world in him the fulnesse of the Godhead dwells bodily and all that dwell in the truth in the light in Christ dwell in peace for in me saith Christ Ye have peace dwell in the light in Christ free from the condemning power of the Law but out of the light in draknesse under the condemning power of the Law under the curse and wrath of God this is the way of true knowledge the light loving it and the way of life and peace to all that receive it to be their leader and for ever blessed are they that submit to the Scepter of Jesus Christ and continue under his Government unto the end for they shall have an inheritance with the righteous generation in the world which hath no end A Discovery of the true worship of God the order of the true Church and the Disorder of the Synagogue of Antichrist MAny various Forms there are in these our latter dayes who all pretend to be believers in Christ and call themselves by the names of Christians yet in judgement and opinion one differ from another Yea in severall points principles and doctrines and in the ministration of their ordinances which they call the ordinances of Christ as Baptisme their Sacraments preaching praying singing of Davids conditions and private duties as they call them which all are performed in their own wills and in their own times which will worship is contrary to the worship of God and is to perish as the Scripture of truth doth affirm as may be read in Colossians the 2. chap. 20 21 22 23 Wherefore if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world why as though living in the World are ye subject to Ordinances touch not tast not handle not which all are to perish with the using after the commandments and doctrines of men which things have indeed a shew of wisdome in will-worship humility and neglecting of the body Take notice the will-worshippers neglect the body which is the substance and continues in the perishing shadows which profiteth not all the doctrines of men and carnal ordinances which have their rise and foundation from the imagination of the fleshly wisdome are to perish for they are all without life and all ye various formalists who feed upuon such things feed upon husks and something there is in you which cannot be satisfied with such food but often shews the emptinesse of all your duties and self-performances and will worship though you little regard it ye are so highly puft up in the knowledge of what your imaginations hath led you into and though your Souls famish for want of living bread yet many of you are content to take up your rest in these perishing things which can never give true satisfaction to the hungry soul but onely nourishes and feeds the carnall mind which is enmity to God and there are all the Forms of Religion upon the face of the whole earth who deny the light of Jesus Christ the chief corner-stone who is true and sure foundation in enmity against the truth and enemies to the true worshippers who are builded upon the sure foundation who worship God in the Spirit and in the truth Now verily verily I say unto you the truth is but one the true worship but one the true Church which is the body of Christ but one the Members of the body of Christ differ not in any thing but are of one heart one mind and one soul their doctrine principles and way of worship but one not rent nor schisme in the body of Christ all divisions differences and contrary judgements and opinions are in the corrupt erroneous body of Anti-christ which is the body of confusion of whose body all are members who deny the true light which Jesus Christ hath enlightened them with which light is the way out of confusion into true and perfect union The Worship of God God is a Spirit John 4. and seeketh such to worship him who will worship him in the Spirit and in the truth saith Christ the Son of God and the eternall Father commands people to hear him This is my beloved Son saith the Father of Spirits hear ye him but all ye that be from the Spirit and out of the light in your imaginations following after carnal Ordinances the doctrine and traditions of man hearkens not to the voice of the Son of God who saith God is a Spirit and will be worshipped in Spirit and in the truth but rejects the Councell of the Son and disobeyes the pure command of God the Father who saith This is my beloved Son hear ye him And all ye Professours upon the face of the whole earth be without God 2 John 9. who erre from and abide not in the Doctrine of Christ the onely Son of the Fathers love How do ye love the Son of God that keeps not his saying but erres from his councels and Commands who saith God is a Spirit and will be worshipped in Spririt and in the truth is not this the true way of worship which Jesus Christ hath prescribed is there any other way agreeable to the will of the Father than the way which his onely Son hath manifested who came not to do his own will but the will of his Father that sent him and this is the will of the Father to have his people to worship him in the Spirit and in the truth for so will God be served and worshipped Therefore all people take notice the true service and worship of God is in the Spirit and in the truth and stands not in carnall ordinances nor extenall shews neither consists in outward bowing Ceremonies and traditions of men which is but the exercise of the body and the exercise of the body profiteth nothing the living eternall God who is pure just and holy seeketh such worshippers to worship him who will worship him in the Spirit and in the truth and all people who be turned to the light of Christ in them with it are guided and in it walk be in the truth the light in truth and in the Spirit and in the truth worshipped the antient Christians in former ages received the light and were called the children of light and as they were moved of the Lord they exhorted one another to walk in the light as children of the light and of the day and as they walked in the light they had fellowship one with another and with the Father and the Son who is light and in whom is no darknesse take notice the fellowship of the Saints is in the light which is but one and all in the light are but one united by the Father of light and spirits and all people that receive and abide in the light walk in the Spirit and in the truth and in the spirit and truth worship God the Father of spirits but all that be from the light be out of the truth out of the spirit in which God is worshipped and worship they
know not what as Jesus Christ told the woman of Samaria and said that neither at Jerusalem nor at the Mountain of Samaria God the Father would be worshipped John 4. But the hour is coming and now is when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth for the Father seeketh such to worship him God is a spirit and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth Take notice Jerusalem was the City where Solomon built a Temple for the Service and worship of God according to his Command and the Mountain of Samaria was also a place where people worshipped Neverthelesse the Son of God said his Father would not be worshipped there but the true worshippers must worship the Father in Spirit and in truth Wherefore I say all such Teachers as lead people to the externall Temples which they call Churches and to the observation of carnall ordinances and to follow after the Ordinances vain traditions and doctrines of men from the spirituall Worship are deceivers and Antichrists for this same reason because they teach people to uphold follow and observe that which Jesus Christ and his Apostles declared against and was never observed nor practised by the antient Christians recorded in the Scripture of truth for the Primitive Christians that believed in and followed Christ denied and bare testimony against the outward Temple and Synagogues and the customary places upheld by the Jews and Infidels and their traditions and superstitious ceremonies Co. 2. Act. 1.13 Act. 20.8 Gal. 5.5 Mat. 18.20 and met together at one anothers houses in an upper chamber or in an inner room and waited upon the Lord in his light and counsell for the manifestation of his Divine power and according to his promise they enjoyed the powerfull presence of the Lord who saith where two or three meet together in my name there am I in the midst of them and when the Saints in light were assembled together waiting in the pure fear of the Lord as any of them were moved of the Lord they preached and prayed and exhorted one another in the fear and power of the Lord and none were restrained from speaking but all had liberty to speak that had a motion from the Lord as the Scripture of truth makes manifest if any thing were revealed to any one in the Saints Assembly that sate by 1 Cor. 11. the first was to hold his peace that all might speak one by one that all might be edified this was the order and practice of the Saints in light the Church in God the body of Christ in former ages and the same order and practice is in the true Church now at this day in the Assemblies of the children of light who are hated and despised of this unrighteous generation and in contempt and scorn called Quakers but reproaches and unrighteous slanders cast up-upon us by Ishmaels line we esteen as great riches and are not ashamed to suffer for righteousnesse sake but all ye various Forms who push one at another and all against the life of truth ye shall wither as grasse in the heat of of Summer and fade as a flower for the vertue and power of the Almighty ye want amongst you for to support and uphold you and the earth is your Centre and a habitation in God the life or righteousnesse ye have not but in the earth and the woe is coming upon the inhabitants of the earth therefore cease cease from your inventions and airy imaginations and fear and dread the pure name of the living God and worship him serve him and give glory to him that ye perish not in your iniquities with the ungodly for truly the houre of his judgement is come ye shall all be tryed and winnowed and the wheat the good seed that is amongst you shall be gathered into the Lords Garner and the chaste shall be burned with unquenchable fire judgement is alreaready begun at the house of God where will the ungodly and sinners appear now will the terrible Judge of heaven and earth give Sentence against you hypocrites and dissemblers Depart from me ye workers of iniquity I know ye not except ye repent truly and cease from your sins and iniquities and with all your hearts turn unto the Lord God and dread and fear his holy name and walk in his light and counsell and serve and worship him as he will be worshipped in the spirit and in the truth your time prize whilst the doore of mercy is open lest it be shut against you and ye in your gainsayings and Rebellion eternally perish To the Romane Catholicks ANd ye who are called Romane Catholicks are the most dark and ignorant people upon the face of the whole earth that go under the names of Christians your whole worship is made up in the imagination and invention of the wisdome of the flesh none so foolish but the naturall heathen to bow to the works of mens hands in which there is no life as ye do and for many of your Ceremonies and Traditions ye have no other foundation but the naturall Heathen as one of your own professors doth confesse as ye may read in the 587. Page of the Book called the Treasury of the Romane Antiquities where the Authour expresses many of your Customes and practises in your Religion and is not ashamed to say ye borrowed them of the heathen as that they hung their streets with Tapestry and had resting places in divers parts of the Towns when they went in Procession as ye have at this day c. And that they carryed their images and reliques of their gods about as ye do and that they marched two and two together carrying wax candles or Torches in their hands and the same is observed in your Religion and hath been ever since the Procession was instituted And that they went afoot as ye do and when they were encompassed with misery they went bare-foot crying mourning striving to appease the wrath of their gods and ye in the time of your great calamities do practise the same Ceremonies they ordained supplications and Lectures that is publick prayers and service for more or less of dayes and their Temples were full of calves and their altars filled with offerings and all the holy places as the Author terms them were filled with people kneeling and praying to their Idols to their gods and ye have your Orizons of forty hours your pardons and Jubilees and observe the same Ceremonies several other of the Customs and practises of the Heathen this Authour declares of and confesses they follow the same example and practises the same in their Religion which truly are such foolish things that they are not worth the mentioning but of this I would have ye Roman Catholicks to take notice the sure foundation Christ Iesus is none of your example in any of these things nor your foundation nor the Apostles the Primitive Christians for Iesus Christ never
God ye are no self-lovers but self-denyers no followers of the worlds fashions Customs or traditions but of Iesus Christ whose kingdome is not of the world who alone is your Head King Priest and Propher ye who goe under the name of members of the Church of Christ and call one another Brother and Sister who pretend to have Communion and fellowship with one another search your hearts with the light of Christ and it will not deceive you but let you truly see in what your fellowship hath stood and stands and will clearly manifest unto you whether ye be in the spirit of truth and righteousness yea or no if ye be then the fruits before mentioned ye will bring forth abundantly which are the fruits of the spirit and your Communion and fellowship will stand and as ye abide in the life of truth and righteousness your love and unity will grow and increase and your pure lives and holy conversations will make you manifest to be members of the body of Christ but if you see with the light of Christ self-love pride covetousness rashness self-wildness envy and uncharitableness then know that if these things remaine in you and things of the like nature that your Communion and fellowship is in the flesh and not in the spirit formal and not eternall and ye are none of the living stones which the temple of God is built on none of the members of the body of Christ but of Anti-Christ the body of Christ is washed in his blood which cleanseth from all unrighteousness unrighteousness uncleanness and all sin and iniquity is out of the body of Christ the Church in God in the body of Anti-Christ the enemy of the Church of God All ye formalists who are puft up in pride and arrogancy who have gotten the Saints words to talk on in your airy minds and live at ease in vain pleasures and wantonness your words and policy shall stand you in no stead in this the day of the Lord you shall appear in your own likeness your close hypocrisy and your fained humility shall not cover you nor save you from the judgements of the dreadfull God your hearts shall be made naked and bare and your reward you shall have with the wicked and ungodly your shame and confusion ye shall no longer hide ye shall be known whose servants and Children ye are and of what body ye are members and that Anti-christ is your head and not Christ the body of Christ is purged from all secret deceit treachery and close hypocrisy and is filled with righteousness purity and innocency every particular member of the Church in God this pillar and ground of truth knows the work of sanctification by the powerfull operation of the word of truth are thorowly cleansed and sanctified and by the divine power joyned and united unto Christ the head of his Church which is his body he is no member of the Church of Christ what ever he profess that lives after the flesh and knows not the work of the Eternall Spirit of judgement and burning which mortifies the fleshly desires and lusts and purges and cleanses the heart thorowly from sin and iniquity for it is the work of the spirit to purifie and the body purified without spot is the body of Christ the Church of God no unclean person can be united to the body of Christ though thousands of unclean people may come amongst the members of his body yet no defiled thing can be joyned to it for it is pure without spot and members of the Church in God feels enjoys one another in the life of pure love and their unity and fellowship stands not in outward formallity but in the pure life of truth and innocency where they meet and imbrace one another and are refreshed one in another in the love and life which changeth not which all men and women upon the face of the whole earth are out of which be from the light with which Christ hath enlightned them for the light leads into the life of innocency where the eternall unity stands The Church made of living stones THe living stones of which the Church of God is made are the people who have passed from death to life who are dead to sin and alive unto righteousness such as have passed thorow much sorrow and many tribulations and hath seen the travail of their souls and are satisfied with the birth of the immortall seed which is borne and brought forth in them they in whom the righteous seed is raised and the unrighteous nature destroyed which was dead in sin and transgression and made alive unto God and now lives in the light the life of righteousness are the Church of God the House of God the tabernacle of the most high and in them the Lord of Hosts is sanctified who will be sanctified in all that draw nigh unto him and in ye who are raised up in the life and power of truth and righteousness is the living praises for the living praises God the dead cannot praise him the life which through the operation of the Eternal spirit is raised which purgeth from sin and iniquity glorifies God and praises God and these are the living stones on which the Church of God is builded who are borne of the immortall seed whose delight is to walk in the Counsell of the Lord and to serve and obey him which cannot delight in themselves nor in their own works and truly it is not grievous to the living stones the Babes born of God to follow the Counsell of their Father for it is the nature of the seed of God to doe the will of him who hath through the power of his free love and tender mercy begotten it unto himself ye in whom the babe immortal is born and brought forth can seal to the truth of this though to many it may seem to be a strange doctrine who be ignorant of the work of God and knows not the birth of the seed immortall but truly I know that as Iohn saith that the Commandements of the Lord out God are not grievous unto us his Children Ioh. 5.3 who are begotten and borne of him but rather joy us yea it is our joy to serve the Lord our God and to keep his pure Commandements as it was the delight of his faithfull servant David to walk in his Commandements which he loved Ps 119.47 but who be in the transgression in the disobedience loves not God Ver. 143 neither delighteth in his commands but loves themselves their own ways and rejoyceth in their iniquities and delighteth in the things which are perishing which profiteth not but such are dead in sin though alive in the fleshly body and are none of the living stones which the Church of God is made on Iesus Christ head of his Church and the onely Pastour MAny people there are that in words make a profession of Christ and the Scriptures and will say they beleeve in Christ yet will
not own him to be their Pastour and chief Shepheard as the Church in God owned him and confessed him as the Scripture of truth makes manifest yet account themselves to be his Church and people but such as cannot own him to be their teacher and leader clearly manifests themselves to be none of his flock for the Sheep of Christ know his voice and follow him and regards not the voice of the stranger and they who know his voice observe his counsell and follow his leadings and directions for how doth any man follow Christ if he doe not hearken to his pure Counsell and obey what he requires Christ saith himself I am the good Shepheard and know my sheep and am known of mine and such as know Christ and are known of him need no other Pastour or Shepheard he is sufficient to guide his own flock and such as make a profession of him in words and shew outwardly as the various formalists doe and will not own him to be suflicient without other helps to teach them the way of life and salvation shews that they know him not for if they knew him they would know that there is no salvation in any other all power and authority is committed unto the true light Christ Iesus the everlasting unchangeable high Priest who is over the houshold of God their head and Pastour and who are not under his Scepter and Government what ever they profess in words of him they are none of his subjects none of his body none of his Church but the subjects of Antichrist for whose Scepter and Government ye are under his servants and subjects ye are if Christ govern then are ye guided in the way of truth righteousnes which is the strait path which leads to life eternall and ye cannot follow the broad path of wickedness and unrighteousness which leads to perdition and eternall destruction for the Church of Christ who are subject to him are restrained by his saving power from the evill way and kept in the pure way the way of holiness for he goeth before and his flock follow him and they that follow his leadings cannot erre from the way of truth and holiness who goe on in the ways of wickedness follows not Christ he doth not goe before them but Anti-christ the enemy of Christ he is the King of unrighteousness and the wicked his subjects follow him so that ye who be in the sin and unrighteousness and plead for sin remaining in you so long as ye live upon the earth ye are none of the subjects of Christ for he saves his people from their sins Christ is none of your King Priest nor Prophet who are not governed by him and saved from your sins ye are none of the members of his body who be in your sins the members of his body are purified and cleansed without spot or blemish Take dilligent notice the Church in God which is the body of Christ Eph. 5. is without spot or wrinkle or any such thing holy and without blemish and of this sanctified body Christ is the Head and Saviour who saveth to the utmost all them that come unto God by him and such a glorious high Priest becometh the Church of God who is able to save and defend them from the power of sin and Satan and to present it without spot or fault unto God the Father of Spirits who hath set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places and hath put all things under his feet Eph. 1. and hath given him to be the Head of his Church which is his body such people as choose a man or men and set him or them up to be their teacher or teachers Christ is not their pastour nor teacher such as set up man and dishonours Christ ye that choose a man and set him up to be your Head and receives Orders and Commissions from him you goe about to take the authority from Christ and to rob him of his glory who in all things ought to have the preheminence who is the everlasting unchangeable high Priest in whom there is no variablenesse nor shadow of turning he alone is the Supreme of his Church and the members of his body receive orders and directions from him they know his voice and follow his Counsell and need not seek unto man so sets not up man but Christ to be Supream Ruler head and Governour who is most worthy to have the Government of his own body who is over all God blessed for ever he is the same yesterday to day and for ever and his Church is the same the chast pure holy Virgin which he hath chosen to be his espouse for ever he is not espoused nor will not espouse himself to an harlot an adulterer that followeth after other lovers such as follow their imaginations and inventions and loves themselves the world and its glory such are none of Christs espouse for the Bride the Lambs wife follows the Lamb denies the world its pomp and glory and tramples upon all vain traditions foolish inventions and earthly imaginations and over all the earth reigns and gives glory to him who redeems them from the earth Therefore all people upon the face of the whole earth who make a profession of believing in the name of Christ turn in your minds to his light in you with which he hath enlightened you and in it wait patiently that you may come to know his saving power which is nigh you if ye were but acquainted with it which if you cease from man and your own works and imaginations and take heed to the light of Christ in you which shew you your thoughts desires and evil deeds the saving power of his love you would shortly come to know and feel which would rend the vails which hath darkned your understandings and give ye to see into the secrets of God the Church in God you would come to know and Christ to be the chief Shepherd the everlasting unchangeable priest the light is the eternall eye which sees and searches into the deep secrets of God and ye cannot come to know the true Church nor the order and Government thereof untill you come to the light in you and receive it to be your guide which light leads to Christ from whence in comes who reveals and makes known the deep secret mysteries of life peace and eternall salvation which you can never attain unto by any other means for man by reading studying praying in his own will and observing duties and outward Ordinances can never find out the knowledge of God and his secrets for whatsoever man doth in his own will and time is but his own work and not the work of God and all men and women upon the face of the whole earth must cease from their own works before they enter into the true rest the rest prepared for the children of God which is in Christ the true light which enlighteneth every one that cometh into the