A TESTIMONY TO THE FREE and UNIVERSAL LOVE of GOD IN JESVS CHRIST TO THE SONS of MEN IN True Love sent forth more especially to the Inhabitants of Colchester and Parts adjacent For them to read over and weigh with due and serious Consideration in the blessed Fear of the LORD By THOMAS BAYLE Hear Counsel and receive Instruction that thou mayest be Wise in thy latter end LONDON Printed in the Year 1675. THe Universal Love and free Grace of God to man kind is again after a sad and deplorable night of darkness revealed and shewed unto thousands who have waited upon him in his holy Light and Heavenly manifestation in their hearts and consciences and testified of and born witness unto in this our age and generation for to enjoy which what sighing what breathing for and soul-traveling after in a holy hunger and thirst in deep exercise and travel of Spirit in a holy faith and fear in the Lord hath there been by many in former dayes and times some yet living are able to give some testimony thereof And this happy and blessed appearance of the Lord to the call and restitution of mankind to this his great kindness in Jesus Christ hath been sounded forth in this place and parts and that truly I may say according to the Nature of it which is free and universal and plentious from the God and Father of it and that very largly with clearness and certainty by his Servants his Messengers and Ministers who here in this Town and County have laboured for several years by past both by word and writing And the Lord hath given them fervencie of Spirit zeal and courage and also utterance in judgment and understanding that sinners might be converted unto him and people come again to partake of that heavenly blessed life which in the true light which now shines is made manifest which the Saints and people of the Lord partaked of in the primitive times and notwithstanding this certain and infallible testimony which hath been held forth in this place for these 20 years past in kindness tenderness and love unfeigned with freeness to bring Souls home to the Lord yet what darkness security and insensibility of heart and mind is there remaining in the Consciences and Spirits of the generality of you as if there were no such thing as Religion in truth and righteousness to be minded as if the Lord God had forsaken the habitable parts of the earth for man to live in the perverse wayes of his own heart and as if you had outlived that belief which formerly was as a standing Principle or Faith in peoples minds of comeing to Judgment for the deeds done in the body both the quick and the dead the good and the bad as the Scriptures testifie of and that there is no such thing to be as punishment unto the evil doer tribulation anguish and pain upon every soul that doth evil nor reward of life eternal to them that do well And this great evil which is false hearts ease and security in the flesh aboundeth very much amongst you even in and amongst you my Neighbours Townsmen and Acquaintance and the consideration thereof with grief and sorrow of heart have I seriously weighed within my self and certainly can conclude nothing but a sad and woful distruction from God Almighty to be rewarded in flames of Fire from Heaven into the bosoms of all such as persevere therein until their departure hence and be no more seen And therefore this is a warning and charge unto you into whose hands it may come that you break off your sins by timely repentance and seek the Lord whilst he may be found and that in discharge of my Conscience in the sight of God that the Testimony of the truth of our God may be kept up over the heads of all disobedient gainsayers and that that holy heavenly Principle the Light of Christ Jesus in the Consciences of all people may have its place and due Authority in your hearts and lives to the eternal Honour and Praise of so gratious and bountiful a giver and to your blessedness and great felicity here in this life and hereafter when time with you shall be no more And God Almighty the sercher of our hearts knows to whose righteous eternal and everlasting Judgment we shall all shortly stand and for ever be concluded that my end and intent herein is Gods glory and your salvation this is my sole and alone end and intent in this matter And therefore bear with me a little in patience and quietness of your Spirits and let not your hearts be like a boyling pot because I write unto you whom men dispise and am by Scorns called a Quaker for be it known unto you that if so you entertain my lines and that innocent love which draws my heart in gentleness to visit you that you will be left in the hardness of your hearts the more to fill up the measure of your iniquity that Judgment may come upon you for all your evil deeds And now concerning what I have to write or chiefly intend hereby I shall write it as to two sorts of men or as in two states and conditions although they have different branches yet springing from one and the self same root of evil and not all sinners according to one similitude and these I call Prophane and Professor And by Prophane I intend such as make not a Profession of Godliness no more indeed than those that never heard of such a thing or as men without God in the world as such there are amongst you their lives testifie unto me herein and are such as live in wildness ignorance disorder and confusion and cry tush who seeth such whose natures are given way unto which are not civil but rude And this ought not to be and it is time for such not to walk as in the dayes that are past wherein fear that is holy humility sobriety and chastity were set at nought for to possess and live in bad things as lying stealing whoredome wrath drunkenness swearing and many wicked things more which is a shame to any people a burthen to the Creation of God vexing the just and the righteous And oh you untoward people the sound of these things the evil effects thereof how do I and many more pass through the streets and lanes with the nauseous smell and burthen of them falling upon us for which we cannot but cry unto the Lord our God under the heavy oppression of And for these things the cryes ascend up from the innocent souls against you and the Lord is weary of iniquity and would rid his Adversary out of his way and destroy him by the brightness of his coming who worketh great evil in you great sin and transgression against God and against your own souls and I ask you what good doth your drunkenness or your swearing do you or any other of those evils which you accustome your selves unto I am
on your sick beds cry out O that the Lord would spare me this time I would take warning and become a new Creature and live a more holy self-denying life than ever I did and thus oft times the flamingness of it and the sharpness of it comes neer you yea very neer you even into your bosoms but the way to get to the tree of life is not by a few false words and promises utter'd on a sick or dying bed from an impenitent deceitful heart which being in torment would have some cool water poured upon it for I have sometime known when some such have been spared and let these my words enter into your hearts consideration who are concerned herein they have soon forgot God that smot them and have returned with more greediness to that evil conversation for which the just hand of God was lifted up in smart rebuke against them therefore take heed to watch over your wayes and doings whilst you have time but this is the way O Man and Woman to this tree of life spoken of return return from the evil of your wayes and doings and kiss the Son that is to say embrace him hearken diligently in all bowedness of Spirit and humility of Soul upon this his inshining ingrâ—fâ—ed word which is able alone to save your souls and none other nor nothing else and here the soul that sinneth must dye and the judgment must be executed and the flaming Sword have its place and do its work which is quick and sharp and divideth between joynts and marrow soul and spirit and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart can any thing come more neer to a man feel ye this have ye felt or do ye feel this sharpness this quickness for it is to be felt this dividing Sword of the Lord which divides between a man and his lovers and know your selves to be redeemed from that Spirit of transgression which hath ruled in your hearts and yet does and has the dominion there and know the Adversary is destroyed by the brightness of his comeing who comes to finish transgression and to make an end of sin It 's time for you this to learn and know and happy shall you be if now you come forth to the help of the Lord against the mighty and keep not back your lusts pleasures nor sinful sports and pass-times but deny your selves in those things and be willing and obedient take the yoak of Christ upon you and learn of him who saith hold that fast which thou hast that you may eat the good of the good Land the promised Land of Rest to your souls which flows with Milk and Honey but as Israel of old could not go on in hope to possess the Land of Canaan but by passing from Egypt through the Red Sea and a vast and weary Wilderness wherein great exercises tryals and sorrows were no more can ye inherit substance the inheritance of the Saints in Light and possess that peace which the world can neither give nor take away but by taking up the dayly Cross and following him who said unto the woman that asked him to have her two Sons to sit the one at his right hand and the other at his left hand in his Kingdom Can ye be Baptized with that Baptism that I shall be Baptized with can ye drink of that Cup that I shall drink of are you willing to suffer with him and to be made like unto him who was a man of sorrow even like unto his death and to bear about in your bodies the dying of the Lord Jesus that so through the dying and the death you may come to know life and the quicknings of it and its virtue and holy opperation to fashion and mould you to fit and prepare you for that Kingdom for that Crown and weight of Glory which is laid up in store for all them that believe in Jesus Christ and follow him through the Regeneration for through the being made in fellowship with him in his sufferings and raised unto life by that eternal Spirit which raised up Jesus from the dead thou mayest reign with him in his Glory in his blessedness and eternal life world without end But ye my Neighbours and Acquaintance I have often seen and taken notice of a Spirit and Life in you altogether contrary hereunto as being disorderly a scoffing mocking Spirit of Ishmaels nature abounding amongst you against the Spirit of the Lord and its teachings and movings against the holy Light of Jesus Christ within and the Professors and Witnesses of it which hath and doth tend greatly to the grief and burthen of Gods holy Spirit which is teaching and if you have not the Spirit of Christ you are none of his and this your unchristian carriage and behaviour the Lord will require it into your bosoms in the day wherein he will enter into Judgment with you and then it will be unutterable sad for you and then you will find your selves as far from an excuse for your so doing as the man was who was speechless when it was said unto him Friend how camest thou hither not having on the Wedding Garment this will be your state then for I tell you there is no excuse now to be made no pleading of Ignorance now no saying although many foolish ignorant people will now so say when the Lord gives grace or when the Lords time is come and when the Lord please to give us power then so and so but take ye notice and let it be a warning unto you and an information the Grace of God is given the true Light now shines by which thou mayest see and know and understand the things that belong to thy peace and therefore shut not thine eyes stop not thine ears fold not thy arms and cry Yet a little more sleep in sin and in the lusts of this world lest God in Judgment leave thee to be past feeling and thou be shut up and sealed up in utter darkness where shall be weeping and wailing for ever more Doth not Wisdom cry doth not Understanding utter her voice blessed is the man that heareth me watching dayly at my gates and giving attendance at the posts of my doors for he that findeth me findeth life and she is ready to receive those that wait for her and prevent those that early seek her by first shewing her self unto them so be not ye dull of hearing shut not your eyes from beholding Wisdoms wayes be not careless in your Spirits and presumptuous trifling away your pretious time in a light mocking scoffing Spirit for such walk after their own ungodly lusts but learn wisdom which is the fear of the Lord whilst you may and to redeem the time that you have mispent have ye a watchful careful mind and Spirit in the Lord least also that little time which remains unto you be likewise spent in vain and you pass away speedily into the pit with the workers of iniquity
sure you are deprived thereby of comfort peace and content here and which is more if not repented of and that your repentance be before it be too late will certainly end in your ruine and destruction for ever more And therefore repent repent of these your abominations and live no longer in the lusts of your own evil hearts but be ye considerate of your wayes and doings of the tendency and end of them for you are not wholly wrapt up in ignorance the knowledge of sin and evil in some measure you have enough to condemn you if you repent not if you put not away the evil of your doings and learn soberness justness truth and those things which the Lord requires of you for I have shewed thee O man saith the Lords Prophet what the Lord requires of thee and the Lords Prophet which he hath raised up saith the same to you now this knowledge and understanding as I said in some measure you have for you your selves know you should not swear nor lye nor steal nor be drunk nor violent as lately some to their shame shewed themselves and where will you hide you and what cloak will you take upon you for Christ Jesus the Judge is come to cover you from his all-seeing eye from whom in his light you have seen these things to be evil to be bad to be against him and that you cannot stand by them but are condemned in your selves for them and cry out God forgive me I should not swear or be drunk or the like but why then do you are you altogether ignorant that they that know their Masters will and doth it not are worthy to be beaten with many stripes no not ignorant wholly or altogether for if so then no crying to God for forgiveness would proceed from you for where there is no Law there is no transgression but it seems here is Law with you and Transgression with you and therefore you cry out to the Lord whom you know you have sinned against for forgiveness so this you well know and are not ignorant of And thus you lye in great desolation and take ye heed lest it prove a desolation for ever and that your scattered broken state you never witness the true Shepheards Crook to pull you out of it into that holy power which would if you would submit thereto keep and preserve you from that spirit of darkness ignorance and profaneness which now you are possess'd and so fill'd with and overcome by as that no escape or deliverance is by you known or sought after but he the evil one which hath ruled in your members in a sad and woful night of transgression still reigns and rules as if you were made for his service and he as of right the just Lord and Ruler over you Now you may understand that he that made you made you for another purpose and for another end as that which should be profitable unto you and of great advantage as namely a Crown of Glory upon your heads and that is that you should serve him that made you which is reasonable even that heavenly bright and holy spirit of Wisdome and power which formed you and gave you being and understanding and knowledge beyond the Beasts of the field or the most excellent earthly Creatures and Bodies which you see moving upon the face of the Earth and that service which he expects from accepts and receives of his Creatures Man and Woman is performed in and by a pure holy contrite humble heart and spirit and that it may be the fruit and product thereof and not that which springs from a corrupted heart and root and to that end the Lord God hath bestowed upon mankind universally without respect to persons a measure of holyness and purity which is of his own nature and purity and doth proceed from him the Father of Lights to gather man again out of the state of Darkness and death where you are who walk in the lusts of the flesh into a state of glory a renewed state where all things are become new clear and pure to walk in the Light thereof and glorious shinings in their hearts And to this largely testifie the holy Scriptures which I doubt not but some of you at some time or other have read somewhat of wherein it 's said That the grace of God which brings Salvation hath appeared to all men if to all men then to you teaching us who were they they that believed in it and obeyed it to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts and it would do the same for you and teach you as well as they to live soberly and righteously in this present evil world if you would bring your deeds to it if you loved not darkness rather than light if you would bow down in heart and conscience in obedience and full submission to it for it's work and the very end of its being given by the good giver of it is to reprove convince instruct guide and rule in righteousness and therein is it to be found and enjoyed and the benefit that comes thereby and not where you are in disobedience gainsaying and rebellion for never any enjoyed it or its teachings and leadings in such a state although it knocks often and calls to forsake death but by submission to its pure holy teachings and requirings and this is the Lords Messenger and Angel of his holy Power by which he calls unto man to hearken unto him to forsake death and live that so to him doth call to return And this voice it 's said is behind man who is gone forth from it through the subtilty of that Serpent who at first did and still doth deceive man through mans hearkening unto him calling upon him to go back again and to go home to the Fathers house and not to go forth for no teacher is like unto him as all who have come to his teaching in this age and in all ages past have constantly born witness But now you must be willing and obedient if you would enjoy this innocent life this Pearl of great price this hope of Glory than which there is none besides you must receive it according to the Counsel of his own will his Testimony is I am come not to send Peace on the earth but a Sword Fallen man cannot put forth his own hand to take of the Tree of Life and live for there is a Sword a flaming Sword put into the hand of Cherubims which turns every way to keep him from it of this you may have read Thus was Adam in his transgression stopt and be you assured this Sword is not taken down but still turneth against you I believe many of you at times feell the turning or shaking of it against you which makes you to fear to tremble to be afraid and some to feel such horrour torment and perplexity of spirit within you when the thoughts or consideration of death comes neer you and who in your weakness of body
out of which there is no Redemption for mans life soon passeth away it 's said to be swifter than a Weavers Shuttle the swift passing away of which many of you have a certain knowledge of and swifter than a Post that tarrieth not and what know you who shall live until to-morrow it is said to-day whilst it is called to-day the time present is only ours all flesh is grass and the glory of man as the flower of the field and doth not the grass soon wither and the flower soon fade away even such is this present certain-uncertain state and life of ours but the word of the Lord which David said he hid in his heart that he might not sin against him endures for ever hide it likewise in your hearts that ye may have it for your friend in the most needful time which is at hand and cannot nor must not be delayed And now my mind is turned in tender love towards you O ye the people of Profession that make profession of God and Christ the holy Spirit and Scriptures of truth O that ye were found in the possession and inheritance of these things that so much barrenness of soul heaviness of Spirit and dulness of sight and hearing might not abound amongst you as there does for instead of a garden dressed by the hand of a skilful Husbandman you are as a field of a Forrest where the hedge is broken down and where the beasts of the Forrest have their repose O that I could say of you that ye are as a watered garden as a fruitful Land which the Lord hath blessed and that his dew dew from heaven is distilled plentuously into your souls that thereby your hearts are revived and made to leap for joy but I see you like many fenced Cities laid waste and like a fruitful Land turned into barrenness for the wickedness of them that dwell therein For Friends if to the Line you be brought crookedness and perversness doth appear and the Ax must come upon you before you will be squar'd for the Lords heavenly building and when you are weighed in the ballance of the Sanctuary you are found too light so that assuredly the hand writing upon the wall is as certainly against you as it was against Belshazzer and the Kingdom will be taken from you and therefore I your Neighbour and Friend do counsel and advise you as one who hath received great mercy and kindness of the Lord to return and come from those things wherein you have exercised your selves and have a life in things without substance life or virtue unto him that searcheth your hearts that stands at the door and knocks why should he not be let in for he speaketh on this wise if any man hear my voice and opens the door to me I will come into him and sup with him and he with me and is not this encouragement enough to satisfie your souls and to answer his desire in letting him in for his presence giveth life and at his right hand are pleasures for ever more he shews unto man his thoughts and makes manifest what is reprovable I say at the door he stands and knocks open ye unto him and in the humility of your hearts and let not his wooings be any longer slighted by you yea be ye open ye everlasting gates that the holy one may enter in and dispise not his lowly appearance but sit ye down under his shaddow and his fruit will be sweet to your taste come come away from the barren Mountains where the pasture of life is not enjoyed and come taste with me and many thousands more how good he is and see and behold how lovely he is and beautiful altogether for I must tell you that your Forms your Ordinances and Observations which you have set up to worship the Lord in are lifeless sapless things empty and void of the Spirit of Life yea empty sounds and notions so that your withering is seen the covering wherewith you cover your selves is not of the Spirit of the Lord and your nakedness doth appear your darkness is felt in which you grope after that namely eternal life which you cannot attain unto therein the life is â—â—â—ified the holy one is ascended over it all and his cry is unto man and unto the sons of men Worship God give glory and honour unto his Name who made the heavens and the earth for he seeketh such to worship him and in the spirit and in the truth it must be performed therefore cease ye from the works of your own hands and cease ye from the man whose breath is in his nostrils for wherein is he to be accounted of truly my Friends not at all I have tryed them I have tryed them in the day of my distress when the heart-sercher found me out and when he arose to Judgment who pleads with all flesh by burning and devouring fire then my iniquity became my burthen and my soul wanted a Saviour and a thousand worlds had I had them would I have parted with for the bosom of this beloved I tryed first one and then another and found them short of giving food to my soul or Phisitians of value the best of them so accounted of then said I unto the Lord Lift up thou the light of thy countenance upon me Lighten mine eyes O Lord lest I sleep the sleep of death and whilst I read the Scriptures I did clearly see that I was short of that blessed life in which the righteous obtained the Promises and I a poor miserable captive whose captivity had been long and grievous cryed out before the Lord in distress which is unutterable and said Surely thy love in sending Jesus Christ into the world to save sinners is in vain as to me for I have not the benefit thereof a sad time it was mourning and sorrow was as my dayly food and in distress and grief I mourned out many of my dayes and nights before the Lord who alone knew my sorrow and unto whom alone my soul cryed for relief and at length he was pleased to shorten those dayes and satisfie my soul in the dayly waiting upon him with his goodness And now Friends in the holy sence and blessed effect thereof doth my soul thus labour for you that you also may be incouraged to trust alone in the Name of the Lord revealed which is not afar off but neer you and in you to work your works for you that he may deliver your souls from the pit and pluck your feet out of the mire and clay where they stick fast whatever you think and will stick fast if not unto him you answer whilst he calls who doth enlighten you that so through his heavenly shinings into your hearts you may thereby in him believe and be saved with an everlasting salvation And Friends you pretend to Reformation and to Separation but from what and to what the voice and cry of the Holy One who is going forth to slay