God And now after all the spoil that hath been made on the Goods and Persons of an innocent people many of whose bloods have been shed in your Streets witness Horsly-down meeting After all this the matter of Fact which the Innocent people called Quakers have been accused of it hath not at all been prov'd against them neither hath there been any cause of a ground given to suspect their Meetings to be any wayes tending to Sedition c. They have been alwayes peaceable on their parts and therein the peace and well-being of all hath been sought When you are awakered and the Book opened wherein your wickedness is recorded then will the Meetings of the People called Quakers appear unto you as aforesaid And so all you who are wondering at a peoples standing still in Silence to wait upon the Living God to receive Counsel of him that by the same they may be guided in the way and path of Life would it not be good if all would do the same And not run forward in Satans Counsels in envy hatred and malice till you come to be bitten and devoured one of and by another What is it the near to have the names of Christians when there is none of Christs Spirit or Nature in you Be not deceived the Living God will not be mocked though in his tender mercy he hath yet spared many Vials of wrath and hath not poured them forth but instead thereof he hath caused many to go out in dread and fear to testifie of his good will upon repentance and amendment of life but that love having been slighted the contrary will come heavy at last and then your courage and valour which you have exercised against an innocent people that will fail you and fear and trembling and amzement that will seize upon you Brambles and Thornes whose nature is to Tear and Rend cannot stand against a consuming Fire Come hearken all that have a Finger in this Dish have you not betrayed your Master are you not called Christians and should not Christians have all one Master Did not the name of Christian come by him who is Master of all and hath all power in Heaven and Earth and was it not given to them who came out of the Heathenish nature who came under the power which was manifest to destroy the works of the Devil and the nature of the Devil's power which is to Rend Tear and Devour coming in Troops as he did upon Jobs Goods in Troops of Caldeans and Bands and Troops of Sabeans So have not you who are in the same works now as the Sabeans and Caldeans were then in spoiling the Goods of Innocent men who love that which is Evil have you not betrayed your Lord and Master having given your selves up to serve a wicked Ruler he that is Prince of the power of darkness who hath his rule in his Servants who are departed from their obedience to him who is Lord and Master of all and ought to be served and feared by all since there is no blessing nor any thing that is good but what is of him and from him who created all and upholds all who is Lord of all blessed for ever Come be awakened and hearken where do you find by the example or Doctrine of Christ Jesus who is Lord of all and hath all power in Heaven and Earth or do you read of any such works afore-mentioned done by him or his Followers No no you have betrayed him who call him Lord and yet live in such works of malice and revenge he taught and teaches quite contrary even to learn of him who is meek and lowly in heart admonishing all to love one another and to do good for evil and to love enemies who dwell with them that are of a contrite and humble spirit who teaches the humble and meek and who washeth and cleanseth his Followers from their filth as in dayes past so to day and for ever Oh you betrayers of him who have rendred him a hard Master in that you deny him for he is righteous just and true and gives power to them that receive him and obey him patiently to bear the reproaches of the wicked and to undergo their cruel mockings and scoffings and spoilings till his pleasure is to plead the cause of the Innocent who have no Arm of Flesh nor Carnal weapon but their trust is in him who is Lord of all unto whom all Tongues must confess and every Knee must bow though for a while the wicked with their Ruler the Devil may be loose he must be chained at last and cast into the Lake of Fire where their part and portion will be who continue serving him a sad Bargain So all you betrayers of the just holy principle of Light and Life in your hearts be awakened come see what a Dream you have been in and what Dreamers you have followed who are out of the way of the Lord and yet for lucre sake by art and policy keep people confessing they are out of the way of the Lord perswading it s not to be found or as if there were no such thing Oh be awakened and see what a Dream you are in and what silly Dreamers these are who have put from them Christ the way of Truth and the Life by which all that ever come to God it must be by him whom many have found so cannot but confess him before men there being no other way out of Evil and which brings and leads to peace this is a perfect way and tryed way into which no unclean person nor envious person can come into he must forsake his Envy and uncleanness and all the Devils works if ever he comes there Come don't stop your Ears and shut your Eyes it will be all in vain for he that is Lord Master and Creator of all sees and beholds all you can hide nothing from him and he will call you to an account then what can the betrayers say Oh you whose dayes are not quite over consider what you are a doing and what you are a treasuring up malice envy and hatred are from a rupt root and ground which is cursing Come be awakened cease to do evil then learn to do well if happily you may obtain mercy restore the pledge and repent Keep nothing back that hath been taken by violence Be awakened and see how filthy your hands are through Malice and Cruelty which hath brought a filthy smell and curse upon your Estates a sad portion for your Children for their Fathers to die with their Estates entailed in the Curse the which can never be removed from Father or Child till the cause of the Curse be repented of and done away and so the hands wasted in innocency until which time every one shall bear his own iniquity because of the accursed thing that is in their hands So out of love to Truth and good will to all is this written whatever construction you may make thereof into whose hands
and let that which is wrong be rejected and that which is right received and in that which is Right will be â—â—â—n what Fast is Pleasing and Acceptable in God's sight and that Prayer which will be Effectual and Prevalent for the good of the Soul in a Right Understanding will be seen So now begin a Fast come pitty the Oppressed let the Prisoner go free have Compassion on the Poor break off Imquities by a True Repentance in turning from Evil the Cause of Anguish and Trouble upon the Soul that the Soul may be set at Liberty to praise the Lord and so let hard hearts be melted and broken down and the seat of Unbelief by reason of which the Love of God in the Light of his Son 〈◊〉 rejected and by that means pâ—â—â— souls are kept in Bondage conâ—â—â—â—â—â—o the Will of God let that seat 〈◊〉 Unbelief be thrown down for God 〈◊〉 greatly displeased at the Presumption of Mankind who have exalted themselves in their own wills where Self exerciseth Will-worship in a feigned Humility whereby the Cross is counted Foolishness So Christ's Exhortation To take up the Cross daily and deny Self God's Love therein that is slighted the Cross that being without Fasting that being without Prayers that being without all being done without a Right Understanding for want of which Ptetended Fasting is vain Prayer is vain and the Conversation of Mankind is vain and unprofitable where the will of man is set in Opposition against the Will of God in his Heavenly Guift even the Light of his Unerring Spirit by which the World is reproved of Evil and this is and will be the World's Condemnation their sleighting the many Visitations of God's Love in that he doth manifest unto them what is reprovable in his sight but they being unmindful of God's Love therein by which means their Souls are in great Bondage under Sin and Corruption subjected there under a vain Hope by the Subtilty of the Serpent That though they live unseparated from Sin yet they shall obtain Justification through Christ and see a good End or good brought forth through Sin be never finished this kind of Perswasion is through strong Delusions of Satan whose workings are in a deep Mystery of Iniquity in pretended Godliness but his End therein is to make void that Blessed coming of Lord and Saviour to finish Sin and to put an End to Unrighteousness and thereby to make way for the bringing in Everlasting Righteousness that souls in that Blessed Principle of God may rest in Peace Now where this is not known be Awakened I beseech you unto Righteousness which is God's and no otherwayes man's but as he becomes stript of his own Eyes and so comes before the Lord with a Broken and Contrite Spirit and Heart humbled at his sight who seacheth it by his Light and shews to man in the Cool of the Day what beastly Imaginations are lodging therein to the end that man might lye down at the Feet of his Appearance in a True Fast in abstaining from Evil and Praying in the Spirit that by the Exercise of God's Love in his striving therewith Evil may be overcome and so the soul set at liberty from Evil the cause of Trouble and Anguish which is upon every soul that 's in Evil. So let every one that names the Name of the Lord depart from Evil. Come Curser and Swearer be perswaded to be awakened and see what a sad Condition thy soul is in but if thou wilt not but hardenest thy heart what will the taking the Name of the Lord into thy Mouth avail thee Or Unclean Person who art defiled and endeavouring to defile others remember That none in Vnclaanness can enter into Heaven so except thou leavest thy Evil therein thy Expectations of God's Kingdom will fail thee Come Idolaters who are making Gods of Gold and Silver and Wood and Stone and so are bowing down to the works of your own hands that is a great Abomination and Evil greatly to be lamented who are so far blinded from the Appearance of the Light of God's Spirit in your own Hearts which being taken heed unto and obeyed brings to the Knowledge of God but that Love of God being rejected what strangers are you to God and the Saints of Life and so are become Beastly and Bruitish in your Understandings your Bands of Corruption through sin and iniquity being made strong and so under strong delusions are bowing to Pictures to put you in mind of God and the Saints though they cannot hear nor see nor smell what savour think you to get out of them Stocks and Stones Be Awakened I beseech you to Consideration and know that it 's some measure of that Grace and Truth which Jesus of Nazareth was filled with by Vertue of that all the Saints savour to God and one unto another which Grace hath appeared unto all but the Saints or Believers were and are taught by it so that which convinces of Evil is to them that believe in it and obey it an Instructer in the way of Life So leave your Folly in Bowing and Cringing to the East and to you know not what and answer the Love of God in his Principle of Light in you which makes manifest that which is Evil and then will the Eye of your Understaning be opened to the beholding of him who fills Heaven and Earth with his Presence so that no Darkness can cover man from him who is God of the North South East and West who will spoil your glorying who are boasting your selves of the Antiquity of your Religion who first went from the Cross which is the Power of God and so got up in a form of words and then set the Cross upon the House of Stone c. Alas your Religion is seen through and all who hang upon your Skirts they must have a share of the shame which is coming upon that Adulterated whorish Spirit which hath led the minds of the people out from a sense of the Royal Law of God within man so that the stream of God's Love therein to Mankind that hath been stopt and in the Night of Apostacy the stream of Malice and Envy and Hatred that hath run in your Streets where the Innocent Bloodshed lyes at your doors So it 's time you were awakened to a true Repentance that you may come to the knowledge of Salvation through the Remission of your sins for it 's the saving of your souls I seek and not the destruction of your bodies so Truth is my weapon which I desire may reach to that of God which is Truth in you that so the pure Language which is Truth may be restored in all and the Royal Law of Love therein may shew it self which gives an Understanding To love God above all and our Neighbours as our selves and to do to all men as we would they should do unto us Come all you who conceive mischief on your Beds in your hearts and cannot rest
hath all this while reserved a Seed as it is written And as Esaias said before Rom. 9.29 except the Lord of Sabbath had left us a Seed we had been as Sodoma and been made like unto Gomorrha And in this is the Lord replenishing the Earth and making of it fruitful in vertue in life in praises to his holy name even by the same spirit of Truth that moved in the holy men of God that gave forth those holy Prophesies and blessed Testimonies in the Scriptures of Truth And this is the time and season wherein the Lord is pouring out his spirit even the same spirit as he did pour out upon his Sons and Daughters in the Primitive time And it s by the Operation Revelation and Divine Inspiration of the same spirit of Christ Jesus in and by which the Holy Prophesies and Testimonies in the Scripture comes to be understood And in this spirit the Lord hath and is ordaining Ministers that they may go and bring forth fruit and that their fruit may remain And by the power and efficasie thereof are thousands of living witnesses raised now in these dayes unto whom the goodness mercy and loving kindness of the Lord is revealed even by the Operation Divine Inspiration and blessed effects of the same spirit of Christ Jesus which the holy men of God were witnesses of in the Primitive dayes And in and by this spirit of power and wisdom is the Lord made Righteousness Wisdom Sanctification and Redemption unto his people who are believers this day as he was in the Primitive days unto his people who did believe in him And by the power and effectual works of this spirit of Christ Jesus in these days time and season The Blind receive their Sight Mat. 11.5 6. and the Lame Walk the Lepers are Cleansed and the Deaf Hear the Dead are raised up and the Poor have the Gospel Preached to them And blessed is he whosoever shall not be offended in me This spirit of Christ Jesus was the Foundation of the Prophets and Apostles on which the true Believers which were the Church of Christ was built and it s on this Foundation that the true Believers which is the Body of Christ which is his Church is built this day time and season where Christ is Head Leader Law-giver and Commander and by his spirit is the blessed Worship set up now in the Church of Christ the which Christ set up in opposition to all false Worships in the Primitive time as you may read But the hour cometh when the true Worshipers shall Worship the Father in Spirit and in Truth John 4.23 24. for the Father seeketh such to Worship him God is a Spirit and they that Worship him must Worship him in Spirit and in Truth Therefore yours is the false Worship now where the Revelation Operation and Divine Inspiration of this blessed spirit of Truth is denyed now adays Your Worship is false imaginary and conceited for none can truly call Jesus Lord but by the leading and guiding of the same holy spirit of Truth and all that makes mention of his holy Name let them depart from Iniquity And all you who do not but do continue in the Mistery thereof in subjection to the man of sin your Prayers are the Prayers of the wicked the which is abomination to the Lord And your patcht up Sermons the which you Study and Frame up in your Brain from the works of others They are all alike abomination and how costly these works of abomination are let the Wise in Heart judge And in all where this blessed spirit of Truth is rejected and stoped in its motions and so grieved and quenched and another spirit leads all their labour and travel is vain and your Consultations are vain and whatsoever you form up be it an Instrument never so cunningly and wisely wrought in the deepest of your Skill and Councel in the highest degree of the Worlds Wisdom to oppose the out-goings of this blessed Spirit of Christ Jesus it shall never prosper neither shall the Contrivers ever prosper in their works Look back 20 or 30 years past where great undertakings have been even if it had been possible to have ruined and spoiled all those who gave Testimony to this Spirit of Truth And see what sad effects those works of Opposition have produced what hath your turning of things upside down availed you Alas for you your worth is the product of ruine and misery that which you intend to your peaceable Neighbours will come upon your selves your own works in your singular exalted spirits is the purchaser thereof Oh you Ignorant Fools who are blinded by the God of this Wold and are so high flown that you go about to limit the holy God in the goings out of his holy Spirit you may as well undertake to alter the course of the Sun and stop up the course of the Ebbing and Flowing of the Sea Your sins of Presumption would be much alike and your Folly will end in as great shame Indeed your presumption arises from an Arm of Flesh and long continuance in vain Customs Traditions and Inventions And because you can clap up in Prisons and make Havock and Ruine and Spoile of People and their Goods your spirit that leads you in these works being an envious Malicious Cruel Abominable Wicked spirit therefore proceeds this wrong Judgment from you even that Gods holy Spirit in Revelation Operation and Divine Inspiration as moving through holy Men in the Primitive time is now ceased But if it were so as you vainly Imagine then shew where the difference lyes between you who call your selves Christians and the Heathens if the Spirit of Christ Jesus the Spirit which people were brought under in the Primitive time and thereby to be Baptized into one Body the which was to be ruled and governed by that Spirit of Christ Now if the Revelation Operation and Divine Inspiration thereof be ceased then tell me by what spirit Christians so called are Baptized into so many Bodyes and Fellowships and what Spirit rules and governs And what difference there is between them called Heathen in their Fellowships and them called Christians in their Fellowships where the Authority Rule and Government of Christs Spirit is denyed Come to plain dealing and don't Shuffl you have been long enough in that work already and the more you persist therein the more you will be confounded and the deeper plunged into the horrible pit and your Feet will be faster stuck in the Mire Therefore be admonished to deal plainly least you be your own Executioners through your high presumptuous mindedness in bringing swift destruction upon you for of a Truth thousands have been bowed before the Lord under a sense of their own insufficiency to perform that which is good and acceptable of themselves and have truly waited upon the Lord in a deep silence of the flesh And indeed Christ hath appeared the second time in his blessed Spirit and
power and hath quickened and revived many hungry Souls and he hath made known his sufficiency and help in the needful time And all them who have in Truth laid hold of him cannot part with him for it 's by him that we can do all things well pleasing and acceptable in the sight of God and man And all that have begun in this Spirit and are faithful and obedient thereunto have Hope Faith and Confidence to grow up and be made perfect thereby and so attain to the mark and prize that is before us Though many may and do turn aside through unfaithfulness and disobedience and the many and great tryals that may be met withall through the Oppression and Cruelty of the Worlds Spirit yet over all that hath been and may be met withall we have Hope and Faith that in and through the assistance of the Spirit and Power of our Lord and Saviour Christ Jesus we shall persevere and go on bearing the blessed fruits of his spirit which is in all Goodness Righteousness and Truth Patience Meekness and Innocency to the finishing our Testimony and laying down our heads in Patience and Joy in Life Everlasting And further concerning the out-goings of this blessed spirit I do testifie my Faith therein that the Lord of Heaven and Earth will by the Majesty and power thereof overturn overturn overturn the power of darkness and destroy all the cursed fruits that have sprung from the corrupt root and ground thereof And by the light of the spirit of Christ Jesus a sight is given to many faithful witnesses that the Ax of the Lord is laid to the root thereof And the Lord of Heaven and Earth that hath begun the work will carry it on and perfect it to his own praise honour and glory and to the establishment of his purchased possession where he Tabernacles and Delights to dwell forever And now this root and off-spring of David this bright and moving Star hath taken deep rooting in many hearts and minds from whence fruits spring and grow to the praise and honour of the Lord of the Harvest and to the joy and comfort of all the faithful and true labourers therein whose out-goings being in the movings leadings and guidings of his holy spirit the which having taken deep root downwards now yields fruits upward in some an hundred in some sixty and in some thirty fold As you may read of the Parable of the Sower and the seed that fell into the good ground Mat. 15. And from the Lord of the Vineyard whose is the Vineyard he having planted many Heavenly Branches into the Vine his good Husbandry and Care is seen to be over them And all whom he hath or may ordain to be Instruments and Servants in this blessed work he ever did and doth maintain them never suffering them to lack Food and Rayment things necessary both for this Life and that which is to come But none that keep within the bounds of the leadings and guidings of his blessed spirit did ever covet Silver or Gold or Preach for filthy Lucre-sake And now the Lord of Heaven and Earth having prepared by his Eternal spirit and power such a Ministry again and sent forth into the Nations who have no such thing in their Eye to draw them out of filthy Lucre but purely and clearly do seek the honour and glory of God and the good and well-being of people This makes the corrupt and false Teachers of the Nation who are made so by man in the Worlds spirit and wisdom being drawn out for filthy Lucre sake and in more then ordinary manner coveting after Silver and Gold this makes these Diviners mad The day of Christ being so clearly come and the man of sin their Master so clearly revealed and a Testimony so clearly goes out against them that their Master the man of sin in all his Transformations though he appear in them and they in him as Ministers of righteousness and by all the best arts and cunning in perverting and wresting the holy mens Testimonies by private Interpretations adding to and deminishing from the Prophesies thereof And seemingly by casting mists and fogs before peoples Eyes they turn the very end and tendency of the holy mens Testimonies and Prophesies left upon record to another use then what they were intended and given forth by the moving of Gods holy Spirit for And this they do partly through Ignorance being so wilfully to hide their Corrupt Proud Arrogant Covetous and Idolatrous practices under And let all whose desires are after the knowledge of the Lord and the peace and rest of their Souls in that unspeakable comfort and joy in that life which is everlasting take but a view of the blessed motions of Gods holy Spirit through holy men in old time as is left upon record And compare the Covetous Idolatrous practices of the false Teachers of the Nation and see how unlike the good they are and how just like the wicked they are Gen. 4. Cain who was of that wicked one he offered but unto his Offering the Lord had no respect Abel offered in Faith 1 Joh. 3.12 and the Lord had respect unto Abel and his Offering And Cain was Wrath and envyed him and Murdered him because his own works wereevil and his Brothers righteous See your Father all you Persecutors about Religion and the ground of his wickedness And the Lord said my Spirit shall not always strive with man for that he also is flesh and God shortned his dayes Gen. 6. and said every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually for all flesh had corrupted his way and the Earth is filled with violence through them These were the effects of fleshly motions But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord and read what blessed effects his moving therein had The false Prophets moving in a flattering lying Spirit inticed Ahab to go on to his Destruction Micah the true Prophet moving in the Spirit 2 Chron. 18. of Truth and for speaking the Truth was Imprisoned and Fed with Bread and Water The lying Prophets for lying flattering and dissembling are at Liberty Mordicai being one of the Lords people he could not be moved to bow to Haman nor do him reverence Esther 3. though he was told by the Kings Servants often that he transgressed the Kings command This filled Haman with wrath and in his wicked motion he sought the destruction of Mordicai and all his people but read what became of him and his motion Read what dreadful effects the wicked fleshly motions of the Sodomites had Gen. 19. and the blessed effects of Lot's righteous motions against their wickedness Read what the false Prophets moved for and how the true Prophet was moved to cry against them Isaiah 56.10 11. and said They are all dumb dogs yea they are greedy dogs which can never have enough They all look to their own way every one for his gain from his