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A84597 The scorned Quakers true and honest account, both why and what he should have spoken (as to the sum and substance thereof) by commission from God, but that he had not permission from men, in the Painted Chamber on the 17th. day of the 7th. month 1656. before the Protector and the Parliament then, and there met together, with many more of no mean account, who were not of them, yet were then crowded in among them. Fisher, Samuel, 1605-1665. 1656 (1656) Wing F1057; Thomason E889_10; ESTC R202114 32,531 40

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be the Rule as in the dark for want of the true light yet shining which now shineth forth they have been supposed to be and the onely sure foundation of the faith and Church but Christ himself his light and Spirit which shew good and evill in the heart which are the onely Guide Light Commander Counceller Leader Law Lawgiver Foundation and Rule which the Scripture sends to and this is infallible and to be followed in what it speaks infallibly and not otherwise to the conscience and there is the onely sure and safe walking even in the light in Christ in the Spirit and not in the Letter which is fallible by false interpretation and translation which yet is true as 't was penn'd by the Spiri● much less in the flesh and in the darkness as too many do besides both the Letter and the light of them that talk much of the Let●er yea of them that talk also of the spirit of the light but if the light be put out in any through abuse of it and the God of this world hath been suffered by the God of all the worlds to bli●d the mind and put out the eye then if the light be darkness and the eye which is the light of the body be out how great is that darkness who can help i● who can help it if for not walking in the light while men had it darkness is come upon them if for not liking to retain God in their knowledge when what might be known of him was manifest in them and shewed in them and for not glorifying him as God but becoming vain in their imaginations and not receiving the love of the truth that shined in them their foolish heart was darkened and they given over to strong delusion to vile affections to do things unseemly to hate whisper backbite envy murder be filthy drunken swear steal lye dissemble still they knew the judgement of God that they that do such things are worthy of death yet not onely did the same but had pleasure in those that did them if the Gospell be thus hid it is hid but to them that are lost but they are happy still who keep stedfast in the light their foundation is still sure and infallible whose heart condemns not it self nor the true light that shines in it in what it allows it self in and does for he that walks in meekness temperance love joy peace innocency righteousness purity patience doing what he would be done to which is the Law and the Prophets saith Christ the sum of all the fulfilling of the Law which things the light Spirit of Christ leads all that follow it up to cut of the lusts and fruits and wayes of the fl●sh if all men cry out of him for an heretick a deceiver a Devill a base fellow a disturber as they did of Christ he clearly comprehends them all to be but in the deceit themselves and in the vanity of their own thoughts and falseness of their own imaginations yea infallibly he knows in the light of the Lord himself to be a true man and all those that think him otherwise and call him hypocrite to be but lyars and again if a man walk in the lusts and wayes of the flesh which are infallibly also manifest in the light as drunkeness revelling wantoness couzening cheating fighting hating adultery murder lying and the like If all the men in the world shall flatter him and tell him he does well and he need not fear but he is right and these things are good and pleasing unto God unless I say again the light be quite put out as the candle of the wicked which once they had shining in them often is and then wo so that they call good evill and darkness light being scaled up under obscure darkness in Gods just wrath against the judgement there is that light in his conscience will tell him if he heed it his way is false and filthy and these men that cry peace to him in it are all lyars and when ever the book of conscience but a little opens it appears so to be in wicked men at this very day Now therefore turn into that Law of mine written in your hearts saith the Lord which Law if you turn away your ears from the hearing of your very prayers are abominable unto me saith the Lord yea though you make many prayers to me and long and spread forth your hands and howl unto me as you do on your fast dayes and in the dayes of your ordained humiliations whereby to make your voyce to be heard on high yet will I not give ear unto you saith the Lord but as I call and cry for righteousness and purity even within you and ye hear not so ye shall call and cry to me without and not be heard and though my hand be no way shortned that it cannot save nor my ear heavy that it cannot hear yet if after your fasts you enter as you have often done into strife and debate and smite even my people with the fist of wickedness and find your own pleasure and do your own works and wills and think your own thoughts and live still under the power of your lusts and will not be led by my Spirit in you which would lead you from them then I will not accept you at all yea my Soul shall even loath and abhor you and these iniquities of yours shall separate between me and you and your sins shall keep good things from you even the good things ye cry and call for and you shall wait for peace but behold trouble for light and joy but there shall be dimness of anguish and ye shall be driven more and more to darkness and ye shall roare like Bears and mourn sore like Doves and groap for the wall like the blind even like them that have no eyes and those that looke for good from you who are their representatives shall find none their eyes shall fail with looking for help from you and even drop out before ever deliverance shall come to them by you yea they shall wait for justice but there shal be more oppression of them righteousness but there shall be nothing but a cry because he that departeth from iniquity is made a prey among you still and ye hate him that reproveth in the gate and a man is made an offender for a word speaking even for my word spoken among you by command and commission from my self neither shall any one among you be able to uphold and ye shall be a broken staff in the hands of such as leane upon you running into their hands rather than sustaining neither is there any one of you from the highest to the lowest that shall come to good or be vessells of honour saith the Lord unless ye be sanctifyed by my light or counted fit at all for the Masters use Be wise now therefore O ye Kings ye Rulers and Judges of the Earth and serve the
have been formerly acted towards me but formally and fainedly saith the Lord insomuch that since you are still in your iniquities I cannot away with your solemn assemblies I smell no sweet smell in your Sacrifices it is iniquitie to me even your most solemn meeting Therefore now trust not in lying words saying the Temple of the Lord the Church of God the worship of God and such like nor think that this is the fasting that I have chosen and will accept for a man to afflict his soul and hang down his head for a day and then go on in his sins as if he had obtained from God by his coming to him a dispensation to sin more securely another time for this is but deceit and all your labour will prove but a lye to you saith the Lord but wash you make you clean and abstain from the fleshly lusts of your own hearts and turn in every one of you to the light in your own consciences that shews you good and evil and frame your ways and your doings according thereunto even that pure Law of righteousness plac●d within you whereby every one of you are made from God even a Law unto your selves which light is Gods own wi●ness within you all which if it condemn you God justifies you not and hearken to the voice of that Prophet Christ Jesus to whom in words your own preachers point you and to whom I who came not in among you this day to be your Teacher my self but to direct you to him do from God himself who sent me direct you as your truest Teacher to whom also the true Ministry did direct men of old who were sent of him to turn men from darkness to the light from the power of Satan to God who is light and to Christ himself who is the light of the world that enlightneth every man that cometh into the world That Prophet whose voice soever hears not and obeys not even in all things whatsoever he saith to them shall be cut off from among his people who by a measure of light from himself hath enlightned every one of you whose voice is within and not without to you nor heard now without by any of you for the Scripture is not his voice but so far as truly translated a Declaration of what he spake to and by those holy men that were moved to write it who heard his voice within and saw him in his own light within as ye may do if ye will but hear ye deaf and look ye blind for he is that powerfull and living word of God which is nigh you so nigh that ye need not say who shall go to Heaven to fetch him down to us and who shall go hither or thither beyond Sea or into Scotland or this Land or that to fetch a Directory for us he is nigh even in your hearts within you by his light Preaching himself to you and the mind and will of the Father to you and known by you to be in you too if you be not Reprobates yea I say it again to you from the Lord there is within you his Light which both seeth and sheweth you all that ever you did in your lives and that you now dayly do think or speak and sets all your sins in order before you reproving you for them in your own consciences if you do but heed him and that is the light of Christ the word of God that is quick searches you to the quick before whom all things are n●ked and bare and by whom all shall be brought to judgement who by his light within you sheweth you as in a glass your own faces your own Spirits your own selves and what manner of men you are as the Scriptures cannot do for in the Scriptures which I own and honour and am far from disswading any man from looking into you may read the Right of things and what you should and should not be and do but the light within is larger than that and of further extent shewing not onely the Right and the Law and what we should be and do but also the fact even what we do and are the light which the Scripture sends to as we also do it manifests all things not onely that ought to be done but also that are done and therefore evill ones come not to it least their deeds by it should be reproved but they that do truth come to it not onely that it may appear as it may in a Letter without also to them that besides the light within have the Law in a Letter also and heed it what they shou●d do but what they do that their deeds may be manifest whether they are wrought in God yea or nay now turn in your minds I say to that even to the light I say not to the darkness for there is that also but to the light which is within and that b●ing heeded will lead you out of the works of darkness that it discovers to be in you even up to Christ to the life of Christ and God from whom it comes yea if you be minded to try the truth of it turn into it in what measure you take heed to it and abide by it even by the word hid in the heart you shall not sin against God they do no iniquity who walk in that his Law they that walk in the Spirit shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh you shall find that light the power of God to the salvation of you from the sins which it shew● to be in you and bring you not onely under judgement for them and to confess ye the sins that are past and so to a forgiveness of them but also through faith in his blood to a cleansing from all unrighteousness all filthiness of flesh and Spirit and to the perfecting of holyness in the fear of God and bring forth his righteousness in you and his Image in you who is made of God to them that receive him even wisdom righteousness sanctification and redemption and they in him the Sons of God and partakers of his na●ure to that therefore turn your minds and attend and by it be guided and there you will witness peace and acceptance with God and boldness before God your own hearts not checking nor condemning you of sin which is the transgression of that Law however you may be condemned of men which turning from you go condemned in your selves and before God and then what will it profit you if all men should speak well of you and justify you and say you are Godly and honest men and this and that And this is the onely infallible teacher for all men for the Scriptures not as written by the men that were inspired but as since then mistranscribed even in the very Greek and Hebrew Copies how much more as we have them mistranslated in many things and in so many severall translations these are in somethings fallibe so not fit to
Cromwell Protector so calld of these three Nations of England Scotland and Ireland and also to all you who are chosen out of the several parts thereof to sit in Parliament this day to consider of such things as concern the Common-wealth thereof and likewise to the three Nations themselves even to the Towns Cities Countries and all the subordinate Powers and people thereof whose Rulers and Representatives ye are which word of the Lord as you do not deeme your selves too high or too great or too good to be spoken too from the Lord and as you will not fall under the guilt of that sin of saying to the Seers see not and to the Prophets prophesy not prophesy not unto us right things prophesy smooth things prophesy deceipts which iniquity will prove such a breach among you if you do as you will never be able to make up again with all your wisdoms I charge you all in the name of the living God that without interruption or opposition whether you like or like it not you stand still and hear it and when I have done you may do with me as the Lord shall give you leave or leave me under the power of your hands to do no Law of Equity condemning any Man before he be heard specially when he speaks on so high an account as from the God of Heaven himself though to such as are no less than Gods under him here on Earth Ye are a seed of evill doers saith the Lord an Hypocriticall Generation a people whose heart is not right and whose spirit is not stedfast with the Lord ye have made many shews of seeking my face but ye have not yet found it because ye have not sought it in sincerity ye have talked much of turning unto me but ye have never done it yet with all your hearts but faignedly saith the Lord ye have seemed much to enquire after me in your long prayers as if ye did delight to know my ways but my ways which are ways of purity peace and pleasantness though grievous to the wicked ye yet know not so well as ye might do did ye stand in my Counsell and so far forth as ye do know of them ye have no delight to walk in them so straight and rugged are they to that Nature which ye yet remain in ye call out to me after light as if ye were very desirous to be enlightned but ye are haters of my light of my life saith the Lord even the light in the conscience which I have placed in every one of you to be a witness for me against your selves when ye do evill which if a Man believe in he shall not abide in darkness but shall see the light of life and come forth in my Image and likeness saith the Lord this ye come not closely to lest you should be reproved by it but love darkness more than it because your deeds are evill ye have fasted often and hung down your heads like a bulrush for a day but you have never yet fasted unto me saith the Lord you find your own pleasure still the bands of wickedness are not loosed you are captivated still in the Cords of your own sins neither have you in the midst of all your abstinencies abstained ever yet from the fleshly lusts which war against your souls but are as proud as ever as pompous and vain as ever as luxurious and wanton as covetous and earthly minded as self-seeking as time-serving as Men-pleasing as oppressing and unrighteous as before ye have often fasted for but never fully from your iniquities to this day saith the Lord you would be counted professors yea promoters of Religion but are indeed persecuters of the very life and power and of that people that do live in the life and power of that same Religion which inform and words ye have long professed the Christian Religion contained in the Scripture is that which in the 35th Article of your present Government ye say shall be held forth and recommended as the publick profession of the Nation and indeed many severall outward forms fashions and professions of that Christian Religion ye have run out into saith the Lord but the substance it self living in the spirit walking after the spirit keeping a Mans self out of the lusts of the flesh unspotted of the world which is the onely pure and undefiled and true Christian Religion the Scripture calls for this is rather held under and discommended than held forth and recommended by you any further than in a sound of words so long as such as do solidly unfainedly in truth and not in talk make publick profession of that are by all empty formalists in all places injured accused falsely unjustly censured and abused ye judge not the meek in righteousness ye condemn the generation of the just ones ye love lyars hurt the peaceable and destroy the dwellings of such as bring forth fruits unto me as your selves never yet did and that do you no harme saith the Lord Witness the sad sufferings of so many of my Saints and Servants that tremble at my word saith the Lord and are therefore commonly but scornfully called Quakers many of whose pretious ones of whom the world is not worthy as unworthy as they are thought to live in quiet in it have for these two or three years last past in some parts of the other two Nations and in most parts of this undergone tryalls of cruell mockings and scoffings revilings and derisions dayly also of stockings and stonings cruell and bloudy whippings and scourgings shamefull and despitefull intreatings and handlings halings out of Synagogues risings of people in rude and tumultuous manners upon them and such cruell kinds of bonds and imprisonments as those that are Malefactors in deed for such are objects of your pity while they suffer and not your hatred saith the Lord do seldome or never meet with castings into narrow nasty holes and stinking Dungeons wherein yet access of friends to minister to them is oft denyed them heavy and cruell fines which they can sooner choose to perish in prison as some have done than ever pay they being meerly by the wills of Man imposed upon them which fines will be at last a talent of lead upon their consciences that have set them and as the Gall of Aspes in their bowells that exact the payment these and such like things have my servants suffered among you some for one small matter some another but not for ought at which I am displeased or offended with them saith the Lord as namely some meerly for travelling to and fro to fulfill the Ministry they receive of God and to testifie the Gospell of his grac in obedience to him who hath layed such necessity on them so to do that woe be unto them from him if they do it not even as the Apostles and true Ministers of old did by the power of the Spirit of the Lotd upon them who passed up and down preaching