Fig-Tree for Fruit and Leaves will not defend it from the Curse and Blasting The three especial fruits that did spring forth from this blessed root and were and are to continue and increase in us and amongst us to the end are these 1. Purity manifested in a godly Conversation 2. Vnity manifested in dear and tender Love one towards another 3. Faithfulness manifested in bearing a constant and faithful Testimony to the things we had received and believed though it were unto great loss and sufferings And against all these do the wicked one appear to see if he can make you barren concerning them and that with divers wiles and subtilties that he may prevail on you and not be known to be the Enemy but might so overcome you as that you might both submit to him and then plead for him and his snares and wiles as being just right lawful prudent convenient c. But oh dear Friends let all be watchful and diligent to wait in the sence and true feeling of that Seed that never fell nor was beguiled and you will even the least of you see and comprehend his workings and transformings and be delivered from them 1. Purity and Holiness was a fruit in you which doth yet flourish in many blessed be the Lord who are as watchful and careful to approve themselves in obedience to the Light of Truth in their inward parts as ever finds as great a necessity both of trying judging with its judgment as ever these having thus waited have renewed their strength unto this very day and do mount up as upon the wings of the Eagle these are neither weary in running nor faint they in their walking But alas Friends even these do know with how great and manifold asfaults they have been assaulted and know and see with sorrow of heart how the assault hath prevailed upon some by working into the mind a secret Liberty and supposed enlargedness whereby a carelesness hath entered some and they having no keeper but the measure of Light revealed in their hearts and consciences so soon as they came to be perswaded to slight the reproofs of that they soon erred and this supposed Liberty entered that now after so many years strictness and circumspection they should not need now to stand so straitly to try things and words as at first because now a day of more Liberty was come and this Liberty secretly prevailed against that pure fear that once was placed in their hearts and against the very obedience of Truth inwardly in the subjection of the mind and then it became manifest outwardly the actions sometimes blame-worthy the words and speech again corrupted and run into the old channel of the World like them again and the single pure Language learned in the Light in the time of their poverty and simplicity almost lost and forgotten and so the work of God which he wrought in a manner laid waste and then when this Liberty is entred and made use of as aforesaid oftentimes a secret subtilty ariseth against the judgment of Truth either from within or from any outwardly that are grieved with this loose and careless kind of speaking or acting which subtilly leads to contend for it or against the judgment telling the Creature why these things are but small things and little things and what we must not strain at a Gnat and such like Oh my Friends beware of these evil suggestions of the wicked One how came they to be small and little things seeing they were great things with us in the beginning and how comes an offence of this nature to be light now seeing it was heavy in the beginning Oh let not the greatest Mercies of our God so fill us as to make us slight or forget the least obedience but rather let the continuance of his mercy the more quicken you up unto a zeal for his Name and Truth in all things to be found doing and speaking according to the Rule of Righteousness which ye learned in the Light in the day of your being low and little and then nothing will rise up and be exalted in the multitude of Gods mercies but that holy birth which lives in purity when it is at highest and so that life of Righteousness will shine forth more and more which glorifies God and seeks his honour Dear Friends that ye might be so kept unto the end is the breathing and travel of my soul and that where this neglect hath entred and this aforesaid corruption either in speech or action is to be found that ye would receive the Word of Exhortation in meekness and fear in which it is written unto you and may redeem the time for the dayes are and will be evil and none will hold the mystery of the Faith that saves from falling in the evil day but such as do keep the pure and undefiled Conscience which none can do but by persisting and continuing in the daily sanctification of the Spirit and belief and obedience of the the Truth A second Fruit that was brought forth from this good Root was Vnity and Love one towards another which blessed be the Lord is preciously preserved in and among many to this very day who are so sensible of the divers operations of Truth in them to be all by one Spirit that they are still kept of one heart and mind given up freely to serve the Lord in singlness of heart in their generation and are in this good work as strengtheners and encouragers of one another but notwithstanding the enemy hath been exceeding busie to lay waste and destroy this blessed effect also and that under divers pretences which the Lord still discovered by his own Light and Spirit in his People who have singly waited upon him but many have been his wiles sometimes fitting and preparing vessels to rise up in the fleshly and sensual wisdom to traduce bring in corrupt and evil doctrines to try who was not sound in the Faith that they may draw them aside into a heat and zeal for something which had not its root in the Truth and which they that abode in the Truth could not own but judge and condemn in the Name of the Lord which when such saw they took thereat occasion of striving to propagate and promote that which they saw withstood so having lost subjection to the Spirit of Truth in themselves which would have kept them in Unity in the Body and having also lost and laid by their subjection to them that were over them in the Lord they then grew stubborn and wilful and proceeded in more zeal for that which stood in opposition to the Truth than ever they did for the Truth it self and these sometimes have prevailed to the subverting whole housholds and have turned several from the Faith and simplicity that is in the Gospel who as well as those that subverted them have lost the fellowship of the Saints and the savour of Life either in themselves or others
AN Epistle to Friends Concerning the PRESENT and SUCCEEDING TIMES BEING A faithful Exhortation and Warning to all Friends who profess the Truth to be ware of the manifold Wiles of the Enemy and to stand Armed in the Light of the Lord God of Heaven and Earth against his Assaults that so they may be ready to answer the Call and Requirings of the Lord. ALSO Some thing signified of the Misery of the Succeeding Times that all may be prepared and that the Evil Day may not overtake any at unawares but such as turn away their Ear from Counsel Let him that hath an Ear hear what the Spirit saith to the Churches By one who is a Traveller in the Way of Peace and hath good will towards all Men and more especially to the Houshold of Faith STEPHEN CRISP London Printed in the Year 1666. AN Epistle to Friends Concerning the PRESENT and SUCCEEDING TIMES Dear Friends YOU whom the Lord hath reached unto in this the day of his Love and hath made known the way of Truth and Righteousness unto you through the raising up of that holy living Witness of himself that long lay hid and buried in you and hath brought you to a secret feeling of something in you that is worth the minding and regarding and the Lord causing this to appear in the day of your seeking as a Light discovering Darkness and its power by which ye were formerly holden and giving you by his Spirit a sense and secret hope that in this Light the way of Deliverance was to obtained unto this hope made you not ashamed of the Light which before you hated but you came to own embrace it even while others still hated it and you for its sake yet your hearts being affected with the hope that did appear therein could not but so far joyn unto it as to make publick profession of it for its own sake and for no other ends or designes or interest at all but with resolution in that Light to wait for the Salvation of God Dear Friends it is you afore-mentioned that both now and for some days and weeks my heart hath been deeply exercised concerning even night and day and the aboundings of the Fathers love doth often overcome me and draws me forth now to say and write these things unto you for your admonition establishment and indeed it is you who did thus rightly own the way of Truth and knew your believing to be the gift and mercy of God to your souls that I do aim at for those that have taken up the profession of the precious Truth upon by respects and sinister ends and but for reasons propounded in their carnal minds though I do pitty them yet I have not much at this time to say to them but this The day shall declare them and their garment shall not hide them But you oh my friends who had fellowship with us in the deep travels of our beginnings and did come to Truth the same way and have known the power and virtue of it many times overcoming you in your inward man which hath made you cry out Lord evermore give us of this Bread and hath made you as a watred Garden Oh Friends how shall I express or signify unto you those longings those ardent desires and earnest breathings of my soul that you even you might abide to the end of all tryals and tribulation and adversities and might inherit that Crown of Immortality that is in Christ Jesus our Lord and might not by any meanes be bereft thereof this is singly my travel in Body and Spirit that you might be kept and preserved out of all the subtile snares of the wicked one which hunts for the soul even of those that have believed and therefore in dear and tender love I have a few things to write unto you for the clearing of my Conscience and discharging my duty in the sight of the Lord and the Lord give you all a tender and an understanding heart that both you and I may yet have cause daily to praise the Lord in the glorious Light of his Salvation which he hath manifested amongst us by the revealing his Son Christ Jesus to whom belongs Dominion Honour and Glory for ever Amen And first dear Friends it is in my heart to put you in remenbrance of that by which we were called and convinced which as a foundation Principle was laid in and among you and it being unchangable and unalterable in it self doth therefore admit of no alteration or change in those that are rightly kept to it It was a Light which arose in our hearts and shined forth from God the Father of Lights carrying in its appearance the nature and property of God both in its condemning evil which the Enemy had sown or planted in us and owning allowing and justifying every thing that was good and honest just and equal even those thoughts in our hearts which were of turning towards the Lord and seeking his righteousness these thoughts were justified and encouraged by the Light and all the contrary discovered and judged as they were brought to it to be tried Now this Light did our souls rejoyce in as they had good cause though it took away our former rejoycings our pleasures in vanities and iniquity died our glory in this world withered our friendship with the Sons of men decayed and we stood in the Light and saw all these things and were not sorry at it but waited daily to see these things more and more brought to pass neither was there a permitting our thoughts to go out how we might prevent those damages or repair these losses but the Cross of Christ was indeed our glorying or rejoycing and the hope that was before us did make us despise the pleasure treasures and honours friendship and delights of this world and in those dayes you grew into a feeling of the heavenly joy where the hundred-fold was witnessed in your bosoms and the zeal of the Lord was kindled by his own Spirit in you against whatsoever this Light of Jesus in the Conscience did witness against and the Lord beheld your integrity and blessed you and multiplied you and added to your strength and stature and then did the fruits of this glorious work abound among you in three more general and special effects by which effects or by their continuance among you let all now come to search and try themselves that so dear Friends those that have continued faithful in them all may persevere in like manner to the end and those who upon true search do find that they have failed and fallen short in all or any of them may make hast to repent and to turn to that which was the root of them all that they may not be found as fruitless and withered branches in the day that cometh lest they be cut off and utterly consumed and blotted out from among the living branches of the Vine for a day cometh that Truth will look into the
Enemy make use of in these dayes But mark who it is that he hath caught with it none but such who sometimes were low in their minds and dare not grieve the Spirit of God in themselves nor others but for the Truth-sake could give up all things rather than their Testimony but in time growing careless and loose in waiting lost that subject state and grew high and exalted in their minds above the Cross that should have crucified the betraying wisdom and so having lost the true exercise of the power and the feeling of the Excellency and worth of the Truth they knew not the requirings of the Lord and the earthly mind got up that placed a greater esteem upon earthly things than upon things that are eternal and so things that once thou offerest up to God thou takest again into thine own hand and so robbest the Lord and growest careful about outward things as other Gentiles are and to cover thy shame herein the Enemy then tempts thee to bely the power that once wrought in thy heart and made thee afraid to act against the Light or to deny thy Testimony for God in such things as was manifest and then saist thou didst it by immitation but thou shalt know thy covering is too narrow in the day that hasteth upon thee Another Temptation that the Enemy presenteth is That though thou art convinced what to do or what thou shouldest deny yet the tryals are so hard and so many and Persecutors wax worse and worse so that thou shalt not hold out to the end and where he can get entrance with this bait he presently causeth an evil heart of unbelief and doubting to arise which takes away even the strength which the Lord did give and so feebleness doth enter the mind and a spirit of bondage leads thee to fear again and then comes the dispute in thy heart whether thou shalt stand with the power of God in the obedience or whether thou shalt fall under that power that ariseth against God and his Truth and People and in this combate thou hast a subtile Enemy using many devices to betray thee and a part in thy self not yet mortified that is ready to say Pitty thy self pitty thy Wife pitty thy Children and pitty thy Relations which it may be sometimes are all as so many Instruments of Satan to seduce thee and lead thee into darkness that thou mayst not see so great necessity in thy bearing up thy Testimony as indeed there is nor so great a danger in the contrary as indeed there is Oh Friends at such a time as this where is there any help but in the Lord where canst thou find a Saviour but in that Light which gives to distinguish of the several Voyces Now it is good for thee to remember that If thou walk after the flesh thou must and shalt surely dye and wither in such a time flee flee to the Lord wait in his dread to feel thy strength but renewed at the present and take no care for strength next moneth next year or next tryal for God is God and changeth not and will be the same to thee in seven tryals as in six if thou believe and wait on him in uprightness and therefore fear not man but trust in the Lord all ye that have known and felt his power and let not in the Enemy of your souls by the door of carnal reasoning but keep that shut and rather consider how the Enemy makes thee as a rejoycing among his own Children and strengthens that hope in them of their overcoming all others as well as thee which hope is curst and shall be confounded and consider that if thou lettest fall thy Testimony which thou hast once born for the Lord thou makest the heart of the Righteous sad and makest their travel thorow that Testimony the harder for them by reason of thy encouraging their Adversaries by the hope aforesaid And whatever thou dost they must go thorow to the end who will inherit the Crown of Immortality And again consider It may be that thy back-sliding or cowardly drawing away the shoulder may prove a discouragement to others and they may stumble in thy stumbling and fall with thee and never be able to rise and so thou bring their blood also upon thee Oh remember also that servant of the Lord who could say Psal 119.157 My Persecutors are encreased but my heart doth not decline thy Testimonies That was a noble Spirit becoming the Souldiers of Christ yea though persecuted by Princes as he saith vers 161. Dear Friends Let your minds be stirred up to be zealous for the Lord in this the great day of Controversie with darkness and its power Who hath God to bear witness to his Name but you Among whom hath he made it known as among you Who have given up themselves to the Lord as you have done Well Blessed are they that keep Covenant with the Lord for they shall see his glory One more subtile snare of the Enemy in this matter is in my heart to mention that is this Viz. To perswade thee for once somtimes to do that which the Light hath made manifest with a purpose afterward to be more faithful Oh Friends in the name and fear of the Lord I exhort and warn you all to take heed of this for this will prove but a false confidence thou wilt find this kind of going out of the guidance of Truth to be a dear out-going to thee for if ever thou dost return it will be very hardly and with bitter anguish of soul Oh do not tempt the Lord on this wise Lest it doth prove impossible upon thy sinning willingly to renew or restore thee again by repentance thou wilt have my Pottage but wilt lose the Blessing though thou mayest seek it with tears for while thou wentest out behold thy way became hedged up and the Thorny-Nature gat up in thee and so thou art debarred and fenced out from enjoying thy former state Sin being entred Death soon follows Oh remember Sampson who when he had disclosed the token of a Nazarite in which state he stood in Covenant with God yet thought to have shaken himself and to have gone forth in his strength as at other times but was mistaken Judg. 16.20 for the Lord was departed from him though he knew it not And so though thou hast known the Lords presence and power in thy Vessel yet take heed of letting in that treacherous spirit to lead thee to unfaithfulness and to betray the least of his Trusts and Testimonies committed to thee though it be but for once for thereby thou wilt render thyself unworthy to be found a Witness of his Power another time for the Lord will leave that Vessel and often doth and chooseth other Vessels to manifest himself in that will be more true and faithful So Dear Friends in true and tender Love I have laid these things before you that ye might all be stirred up and provoked to
Love and to good Works that ye might abound in the grace committed to you and none of you who have known the Truth might be entangled with the Wiles of your subtile enemy and that you that have begun well might not lose the things that ye have wrought but might persevere in well-doing till ye have finished your course in peace And Friends this is the joy and delight of those that labour among you in the Lord and hereby is our hand strengthened and our hearts refreshed when we do find ye such as we desire ye should be even stedfast in the Truth and then also do you find us to you-ward such as ye desire we should be even a refreshing in the fellowship of life unto you and our God comforts us together in the mutual joy and comfort of his holy Spirit working in us and you And Friends I am the more drawn forth at this time to visit you with an Epistle because the Lord hath given me some sight of his great and dreadful Day and Workings in it which is at hand and greatly hastens of which I have something to say unto you that ye may be prepared to stand in his day and may behold his wonderous Working among his Enemies and have fellowship with his Power therein and may not be dismayed nor driven away in the tempest which will be great And as concerning those succeeding times the Spirit of the Lord hath signified that they will be times of horror and amazement to all that have and yet do reject his Counsel for as the dayes of his forbearance warning and inviting hath been long so shall his appearance amongst those that have withstood him be fierce and terrible even so terrible as who shall abide his coming for the Lord will work both secretly and openly and his Arm shall be manifest to his Children in both Secretly he shall raise up a continual fretting anguish amongst his Enemies one against another so that being vexed and tormented inwardly they shall seek to make each other miserable and delight therein for a little season and then the Prevailer must be prevailed over and the digger of the Pit must fall therein and the confidence that men have had one in another shall fail and they will beguile and betray one another both by counsel and strength and as they have banded themselves to break you whom God hath gathered so shall they band themselves against one another to break to spoil and destroy one another and thorow the multitude of their treacheries all credit or belief upon the account of their solemn engagement shall fail so that few men shall count themselves or what is theirs safe in the hand of his Friend who hath not chosen his safety and friendship in the pure Light of the unchangable Truth of God and all the secret counsels of the ungodly shall be brought to nought sometimes by the means of some of themselves and sometimes by impossibilities lying in their way which shall make their hearts fail of ever accomplishing what they have determined and in this state shall men fret themselves for a season and shall not be able to see the hand that turns against them but shall turn to fight against one thing and another a third thing and shall stagger and reele in Counsel and Judgment as drunken men that know not where to find the way to rest and when they do yet stir themselves up against the holy People and against the holy Covenant of Light and them that walk in it they shall but the more be confounded for they shall be helped with a little help which all the ungodly shall not hinder them of to wit the secret Arm of the Lord maintaining their Cause and raising up a Witness in the very hearts of their Adversaries to plead their Innocency and this shall make them yet the more to vex themselves Isa 8. and to go thorow hard-bestead for when they shall look upward to their Religion to their Power Policy or Preferments or Friendships or whatsoever else they had trusted in and relied upon they shall have cause to curse it and when they look downwards to the Effects produced by all those things behold then trouble and horrour and vexation takes hold on them and drives them to darkness and having no help but what is Earthly and being out of the knowledge of the mighty overturning Power of the Lord God Almighty they shall dispair and wear out their dayes with anguish and besides all this the terrible hand of the Lord is and shall be openly manifest against this ungodly Generation by bringing grievous and terrible Judgments and Plagues upon them tumbling down all things in which their Pride and Glory stood and overturning overturning even the Foundations of their strength yea the Lord will lay wast the Mountain of the ungodly Nahum 3.12 13. and the strength of the fenced City shall fail and when men shall say We will take refuge in them they shall become but a snare and there shall the Sword devoure and when they shall say We will go into the Field and put trust in the Number and Courage of our Souldiers they shall both be taken away and this evil also will come of the Lord and his hand will be stretched out still and shall bring Confusion upon Confusion Ruine upon Ruine and War upon War and the hearts of men shall be stirred in them and the Nations shall be as Waters into which a Tempest a swift Whirlwind is entred and even as Waves swell up to the dissolution one of another and breaking one of another so shal the swellings of People be And because of the hardship and sorrow of those dayes many shall seek and desire Death rather than Life Ah my heart relents and is moved within me in the sence of these things and much more than I can write or declare which the Lord will do in the Earth and will also make hast to accomplish among the Sons of Men that they may know and confess That the Most High doth Rule in the Kingdoms of Men and pulleth down and setteth up according to his own will and this shall men do before seven times pass over them and shall be content to give their glory unto him that sits in Heaven But Oh Friends while all these things are working and bringing to pass repose ye your selves in the Munition of that Rock that all these shakings shall not move even in the knowledge and feeling of the eternal power of God keeping you subjectly given up to his heavenly will and feel it daily to kill and mortifie that which remains in any of you which is of this World for the worldly part in any is the changable part and that is up and down full and empty joyful and sorrowful as things go well or ill in the World For as the Truth is but one and many are made partakers of its Spirit so the World is but one