is able in his time to plead it tho' there may be evil doers amongst us If Christ had one in twelve that was not enough for the Jews and some that followed him to say he was not in the Truth because Judas betrayed him and Peter deny'd him and he in that Agony bearing our griefs Isa 53. to cry out My God my God why hast thou forsaken me all this must needs stumble the Eye that looked out but they remembred his promise and waited at Jerusalem for the fulfilling of it who said he would come and he did come which confirmed them and so it hath done us And now something to you my dear Children whom I never deck'd in the extreams of formality to make my self or you seem what you were not but this was and is my desire for you seek first the Kingdom of Heaven and the Righteousness thereof and all other things shall be added unto you be sure to Remember your Creator in the days of your Youth and you shall find the Comfort of it in your Old Age or at your Death when all the Glory of this World will stand you in no stead And though some of you have met with some Disappointments yet you shall find as I have done all things work together for good and bring you nearer to God which I have ever desired for you more than for Silver or Gold tho' therein some of you have had a blessing beyond my desire and my comfort is you all set your Faces Sion-ward and to your Parents have been Dutiful Loving and Obedient for which God will bless you as you continue in his Grace This is written by one that hath been called a Dissenting Quaker which I desire not to be from faithful Friends for I never knowingly dissented from the Truth but loved it and though in some things was not satisfied yet kept as near as I could in Word and Deed to hurt no one but endeavoured to answer a good Conscience towards God and all Men in which I have found him near to help me and the blessing to my Soul and Body and have a true Love to all the sincere in Heart by what name soever called And as through Dispensations and Administrations and Gifts which are all by the same Spirit God is pleased to give a further manifestation of Himself who is a Spirit in that way shews Himself to Man as he can receive him which was and is his great Love knowing how happy he is made by it and unhappy without it and God's great Condescension therein who seeks Man before Man seeks Him because he is good and would have Us be like unto Him and take delight in Us and we in Him and in this way he led all his faithful People before the Law and after which Law was given by Moses by Divine Inspiration many Years after some of those things were done which all had their signification and pointed at Christ Jesus coming in the Flesh who when come said before Abraham was I am and they in the Wilderness drank of the same Spiritual Rock which Rock is Christ the Messenger of God and of the New Covenant the Law written in the Heart unto Him must all come that will truly know the Interpretation of what 's contained in both Old and New Testament which was declared from the Spirit and Power of God in the true Seed and that were left to be profitable especially to the Man of God through Faith in Christ Jesus by which we may see as our Minds are turned to God the Examples of those that followed the Lord their God and there make a true spiritual Application and see how far we are come into the good work of God in the proving of our Hearts as Abraham Offered up Isaac so must every one offer up what God requires to manifest our love to God and for all such who by Faith walk God will provide himself a Sacrifice and so Jacob the wrestler with God sent from his Father's House to go into a strange Land and have no dependency on any outward or visible thing in this his Journey yet Travels on and the Sun sets night comes on on this Stone lays his head and thus rests on the faithfulness of God to him in all conditions and then is the ladder of true experience seen where the Angels of God ascend and descend at the foot abode and you will say God was here and I knew it not and here Jacob received his blessing to whom Children was given and there was a striving as by the best Mind and Spirit you shall find the eldest by Nature will seek to rule and strive against the beloved of the Father And Joseph the true born Son sold into Egypt to provide Corn for Jacob and his Sons but they must go down to fetch it and this is to be known in its time and season and the Scripture fulfilled and the spiritual meaning therein known As Saul the first King over Israel for stature and appearance Beautiful annointed of the Prophet to be King but God saw beyond outward appearances into the Heart and they that go out from God their strength their defence is gone and they shall become weak as Soul did and their Enemies prevail then contemtible David who by his Brethren dispised him God saw and by the Arm of God's strength had killed the Lyon and the Bear and in that Power by which he overcame the Latter by believing in the same Power he overcame the greatest of his Enemies and this made him King in Saul's stead though with him he had long Wars to Fight the Lord's Battle but Solomon by the true Wisdom of God must Build the House in whose Reign there is Peace and Safety and he shall Judge and give true Judgment betwixt the Mother and the Child and Christ's Kingdom Typified in Solomon's consists of Righteousness Peace and Joy which is very delightful and desirous because the satisfaction the Soul receives thereby and hath a true sight of the Love of God in all he doth is but to make his Creature Man happy which Love is so great it cannot be expressed for the which all those that have received it praise God and all that have not come out of themselves and seek the Kingdom of Christ not in words but in Truth that they may partake with thy Saints in Glory and thereby see the Emptiness and Vanity of this World whether it be Profession Pleasure Riches Honour the Excellency of this Excels them all And to all you sincere hearted as Cornelius was to whom Peter was sent who said I see of a Truth God is no respecter of Persons but amongst all that truly fears God and works Righteousness are therein accepted yet God was pleased by Peter to Preach and Testifie unto Jesus Christ as his anointed who was crucified and to his Resurection from the Dead Acts 10. that in and through him they might believe and receive the Gift of
borrow Words or a Profession but to have a right to them and be made one with them by the same Spirit of Jesus Christ the Lord of all our Mercies and as in him they lived moved and had their being who gave them forth he is so to the faithful this day and what I have heard and seen I declare that he is the true God And the Poor in Spirit receive the Kingdom of Heaven and see a nothingness and emptiness in themselves without a dayly supply from him and they are led and made to understand the Mystery of Election and Reprobation as in the two Seeds and Births the one elect and blessed of God before the World was if the mind of Man joyns to Christ who is God's Elect Isa 42. they are saved by him and Works out their Salvation with Fear and Trembling and this is the Elect and Corner-Stone Christ Jesus whom soever Builds thereon The Gates of Hell shall not prevail and will over turn overturn till he come whose right is to Reign and as unto this Elect and Precious Seed we Unite we are therein and thereby blesed of God this is not of our selves but the free Gift given of God by which we make our Calling and Election sure and in this we have learn'd to know the Reprobated and the Enemy of all Mankind that leads the mind from God into the Lust of the Eye the lust of the Flesh and the Pride of Life and all other Evils which if joined unto the Evil conceived in the mind brings Death and separates Man from God his Maker and here the strong Man keeps the House and by his Temptations therein prevails on Man to eat the forbidden Fruit by which he breaks the Law of God and falls under Condemnation from which State there is no coming nor the Figg-leaf Garment nor nothing without will cover but a turning to the blessed Appearance and Gift of God in the Soul and there find the Mystery Christ within the Hope of Glory who hath many Names and his Kingdom is compared to a little Leaven the lost Groat a grain of Mustard Seed and many other Parables and it is vailed from Man who is in the first nature of the Earth Earthly but revealed in the second Man who is the Lord from Heaven which gives us to know the first Man Adam a living Soul and the last Man Adam a quickning Spirit by which unless we be Born again of the true incorruptible Seed which enlightens us we cannot see the Kingdom of Heaven nor the Glory thereof which Man in the first Nature have strove to know but we must receive that knowledge by the ingrafted Word of God not in our will and time these things God gives as to know but being acquainted with his Mercies and the Temptations of the evil One as we may read and learn of Christ who left us an example as all true Travellers shall find in themselves him near in their best performances as I have seen and do see his approach and when I have heard or seen any on the high Mountains in their Imaginations who pretend they see all the World and their selves in conceit above all for which I have been grieved as well-knowing the danger of that State and willing I was to have advised them but knowing they was so highly set up in themselves my voice could not reach them calling that God which is not God taking the Name of the Lord God in Vain for which he will not hold them guiltless some of them having blown a loud Trumpet Jehu like saying Come and see my Zeal for the Lord of Hosts which I have been grieved to see in some both Men and Women and have lived to see divers fall which I well knew as they stood could not hold out to the end and many of Martha's Spirit I have seen and now do which runs and serves and cumbers themselves with striving to utter Words and have got the true Notion in their Heads but the true Seed hath not taken root downwards and those are they which are stumbling-Blocks who have been by some encouraged as I might have been but the Lord my God kept me out of that Temptation and many others not loving Hypocricy nor a feigned imitation whereby I might deceive others in what I was not truly to God who called me to take up the Cross to that which my Heart loved whether they were Idols of Silver or Gold or other things tho' useful yet if over-valued they fill the Heart of which there must be an emptying to make room for the Heavenly Jesus under whose Reign Israel shall safely possess their Souls in Peace and have the new Name given them and the White Stone which none knows nor can believe but those that have it and those are they that are come through great Tribulations and are washed with the Blood of the Lamb and all those of this Faith I dearly salute as being Children of one Father whose Voice I know from the Voice of a Stranger and I thank God who hath raised up the Poor in Spirit all that are therein gathered will out-last all other Notions and the Lord give Wisdom to them that have not as yet thereto attained to know the true Ministration and the right Season when they should and when they should not which in some hath been lacking which causes the weak to stumble and keeps out more than it brings in Thus have I given a short but true Account as I have passed through the Wilderness of this World and have seen many fall on the Right Hand and on the Left where also I might but have had for my preservation the cloud over me by day to keep me low that I might not be exalted neither by Visions Sights nor Revelations many have been hurt thereby and cast that on others which concerned themselves And as the cloud stood over me it kept me low from self-exaltation to know my self nothing but what I received from the God of all my Mercies and as I see the Cloud by day I also see the Pillar of Fire by Night which caused me to stand still and see the Salvation of God and the bright appearance of his Glory I am sorry for some that are backsliden and may say to them what have you or your Fathers found in the God of Jacob that you should depart from him But let all the strong will'd know little David who trusts not in Bow nor Sword but in the living God he by his Sling and smooth Stone shall hit the Head of those that defies the Armies of Israel's God And to all you workers of Iniquity who have charged us that we deny Christ Jesus come in the Flesh the Holy Scriptures and the Resurrection and say we are Heathens and Hereticks all which we know to be false and can appeal to God in the integrity of our Hearts therein and with him we can with Joy leave our Cause as well-knowing he
Blind As for rehearsal of all those former sailings therein contained if they were true yet rightly considered and impartially weighed may say since those Divisions a great manifestation there hath been of such Spirits to whom those names may deservedly be attributed tho' for many Years I have been counted a Dissenter Yet I nor many more never took pleasure to lay the Nakedness of any open but rather to cover for his Names sake who hath kept us in his Truth by which we have been preserved I have seen I have seen an Enemy enter the House and hath not been discover'd till they come into the Cool out of the Hurry and Noise and hear the call of the still Voice and herein my Soul with many other of my Christian Friends have been Blessed and by this we are led to Unite and to be truly reconciled in that Spirit by that Heavenly Jesus that true Reconciler of Man to his Maker And of this from thy true Friend be assured it was not from the Spirit of Hypocrisie Policy or any carnal or selfish End no no our House is not Built on that Sandy Foundation but on Christ Jesus that Rock of Ages which leads his in the way of Everlasting Peace which Peace cannot be declared but as it is felt of which Peace hath my Soul tasted largely and can say truly since into this happy state the Lord hath brought me I have experienced more of that Heavenly Joy and Everlasting Peace than ever I knew before but I thank the Lord who gave me a share thereof under every dispensation he hath led me through and can say they were all good in their time but this excelleth them all well knowing the Administration of John to be Glorious in its Time yet He that is least in the Kingdom of Heaven is greater than he into which Kingdom that thou may'st have an entrance after all thy Travels and come into this Sabbath and Rest with God will be a true Joy to thy Friend of which I can say with many more of my dear Friends whom I know not but as I feel them in this Spirit It is the Way and there is not another And for all those that are other wise-minded the Lord sned a Famine to come on the outward Knowledge that they may know to be led to the Spiritual Joseph whoever comes unto him 〈◊〉 upbraideth no one with what is past but receives them with his Love and embraceth them and they partake with him of the Fatness of the good Land Of this I am a witness and remain Thy True Friend S. B. S. B. AS to a Fast I desire this may be solemnly proclaimed a Fast from Strife Malice and every evil Work as new Born Babes desire the sincere Milk of the Word of Life and grow thereby in which we shall be accepted of God and truly reconciled to one another Postscript I Did not intend to have Printed this Letter I sent to a Friend but finding he hath Printed the Letter he sent to me as an Answer to W. R's Book I sent him which Book I had good Unity with and with all that are of a reconciling Spirit which to my Comfort I find many sincere hearted therein and as the vail of Prejudice comes to be taken of the Heart we shall see one another as God seeth us to whom I approve my Heart let Men Judge of me as they please it is not from any Evil or Insinuating self-end I can truly say for my self and many more true Christian Friends whose Hearts in this matter of Reconciliation is not to gain Praise of Men God is our witness but we are led to Unite by that blessed Spirit who hath shewed us of what and in what the Kingdom of Heaven consists of which is true Righteousness Joy and Peace in the holy Spirit which I with many more have tasted and could be glad all that oppose would come and taste and see how good the Lord is and with what the Immortal Soul is Refreshed I could never find satisfaction in any visible thing till I received the Word of God in which Word I find the Key of David Which opens and none can shut and shuts and none can open and that is that that opens the Mystery of the Kingdom of God in which the Father Son and Spirit is to be koown which Word of Faith gave the true understanding to the Prophets and Apostles and to all the Faithful of God to this day And in that way which some call Heresie Worship I the God of my Fathers believing all the Law and the Prophets and in Jesus Christ who is the Author and Finisher of our Faith S. B. O Lord Out of the deep I cried unto thee and thou pluckedst my feet out of the Mire and Clay and hast set them in the right way And being converted strengthen my Brethren Unto which I have this further to add when I first heard the confused noise made by G. K. and T. B. which appearance was and is to me like the Golden Calf and beholding many I knew which I thought had been more grafted in the Word of Life than to go after it for which I was greatly troubled but the heavenly still Voice gave me this Satisfaction fret not thy self be still it is a Cloud I suffer the Wind thereof shall blow away the Chaff but I will gather my Wheat thereby nearer together and this I know to be a certain Truth by which my Heart hath been often refreshed for which my Soul Praise thou the Lord. S. B. And unto all those who have raked up the miscarriages and evils and printed it and given it abroad to defame the People called Quakers whose Principles shall out-last their Malice and was some of us of their Spirit to render evil for evil revileing for revileing might say that of some of them that would cause shame who covered their foolish actions with the name of the Lord but it was and is such a Lord of which there is many but not the true God as some can witness but cover'd it from Men hopeing time might work them to see their weakness and know the true Lord over-ruling all their false Imaginations who may be truly compared to Saul when gone from the true God he goes to the Witch of Endor and she raised up what he would see but not what he should see so he was never the better for it but his Enemies prevailed and he fell by his own Sword so shall envy slay the wicked Man and they in darkness shall grope for the door but shall not find it All this is true and I own before all Men the Principle of the Quakers And have this to say for my self and many more I well know however our Enemies may render us vve knovv this by our selves and our Consciences bears us vvitness vve have in good Conversation vvalked before God and Men vvhich vvill speak for us in the gates of our Enemies and