see beyond the night of the Apostacy and over it and what was before it and what hath been since in it among the Apostate Christians since the Apostles dayes that people have been in the darkness and night who have not seene the true way nor knowne whither they have been going But now unto all that feare my Name shall the Sun of righteoususse arise with healing in his wings saith the Lord For who comes to take heed unto the Light which shines in the darke place they doe well and who comes to doe well they come to be healed and to know the Sun of righteousnesse to arise from whence the Light comes and they are those who doe righteously and truly and honestly and walke as in the day time and to put off unrighteousness and the workes of darkness and fleshly lusts which warre against the souls For that is it which hath wounded the soule even the fleshly lusts that warres against it now the Light which shines in the heart leads from the fleshly lusts and out of them to Christ Jesus the Sun of righteousnesse who ariseth with healing For as the unrighteousness and workes of darkness is put off and the fieshly lusts abstained from which warres against the soule and wounds it so Christ Jesus the Sun of righteousness ariseth and is put on who heales and bindes up the wounds and powers in wine and oyle thereinto who is the good Samaritan who is better than the Priest and the Levite who passed by like strangers and left the man halfe dead who had fallen among theeves and robbers among his Enemies and was wounded as the hyrelings Priests doe now who are strangers that passe by and leave many wounded and as it were halfe dead and instead of helping of them are rather the theeves that rob and wound and murther and kill For saith Christ the hyroling cometh not but for to kill and to steale and to destroy neither careth he for the sheepe but for the fleece and for his Tythes as the Priests and Levits did who passed by And again saith the Prophet As atrope of Robbers waite for a man so do a Company of Priests further in the way by consent And these things have been seene and are as plainly fulfilled and manifested amongst this generation of Priests and Teachers and professors as in any age of the world Nay it will be more tolerable for those that went before then for these even the Scribes and Pharisees who perfecuted the Saints and put Christ to death whom they did not know that it was he that should come as the Scripture saith If they had knowne they would not have crucified the Lord of life But these say they beleeve that he is come and professe they know him and yet persecute him where ever he is made manifest in sons or daughters and cast him into prison c. Now the Fewes and Pharisees were under another Priest-hood which God had commanded and so had a righteousness there according to the Law of Moses outwardly which mey sought to establish and so could not own Christ Jesus the second Priest-hood who is Gods righteousness nor submit unto it and so were rejected But now the Priests and professors and Apostare Christians they doe confesse Christ Jesus comain the flesh in words who is the second Priest-hood who is Gods righteousness and doe deny the Jewes Rharisees And yet they set up another Priest-hood which is contrary to Christ and contrary to the Jewes which God never commanded and they take Tythes and stipends and Augmentations and gleabe-lands c. and seeke to set up a righteousnesse without them to be justried by which they call the righteousnesse of Christ while they are in the unrighteousnesse themselves and in the sin and transgression of the Law of God and so have not submitted to the righteousnesse which is of God by faith in Christ Jesus no more then the Jewes did Therefore this is but their own righteousnesse which is but as filthy rags and Antichrist in the likenesse of Christ and Antichristians and Apostates in the likeneste of true Christians For this is but their own Inventions and their own righteousnesse which inderd is not worthy to be called righteousnesses where they are puft up in their fleshly minds which they goe about to establish whilest they are disobedient to him who is the righteousnesse of God and was made manifest in the likenesse of sinfull flesh and for sin condemned sin in the flesh that the righteousnesse of the Law might be fulfilled in us who walke not after the flesh but after the Spirit Now there is none ever cometh to the righteousnesse of God and to have the righteousnesse of the Law fulfilled in them and to walke after the Spirit but who come to beleeve in the Light of Christ in their own particulars and obey it which convinceth of sin and reproves for sin and condemnes sin in the flesh who doe so they walke not after the flesh they come our of the weaknesse for the Law was weake through the flesh or they come to feel the power and the opperation of the Spirit which makes free from the Law of sin and death which the Law could not doe because it was weake through the flesh But now God hath sent his Son in the likenesse of sinfull flesh and for sin condemned sin in the flesh that the righteousnesse of the Law might be fulfilled in us say the Saints who walke not after the flesh but after the Spirit And this Law of the Spirit of life which condemnes sin in thee and makes free from the Law of sin and death and is in Christ Jesus and this is the Light which Christ Jesus hath enlightened every one with that cometh into the world and is a manifestation of the Spirit which is given to every one to profit withal his which is sent into the world to convince the world of sin and to reprove for sin and will be the condemnation of all the world who beleeve not in it but dirobey it and hate it and love their evill deeds and their sins which it doth reprove them for So that it is not their comforter but their reprover and condemner that doe not receive ir and love it not but reject it But it is the comforter of all those who doe receive and love is and beleeve and obey it and are led by it for it leads into all truth and sets free from sin and death and heares witnesse with their spirits that they are the sons of God for as many as are led by the Spirit of God the same are the Sons of God This the Saints did beare witnesse of in former times and this the Saints doe witnesse now glory and honour and living praises be unto the Lord God of heaven and earth for evermore But this is a mystery to the world and hid from all the Apostate Christians in it of what
spirit which confelseth him come in the flesh who walke harmlesly innocently and righteously before all men in meeknesse in patience in humillity in lowlinesse in truth and uprightnesse before the Lord in all their dealing and abide in Christs Doctrine to speake the truth in all their communications their yea to be yea and their nay nay who will not swear nor lye nor cozen nor cheat nor defraud their neighbours who are no fighters nor quarellers who resist not evill but doe good for evill and pray for enemies and blesse them that curse them who are not in the envy and hatred and malice and persecution but are persecuted for righteousnesse sake who covets no mans silver nor gold that are willing to deny themselves and their reputations in the world and forsake the worlds friendships to follow Christ and suffer the losse of all for Christs sake and the Gospell Now are not those grievous Wolvs Antichrists that turn against such and rent such c. I say are not these the grievous Wolves that are entered and the Antichrists that are gone out into the world And is there not now very many of them Antichrists and Wolves in Sheeps cloathing among the Professors and the Apostate Christians or Antichristians Who are out of the life of Christ and the true Christians Such are not with Christ but against him and such gathereth not with him but scattereth and rents and tears his Lambs and Sheep and persecutes Christ and his Church the true Christians who are followers of him and are gathered to him by his Spirit in them And if any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his Now the Antichrists who are gone out into the World and the Wolves come in Sheeps cloathing who inwardly are ravening Wolves these have not the Spirit of Christ in them nor are his and so do turne against him and his and they are of another spirit which their fruits doe make manifest whereby they may easily be known The true Christians knew them so merly and did bear their testimony against them so we know them now and have and doe beare our testimony against them for their fruits have appeared more plainly in this then in any age since the Arostles dayes Therefore now come all ye Priests Teachers and Professors in the world who are called Christians try your selves and examine your selves and see what spirit ye are of who act these things before mentioned against the true Christians and Sheep of Christ who by you in scorne are called Quakers who hear his voyce and follow him and yet ye confesse Christ in words to be come in the flesh But what spirit is this in you by which ye are led to act these things wherein ye are now found Is this the Spirit of Christ or the spirit of Antichrist gone out into the world which lyes in the wickednesse where there is many Antichrists and the world hears them for they are of its own but who are true Christians and followers of Christ Jesus who is not of this World and are led by his Spirit these the World will not hear nay the Priests and Professors therein but cry against them and speake all manner of evill against them falsely for Christs sake by whose spirit they are gathered out of the world and say hang them away with them they are not fit to live upon the earth and so would murder and kill and destroy By this we know that this spirit is not of God nor doth confess Christ come in the flesh but denyes him who came not to kill but to save mens lives and to destroy the Devill who was a murderer from the beginning and therefore we cannot beleeve that spirit but deny it and declare against it to be that spirit of Antichrist gone out into the World and the same spirit that was in the Scribes and Pharisees and Jewes who would have Jesus crucified Barrabbas released who was a Robber for he was of their own spirit and therefore they chused him before Jesus who was of another Spirit and bore witness against them for their hypocrisie and therefore they hated him And so now they that are of God in the Spirit of truth have tryed this spirit which the Priests are in now and have found it to be the spirit of errour which neither knoweth God nor loveth him For he that loveth not knoweth not God for God is love And so all who are found persecuting for conscience sake and compelling men to sweare and to worship God in their wayes which they have set up and hating and envying of people and reviling and reproaching for matter of Religion and worship c. are found to be of that spirit which is not of God which loves not nor knows not God who is love but is of the Devill who was a Murtherer from the beginning and a Lyar from the beginning and the father of all lyars and murtherers and Persecutors and envious ones who is out of the Truth from whence all lyes and murther and envy and pride and hatred and persecution and strife and emulations and enmity cometh and all the deeds of darknesse And he is the god of the world who hath blinded the minds of all men of the World that beleeve not lest the Light of the glorious Gospel of Jesus Christ who is the Image of God should shine in them So he it is that makes people darke and blind to worke the works of darknesse and to act as blind men where they are walking in the darknesse and love it and put darknesse for light call good evill and evill good and know not whither they go nor know not the truth nor the way of God but persecute it and call it errour and heresie as it was in all ages past even so it is now for Truth was never persecuted under the name of Truth but of erruor and they who did persecute it were alwayes blind will be for they are out of the Truth and therefore they know it not as the Jewes did not know Christ for if they had known him they would not have crucified the Lord of life saith the Apostle So all the worlds Professors now are blind who doe persecute they are all groaping in the dark as the men of Sodom did who wearied themselves to find Lots doore Gen. 19.11 And so it hath been in the World in all their professions that hath beâ— since the dayes of the Apostles they have been fighting and â—â—â—ing and persecuting one another and hating and speaking evill one of another and even wearyed themselves by setting up of this forme and that forme of worship and making Lawes to compell to them which they have called Church Discipline and by running from one way of worship to another and from Mountain to Hill and have been climbing till they are weary and groaping in the dark till they are weary to
seath him not neither knoweth him but ye know him for he dwelleth with you and shall be in you Joh. 14.16 17. and now is in all his Saints and so he did come to them according to his Promise Acts 1.4 And he doth come again to all that waite for him in the manifestation of his Spirit which is given to every one to profit withall which is the true Light which Christ Jesus hath inlightned every man that cometh into the World withall that all through the Ligh might beleeve and follow the Light and not walk in darknesse but might come to have the Light of Life and might come to Christ from whence the Light comes But now all ye who have set your selves against the Light and denyed it to be sufficient to lead to Christ and say it 's naturall and so have kept people from it are the seducers which John speakes of 1 Joh. 2.26 Ye are still in darknesse and walking in darknesse and following your own spirits and have seen nothing who have prophesied lyes in the name of the Lord and have been walking in the light of the fire and of the sparkes of your own kindling but you shall lye down in sorrow for that will not bring you to Christ neither hath nor to his Life whose Life is the Light of men with which he hath inlightned them that they might beleeve in it and follow him and so with this they know him and hear him and deny you who are strangers and hear him not nor know him nor receive him and so have not power but are crying out ye want power and the reason is because ye receive him nor nor beleeve in his Name who gives power to become the Sons of God and yet are professing his Name and asking and preaching and praying and baptizing in his Name but none of you are baptized yet into his Name who depart not from iniquity though ye have been crying Lord Lord We have eaten and drunken in thy Presence c. Who have had a Forme of godliness but denyed the Power which was before the Forme and is without Forme and is the substance which shall stand when all your Formes shall end And so ye know not the Life the Power the Substance the Holy Seed which is come who stands and remains and abides and lives for ever ye are all out of that and strangers to it But ye are in that which ends out of the truth who denies the Power and Life but retains the Forme and have a shew of Wisdome in your will-Worships and voluntary Humility intruding into those things ye have not seen being vainly rufft up by your fleshly minds having a Forme and Shadowes of things to come but the Body which is Christ who is the Life and Substance hath been wanting amongst you who have been making a large Profession of Christ and of the Gospell and had a Forme but the Substance being wanting which is the Life and Power which ye are all our of and therefore ye do not know Christ nor the Gospel for it is the Fower of God unto Salvation to every one that beleeves But many have had that which ye have called the Gospell namely the four Books of Matthew Mark Luke and John and yet want this Power and know nothing of it but say they want Power to doe what they should doe and ought to doe and this is the farthest that any of them can come and there they are still in the weaknesse in the flesh ferred from the Spirit and cry out they want power which is the Gospell and so want peace and want Salvation to their soules for the Gospell is still hid from them which is the Power of God which saves the soul So the Gospell had need to be preached to you all againe ye Priests and Teachers and Profestors for it is hid from you and ye are all in the lost State seeing ye are all erred from the Spirit by which it was Preached and is Preached which proceeeds from the Father and came down from Heaven and so it is hid from you you want it ye have lost it lost the Power but retained a Forme in the long night of Apostacy since the dayes of the Apostles and have been erred from the Faith which was once delivered to the Saints which stood not in the wisdome of Words but in the Power of God but the Power you want and so the Faith ye have lost and erred from it and it hath been so long wanting among you that ye doe not know it what it is for it is a Mistery held in a pure Conscience And ye have been in the night all this while and are still and have been eating and drinking with the drunken and beating your fellow-servants and have said in your hearts The Lord deferreth his Coming who hath been in a farre Country from you and ye have not knowne where he hath been for the Man-child hath been caught up unto God but he is come and coming upon you as a thief in the Night and ye doe not see him because ye have not watched for his coming but have been asleep in sin and have been carelesse and thought your selves secure as if all had been well with you and said none can be free from sin here c. And now behold the Son of man is come He doth not find faith in the earth as Christ said When the Son of man cometh shall be find faith in the earth And now the day of the Lord is come and coming wherein every mans work shall be tryed of what sort it is and Truth shall now be known from error and deceit I say the Day-spring from on high hath now again visited us after the long time of darknesse which hath been over the earth Yea such a time hath been that the darknesse hath been so great that it might be felt that none could rise from the place where they sate and is yet upon many Peoples and Nations and Kindreds and Tongues as it was in AEgypt of old see Exed 10.21 22. so it is now and hath been in spiritual Aegypt where also our Lord Jesus Christ hath been crucified And so his Gospel is again to be preached unto all Nations Kindreds and Tongues and People whom God hath given for a Covenant for a Light unto the Gentiles to open the blind eyes and to bring the prisoner out of prison and them that have sate in darknesse out of the prison-house For People have sate in darknesse and have taken up their seat there and the Priests have laboured to keep them there and have been crying out against New-Lights and calling it Heresie and getting Laws made to keep out all New-Light as they called it to keep out Truth from being known any more then it was and so have made a Covenant with death and an
And this we can declare forth freely unto the Nations round about which we have freely received of him even of his Spirit of truth which was the promise of the Father To lead us into all truth whereby we are come to know the Leadings of the Spirit and know that we are the Children of God and taught of God and led by his Spirit and this is it which doth comfort our hearts and assure us that we are his Children And as many as are the Sons of God the same are led by the Spirit of God as the Children of this world are led by the spirin that is of the world which is of him who is called the God of the world whose work it is to blinde the mindes of people as we were also at well as others while we were in the vaine conversation and walked according to the course of this world even the Prince of the power of the ayre that spirit which now worketh in all the Children of disobedience And they may be easily known for they are full of ayre and talke of that which they possesse not of others conditions and not their own and so have been in travell as it were but have brought forth nothing but wind have a form of godlinesse but want the power and are talking of the Spirit of God but are led by the spirit of this world and are disobedient to the manifestation of the Spirit of God which reproveth them for sin and checks them secretly when they doe evill But all who receives it and are obedient to it they know the movings of the Spirit and the teachings and leadings of the Spitit and what it is to be borne of the Spirir and what it is to live in the Spirit and to walke in the Spirit and to mortifie the deeds of the body by the Spirit and so to be quickned by the Spirit and what it is to be raysed up from the Dead with Christ by his Spirit dwelling in them Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ the same is none of his Therefore how can any of the Priests and Teachers and professors in the world confesse Christ come in the flesh and know not the Spirit which is of God c. Who say they have not the same Spirit that was in Christ the Apostles and Saints and say none have the same Spirit now which they had Therefore I say truly they are not like to know that Spirit who are erred from it nor confesse Christ come in the flesh who are of another spirit which not being the same must needs be the spirit of this world which is the spirit of Antichrist by which they cannot know the things of God for none knowes the things of God saving the Spirit of God neither were they like to discerne them or demonstrate them by the Spirit which they have not but are erred from it nor know the Scriptures which were given forth by the Spirit of God in the Prophets Christ and the Apostles but give their private interpretation of them and meaning which they add to them which is of no private Interpretation for the Spirit of the Lord was but one in all them that spoke them forth and them who are in the same Spirit and Life now reads them and knows them again as they were spoken and knows the Interpretation of them which is not private but publique and plaine and manifest But all who are of another spirit they are erred not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God as Christ sayd and so they neither know that which hath been spoken by the Spirit of God formerly not what the same Spirit speaketh expressely now not what the Scripture meanes where it is spoken plainly and expressely And truly it is no wonder now to see it so for people and their teachers are so farr erred from the Spirit by which the Scriptures were spoken forth that it is become a strange thing which cannot be beleeved even amongst all forts of professors who are called Christians For one to say he is moved by the Spirit of the Lord to speake or to pray or to doe any thing else as the servants of the Lord were in former times and this is become a scorne and derision amongst them which is a shame to them and doth plainly manisest what spirit they are of Now if they were Children of God or Sons of God who are led by the Spirit of God as some of th one professe themselves to be mark this diligently then must they needs know the meaning of the Spirit of God and the leadings of it otherwise it could not lead them and they not know it And they would be in the spirituall feeling and tasting and savouring and discerning of the things of God in themselves and of the fruits of the Spirit in others brought forth and try all Spirits with that and know them and love the good and not mocke and scoffe at them And so I say then it would not be a strange thing unto them if they themselves were come to know a motion or leading by the Spirit of God in themselves which would manifest that they were the Children of God and Sons of God that they were of Christ who have his Spirit and are led by it and so were true Christians and followers of Christ and this would be a true restimony to themselves and to others And then surely they neither any of you would mocke or scoffe or scorne at any who can witnesse the same But now the want of this hath caused your nakednesse appear to your shame and to the shame of all your blinde guides whom ye have so long been following for teaching who have caused you to erre by their lyes otherwise they might have brought you to have known the truth before now and to have raught you better manners then to have scoffed at it and at those who have declared it amongst you and walke in it whom you in scorne call Quakers and utter forth evill words which corrupts the good manners howsoever if it were so that we were not in the truth but in the errour and not moved by the Spirit of the Lord as ye say but erred from it then we were but where ye are Now Friends this I say and testifie in the Lord and know assuredly that my testimony is true and Gods witnesse in all your Consciences shall beare witnesse to it to be true and the Scriptures of truth will beare witnesse to the same That ye cannot say in truth whom any of you doe scoffe or scorne or mocke or reproach any of us or others that ye are moved thereunto by the Spirit of God or led unto it by the Spirit of God or taught by the Spirit of God to doe so or taught by the Scriptures to doe so which the holy men of God spoke forth which ye call your rule Neither can ye say
false Teachers amongst you saith the Apostle who privily shall bring in damnable heresies even denying the Lord that bought them and many shall follow their pernitious wayes by reason of whom the way of truth should be evil spoken of And that perillous times should come that men should be lovers of themselves covetous boasters proud blasphemers disobedient to parents unthankful unholy without natural affection truce-breakers false accusers incontinent fierce despisers of those that are good traytors heady high-minded lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God 2 Timothy 3. Now all those before mentioned were and are erred from the Spirit of truth which was in the Saints the holy-men of God who spake forth the Scriptures which declares of these things that there was such then and that there should be such Therefore now behold all People and see whether the things which the Apostles prophecyed of concerning the false Teachers which should come be not come to passe abundantly in the Generations since their dayes and also in this our age insomuch as the whole world hath been deceived by them and led after them and they have drawn them into many Religions Sects and Opinions and set them to kill and murther one another about Religion and about the Scriptures and about their worships and Laws to compel men to them being all erred from the Spirit and from the Truth and now know not the Truth nor the Spirit which was in the Apostles and Saints in which Spirit they worshipped God in their dayes and those then that got Christs words and the Prophets words and had not his Spirit but were arred from it and were out of the Life and out of the Truth which they did professe in words These I say the Saints and true Christians who were followers of Christ and had his Spirit with it they tryed the spirits of the other who had it not and found them not to be of God nor to be beleeved nor received but turned from for they were false Spirits and false Prophets which were gone out into the world from Christ and from the Saints that had the Spirit of God in them by which they tryed the other and found them to be of the world and Antichrists in the spirit of this world and by it led which cometh from him who is called The god of this world who had blinded their minds And so they were not true Prophets or Seers or true Ministers of Christ nor true Teachers but false Teachers false Ministers false Prophets and Antichrists and blind guids gone out into the world in the worlds Spirit and so with that spirit they could not confesse Christ come in the flesh though in words they might say he was come in the flesh as all the Priests and Professors who are called Christians do now at this day in words confesse him but not with the Spirit confesse him as their fruits make it manifest Now saith the Apostle hereby know ye the Spirit of God Every Spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God And every Spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ as come in the flesh is not of God and this is the spirit of Antichrist whereof ye have heard that it should come and even now already is in the world Ye are of God little children and have over come them because greater is he that is in you then he that is in the world They are of the world therefore speak they of the world and the world heareth them We are of God he that knoweth God heareth us Hereby know me the Spirit of Truth and the spirit of Error John 1.4 1 2 3 4 5 6. verses Now if those had not had Christs words and confessed him in words to be come in the flesh while they were out of his life and of another spirit then the Apostle would not have called them Antichrists and Prophets and Teachers but he would have called them Jews or Gentiles or Heathers but this was it which did differ them from the Jews and unbelieving Gentiles and Heathers then Namely They had the words of Christ and the Saints and the Prophets and did professe them as the Priests and Teachers and Professors do now the Scriptures but are erred from the life of Christ and from the Spirit that was in the Saints who gave forth the Scriptures as they were then whom John speakes of erred from the life and Spirit of Christ and the Saints and so were Antichrists and false Prophets and false Teachers and Deceivers which were gone out into the World from the Saints life and Spirit and so the World heard them as they doe now the Priests and false Teachers and they drew people after them then from the Saints the true Church and so set up false Churches and Religions in the World and false worships in imitation of the true Church and true Religion and true worship of God which is in the Spirit and so by this means deceived people then at the first and scattered them from God and led them into confusion and darknesse and disorder and errour and so they broke out into many Sects and Opinions and Religions and wayes of Worship being once gone from the true Worship which is in the Spirit of God alone in which the unity is where this is wanting there cannot be unity nor gathering unto God nor true worship of God And so after the Apostles decease they being erred from the true Spirit who did professe themselves to be gatherers could not gather unto God but did draw people more and more from God and so the whole world went after the false Prophets and false Teachers And these were the grievous Wolves which entered and scattered the Flock which the Apostle spoke of before which should come and Christs words were fulfilled who said He that is not with me is against me and he that gathereth not with me scattereth So he that is not with Christ but is against him the same is Antichrist he that gathereth not with him but scattereth there is the grievous Wolfe that scattereth the Flock and spoyles the Sheep of the Lords pasture and makes havock of them And such are all they now at this day who are called Ministers and have been accounted gatherers and Divines and are called Orthodox men but are found to be Wolves in Sheeps cloathing who doe scatter the Flock and make havock of the Sheep of Christ and spoyle their goods and cast into Prison and whip and stock and cut off eares and wound and hang and banish c. and cause people to hayle them before Magistrates and stone and beat them knock them downe in streets for dead and haile out of the Synagogues and Steeple-houses and reproach and scoffe and scome and speake all manner of evill falsely against them who are true Christians that not only confesse Christ come in flesh in words but also in works and walke in that