and of the most Repute for Religion and many of them of good Capacity Substance and Account among Men. And also some among them wanted not for Parts Learning or Estate though then as of Old not many Wise or Noble c. were called or at least received the Heavenly Call because of the Cross that attended the Profession of it in Sincerity But neither do Parts or Learning make Men the better Christians though the better Orators and Disputants and it is the Ignorance of People about the Divine Gift that causes that vulgar and mischievous mistake Theory and Practice Speculation and Enjoyment Words and Life are two things Oh 't is the Penitent the Reformed the Lowly the Watchful the Self-denying and Holy Soul that is the Christian And that Frame is the Fruit and Work of the Spirit which is the Life of Jesus Whose Life though hid in the fulness of it in God the Father is shed abroad in the Hearts of them that truly Believe according to their Capacity Oh that People did but know this to Cleanse them to Circumcise them to Quicken them and to make them New Creatures indeed Recreated or Regenerated after Christ Jesus unto good Works that they might live to God and not to themselves and offer up living Prayers and living Praises to the living God through his own living Spirit in which he is only to be Worshipped in this Gospel Day Oh that they that read me could but feel me For my Heart is affected with this Merciful Visitation of the Father of Lights and Spirits to this poor Nation and the whole World through the same Testimony Why should the Inhabitants thereof reject it Why should they lose the Blessed Benefit of it Why should they not turn to the Lord with all their Hearts and say from the Heart Speak Lord for now thy poor Servants hear Oh that thy Will may be done thy Great thy Good and Holy Will in Earth as it is in Heaven Do it in us do it upon us do what thou wilt with us for we are thine and desire to glorifie thee our Creator both for that and because thou art our Redeemer for thou art redeeming us from the Earth from the Vanities and Pollutions of it to be a Peculiar People unto thee Oh this were a Brave Day for England if so she could say in Truth But alas the Case is otherwise for which some of thine Inhabitants O Land of my Nativity have mourned over thee with bitter Wailing and Lamentation Their Heads have been indeed as Waters and their Eyes as Fountains of Tears because of thy Transgression and Stiffneckedness because thou wilt not Hear and Fear and Return to the Rock even thy Rock O England from whence thou wert Hewen But be thou warned O Land of great Profession to receive him into thy Heart Behold at That Door it is he hath stood so long Knocking but thou wilt yet have none of him Oh be thou awakened lest Jerusalem's Judgments do swiftly overtake thee because of Jerusalem's Sins that abound in thee For she abounded in Formality but made void the Weighty things of God's Law as thou daily doest She withstood the Son of God in the Flesh and thou resistest the Son of God in the Spirit He would have gathered her as an Hen gathereth her Chickens under her Wings and she would not so would he have gathered thee out of thy Life-less Profession and have brought thee to inherit Substance to have known his Power and Kingdom For which he often knockt within by his Grace and Spirit and without by his Servants and Witnesses But thou wouldest not be gathered But on the Contrary as Jerusalem of old Persecuted the Manifestation of the Son of God in the Flesh and Crucified him and Whipt and Imprisoned his Servants so hast thou O Land Crucified to thy self afresh the Lord of Life and Glory and done despite to his Spirit of Grace slighting the Fatherly Visitation and Persecuting the blessed Dispensers of it by thy Laws and Magistrates Though they have Early and Late pleaded with thee in the Power and Spirit of the Lord in Love and Meekness that thou mightest know the Lord and serve him and become the Glory of all Lands But thou hast Evilly entreated and requited them Thou hast set at nought all their Counsel and would have none of their Reproof as thou shouldest have done Their Appearance was too Straight and their Qualifications were too Mean for thee to receive them like the Jews of Old that cried Is not this the Carpenters Son and are not his Brethren among us which of the Scribes of the Learned the Orthodox believe in him Prophesying their Fall in a Year or two and making and executing of severe Laws to bring it to pass Endeavouring to terrifie them out of their Holy way or destroy them for abiding Faithful to it But thou hast seen how many Governments that rise against them and determined their Downfal have been overturned and extinguished and that they are still preserved and become a great and a considerable People among the Middle sort of thy numerous Inhabitants And notwithstanding the many difficulties Without and Within which they have Laboured under since the Lord God Eternal first gathered them they are an Encreasing People the Lord still adding unto them in divers Parts such as shall be saved if they persevere to the End And to Thee O England were they and are they lifted up as a Standard and as a City set upon a Hill and to the Nations round about thee that in their Light thou may'st come to see Light even in Christ Jesus the Light of the World and therefore thy Light and Life too if thou wouldst but turn from thy many evil ways and receive and obey it For in the Light of the Lamb must the Nations of them that are saved walk as the Scripture Testifies Remember O Nation of great Profession How the Lord has waited upon thee since the Dawnings of Reformation and the many Mercies and Judgments by which he has pleaded with Thee and Awake and Arise out of thy deep Sleep and yet hear his Word in thy Heart that thou may'st live Let not this thy day of Visitation pass over thy Head nor neglect thou so great Salvation as is This which is come to thy House Oh England For why should'st thou die Oh Land that God desires to Bless Be assured it is He that has been in the mid'st of This People in the midst of Thee and not a Delusion as thy mistaken Teachers have made Thee believe And this thou shalt find by their Marks and Fruits if thou wilt consider them in the Spirit of Moderation CHAP. III. Of the Qualifications of their Ministry Eleven Marks that it is Christian I. THey were changed Men themselves before they went about to change others Their Hearts were Rent as well as their Garments and they knew the Power and Work of God upon them And this was seen by
us in this Day and that it is not to be heard in the Noises and Hurries of the Mind but is distinctly understood in a Retired Frame Jesus loved and chose Solitudes often going to Mountains to Gardens and Sea-sides to avoid Crowds and Hurries to shew his Disciples it was Good to be Solitary and sit loose to the World Two Enemies lie near your States Imagination and Liberty but the plain practical Living Holy Truth that has convinced you will preserve you if you Mind it in your selves and bring all Thoughts Inclinations and Affections to the Test of It to see if they are wrought in God or of the Enemy or your own selves So will a true Taste Discerning and Judgment be preserved to you of what you should do and leave undone And in your diligence and Faithfulness in this way you will come to inherit Substance and Christ the Eternal Wisdom will fill your Treasury And when you are Converted as well as Convinced then confirm your Brethren and be ready to every good Word and Work that the Lord shall call you to that you may be to his Praise who has chosen you to be partakers with the Saints in Light of a Kingdom that cannot be shaken an Inheritance incorruptible in Eternal Habitations And now as for you that are the Children of God's People a Great Concern is upon my Spirit for your good And often are my Knees Bowed to the God of your Fathers for you that you may come to be partakers of the same Divine Life and Power that have been the Glory of this Day that a Generation you may be to God an Holy Nation and a Peculiar People Zealous of Good Works when all our Heads are laid in the Dust Oh you Young Men and Women let it not suffice you that you are the Children of the People of the Lord you must also be born again if you will inherit the Kingdom of God Your Fathers are but such after the Flesh and could but beget you into the likeness of the first Adam but you must be begotten into the likeness of the second Adam by a Spiritual Generation or you will not you cannot be of his Children or Off-spring And therefore look carefully about you Oh ye Children of the Children of God! Consider your Standing and see what you are in Relation to this Divine Kindred Family and Birth Have you obeyed the Light and received and walked in the Spirit which is the incorruptible Seed of the Word and Kingdom of God of which you must be born again God is no respecter of Persons The Father cannot save or answer for the Child or the Child for the Father but in the Sin thou Sinnest thou shalt die and in the Righteousness thou doest through Christ Jesus thou shalt live for it is the Willing and Obedient that shall eat the Good of the Land Be not deceived God is not mocked such as all Nations and People Sow such they shall reap at the hand of the just God And then your many and great Priviledges above the Children of other People will add weight in the scale against you if you choose not the way of the Lord. For you have had Line upon Line and Precept upon Precept and not only good Doctrine but good Example and which is more you have been turned to and acquainted with a Principle in your selves which others have been ignorant of And you know you may be as Good as you please without the Fear of Frowns and Blows or being turned out of doors and forsaken of Father and Mother for God's Sake and his Holy Religion as has been the Case of some of your Fathers in the day they first entred into this Holy Path. And if you after hearing and seeing the Wonders that God has wrought in the deliverance and preservation of them through a Sea of Troubles and the manifold Temporal as well as spiritual Blessings that he has filled them with in the sight of their Enemies you should neglect and turn your backs upon so great and so near a Salvation you would not only be most ungrateful Children to God and them but must expect that God will call the Children of those that knew him not to take the Crown out of your Hands and that your lot will be a dreadful Judgment at the hand of the Lord. But Oh that it may never be so with any of you The Lord forbid saith my Soul Wherefore Oh ye Young Men and Women look to the Rock of your Fathers chuse the God of your Fathers There is no other God but him no other Light but his no other Grace but his nor Spirit but his to Convince you Quicken and Comfort you to Lead Guide and Preserve you to God's Everlasting Kingdom So will you be Possessors as well as Professors of the Truth embracing it not only by Education but Judgment and Conviction From a Sense begotten in your Souls through the operation of the Eternal Spirit and Power of God by which you may come to be the Seed of Abraham through Faith and the circumcision not made with Hands and so Heirs of the Promise made to the Fathers of an Incorruptible Crown That as I said before a Generation you may be to God holding up the Profession of the blessed Truth in the Life and Power of it For Formality in Religion is Nauseous to God and good Men and the more so where any Form or Appearance has been new and peculiar and begun and practised upon a Principle with an Vncommon Zeal and Strictness Therefore I say for you to fall flat and formal and continue the profession without that Salt and Savour by which it is come to obtain a good Report among Men is not to answer God's Love or your Parents Care or the mind of Truth in your selves or in those that are without Who tho' they will not obey the Truth have Sight and Sense enough to see if they do that make a Profession of it For where the Divine Virtue of it is not felt in the Soul and waited for and lived in imperfections will quickly break out and shew themselves and detect the Unfaithfulness of such Persons and that their Insides are not seasoned with the Nature of that holy Principle which they profess Wherefore Dear Children let me intreat you to shut your Eyes at the Temptations and Allurements of this Low and Perishing World and not suffer your affections to be captivated by those Lusts and Vanities that your Fathers for the Truths Sake long since turned their Backs upon But as you believe it to be the Truth receive it into your Hearts that you may become the Children of God So that it may never be said of you as the Evangelist Writes of the Jews of his time That Christ the true Light came to his own but his own received him not but to as many as received him to them he gave Power to become the Children of God which were born not of
it which I shall now mention in their Natural and Experimental Order First Repentance from dead Works to serve the Living God Which comprehends three Operations First a sight of Sin Secondly A Sence and Godly Sorrow for Sin Thirdly An Amendment for the Time to come This was the Repentance they preached and pressed and a Natural result from the Principle they turned all People unto For of Light came Sight and of Sight came Sense and Sorrow and of Sense and Sorrow came Amendment of Life Which Doctrine of Repentance leads to Justification that is Forgiveness of the Sins that are past through Christ the alone Propitiation and the Sanctification or Purgation of the Soul from the defiling Nature and Habits of Sin Present by the Spirit of Christ in the Soul Which is Justification in the compleat Sence of that Word Comprehending both justification from the Guilt of the Sins that are past as if they had never been committed through the Love and Mercy of God in Christ Jesus and the Creatures being made inwardly just through the Cleansing and Sanctfiying Power and Spirit of Christ revealed in the Soul which is commonly called Sanctification But that none can come to know Christ to be their Sacrifice that Reject him as their Sanctifier The End of his coming being to save his People from the Nature and Defilement as well as Guilt of Sin and that therefore those that resist his Light and Spirit make his coming an offering of none effect to them From hence sprang a Second Doctrine they were led to declare as the Mark of the Price of the High Calling to all true Christians viz. Perfection from Sin according to the Scriptures of truth which testifie it to be the End of Christ's coming and the Nature of his Kingdom and for which his Spirit was and is given viz. to be Perfect as our Heavenly Father is Perfect and Holy because God is Holy And this the Apostles laboured for that the Christians should be Sanctified Through-out in Body Soul and Spirit But they never held a Perfection in Wisdom and Glory in this Life or from Natural Infirmities or Death as some have with a weak or ill mind imagined and insinuated against them This they called a Redeemed State Regeneration or the New-Birth Teaching every where according to their Foundation that without this Work were known there was no inheriting the Kingdom of God Thirdly This leads to an acknowledgment of Eternal Rewards and Punishments as they have good Reason for else of all People certainly they must be the most Miserable Who for about Forty Years have been exceeding great Sufferers for their Profession and in some Cases treated worse than the worst of Men yea as the Refuse and Off-scowering of all things This was the Purport of their Doctrine and Ministry which for the most part is what other Professors of Christianity pretend to hold in Words and Forms but not in the Power of Godliness which generally speaking has been long lost by Mens departing from that Principle and Seed of Life that is in Man and which Man has not regarded but lost the Sense of and in and by which he can only be quickned in his Mind to serve the living God in Newness of Life For as the Life of Religion was lost and the generality lived and Worshipped God after their own Wills and not after the Will of God nor the mind of Christ which stood in the Works and Fruits of the Holy Spirit so that which they prest was not Notion but Experience no Formality but Godliness as being sensible in themselves through the Work of God's Righteous Judgments that without Holiness no Man should ever see the Lord with Comfort Besides these General Doctrines as the larger Branches there sprang forth several particular Doctrines that did exemplifie and further explain the Truth and Efficacy of the General Doctrine before observed in their Lives and Examples As I. Communion and loving one another This is a noted Mark in the Mouth of all sorts of People concerning them They will meet They will help and stick one to another Whence it is common to hear some say Look how the Quakers love and take care of one another Others less Moderate will say The Quakers love none but themselves And if loving one another and having an Intimate Communion in Religion and constant care to meet to Worship God and help one another be any Mark of Primitive Christianity they had it Blessed be the Lord in an ample manner II. To love Enemies This they both Taught and Practised For they did not only refuse to be revenged for Injuries done them and condemned it as of an Unchristian Spirit but they did freely Forgive yea Help and Relieve those that had been Cruel to them when it was in their Power to have been even with them Of which many and singular Instances might be given Endeavouring through Faith and Patience to overcome all Injustice and Oppression and Preaching this Doctrine as Christian for others to follow III. Another was The Sufficiency of Truth speaking according to Christ's own form of sound Words of Yea Yea and Nay Nay among Christians without Swearing both from Christ's express Prohibition to Swear at all Mat. 5. and for that they being under the Tye and Bond of Truth in themselves there was no Necessity for an Oath and it would be a Reproach to their Christian Veracity to Assure their Truth by such an Extraordinary way of Speaking simple and uncompounded Answers as Yea and Nay without Asseverations Attestations or Super-natural Vouchers being most suitable to Evangelical Righteousness But offering at the same time to be punisht to the full for False-Speaking as others for Perjury if ever guilty of it And hereby they exclude with all True all False and Prophane Swearing for which the Land did and doth Mourn and the great God was and is not a little offended with it IV. Not Fighting but Suffering is another Testimony peculiar to this People They affirm that Christianity teacheth People To beat their Swords into Plough-Shares and their Spears into Pruning-Hooks and to learn War no more that so the Wolf may lie down with the Lamb and the Lion with the Calf and nothing that destroys be entertained in the Hearts of People Exhorting them to employ their Zeal against Sin and turn their Anger against Satan and no longer War one against another because all Wars and Fightings come of Mens own Hearts Lusts according to the Apostle James and not of the Meek Spirit of Christ Jesus who is Captain of another Warfare and which is carried on with other Weapons Thus as Truth speaking succeeded Swearing so Faith and Patience succeeded Fighting in the Doctrine and Practice of this People Nor ought they for this to be obnoxious to Civil Government since if they cannot Fight for it neither can they Fight against it which is no mean security to any State Nor is it reasonable that People should be blamed
A BRIEF ACCOUNT OF THE Rise and Progress Of the People called QUAKERS IN Which their Fundamental Principle Doctrines Worship Ministry and Discipline are Plainly Declared to prevent the Mistakes and Perversions that Ignorance and Prejudice may make to abuse the Credulous With a Summary Relation of the former Dispensations of God in the World by way of Introduction As unknown and yet well known 2 Cor. 6.9 By W. Penn. London Printed and Sold by T. Sowle near the Meeting-House in White-Hart-Court in Grace-Church-Street and at the Crooked-Billet in Holy-well-lane near Shore-ditch 1694. AN EPISTLE TO THE READER READER this Following Account of the People called Quakers c. was writ in the Fear and Love of God First as a standing Testimony to that ever Blessed Truth in the inward Parts with which God in my Youthful time visited my Soul and for the Sense and Love of which I was made willing in no ordinary Way to relinquish the Honours and Interests of the World Secondly as a Testimony for that Despised People that God has in his Great mercy gathered and united by his one blessed Spirit in the Holy Profession of it whose Fellowship I value above all Worldly Greatness Thirdly in Love and Honour to the Memory of that Worthy Servant of God G. Fox the First Instrument thereof and therefore styled by me the Great and Blessed Apostle of our Day As this gave Birth to what is here presented to thy view in the first Edition of it by way of Preface to G. F's excellent Journal so the Consideration of the present usefulness of the following Account of the People called Quakers by reason of the unjust Reflections of some Adversaries that once walked under the Profession of Friends and the Exhortations that conclude it prevailed with me to consent that it should be republisht in a smaller Volume knowing also full well that Great Books especially in these days grow Burthensome both to the Pockets and Minds of too many and that there are not a few that desire so it be at an easie rate to be inform'd about this People that have been so much every where spoken against But blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ it is upon no worse Ground than it was said of old time of the Primitive Christians as I hope will appear to every Sober and Considerate Reader Our Business after all the ill usage we have met with being the Realities of Religion an effectual change before our last great change That all may come to an Inward Sensible and Experimental knowledge of God through the Convictions and Operations of the Light and Spirit of Christ in themselves the sufficient and blessed means given to all that thereby all may come savingly to know the only true God and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent to Enlighten and Redeem the World Which knowledge is indeed Eternal Life And that thou Reader mayst obtain it is the earnest desire of him that is ever Thine in so good a Work W.P. THE CONTENTS Chap. I. Containing a brief Account of divers Dispensations of God in the World to the time he was pleased to raise this despised People called Quakers Chap. II. Of the Rise of this People their Fundamental Principle and Doctrines and Practice in twelve Points resulting from it their Progress and Sufferings An Expostulation with England thereupon Chap. III. Of the Qualifications of their Ministry Eleven Marks that it is Christian Chap. IV. Of the Discipline and Practice of this People as a Religious Society The Power Church they own and exercise and that which they reject and Condemn With the Method of their Proceedings against Erring and Disordering Persons Chap. V. Of the First Instrument or Person by whom God was pleased to gather this People into the way they Profess His Name G. Fox his many excellent Qualifications showing a Divine and not a Human Power to have been their Original in him His Troubles and Sufferings both from without and within His End and Triumph at it Chap. VI. Containing Five several Exhortations First General reminding this People of their Primitive Integrity and Simplicity Secondly in Particular to the Ministry Thirdly to the Young convinced Fourthly to the Children of Friends Fifthly to those that are yet Strangers to this People and Way to whom this Book and that it was Preface to in its former Edition may come All the several Exhortations accommodated to their several States and Conditions that all may answer the end of God's love to them viz. God's Glory and their own Salvation A BRIEF ACCOUNT c. CHAP I. Containing a brief Account of divers Dispensations of God in the World to the time he was pleased to raise this Despised People called Quakers DIVERS have been the Dispensations of God since the Creation of the World unto the Sons of Men But the Great End of all of them has been the Renown of his own Excellent Name in the Creation and Restauration of Man Man the Emblem of himself as a God on Earth and the Glory of all his Works The World began with Innocency All was then good that the good God had made And as he blessed the Works of his Hands so their Natures and Harmony magnified Him their Creator Then the Morning Stars Sang together for Joy and all parts of his Works said Amen to his Law Not a Jarr in the whole Frame but Man in Paradise the Beasts in the Field the Fowl in the Air the Fish in the Sea the Lights in the Heavens the Fruits of the Earth yea the Air the Earth the Water and Fire Worshipped praised and exalted his Power Wisdom and Goodness O Holy Sabbath O Holy Day to the Lord But this Happy State lasted not long For Man the Crown and Glory of the Whole being tempted to aspire above his place unhappily yielded against Command and Duty as well as Interest and Felicity and so fell below it lost the Divine Image the Wisdom Power and Purity he was made in By which being no longer fit for Paradise he was expelled that Garden of God his proper Dwelling and Residence and was driven out as a poor Vagabond from the presence of the Lord to wander in the Earth the Habitation of Beasts Yet God that made him had pity on him for He seeing Man was deceived and that it was not of Malice or an Original Presumption in him but through the Subtilty of the Serpent who had first fallen from his own State and by the Mediation of the Woman Man 's own Nature and Companion whom the Serpent had first deluded in his infinite Goodness and Wisdom found out a way to Repair the Breach Recover the Loss and Restore fallen Man again by a Nobler and more Excellent Adam promised to be born of a Woman that as by means of a Woman the evil one had prevailed upon Man by a Woman also He should come into the World who would prevail against him and bruise his Head and
their Hands thereby making it their Act and Deed and then divers of the Relations Spectators and Auditors set their Names as Witnesses of what they Said and Signed And this Certificate is afterward Registred in the Record belonging to the Meeting where the Marriage is Solemnized Which Regular Method has been as it deserves adjudged in Courts of Law a good Marriage where it has been by Cross and Ill People Disputed and Contested for want of the accustomed Formality of Priest and Ring c. Ceremonies they have Refused not out of Humor but Conscience reasonably grounded in as much as no Scripture Example tells us that the Priest had any other part of Old Time than that of a Witness among the rest before whom the Jews used to take one another And therefore this People look upon it as an Imposition to advance the Power and Profits of the Clergy And for the use of the Ring it is enough to say that it was an Heathenish and vain Custom and never in Practice among the People of God Jews or Primitive Christians The words of the Usual form as With my Body I thee Worship c. are hardly Defensible In short they are more Careful Exact and Regular than any Form now used and it is Free of the inconveniencies with which other Methods are attended Their Care and Checks being so many and such as no Clandestine Marriages can be perform'd among them X. It may not be unfit to say something here of their Births and Burials which make up so much of the Pomp and Solemnity of too many called Christians For Births the Parents Name their own Children which is usually some days after they are Born in the presence of the Midwife if she can be there and those that were at the Birth Who afterward sign a Certificate for that purpose prepared of the Birth and Name of the Child or Children which is Recorded in a proper Book in the Monthly Meeting to which the Parents belong avoiding the accustomed Ceremonies and Festivals XI Their Burials are performed with the same Simplicity If the Body of the Deceased be near any publick Meeting Place it is usually carried thither for the more convenient Reception of those that Accompany it to the Burying-Ground And it so falls out sometimes that while the Meeting is gathering for the Burial some or other has a Word of Exhortation for the sake of the People there met together After which the Body is born away by the Young Men or those that are of their Neighbourhood or that were most of the Intimacy of the Deceased Party The Corps being in a plain Coffin without any Covering or Furniture upon it At the Ground they pause sometime before they put the Body into its Grave that if any one there should have any thing upon them to exhort the People they may not be disappointed and that the Relations may the more Retiredly and Solemnly take their last leave of the Body of their departed Kindred and the Spectators have a Sense of Mortality by the occasion then given them to reflect upon their own Latter End Otherways they have no set Rites or Ceremonies on those Occasions Neither do the Kindred of the Deceased ever wear Mourning they looking upon it as a Worldly Ceremony and piece of Pomp and that what Mourning is fit for a Christian to have at the Departure of a beloved Relation or Friend should be worn in the Mind which is only sensible of the Loss and the Love they had to them and Remembrance of them To be outwardly express'd by a respect to their Advice and care of those they have left behind them and their Love of that they Loved Which Conduct of theirs though unmodish or unfashionable leaves nothing of the Substance of things neglected or undone And as they aim at no more so that simplicity of Life is what they observe with great Satisfaction though it sometimes happens not to be without the Mockeries of the vain World they live in These things to be sure gave them a Rough and Disagreeable Appearance with the Generality who thought them Turners of the World upside down as indeed in some Sense they were But in no other than that wherein Paul was so charged viz. To bring things back into their Primitive and right Order again For these and such like Practices of theirs were not the Result of Humour or for civil Distinction as some have fansied but a Fruit of Inward Sense which God through his holy Fear had begotten in them They did not consider how to contradict the World or distinguish themselves as a Party from others it being none of their Business as it was not their Interest No it was not the Result of Consultation or a framed design by which to declare or recommend Schism or Novelty But God having given them a sight of themselves they saw the whole World in the same Glass of Truth and sensibly discerned the Affections and Passions of Men and the Rise and Tendency of Things What it was that gratified the Lust of the Flesh the Lust of the Eye and the Pride of Life which are not of the Father but of the World And that from thence Sprang in the Night of Darkness and Apostacy which hath been over People through their Degeneration from the Light and Spirit of God these and many other vain Customs which are seen by the Heavenly Day of Christ that dawns in the Soul to be either wrong in their Original or by Time and Abuse Hurtful in their Practice And though these things seemed Trivial to some and rendered this People Stingy and Conceited in such Persons Opinion there was and is more in them than they were or are aware of It was not very easie to our Primitive Friends to make themselves Sights and Spectacles and the Scorn and Derision of the World which they easily foresaw must be the Consequence of so Vfashionable a Conversation in it But herein was the Wisdom of God seen in the Foolishness of these things First That they discovered the Satisfaction and Concern that People had in and for the Fashions of this World notwithstanding their high Pretences to another in that any disappointment about them came so very near them as that the greatest Honesty Virtue Wisdom and Ability were unwelcom without them Secondly It seasonably and profitably divided Conversation For this making their Society uneasie to their Relations and Acquaintance it gave them the opportunity of more Retirement and Solitude wherein they met with better Company even the Lord God their Redeemer and grew strong in his Love Power and Wisdom and were thereby better qualified for his Service And the success abundantly show'd it Blessed be the Name of the Lord. And though they were not Great and Learned in the Esteem of this World for then they had not wanted Followers upon their own Credit and Authority yet they were generally of the most Sober of the several Perswasions they were in
to which others were continually exposed by the prevalency of the lust of the Eye the lust of the Flesh and the pride of Life that wanted no Occasions or Temptations to excite them abroad in the Converse of the World I cannot forget the Humility and Chaste Zeal of that Day Oh how Constant at Meetings how Retired in them how firm to Truth 's Life as well as Truth 's Principles And how Entire and United in our Communion as indeed became those that profess One Head even Christ Jesus the Lord. This being the Testimony and Example the Man of God before-mentioned was sent to Declare and Leave amongst us and we having Embraced the same as the Merciful Visitation of God to us the Word of Exhortation at this time is That we continue to be found in the Way of this Testimony with all Zeal and Integrity and so much the more by how much the Day draweth near And First as to you my Beloved and much Honoured Brethren in Christ that are in the Exercise of the Ministry Oh feel Life in your Ministry Let Life be your Commission your Well-spring and Treasury in all such Occasions else you well know there can be no begetting to God since nothing can quicken or make People alive to God but the Life of God And it must be a Ministry in and from Life that enlivens any People to God We have seen the Fruit of all other Ministries by the few that are turned from the Evil of their Ways It is not our Parts or Memory the repetition of former Openings in our own will and time that will do God's Work A dry Doctrinal Ministry however sound in Words can reach but the Ear and is but a Dream at the Best There is another Soundness that is soundest of all viz. Christ the power of God This is the Key of David that Opens and none Shuts and Shuts and none can Open As the Oil to the Lamp and the Soul to the Body so is that to the best of Words Which made Christ to say My Words they are Spirit and they are Life that is they are from Life and therefore they make you alive that receive them If the Disciples that had lived with Jesus were to stay at Jerusalem till they received it much more must we wait to receive before we Minister if we will turn People from Darkness to Light and from Satan's power to God I fervently bow my Knees to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ that you may always be like minded that you may ever wait Reverently for the coming and opening of the Word of Life and attend upon it in your Ministry and Service that you may serve God in his Spirit And be it little or be it much it is well for much is not too much and the least is enough if from the motion of God's Spirit and without it verily never so little is too much because to no profit For it is the Spirit of the Lord immediately or through the Ministry of his Servants that teacheth his People to profit and to be sure so far as we take him along with us in our Services so far we are profitable and no farther For if it be the Lord that must work all things in us for our own Salvation much more is it the Lord that must work in us for the Conversion of others If therefore it was once a Cross to us to Speak though the Lord required it at our Hands let it never be so to be silent when he does not It is one of the most dreadful Sayings in the Book of God That he that adds to the Words of the Prophecy of this Book God will add the Plagues written in this Book To keep back the Counsel of God is as Terrible for he that takes away from the Words of the Prophecy of this Book God shall take away his part out of the Book of Life And truly it has great Caution in it to those that use the Name of the Lord to be well assured the Lord Speaks that they may not be found of the Number of those that add to the Words of the Testimony of Prophecy which the Lord giveth them to bear nor yet to mince or diminish the same both being so very offensive to God Wherefore Brethren let us be careful neither to out-go our Guide nor yet loiter behind Him since he that makes Haste may miss his Way and he that stays behind lose his Guide For even those that have Received the Word of the Lord had need wait for Wisdom that they may see how to divide the Word aright Which plainly implieth that it is possible for one that hath received the Word of the Lord to miss in the Dividing and Application of it which must come from an Impatiency of Spirit and a Self-working which makes an unsound and dangerous Mixture and will hardly beget a right minded living People to God I am earnest in this above all other Considerations as to Publick Brethren well knowing how much it concerns the present and future State and preservation of the Church of Christ Jesus that has been gathered and built up by a Living and Powerful Ministry that the Ministry be held preserved and continued in the Manifestations Motions and Supplies of the same Life and Power from time to time And where ever it is observed that any one does Minister more from Gifts and Parts than Life and Power though they have an Inlightned and Doctrinal Understanding let them in time be advised and admonished for their Preservation because insensibly such will come to depend upon a Self-sufficiency to forsake Christ the living Fountain and hew out unto themselves Cisterns that will hold no living waters And by degrees such will come to draw others from waiting upon the Gift of God in themselves and to feel it in others in order to their strength and Refreshment to wait upon them and to turn from God to Man again and so to make Shipwrack of the Faith once delivered to the Saints and of a good Conscience towards God which are only kept by that Divine Gift of Life that begat the one and awakn'd and sanctified the other in the beginning Nor is it enough that we have known the Divine Gift and in it have reached to the Spirits in Prison and been the Instruments of the Convincing of others of the way of God if we keep not as low and poor in our selves and as depending upon the Lord as ever Since no Memory no Repetitions of former Openings Revelations or Enjoyments will bring a Soul to God or afford Bread to the Hungry or Water to the Thirsty unless Life go with what we say and that must be waited for O that we may have no other Fountain Treasure or Dependence That none may presume at any rate to Act of themselves for God because they have long Acted from God that we may not supply want of waiting with our own Wisdom
or think that we may take less Care and more liberty in speaking than formerly and that where we do not feel the Lord by his Power to open us and enlarge us whatever be the Expectation of the People or has been our Customary Supply and Character we may not exceed or fill up the time with our own I hope we shall ever Remember who it was that said Of your selves you can do nothing Our sufficiency is in him And if we are not to speak our own Words or take Thought what we should say to Men in our defence when exposed for our Testimony surely we ought to speak none of our own Words or take Thought what we shall say in our Testimony and Ministry in the Name of the Lord to the Souls of the People for then of all Times and of all other Occasions should it be fulfilled in us for it is not you that speak but the Spirit of my Father that speaketh in you And indeed the Ministry of the Spirit must and does keep its Analogy and Agreement with the Birth of the Spirit that as no Man can Inherit the Kingdom of God unless he be born of the Spirit so no Ministery can beget a Soul to God but that which is from the Spirit For this as I said before the Disciples waited before they went forth and in this our Elder Brethren and Messengers of God in our Day waited visited and reached to us And having begun in the Spirit let none ever hope or seek to be made perfect in the Flesh For what is the Flesh to the Spirit or the Chaff to the Wheat And if we keep in the Spirit we shall keep in the Vnity of it which is the ground of true Fellowship For by Drinking into that one Spirit we are made one People to God and by it we are continued in the Unity of the Faith and the Bond of Peace No Envying no Bitterness no Strife can have place with us We shall watch always for Good and not for Evil over one another and rejoice exceedingly and not begrudge at one anothers increase in the Riches of the Grace with which God replenisheth his Faithful Servants And Brethren as to you is committed the Dispensation of the Oracles of God which give you frequent Opportunities and great Place with the People among whom you Travail I beseech you that you would not think it sufficient to declare the Word of Life in their Assemblies however Edifying and Comfortable such opportunities may be to you and them But as was the Practice of the Man of God before mentioned in great Measure when among us inquire the State of the several Churches you Visit who among them are Afflicted or Sick who are Tempted and if any are Vnfaithful or Obstinate and endeavour to Issue those things in the Wisdom and Power of God which will be a glorious Crown upon your Ministry As that prepares your way in the Hearts of the People to receive you as Men of God so it gives you Credit with them to do them good by your Advice in other Respects The Afflicted will be Comforted by you the Tempted Strengthened the Sick Refreshed the unfaithful Convicted and Restored and such as are Obstinate Softned and fitted for Reconciliation which is Clenching the Nail and applying and Fastning the general Testimony by this particular Care of the several Branches of it in reference to them more immediately concerned in it For though Good and Wise Men and Elders too may reside in such places who are of Worth and Importance in the general and in other Places yet it does not always follow that they may have the Room they deserve in the Hearts of the People they live among or some particular occasion may make it unfit for him or them to use that Authority But you that Travail as God's Messengers if they Receive you in the Greater shall they refuse you in the Less And if they own the general Testimony can they withstand the particular Application of it in their own Cases Thus ye will shew your selves Workmen indeed and carry your Business before you to the praise of his Name that hath called you from Darkness to Light that you might turn others from Satan's Power unto God and his Kingdom which is within And Oh that there were more of such Faithful Labourers in the Vineyard of the Lord Never more need since the day of God Wherefore I cannot but Cry and Call aloud to you that have been long Professors of the Truth and know the Truth in the convincing Power of it and have had a sober Conversation among Men yet content your selves only to know Truth for your selves to go to Meetings and Exercise an ordinary Charity in the Church and an honest Behaviour in the World and limit your selves within those Bounds feeling ttle or no concern upon your Spirits for the Glory of the Lord in the Prosperity of his Truth in the Earth more than to be glad that others succeed in such Service Arise Ye in the Name and Power of the Lord Jesus Behold how white the Fields are unto Harvest in this and other Nations and how few Able and Faithful Labourers there are to work therein Your Country-Folks Neighbours and Kindred want to know the Lord and his Truth and to Walk in it Does nothing lie at your Door upon their Account Search and see and lose no time I beseech you for the Lord is at Hand I do not Judge you there is one that Judgeth all Men and his Judgment is true You have mightily increased in your outward Substance May you equally increase in your inward Riches and do good with both while you have a day to do Good Your Enemies would once have taken what you had from you for his Name Sake in whom you have believed wherefore he has given you much of the World in the Face of your Enemies But Oh let it be your Servant and not your Master your Diversion rather than your Business Let the Lord be chiefly in your Eye and ponder your Ways and see if God has nothing more for you to do And if you find your selves short in your Account with him then wait for his Preparation and be ready to receive the word of Command and be not weary of well doing when you have put your Hand to the Plow and assuredly you shall Reap if you faint not the Fruit of your Heavenly Labour in God's Everlasting Kingdom And You Young Convinced Ones be you Entreated and Exhorted to a Diligent and Chast waiting upon God in the way of his Blessed Manifestation and appearance of himself to you Look not out but within Let not anothers Liberty be your Snare Neither Act by Imitation but Sense and Feeling of God's Power in your selves Crush not the tender Buddings of it in your Souls nor over-run in your desires and warmness of Affections the Holy and Gentle Motions of it Remember it is a still Voice that Speaks to