TENDER Counsel and Advice By Way of EPISTLE To all those who are Sensible of their DAY of VISITATION And who have Received the Call of the Lord By the Light and Spirit of his SON in their Hearts to partake of the Great Salvation wherever scattered throughout the World Faith Hope and Charity which overcome the World be multiplied among you By William Penn. The Second Edition LONDON Printed and Sold by T. Sowle near the Meeting-house in White-Hart-Court in Gracious-Street 1695. TENDER Counsel and Advice By Way of EPISTLE To all those who are sensible of the DAY of their Visitation c. My Dearly Beloved Friends WHO are sensible of the Day of your Visitation by the Light of the Lord Jesus in your Hearts and who have gladly received the holy Testimony thereof by which you have beheld the great Apostasy that is in the World from the Life Power and Spirit of God and the gross Degeneracy that is amongst those called Christians from the Purity Self-denial and holy Example of Christ Jesus and his Primitive Followers and how Pride Lust and Vanity reign and how Christendom is become a Cage of Vnclean Birds Who have mourned under the sence thereof and have cried in your Souls How long how long how long O Lord God holy and true will it be ere thou takest to thy self thy great power and reignest To whom the World is become a burden and the Vanities and Glory of it but vexation of Spirit Who despise the things that are seen which are Temporal for the sake of the things that are not seen which are Eternal Whose Eyes look through and beyond Time and Mortality to that Eternal City whose Builder and Maker is God Whose daily Cries and Travails are to follow Jesus in the way of Regeneration to live as Pilgrims in this World for the sake of that Glory which shall hereafter be revealed that can never fade away that you may attain unto the Eternal Rest of God To you my dear Friends to you it is that the God and Father of him that was dead and is alive and liveth for evermore Christ Jesus the faithful and true Witness who hath loved and visited my Soul hath now moved upon my Spirit to write and visit you with this Epistle Receive it then and with it the endeared Salutation of that Love and Life which are not of this World but overcome the World Great and frequent are my Travails for you that you may persevere and not faint but endure to the end that you may obtain that glorious Salvation and Redemption that is in Christ Jesus Yea for this are my Knees bended before the God of the Spirits of all Flesh that you may be entirely kept that you may so run as you may obtain and so fight as you may overcome that an Immortal Crown and Kingdom may be your Portion when all Sins and Sorrows shall be done away And that this you may do hear my Exhortation to you in the Spirit of Truth Dwell in the sense that God hath begotten in your Hearts by the Light and Spirit of his Son who is now in his Son in you reconciling you unto himself Watch that this blessed sense be preserved in you and it will preserve you For where the holy sense is lost Profession even of the highest Truths cannot preserve against the Enemies Assaults but the Gates of Hell will prevail against them and the Enemy's Darts will wound them and they will be carried again Captive by the Power of his Temptations Wherefore I say again live and abide in that Light and Life which hath visited you and begotten an holy sense in your Hearts and which hath made Sin exceeding sinful to you and you weary and heavy-laden under the burden of it And hath raised in you a Spiritual Travail Hunger and Thirst after your Saviour that he might deliver you that ye might be filled with the Righteousness of his Kingdom that is without end Dear Friends God hath breathed the Breath of Life in you and in measure you live for dead Men and Women do not Hear or Hunger or Thirst neither do they feel Weights and Burdens as you do The Day of the Lord is dawned upon you and it burneth as an Oven you know it and all Works of Iniquity are as Stubble before it You feel it so they cannot stand before the Lord His Judgments take hold of them and consume them O love his Judgments that with those of Old you may say In the way of thy Judgments O Lord have we waited for thee the desire of our Soul is to thy Name and to the remembrance of thee With our Souls have we desired thee in the Night yea with our Spirits within us will we seek thee early For when thy Judgments are in the Earth the Inhabitants of the World will learn righteousness Part part with all My dear Friends that is for Judgment let him arise in your Hearts that his and your Enemys may be scattered That you may witness Him to be stronger in you then he that is in the World If the desire of your Soul be to his Name and the remembrance of him you will love his Judgments and abide there the days he alloweth for your purification Behold his blessed Visitation is upon you His Angel hath Saluted you and his holy Spirit hath overshadowed you he hath begotten holy desires in you I pray that they may never be extinguisht and that you may never faint Wherefore look to Jesus that is the Author that he may be the Finisher I Testify for God he has appeared to you yea he hath said to you as to Andrew Philip c. follow me And I say unto you follow him Come and see where he dwelleth do not lose Sight of him let him be lifted up in you and your Eye be to him Who whereever he is lifted up draweth all such after him And this is the reason why People are not now drawn after Christ because he is not lifted up in their Hearts he is not exalted in their Souls he is Rejected Opprest Crucified and Buried yea they have Rowled a Stone upon him and set Guards that he should not rise in them to Judge them But blessed are you whose Eyes have seen one of the days of the Son of Man Blessed are you at whose Doors he hath knocked to whose Heart he hath appeared who have received his holy Visitation who believe it is he and not another and therefore have said in your Hearts with Nathaniel of old thou art the Son of God thou art the King of Israel and with Thomas my Lord and my God O what have you my dear Friends to do but to keep with him for ever For whither should you go the words of Eternal Life dwell with him He is full of Grace and full of Truth and of his Fulness ye have received Grace for Grace And this is that Grace which bringeth Salvation to all that receive it
embrace it and will be led by it For it teacheth such as it did the Antient Christians to deny all ungodliness and the world's lusts and to live soberly and godlikely in this present evil world looking for that blessed hope and glorious appearing of the great God and their Saviour Jesus Christ who hath given himself for them to deliver them from all sin and to redeem them from all iniquity You know that you are bought with a price now you feel it and in measure discern the preciousness of that Price which hath bought you namely the Life of the Dear Son of God Grieve not his Spirit that is ready to Seal you to the Day of your perfect Redemption But give up your Bodies Souls and Spirits to his service whose they are that they may be order'd by him to his Glory I write not to you as to the World for you are called out of the World by him that hath overcome the World that as he is not of this World so you may not be of this World Come then out of it more and more out of the Nature out of the Spirit out of the Fruits and out of the Fashions of the World They are all for the Fire Christ said the World loveth its own Search with the Light of the Lord Jesus what there is in you that the World owneth and loveth For that is its own And consider what it is that the World is offended with Not that that cometh from it self of its own making and inventing but that which crosseth its Inventions that is of another Nature and springeth from another Root O be not conformed to the Fashions of this World that please the Lust which grieveth the Spirit of God but be ye renew'd in your Minds and being so within you will be as a new People without They that have been truly with Christ are quickly discovered they cannot be hid So it was of old the Jews said of the Disciples these men have been with Jesus their Speech and Carriage bewray'd them their outsides were not like the outsides of other Men they were not currant with the Fashions and Customs of that time Nor can they that have been with Jesus conform to the vain Fashions and Customs of this World wherefore be not you in any sort of this World but give diligence to make your holy high Calling and Election sure For many are called and few are chosen and the reason is they are slothful Servants they hide their Talent in a Napkin neglect the Day of their Visitation and work not out their Salvation with fear and trembling And then the Night overtaketh them in which they can never work the works of Repentance and the things that belong to their peace are hid from their Eyes for ever But the Lord forbid that it should be so with any of you No no I hope yea I believe better things of you And I am assured that as you keep your Hearts chastly to the Light and Grace that with which you have been visited of the Lord you shall be kept to Eternal Salvation For they are saved that walk in the Light Into the Light the Enemy cannot come for the Light is Christ Jesus and the Enemy hath no part or place in him he is driven out from the holy place by transgression and he is now a fugitive from Heaven but he goeth up and down the Earth seeking whom he may devour whom he can catch and carry away with his baits and Snares Wherefore Wo to the Inhabitants of the Earth that is the earthly Inhabitants such as love and live in the earthly Nature for all such shall be a prey to him he shall have power over them and keep up his Kingdom in them But those that receive and abide in Christ Jesus the Light Life and Truth are out of his reach they are in the munition of Rocks under the pavilion of the Lord and in the safe Ark of the most High God However he is permitted to tempt try till the time shall come that he is not only trodden under Foot but also bound and cast into the Lake that burneth with Fire and Brimston And he is the greatest Enemy to those that turn their back upon him wherefore he watcheth to surprize them that he might take them at unawares and triumph over their failings And for that reason Christ Jesus preached the Watch earnestly and with repetition to his Disciples Now my dear Friends there be several things or the Enemy in several Appearances will attend you in this holy march you are making to the Eternal Land of rest of which I would caution you that you may none of you make Shipwrack of any of those holy beginnings you have experienced by the Light and Spirit of the Lord. Beware of vain thoughts for they oppress and extinguish the true sense These vain thoughts arise from the Enemy's presentations of objects to the mind and the Mind 's looking upon them till they have made their impressions upon the mind and influenced the mind into a love of them This is a false liberty a dangerous ye a destructive liberty to the holy Sense that God hath begotten in any For as that is not received but hindered by such thoughts so it is not improved but destroyed by them The divine Sense in the Soul is begotten by the Lord 'T is his Life and Spirit his holy Breath and Power that quickneth the Soul and maketh it sensible of its own state and of God's will and that raiseth fervent desires in it to be Eternally blessed This is that which Satan rageth at he feareth his Kingdom he findeth that he is come that will cast him out of his possessions He cryeth out Why art thou come to torment me before my time He is the Father of vain thoughts he begetteth them in the mind on purpose to draw off the mind from that Sense and to exercise it in variety of conceptions in a self-liberty of thinking and imagining concerning Persons and things Here he offereth his Baits and layeth his Snares and never faileth to Catch and defile the unwatchful Soul Now if you should say what are these vain thoughts I tell you my Friends All those thoughts and conceptions that either bring not Real Profit to the Soul or that Grieve Hurt or Oppress that holy Sense which is begotten of God in the Soul And that by which Thoughts are to be examined is the Light of Christ Jesus For as whatever may be known of God is manifested within man for there God hath shown it him as saith the Apostle Paul to the Romans So what ever is reproved is made manifest by the light for whatever maketh manifest is light saith he to the Ephesians By this Light of Christ Jesus examine your own Thoughts see whence they rise from whence they come and what they tend to O Friends here is a Mystery and the Evil One worketh here in a Mystery For where he cannot
your victorious Leader All these things are for your good that proud Flesh may be debased and that the Soul may be redeemed Wherefore bear the hand of the Lord whom he loveth he Chastneth his Anger lasteth not for ever but his Mercys endure for ever Shrink not from the pure operations of his holy word let it divide asunder betwen the Soul and Spirit the Joynts and Marrow in you suffer your right Hands to be Cut off and your right Eyes to be pluck'd out that do offend let not the pain scare you O bear the pure searchings of this Heavenly word Yea if your minds be stay'd in it you will find it to be a word of Patience which will keep you for all Virtue is in it Keep it and be still It is good said one of Old that a Man should both hope and quietly wait for the Salvation of God Yea it it is good for a Man that he bear the Yoak in his youth this is your youth and such an one sitteth alone and keepeth Silence because he hath born it upon him Ah blessed are they that bear this holy Yoak who are come to this Silence who Dye daily that not they but Christ may Live and Rule in them therefore hear him and take up his Cross and follow him Follow him keep him Company he hath beaten the Path and trode the Way start not aside at his Cup neither shun his Baptism Go with him to Caiaphas to Pilate and to the Cross dye with him to the World and you shall rise with him unto Life Eternal Honour Glory and Immortality are at the end of this Holy Race O that you may run it with Chearfulness and Perseverance But this is not the utmost Strategem of the Enemy he hath yet a more plausible and a more dangerous Device wherewith to destroy the holy Sense that God hath quickened where he seeth these Temptations resisted and that he cannot hinder a Religious Work in the Soul by any of his Baits taken from the things that are seen and that is his drawing you into Imaginations of God and Christ and Religion and into Religious Duties not in God's way or time nor with Christ's Spirit Here he is transformed into the Appearance of an Angel of Light and would seem Religious now a Saint yea a Leader into Religion so that he may but keep him out of his Office whose right it is to teach prepare enable and lead his Children with his holy Power and Spirit Yea if he can but keep the Creature 's Will alive he knoweth there is a ground for him to work upon a place that he can enter and in which his Seed will grow If this Will of Man standing he knoweth that the Will of God cannot be done on Earth as it is done in Heaven O this Will is God's Enemy yea the Soul's Enemy and all Will-worship ariseth hence Yea it is the Off-spring of the Serpent and of the Will of Man and it can never please God Let all beware of this God is a Spirit and he will be Worshipped in his own Spirit in his own Life The Worship of God standeth in the Will of God and is not brought forth of the Will of the Flesh or of the Will of Man Remember that the Word came not to Esau the First-birth the Hunter that stayed not at Home but to Jacob the plain Man he that dwelt in Tents to him came the Word of the Lord that dwelt in a still and quiet Habitation For in the true silence is God's Word heard into which the Hunting Nature of Esau the First-birth can never come It can never stand still and therefore it can never see the Salvation of God Against this Nature watch and know Jacob that inherits the Birth-right the Election of God though now a Worm to wrestle and prevail Then Worm Jacob is Israel a Prince to whom belongs the Statutes and the Ordinances The Word came to Jacob and the Statutes to Israel Here is Dominion Government Exaltation This is the Lot of Worm Jacob. Wait therefore till the Angel move upon the Waters before you step one step Are ye Followers of the Lamb that hath visited you the Captain of your Salvation Run not in your own Wills wait for his Word of Command do nothing of thy own Head and Contriving yet do all with diligence that he requireth Remember what became of them of Old that offered false Fire O stay till a Coal from his Holy Altar touch your Hearts and your Lips Jesus told his Mother at the Marriage in Cana in Galilee his time was not come He rejected the Will in her and staid till his time was come that is his Father's time in whose Hands are the Times and Seasons Whose Will he came to do and not his own Leaving us therein a Blessed Example that we should also follow his steps that is not to attempt to perform even things of God in our own Wills nor out of God's Season and Time which is the best For in his Seasons he is with us but in our own Seasons and Wills he withdraweth himself from us And this is the Cause that the Nations Worshippers have little sense of God in their Hearts and that their Priests cry out against inward Sense Lest the People should go alone and come to a more acceptible Worship My dear Friends as you would enjoy God's Presence Love and Life and be acceptable with him wait in his holy Light and Spirit that hath visited you against these strategems of Satan and Wake not your Beloved before his time Watch against the will that Instrument of Satan and Enemy of God's Glory and your own Comfort Let it be Bridled Subjected and kept under Christ's Yoak yea subdued that the will of God may be done in you and by you which bringeth glory to the Lord and Eternal peace to the Soul One Sigh rightly begotten out-weigheth a whole Volume of self-made Prayers For that which is born of Flesh is Flesh and reacheth not God's Kingdom he regardeth it not and all that is not born of the Spirit is Flesh But a Sigh or a Groan arising from a living Sense of God's work in the Heart it Pearceth the Clouds it entereth the Heavens yea the Living God heareth it his regard is to it and his Spirit helpeth the Infirmity He loveth that which is of himself and hath care over it though as Poor as worm Jacob. For the Crys of the Poor and the Sighings of the Needy will I arise saith the Lord The Poor in Spirit that hath parted with all that they may win Christ that need him only and Seek him above all Who have no helper in the Earth but have denied all earthly helps that he might bring and work their Salvation for them And as you are not to run in your own wills nor to offer up Sacrifices of your own preparing so have a care how you touch with those that do how you bow to their wills
and joyn with their Sacrifices For all these things greatly help to extinguish the Divine sense begotten in your Hearts by the word of Life And as you are faithful to the Light and Spirit of Christ which giveth you to discern and relish between that which standeth in your own will and the will motion of the Spirit of God in your selves so will you by the same Light discern and savour between that which proceeds from the will of Man and the will and motions of the Spirit of God in others and accordingly either to have or not to have fellowship with them For what hath Light to do with Darkness Or what hath Spirit to do with Flesh Or what hath Life to do with Death For the Grave cannot Praise thee O Lord Death cánnot celebrate thee They that go down into the Pit cannot hope for thy Truth The Living the Living he shall praise thee as doth my Soul this day This was the Testimony of the blessed Prophet Esaiah and it standeth true for ever According to the Prophet Thou hast ordained peace for us for thou hast wrought all our works in us Wherefore I exhort you in the Spirit of Truth and in the Counsel of the God of Truth keep in the Divine Sense and Watch if you would endure to the end in the will of God And I say again Touch not with Man-made Ministrys nor Man-made Worships let their words be never so true 'T is but Man 't is but Flesh 't is but the Will and it shall have no acceptance with God O this is the Golden Cup of the Whore that is gone from the leadings of the Spirit with which the Nations are defiled have nothing to do with it Keep to Christ Jesus God's great Light follow him as he shineth in your Hearts and ye will not walk in Darkness but have the Light of Life not of death to Condemnation as in the World but unto Life which is Justification and Peace And remember that nothing bringeth to Christ that cometh not from Christ Wherefore all Ministry that cometh not from Christ God's great Prophet and High Priest to all true-born Christians cannot bring People to Christ Man only gathereth to Man to hear and believe in Man and depend on Man And if the Church of Corinth sought a proof of Christ's speaking in Paul that had begotten them and had wrought the Signs and Works of an Apostle in them how much more reason have you to demand a proof of Christ's speaking in the Priests and Ministers of this World who have not wrought the Signs and Works of Apostles or true Ministers And by what should you try them but by the Light and Spirit of Christ in you Yea 't is Christ Jesus in you that giveth you to savour if others speak from Christ in them And this the Apostle referreth the Corinthians to for a proof of Christ's speaking in him For nothing leadeth to God but that which came from God even Christ Jesus the Son of God O let him be your Vine and know him to be your Fig-tree Sit under his holy Teachings whose Doctrine shall drop as Myrrh upon your Souls He will feed you with the Bread of God that cometh from Heaven that feedeth and leadeth them thither that feed upon it And He is that Bread Therefore wait and watch unto his daily and hourly Visitations to your Souls and against all the Approaches of the Enemy that so he may not take you at unawares but that you may be preserved from the power of his Darts and the force of his Temptations by the Holy Armour of Light the defence of the faithful Antients If you be willing and obedient you shall eat the good of the Land Now is your Day now is your Time work while the light is with you for the Night cometh in which none can work Not only the Night of Eternal Darkness to the Wicked but the Night of Death unto all For in the Grave there is no Repentance neither can any Man there work the Works of God You know the Foundation Is he Elect Is he Precious to you Have ye chosen him Yea I am satisfied you have See what you build upon him Have a care of Hay Straw and Stubble Have a care of your own Wills and Spirits Labour not for the Bread that perisheth as all the Bread of Man's-making doth But labour you in the Light and Strength of the Lord for the Bread that never perisheth that Bread that cometh from Heaven that nourisheth the Soul in that Life that is heavenly that is hid with Christ in God the Root and Father of all Life that of this Fountain you may drink that is clear and pure that cometh from the Throne of God and of the Lamb and not of the muddy Puddle of Man's Invention There is a Bread that perisheth and there is a Drink that perisheth and Wo to them that feed thereon for their Souls shall perish also if they Repent not But there is a Bread that never perisheth and there is a Fountain that springeth up unto Eternal Life and Blessed are they that Feed and Drink thereof for they shall have Eternal Life with God This is that which only satisfieth what is Born of God it will feed on no other Bread nor drink of no other Water I cannot but warn you all that are come to the Lord's Day that you cease from all other Food from Man and Man's Will and Invention for that stifleth the Divine Sense that overlayeth and killeth this Heavenly Birth There are no Grapes to be gathered of Thorns nor Figs of Thistles Keep to your own Vine and Fig-tree Christ Jesus sit under him that you may eat of his Fruit which is the fruit of Life the hidden Manna hid from the Nature and Spirit of this World a Mystery thereunto Two things consider first you must wait till the Manna cometh and then you are not to be idle you are to work and next as it daily cometh so it must be daily gathered and fed upon For the Manna that was gather'd yesterday will not be Food for to day it will not keep for that use As it was outwardly so 't is inwardly Time past is none of thine 'T is not what thou wert but what thou art God will be daily look'd unto Didst thou eat yesterday That feedeth thee not to day Therefore Jesus taught his Disciples and us in them to pray for our daily Bread for the present sustenance and to look no farther but depend upon the Lord and live by Faith in him that raised up Jesus from the Dead so that the time to come is no more ours than the time past can be recalled Wherefore Blessed are they that fear the Lord and confide in him they shall never be confounded They shall lack no good thing for the Lord loveth Israel he is good unto Israel and all that are of an upright Heart whose Hearts look up to Heaven and not down to the