more that are the most grown in the Truth or you to whom the charge and care of the Flock is committed and you with the other that did speak to them in tender Bowels of love admonish them and with plainness of speech minister to the pure in the Consciences to raise up the Witness to judge and cut down the deceit that their Souls may be saved and their Nakedness covered but if they still walk in disorder when the Church is meet together reprove them openly and if they do not still reform but walk in their Filthiness when the Church is met together in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ charge them to depart from amongst you so cast them out and not have any union with them not so much as to Eat with them until they repent and turn to the Lord to walk in obedience to that which is pure if they do then receive them again but if they still walk in the Stubberness of their Wills and not bend to the pure in their Conscience keep them forth that not any filthy Person dwell in the House of God then will the blessing of the Lord God be with you And this is his Word to you to see that there be not any in outward Want in the Church and that all walk orderly in their Places and Callings and if any Root of bitterness spring up in any which causeth Strife in their minds one against another as soon as you know of it call such before you and examine the matter strictly and stand in the Wisdom and Power of God to guide you to judge the Cause and end it in Righteousness but if the Cause be hard for you to discern the measure you are grown to cannot discern betwixt the Parties I charge you and command you in the presence of the living God not to be hasty in the Cause come before you to order it in your doubtful and dark minds for what is not of Faith is of Sin but to send for some that is more grown in discerning to judge the Cause and end it in Righteousness then will Deceit be judged and Strife kept out and the Innocent set free to serve the Lord and your union will be in Christ Iesus where you will bring forth Fruit abiding in him and through his Blood you shall overcome the World in you and without and shall reign Kings upon the Earth In the Power of Christ you shall command the unclean Spirit in all his appearances within you and without and he shall submit to the Power of God in you dwelling in him who alone is Power and to whom all glory belongs for ever The eternal pure powerful and dreadful Spirit of the most high God rest upon you whom he hath chosen to watch over his Flock and his mighty Power open the pure eternal Eye in you to discern and separate between the Precious and Vile the Holy and the Unholy and furnish you with Courage and Boldness and pure Wisdom to rule in the Power of his Spirit to cut down all deceit and to wash the Disciples Feet in bowing to the pure in the least appearance and ministring to it to strengthen the desire raised up towards the Name of the Lord until Judgment be brought forth into Victory then will you have union together in that which is pure eternal begotten of God who reigns over all blessed for ever and Wisdom's justified of her Children W. D. Writ in the Year 1653. This is the Word of the Lord to thee Oliver Cromwell called Lord Protector THus saith the Lord God of Heaven and Earth to thee Oliver Cromwell Why dost thou slight my Counsel and harden thy Heart against it which I declare to thee by my Sons and Daughters and is witnessed in thy Conscience by my Word in thee which called on thee to trust no longer in the Arm of Flesh nor seek great things for thy self as those did I drove out before thee in my Wrath and destroyed in my Fury and the fearfulness of my Displeasure consumed them and hath given thee power into thy Hand who promised me in the day of thy Distress if I would deliver thee in that day and give the power over all that stood up against thee then wouldest thou take away all these Unrighteous Laws which is contrary to my Righteous Law in the Conscience which were made by those I drove out before thee that my Children should not be Persecuted any more by any outward Law but have free Liberty to declare my mind as I moved them by my Spirit and into thy power I have committed what thou requiredst of me that thou mightest perform thy promises to me and now I have tryed thee and in this day of thy Tryal thou hast proved unfaithful to me and to my People and no truth have I found in thee in this day as to perform thy promise to me but contrary to them all hast thou improved the power put into thy Hand to seek great things for thy self and hast set up thy self in the pride of thy Heart to rob me of my glory in taking upon thee to be Lord Protector of my People when contrary to thy fair words and promises thou by thy power Establishest those Laws by which my People always were and are Persecuted which Laws uphold this filthy and abominable thing in my sight the Heads thereof Judge for Rewards and the Priests Teach for Hire and thou with them leanest upon me and sayest Is not the Lord amongst us no Evil shall come upon us as the Wicked Generation did Mic. 3.11 And those Rebellious People I destroyed before thee who made those Laws thou hast Established contrary to all thy fair words and promises and to preserve thee in thy obstinate and wicked walking before me in setting thy self on high in seeking thy own glory thou trustest to the Arm of Flesh to protect thee in the ways thou livest in but since thou hast abused the power I put into thy Hand I have Corrected thee by the Arm of my Power to let thee see that all the Policy and Strength of men cannot deliver thee forth of my Hand and when thou wast nigh to Destruction I appeared as I had done in all the times of thy distress thy Lord Protector and in my tender Love to deliver thee by the Arm of my mighty Power when none could help thee that thou mightest fear me and lay thy Crown in the Dust before me and give glory to my Name in denying thy self and performing thy promise to me who am a dreadful God and will not be robbed of my glory but since I delivered thee still like proud Pharoah hardenest thy Heart against me and continuest in thy obstinacy in upholding these Unrighteous Laws thou promised me to take away but instead of performing thy promises in taking them away thou hast Established them by thy power by which my Children are Persecuted and the Hands of the Wicked are strengthen'd
Ellington whom the World in scorn calls Quakers who have been and is in Bonds for the Truths sake and as near as remembred the substance of what the Judge who made a Goal Delivery of all the Transgressors of the Law did express to the Servants of the Lord that was brought Prisoners before him whom no breach of Law was proved against and also as near as remembred here is declared the substance of what the Servants of the Lord did express so long as they were permitted to declare the Truth which did stop the Mouth of all that did object any thing against it and though the Judge could not gainsay the Truth declared by them nor Read them a Law that they had transgressed yet were they not suffered to have the benefit of the Law that Murtherers and Felons had that their Accusers might appear face to face and they have a Tryal and speak for themselves to clear the Truth from false Accusations cast upon it and them but we are again committed to Prison as the following Lines make manifest With a true Discovery of the Persecution of Iohn Huckin Michael Pâ—ttâ—sâ—â— and Thomas Goodayre who is Imprisoned in Northampton for the Truthâ— sake wherein the great enmity that is in Thomas Andrews Priest of Wâ—llinâ—orrow and Thomas Pentlow of Wilby c alled Justice and also of the Magistrates of Northampton made manifest Also the Word of the Lord to the Rulers and Judges and all that Plot against the righteous Seed the World in scorn calls Qâ—akers ABout the time of the eleventh hour of the one and twentieth day of the fifth Month the Goaler called William Deusbery Ioseph Storr Henry Williamson Iohn Whitehead Marmaduke Storr Thomas Cocket and Francis Ellington and he set them all together at the Bar before the Court the Judge looked upon them and after a little silence said to the Goaler Are these Prisoners the Goaler answered yea my Lord the Judge said to the Goaler do you use to bring Prisoners before the Court in this manner you deserve to be Fined ten Pound for bringing them before the Court cover'd the Goaler answered if you command me I shall take off their Hats then the Judge gave command and the Goalers Man took them off which being done the Judge having knowledge given which was William Deusbery spoke to him as followeth Judge Atkins said to William Deusbery what art thou here for William Deusbery answered The Mittimus will express what I was committed for but a Copy of it I am denied by the Keeper of the Goal I. A. What is thy name W. D. Unknown to the World. I. A. Let us hear what that name is that the World knows not W. D. It is known in the Light and not any can know it but him that hath it but the name the World knows me by is William Deusbery I. A. What Country-Man art thou W. D. Of the Land of Canaan I. A. That is afar off W. D. Nay it is near for all that dwell in God is in the holy City new Ierusalem which comes down from Heaven where the Souls is in rest and enjoys the love of God in Jesus Christ in whom the union is with the Father of Light. I. A. That is true but are you ashamed of your Countrey is it a disparagement for you to be born in England W. D. Nay for the Truths sake I am free to declare according to the Knowledg of the World my natural Birth was in York-Shire nine Miles from York towards Hull I. A. You pretend to be extraordinary Men and to have an extraordinary Knowledg of God. W. D. We witness the Work of Regeneration to be an extraordinary Work wrought in us by the Spirit of God. I. A. But the Apostles wrought with their Hands in their Callings W. D. They had Callings in the World some were Fishermen Paul a Tent-maker but when they were called to the Ministry of Christ they left their Callings to follow Christ where he led them by his Spirit to Preach the Word and I had a Calling in the World as they had and in it did abide until the Father revealed his Son in me and called me from my Calling I had in the World to Preach the eternal Word he had made known to me in the great Work of Regeneration I. A. Why didst thou not abide in thy own Countrey and Teach People in them Parts W. D. There I did stay until I was called from thence to go where I was led by the Spirit of the Lord and as many as are led by the Spirit of God are the Sons and Daughters of God and they that have not the Spirit of Christ are none of his I. A. You say well for we must in charity conclude that every one in this place hath the Spirit of God in them but how do you know that you are guided by the Spirit of God W. D. They that have the Spirit of God are known by their fruits and he that believeth in Jesus Christ and is guided by his Spirit hath the witness in himself I. A. That is true yet notwithstanding I see by your carriage that what my Brother Hails did at the last Assizes in requiring Bonds for your good behaviour he might justly do it for you are against Magistrates and Ministers W. D. Make that manifest wherein we are against them I. A. Said to Robert Guy Clark of the Peace What have you against these men R. Guy Here is an Information given in upon Oath by Mr Robert Beeton that William Deusbury on the twenty nineth of December 1654. did go into the Church in Wellingborrow and stood with his Hat on in the time of Sermon and Prayer and after the Minister had done he spake these words The Priests preach for hire and the People love to have it so But what will you do in the end thereof with other railing words which made disturbance amongst the people I. A. What have you against Storr and Williamson not any one spoke openly against them I shall take course that those that have disturbed the Ministers before I go forth of the Town that they shall be indicted W. D. It is the Liberty of the Law of this Nation that any which is brought Prisoner before those that sits to judge their Cause may speak for themselves the truth to witness against the false information given in against them and that Liberty I take to manifest the ground and cause of my going into the Steeple-house at Wellingborrow As I was going in the Street Thomas Andrews called Minister of that Town called to me with these words Give over deceiving the People lest the Plagues of God fall on thee I replyed these words Doest thou say I deceive the People make it manifest wherein I deceive them Thomas Andrews said Thou saidst there is not any Original Sin I replied Didst thou hear me say so to which he would not answer but fled away I being falsly accused by Thomas Andrews
he will carry his tender Lambs in his Armes and the dear suckling Babes at the Breasts of his Consolation and to cause his young men in Christ to rejoyce in the purity of his nature and the Handmaids and Daughters of Glory to triumph in his Comliness with which he will cover them that love the Light and his pure nature better then their lives the aged among his people he will cloath them with Wisdom and the grave solid ponderous weighty Spirit shall more and more possess the Ancients among his Children a pure perfect eternal Judgment he hath plac'd in the midst of thee oh Sion that shall keep forth and bind the ravenous ones for it shall be as a wall for the preservation of his lovely City Ierusalem and great is and shall be the encreasings of God upon all thy Inhabitants that abhor self and love the Light and delights to walk in faithfulness up to the requirings of the Lord in this his dreadful day wherein he is purging his Sanctuary through great sufferings according to the word of the Lord as hath been declared let no discouragement be upon your Spirits for the mighty Jehovah is with every particular Babe of his Kingdom and dear and pretious is your lives in the sight of the Lord a Woman may forget her sucking Child but the Lord will not forget you that trust in his Mercies and though the Cup look bitter which many hath to drink in this trying day fear not you beloved People but stand approved in the Light of Jesus and whatever you meet withal his presence will accompany you in sweetning your passage daily more and more for his bowels earns abundantly to you who in the holy resolution in his heavenly Power is freely given up to do and suffer whatever the pleasure of the Lord is â—hat he may glorifie his Name in the Earth in disposing of you to the eternal renown of his Name forever Oh you dear Babes of the holy Seed abide in your safe dwelling in the Light over all fear of what ever man can do for the determination of God is not any more wrath shall have power then shall turn to his praise for the Lord hath given his Angels charge over you and they pitch their Tents continually about you and in vain it is for man to strive to afflict you whom the Lord will save or to destroy whom the Lord will preserve Therefore be glad oh Sion in thy God this day and let thy Inhabitants oh Ierusalem shine forth in the glory of the Heavenly power of the most high God who dwelleth in the middst of thee for the day of thy deliverance he is hastening and to make inquisition for the Blood of thy tender Children who has sufferred spoylings of their Goods and many Stripes Prisons Afflictions and Death for the Word of God and Testimony of Jesus Christ Therefore in the Word of his Patience every one stand in your several conditions gird up in the Light the mind to the Lord unmoveable in his strengâ—h to bear your Testimonies the strong leading the weak by the Hand that all in the gentle sweet leading Spirit of Life in eternal Unity live and walk in the heavenly Authority in peace and faithfulness until death where the Crown of eternal glory shall be your reward in the power of his everlasting dominion to Praise and Magnifie his Name with Hallelujahs and high praises in the beauty of his Life forever and for evermore Amen And further this ariseth in my Heart dear beloved vessels whereâ—oever God hath placed you in the Earth whatever appears amongst the Children of men in the Light of Christ stand still and dwell in your peaceable rest forever that to the witness of God in every Conscience we may be manifest to be the Children of the eternal God of Peace in whom is our diligent watchings and waitings upon our God to order us in his Power and Wisâ—om in our peaceable lives to be a blessing to all the Inhabitants of the Land of our Nativity from the highest to the lovest in what we may to perswade them to walk in the Fear of the Lord that they may escape in the day of terrible wrath which the mighty God will manifest in the day of his dreadful vengeance upon the ungodly that so by our conversation in Christ the measure of God in all their Consciences may testifie for us that in us the peaceable holy Seed is raised which the Lord hath blessed and in which we know that neither height nor depth principalities nor powers things present nor things to come prisons nakedness peril or sword life nor death can never seperate us from the sweet refreshing Life and Peace we have together in Christ the Righteousness Strength and Dominion forever In whom Rests the Soul of your Brother in the word of his Patience with you Farewell W. D. Warwick Goal the 8 th of the 11 th Month 1663. The Word of the Lord to Sion the New Ierusalem the Bride the Lambs Wife the Eâ—cellency of all the Glory that is amongst the People though she be now in deep Sufferings in fulness of time God will clear the Innocency of her Children and all the Nations of the Earth shall call her the Blessed of the Lord yea the holy City in whom the Lord dwells to manifest his Glory upon the Earth amongst the Children of men forever O Sion who is brought forth in the beautiful and glorious Birth of the morning of the Day of the Almighty God thou Ierusalem the Bride the Lambs Wife O what Tongue can express of what is felt in the heavenly Treasures and Fulness of the Most High who watches over thee for good and not for evil in this day of thy great Tryal wherein Judgment is begun at the House of God that he may prove you to be his People in the sight of the Nations and manifest his mighty Power for your deliverance in the presence of the People to the astonishment of all the proud and stout-hearted among the Children of men In the ability of the strength of the Lord I declare his Word to thy tender Children O Sion whom the Lord God beholds how you are compassed about with the ravenous Beasts of the field and given up by the Children of men for to be laid waste and to race up the Foundation of your strength if it were possible that so the pure and living Worship of God in the Spirit may not be known in the Earth O dear and tender Children of the Immortal Birth which maketh Self of no reputation whom the Lord hath called and chosen to be his living Witnesses upon the Earth to bear Testimony of his great and glorious Name amongst the People fear not Man whose breath is in his nostrils neither regard evil tydings of what men intend to do with you O be faithful upon your watch that you may stand in a good Authority in the Light and Life over all the
by his eternal and pure Wisdom according to the Counsel of his own Will and his Name alone may be honoured in you in his ordering of you who alone is worthy of all Honour Glory and Power and Praise for evermore W. D. THis is the Word of the living God to you his dear Children all be Faithful on your watch in the Light wait to dwell in the Power of the Living dreadful God and in it stand armed against self in all its appeareance that in the mighty Power you may tread upon your own Heads that Christ Jesus may be Head in you all that you in him may reign Kings upon the Earth to trample upon the Earthly Spirit in all its appearances in you and without you I charge you and command you in the Presence of the Living God consult not with Flesh and Blood which draws into disobedience and unbelief and fills you full of hard thoughts of God I charge you lend not an Ear to that wicked Spirit but diligently incline your Ear to the Counsel of Jesus Christ and in him all walk faithfully according to the measure of Light to answer the charge and care that 's laid upon every one in your measure and meet often together in the Name and Power of the Lord to wait in the silence of your Spirits by his mighty Power to Manifest it self in you and watch one over another with a pure single Eye and let no hard thoughts lodge in your Brests one towards another I charge you and command you in the Presence of the living God judge them out with the Light and when you see any draw back be faithful in ministring to the pure in them to raise up â—he Seed to restore them again and then forgive one another your offences which is done one to another as Christ Jesus hath forgiven you and be tender affectioned one towards another and exhort one another in love to the Building up in your most holy Faith that you all may rejoyce together in the eternal unity in that which is pure begotten of God and God Almighty be with you his dear Babes and Children and you in it keep in the unity of the Spirit and bond of Peace where I am with you my dear Hearts saluting you all in the Bowels of eternal Love. W. D This was I moved write the 7 th of the 10 th Month when I was in Wellinâ—gborow in Northamtonshire where the Lords Work is great in gathering his Children together there awayes and in Leastershire and in Buckinghamshire Dear Friends ANd Children of the everlasting God and Father of Light and Life all in his Light wait for his living Power to manifest it self in you to guide you in every thought word and action in obedience to his will that you may all shine forth in the brightness of his Glory in a pure Conversation that so you may every one of you be Lights to the dark World that they may see your good Works and glorifie your Heavenly Father who hath in his tender love plucked you as Brands forth of the Fire and hath looked on you in Mercy and hath counted you worthy to be Witnesses of his great and glorious Name for which sake he hath chosen you unto himself that you might be a People to his praise and glory every one of you in your measures to bear his Name in righteousness this is the Word of the Lord to you all that every one of you be Faithful in your Measure that as you have received Christ Jesus so to walk in him in giving your selves to him that he may guide you by his Power I charge you and command you all in the Presence of the living God to be faithful upon your watch and in the pure Light wait believing in the Name of Jesus Christ to save you from all hard thoughts of God and all unrighteousness and to establish your Souls in righteousness and peace where you will all be united together in the unity of the Spirit and Bond of Peace God Almighty be with you and in his Eternal Power keep you all bold valiant and faithful unto the end that you may all sit down in the eternal rest prepared for you in the Lord Jesus where I am with you all that are faithful forever in the Lord whose Prayers to God is that not any of you draw back to perdition but that you all wait in the Light believing in the Name Christ Jesus to the saving of your Souls And the power of the dreadful God rest upon you all and establish you in his Love and Life that you may rejoyce forever in his Presence and there I am with you in the eternal Unity W. D. Dear Friends BE not troubled at the Lords disposing of us in suffering the Devil to cast us into Prison for with you we are in the Liberty of the Spirit in the eternal unity which cannot be separated I have declared to you of the Lords ordring of us to his Praise and Glory On the 10th day of the 11th Month Iofeph Storr my fellow Prisoner and I was carried forth of the Prison to the Sessions which was holden at Northhamton there was Iohn Parker that did fine my Brother Thomas Aldam and more called Justices who were in great enmity against the Truth But the Wittnesses that had sworn against me as they said for Blasphemy did not appear against me the Lord smit them with terror the lying Spirit durst not appear then they were confounded in that they charged against me And there was many Friends appeared in much boldness for the Truth one Justice Crutt and Iames Nagill who is great in the outward where there dwellings are in Bickering Park in Bedfordshire and one Edward Hackney an Atturney at Kettency in North-hamtonshire there had not been above three Meetings with me yet the enmity of Iohn Parker and these with him required Bonds-men of me to be bound for me for they said I had writ strange Papers to the Lord Protector if I would not find Men to be bound for me I should to Prison again I then required of them to read me a Law I had transgressed but they would not answer but called for Bonds-men I answered there shall not any be bound for us hear is our Bodies do with them what you have power to do they commanded the Jaylor to take us away we were not suffered to speak any more but taken and put into Prison and a Copy of our Mittimus we cannot have but was denyed both of the Jaylor and of the men called Justices when it was demanded of them in the open Court but the wrath of man turns to the Praise of God for the Truth of God was much spread abroad that day and a mighty thirst was raised up in the Hearts of many towards the Name of the Lord Praises forever be to him whose ways are past finding out he takes the wise in their own Craft and overturns them in their
against them and notwithstanding all thy Wickedness and Rebellious walking before me in love to thy Soul I have preserved thee to this day and still doth wait upon thee to be Gracious and Merciful to thee if thou wilt still return to my Counsel and diligently hearken to it the Light in thy Conscience which witnesseth against the pride of thy Heart and loftiness of thy Spirit and calls of thee to perform thy promises thou madest to me in the day of thy distress in speedily taking away the Unrighteous Laws by which my People are Persecuted that are guided by my Righteous Law in their Conscience that they be no more given up as Sheep to the Slaughter for declaring my Word and Mind to the People as they have been and are in this Nation but that they may have free Liberty and no more be Persecuted by any outward Law for declaring what I make known to them by my Spirit Which if thou dost return to me that I may guide thee by my Power as is declared then will I heal thy Backslidings and deliver thy Soul forth of the Pit of Corruption and bring it into my Banqueting-House where thou shalt drink of the Rivers of pleasure that is in my presence where thy Soul shall be for ever with my dear Children in the purchased Inheritance that shall never fade away and this shall be the Portion of thy Cup. I once more tender to thee if thou wilt speedily return while my Arm is stretched forth in this day of thy Visitation to imbrace thee and if thou wilt not hearken to my Counsel but like proud Pharaoh still hardens thy Heart against it and continue in thy Pride and Obstinacy as thou hast done know this my Spirit shall not always strive with thee but I will hasten the day of my Righteous Judgments upon thee and the Arm of Flesh which thou trusts and leanest upon to uphold thee and protect thee where thou art shall be to thee as the broken Reeds of Egypt that shall break to peices and Torment and Wound thee and I will get my glory upon thee in breaking thee down in my Wrath and fierce Displeasure and none shall deliver thee out of my Hand which will speedily perfect my Pleasure upon thee for the time is not long ere I accomplish what I have spoken except thou Repent and thou shalt know thy Destruction is of thy self and thy Blood shall be upon thy own Head and shall confess my Judgments to be true and righteous to all that hear of it that they may be warned by thee to fear and walk humbly before me in the day that I do this saith the Lord of Hosts The Word of the Lord I was commanded by him to writ to thee and after it was written was taken from me by one Thomas Pentlow called Justice of the Peace at the Town called Willby in Northampton-Shire yet notwithstanding in the love of God to thy Soul I am again ordered by him to make known his Counsel to thee that thou mightst not be Ignorant of his mind towards thee what he hath made known to me who am a lover of thy Soul and known to the World by name William Dewsbery Prisoner in Northampton Goal for the Word of God and Testimony of Jesus Christ. From the Common Goal in Northampton the first day of the Tenth Month 1654. The Mighty Day of the Lord is comming in which Christ knocks at the door of the Heart of Kindreds Tongues People and Nations who desire to know the only true God and Iesus Christ whom he hath sent to be the Light of the World and Salvation to the Ends of the Earth to all that obey him but a stumbling Stone and a Rock of offence to all that resist his Counsel whom he will take in their own Craft and overturn in their own Devices to the shame and confusion of their Faces but they that believe in him shall never be ashamed This was given forth in the common Goal in Northampton the 7th day of the 11th Month 1655. by William Dewsbery there Prisoner for the Word of God and Testimony of Iesus THe mighty day of the Lord is comming to you People whose natural Birth and Generation was in the Northern Islands whom the Lord of Heaven and Earth hath placed where he hath suffered you to be scattered into Barbadoes Virginia New-England and other Islands there away and Countries elsewhere and to every Kindred Tongue and People and Nations in whom there is desires raised to know the only true God and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent to be the Light of the World to guide the Feet of those that sate in Darkness into the Light and Way of Peace To you People the mighty Day of the Lord is coming and in his Power is appearing amongst you in raising desires in some of you towards his Name which desires cannot be satisfied with any outward Observations and Traditions of your Fathers but above them doth your minds rise in true Hunger and Thirst towards the living God for refreshment from his presence prize the Love of God to you in whom he hath raised desires towards him and look not forth at any that teaches to hearken to the Teachings of Men without who draw you to seek Christ and God without and to come to the knowledg of the Kingdom of God in outward Observations with which the knowledge of God comes not the Kingdom of God is within and as the Lightning is from the East to the West so is the coming of the Son of Man in his day whose appearance is within but you People in the day of Darkness and Ignorance that have been over the whole Earth have been deceived in looking forth at teachings of Men without and for the Kingdom of God to come in outward Observations that men have set up in their vain thoughts Wicked and carnal Imaginations of the Saints condition which is Recorded in the Scriptures of Truth but they not regarding the motion of the Spirit of God within which taught and guided the Saints they are Strangers to the Saints Life though they speak great swelling words of the knowledg of God and with them deceive the simple with the inticing words of Mans Wisdom and boasting in other Mens Lines made ready to their Hands but they themselves are natural bruit Beasts living without the fear of God in Pride Covetousness Dissimulation and Hypocrisie full of self-Love making their Bellies their God delighting their Hearts in the Creature enjoyments and visible objects and are Men-Pleasers having their Persons in admiration and them respecting for advantage and these Men who are Ignorant of the only true God you have followed to teach you to come to know God who hath drawn you to Worship an unknown God in the ignorance of your minds so have they destroyed your Souls and the Souls of many and you People perish for want of Knowledg Hosea 4.6 In being caused to err with
sturdy Oakes that stand in pride of their own conceits but hath no Root so let them not speak of the Scriptures but bring them to the Witness to which they can witness of the Scripture so will the breath of the eternal Spirit of the living God speaking in you from the Power of the Lord that hath sealed his love to your Spirits raze up the Sandy Foundation so will the House and the sturdy Oakes and the tall Cedars fall and the Serpent in all his windings and twistings his Head will be bruised and all deceits overturned and your Souls preserved pure and clean and the Name of the Lord honoured who doth accompany the Witness of the Spirit with his own Power and abiding in his Power you shall reign Kings upon the Earth and the Lord God almighty be with you all you Sons and Daughters of the most high God and carry you all on in his eternal and mighty Power faithful unto the end that ye may receive the Crown of eternal Glory which is laid up for you in the Lord Iesus Christ and there you will fare well and I shall remain with you for ever in the Lord. W. D. DEar Friends meet often together in the Name and fear of the living God and take heed of Words see that the Witness speaks which will cut down your own wills and it will minister to the Witness in others to the slaying of their wills and take heed of watching over one another with an evil Eye to spy out one anothers weakness and declare it to others and discover their nakedness thou that art here art cursed Ham and the Wrath of God will be revealed upon thee but watch one over another with a pure single Eye and if thou see the pure in Bondage in any one by the deceit whisper thou not behind their back to others but let the Witness in thee which sees the deceit and suffers with the pure that is pressed down by it let it declare and witness forth the minde of the living God against the deceit and it will cut it down and the pure holy Seed will be set at Liberty and thy Conscience will be kept clean unto the Lord in discharging thy Duty and so will thy Captivated Brother or Sister be restored again forth of the Hand of the Destroyer and then thou wilt have union together in that which is pure for ever in the Lord And the eternal God of Power keep you all his dear Children in his pure Wisdom to walk faithfully with him and one with another and the blessing of the Lord God almighty be with you all for ever Amen William Deusbery MY dear Friends this is the Word of the Lord to you all whom my Father hath chosen out of the World in his eternal Love to make known his Power in you thus saith the Lord to you Look not back but Iudge that mind with my pure Word I have Enlightened your Consciences withal for the exercising of them towards me and towards men And I command you my Children stand in my pure Counsel and look up to me and I will accompany you with my Power and will make the way plain before you in bringing down that which is untoward in you and disobedient to my Will so my Ways will not be burdensom and my Commandments grievous to you my dear Children and this is my Word to you Cast off whatever I have let you see is offensive to my Will that so your Souls may rest in the Bosom of my Love that I may carry you on in the Arms of my eternal Power faithful unto the end and Crown you with glory which I have laid up for you in the Lord Iesus sleight not my Counsel but be valiant and bold for the glory of my Name saith the Lord God and be not hasty to utter words before me but let your words be few and savory at all times ministring Grace to all that hears you that my Name may be honoured in all you my dear Children in all your words and actions then I will accompany you with my powerful presence and will make you a terror to all evil doers One to chase a Thousand and Five to put Ten Thousands to flight so will I get my self a glorious Name in the manifestation of my Power in you my Sons and Daughters who stands faithful in my Counsel and walks in my Fear and your Souls shall be refreshed in the Fountain of my Love in the Lord Iesus where you shall reign for ever in my presence Meet often together to wait upon me in the fear of my Name and watch one over another in love and I will be with you my dear Children to order you in my pure Wisdom to the praise and glory of my great Name saith the Lord God almighty Written from the Spirit of the Lord to be sent abroad amongst Friends to be Read at their Meetings William Deusbery THE DISCOVERY Of the great Enmity of the SERPENT Against the Seed of the Woman which witnesseth against him where he Rules both in Rulers Priests and People whose hearts are now made manifest in this great day of the Lords Power wherein he is sending his Sons and Daughters in the Power of his Spirit to run to and fro to declare his Word Which Discovereth the state of England who according to her own lusts hath heaped up Teachers to her self that hath spoken smooth things to her calling her the beautiful Church and Spouse of Christ but in the day of tryal she is found in Enmity to Christ in his appearance in his Children and to be in the estate deluded from the Spirit of Truth Recorded in 2 Tim. 4.2 3. Which cannot indure sound Doctrine having itching Ears and turns them away from the Truth to Fables and now are Englands Teachers tryed she hath heaped up to her self and their Doctrine proved and their Ministry made manifest in the great Enmity they manifest against Christ in Persecuting the Bodies of his Saints them to destroy whom he hath sent to Preach freely his eternal Word for which they are Stoned Beaten and Imprisoned and many of Englands Teachers whom she upholds stirs up the People so to do Being deceived not regarding what is spoken that neither Fornicator nor Idolater nor an Adulterer nor Effeminate nor Abuser of themselves with mankind nor Covetous nor Drunkards nor Revellers nor Extortioners shall Inherit the Kingdom of God 1 Cor. 6.9 10. A true Testimony of him the World knows by name William Deusbery and in scorn calld Quaker who hath been by them Imprisoned in York Darby Leicester and Northampton where he is now kept in the common Goal for the Word of God and Testimony of Iesus Christ. Also his Call to the Ministry of the everlasting Gospel by the still voice of the Spirit of God and his mighty Power destroying with the flaming Sword the disobedient that would not stand in his Counsel and causing the Soul to submit to
laid up for me in the Lord Jesus and by the power of the Word of their Testimony there was a secret hope raised up in me to wait for his coming there I waited till the Administration of Iohn and I witness that of all that is born of a Woman there is none greater then Iohn for he is a burning and a shining Light who discovered more of the mystery of iniquity in me in his Administration and the sence of my condition was more manifest and the cry of my condemned Soul was great and could not be satisfied but breathed and thirsted after Christ to saye me freely through his Blood or I perished for ever and in this condemned estate I lay waiting for the coming of Christ Jesus who in the appointed time of the Father appeared to my Soul as the Lightnings from the East to the West and my dead Soul heard his voice and by his voice was made to live who created me to a lively hope and sealed me up in the everlasting Covenant of life with his Blood then I witnessed the wages of Sin and Death and the Gift of God eternal Life through Jesus Christ my Lord and I witnessed according to Testimony of Scripture Death raigns over all from Adam to Moses and Moses untill the Prophets and the Prophets untill Iohn and from this day the Kingdom of Heaven suffers violence and the violent take it by force there is no rest to the Soul till Christ be manifest and this the Scripture witnesseth and I witness these Scriptures fulfilled in me in the year according to the accoâ—t 1645. The Witnesses that stood before the God of the Earth and had power to plague the Earth having finished their Testimony the Beast ascends out of the bottomless Pit and makes War against them and kills them and their dead Bodies lay in the Streets of the great City spiritual Sodom and Egypt where our Lord was Crucified and this Scripture was fulfilled in me in the year according to account 1648. Then Kindreds Tongues and the Nations of the Earthmade merry over the Witnesses and I see the abomination that maketh desolate which is spoken of by Daniel the Prophet standing in the holy place where it ought not and then was I led by the Spirit into the Wilderness and tempted of the Devil that the Scripture might be fulfiled Luke 4.1 In that day and hour of temptation which was in the time as the lines following giveth Testimony I witnessed these Scriptures fulfilled in me of Pauls condition wherein he complained as I then did who found a Law in my members Warring against the Law of my minde that when I would do good evil was present with me the sence of which caused me to cry Oh wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this Death And as I was crying to the Lord to free me from the burthen I groaned under the Word of the Lord came unto me saying My Grace is sufficient for thee I will deliver thee and by the power of this Word I was armed with Patience to wait in his Counsel groaning under the body of Sin in the day and hour of temptation until it pleased the Lord to manifest his Power to free me which was in the year according to the account 1651. The Spirit of Life from God entred into the Witnesses and they stood upon their Feet then great fear fell upon all that saw them and the Temple of God was opened in Heaven and I saw in the Temple the Ark of his Testament and there were Lightnings Voyces Thunder Earthquakes and great Hail then mystery Babylon the great the Mother of Harlots and the Abomination of the Earth which made all Nations drunk with the Wine of the Wrath of her Fornication she was discovered in me and God remembred her when the mighty day of the Lords power was manifest upon her Jesus Christ was revealed from Heaven in flaming fire pouring vials of wrath upon her and rendring vengeance upon all in me that knew him not and disobeyed his Gospel and purged away the filthy nature that did me imbondage with the Spirit of judgement and with the Spirit of burning so through the righteous Law of life in Christ Jesus I was made free and am from the body of Sin and Death and through these great tribulations my Garments is washed and made white in the Blood of the Lamb who hath led me through the Gates of the City into the new Ierusalem where there is nothing enters that works abomination or makes a lie but what is written in the Lambs book of Life where my Soul now feeds upon the Tree of Life which I had so long hungred and thirsted after that stands in the Paradise of God where there is no more curse not night but the Lord God and the Lamb is my Light and Life for ever and ever I witness I am regenerated and born again of the immortal Seed and hath partaked on the first Resurrection on whom the second Death hath no power And this I declare to all the Inhabitants in England and all that dwell upon the Earth that God alone is the Teacher of his People and hath given to every one a measure of Grace which is the Light that comes from Christ that checks and reproves for Sin in the secrets of the Heart and Conscience and all that wait in that Light which comes from Christ which is the free Grace of God for the Power of Jesus Christ to destroy Sin and to guide them in obedience to the Light so shall they come to know the only true God and Father of Light in Christ Jesus who is the way to him And this I witness to all the Sons of men that the knowledge of eternal Life I came not to by the Letter of the Scripture nor hearing men speak of the Name of God I came to the true knowledge of the Scripture and the eternal rest they testifie it in Christ by the Inspiration of the Spirit of Jesus Christ the Lyon of the Tribe of Iudah who alone is found worthy to open the Seals of the Book and I witness none else can for he alone opened the Seals of the Book in me and sealed it up to my Soul by the Testimony of his own Spirit according to his own promise I will bind up the Testimony and seal the Law amongst my Disciples and I will write my Law in their Hearts and put my Spirit in their inward parts and they shall not depart from me neither shall they need to teach every man his Neighbour and every man his Brother for all shall know me from the least of them to the greatest for I will be merciful to their Vnrighteousness and their Sins and Iniquities will I remember no more and all my Childern shall be taught of me saith the
Power thereof So under all thy profession is most cruel oppression every one oppressing one another according unto their power from the highest unto the lowest so that the cry of the oppressed Seed within the Hearts of thy Inhabiters O England and those that are oppressed in outward oppressions in thee hath entered into thr Ears of the Lord God of Sabbath and he is coming in Power to set the oppressed free and to bring them to Sion which in the eternal Riches of his Love he made known to me where Sion was according unto the desires he had raised up in my Heart and the Word of the Lord came unto me saying I will gather my People out of all Forms and Observations and out of all Kindreds Tongues and Nations and I will pour my Spirit upon them and purge away their filth with the Spirit of Iudgment and of Burning and I will write my Law in their Hearts and put my Spirit in their inward Parts and they shall not depart from me but shall be bound up in union with me in the free Covenant of Life in the Lord Jesus and one with another in the one Spirit so shall the Lord be one and his People one and this is Sion the City of the living God to whom all the promises of the Lord are according unto the Scripture of Truth wherein they need not to Teach every Man his Neighbour and every Man his Brother saying Know the Lord for all shall know me from the least unto the greatest for I will be merciful unto their unrighteousness and their Sins and Iniquities will I remember no more And this is the holy City the New Ierusalem which Iohn bare witness of wherein there is no Temple for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the Temple of it And the City had no need of the Sun neither of the Moon to shine in it for the glory of God doth lighten it and the Lamb is the Light thereof And the Nations of them that are saved shall walk in the Light of it and the Kings of the Earth do bring their glory and honour unto it and the Gates of it are not shut at all by day for there shall be no night there and there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth neither that works abomination or makes a lye but they that are written in the Lambs Book of Life and all that walk in the Light of Christ within which Light exerciseth the Conscience and leads into the holy City the New Ierusalem where the true Worshippers of the Father are who worship him in Spirit and in Truth and are come out of the night and need no Candle neither light of the Sun for the Lord God giveth them light and they shall raign forever and ever And this is the true Church in God Sion which shall become the praise of the whole Earth and from whence the Law shall go forth according unto the promise of the Lord and the Word of the Lord from Ierusalem Then shall Righteousness run down with a mighty stream and Oppression shall cease And this glory of the Lord which he hath made known unto me shall be made manifest to the Inhabiters of England if you will hearken diligently to the Counsel of the Lord which is the Light in your Consciences and in it wait on the Lord to be guided by his Power I waited in the Counsel of my God in the Calling where I was placed until the Year 1652. and in the eighth Month of the Year as it is accounted of men the Word of the Lord came unto me saying The Leaders of my People causes them to err in drawing them from the Light in their Consciences which leads to the anointing within which the Father hath sent to be their Teacher which would lead them into all Truth to seek the Kingdom of God in Observations where it is not to be found So my People perish for want of Bread Freely thou hast received freely give and minister and what I have made known unto thee in secret declare openly Which Word constrained me by the Power of it to leave my Wife and Children and to run to fro to declare to Souls where their Teacher is the Light in their Consciences which the Lord hath given unto every one a measure to profit withal for the exercise of the Conscience towards God and Men and waiting in the Light for the Power of Christ he would lead them up to the living Fountains of Water where their Souls would find refreshment in the presence of the Lord and their Bread should be sure and their Water never fail as the Lord hath made manifest to my Soul and to worship him in Truth at New Ierusalem to sing Hallelujahs and Praises among the redeemed Sons and Daughters of God in the beauty of holiness unto the Lord God that sits upon the Throne and to the Lamb for evermore To you Rulers of England whose names will be honourable if you will honour the Lord in obeying his Counsel which is the Light in your Consciences that he may guide you in all your ways to you I am moved to write Thus saith the Lord God Almighty I will overturn overturn overturn until I have given it unto him whose right it is as you have seen the Power of the Lord manifest on many that were in the place where you are who all professed the Name of Christ but they would not obey his Counsel the Light in their Consciences but walked after the counsel of their own Hearts and improved their power for their own ends and dissembled with God and the Countrey but our righteous God hath overturned them to their everlasting shame and contempt Now if you will not obey the Light in your Consciences to rule in the Power of the Spirit to break every Yoak of unrighteousness and put every filthy and abominable thing out of the sight of the Lord that the oppressed may be set free but you will cause both small and great to worship the Image of the Beast in forcing them to obey the Heathenish and Unrighteous Laws made by Nebuchadnezar's nature proud flesh who set up himself a King to oppress all under his power and set up whom he would to Rule and Raign with him over others in Tyranny Cruelty and Oppression in all unrighteousness which Beast received a deadly wound with a Sword by the little Horn spoken of in Daniel before whom three Horns fell and the Horn had Eyes to see what they should do the Light in their Consciences and a Mouth which speaketh great things what they would do for the glory of God whose look was more stout then their Fellows I beheld the same Horn made War with the Saints of the most high God and prevailed against them as it is fufilled Many of them
must increase whose Baptism we own according as is Recorded in the Scripture of Truth and since he ascended there is no Scripture doth witness his sending any to Baptize with Water Paul who was sent after he ascended what he did in the liberty given him his liberty he knew when he circumcised Timothy and Baptized Crispus and Gaius and the Household of Stephanus besides I know not that I Baptized any other saith Paul for Christ sent me not to Baptize but to Preach the Gospel not with wisdom of words least the Cross of Christ should be of none effect 1 Cor. 1.16 17. And Iohn who bore record of the Word of God and Testimony of Jesus Christ Rev. 14.6 saith I saw an Angel in the midst of Heaven having the everlasting Gospel to Preach to them that dwell in the Earth and to every Nation and Kindred Tongue and People John did not say he did fly through the midst of Heaven Preaching the everlasting Gospel and Baptizing with Water we know Iohn was faithful in his Testimony of Jesus Christ who is now revealed and the Angel is come and the Gospel Preached and the Shadows done away And Bread and Wine were the Supper of the Lord in the Dispensation of time a Figure of his Death which were fulfilled when he had suffered and rose again and now he is known to stand at the Door and knock if any Man hear my voice and open the Door I will come in and Sup with him and he with me saith Christ Rev. 3.20 And we being many are one Bread and one Body c. 1 Cor. 10.17 and know the Wine renewed in our Fathers Kingdom Christ the Substance we now witness Shadows and Figures done away he that can receive it let him And the Churches set up by the will of Man we deny and the fixed Ministry set up over them by the will of Man that watch for the Fleece bear rule by their means and seeks their gain from their Quarter these we deny Ieremiah 5.31 and Isaiah 56.11 And those in scorn called Quakers do watch over the Flock of God every one as the Lord them calls and not for filthy Lucre as the Priests that bear Rule by their means do neither by constraint but of a ready mind 1 Pet. 5.2 in obedience to the Spirit of the Lord as he them move and thy Slanders thou hast not yet proved our Consciences do witness it that what thou hast accused us with is a Lie and not the Truth And thou further sayes that William Deusbery in a lying Paper as thou calls it which is entituled A true Prophecy of the mighty Day of the Lord already risen in the North of England c. In which Paper he makes it his work to slander the Ordinances of Gospel worship under the notion of outward Observations which Christs Kingdom comes not in Luke 17.20 and thus he accounts of all the Ordinances and Institutions prescribed by Christ himself in the Apostolical Churches and accounts all the strict observing of outward Forms of worship is but imitating the Saints practices in their Babilonish and Heathenish wisdom all these outward Forms are the outward Court without the Temple Pag. 1.2 Reply The Lie will be found in thy own Mouth in calling that a lying Paper a true Prophecy it is of the mighty day of the Lord and for thy saying William Deusbery makes it his work c. as before written thy Charge is false and the Truth is witnessed against vain Man who in his dark mind seeks the Kingdom of God in Observations where it comes not Luke 17.20 neither shall men say Lo here or lo there he called by name as before written doth witness they are not the Ordinances of Christ according as is declared of them they will be found and made manifest to the shame and confusion of their Faces who in their own wisdom imitates the Saints practices in Forms which they did practice in Life and Power in the Dispensation of time they served their Generation in the manifestation of the Spirit according to the Will of God. And whereas thou sayst in Pag. 4. it is more clear that he prophanely compares the holy Ordinances and Institutions of the Lord to that great Image set up by Nebuchadnezars proud nature spoken of by Daniel and that that Image was but a Tipe and Figure of this which now shines gloriously in Forms and Observations And thou sayst that in his speaking to the Anabaptists and Independents he tells them they have set up a finer Image in the Gospel Ordinances as they call them and what other Ordinances thou sayst doth these or you set up but what was practised in the Apostolical Churches thus you may see how this Impostor doth reproach the holy things of God. Reply Blush for shame who sayst William Dewsberry compares the holy Ordinances and Institutions of our Lord to that great Image c. Holy Ordinances and Institutions of the Lord is not rhere exprest by him where thou sayst he then so compares he witnesses against the Image you have set up in your minds of the Truth as you conceive where you are in confusion that doth you divide into Forms and Observations as before written to look for the Kingdom of God to come and though you call them the Ordinances of Christ you denying Christ the Light you to guide in the daily cross you are in the same nature wherein Nebuchadnazar cast the Lord Servants into the fiery Furnace because they witnessed against his Image so do you who walk in your imaginations and deny Christ the Light cause the Servants of the Lord that walk in the Life and cannot bow to your Image but witness against it to be haled out of your Meeting Places beaten stoned whipt stockt imprisoned which are the fruits of Nebuchadnezâ—rs nature as is manifest this day amongst those against whom he witnesseth and who is the Impostor and reproaches the holy things of God the fruit makes manifest he that hath an Eye to see let him see And further thou sayst that he in the height of his insolent rashness and madness saith thus The Word of the Lord came unto me saying I will gather my Peopel out of all Forms and Observations and out of all Kindreds Tongues and Nations and I will pour out my Spirit upon them And this thou sayst he writes in a different Character as if it were all Scripture by this you may see is proved what I have accused them with in denying the Ordinances and Administrations of the Gospel Churches true and yet this impudent Lyar tells me it s a lying slander they would render me a Lyar for telling them the Truth but it seems they can rather and with more ease deny the Accusation then prove themselves Saints and stand to it thus when they are pincht they will say and unsay and any thing to evade Rashness and Madness is thy own in speaking evil of that thou knowest not the day
and all in the new Covenant do know the Law of God written in their Hearts and the Witness or Testimony of Jesus within 1 Iohn 5.10 bearing witness with their Spirits that they are the Children of God Rom. 8.16 and this declared is neither deceitful nor knavish which is the unsavory words thou chargest on us let the Truth of God in all Consciences judge to whom they belong the Scriptures we are not against they bear Testimony of Christ the Light whom we witness the way to the Father Mat. 11 27. None knows the Father but the Son and he to whom the Son will reveal him by the revelation of the Spirit of God is the things of God known to his People 1 Cor. 2.9 10 13. Rom. 8.11 16. according as is recorded we witness the Scriptures fulfilled in Christ the Light who is our Life Col. 3.3 4. And whereas thou queries did ever any read of the Law and Testimony in the Heart and that the Law and Testimony in the Heart is the Law of the new Covenant Reply Who hath read the Scripture in the fear of God hath read what the Lord hath promised as declared Isa. 8.16 Bind up the Testimony seal the Law among my Disciples and Ier. 31.33 This shall be the Covenant I will make with the House of Israel in those days saith the Lord I will put my Laws in their inward parts and write it in their Hearts Heb 8.10 11 12. and the Law written in the Heart we witness and the Lord faithful in performing according to his Promise in the new Covenant And thou goest on in Page 19 and 20 calling us Impostors and Pervertors of the new Covenant and to be in Idle proud Fancies and itching Humors of our own Brains in our Apostate Condition Reply We in the Light can bear thy reproach and have witnessed the Truth that it may stand a witness against thy revilings and in the Lord we rest who will make manifest whether thou or we be the Pervertors of the new Covenant and guilty of what thou chargest us with And whereas thou in the 22d Page says that William Deusbery tells us that the mighty day of the Lord is appeared in the North of England and is rising towards the South and shall over-spread this Nation and all the Nations of the World c. what the mans fancy and design is in bruiting and making such a noise of the appearance of the mighty day of the Lord judge ye I am sure he hath sufficiently discovered his own folly in blazing abroad such Dreams of his own lying Heart c. Reply In thy 2d Page thou hast enlarged thy self concerning that Book calling it a lying Paper c. and the Truth is witnessed in answer to thy charge and this in answer to what is here written Fancies Bruitishness Folly Dreams and Lyes William Deusbery denies the Truth he hath declared as the Lord hath him moved in Faithfulness to the Souls of all People that they be not found the sloathful Servants putting the Day of the Lord afar off in this his Day wherein the Hour of his righteous Judgment is come Rev. 14.7 to all that wait on him the Truth is declared that all men may prepare in the Light the Lord to meet and no longer in sloathfulness remain least he come upon them as a Thief in the Night and if the Day of the Lord do not arise over all the World and the Kingdoms of the World became the Kingdoms of our Lord and his Christ and the Lord perform not as is declared then say the Lord hath not spoken by me who is known to the World by name William Deusbery And in the 22d Page thou sayst we have set our selves in the Throne of Christ judging the whole World. Reply Thy Accusation is false self we deny to Christ we are subject who sits on his Throne and is come and coming in his Saints to judge the World Iude 14 15. 1 Cor. 6.2 and 2.5 And in the 23th page thou sayst why do not we command the Dead to rise and appear before us and many other unsavory words are there exprest Reply A wicked and Adulterous Generation shall seek after a sign and there shall no sign be given it but the sign of the Prophet Jonah Mat. 16.4 And whereas thou chargest Howgill and Burrough as thou callst them with pernitious Blasphemous Opinions Reply Thy Accusation is false they are faithful Men serving their Generation in the Light Ministers of Christ in whom is witnessed the God-head dwelling Bodily Col. 2.9 and in him we are one in God they that joyn to the Lord are one Spirit 1 Cor. 6.17 he that can receive it let him And whereas thou in the 29th Page saist that the Revelations of Christ that are according to Scripture are either Texts of Scripture expressed or rational Deductions Consequences and Conclusions that naturally flow from particular passages of Scriptures and not any other Revelations can be pleaded for a Rule Reply Thy dark mind is shut out from knowing the Revelations of Christ and though thou sayst that answer that was returned to these words was not to purpose it stands a witness against thee and will be found to purpose in the Light when thy reward thou shalt have for all thy unsavory words exprest in thy Book And in the 33th Page where thou falsely accuses us that we will allow of no Laws of God nor Scripture but the Revelations and Edicts of our own bewitched Hearts c. And when thou hast reviled us with false Accusation as before written thou beseechest those thou callst thy dear Friends to be serious in their Thoughts of what thou hast written in discovering our deceits and blasphemies denying the Rule that all things are to be tryed by and make themselves the absolute rule and we must not question what they say though it be never so insolent and to be abhorred of all sober Christians c. Reply Thou hast brazened thy Face to slander the Truth of God with Lies and Blasphemies which is the Foundation of all Heresie and there thou art found and thy Accusation is false Christ the Rule that all things is to be tryed by we own and deny our selves and to the Light of Christ in all Consciences we appeal whether thou or we deny the Rule thou that saist the Revelations of Christ are either Texts of Scripture expressed or rational Deductions Consequences c. as before written or we who witness Christ the true Light revealed by the Fâ—ther 〈…〉 knows the Father but the Son and he to whom the Son will reveal him Mat. 1â— 27 Luke 10 22. Let all that are in Christ with sobriety in the Light judge And for the rest of thy Slanders in the 37â—â— and 38th Pages where thou saist these miserable Worms un-Covenant themselves and un-Christ themselves as if they cared not for Grace and Mercy in standing before God denying the Scripture c. And in the
another for all my Children shall be taught of me saith the Lord God and the Scripture is but a killing letter but of use in its place a Testimony of Christ but not any knows Christ by it for Christ is known by the Light of his Spirit which gave forth the Scriptures and all that are guided by his Spirit knows the Scripture in the Truth as it is in Jesus Ephes. 4.21 9. Qu. Whether the conversion that was wrought upon the Souls of many under the ordinary outward Ministry of the Word in our publick Assemblies turning Men from Darkness to Light from prophaness to true Godliness be true unto Salvation and whether those tâ—at have been thus converted were in the state of Salvation before they joyned themselves unto your Society or whether can none be converted and saved that never came under nor gave their assent to the dispensation of your way and how you will justifie yours to be in the true and good old way that all have and shall be sâ—vâ—d in you may do well to make it out by some evident demâ—nstration Answ. Who can witness a true conversion by the Power of the Spirit of God in turning their minds from Darkness to Light that comes from Christ and in his Light wait to receive the sentence of Death in themselves to destroy all self-confidence in any thing below Christ and in the state of Death to wait till that they hear the voice of the Son of God and by his Power were raised up to a living hope in Christ to walk who throw his Blood do witness their Garmentâ— wâ—shed and made white to reign Kings and Priests upon the Earth for ever to Worship the Father in Spirit and Truth and who ever can witness this conversion whether it were begâ—n when they frequented your Publick Assemblies or absented from them this conversion we own who it can witness and of our way they are and will to us come and all shall know the Truth we witness is the good old way that all Souls that came to God walked in Christ the Way the Truth and the Life the ancient of days which was before time but manifest in time in all the Children of Light who doth them lead in the narrow way of self-denial and the daily Cross with him to enter thorow the strait Gate into the holy City new Ierusalem where the soul hath union with the Father of Light and beholds his Face and his Name is written in their Foreheads and there is no Night there neither need of Candle nor light of the Sun for the Lord God giveth them Light and they shall reign forever and ever Rev. 22.5 10. Qu. Whether any of your Way attain unto Perfection in this Life that they can truly say that they do all that God commands without failing either in matter or manner of obedience no not in thought word and deed and whether the Persons of any stand just before God that are not thus perfect Answ. All that are in the Way we are in which is Christ the Way to the Father in whom all in their measure are pressing on to the fulness of stature in Christ the perfect Man and who in him is grown to the fulness of stature in his Power doth stand which doth them guide that in their Mouths is found no guile for they are without fault before the Throne of God Rev. 14.5 THE MIGHTY DAY OF the LORD is Coming In which Christ is exalting King upon the holy Hill of Sion over all the World to Raign who in this Day of the Lord knocks at the door of the Heart of Jew and Gentile Kindreds Tongues People and Nations who desire to know the only true God and Christ Jesus whom he hath sent to be the Light of the World and Salvation to the ends of the Earth to all that obey him but a Stone of stumbling and a Rock of offence to all that reject his Counsel whom he will take in their own Crafts and overturn in their own Devices to the shame and confusion of their Faces but they that believe in him shall never be ashamed The Word of the Lord to all the faithful scattered in the World that in the Counsel of the Lord stands to strengthen the desires raised towards his Name them to give Victory over the World. A Warning to all that dwell upon the Earth and to the Kings Princes and Rulers in the World to submit to Christ the Light of the World least they perish in the day of his fierce wrath when the Hearts of all that disobey him do fall before him From the common Goal in Northampton the 7th day of the 11th Month 1655. Given forth by him the World knows by name William Deusbery at the writing of this Prisoner for the Word of God and Testimony of Jesus Christ. You People WHose Natural Birth and Generation were in the Northren Islands whom the Lord God of Heaven and Earth hath placed where he hath suffered you to be scattered into Barbadoes Virginia New-England and other Islands there-aways and Countries elsewhere and to every Kindred Tongues People and Nations in whom there is Desires raised to know the only true God and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent to be the Light of the World to guide the Feet of those that have sat in Darkness in the Light and Ways of Righteousness and Peace TO you the mighty Day of the Lord is coming and in his Power is appearing amongst you in raising Desires in some of you towards his Name which Desires cannot be satisfied with any outward Observations and Traditions of your Fathers but above them doth your minds raise in true Hunger and Thirst towards the living God for refreshment from his Presence Prize the Love of God to you in whom he hath raised Desires towards him and look not forth at any that teaches you to hearken to the Teachings of Men without who draws you to seek Christ and God without and to come to the knowledge of the Kingdom of God in outward Observations with which the the Kingdom of God comes not the Kingdom of God is within and as the Lightning is from the East to the West so is the coming of the Son of Man in his Day whose appearance is within But you People in the Day of Darkness and Ignorance that have been over the whole Earth have been deceived in looking forth at Teachings of Men without and for the Kingdom of God to come in outward Observations that Men have set up in their vain Thoughts wicked and carnal Imaginations of the Saints conditions which is Recorded in the Scriptures of Truth but they not regarding the motions of the Spirit of God within which taught and guided the Saints they are Strangers to the Saints Life though they speak great swelling words of the Knowledg of God and with them deceive the Simple with the enticing words of Man's Wisdom and boasting in other Mens Lines made ready to their
Conscience towards God and Men and fear not Man whose breath is in his nostrils who stands up to oppose the Lord in this mighty Day of his Power wherein he is exalting Christ Jesus the Light to be King for ever in his Light be faithful to the Lord and though you be haled before Rulers Governours and Kings for a Testimony against them take no thought what you shall say but keep within staid in the Counsel of God it will be given you in the self-same hour my Heavenly Father will in you speak and his Enemies confound before his mighty Power in you and the Hearts of the great and mighty Men of the Earth shall fail and paleness shall gather into their Faces the dread of the holy God will be with you who faithfully give up to be guided by his Counsel in the Power of his Spirit one shall chase a Thousand and five put ten thousand to Flight the decree is gone forth Christ shall be King over all the Nations of the World and all the Powers of the World that him withstand he will break them with his iron rod and dash them in pieces like a potters Vessel so shall they become as dust before his breath the Mouth of the Lord hath spoken it who is giving the Kingdoms of the World to his Son and to you that wait for his apperance the living â—ound is come that doth witness that not any weapon formed against him shall prosper in this day of his appearance in the Hearts of his Saints In the presence of the Lord I you Warn and Charge stand fast in the Counsel of the Lord Jesus Christ the Light in the Conscience and according to the measure you have received be faithful in walking with God in perfect obedience to his Will freely giving up your Bodies to finish your Testimony in sufferings if the Lord call you for it is not given only to believe in him but to suffer with him and they that suffer with him shall Raign with him and the Son of Man is perfect in sufferings and you that are faithful to the Lord he will lay no more upon you then he gives you strength to bear with the Angel of his presence he will you guard and campass you about with Salvation for Walls and Bulwarks and you shall know this is to you the Word of the Lord God The Day will declare it ALL People who dwell upon the Earth from the highest to the lowest fear the most high and living God who hath Created Heaven and Earth and the Fountains of Waters all return to his Counsel the Light of Christ that witnesseth for God in the Conscience against Sin in its appearance in the secret of the Heart and diligently encline your Ear to the Counsel of Christ the Light that he may guide you by his Spirit least through your disobedience you perish before him in this mighty Day of the Lords Power in which he is coming with Fire and Sword to plead with all Flesh and not any that transgresseth his righteous Law in the Conscience shall escape his righteous Judgment in this his Day He is bringing down the loftiness of Man and the haughtiness of his Spirit laying low and exalting his Son Christ Jesus to be King over all to Rule The Heathen he will give him for his Inheritance and the uttermost Parts of the Earth for his Possession and the Kingdom he will establish to his Son whose Kingdom is an everlasting Kingdom and of his Dominion there shall be no end Come down ye Kings Princes and Rulers in the World who in the Throne sit in Pride exalted to rule in your Wills contrary to the pure perfect Law of God the Light of Christ in your Consciences to which you must come and own your Condemnation for your Pride and Disobedience and to his Counsel the Light in your Consciences return in subjection to Christ the Son of God and at his Feet your Crowns lay down and Honours in the Dust before him and wait on him in his Counsel the Light that he may guide you by his Spirit in the fear of God to walk humbly before him in your Places to Rule for God to break the Bonds of iniquity and let the Oppressed go free that the glory of the most high God alone you seek and not great things for your selves as you have done and in this day of darkness while you have lived without the fear of God not regarding to be guided by his pure perfect Law the Light of Christ in the Conscience let the time past be sufficient you have lived to your selves without God in the World and with all diligence obey the Word of the Lord which is to you declared in this day of your Visitation wherein the Lord tenders eternal Salvation to you in Christ the Light in whom the Father is well pleased with all that obey him which if you be obedient to Christ and wait on him to guide you by his Counsel the Light he will you lead in the strait and narrow way of self-denial and daily Cross into the holy City new Ierusalem the Light of which all Nations that are saved walk therein and the Kings of the Earth shall bring their Glory and Honour unto it where your Souls will be refreshed with the living mercies of God in Christ the Light to praise him for ever in the beauty of Holiness but if you his Counsel reject and walk in Pride self-Love delighting your Hearts in the glory of the World and the pleasures therein and so slight this day of your Visitation then the things belonging to your Peace will be hid from your Eyes and sudden Destruction as a Whirlwind shall overtake you for Sions King whom you disobey will break you with his Rod of Iron and dash you to pieces like a Potters Vessel and you shall be cut down and slain with the Sword that proceeds out of the Mouth of him whose Name is called the Word of God. Now while you have time to him submit and kiss the Son in obeying his Counsel the Light in the Conscience least you perish in the way for if his anger be kindled a little Blessed are all they that trust in him Remember you are warned in your Life-time he that hath an Ear to hear let him hear The Kingdoms of this World are become the Kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ and he shall Raign for ever and ever Rev. 11.15 He that can receive it let him Dear Friends BRethren and Sisters in the Eternal Light of Christ Jesus whom my Heavenly Father hath gathered you to wait upon him that you might be the holy Presthood and Righteousness of God in Christ Jesus every one in particular mind your calling in the Light and watch diligently in the Light the Life to feel a raising you up in the pure being with God in Christ your Souls to delight in the pure Fellowship with the Father in the Lord Jesus and
that hath resisted the God of Israel DEar Friends let the Love of God constrain you to trust in him and feel the Birth of the Seed of God born up over all to eat and feed of the Bread of Life that out of time and place and over all visibles you may live and rejoyce over all hardships that would appear and wrath that arises all keep the word of Faith in the Power of God the Mountains shall fall before you more and more and you shall tread down the Pride of the perverse and froward Generation in the patience and dominion of God forever and let the strong bear the Burthen of the weak that all in the unity of the Spirit in the Power of the Love of God grow up an holy Preisthood offering up the Souls and Bodies a living Sacrifice in faithful Obedience to do the will of God. In whose Name it is declared unto you Dear Friends in vain is it for Man to strive to limit the holy one of Israel or his Spirit in his People for if they were as the Sand upon the Sea shoare that seek to oppress and destroy you that love God more then any thing in the World yea then Life it self fear not comfort your selves in the Light of his Countenance for he will arise and scatter in his wrath as dust before the wind all those that resist his Spirit and his righteousness will he establish in the Earth for ever And O Sion thy God reigneth and thou shalt seethy Enemies come bending to the soles of thy Feet and thy renown which shall go more and more over the Earth thy leaves shall heal the Nations which shall walk in thy Light and you shall be known in all the Earth to be the City of the most high God yea the righteous Seed which the Lord hath blessed when the Faces of thine Enemies shall be covered with shame the Mouth of the Lord of Hosts hath spoken it Let this be sent abroad amongst Friends with understanding in the Fear of God. W. D. York Tower the 19th 12th Mounth 1660. Dear Brethren ANd Suffering Members dwelling in the Power and Life glad your Hearts in the unlimited Power of God that in his strength you reign over all the Powers of Darkness in your keeping the word of Patience in the Lord Jesus who will plead your cause in his righteous Judgments when he will clear your Innocency in the Faees of all his Enemies to your eternal comfort and the Glory of his Name forever lift up your Heads this is the day that hath been proclaimed in your Ears which our God hasteth to finish and cut short in righteousness for his Name sake the mighty God of Power keep you faithful to the end Amen W. D. 19th 12th month 1660. DEar faithful Friends in God who hath known the day in your Travels that not any thing hath been dear to you not Life it self that you might enjoy the Light of the Countenance of God which he hath now manifested in the everlasting Covenant of his Light in Christ which now constraineth in the Power of our Royal Life born of the noble Seed to stand out over and above all flattering Tongues and all threatings and wrath of Men which will be more and more manifest before this day of tryal be over and what wrath ever the Lord suffers to arise in the Powers of the Earth without he moves do not any seek to stop it let God have the glory the wrath of Man turns to the praise of God and the remainder he will restrain while the royal Babes in Meekness and Patience stand still and gives glory to God in faithfull obedience with Life to Death if the Lord call for it who hath blessed the labour of all he called into the Vine-yard of God in whom my Bowels is enlarged in the strength of the Life I have received of the Father Oh feel me for I am with you filled with joy in the Lord that his royal Birth is brought forth and the Captive set free the Tongue of the Dumb loosed and the living Power of God raised to offer up living praises on the holy Altar of God in the Asemblies of his Saints Oh lift up your Heads be glad in the strength of the Lord in this day of gathering the good ripe Fruit in the Vine-yard of the Lord now doth the Vines abound with Vertue laden with Clusters of the purest Grapes full ripe which drops abundantly with the Wine renewed in the Kingdom of the Father Oh fill your Cups be not straitned in your Spirits to receive of the fulness of God in whom I am constrained to say unto you in the Light drink drink abundantly let the Thirst of the immortal Birth earnestly in the Light reach forth it self to draw more and more the infinite Life that it may comprehend you in the Power of it self that in its strength your Hearts may be set free over all below and your Spirit in the Light and Life raised in the Heavenly Harmony to praise and glorifie the Name of the Lord in eternal unity to the astonishment of all that know not God whose Hearts shall fail before the Life of God which keeps all that abide in it with what ever he gives low in his fear that neither Heights nor Depths Tribulations or Distress Persecution or Famine or Nakedness Peril or Sword Life nor Death things present nor things to come can never separate the royal Birth from its faithfull obedience to Christ Jesus the Light and dwell out of time and place and over all Creature enjoyments in the unlimitted Power to guide that your words be few and savory at all times whether in Bonds or out of Bonds to minister Grace to the Hearers and be tender affectionate one towards another in the pure chast Love of God all to lye down together in the eternal unity one in the fulness in the most high God over all blessed for ever Farewel your Brother W. D. From the Tower in York the 25 th of the first Month 1661. Let this go abroad amongst all the afflicted and wounded in Spirit with care send this to them DEar Child which Crys over all the World and beyond all the Pleasure Pomp and Vanity therein for the enjoyment of the Light and Countenance of God fear thou not neither be thou discouraged because of the violent assaults of the Enemy who seeks to draw thee into the carnal reasonings of thy Spirit and in it to kindle a fire to thy self and causâ—s thee to walk in the Light of the sparkes that thou hast kindled and this thou hast at the hand of the Lord in thy going from his Counsel thou lyes down in sorrow few knows thy great distress but to the Lord it is known and them that has walked in the same Pathes Oh thou Dear and afflicted Soul who lives in the deep sence of the working of the evil one in thy mind and many times is ready to
purifies the Conscience and this is his Worship he hath determined in his unchangeable and heavenly Decree to establish in the Earth and over all Nations it shall stand he will scatter all as Dust that seek to oppress his People and resist the rising of his glory and thou shalt certainly know the Mouth of the Lord of Hosts hath spoken it Which if thou turn thy mind within to his Counsel in thee and in dilligent watchfulness encline thine Ear to his pure Spirit that calls for Righteousness in thy Heart and Conscience and be obedient with boldness to walk in the strait way of the daily Cross and deny the evil that accompanies the day and answer his requirings what he makes known unto thee then will he guard thee with the Power of his heavenly and dreadful Presence and will make thee a terror to evil doers that a Lyar or an Unclean person shall not be found in thy House nor any worker of Iniquity shall be able to stand before thee he will Cloath thee with Wisdom and thou shalt be able to Judge all Causes that is brought before thee in Righteousness then wilt thou put away all Sports Playes Pastimes Drunkenness Uncleanness and whatever grieveth his Spirit forth of thy sight and cleanse the Land of it through thy faithful walking with God who hath made thee a Son of Affliction from thy Youth that thou mightst learn to fear his Name which if thou do he will make thee a Terror to all Nations round about that devise mischief against thee the Angels of his presence will pitch their Tents about thee thou standing in his Counsel and giving Liberty to his Sons and Daughters as he moves them by his Spirit to walk in his Service who is the mighty God that requireth this of thee that thou do not lay a Bond upon the Spirits of his People in matters of Worship as to force all to one Uniformity for thou hast seen before thine Eyes that the Kings and Princes of this Woâ—ld that have sought so to do have brought much innocent Blood upon them who have been seeking by their outward Power to establish Sion with Blood and Ierusalem with Iniquity thus hath his People been Slain from day to day in the Nations that have been building Babel in whom is found the Blood of the Saints and Martyrs of Jesus and all that is Slain upon the Earth for whose sake he is now risen to plead the Cause of those that fear him and walk humbly before him And this he requireth of thee in all things to mind his Law in thy Heart to do unto others as thou wouldst be done unto if thou wast in their places and they in thine and let mercy be found in thy Hands to all people as thou hast found mercy at the Hands of the Lord yea to thy Enemies and in what thou mayst live in Peace with all Men and in all thy undertakings seek not thy self let the glory of God be the Object of thy mind and wait to feel his Hand leading thee in what thou doest which if thou stand in his Counsel to do as he requireth of thee to mind thy Place and to keep the people in Peace and punish Sin and Wickedness and give free Liberty for the Lord with his Spirit to Rule in the Consciences of his people as he orders them to meet in his fear and witness forth his mind where he leads them without restraint and no more be given like Lambs to the Slaughter and driven to Prison like Sheep to the Fold but to have free Liberty in their peaceable lives to serve him their God then will he raise his Name in thy Fathers House and make thee a nursing Father unto his People and thou shalt partake of the Blessings with them that fear him and all the World shall be amazed to hear of his dreadful appearance for his people that obey his Spirit in this Nation which shall convince both Iew and Gentile that the mighty God is risen to manifest his Power to them that fear him in this Nation and these Northren Countries and the day is very near wherein it shall be no more said the Lord liveth that brought up the Children of Israel out of the Land of Egypt but the Lord liveth that brought up and led the Seed of the House of Israel out of the North-Country Oh King let his goodness constrain thee and all in thy Family to humble your selves before him what could he have done for thee more then he hath done hath he not been thy relief in thy greatest straits now let his goodness ingage thee to answer what he requires of thee then will he make thee one of the number of his Elect and Chosen and thy days will be fulâ— of gladness and thy Soul shall live forever in the Kingdom of glory with all the redeemed who are led with his Spirit but if thou reject his counsel his law in thy Heart and not regard his Spirit in thy inward parts but hearken to the counsel of thy own Heart and the wit and pollicy of the spirit of this World and so set up thy self on high and rob God of his Glory and give up his people as they have been to be pulled out of their peaceable Meetings and haled to and fro as Sheep that are slaying all the day long in tumults distresses afflictions stonings stripes prisons and death and set up proud covetous Men that know not God to be Teachers in the Land which draw people into Idolatry worshipping they know not what so the Blind leading the Blind they both fall into great wickedness which grieveth the Spirit of God and the liberty which is given to Playes Sports and Pastimes which draw people into drunkenness uncleanness and great abomination and if they be not reformed by thee but suffered to go on as they have been this will be thy portion as he hath multiplied on thee his mercies to astonishment of the people and Nations round about so will he stretch out the Arm of his Power against thee and get himself the glory in his mighty Judgments which shall be revealed in the great and terrible day of his fierce wrath wherein he will cleanse the Land of all that rob him of his glory and reject his counsel the Light of his Spirit in their Consciences and thou shalt certainly know the Mouth of the Lord hath spoken it through his Servant which in faithfulness to thy Soul oh King hath not hid the Counsel of God from thee but greatly desireth thy eternal welfare and in patience waits that Righteousness may be established in the Earth who is known by name William Deusbery Prisoner at the date hereof in the common Goal at York for the Word of God and the Testimony of Jesus Christ. But before this could be sent unto thee with a private and safe Hand I was set at Liberty with some other of my Brethren by thy late Proclamation which we own
seek to overcome with their subtle enticing words to draw them into singularity and self-separation that they may set them up with admiration and to carry on their own Interest they make use of those they overcome to seek all occasions with themselves to speak evil some both by writing and printing against those that God hath raised up to keep their Habitation and to stand unmovable upon the Foundation Christ the Light to discern and judge their subtle crafty wicked proceedings and to lay them open that they be such as intrude into a Ministry and runs when God never sent them therefore they do not profit the people at all for they go not in at the Door which is the Light to be led in conformity to Christ in his suffering and Death so come they to be ignorant of the saving gathering word of eternal Life because they in self-strivings climb up over the true judgment of God and in pride and fleshly wisdom pretends to enjoyments of high things in a self-boasting spirit some saying in their Hearts as it is written I see and know and am rich and want nothing when they are blind and miserable and naked and wants all things and must come again to the Light to bâ—y eye-salve of Christ that they may see and raiment to cover them or else their nakedness will forever appear For this birth which is generated in the Myâ—tery of Iniquity as before written it cannot live but in singularity and self-separation setting up self some times in visible Formes Gestures and Postures to be seen distinct from others as Clouds tossed to and fro to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever except they repent for God will make the Womb of this Births Conception to be the Grave whence again it shall return and there to be buried to its eternal consummation the Mouth of the Lord hath spoken it through his Servant that hath and doth labour day and night according to the ability of the Grace I have received of the Lord for the restoration of all those that have been in danger of destruction through the snares and working of the Enemy as before written And amongst many some hearked to counsel and have been again restored in obedience to the Light but who rejected the counsel of God through his Servants and desperately goes on in a self-serving spirit though often reproved they harden their necks destruction hath doth and will come upon them and that without remedy Oh! How did my Bowels earn for the preservation of I. P. in what I could to have drawn and separated him from that spirit which gave forth the paper that propagated the keeping on the Hat in prayer and reflected judgment upon those that called upon the Name of the Lord with their Heads uncovered but after much counselling of him in tender love to have stopt that paper from going abroad but he would not be separated from that spirit that gave it forth Then I cleared my Conscience in the Word of the Lord which now in my freedom in God I declare to the Children of Sion what the eternal judgment was that did arise in my Heart in words to this purpose Iohn â—f then propagate what thou hast written in this paper thou wilt wound more Hearts and cause more trouble of spirit amongst the tender hearted People of the Lord then when the temptation entred dear I. N. who deeply suffered but the Lord restored him again by true repentance And as to my particuler it is not my nature to be found striving with thee or any upon the Earth but having declared the Truth to thee I will return to my rest in the Lord and let every birth live the length of its day and time manifest what is born of God for that Spirit that stands up in self-striving will weary it felf and dye and end in the Earth And this will certainly come to pass upon all that do not diligently wait in the Light to judg the out-goings of their minds and to be lead in true self-denial which is the Foot-steps where the Flocks of the Companions delight to walk every one serving one another in love seeking to restore one another with the Spirit of love and meekness forth of what any have done through the violence of Temptation or weakness Oh! Dear Friends feel the earning Bowels of the Lord through me to you all in which I beseech you that what hath come to pass in this day of great tryal and hour of Temptation you may all in dear love to the Lord of Life return to his Light to feel his Power restoring into a true understanding with him to walk in true self-denial where you will feel his Presence filling your Hearts and binding you up in eternal Unity of the Spirit and bond of Peace every one forgetting all things that are behind and not any one stand up in self-striving but in the tender broâ—herly love informing the Judgements of one another in the Light and Power of the endless life and in it submit to the low estate of one another serving one another in love which is the washing one anothers feet and here is Christ and his Disciples in eternal unity and powerful Dominion against whom every tongue lifted up shall fall in Judgment and every weapon formed shall not prosper but come to naught for the Mountain of the Lords House shall be more and more set upon the top of the Mountains and established over all the Hills and all the faithful shall more and more in eternal unity praise and magnifie his Name in the beauty of holiness who sits upon the throne and liveth and reigneth forever and ever And dear chosen Vessels who hath known and doe abide and keep your state with God in the perfecting power manifest in your inward man which truly buries self in the death and hath raised you up and sent you forth in the Resurrection and power of the endless Life which seeketh not any thing but to glorifie the Lord in all your travels and undertakings where-ever the Lord calls you Oh you blessed amongst the people what can be said of the goodness of the Lord that hath been and will be more and more manifest to you whose care and burdens labours and travels is known to the Lord and your reward is with him forever Dear Brethren though great be the wrath that withstands the work of our God which wrath worketh openly and mysteriously to lay burdens upon the innocent and to add affliction unto the afflicted In the Word of the Lord that ariseth in my Heart I declare they shall but weary themselves and all their hopes shall fail them and their expectations shall come to nought who wait for evil concerning you who love the Lord better then your lives and delight to wait to feel his Power at all times leading and ordering in the limits and bonds of the Spirit of the Lord c. I know there is of you my
Brethren that need not be written unto in lines of this nature but to all who hath or may have their mouths opened in the true motion of the Spirit of God and hath not yet overcome and escaped the danger where many have received loss as before written with a godly jealousie over you in tender bowels I beseech you watch and pray that in the Light and Power of God you always be kept And when any motion of the Spirit of the Lord ariseth in you to exercise the Gift God hath given you first search your Hearts and see that you be at peace with Christ in you your elder Brother that in the sense of your peaceable union with him your Hearts be truly broken and your Spirits truely humbled and abased before the Throne of his glory in which power bring your gifts to his Altar and keep within the bounds of the Spirit then shall your Sacrifices whether it be Exhortation Prayer or Praises answer the witness of God in all his People and God will accept of your faithfulness in the returns of his own Spirit to his glory forever And whatever the Lord doth in you or with you rejoyce not over much in Spirits being made subject but rather rejoyce in the power that keeps self in the Death that your names you always behold written in the Lambs Book of Life then will you be full of vertue as branches in the Vine of Gods righteousness whose leaf shall never wither but you shall be always Faithful and your leaf shall be for the healing of the Nations and an Eternal Judgment shall rest and abide in you in the pure discerning of all the unstable wandering Spirits that are as before written which is the Stars that the great Dragon draws after him from the heavenly Light and throws them down again to the Earth because through pride they kept not their estate in the meek humble Spirit of the Lord of Glory Oh my dear Brethren in the unity and bonds of the meek humble Spirit of our God my Soul blesseth the Name of the Lord for you and your faithfulness is as marrow to the bones of the feeble and as sinews to the loynes of the weak therefore let us in the true motion of the meek peaceable Spirit of the almighty God go on in his service and let us wrestle with the most high in the prevaling power of his own Spirit for the bringing again the captivity of Sion that they that have mourned before our God with us in years past may be restored and brought from the Mountains where they are scattered into the Light and Fold of rest with us to lye down in the Shephards Tent where we find safety in the heat of the day and in the hollow of his hand he will keep us untill the indignation be over past Therefore you valiants amongst the people who in the meek humble Spirit shines as the Angels of Glory every one be faithful in the power of the most high God in whom you shall stand as Saviours upon Mount Sion in your living Testimony which causeth the dead to hear the living Voice the Lame to Walk the Blind to See the Dumb to Speak forth the high Praises of the mighty God which shall cause the Ears of them that know not God to tingle and the Hearts of the righteous to rejoyce and forever glorifie the Name of the Lord that hath kept you humble little and low as to self but mighty powerful prevailing in the pure peaceable eternal Dominion of which there is no end Where my Soul rests who hath now given forth what hath for some time lain upon me to clear my Conscience to all that ever have tasted in any Measure of the good Word of God and the Power of the World to come that they may certainly know whether they abide in the Vine of Gods Righteousness yea or ndy Therefore Let them that hath an Eye to see let them see or an Ear to hear let them hear or an Heart to understand let them understand what the Spirit saith to the Churches in the eternal Judgment and Word of Truth through Your Brother and Fellow-Labourer in the Gospel of our Lord Iesus Christ Farewel W. D. Send this with care abroad to be read in the Fear of God in the Assemblies of the Church of the first Born. The Word of the Lord to his beloved City New Ierusalem come from God cloathed with the excellency of the Glory of his Love and is the Bride the Lambs Wife with the flowings of the tender compassionate Bowels of the Lord Jesus to all the Mourners in Sion and the Afflicted desolate People who wait for his comming as for the Morning and hath not satisfaction in any thing but in the enjoyment of his sweet and comfortable Presence OH Ierusalem thou beloved amongst the People who art become the beautiful Bride the Lambs Wife Oh how did he seek thee in the day of thy Divorcement when thou wast weeping in the barren Wilderness as a desolate Widow who had not any to comfort thee when thy greatest Mournings and breakings of Heart were thy greatest comfort And the more thou drunk the Tears that was shed for the want of him was thy greatest satisfaction Oh the weary daies thou had'st upon the Earth because thy Languishing Soul knew not where to meet with thy beloved neither did'st thou know how to walk in the steps of the Flock of thy Companions who was comforted with his Presence whom thy Soul wanted then was he near unto thee though thou knew it not enlivening the desires that were towards his Name And in the acceptable day he sent forth whom he had ordained to declare unto thee the glory of his Love in the Light of his own Life in which he hath covered thee this day as with a Wedding Garment and in it thou appearest comely in his sight and acceptable in his Presence And for thy sake oh Ierusalem thou City of the Living God what hath been endured How many Innocent Lambs have suffered its hard to be expressed to bring gald-tidings unto thee of him whom thy Soul thirsteth after How have the Striplings sent out in Gods Authority run to and fro in the Earth willing to spend and be spent in all services of Love to perswade thee to forsake all that hath intangled thy mind and hindred thee from the innocent Life of thy Beloved Thy mighty Men with many of the Sons and Daughters of glory have sealed their living Testimony with their Blood in the patience and sufferings of the Lamb of God that thou mayst be affected with the excellency of the glory of him whom thy Soul desireth And now the Lord God requireth of every particular Son and Daughter of Sion To Watch and Pray that not any enter into Temptation and all that have any stain upon their Garments come to the Fountain which is opened for Judah and Jerusalem to wash in which is the Heart-breaking love of
known to the Lord in these things c. Oh feel the Seed of Abraham in its Dominion in you which is the Bride the Lamb's Wife and in true love to him doth offer up the dearest Isaac into the Will of God that a perfect Sacrifice our God may have Soul Body and all that we have in this day He hath called us to be the first Fruits unto the Lamb and in our Testimony in this our Tryal we are called to preach to all Nations Kindred Tongues and People in their own Language for the Witness in all their Consciences will feel us and give them to understand that we are not of this World but are the Redeemed of the Lord whom he hath called in the Patience of the Lamb to suffer for to gather the Seed that is scattered in the Earth that our Brethren may be brought from far and our Sisters from the outmost parts of the World who cannot come until we have drunk this Cup of which I was sent to declare to you in years past and now to your comfort I declare when it is finished according to the pleasure of the Lord which he is hastening and will cut short in righteousness for the Seed sake then wo wo to the Enemies of Sion for our God will plague them and cause them to cast all their glory down before him and they shall come bending to the soles of the Feet of his People and shall conâ—ess that you are the Children of the most high God the righteous seed which the Lord hath blessed and this certainly will come to pass the Mouth of the Lord hath spoken it Through your Brother and Companion in the Tribulation and Patience of the Lord Iesus Farewel W. D. Given forth in the the County Goal of Warwick the 26 th of the 6 th Month 1664. This for Dear Friends in London and them that are Aboard the Ship in order to Transportation or elsewhere all abarod DEAR and Valiant Children of the most High your faithful standing in the meek Spirit to bear your Testimony for the Lord in what he calls you unto is a sweet perfume in the Presence of the Lord and a great refreshing to the Hearts of his People Therefore abide in the pure meek Spirit and receive your blessed reward you faithful Lambs the blessed Crown of Glory is yours forever Oh feel the earning of Bowels towards you and the breakings of Heart that is before the Lord for you Oh can we remember you and not our Eyes water with Tears in compassionating of you in the simpathizing Spirit that indears and unites us one unto another in our God to whom my Soul breaths Oh Lord sweeten the passage of thy People and make their Cups pleasant thou suffers to be given them to drink that thy mighty Power may be manifest in all them that love not their lives to death to do thy will this day and plead their cause in hastening their deliverance to the confounding of all Sions Enemies and the renown of thy great Name forever and ever Dear Brethren and Sisters in the meek Spirit of our God my Life goes and abides with you with the forcible love of the whole Church of the first born Oh lift up your Heads and let not the fear of the Sickness or any Representation of any Evil enter you but all in staidness in the Light Life Thought and Will of God which is perfect in it self and abiding as is written God will keep every one of you in perfect peace all your days in every condition and will keep you in sweet peace and unity one with another to the praise and glory of the Name of our God whose presence is with you and will sweeten your passage in whatever you are to go through to the Praise and Glory of the Name of the Lord forever who will arise more and more and plead our Cause in the sight of a mighty People whom he will make to conâ—ess that you that are faithful are the Children of the most High God the righteous Seed that the Lord hath blessed and it will be well every way with all the faithful and suffering People and the blessing of God shall be upon us and our Children forever that love the Lord Jesus this day And the hundred forty four Thousand shall stand upon Mount Sion where some of the number is already established and they shall sing the new Song that not any shall learn but those that are redeemed from the Earth who shall make the Ears of all the Enemies of God to tingle and their Hearts shall fail and paleness gather into their Faces for dreadful will be the vengeance of the Lord upon Sions Enemies and great fearfulness shall surprise them they shall run to and fro like Vagabonds as Cain did and not know where to hide their Heads for where ever they are the Lord will find them out and banish them from place to place until he hath gotten his glory upon them in laying all low that withstands his arising for he will dash the potsheards of the Earth to pieces and they shall lament and cry out and gnaw their Tongues for pain when you faithful beloved ever honourable Children that endure unto the end shall Shout and Sing Praises and Magnifie the Lord and say Oh how righteous are thy Judgments Oh thou King of Saints for thou hast pleaded our cause and turned our Sorrows into everlasting Joy and hast over-thrown all thy Enemies that withstand the rising of thy Glory that a door may be opened to gather our Brethren from far and our Sisters from the ends of the Earth Therefore will we Sing of thy Goodness with Praises Praises Hallelujahs and high Praises for thou art worthy over all forever and ever Amen My dear Companions with me Salutes you all in the dearest love of our God where neither Sea nor Land can seperate but in the bowels of love will we imbrace one another in the chast Life where no Vulters Eye can behold our Joy and Felicity in the Lord our God In whom fare you weâ—l fare you well saith the Soul of your dear Brother in the Name of the Lord forever both you that are for Transportation and you that stand in a faithful Testimony in that City where the Lord hath sent his destroying Angel to execute the pleasure of his will. And in the tender Bowels of the Love of God I desire you all in this Gloomy Dismal Dark Day that 's come upon that City put you on the shieâ—d of Faith and in the Light of the Covenant stand single before the Lord to be cloathed with the Garment of Eternal Salvation that you may reign over all fearfulness and unbelief that every particular may stand as Saviours on Mount Sion in the midd'st of a desolate People for this is the Harvest of the great God in that City wherein he is Reaping Threshing and Winnowing the Chaff from the Wheat and making a short work
Righteousness thereof you shall have all satisfaction in the fulness of the Love of God though separated one from another and let none of your Eyes look out at any that deny the Lord of Life before Men who in the profession of his Name came forth with us and goes forth from us because they are not of us for as I have proclaimed in your Ears many years ago so I proclaim it again in the word of his faithfulness who liveth for ever That all that profess the Light and Name of Jesus and hath an Eye to self in what they do and doth not follow him with a single Heart in his work of Regeneration before the trying day be over they will deny him and wither as though they had never made mention of him but all you Lambs that fear and dread the Name of the Lord and freely gives up to be governed by his powerful Spirit and in the least measure wait in the Light self to be buried down under this Judgment and your Souls raised in the Resurrection of Jesus and born again of the Seed of God which cannot depart from him but must follow him let the power of darkness over all the Face of the Earth do what it is permitted Oh the beholding of you Children of the immortal birth it is known to the Lord the earning of Bowels in the meltings and breakings of my Heart and I am streamed into you as a River in the unexpressible unlimited love and Life of my God and your God where feel and taste and let us solace in the invisible in-dwelling love of a tender Father where no vulterous Eye can behold nor any venomous Beâ—st shall enter to sting the beloved Babes begotten of the Father any more And dearly beloved Brethren and Sisters where ever the Lord orders you watch diligently that in the sweet reserved Spirit in the heavenly Wisdom you walk together in the loving meek holy Spirit of the Lord Jesus and in the nearest fellowship and familiarity with any one watch to the Light to be covered alwayes with his Spirit of Sanctification that you may stand before the Throne of the Lamb with the pure Garment of his own righteousness to the Glory of his great Name forever And in all your words and works be tender over one another in love in what you may and the strong bearing the burthen of the weak that the holy meek lowly healing Spirit of our Lord Jesus Christ may rule in you all binding up your Hearts together in the eternal unity of the Spirit and bond of Peace where ever the Lord orders any of you his faithful Children that you with us and we with you may be as Sinews to the Loynes and Marrow to the Bones of one another in the meek lowly Spirit of Christ our Head and Life that in him we all may be manifest to the whole World to be the Children of the most High God through the aboundings of his vertue in and amongst us who are born again and is the Church of the first born the pure Bride of the Lamb of God who abhors to live in any thing that is not of his nature and in sincerity of Heart have given up our names to him and in his Glorious Majestical cominion tramples upon all false births feigned self-creating self-serving Spirits who are gone from the Innocent Life and make to themselves Pleasant pictures in a voluntary humility and smooth words and gestures and outward appearances to enter the affectionate part and betray the Innocent as with a Kiss but in the tryal of the day that is come upon all pleasant things and pleasant pictures they are found serving themselves and Iudases to the Innocent Life of those that are regenerated by the Power of the most High and redeemed from the Earth therefore to you that stand girt up in the Light Thought and Will of God to reign over all the pollutions of this World I write as to my Honourable Brethren and Sisters desiring you all to resign to the faithfulness of God that his al-sufficiency may preserve you out and over all the clouding thoughts of your own Hearts that in the pure discerning you may taste and weigh all Spirits of what nature they are in what Nation Country or Island soever you are ordered to go and lay not your Hands hastily upon any neither regard their feigned smooth words and behaviour but in the Life of the Lord Jesus wait that he may give you Ability in his pure Wisdom to make your passage in the invisible entrance through all outward appearances to try and taste what they are inwardly to God in the measure of the Heart searching Spirit you have received of the Father that so you may all be kept and preserved in the intire union in the sincere Life to reign over all false births in the dominion to walk with the Lord and one towards another in the eternal inâ—xpressible unlimitted pure holy chaste Love of our Father in the Lord Jesus who in his unlimitted Love laid down his Life for us and with his Blood hath redeemed washed and cleansed us that we might have access to the Throne of his Glory continually to offer up the living Sacrifice of Halelujahs and high Praises Glory and Honour unto the Lord God and to the Lamb that sits upon the Throne our Light Life Strength and Righteousness Joy Peace Tranquility and everlasting Felicity over all God blessed forever of whose dominion there is no end And in his Glorious Powerful Resurrection and Dominion keep your state with God that his tender Bowels may be inlarged in you to all where you feel any true breathings and heavenly desires towards the Name of the Lord though in some outward things they may differ let not that shut up your Bowels but in the openings of the Spirit of the Lord in what you may Minister to the enlivening of that in them which the Lord hath begotten to hunger for him Oh I beseech you ease my Heart in this matter for I am in travel till all that hunger for the righteousness of God under what denomination soever be all gathered to the Light of Jesus there to receive an understanding to feel the Spirit of the Lord make a separation in condemning sin in the Flesh and quickning in Spirit in the Resurrection in the Powerful Life in Christ that so our little Sister that hath no Breast scattered among Languages Tongues and People in the Nations by your sweet and holy Conversations in the meek lowly and loving chaste Spirit of the Lord Jesus may be gathered in the Light and Life of â—esus with us to sit down at the table of our God to drink continually the Cup of Salvation in which work O my God bless thy Servants with thy prosperous presence where ever thou sends them and all you chosen Lambs comfort my Heart in what my Soul desires in this thing that as in the pure discerning of the Spirit of the
which all things were created and without him was nothing made this Word is Life and the Life is the Light of Men and the Light shines in darkness and the darkness comprehends it not this Light is the word of Faith the Apostle exhorted to take heed unto Say not in thy Heart who shall ascend up to Heaven to fetch Christ down or down into the deep to fetch him up the Word is nâ—gh thee in thy Heart and in thy Mouth and this is the word of Faith which we Preach the unction of the holy one given of the Father so that we need not to teach one another but as the anointed teacheth us which is truth and no lye which is the sure word of Prophesie whereunto ye do well to take heed as unto a light shining in a dark place until the day dawn and the day-Star arise in your Hearts All people return within give up your selves freely to be guided by that Light that discovers to you the evil of your Hearts and none be discouraged because you see an evil Heart but prize the Love of God that discovers it to you and whatever the Light makes manifest to you to be evil Wait on the Lord for power and he will give you power to obey and in being faithful in a little more will be communicated from the Lord so will the righteous Law be set up in your Hearts that will cry through your earthly and carnal Hearts for Righteousness and Judgement and so will bring you to an account for every idle word and all deeds done in the body Look up unto the Lord against whom you have Sinned and he will arm you with power to what he layes upon you with patience to undergo his Will until all the powers of the Earth in you be famished and slain under his righteous Judgments then will Judgment be brought forth unto Victory that you can no longer live without the loving kindness of your Father in Christ Jesus Now is the Parable fulfilled the little grain of Mustard-Seed grown up above all Herbs and the little leaven hath leavened the whole lump and the Prodigal starved forever if his Father receive him not freely into his House Thou that canst witness this condition stand still in the Will of God he will raise up his seed in thee to trust in his Name and to delight in the eternal Covenant of Love and Life he hath made with thy Soul in the Lord Jesus Christ and will guide thee by the Word of his Power in a way thou knowest not forth of Babylon where thou wast an inslaved Captive under the power of the filthy Beast which is thy will and the Whore the Mother of Witchcrafts which is thy wisdom which enthralled thee under the Powers of darkness to satisfie the lusts of thine own Heart which led thee to destruction up to Sion to live by Faith in the Lord Jesus which will purifie thy Heart and set thy Soul free from under the powers of darkness into the Glorious Liberty of the Sons of God where thou shalt sing the Songs of Sion Hallelujahs and Praises forevermore unto the Lord God that sits upon the Throne and to the Lamb for ever and ever W. D. To all inslaved hard-hearted and unbelieving Jews in this Nation and elsewhere who are made drunk with the Wisdom of the Whore and bewitched through the abundance of Sorceries to put the Day of the Lord afar off looking for Christs coming in the Spirit as the hard-hearted unbelieving Iews in the Letter did for his coming in the Flesh according to the promise but they limited the Holy One according to their carnal wisdom expected his coming in great Pomp and Glory and when he came in that poor despised way contrary to their expectations they stumbled at him and would not own him to be their Saviour but rose up against him and put him to Death Matth. 27.1 to vers 50. BEhold you hard-hearted and unbelieving Iews do you not look for Christ coming in the Spirit according to his promise as they did for his coming in the Flesh but you limit the Holy One as they did expecting Christ to come in Power and Glory according to your own fancies and so put the Day of the Lord afar off you in rejecting and despising the Counsel of Jesus Christ the pure Light in your Consciences which lets you see every evil thought word and action and cryes behind you This is the way walk in it but you disobey the Light and hearkens to the counsel of your Hearts as the Iews in the Letter did that put Christ to Death and so you slay the Witnesses in Spiritual Sodom and Egypt in your Hearts where our Lord is Crucified in not regarding the Counsel of Christ which is that Light that shines in your dark Hearts which knocks at the Door according to his Word I stand at the Door and knock if any Man hear my Voice and open the Door I will come into him and will Sup with him and he with me Oh thou enslaved Soul under the power of Babylon in thee come forth mind the Light in thee which is the sure word of Prophesie whereunto you do well to take heed as unto a light shining in a dark place until the day dawn and the day-Star arise in your Hearts stand not out against this secret Counsel of Christ in you lest you perish in your gain-sayings for if his anger be kindled a little blessed are all they that trust in him All give up give up freely to be guided by the Counsel of the Lord the Light in you believing in his Power that is present with the Light he will lead you daily through the Cross in the straight way of his Sufferings and Death where the old Man will be put off with his deeds and so you shall have right to the Tree of Life and shall enter with him through the Gates into the City New Ierusalem where you shall have communion with the Father and the Son and an inheritance with those that are sanctified in Christ Jesus and shall reign as Kings upon Earth to the Praise and Glory of the Riches of the Grace of our Heavenly Father to whom alone be all Power Dominion Honour and Glory for ever and ever W. D. A Word from the Lord to all that are waiting on the Lord in Sion and those that are weeping and are seeking the Lord their God asking the way to Sion with their Faces thitherwards FEar not ye Mourners in Sion the Lord waits on you to be gracious unto you and though he give you the Bread of Adversity now and the Water of Affliction yet shall not your Teacher be removed into Corners any more but your Eyes shall see your Teacher and your Ears shall hear a Voyce behind you saying this is the way walk in it when you turn to the right Hand or to the left therefore every one
all take your full delight in his joyful presence and all in pure love walk together the glory of the most high God rest upon you and your beloved Families and Children whom the Lord hath blessed you with And all the People shall confess in the day determined that you with the rest of the faithful are the righteous Seed that the Lord hath blessed to whom the wicked shall bend and come under to the power which is our Life forever who feel the Life in the Infallible passage and secret Salutation in God where my Soul imbraces you in the eternal Fountain of love and taketh her solace in the dear and near Union where there can be no Separation but everlasting fellowship one with another forever where my Soul goeth with you in the eternal welfare Dear Brethren and Sisters whom my Soul loves and gives glory to God that ever you had a being in this World to glorifie the Name of the Lord in your Generation with him who remains your Brother W. D. Warwick Common Goal the 2 d day of the 5 th Month 1665. The Word of the Lord to all the Inhabitants in England from the Highest to the Lowest that they mey know his Determination and so be entreated to break off from their Sin in true Obedience unto him that they may escape in the day of his dreadful appearance when no flesh shall stand before him TO all Rulers Teachers and People in the Nation of England and to all the Inhabitants in these Northren Countries in which the mighty Jehovah Lord God omnipotent over all hath determined to raise up his righteous Seed to the exaltation of the glory of his great Name to the fulfilling of the Scriptures of Truth as is Recorded in Ieremiah the 23. Chap. and 7. and 8. verses It shall no more be said the Lord liveth that brought us out of the Land of Egypt but shall be said the Lord liveth that hath raised his Seed and brought it forth of the North Countrey and out of all the Nations where it is scattered and this I have to declare to you all in the Authority of the Word of his Holiness The Lord will manifest according to the determination and purpose of his mind unto a poor people that fear before him and seek the Lord with strong cries and tears day and night that if it be the Pleasure of the Lord all the Inhabitants in England and else where in these Northern Countries might break off from all the evil of their doings in a true resignation to the Light of Jesus that reproves for sin in the secret of their Consciences that so the Lord may turn his fury away and spare the People of the Land of our Nativity that not any be found sealed up to destruction in that day wherein it shall be said Let him that 's filthy be filthy still and let him that 's holy be holy still Oh sad will it be to them who hath neglected the day of the Visitation of the Lord God to their Souls and have not their Consciences washed and their Hearts purified in the Blood of the Lamb for they shall cry but not be regarded and call to the Lord but he will not hear them because the Decree of the Lord will be sealed against all that reject the Counsel of the Lord and the tenders of his Mercy and sport away their precious time in leud and wicked ways amongst the Workers of Iniquity whose condemnation slumbereth not the Day of Gods Vengeance will come as a Thief in the night great destruction will come upon them all that reject the Government of the Soul-saving sanctifying Spirit of the Lord Jesus in this day he is making up his Jewels and putting a difference between them that serve him and them that serve him not and between them that swear and them that fear an Oath Oh what shall I say concerning the People of the Land of my Nativity Oh my Bowels my Bowels are moved within me for her Inhabitants from the highest to the lowest with all in these Northen Countries and in the tender compassion I cannot be silent but in the force of the Spirit of the Lord exhort all who yet witness not redemption from their vain conversations turn turn why will ye die for the Lord God will not be mocked he is of purer Eyes then to behold Iniquity Oh reject not his Counsel neither kick at the reproofs of the Lord for the day of his Patience will not extend for ever neither will his Spirit always strive with man for he is jealous of his Glory Oh turn turn all People and diligently hearken to the Counsel of God the Light of his own Spirit that reproves you secretly in your Hearts and Consciences and look up to the Lord with the eye of your minds in true watchfulness and dependency upon the Lord that he may save you from your iniquities that you may find peace with God whatever befal you in these days of great calamity which is upon the Face of the Earth Oh People if you reject God's Counsel and harden your necks against the reproofs of the Spirit of the Lord. Oh what shall I say unto you seeing there is no minding the Fear of the Lord but every one doth what seemeth good in your own Eyes Oh the pity that 's to you from one that cannot help you but in the sence of your misery that rejects Gods Mercy saith in my secret mournings for you Oh that my Eyes were as a Fountain of Tears that I might water thy Altar Oh Lord day and night that if it were possible thou mightst be prevailed withal and change thy purpose concerning this stiff-necked and hard-hearted People that reject thy Counsel in the Land of our Nativity But notwithstanding all this simpathizing Bowels as one who hath received favour at thy Hands Oh Lord I leave all with thee spare thy People Oh Lord and inable them to go thorough the trial of the day and sweeten their passage and the Cup they are to drink who fear before thee and tremble at the Word of thy Holiness even so be it with them oh Lord. Once more I cannot but exhort all People look about you yea from the highest to the lowest and who hath not desperately sold themselves to do wickedly take a view of the Lords dealings with the People of the Land how he hath shaked the rods of his many Judgments over the Nation which did smite upon many and they were mown down as grass which caused many that feared the Lord to wrestle with him with strong crys day and night that he would stay the hand of the destroying Angel and the Lord heard his poor People and stayed his Hand in a great measure waiting to see if the People of the Land would mend their ways and the Rulers therein would give over persecuting imprisoning spoiling and banishing his poor People who fear before him and serves him in uprightness of their
Hearts day and night and dare not disobey him in what he makes known unto them though they hazard their Liberty and all enjoyments yea life it self so tender are they over the Glory of the Lord who hath given them victory over sin and all selfishness through the Blood of the Lamb and the word of their Testimony no more to love their lives to death c. But Oh you Rulers though God hath stayed his Hand in a great measure that the sound of mortality is not so loud in the Ears as hath been yet how do you answer the end of the Lord seeing that few Prisons in the Nation but the Lords People are in them because of the exercise of their pure Consciences towards the Lord and other cruel proceedings in rending Husband from Wife and Wife from Husband and Parents from Children and Children from Parents and inhumanely banishing them out of their Native Country for these things and other wicked proceedings the Hand of the Lord is stretched out still and the pale Horse is on his way passing to and fro in the Nation and he that rideth thereon is Death smiting and cuting down with the Sword of Plague and Pestilence and if so be you proceed as you have done in executing these cruel Laws against the innocent then will the commission of the Rider of the pale Horse be enlarged and what flesh can stand before the pale Horse seeing the Rider thereon is Death as is recorded in the Scriptures of Truth Rev. 6.8 Oh my Bowels is moved within me for the calamity that will come upon the Nation if you Rulers continue your Persecution for the day of the Lord hastens that they that do wickedly shall be as stubble and the Maker thereof shall be as a Spark and he will blow up the flame in the fierceness of his wrath and who can stand in this terrible dreadful day wherein Christ shall be revealed in flames rendering Vengeance on all them that know him not and obey not the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ c. Further this I exhort all mind what you say and do who hath hardened their Hearts in a boasting Spirit and said we see no difference but these People we cast in Prison God cuts off in a common Calamity as well as others the sence of their sufferings causeth many a Cry and Tear to be poured forth before the Lord and the mighty God answered and said unto my Soul I have beholden the cruelty of Men how they have stowed my People up in Prisons and in the Ship where the infection was and them that hath been taken away their Blood shall be required at their Hands who cast them into Prison and as to all in general that fell in the common Calamity that feared my Name it was to stain the pride of the glory of all Flesh as well amongst my People as others that my People might wait in my Light to stand in a true preparation for the day of their dissolution therefore I take away my People in my everlasting loving kindness from the evil to come but the wicked I cut off in my Fury and they shall reap the fruit of their own doings and this is the substance of what the Lord hath said in taking away his People in this common Calamity therefore let the stout-hearted bend and no more boast themselves in loftiness of their minds to see the righteous taken away for if the judgment begin at the House of God and the righteous scarcely be saved where shall the wicked and ungodly and Sinners appear for yet a little while and the Lord will plead the cause of his People with terrible Vengeance he will manifest himself and the Rod of the wicked shall nor always lye upon the backs of the righteous but their long continued Afflictions will be accomplished in time therefore you meek gentle and peaceable quiet People who abhor every appearance of evil abide in the Word of Patience and pray for them that Persecute you that if it be the Will of God we may prevail with the Lord that their Eyes may be opened and their Hearts softned that they may break off from their evil doings and so escape the terrible vengeance as is before written wherein the Lord will break the Battle out of the Earth and establish purity and peace amongst a people called by his Name that as they have sowen in Sorrow and long-suffering they shall reap with Joy in this great and terrible day of the coming of our Lord which is nigh to be revealed wherein he will say to the wicked that hath imprisoned and afflicted his People Go ye cursed into everlasting Fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels and to his righteous Blessed suffering Seed he will say Come you Blessed of my Father enter into the Kingdom prepared for you before the Foundation of the Earth was laid so shall every one reap the fruit of their doings whether it be good or evil according to their deeds so shall be their reward from the Lord who is over all Blessed for ever Oh London London yea I say once more you Inhabitants of London whose lives was given you for a prey and you stand as Monuments of Gods Mercy to this day while many of your dear Relations Neighbours and Acquaintance were cut down with him that rid upon the pale Horse Oh that you would lay it to Heart who are yet living before the Lord and all turn to the Counsel of the Lord the Light and Manifestation of his Spirit in your own Consciences to guide you in all fear and dread of the Eternal God to wait upon him to feel the opperation of his holy Spirit to guide you in all your words and works that so you may be a good savour unto the Lord in your faithful Obedience to the measure of his Spirit that so he may take delight in you and take away the reproach that hath been cast upon you the Inhabitants of the City of London c. But if you People in the City of London do not prize the Mercies of the Lord but slight all his kindnesses and harden your Hearts and not regard the reproofs of his Spirit but delight your Hearts in pride pleasures pomp riches and glory in this present World and with so doing provoke the Eyes of the Glory of the Great God Oh then what shall I say unto you Inhabitants of London who thus requiâ—e the Lord notwithstanding all his Favours and boundless Mercies which he hath manifested to you in the sight of all People this day Oh if you do not speedily return to the Lord by repentance and break off from all your ungodly ways in obeying the sin-reproving Spirit of the Lord God in your own Consciences I must take up a Lamentation for you in the sence of the misery that I feel will come upon you for the Lord hath determined to bring you down and if you will not be intreated to hearken to
his Counsel the measure of his Spirit in you to guide you in his holy Fear that you may be Heirs of his living Mercies through your holy Conversations then will he come upon you in the fierceness of his Wrath and break you to peeces like Potsherds and get his Glory over all your Heads in the Revelation of his righteous Judgments wherein the Rider of the pale Horse shall execute the pleasure of his own will as he did the last Year upon thy Inhabitants Oh thou City of London so now art thou warned through the Constrainments of the Spirit of the Lord through him that could have no rest till he signified unto thee what is here given forth what the determination of God is Therefore Wo Wo unto the Wicked for it shall go ill with them But Oh blessed be the Faithful Lambs happy are you dear precious and blessed Vessels your Faithfulness to God in your watching waiting in the Light of the Son of Righteousness for whom you have stood as Pillars in the strength of the Almighty Ah your tenderness and love to God and one unto another in the days of great Calamity that hath been amongst you is recorded in the Book of Eternal Remembrance of the living God and in the Hearts of his Righteous Generation never to be forgotten Oh take your Crown of everlasting Blessings you innocent Lambs and Children of Light in the City of London Oh be valiant and keep your state with God that his pure saving sanctifying Spirâ—t may guide you all in purity of Life and Conversation and in the aboundings of the Pure Holy Love to God and one unto another the mighty Jehovah will shew himself for you in the day of great Tribulation you shall rejoyâ—â— when the wicked shall Howle yea you shall tryumph in the Pure Dominion of the Lord of Glory when the wicked shall be turned into Hell and all that forget God the Mouth of the Lord of Hosts hath spoken it Through your Brother in the Tribulation and Kingdom of Patience of the Lord Iesus W. D. Given forth in Obedience to the Lord the 10 th of the 3 d Moneth 1666. Blessed are all who are united to God in the Lord Jesus yea happy are the People that have the Lord for their God. A General Epistle given forth from the Spirit of the Lord to be Read in his Fear in the Assemblies of the Church of the First-Born gathered in these Northern-Countries and in all Countries and Islands where-ever the People of the Lord are scattered over the Face of the Earth Dear Friends CAlled in the Light of the Lord Jesus to stand living Witnesses for him upon the Earth amongst the Children of Men Oh! the Bowels of the Love of the Lord that is in my Heart to you that when I was nigh unto death to the sight of all that saw me as to the outward Man and scarce able to speak I was constrained to give forth the substance of what is now sent amongst you for a perfect discovery of your conditions seeing that many are called and few chosen and many convinced that are not converted therefore are these lines written that you may truly know whether you be born again and redeemed from the Earth yea or nay And in order thereunto let every Man and Woman search their Hearts with the Light of the Lord and it will truly manifest whether you be born again and so feed upon the Tree of Life or otherwise you rest in outward formal conformity to the Tturh and the heart in the Earth and that Spirit will turn against Truth and hath done And some others are drawn to delight their Hearts in the Gifts Parts and knowledge which the Lord hath given them more then in the Lord the Fountain from whence they come and so abuse the gift and feeds upon the fruit of the Tree of Knowledg which puffeth up and maketh Man wise in his own eyes and say in his Heart I am wise and rich sees and wants nothing when they are Blind miserable naked and wants all things and whatever any profess as to the Service of God that is in this condition they have an end to themselves in what they do which grieveth the Spirit of the Lord when Men and Women in a discoursitive Spirit takes upon them to declare the Truth when the Lord neither calls them nor speaketh by them so are the Children born of the Royal Seed burthened for such have turned against the Truth and the Children born of it whom the Lord hath and will ease in the day determined when all mouthes shall be closed in silence but who are opened by him and not any Voice be heard but his own Spirit speaking in and thorow his own Children born of him who alone seeks his Glory and not any thing for themselves which must be denied Therefore seeing the Enemies wiles are great and many let all dread the Lord and who have been led astray wait in the heart-searching Light to see the Mystery of Iniquity where it led them forth and return to the Light to judge down proud exalted self which hath turned against the Truth and bring into true Poverty and abhoring of self to wait at the Throne of Grace for the Lord to raise you up in the Resurrection which raised up Jesus from the dead and in this Life contentious Self is buried in death and the true unity is known where the Lord alone is exalted in purity joy love and peace in all his from the least to the highest growth and all Flesh abased before him who is worthy of all Obedience Praise and Glory for ever Amen And all dear Friends and Brethren that love the Light and rejoyce in the Judgments of the Lord to have subtil Self buried in the true Death that what gifts of the Spirit soever the Lord gives unto you and the Enemy tempt you never so strongly to puff you up in a self-priding spirit in what you have received of the Lord yet his fear is so minded by you which keeps you in a true sence of your nothingness and emptiness in your selves which causes you to wait in true self-denâ—aâ— for the daily assistance and renewing of your strength in the Resurrection of Life in the Lord Jesus and the more he manifests his Power with you the more empty and nothing you appear in your own Fyes And so is the true Birth known which makes Self of no repuration that the Lord may be exalted in his unlimitted power in manifesting himself in the poverty emptiness and nothingness of his people who are born of him that not any Flesh may glory before him but all in truth to say the Lord doth all in me and through me and the Lord shall have the Glory and I will sit in the dust at his feet with all my Brethren and Sisters to serve him and his People through whom we are raised up to sit in the Heavenly places in Christ Jesus in
what I may whilst I have a being amongst the Sons of Men to the glory of his Name for ever And this is the state of the true Disciples of Christ that cannot feed of the Fruit of the Tree of Knowledge although in your Journey and Travels dear Vessels of the Lord you see the Tree of Knowledge to be good where it stands in its place but the Fruit is not good to eat and feed upon because Knowledge puffeth up but Grace maketh humble Therefore dear Brethren and Sisters born of God who cannot live in any enjoyment but as you enjoy the Life and Presence of God from whence every good and perfect gift comes And dear Lambs although some of you be in your own Eyes the meanest amongst the People of the Lord yea at sometimes your Trials is so great that you are ready to account your selves unworthy to be numbred amongst the People of the Lord and yet you dare not disobey him neither can you live without his presence Oh you dear Children of God! lift up your heads over all Temptations and Accusations of the Enemy for your Groans and Cries are entred into the Ears of the Lord God who in the Bowels of his Love and Mercies doth constrain me to proclaim the day of the tender compassion of the Lord to all you who are truly poor in your Spirits Oh blessed are you among the Children of Men for yours is the Kingdom of God. Therefore be not weary of waiting upon the Lord for in his own time he will turn your Sorrows into Joy and give to you the spirit of Praises for the spirit of Heaviness as he hath done to many who have endured the like Temptations Tryals and Sufferings under which you wait this day for Deliverance and the Lord will be the same to you therefore be of good comfort for as the Serpent was lifted up in the Wilderness so is the Son of Man lifted up in the Light and Covenant of Life to heal your Wounds and save you from Sâ—n and to give you Victory over the Enemy in all his appearances so that you thorow Faith in the Name of Christ make War in Righteousness and fighting the good Fight in keeping the Faith you will he made more then Conquerors thorow his Love that he will shed abroad in your Hearts which will cause you to speak of his goodness and praise his Name for all his Mercies And all dear Children of the Lord who do witness in measure that you are truely baptized into his Death â—nd so are made partakers of his Resurrection as is before written which is the Life that worships him according to his own Will and so is truly accepted of him watch and pray that you may be guided in the power of his Spirit in all your ways And be careful that not any be hasty to utter words before the Lord neither suffer any sighs or groans or any thing to be heard to pass thorow you but as you have the seal of the Spirit of the Lord that he requires it of you this I am commanded to lay as a charge upon you that so all Flesh may be truly silent before the Lord and not any voice to be heard but the living Spirit of the Lord speaking in his People which you that wait in the fear of the Lord and minds his leadings may truly know as it is written so doth his Children witness He that hath my Word saith the Lord let him speak my Word faithfully Is not my Word like a Fire and a Hammer that breaks the Rocks in pieces Therefore all mind to feel the Word of the Lord speaking in you that the pure burning Life of the Spirit may be tasted and felt in whatsoever you be exercised in that so you might be fully assured it is not your own work as Man speaking of God but the Lord alone uttering his own voice in the forcible power of his own Spirit in what you are exercised in whether it be to pray in Sighs or Groans or in words or to speak in Exhortation or Praises you are not to quench the Spirit of the Lord in this his day â—hat he is come and doth appear in giving divers gifts unto his People in his appearance as he did amongst his Disciples who waited at Ierusalem for the pourings forth of his Spirit from on high but they that were strangers to the work of the Spirit could not taste the Life that spake in them but said They were mad and full of new Wine c. but the Lord justified them it being the work of his own Spirit and although he gave unto them various gifts yet all in the unity of himself in which they sacrifice in returning to the Lord his own with advantage to the glory of his great Name as his Children doth at this day blessed be his Name for ever that forth of the Mouthes of Babes his praise is declared in their measures as it is with those of higher growth in the Lord and so do the faithful Labourers reap the Fruit for which they Travel that all the People of the Lord may be filled with his Spirit and in the exercise and leadings thereof become a Body of living Ministers and a Family of Prophets the strong leading the weak by the Hand and in tender Love building up one another in their most holy Faith which gives the Victory over the World to Reign in the Heavenly Dominion which causeth the Children of the most high in the Authority of the Lord to say to the greatest Persecutors Oh man do what thou hast power the God whom we serve is able to deliver us out of thy Hand but if he will not we are resolved in his strength to suffer what he permitteth Man to do and this is the holy resolution of all that are Born again and cannot hide your Heads in the time of Persecution because you are Born of the Royal Seed and have overcome the beggerly cowardly earthly-spirit through the Blood of the Lamb and the Word of your Testimony and no more to love your lives to Death And all dear chosen Vessels of the Lord seeing he hath manifested his Grace so largely to you with all diligence be obedient in walking answerably to his Love and Mercy received that as living Witnesses for God you may shine forth in the beauty of Holiness in all your ways and be careful in keeping your Meetings at the time appointed every one endeavouring to be the first at the Meeting that so not any give way to a careless spirit as some have done and so come to Meetings when others have been a considerable time together and so becomes a burden to the diligent and obedient Servants of the Lord and so the Meetings are not so profitable to your comfort as when you meet diligently at the time waiting in the fear of the Lord to feel his sweet Presence which will keep you awake in the Life of his own Spirit to
the glory of his Name and the comfort of one another which will cause you to prize the opportunities God gives to you not knowing how soon you may be deprived of them c. And be tender one over another and watch over one another with a pure single eye and every one see the Beam cast out of your own Eye before you go to spy a Moâ—e in others And if any Brother or Sister offend you that know speak to them privately in all tenderness to restore them and this know Whoever turns a Sinner from the error of his ways saves a Soul from Death and hides a multitude of Sins But if they will not hear take two or three more and speak to them again in the spirit of meekness waiting and seeking the Lord for their recovery but if they will not hear but persist in wickedness then acquaint the Church whom the Lord in his Wisdom will order to deal with them for his own glory And in all things you do I dearly beseech you do unto others as you would be done unto your selves that so you may all in your measures stand as Saviours upon Mount-Sion to the glory of the Lord in the power of his own Spirit which will cause the Whisperer Bcakbiter False-accuser and Tale-bearer to be clensed away and cast out of the House of the Lord that so in the good order of the Holy Spirit of our God we may all live that he alone in his Dominion may reign in us and amongst us whose Government is upon his Shoulders and all the Crowns of the Gory of Man cast down at his Feet that he may be exalted in ordering every member of the Body in their place and service to his everlasting Praise and Glory Even so dear Father carry on thy work in all the Churches of the Saints scattered over the face of the Earth that in the Eternal unity they may be established in the Lord being one and his Name one and all the contrary swept away with the Breath of thy Mouth and brightness of thy coming So come Lord Jesus take to thee thy great Power and reign in thy Authority in and amongst thy dear Children to the astonishment of the Nations and all people that are not born again and to the Exaltation of thy own Name and Kingdom over all who is worthy to reign blessed for ever and of whose Dominion there is no end And all you faithful Labourers in the Gospel of Christ who in true innocency travel in his Strength and seeks not any thing for your selves in what you do but to Glorifie the Lord in establishing his People in the living Unity in his own Spirit Oh blessed are you amongst the People my Soul Praises the Lord for you and blesseth his Name that ever he raised up such a Spirit in you that in all the greatest riches of the Spirit God gives to you yet you remain truly poor in your selves and in deep humilty become Servants to his People for the Lords sake and being poor you make many rich in that which will abide fresh and green in the Winter Storms and will not fade away in the Terrible Blasts which will come for the trial of his People and cause all Hearts to fail but what is born of his own nature Oh dearly beloved Brethren feel my Bowels of enlarged love which floweth to you in the Love and Life received and enioyed thorow death where there is no variableness nor shaddow of change I remain your Brother in the Word of his Patience to endure the Suffering according to his determination with all that love the Lord better then their lives W. D. Warwick the 14 th of the 10 th Month My dear Friends IN these trying days be not afraid of what Man can do whose Breath is in his Nostrils and lock up to the al-sufficiency of the Almighty God to stay your minds in him who hath counted you worthy to Suffer for him In all humility walk faithfully before him unto the end he is your reward and will give unto you a Crown of Life forever even so be it with you in the Name of the Lord is the breathing of my Soul for you whom my Soul loves and keep your Meetings in the Authority and Life of the meek and patient Spirit which wares out and overcomes all things that is not of its nature Read this in the fear of the Lord amongst Friends W. D. Warwâ—ck the 5 th of the 3 d Month 1671. For my dear Brethren George Whitehead A. Parker and Brethren concerned in the General Meeting My dear Brethren IN the Love of the Lord my Soul in the endeared Life of God is with you if the Lord had set my face to have been with you I should have been present in Body but I am ordered otherways having much upon me while the Door is open therefore my breathing to the Lord is that he may cover you in that Assembly with his Glory and heavenly Wisdom as I believe he will to the comfort of his People that so all Hearts may be gladed in feeling his pure Power and heavenly Refreshing in you My dear Brethren in the Light and Life of God whom my Soul loves and remains Your dear Brother in the Vnity of the Spirit of our dear Father who hath called us by his Name W. D. Bristol the 7 th day of the 3 d Month 1673. My dear Brethren Friends are generally in a sweet state with God in this City and where I have passed both to my comfort and yours in the Lord blessed be his Name forever Dear Brother IN the Covenant of Life in Christ our head my Soul salutes thee and simpathizeth with thee in thy exercise in thy Bonds with breathings to the Lord to sweeten all our ways what he calleth us unto with his living Presence to the perfecting of his glory forever Amen Dear George Fox I have been through many Counties in the North Countrey and the comfortable Persence of the Lord did manifest it self in all the Assemblies of his People to all our comfort in him our Head and Life blessed forever All was very peaceable and great Resort to Friends Meetings of all sorts of People and not any opposition but all Meetings parted in peace And it would be too tedious to mention the names of them that minded their Love to thee through all the Counties where I Travelled but generally all the Ancient Friends in Cumberland Northumberland Byshopprick and York-shire Darby-shire Notingham-shire Leicester-shire and in this Town desired to have their dear Love remembred to thee and the deep sence of thy Labour and Travel is fresh upon their Spirits which causeth many Prayers to be poured forth before the Lord if it be his good Will and Pleasure to give thee strength of Body and Liberty to Travel amongst them to their great comfort as in the days of old and years past but in the Will of our God our Souls rests with
in the Light as he is in the Light and so are Partakers of his Divine Nature and as he is so are we in this present World bearing his Name in his righteous Power guiding us in his Light Thought and Will which keeps us in the Heavenly Fellowship with the Father in the Son and one with another in him So all my dear Friends Brethren and Sisters who do witness proud ambitious Self buried in this Heavenly Baptism in Conformity to Christ in his Death and you made alive through Faith in Christ our Light and Life as you have received Christ so walk in him in all Humility and godly Fear and true Watchfulness that your own Thoughts Will and Unbelief have no Dominion over your Spirits but every Minute of Time as they appear through Faith in Christ the perfect Light and Life keep your Dominion and reign over them And thus in Christ being victorious over all Self in you you will reign as Kings in the Authority of the glorious Truth of God over all the Power of Darkness without you So whatever you suffer for the Testimony of the Name of Christ he takes it as done unto himself and better a Milstone were hanged about their Necks and they cast in to the Sea then hurt or offend the least of you my Brethren and Sisters who are regenerated and born again and your Confidence is in the Lord alone So in all your Sufferings whether spoiling Goods or imprisonments or whatever your Trials be from the Sons of Men that you meet withall for your Testimony in the Blessed Truth of God let nothing Discourage you but judge all your own Thoughts and in the Glorious Light and Life in Christ Jesus rest in Peace in the pure Contentation within the Gates of Sion where your Faith and Patience will so abound in you that you shall weary out all your Persecutors and the Blessing of the Aâ—mighty God will be upon your Families who are rent one from another to fulfil the Sufferings of the Body and you shall wear your Crowns who thus patiently wait in a Quiet Mind and Resigned Will And in the Word of the Lord I declare it to all you who suffer Imprisonment as is before written That all the Wrath of the Power of Darkness shall not be able to keep you an Hour longer then the King of Eternal Glory hath determined for the Renown of his Glorious Truth on Earth and your Comfort forever Therefore let Patience have its perfect work for in Peace are we to Conquer and in Quietness to Prevail over all that resist the rising of the King of Glory who liveth in us who hath been Dead but now Alive in whose Life keep your Habitation in the Word of Faith which is in our Hearts and in our Mouths and this is the Word of Faith we preach unto you and which you are to contend for against all Evil Attendances both within and without for by this Word of Faith are the Armies thaâ— would alienate your Souls from the Enjoyment of the Lord within you beaten back and overcome and the Mouth of the Roaring Lyon stopt and all the Fiery Darts of the Devil both within you and without you quenched therefore as the Valiants of Christ Jesus in his Name and Nature contend for the Faith which is delivered unto us his Saints for this is our Victory that overcomes the World even our Faith as it was with our Brethren of old in Ages past I have fought a good Fight I have kept the Faith henceforth is laid up for Me a Crown of Eternal Glâ—ry And here iâ— our Fellowship with the Father in the Son and one with another in him and all dear Brethren and Sisters in this Word of Faith keep your Meetings both valiantly and faithfully that so none of you be found forsaking the assembling of your selves as the manner of some is who are out of the Word of Faith but as the Lord hath counted you worthy to be his Dwelling-place on Earth and his Tabernacle amongst the Children of Men Prize every Oportunity the Lord affordeth you to meet together in his Powerful Holy Name with the Loins of your Minds girt up with the Word of Faith in you which will empty you of Self and cloth you with the Garment of deep Humility and fill you with the Riches of his Everlasting Love and Endless Mercies for God dwelleth with the Humble but the Proud he beholds afar off So without Faith in the Name of Christ and a Humble Spirit the In-dwelling Presence of the King of Eternal Glory you cannot enjoy Therefore I charge you in the Name of the Lord Hearken not to any Suggestions within you nor Counsels without you that would draw you to sleight or forsake meeting together in the Name of the Lord Jesus but let every particular Member know your Service in the Body that by your Faithfulness others be encouraged to meet with you to wait in the Light to feel the Living Refreshings of the Lord and when you are refreshed with the Income of God's sweet Presence be watchful that not any utter words rashly before the Lord to spend your Talent in a forward Spirit to satisfie the Lust that would appear further then the Lord would have them as some have done which has brought them under a great Vail of Darkness and have lost their Way and returned with Sorrow to the burdening the Hearts of the Righteous but Tender Plants wait to know and truly discern between the Milk of the Word and the Words for the Milk of the Word is a Sweet Stream in the Refreshing to the Nourishment of this heavenly Birth that it may grow thereby and some the Enemy hath drawn to speak forth that which they in a retired Silence were to feed upon and grow up in its Nature Therefore dear Friends wait in the Light that the Word of the Lord may dwell plentifully in you as it is written so are we Witnesses If any have my Word let him speak my Word faithfully is not my Word like a Fire and a Hammer that breaks the Rocks in pieces which sealeth up the Testimony God calleth unto in the Heart of his Disciples Therefore all be very circumspect in this weighty Matter that whatever you feel of the Refreshings of God in you that you do not let any thing come forth either in Words or Sounds or any Noises but what is brought forth in the Authority of this Living and Powerful Word then will the Blessing of the Lord attend what is brought forth be it much or little either in Words or Hymns or Joyful Sounds do not quench it but answer the Lord in the Authority of the Word of Eternal Life and the Sons and Daughters of the Lord who are thus exercised will not burden any but it will be a Stream of Refreshing in the Hearts of all the Righteous thus will every Vessel be preserved in the Life of Truth and not go but as the Presence
Enemies but many were Convinced and received the Truth in the Love of it in beholding the Unity of faithful Friends to their everlasting Comfort and the Honour of the Name of the Lord forever which caused my Soul with the rest of the faithful Labourers to praise the Name of the Lord in blessing the Travel of our Souls and giving us to see the Fruit of our Labour â—n hâ—s Vineyard and the Peace and Unity of his People But of late I have heard that thou my antient Friend Edward Nightingal and Iohn Cox with some other in that City doth meet in a Separating spirit from the rest of Friends in that City which casts a Stumbling-block in the way of many And instead of gathering People to receive the Truth you scatter and drive them away and giveth great advantage to them that watch for evil and is of a bad savour and a Wounding of the Spirits of them that truly fear the Lord I can truly say that your meeting in that Separating spirit which is such an evil savour in the Nation hath been and is more Affliction to me then all Persecutions and Imprisonments I have endured unto this day Therefore I intreat and beseech thee my Antient Friend Edward Nightingal with all that meet in the Separation from the rest of Friends in the City to turn your minds to the Light of Christ in you that will let you see you have not done well and with it judge that which hath led you to Separate from meeting with Friends and return to meet with Friends in the City in the sweet Concord Love and Unity in the Life of the Blessed Truth as in the days of old and Years past of which I am a witness with the rest of faithful Friends that in all our Meetings whether in the Prison or in the City we never wanted the sweet appearance of Christ our Life in us and amongst us according to his Promise and our Comfort then and so is it now with all that meet in his Name and Unity with his People as we did in those days which was many Years before the Enemy could get any enterance to make a breach amongst them that make Profession of Gods blessed Truth and to draw some into a self Separation as he hath done you and too many elsewhere For I do assure you it is the work of the Enemy of your Souls for you should not have Separated but have kept your places amongst Friends and not have taken offence because Friends see there might be some service for Truth in meeting twice on the First Day it is very like in that City some that had a Love to Truth might get an opportunity to come to one of the Meetings It is very much to me how you let the Enemy get over you as to cause you to Separate from Friends which if you had kept your places in meeting with Friends you in time might have seen a Service in meeting twice a day as well as they For you may be sure that Separation neither restores any to love the Truth neither gathers any to God but rather scattereth and driveth away some that was gathered in Love to Truth by the painful and faithful Labourers that was truly sent of the Lord as is before written Therefore in the earnings of tender Bowels of the Love of God to you I once more beseech you that you in Humiliation wait in the Light of Christ he will let you see how the Enemy led you from the Light out of your places when you Separated from Meeting with Friends and in yeilding obedience to the Light it will bring you into your places again to meet with Friends to your Comfort and the Honour of the Name of the Lord according to the Counsel of the Lord in my Heart here sent unto you But if you reject the Council of the Lord which in his Love I am moved to send these Lines unto you then shall I Lament your Conditions because of the evil consequence your Separation will produce to your sorrow and wounding many God would not have Wounded for which you must give an account And before you lay down your Heads in peace you will remember me who hath not hide from you the Counsel of the Lord. W. D. Warwick the 21 st day of the 11 th Month 1684. A General Epistle to Friends from that Ancient Servant of Christ William Dewsbury MY Dear Friends and Brethren who are called forth of the World and pluckt as Brands out of the Fire by the Heavenly Power of God and hath Convinced you of his Everlasting Truth in the Light of Jesus Christ My dear Friends as have you received the Truth in some measure watch and pray and Believe in the Name of Christ that his Power you may feel in the Heavenly Inspiration of his blessed Spirit to lay Judgment to the Line and Righteousness to the Plummet that all that is not Obedient to the Light of Christ may be kept down and buried in the Heavenly Baptism under the Sentence of Death as it was and is with all the Children of God who have received the Sentence of Death in our selves that we may have no confidence in our selves but alone trust in the Living God which will keep you all in the sweet seasoned savory Spirit of Life in all your Words Tradings and Dealings amongst the Children of Men then will you be manifest and known to all People to be the Salt of the Earth who retain the savour of the Heavenly Life in the Blessed Truth in you that every one according to your Measure may be felt upon all occasions continually streaming forth in the savoury Spirit of Life to the Comfort of your own Families and the City of God who over all is Blessed forever And my dear Friends I desire all to be watchful that not any come short of what is required of them both Rulers of Families and Parents of Children while you have a day to be with them call your Families together to wait upon the Lord in the fear of his Name certainly the Lord will answer the end of your endeavours in causing the savoury Life to stream through you to season your Servants and Children that the Church of God may be in every paâ—ticular Family and Habitation of his People Great is tâ—e concern upon my Spirit for the Children of all that profess the blessed Truth of God that all Parents may stand iâ— their places to bring up their Children in the fear of the Lord while they are in their Minority and tender Years and under their tuishion not to be too indulgent to them in suffering the Spirit of the World to rule in them to have their own wills and to do those things which are not according to the Truth of God and to connive at their Children instead of reproving of them and crossing the Spirit of the World in them and causing them to be content with such things as is
according to the Truth of our God and for want of this carefulness in Parents the Spirit of the World is strengthened in their Children when it should be kept down by the heavenly Authority and Power that the Lord hath given to their Parents to rule over them and nâ—t to let them have their own wills satisfied in any thing which is contrary to the Truth of God and all in his Wisdom so walk with such Moderation in all things as well as clothed in modest Apparel laying by all Superfluity that your good Examples may raise up the witness of God in your Children and for want of this care in some Parents and being too indulgent and full of lenity to their Children they grow Rude Stubborn Self-willed and Disobedient to their Parents while they are under their tuishion to the wounding of the Hearts of their Parents who neglected their duty as to the Government of their Children in their tender Years Therefore I desire and beseech you in this weighty concern that you slight not the oppertunity God gives you to be in all things a good Example to all that live with you both Children and Servants that by your godly Conversation and heavenly Exhortations you raise up the Witness for God in your Children and Servants and in exercising the Power God hath given to you to cross and keep down the evil Nature while they live with you And when your Children grow up take them to Meetings and keep your Eyes over them that they behave themselves soberly according to your Exhortations then encourage them in wel-doing so will the Lord bless your sweet and heavenly Behaviour in your Families that Servants will bless God that ever it was their lots to come into your Families in that their Spirits were sweetly seasoned with the Truth by your heavenly Behaviour and Care over them c. and your Children will magnifie the Name of the Lord for your blessed Care and heavenly Instructions and godly Endeavours every way for their good in this World and their eternal happiness in the World to come which will Crown the hoary Heads of their Parents with Joy to see their blessed care and endeavours sanctified to their Children and to see their Off-spring to be made the Off-spring and Children of God blessed be his Name forever who heareth the Prayers of his People who is exercised daily in the heavenly inspiration of his holy Spirit to call upon his holy Name not only for Enemies but for a blessing upon their Families and for all that love the Truth of our God these are the Families that are a sweet savour to the Lord that he guards with the Angel of his presence and wiâ—l make them manifest and known to all People that they are his chosen Jewels whom he will preserve in the day when he will pour forth his Vengence upon the Heathen that know him not and upon all the Families that call not upon his Name And if any of these Children of these heavenly minded Parents when they are from under their tuishion for want of watchfulness grow into carelesness and turn their backs of the blessed Truth of God and trample all the care and good counsel of their Parents under their Feet to satisfie their own Wills in the Pride and Vanity of this evil World to the wounding of the Hearts of their careful and loving Parents they will be clear of their Blood when they shall reap the fruit of their doings except they Repent And all you young and tender People with others that come among Friends through the education of your careful Parents Masters or Mistrisses you have been under I have a concern upon my Spirit to write to you that you do not rest in an outward profession of the Truth by what you have received by Education but all watch to the heart searching Light of Christ in you which will let you see you must be Regenerated and Born again and so be made real and faithful Friends by the Heavenly inspiration of the powerful Spirit of God in you which if you be careful upon your watch you will see Judgment upon all in you that is not obedient to the Light of Christ in whose Light you will see more Light that will let you see your great necessity of the enjoyment of the Life which is hid with Christ in God which will cause you to pray without ceasing that the Lord would enable you to loath and abhor the Pride Pomp and Pleasure of this evil World and to give you assurance of Gods Love to your Souls and until you enjoy it in all places of your retirement you will pour forth your Supplications with Tears to the Lord as the blessed and heavenly Travellers and Companions did and doth who could not find the Kingdom of God in outward observations tho none more faithful in observing what is made known to them to be the Will of God but the Kingdom of God not consisting in outward observations you in the Light press forward according to your Spiritual Hunger and Thirst in true poverty of Spirit weeping and seeking the Lord your God asking the way to Sion with your Faces thitherward that you may enjoy his Salvation for Walls and Bulwarks Oh you blessed Children of the Lord lift up your Heads and stay your Minds upon the Lord patiently waiting upon him he will turn your Sorrows into everlasting rejoycing and seal you up with the holy Spirit of Promise and in the marriage union with himself and will give you assurance of your eternal Salvation then you will certainly know the Kingdom of God to be within you and the anointing to teach you which will enable you to delight in taking up the Cross daily in true obedience to the Light of Christ all the days you have a being amongst the Children of Men then will you in the Name of the Lord 〈◊〉 upon the Pride Pomp Pleasures and Vanity o◠〈◊〉 evil World to the great Comfort of your dear and careful Parents Masters and Mistrisses whose tuishion you were under in your minority and tender Years and to all that walk in the precious Truth of our God over all blessed foâ—ever Amen And all dear Friends and Brethren seeing the Lord who turneth the Hearts of Men as Rivers of Waters and in his loving kindness so ordereth those in Authority that the Prison Doors were opened once more in our day to injoy Peace and Quâ—etness according to his blessed will Praises be to his holy Name for evermore I have a concern upon my Spirit that all Friends and Brethren have their Hearts affected as mine is to live in the sence of the Mercies of the Lord and every one for the time to come endeavour to prevent the Enemy in what he hath been a doing of late Years to make disâ—union amongst Friends and Brethren by publick opposiâ—ion of some and others not patiently keeping in their places hath also separated the differnce being so publick
Holy God you trample and reign over the greatest subtilty which in the Mistery of iniquity transforms it self as is before written that so you may in the service of Love in the meek healing compassinate Spirit of Jesus gather all the tender hearted forth of all Sects Forms and Opinions with all that hath strayed from the foot-steps of the Flock of the Companions in the Light of the Lord with us to walk in faithfulness all their days until their change come that if it be possible that not any may be lost who hunger after righteousness and hath their Faces set towards Sion That so in the heavenly Harmony all that have truly sought the Face of God may in his pure Light Life and Dominion walk together with us in the unlimitted Bowels of Love in the Lord Jesus to the confounding of all Sion's Enemies who in the time determined of our God shall come bending to the Soles of the Feet of the afflicted suffering Lambs of my Father who Love the Lord better then your Lives and your Neighbour as your self yea and they that withstand you shaâ—l in the day determined of God confess it is in vain for any to strive to bring to pass their evil intents upon a People beloved of God whom he will carry through by his Almighty Power and save with the Arm of his Salvation for every Tongue lifted up against you shall fall in judgment and all Weapons formed against you shall not prosper but come to nought and you shall see the mighty salvation of God for your joy which the Lord will hasten more and more to the astonishment of all that withstand the rising of his Glory and you shall certainly know this is to you the Word of the Lord God declared thorow your Brother and Companion in the Tribulation and Kingdom of Patience in the Lord Jesus Christ. Farewel W. D. From the Common Goal in Warwick sent forth at the command of the Lord the 8 th of the 3 th Moâ—eth 1665. Blessed are they that overcometh through the Blood of the Lamb and the word of their Testimony and love their lives no more to Death The Discovery of Mans return to his first Estate by the Operation of the Power of God in the great work of Regeneration And a Word to the Back-slider who hath tasted of the good Word of God and the Powers of the World to come and hath turned from the Grace of God into wantonness and gone back into spiritual Sodom and Egypt where our Lord is crucified Also a discovery of mystery Babylon and her Merchants And a word to the hard-hearted unbelieving Iews Professors who profess Christ in words but stumble at his Light in their Consciences to theiâ— own Destruction With a Word to all Saints who have set their Faces towards Sion to seek the Lord their God and to those that are waiting therein to worship him in Spirit and Truth And a Word of Consolation unto the travelling Child that yet sits in Darkness being deeply afflicted and wounded in Spirit through ignorance of Salvation in the New Covenant in Christ Jesus the Light. All Men and Women behold and see in what Estate you were Created ANd God said let us make Man in our Image God created Man in his own Image and in the Image of God created he Him Male and Female created he them And the Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to dress and keep it and the Lord God Commanded the Man saying of every Tree in the Garden thou mayest freely eat but of the Tree of knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat of it for in the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely dye the death The Serpent was more subtile then any beast of the Field which the Lord God had made he said unto the Woman ye shall not surely die for God doth know that in the day you eat thereof your Eyes shall be opened and ye shall be as Gods knowing good and evil And when the Woman saw the Tree was good for food and that it was pleasant unto the Eyes and a Tree to be desired to make one wise she took the Fruit thereof and did eat and gave also to her Husband with her and he did eat And the Eyes of them both were opened and they knew that they were naked and they sewed fig-leaves together and made them aprons And they heard the Voice of the Lord God walking in the Garden in the cool of the day and Adam and his Wife hid themselves from the Presence of the Lord among the Trees of the Garden and the Lord God called unto Adam and said unto him where art thou And he said I heard thy voice in the Garden and was afraid and because I was naked I hid my self And he said who told thee that thou wast naked hast thou eaten of the Tree whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat and the Man said the Woman whom thou gavest to be with me she gave me of the Tree and I did eat And the Lord God said unto the woman what is this that thou hast done the woman said the Serpent beguiled me and I did eat And the Lord God said unto the Serpent because thou hast done this thou art cursed above all Cattel and above every Beast of the Field upon thy Belley shalt thou go and Dust shalt thou eat all the Days of thy Life And I will put Enmity betwixt thee and the Woman and between thy Seed and her Seed it shall bruise thy Head and thou shalt bruise his Heel And the Lord God said Behold this Man is become as one of us to know good and evil and now lest he put forth his Hand and take also of the Tree of Life and eat and live forever therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the Garden of Eden to till the ground from whence he was taken And he drove out the Man and placed at the East of the Garden of Eden Cherubims and a flaming Sword which turned every way to keep the way of the Tree of Life Every Man and Women behold and see how you are fallen from the estate and condition you were created in you were created in the Image of God to delight alone in him but you are fallen in obeying the counsel of the Serpent and are driven out of the Presence of God into the Earth and there your minds are feeding upon the dust of the Earth created oâ—jects which will perish some delight in Father and Mother some in Wife and Children some in Houfe and Lands some in Money and Gold some in Meats and Drinks some in Raiment what they shall put on some in Lusts and Pleasures in Wantonness vain idle Communication foolish Jesting and Laughter which is Madness and Folly and some in Honour and Preferments in this World wherein their Hearts are lifted up in Pride and Exaltation above others