Sprinkles the Conscience from the dead Works which have no fellowship with the living God And Cain offered in that Mind and the Jews prayed in that Mind and Spirit but the Lord regarded them not as he did Righteous Abel and the Cry of the Innocent therefore read James 4.2 3. Ye lust and have not ye envy and desire immoderately and cannot obtain ye fight and war and yet get nothing because ye ask amiss ye ask and receive not because ye ask amiss that ye may consume it upon your Lusts or that you might lay the same out upon your Pleasures So I do desire you that have known the Lord and his holy Counsel to stand therein for to such I speak in Tenderness of Heart that ye may not make it void and of none effect by letting your Minds reach out to an easier and wider Way than what the Cross that mortifies self admits of for a true Word it is and stedfast forever to the Children of men no Cross no Abolishing Death no Crown of Life no Crown of Glory will Wisdom deliver to thee for thou art no Child of Wisdom that dost not justifie Wisdom in all her Wayes thou that canst own her in some but not in all her Wayes art not Free-born from above thou art a Bastard and not a Son of the Free-Woman And Friends that Man or Woman that is not willing to stand in the holy Will and Counsel when it is once known will hearken to the Witch for Counsel as Saul did And whoever forsakes the Lord the Fountain of living Waters they will be hewing to themselves broken Cisterns as saith the Prophet Cursed be the man that trusteth in Man or makes Flesh his Arm whose Heart hath departed from the living God O foolish Galatians saith Paul who hath bewitched you that ye should not obey the Truth Have you begun in the Spirit and what do you think to be made Perfect in the Flesh Were not they given up to believe a Lying Spirit who liked not to retain the Knowledge of the true Spirit Oh! how many have desired to bend the Lord in his Counsel to serve themselves like as Balaam did who although he once knew that the Lord was pleased only to Bless Israel his People and not to Curse them yet for his Promotion sake and Lusts sake he would fain have done it he went into Error when he went to ask Counsel of God again about that matter whose Madness and Folly and his Way which was perverse before the Lord the dumb Ass reproved So such as be Convinced of the Lord 's holy Way who love it so as to walk in it without any reservation be Obedient till the Death and then will the good Spirit never be grieved nor with drawn from you for saith the Lord Wo be to you when I depart from you for about the Throne of God and the Lamb which is for true Judgment be many Spirits even now as in the dayes of Ahab and they have now as then Commissions given them to wait on them that wait not on the Lord with a pure simple Mind and to be their Counsellors who like not to retain God his Counsel when he is once known and this Spirit will become their King and their God which they shall Curse one day and look upward as did the Rich and Full Man who when in his Torment would fain have been comforted with a little of that which the Poor man in Abraham's Bosom did enjoy but it could not be given him and this is a Ministration of Justice from the Just God and the Lamb upon such that have known the Lord but have not liked to retain him in their Knowledge and so have been given up to Unrighteousness until their Temple and House which was once in part swept and garnished came again to be filled with Darkness and here it has happened with them according to the true Proverb The Dog is returned to his Vomit again and the Sow that was washed to her wallowing in the Mire And therefore its good that we all take heed to him who is that most sure and living Word of all the Prophets so as to abide in it then will it keep us in the hour of Temptation and Tryal for some which Peter spake of and the Author of that Epistle to the Hebrews spake of who had tasted of the good Word of God and of the Power of the World to come and was clean escaped the Polutions of the World through the true Knowledge of the Lord and Saviour these were again intangled and overcome with Sin to the seperating of their Souls from God and so their Last End was worse than their Beginning for better had it been for us if we had not known the Way of the Lord if after we have known it we turn from the holy Commandment for now is God putting a difference between Cattel and Cattel and between the Sheep and the Goats and Wo to them that dig deep to hide their Counsel from the Lord whose work is in the Dark saying No Eye may see them So consider ye that be for a wide and easie Way that do the Work overly and slightly at home so must you needs do it abroad they that pity not the good in themselves but can live at ease in the Flesh above the Cross of Christ which would mortifie the Deeds of the Flesh such be apt to pity and take part with the bad in others and so the Root of Bitterness which bears Gall and Wormwood springs up apace to the defiling of many for their Vine is of the Vine of Sodom and of the Fields of Gomorrah their Grapes are Grapes of Gall and their Clusters are Bitter And this is the Fruit of that Evil Root and Spirit that is risen up in opposition to the Lord and his holy Will and Way this day who be in the Willfulness and Presumption calling those things that be Good Evil and Idols and as Jeroboam's Calf which be nothing else but Effects of that good which is in the Power and such be as the strong Oaks of Bashan whom the Lord with his stormy Wind and Tempest will break to pieces and come upon them as upon Morter and as the Potter when he treadeth Clay and then shall ye know ye have sinned against the Lord in with standing and slandering his Servants as Apostates and so your Wells will be without Water and your Cloudes without Rain from the Lord your Root will be dried up from beneath and your flourishing Branches which be but in the mixture and not truly grafted into the living Vine they shall wither you shall be as when a Hungry man dreameth he eats but when he awakes he is still Hungry and his Soul within him hath still Appetite or as when a Thirsty man dreameth he drinks but when he awakes he is still Thirsty so shall they all be whatever they have known or seen that fight against Mount Sion for Corah
Goodness and tender Mercies of the Lord in which I send this Epistle abroad but more chiefly to all you who be found in the Spirit of Opposition and Gain-saying the Order of the Power and those things which be no other but Effects and Branches thereof and the good Order which is in the God of Order and the things which be Lovely and of a good Report and which have Praise and Virture in them and be good before the Lord and before his Saints yea and before all sober People My Desires to you all in the Love of our Lord Jesus Christ even you who be not Violently Willful resolving to go on because you have begun to refrain your selves from this evil Work and turn to the Lord from whom indeed you have swarved aside and turned your back as did the men of Ephraim in Battel who kept not the Covenant of God but dealt falsly with that which should have made them stronge and wise and given them counfel how to order the Battle for the Trumpet alwayes gives an uncertain Sound where the Covenant of God is not kept I do desire you to come down out of your own Wisdom Thoughts and Reasonings out of the House of your Imaginary wherein ye by searching can never find out God nor the things of God as in him and his People they are Oh! come into a perfect stillness of Mind and be not as the Horse and Mule without the good Understanding and humble your selves under the mighty Hand of God who would not the Death of any that dye in their Sin but rather they would turn and that Iniquity might not be their Ruin and wait upon him in the Singleness of Heart which cannot be done by you but as ye take up a Cross daily which will Humble Self and make it of no Reputation as did Christ Jesus and then will the living Father hear you and in things you know not he will teach you and as he shews you that ye have done foolishly do so no more your own Souls good is concerned in it I speak as one that seeks your good and will not do nor take that Evil Way which some of you have done to me whose Tongues have devised Evil like a sharp Rasour speaking deceitfully for I say Wo to me and all that can rejoyce to see their Enemy fall or tread upon him when he is down that vaunteth himself and is puffed up at the Sin of others and mourneth not rather for such that have sinned that God may give them Repentance to the acknowledging of the Truth and that doth not in the midst of Judgment remember Mercy and that rather Loving-kindness from the Lord may over-shadow such And several of you being Aged men having done and suffered much on the Lord's Account I would not have you to lofe that full Reward that is in God or have your good Deeds blotted out before him for you know in the Day we Sin Death will enter and Darkness will darken the Understanding and who can see the Lord when our own Sins hide his face from us But that you may come to dye the Death of the Righteous and that your Last End may be like unto his that when you come to receive the Sentence of Death as did Hezekiah from the Spirit of God in the Prophet you may then say with him and not Lye Lord thou knowest how I have walked before thee with a Perfect Heart and have done that which is right in thy Sight This is my earnest Desire and fervent Prayer to the Lord for you for my Heart Lamenteth and a breaking Pity there is in the Bowels of my God towards such that have once tasted how good the Lord is that they should turn out of the Way of Peace into By-pathes and Crooked-wayes where the Serpent is Leader and Teacher who is a Teacher of Lyes of Slandering false Accusing and Back-biting such as love the Lord and hold their Integrity as if they were the worst of men and greatest Apostates whereby the Way of God and his Truth which is a perfect Guide and a Shield and Buckler comes to be blasphemed by your means who are glad to take hold of loose men to help you to run them down whom God will build up and to despise those things as Idols which are no other but effects as Branches and Leaves of the good Spirit of God but alas will not this Covering be too narrow to hide you Can you stretch your selves upon this Bed long where ye lie at ease above the Witness of God not regarding the Afflictions of Joseph nor the Sighing of the Poor nor the Cry of the Needy but are become one with that Spirit which makes it to Cry and Sigh in secret for your Pride and High-mindedness who are become Full Rich and Wise and say you see too like those fat and full Cattle whom the Prophet speaks of whom the Lord would feed with Judgment who had indeed drunk of deep Waters as many of you have done but now are fouling them with your feet and have eat of the fat Pastures but be treading down the Residue thereof with your feet but Wo be to you that be filled after this Manner to kick against him that fed you that have any thing in your Heavens but the living and true God or in the Earth that ye have desired or set up in your Hearts in comparison with him Ye have played the Prodigals part with your Portion and be gone out from that living Root and Spring that first divided to you goodly Talents that for the Lord and not for Self ye should have improved I say out of Humility and that living Fear and Dread of God that was at first in the Heart be many gone who be wise and honourable but not in the true Wisdom nor Honour to whom the Apostle spoke in his day Ye are Honourable but we are Contemptible and Despised ye reign as Kings even above the true King without us I would to God ye did reign that we might reign with you and to whom Christ spoke when he wept over Jerusalem where great and mighty Works had been done by him and in whom great Salvation was wrought for the poor of the Flock and for the weak and diseased who saw a true need of a Physician and saw their Sicknes and Sore their Bruises and putrified Wounds which could not be bound up nor healed by another hand than the Lord's which is not shortned this day Glory Glory Praises and Thanksgiving to him be given in the midst of the Church for his Mercies which endure forever who made bare his holy Arm that brought Salvation and caused his Day of Salvation in which Abraham rejoyced and was glad to spring forth in this our Age and Generation for his Mercies sake that endureth forever that we might tell to our Children and they might tell to another Generation what the Lord hath done for the poor of the Flock that
Evil-doer and to condemn the Innocent although it be to their own Destruction and to the darkening the good Understanding till they be past feeling of the holy Spirit to lead them out of Darkness the Land of the Shadow of Death where the First-born of Death rules and reigns without any good order and in this Confusion saying in Word and gain-saying in Deed with your Words as smooth as Oyl but War in the Heart of that Seed and Spirit yea ejoyned to and led by against the very Heart of God and his Light and Life which his People live with him in and yet can cry You have nothing but Love in your Hearts to all when the Poyson is flung out before against the holy Child and against his holy Government and Order in his Church which all the Upright in Heart delight to see and in which the Apostle rejoyced when he wrote to the Church after this manner I am rejoyced greatly to behold your good Order and the Stedfastness of your Faith in Christ Jesus And again he saith in another place Now we live if you stand fast And what must they stand in but even in that holy Liberty which God who is not a God of Confusion but of Order gave them which is but one and of one Mind in all and all that be led by it and stand in its Counsel they be by it made of one Mind Heart and Soul there is no Division nor Rent amongst them for they all be for Christ their Head who purely put on and keep within this holy Vesture and Garment although ten thousand times ten thousand together this Holy Order that is in the Power being observed we have all but one Spirit the Author of our Faith and of our Hope which is but one and stands in one and makes all of one Heart and Mind having all things common where we all speak one and the same thing where we all seek the things that be Jesus Christ's and not our own these shall not hit each other nor break their Ranks nor fall before their Enemy when he shoots sore at them that they might fall and never rise again but they that put on this holy Garment must be girt about with Righteousness also and out of the Armoury of God which is built as the holy Tower of David where be the Shields of thousands of holy Men and Women which they wore and put on in their time of War and Distress but when the War was ended and Peace with God proclaimed over their Enemies the World and the Devil then they laid them down there again giving Glory to God and the Lamb whose Weapons they were crying Thou and the Lamb are worthy to have the Praise and the Honour of all our Salvation and Deliverance now and forever and ever And so I come to re-mind you of those Scriptures which some in their Darkness say I slight that ye may see whether you be in the same Love those holy and true men were in or in that Love that is of the Spirit of this World that 's Enmity with God for they said even Paul and Moses Thou shalt not hate thy Brother in thy Heart nor suffer Sin to lie upon him but thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy Brother and this is the Love which the Lord owneth and which he himself is the Author and Root of which hates the Evil and loves the Good and loves to see it exalted in Righteousness and in Judgment over all Deceit of Men that be Cunning and Crafty inventing Wayes to hold the Truth in Unrighteousness and to press into the Kingdom and holy Inheritance among the Saints in Light but yet have not known the holy equal and just Law of God fulfilled in them which fits and makes meet to inherit it And Paul saith who was a man that dyed daily to the Love the Friendship and Fashions of this Evil World through the Rejoycing he had in Christ Jesus the true Light he had Power to do this and to testifie what manner of Love the Love of God was and said Let Love be without Dissimulation abhor that which is Evil or as Peter saith Hating the Garment spotted of the Flesh And now hear some of the Sayings of David who hearkned to the Lord and to his words which were pure words to his Precepts and Statutes which were Life to his Soul and rejoyced his Heart greatly nay saith he I took the Testimonies of the Lord for my Heritage in the House of my Pilgrimage and all thy Precepts were before me and I did not put away thy Righteous Judgments from me more are they to be desired by me than Gold yea than much fine Gold and at Midnight will I arise to praise the Lord for his Righteous Judgments for Sion 's Children which be God's Children they be saved through Judgment and Righteousness So you may see who be turning Judgment backward with your feigned Love and Pity like old Ely to his Sons whilst they were in the Transgression whilst he that made them would not have Mercy on them and he that formed them from the Womb as it were to be his Servants and to wear an Ephod and a holy Prieft's Garment before him but seeing his Covenant was broken by them and the Sacrifices kicked at which he appointed in his Habitation therefore would he shew them no Favour but judged them and their Father's House forever But how did this good man David love to be judged searched and tryed by the Lord he was afraid of his Wayes like Job lest there should be any Iniquity in him hid in his Heart as a sweet Morsel and lest he had not a true Respect and Regard to all God's Commandments which he said were pure and gave Light as a Lamp Lanthorn to his Vnderstanding to the making Wise of the Simple And I do beseech you all who say You are led by the same Spirit to consider whether the same Fruit be brought forth by you in this respect or whether you love it in its Root and Buddings forth or whether the other thing that 's contrary be not budded even whether Pride be not budded and broken forth into a Rod of Violence to smite the Innocent with who in true Love dare judge nothing in you but the Bad. I will sing of Mercy and Judgment unto thee O Lord will I sing I will behave my self wisely in a perfect Way Psal 101. O when wilt thou come unto me I will walk within my House with a perfect Heart I will set no wicked thing of Belial before mine Eyes I hate the Work of them that turn aside from the path of Vprightness it shall not cleave to me a froward Heart shall depart from me I will not know a wicked Person we all in so doing shall know the Heart of God a coming to us for I am sure if we open to him when he judges he in Bowels of tender Mercy will open to