up the Weeds that the Plants may prosper in the ground and prune the Tree cutting off the unprofitable branches that the profitable may much more prosper yeilding abundance of fruit in due season unto the Lord of the Vineyard and not go too hastily and cut off a Twig because of a corrupted leaf thereon nor cut off a Limb of the Tree because of a withered bow on the Limb but rather learn the Judgment of Wisdom and Righteousniss of the Lamb in cases of sin and uncleanness to stoop down and write with the finger on the ground and when you have sufficiently written there as the Lamb stooped down twice in the Judgement of the cause of the Harlot then you will come to lift up the head also as he did and say Go thy way and sin no more for by stooping down and writing on the ground you will put many in the way wherein they will sin no more as the Lamb your Example did the Adulteress And there you will be known to be of His Spirit which taketh away the sin of the world and not made as Instruments to the cutting off of souls from holiness and righteousnesse causing them thereby to turn into all sin and uncleanness neither will the grief of the Just fall justly upon your heads nor the sore distractions of the oppressed become your Burthens but Peace will be with you for ever But until this order of the Judgement of Righteousness be throughly among you God will make Whips for the daughters of Judah and Scourges for the sons of Israel and in measure chastize His People until they are formed into the similitude of the brightness of His Glory in the true Knowledge of His Judgements and Mercies which go over all His Works to be made a perfect Inheritance unto Him for ever as He is their God and their Perfection But after Admonition upon Admonition Reproof upon Reproof if such a Person as is spoken of stoppeth the Ear and hardneth the Heart and despiseth the Way of the Lord and will not be Converted and Healed after all the gentle dealings of the Spirit of your Father and the Lamb in you Then it will appear just and righteous in any Sister or Brother that is moved of the Lord in his pure and holy Fear in the Spirit of Sobriety to Judge the evil of such a one in such severity as the Brother or Sister may be led unto by the Spirit of Widom to do and so the Judgement will stand true and sound never to be repented of for it will reach to that of God in all in relation to Truth both in matter time and manner And as this Order of Righteous Judgement is kept so Peace will be also kept in Israel and the Unity of Love in all his Tents for Ever And be it known unto you that Hastiness is not of the nature of my Father who wooeth sinners and correcteth gently in measure and stirreth up his Bowels of Love and Mercies again and again unto sinners and often wooeth a stiffnecked and rebellious enemy and winneth a treacherous soul by the power of his boundless eternal Love Wherefore all that are born of the Seed of his Kingdom must so grow into the Image and Similitude of their God in his Spirit of the glory of Love Meekness Long-suffering and exceeding Tenderness unto one another and unto all the Creation of Mankind made of His mighty hand as that their lives may shew forth the excellency of His Praise in their Generation even to the End of their dayes in the Tabernacle Again in Cases of Trespasses of Brethren against Brethren it ought to be looked into whether the Trespass was of a presumptuous Will finding it so the Trespasser may wisely be dealt withal as abovesaid but stil the Brethren in such cases must mind Forgiveness more than Judgment Because the exercise of Forgiveness in the glorious Power of Love and Mercies is able to overcome all the Trespasses and the strong Will in all men which works Trespasses Wherefore he that overcomes in this manner gains Victory in the Battel of the Lamb and so Conquers as to receive the Crown of Victory on his Head and also to see plainly how the Vertue of Love in him covers a multitude of sins and evils And may not I say unto you all without respect of persons if my Eternal Father of brightness gave you the Example of the Lamb of His Glory in taking away the sins of the World ought not ye to be careful followers of Him in all His steps pressing on in the growth of His Spirit as much as in you lies to do as he did And if He in the Love of the Father took away the sin of the World whilst yet it was in enmity to the Father and His own Life ought not ye therefore earnestly strive to be careful in seeking to remove the nature of a Trespasse from a Brother And know you not that the most Forgiveness is a ground and cause for the stirring up of the most Love and if Love be stirred up in this Principle of Life in the hearts of Trespassers through the obtaining from you the abundance of Forgiveness doth not this truly beget souls unto a nearness in God who is the Original and Fountain of Eternal Love and Forgiveness Surely yea And therefore this is Counsel to you all that you may be a pure and holy People to the Lord your God Learn the Life of the Lamb Follow Him wheresoever He goeth and you shall never want Wisdom nor Counsel in the Way And to the end that you may all bear in your faces the expresse similitude and Image of the Father mind the Word of the Lord to the Revolted People of Israel who thus spake unto them by his Prophet saying As I live saith the Lord God who is pittiful merciful and long-suffering slow to anger but ready to forgive I delight not in the death of a sinner but rather that he might turn from his sins and repent Unto which Repentance the Lord God of Grace hath often wooed as I have said perverse Rebels which have wilfully resisted his holy Spirit and sometimes hath smitten them with the Rod of his gentle Corrections and then hath wooed them again and said All the day long have I stretched out my hand to a gain-saying and rebellious People And Oh Jerusalem Jerusalem thou that killest the Prophets and stonest them that are sent unto thee How often would I have gathered thee as a Hen gathereth her Chickens but ye would not And which of us this day in Sion can say but that our God sent unto our souls Line upon Line and Precept upon Precept before we turned unto Him and whilst yet we were sinners He loved us and whilst we were Enemies He prepared the way of reconciling us unto Himself and whilst we were in our Blood He washed us and when none eye pittied us His Mercies covered us Now therefore if we should
TWO EPISTLES Written to all Friends in the Truth The one touching the Perfection of HUMILITY Written in Rome-Prison of Madmen The Other Touching the RIGHTEOUS ORDER OF JUDGEMENT IN ISRAEL Written at Lyons in France By the Servant of God JOHN LONDON Printed for Robert Wilson at the sign of the Black-spread-Eagle and Windmil in Martins Le Grand 1661. CONCERNING HUMILITY JOHN the Prisoner to the Little LAMBS SALUTATION GOD Almighty is greater than the swelling and boyling Waves of a troubled angry raging Sea for though she rouls the unsetledness of her Outrage as the Tumblings of Mountain after Mountain yet He which ruleth on high ordering in his unsearchable Counsel all things for the Advantage of good Prosperity and Happiness of all the constant setled faithful-hearted whose Delight without wearisomeness is to trust in his Living Name and Eternal Supream Power can make all in a moment and turning of a short space become as standing Oyl Thus saith the Voice which is holy which is true which is living and faithful Who hath Power but the LORD Or where is there permission but of the Mighty One Where is Counsel but with the Eternal Wisdom who purgeth Jacob in his way and befooleth his Foes in the very open wayes and narrowest and secretest paths of their own Outgoings and Designs Who hath known the LORD and will not trust in Him for an Everlasting Good Who hath trusted in the God of Salvation that can say his Trust hath perished in the end and the peace of his soul is fled from him Or can his Servants say that He is as a man or like unto the son of man which remembreth not the way nor enclineth unto the Cry of the Just Verily the Seas may sink through the Earth and be no more as the Waters in her belly and the whole Earth become as a whirled dust out of a golden Ballance Yet is there Iudgment with the Lord for Worm Jacob and a Covenant of Righteousness for Israel Moreover Though Nature may degenerate from her proper kind the Cow nor the Asse the Camel nor the Old Lionness nay nor the Nurse nor the Mother have any more pitty or compassion to the fruits of their own bowels to suckle or nourish them in due season though they might harden their hearts and shut their ears from the Cryes of their own flesh and should loath and abominate their languishings unto death yet is there Compassion with the God of David for the humble and contrite-hearted and Deliverance with the God of Moses for the Seed of his own Host though they are straitned by the Red Sea-side Therefore lift up your heads O ye little Lambs and breath to your Keeper in the spirit of fear and reverence sanctifying his NAME in your hearts in the Life of Faith and Obedience until the Rod be stretched over the Floods for then shall you march with dry shoes through the mighty deeps with the Songs of Salvation in your Way But the joyning hands of the divided Waters will cover the running stones of the Defences of Egypt as Rocks that are cast to the bottoms doubled then shall your Psalms be Yea and trebly tuned unto the highest Land and Glory of Him which rules in the Heavens above This is the Day wherein God Almighty is trying and proving with what an eye you are enclined to look into the Life of his humility who shews himself as a servant unto Man walking his Corn-fields and attending him with Bread and all things who feeds the Worms of the workmanship of his hands and refresheth the creeping things with the lowly and humble Attendance of his own most infinit bowels of Mercies yea he walks in the deeps of the Seas amongst the Worms that creep in the bottom of her belly and womb watching and waiting as the diligence of all diligence to serve them in all wants Ah! what shall I say of the King of Glory to whom the Sun Moon and Stars are but as a shadow and the Firmament of the Heavens but as a dark and gloomy vail Surely when I consider the Glory of the most Eternally glorious full of Wisdom Strength Power Vertue Light and Brightness the height of whose Majesty in all things which glorious are there 's no end of space to reach how He hath humbled Himself to come down in the lowliness of his Life to serve me his dispised of man with the greatness and grace of His rich Compassions it moves and melts my heart before him and even now makes me cry in the Spirit saying Oh that the Wisdom of the most wise and humble would encrease with me for ever to the end instructing me to serve as He serveth in the humbleness of his wisest Life Children this is the deep place where you are to sink down into in this the day of the tryal of spirits to know of what nature they are So here try your selves and prove your selves and see if you can serve the Worms of God which creep upon the face of the Earth even as God serveth them according to the measure and proportion of the wisdom and knowledge which from God you have received search your selves and examine your selves whether in nature and true kind you can serve as God Almighty serveth the poor creeping things or serve Lazarus the poor man as God Eternal served him in Dogs and the World saw it not Yea and question your selves and try your hearts that you may know whether you can serve God in that lowliness in which He daily serveth you and so consider well how God Almighty provideth your food and rayment and puts the bread in your mouths and pours the water into your cups and arrays you and latches your shoes and makes clean the filthy way before your footsteps And if any among you have griefs or sores or botches or painful boyls God Almighty humbleth his compassionate Soul and cometh down from on high and stands exceedingly below you where you see him not and putteth out his tongue and licketh your sore places and so healeth the wounded and saveth the sick from the grief of the malady Oh my Beloved Ones and dearest little Children and Lambs of God I cannot tell you how infinitly you own tender and merciful Father standeth below you and round about you waiting and watching in grace and loving-kindness to serve you whose day this is which now is wherein you must be tryed and proved whether you bear the Image of his holy Spirit of Humility as did Jesus the Just and as you are found sinking down here into the low place even in admiration considering where before this day you dwelt in a house which had its Foundation above the Rocks of the deeps of the low places whereon the highest Heavens are pitched and therefore All must sink unto it and be firmly setled on it whereby ye may know the bosom of Love from which all pure service doth proceed service to God service to man service to
Maker and his bowels stir up his Power to return the Captivity of Judah and of all the house of Israel whose lot is to inhabit Jerusalem And be it known unto you all That God Almighty will be angry with all such which do stand in a height above the contrite and broken heart saying in presumption We are above and beyond all things in the outward which can annoy or hurt us and God will bring down all such and make them to know that if he is lived in he will be lived in even in his Spirit of contriteness which infuseth the reverence and fear dread and trembling at his Name in the inward parts where the broken heart must be witnessed which is the true sacrifice which God requireth and accepteth So he that is gone above the contrite heart is gone out of the acceptance with God not having the true Sacrifice in which acceptance is found and in that heart which is gone from the contriteness there is no true praise for the low life is departed from which only can praise Him which ruleth above all things and so the creature goeth from his Creator and sacrificeth unto his own affection and praiseth the delight of his own lust and drowneth his poor soul in perdition Finally my dear and everlastingly beloved little Lambs of the true Shepherd in this Spirit my life labours with you and the abundance of my unspeakable love floweth forth unto you even that which no Voice can tell you but the immediate Voice of God which is nigh you wherein I am rouled bound up and sealed among and in you greatly comforted concerning you feeling a glorious and goodly number in my daily prayers of great price in the gracious eye of God And many will passe thorough a fire which will make them shine as the Sun and their fruit will be only to God Ah! I cannot tell you of the Glory of the Day which cometh among you for I am ravished and overcome in the sence of that Glory which my weak and bleared eye can see and truly the Glory is such that for Glory I cannot behold but I cry but I cry Oh! the depths of Love which will wound Enmity Oh! the weight of Mercy which will kill Cruelty Oh! the pleasantness of Patience which will extinguish Persecution Oh! the depth of Wisdom which will work over Stratagems Oh! the worth of Vertue which will crown with Diadems Oh! the dread of Life and power of Supremacy which will wear the Glory of an everlasting Dominion this will be the Sting the Wo and the Torment unto every unclean spirit upon the face of the Earth until she shall bear that spirit no more upon her face but all things shall be as they were in the beginning and God in more infinite measure gloriously known and enjoyed than ever in any Age that is past since the dayes that Adam was made a true and living Soul Grace Mercy and Peace be unto you all giving you growth in this Life Amen So reade me in the Word of God and then reade this a second time over in your Congregations Written in Rome-Prison of Mad-men Concerning Judgment The Son of Love Peace and Unity who is of the mind of Subjection unto the Spirits of the Prophets To the Gathered Seed of the Lord Almighty Sendeth the Fruits of the Life of Concord as a most sincere Salutation unto them all wheresoever upon the face of the Earth BEloved Sisters and Brethren I would that you should all know in the deeps of the Spirit of Power and Glory that GOD is but one Eternal Life of Love Peace and Everlasting Unity in Himself not having in Him Prejudice strength of a froward Will lust of entrance into any other Nature than His own or Pride in His Throne of Glory but is full of Love and Mercies unto Enemies easie to be entreated of Pure in Life and the lowest and humblest in His Eternal mind of all things beside Him Yea as He is Infinitely in Power above all the works of his hands so in His Humility He is Immeasurably below them all wherein the Excellency of His Beauty and Glory is seen to be above all who is blessed praised and honoured of all that truly know Him for ever Amen This therefore is His mind unto all the Children of the Day viz. That they should seek to have a dwelling in the brightness of the Glory of His Life by feeling after Him in the lowest places of His habitation where righteous Judges in Israel shall be known and righteous Judgement which oppresseth not any but is appointed for the Revelation of Mercy unto all shall be witnessed in the Consciences of every raised Seed of Jacob which shall preserve the Concord Peace Love and everlasting Unity among all even unto the determination of all Time wherein the Restoration of all things shall come to pass as it was first in the Original before Transgression was that there may not be the groan of a Creature under the bondage of Oppression but the whole Earth Seas and all that in them is become one entire Body made up of the perfection of the Glory of the Almighty Creator that it may be an everlasting Song of His highest Honour for ever and ever Amen I feel a Life which in some years silence through Tribulations and great Tribulations in the secret continual exercise of the mind of the Spirit of holiness through the deep mercies of God hath attained unto a small measure of the understanding and knowledge of the Judgments of its Maker And therefore as one that hath obtained Mercy at the Tribunal of God and is precepted to the same am drawn forth of a free heart to shew unto all the tender in Israel That Order of Iudgement which is justified of the Lord God that in the execution thereof without respect of Persons in Judgement the Peace of his God's Holiness may be kept in his Tents and Love and Unity in the richest blessings of Mercy be held and retained in his Land Everlastingly All that are born of the Seed of Promise must grow into the similitude of the glory of their heavenly Father in all things which are holy and vertuous in the light of Life which gives to see that God is not rigorous rash nor cruel but tender pitiful forgiving long-suffering and merciful which sheweth the amiableness of His Glory in Judgment in which Image of Glory all the Children of Light must grow to be as their Father is for which Cause in matters of unresolvedness or controversie betwixt Friend and Friend Brother Brother it ought to be pondered Whether the thing that is objected against be sin which if it so appears and that also to the dishonour of God and his Truth in the eye of the World then shall there be an utter denying of the sin and a tender admonition given to that Person to forsake and repent of his sin And so like wise Gardeners ye ought to pluck
deal by our Brethren which have halted by the way and not in the way of the dealings of our Father's love mercies and compassions unto us whilst yet we were enemies unto Him then should we degenerate from the brightness of the similitude of His Life and be but as the sons of darkness in Judgement for in the Eternal sweet Spirit of God I am sure that all Judgement out of the Life of this Testimony is but for a day of reproof and also to be tryed in a day of Revelation by Fire and therefore the merciful Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world said Judge not lest ye be judged because every tittle out of his Spirit is to be judged by his Spirit since in all Judgment besides it there is a secret seed of prejudice and enmity in the heart which stirreth up prejudice in the hearts of the persons judged and such judged souls by shyness and strangeness kept at swords point and at severe distance from Friends hardens their hearts from God which saves not but destroys the soul which is a sore weight to fall upon any spirit viz. not to be an instrument of Salvation but rather of Damnation which for ten thousand times ten thousand the price of all the Treasures of the Earth I would not should fall justly upon my back through an act of the spirit of rashness unless first I had exhorted secondly admonished and meekly reproved yea after all this if the person blameable should stand in obstinacy and perversness of heart against God even until the last and utmost occasion of denying such a soul I ought not to deliver such a one over but for the destruction of the flesh that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord. Again All Friends must take serious and prudent heed how they take up matters upon slight reports for that is but of the same which is ready to say Report and we will report for such things will make Israel walk maimed in Counsel and halt in Judgment and make him cast the simple in the ditch and set the subtil to fly swift over fences Wherefore again I say Be ye followers of the Lamb wheresoever he goeth for he took the Testimony of many before he judged the Harlots Cause in the seat of Mercy And be ye careful to take the advantage of countenancing and cherishing the least appearance of Repentance and Contrition of heart in any revolted soul turning not your ear from it but nourish it and cherish it in all that ye may appear as strength thereunto And how know ye but that in so doing ye may convert a sinner to God and turn him from the evil of his way And will you not know in that day that there will be more Joy in Heaven among the Angels of God than for the other ninety and nine of the Flock which never erred nor strayed from the Sheep-fold And will not the sence of the Joy of God's Angels be a sufficient Crown of Reward unto you for so happy and blessed a work Surely yea And therefore my dearest Sisters and Brethren look ye to your Father grow in his Image and walk with Him and blessed shall your Day be unto you for evermore Amen I am your Sister in our Spouse JOHN Sent from Lyons in France to be read by the Flock of the Lord every-where and not among the World who pervert the Judgment of Truth TOuching the fore-going Epistle I mention these few following words for the prevention of the Worlds evil carping and the exaltation of every spirit which hath erred yet which hath seen the weakness of other persons judging them and not according to the true order of the Judgment of the Lamb of God To the World I say thus Though a few in Zeal have stepped forth in Judgment in a particular matter somewhat beyond their measures yet because of infirmity in such a case are not to be cast forth and that because of their Youth and Tenderness in the Truth who in their this dayes birth as new-born babes have not yet attained unto the Perfection of that Wisdom which is to be attained unto but through Experience are growing more and more into the same And to persons imprudently judged this I also insert That if they from a sence of this Admonition unto all which reacheth unto such young and zealous souls in the Truth which have imprudently judged them should rise up and seek to boast over them they would by it bring themselves under the real Condemnation of the Spirit which gave utterance of the aforesaid Epistle which only tends in substance for perfecting Unity Peace and Love in God which may never end THE END