness is wrought Heb. 11.33 and into Christ who is the Author of faith and will bring him to have the mind of Christ as the true Christians had and will make him partaker of his divine nature and will teach him to live soberly righteously and godly in this present World and to do to all men as he would they should do unto him which is according to the Law and Prophets that Christ came to fulfil And indeed there is nothing that can bring a man into this true Christian state but only the working and operation of the Spirit of Christ in his inward parts which all ought to obey and submit unto For the persecuting Jews who were uncircumcised in heart and ears and did alwaies resist the holy Ghost they professed as great Zeal for God and his Cause as the Apostate Christians now do and they look'd for the coming of the Messiah of whom all the Prophets prophesied and professed they would Adore him and Reverence him c. and said That if they had been in the dayes of their Fathers they would not have slain the Prophets Mat. 23.31 who prophesied of the coming of Christ and so they had seemingly a great Zeal for God and his Truth But alas a Murdering spirit was found in them for notwithstanding they professed That they would not have kill'd the Prophets yet they kill'd the Son who was the end of the Prophets And although the Prophets signified the Time when Dan. 9.24 and the Place where the Messiah should be born Mic. 5.2 yet when he was come according to the Prophets which they profest these Professing Jews would not own him nor receive him John 1.11 because he reprov'd their Hypocrisie and their Murdering spirit John 8.40 but they Crucified and Slew Him And this is the very State of the Apostate Christians this day For who is there now amongst them but will profess as great Love to Christ as the Jews in Christ's dayes did to the Prophets who prophesied of him and who is there now among'st them but will say Had we been in Pilate's dayes 〈◊〉 would not have crucified Christ nor delivered him up to be crucified as the Jews said of the Prophets yet notwithstanding their so saying they do as the Jews did for now in this day of his spiritual appearance which they profess they look for and expect they are found persecuting of him in his Members under the sam̄e pretence that the Jews persecuted him in their day viz. as a Blasphemer c. And so the Persecutors were in all ages blinded by the godd of the World who was a murtherer from the beginning and though they could see the iniquities of their fathers and predecessors in persecuting and killing the Prophets yet the envy of their hearts was such that they could not see their own iniquities in persecuting and slaying the Son who was greater than the Servants whom their fathers slew so as I said before it is not a profession of Christ and his Ordinances or zeal for his cause that makes people true Christians neither is God Worshipped upon any of those mountains where the persecuting and destroying one another is but the Worship of God consisteth in obedience to that Spirit of Truth which condemns all those works of darkness and cruelty and in his own Mountain of Holiness where nothing hurts nor destroys Isa 11.9 And such is the Father now seeking to worship him that will worship him there and is now gathering his Sheep from off the barren Mountains upon which the Whore sits where they have been scattered in the dark and cloudy day of Anchrist's reign and where the Wars and Fightings are even to his own Holy Mountain where they shall learn war no more Isa 2.4 And this is the work that the Envious and Murtherous one opposeth and bestirs himself with all his force and might in his Instruments of Cruelty and Men of War arming of them with all kind 〈◊〉 weapons that possibly he can form to fight against this Appearance and Work of God for so it hath been that since we who are reproachfully called Quakers were raised up to be a people to bear Testimony for the Name of the Lord and of the working of his Spirit and Power we have alwayes been even as a Butt for all the Archers of Babylon even from every Mountain to shoot at and our sufferings have not been only in our persons and estates as the spoyling of our goods and scourgings and cruel mockings and imprisonments many unto death as this Nation to her anguish must be made to know but even all sorts of Babylons Merchants or they that trades in every part of her or within her Subburbs have oft made it their business to write and print against us endeavouring thereby as much as in them lay to render us odious to our own Nation and to Nations about us under pretence that we were Papists and Jesuits and that we propagated Jesuitical Principles c. but they being almost if not altogether weary of that work finding it to be to no purpose for the truth which we profess hath still got ground and flourisheth through all these things now at last the Papists or Jesuits themselves who I perceive have a secret hope of a day once more in this Nation they begin to put out their heads and to print against us and so both Protestants and Papists even every head and horn of the Beast after whom the whole World wonders are found pushing against the Lamb and the Saints Rev. 17.14 For of late a certain Pamphlet accidentally came to my hands written by a perfect Roman Catholick who subscribed his name A. S. in which he seems to shew himself sensible of the great distractions that are throughout the whole Christendom about the true way of worship and concerning the true Church and first states a Question viz. which is this Church c. and afterwards makes it his business to prove the Church of Rome to be this true Church and that by divers Arguments by him stated in a Syllogistical manner And I also finding the Author of the aforesaid Pamphlet therein smiting at the People of God called Quakers and endeavouring to render them odious by affirming they are led by a deluding spirit c. I found my self somewhat concerned to return a brief reply
the Prophets which is to do unto all men as you would men should do unto you And whensoever the motions of sin and iniquity shall arise in your hearts as you watch in the Light it will be seen and by the Spirit of Truth it will be judged before it will be brought forth into action and here the Cockatrice is crushed in the shell Babylons brats dash'd against the stone and happy shal he be that does so So there must be a diligent watch set before the door of thy Lips and a diligent waiting in the Light which is the eye that the Enemy may be seen in all his wiles and that his baits and snares may be discovered and escaped who lies in wait to devour and hunts for that end to keep the heart polluted for then he hath his nest there so herewith a young man may cleanse his way even by taking heed thereunto according to the Word which is pure and is nigh even in the heart and in the mouth and this is the Word of Faith which we preach which was in the beginning and is nigh unto all which you do well if you take heed as to a light shining in a dark place until the day dawn and the Day-star arise in your hearts And as you all take heed unto this Word it will be unto you a Light unto your feet and a Lanthorn unto your paths and the operation of it you will know as a fire to purge the filth out of every ones heart and as a Sword to separate you from your former Lovers and this is the Word of Reconciliation which purging out the filth reconciles us to God and this will be a Teacher near you so that none will need go far for teachings for your eye shall see your Teacher which shall not be removed into a corner any more according to the Promise of God made by his Prophets in the days of old and your ears shall hear this Word behind you saying this is the Way walk in it when you turn to the right hand or when you turn to the left Wherefore encline your ears and come unto me saith the Lord hear and your Souls shall live and I will make with you an Everlasting Covenant even the sure Mercies of David So now the day of gathering into Gods Everlasting Covenant of Light Life and Peace is come and now is the day of Gods Visitation unto all People and the time now is wherein you may come to know reconciliation with God and wherein you may come to he made nigh who are in the alienation and degeneration and now the time is wherein you may come to know the Restoration out of the fallen state Wherefore be not rebellious against the Light neither be ye stiff-necked against the Reproofs thereof in your own Hearts neither resist the motions of Gods good Spirit of Grace in your inward Parts by which he hath long striven with you and do not dispite unto it by resisting the motions thereof lest it leave to strive with you and the day of your Visitation pass over and your Hearts be heardened and you become even sold to work wickedness and then it be said unto you as Christ said to Jerusalem How oft would I have gathered you as a Hen gathers her Chickens under her Wings but ye would not therefore behold your house is left desolate Wherefore consider your ways and how the good Spirit of God hath long striven with you to gather you out of the Pollutions Wayes and vain Traditions of the World and every one while you have time prize it and while it is called to day harden not your hearts lest thereby you provoke the Lord to Anger and Jealousie which cannot be quenched for this know that his long suffering and forbearance will come to an end and his Spirit will not alwayes strive with man therefore while the tenders of Gods Love are held forth unto you every one who desires to know the Salvation of your Souls receive it and that which begets good desires in your minds and judgeth evil desires when they arise that own for your Guide and Teacher And this will exercise your minds in Lowliness and Humility and keep down the lofty spirit and high imaginations which will puff the minde up above the fear of God so keep down in the Humility for this the Lord requires of thee Oh man whosoever thou be to do justly and to love mercy and walk humbly with God for the proud he resisteth but he giveth grace unto the humble by which he teacheth them his precepts even by his good Spirit of Grace which brings Salvation and which hath appeared unto all men by this I say he teacheth them that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts they should live Soberly and Righteously and Godly in this present evil World mark the Grace which teacheth this and which brings Salvation hath appeared unto all men so that which brings Salvation is nigh unto you the Grace of God which hath appeared unto you so every one mind that and none turn it into wantonness nor into laciviousness but every one give up to be taught by it that the precepts of God you may come to know and walk in them And so here is the great Salvation of God Gods Covenant of Light which lighteth every man that comes into World I have given thee saith he a Covenant of Light to lighten the Gentiles that thou mayst be my Salvation to the ends of the Earth mark Gods Covenant of Light for Salvation which lighteth every man that comes into the World in which Light the Nations of them that are saved must walk And saith God who is Light I the Lord search the heart and try the reins look unto me and be saved all ye ends of the Earth mark again unto him that searcheth the heart and trieth the reins all the ends of the Earth must look for Salvation so that it comes not from the Mountains nor from the Hils but Salvation is of the Lord and God is Light and in him is no darkness at all and that is the Father of Lights and is in the Son and the Son in him and the Father and Son are one who lighteth every man that cometh into the World wherefore dwell in the Light and walk in the Light that you may be Children of the Light for the Earth shall be covered with darkness and gross darkness shall be over the people but the Lord shall become the Light of his Israel and his God his glory Wherefore come out of the gross darkness with which the Earth is covered and walk in the Everlasting Light of the Son of God wherewith you are enlightened and walk no longer in the dark paths of Ignorance neither follow the Blind-guides of the World any more who have fed you with their own aiery Imaginations and Conceptions and brain-study and have spoken unto you a Divination of their own brain not from the mouth