the way of God and at such a time you have begun to resolve to follow the Lord in his pure Way of Holiness thus opened unto you in the Light though to the loss of all and though it be to the bearing your part of the great reproach that lies upon them that loves him more then their lives and at such a time there was felt a secret joy in a hidden ground in your Souls and the seed of the Kingdom that had been long buried up began to spring up in you in which Seed your Souls felt some touchings of that Heavenly Life and Joy which for the time exceeded all things that this World could afford and whensoever ye come to feel this refreshing dew upon your Souls then take heed and wait singly in the sence of it keep your eye to the joy that is now set before you in Christ Jesus the Seed for if you let your mind wander and your eyes gad abroad there be objects on every hand to lead you out from your Souls beloved and to bring you to defile your hearts and make your selves an unfit place of residence for him who is holy and pure and will not dwell nor take delight in a polluted Temple but will withdraw himself as he did from Israel of old and from their Temple when it was polluted and prophaned And besides when your minds are taken hold of by any of the corruptable things in this changable World there will presently kindle a desiring longing and lusting after the enjoyment of those things though contrary to the will of God and then next the Reasoner and Consulter gets up in thee and starts a question May not I enjoy the Lord and this May not I keep in the Way of Truth and yet do this or that thing which my heart desireth And though it be not perfectly according to the Truth made manifest in me yet I will have my will my lust my desire satisfied but this one time and that 's not much saith the Consulter and this is but a small matter there be others that do greater things then this and such like reasonings enters the mind and this grieves and vexeth that good and righteous tender Spirit that moved in thee and brings a weight and oppression upon the pure in thee and that withdraws it self again from thee in which thy Light did arise unto thee and so a night comes upon thee for where the Serpent can bring any to make a question of obeying the Truth he is as ready to frame an Answer as to beget the Question but his answer alwayes comes with a Liberty and perswasion to disobey as it did by Eve in the beginning and when transgression is finished then death enters upon thee with its dark power and manifold sorrows peirceth thy poor soul though the fruit was desirable to be eaten yet now it is eaten thou cannot come at liâ—e to eat of that too though thou defirest it but art driven out and kept out with a flaming sword that turns every way against thee And here 's now a ground laid for doubts and questioning of a higher nature then before to arise in thee for before thou doubted of the Truth it self whether it were the Truth but now having tasted of it and received a convincement of it and yet let forth thy mind from it after other Lovers and thy ears after the voice of the Adulteress and so caused the pure Light to withdraw from thee thorow thy rebellion now thou desirest thou might but see again what thou hast seen and feel again what thou hast felt but doubts and fears that thou shalt never see nor feel nor enjoy the like again and now thou wishest oh that thou hadst stood in the cross to thy own will and that thou hadst denied thy self that thou might not thus have lost the sight and sence of thy Souls Beloved And now thou seest by wofull experience whence doubts and fears and sorrows do arise even thy joyming with the Enemy who brings forth reasons against the obedience to the Light And therefore now hearken to that which remains in thee though darkness and sorrow doth encompass thee yet there is something remains which gives thee a sence of thy state and condition and makes thee to know thy loss and want hear the voice of this and this will humble thee and bring thee into true brokenness of heart and contriteness of spirit and as thou comes to know that state then thou hast something to offer to the Lord of his own preparing which will be far more acceptable to him then a multitude of words and performances and duties so called and as thou in the true lowliness of mind dost come before the Lord and offers up this offering God will hear in Heaven and will answer the cry of the poor and needy Soul that cannot be satisfied without his presence and he will remember his mercies of old which never fail for his seed sake which is not yet brought forth in thee And when God doth again shine forth unto thee and make his Power known thou must expect it must be in judgment because of the transgression thou hast gone into that he may consume that in thee which led thee into the Sin from his pure Law which is Light for Zion is redeemed by judgment And therefore take heed lest thou be offended at his appearance take heed that thou limit not the Holy One but if his appearance be with more sharpness and bitterness to the carnal part then before it is but just it should be so It is the Lord let him do what he will he sees more cause now then before by how much more thou hast sinned against his goodness but bow to his Judgments Bear his Indignation as Micah said because thou hast sinned against-them Mic 7.9 And as thou yeeds to his righteous Judgement thou wilt know the coming to the midst of them in which the mercy is remembred and made manifest and therefore the hasty and impatient that flees the Judgment as soon as it begins a little to appear in them they never find the true deliverance but gets ease another way which lasteth but for a moment but they who comes to know a thorow work wrought in their Earth and the Floor thorowly purged they come to know the true and lasting Peace to their Immortal Souls and although this is not obtained by ease and liberty to the carnal mind which must die yet the end Crowns all that holds out to it they are the saved ones as Christ said Mark 13.13 and they find the returning with shaves as the Prophet said Psal 126.5 6. They that sow in Tears shall reap in Joy They went forth said he with weeping and bearing precious Seed but they shall return with joy and bring their Sheaves And as Christ said They that forsake father and mother wife and children house or lands yea or their own lives fâ—r my sake shall have
A Plain Path-way OPENED TO THE SIMPLE-HEARTED FOR THE Answering all Doubts and Objections which do arise in them against the Light and Truth in the Inward-Parts BY WHICH Many are kept from Obedience and so from Peace to their PANTING SOULS By Stephen Crisp Printed in the Year 1668 A Plain Path-way Opened c. Friends and People I Have had a deep exercise upon my spirit concerning many who are come to feel something stirring and moving in their hearts that is good to bring them into a serious consideration of their course of life and the inward state of their Immortal Souls and when you have sometimes begun to turn your minds to this good thing that stirred in you then have many doubts and objections arisen in you lest you should be mis-led deceived or deluded and lest this thing that inwardly strives with you should lead you into the Eronious way of the Quakers as the Worlds Teachers calls it for they speak and write of and bear a constant Tesâ—imony to something that is in man that calls upon him to repent and to turn to the Lord and under this very notion that ye have heard evil and thought evil of that People by the same rule you are apt to think evil of that which works in your own bosom to lead you out of Sin and Iniquity and so ye are tempted to slight it and to get some slighty name for it to call it by which Antichrists Minâ—sters have many to afford you as to call it A Natural Light A Common Gift of the Spirit but not a Saving Gift Conviction of a Natural Conscience A Legal Work yea and many calls it The Devils work to disturb the Soul of its Peace and some A Diabolical Light c. and thus when thou art brought to slight that good Principle that strives with thee under some such name thou gets ease again for a little while and takes liberty to act against it and to do and say that which this Principle doth in secret condemn and then it riseth again and breaks thy peace and brings trouble and anguish upon thy Soul and then up comes many doubts on the one hand and doubts on the other hand and thy poor Soul is beset and encompassed with doubts and fears and jealousies sometimes thou fears thou withstands the Truth to thy own destruction and sometimes fears again its a delusion and thou shalt be deceived and besides thou finds many Learned men and worldly-wise men that tell thee that there is nothing good in thee and here thou art in a great strait and labours under many sorowfull thoughts and many doubtfull disputations ariseth in thy mind the Flesh now strongly warreth against that which comes to disturb it and the Spirit strongly warreth against that which resists and rebels against it and these two are contrary these contrary things are both in thee and thou poor Creature must feel the strugling of them both by reason of thy darkness and doubts and fears thou scarce knows or at least with certainty which is right now in this state and condition how acceptable would a Messenger be one of a thousand to shew unto such a one that hwich might deliver his Soul from going down into the pit and save his live from the Destroyer Job 33.23 And truly very many are in this straitned state in these dayes for whose sakes I am drawn into a deep exercise many times by day and by night and my cry to God is that his glorious Power may more and more arise to open these doors that are shut and folded upon many such and to bring forth the imprisoned spirits out of the Prison-house and out of the Bondage of this Spiritual Egypt where our Lord was and is crucified Spiritually and that he may expel the clouds of darkness in which the fears and doubts and questionings ariseth and that he may make a clear way in aâ—l such for his Light to break forth out of obscurity in which the Answer to those Doubts and Questions doth arise And by that same spirit that labours with you am I moved to send this forth unto you all as a word of Exhortation and Counsel in the Name and fear of the Lord God by which as many as do rightly receive it and make a true use and proof of it shall find help and benefit and shall know the mouth of the Questioner stopped and the Answer of Peace witnessed to their Immortal Souls in the Lords due time And therefore consider this That every good and perfect gift cometh from above from the Father of Lights and Spirits who would not the death of a Sinner but rather that he should turn and live and therefore hath he out of his infinite love and tender mercies to the Sons of Men prepared a way to draw nigh unto them even while they are in their Sins which he doth not but thorow Jesus Christ the Mediator of the New-Covenant whom he hath freely given to be a Light unto the dark World and that he should Englighten every one that cometh into the World Joh. 1.9 of which number thou art one whoever thou art and art enlightned by Christ though thou be yet darkness in thy self as the Ephesians once were yet the Light shineth in thy darkness or else there would not be two contrary Natures and Seeds found working in thee as there is and this Light wherewith thou art enlightened is the the Life of Jesus Joh. 1.4 which he hath given a Ransom for man and that was not Natural as some foolishly imagine for if it were Natural it could not be a Ransom for man out of Sin for the Sin to be Natural and that which reproves it Natural is contrary to the Apostle who said they two that warred in the Creature were contrary and called the one Flesh or Natural and the other Spirit or Spiritual and Christ Jesus called that which should Reprove the World of Sin The Spirit of Truth and Antichrist and his Ministers calls it A Natural insufficient Light c. But know this thou that art enquiring that that in thee which doth make manifest things to thee that are reproveable that 's the Light wherewith Christ Jesus hath enlightened thee withal as the Apostle of Christ said in his Epistle to the Ephesians chap. 5. v. 13 14. and that Principle which leads thee to do or say such things as thou art secretly reproved for in thine own Conscience that is the Darkness and the Enemy of thy Souls Peace which who walks in doth not know whither he goeth for this doth minister a peace and pleasure to thee and a delight to thy carnal mind for a season yet the other to wit the Light the Reprover hath power to take away peace from thee again and to judge thee and to make that which was sweet to thee to become bitter and the darkness nor lust nor vanity of thy mind cannot deliver thee from this stroke Now that thou
the dead and have their expectation unto God in that matter that he will according to his Promise raise them up at the last day and will give unto every Seed his own Body even as pleaseth him and the Creature is not carefull then about such foolish questions and doubts as to enquire what manner of body God will give them but leaves it to the Lord in full faith that he will raise them up according to the Scriptures and so here all thy doubts will flee away and are answered with that that was before them as it comes to rule in the Creature and Death that is the root and ground of them comes to be swallowed up in the Victory of the Life And so as thou seels thy part in this Resurrection all the doubts and feâ—rs of thy own condition will he answered effectually which cannot otherwise be answered but by that good Spirit of God that strives with thee which when it doth prevail with thee and thou becomes subject to it then it witnesseth for thee for that there is a state in which there is a danger of falling away thy daily experience teacheth thee to thy sorrow and besides Christ said Every Branch in me that beareth not fruit must be cut off and the many examples in Scripture of them that departed from the Faith and made shipwrack of it and turned with the Dog to the vomit and the Sow to the mire doth sufficiently prove it and if thou dost stand it is by Faith and thou must take heed and so mayst thou come to the Crown and Seal and Assurance and an Establishment in the Kingdom where thou shalt no more go forth but shall have thy Souls desire answered And when thou comest to know this state and to receive this White Stone that hath the Name within thou wilt then be without doubt or fear given up in the will of God to do and to suffer all things according to his blessed will and here is the true and perfect Rest to thy Soul whoever thou art that art now labouring in the Iron Furnace of thy own thoughts and doubts in the which the more thou givest thy self up thereto the darker thou art and the fuller of doubts for they will beget and multiply one another and the more thou reasons against obeying Gods Witness in thy heart the less able thou art to obey it but the little strength which God gives thee thou confults it away and then when thou wouldst be strong thou becom'st feeble and when thou wouldst in some measure obey thy own consultations stands in the way and hinders thee and the more thou increasest in knowledge in this state the more thou increasest thy sorrow and condemnation so that sometimes thou art ready to wish thou had never known so much of Truth and sometimes wishes thou knew more concerning such a Point or such a Doctrine or such a Scripture or such a Mystery and art apt to think because thou art yet ignorant in some things relating to Truth therefore thou art the more excusable if thou be disobedient but all poor soul consider the way to know more is to be obedient to a little vâ—â—ch thou hast received and then that mist and fog of thy own uâ—fâ—thfulness will vanish away from before the eye of thy mind for it is that which hinders good things from thee and mak'st thee go daily with a burthen upon thy shoulders and a guilt upon thy Conscience and thou canst not in no case of thy necessities come before the Lord with an open face but art covered still with thine own iniquities and in this state thou knowest neither Sabbath nor new Moon nor Holy-day to the Lord but all labour toyl and travel and wearisomness of spirit till many even comes to wish an end of their dayes and yet are in great fear that the end will be worse too Oh how my Soul pitties you whose state this is and I have a great sympathy with your sorrows and in bowels of tender love am I drawn forth to reach out a hand to help you as one that hath obtained mercy to know deliverances and to witness the way of it and have the testimony of God in my heart to witness forth the coming of the Saviour to the poor and needy Souls to the relieving of them and comforting of them and my Souls desire is that your bonds might be broken and your Souls might escape but this I say in the Name of the Lord to you all there is no way for your deliverance but your giving up in single obedience to that faithfull and true Witness of God which stirs and moves in thee against thy sins and therefore wait thou to feel thy mind and will subjected thereunto that thou mayst feel thy self to be one of those willing people in this the day of Gods Power and cease from thy reasonnings against thy obeying the Truth and from saying thou cannot thou wants power and when God gives thee Grace then thou wilt obey for these sayings are in vain for though it is true none can obey the Lord but by his Grace and Power given unto them yet he hath made his Grace even that which bringeth Salvation to appear unto all men as in Titus 2.11 and it hath appeared unto thee and in thee to whom I write and is a Reprover in thee and thou must turn to that that smites thee and then thou turns to the Grace of God for it s his Grace that strives with thee to lead thee out of the evil that it reproves in thee and so out of the World that lies in the evil up to God from whence the Grace cometh for whosoever doth give up to the drawings of the good Spirit of God that moves in them and in obedience thereto do deny themselves of their own wills and lusts and evil desires and pleasures such wants not power but feels him near them that works the willingness first and then the deed according to his pleasure and so the glory comes alone to be his and then thou knowest the Mystery of the Cross and how it is the Power of God which all that rejects the Cross complains for want of And so so long as thou livest in the Cross thou livest in the Power and thy obeying is easie and all things are possible to thee thorow it and as long as thou art daily dying to that which is corruptible thou feelest the more Life and Joy and pleasure in that which is Everlasting and thy desires grow more and more fervent after a full and perfect injoyment of it in the pure unity of Spirit And those desires growing strong in thee it grows a lighter thing to thee to part with that which hinders though it be thy bosom sins thy Delilahs and Darlings yet all must go for the love thou hast to Truth and such only as have this love and continue in it are counted worthy to be Heirs of the Kingdom of God for so long as any thing be hugged and loved besides the Lord if the Lord should manifest his Love to thee thou would play the Harlot and abuse his Mercies and cleave to thy old Lovers as Israel of old did that was after the Flesh and therefore think it not strange to be brought thorow manifold tryals that thereby thou mayst be purged and prepared as a Bride for the true Husband Christ Jesus for there is many that desires acquaintance with him but are not fitted for him they must be washed first and trimmed first and must put off the vile Raiment first and must come to know the white Linnen put on and while this work is doing what need of patience and quietness of Spirit is there what need of subjection to the workings of that holy Spirit in all things that thou may not be setting limits and bounds to that which must bound and limit thee in all things nor say in thine heart if my trials were but so or my exercises so or so I could then bear them but rather submit in all things willingly to do and suffer and to be tried and exercised even as it please the Lord to order or suffer thee to be tried and in all his dealings say with the good man It is the Lord let him do what he will with thee and whosoever gives up thus to him though he slay them yet shall they live though he wound them yet he will heal them again Therefore learn patience and stilness of mind for by taking thought thou can add no thin◠〈◊〉 â—his work I Remember Israel of old who were commanded to stand 〈◊〉 to see the Salvation of God in their greatest straits and they were a figure unto thee and now in the Light read thy figure and wait for the Substance the true Seed that it may bring forth peace and rest to thy Immortal Soul and may set up righteousness in thy Earth which is that I travel after on the behalf of all distressed and afflicted Souls every where to whom I am a Friend and well-wisher as one knowing their trials straits doubts and besettings and also thorow the rich love of God in Christ Jesus do witness the delivering answering and satisfying-Life made mâ—nifest and revealed in its own Eternal Light which lighteth every man and in true desire that you may all know the same and in discharge of my duty towards God and my Generation have I sent forth this word of Counsel and Exhortation and do remain in my Rest with the Lord being thus far clear of the Blood of all men whether they hear or forbear and though in Bonds for the Gospels sake yet the Lords Free-man waiting in patience and full assurance for Zion's full Redemption â—pswich County-Goal this 3d Moneth 1668. Known by the name Stephen Crisp THE END