may say that my Writings were against then as aforesaid could not I have written the things which I have written in your Inquisition-Prison Fifthly Because that all Righteous Laws of GOD in Nations touching Facts Criminal and Crimes Capital are no more to one person particular than unto all men in general And therefore my adhibition at last to write things of the same nature and purpose in Prison which at first I did in the fruition of Liberty demonstrates that your said self-nulled Law Under which contrary to the tenure of GOD's righteous Law I am yet irrationally and compulsively held in your house of Captivity was not at first so much a stable Law as an aiery variable nicity for that which in such cases adhibits to one and prohibits the same to another is rather like a wind of vanity than a body or pillar of solidity seeing that it will admit of the respect of persons in Judgement and consequently what equality there is in restraining of persons more than two years upon the account of a changeable curiosity and aiery nicity judge thee O thou righteous Iudge in the high seat of superiority Sixthly Because the Eternal Spirit of Righteousness my Maker which searcheth all hearts and tryeth all reins which is the greatest Witness of all Witnesses beareth testimony in my spirit that in all which I have written have stood and do stand in my Conscience clear naked and void of all and every part of a prejudicial mind or conception of Envy Wrath Malice Scorn or despightful Contempt of any man's person neither have I thereby wronged any man whatsoever for all that is therein inserted is none other but wholsom Admonitions exciting to a more peculiar holy and blessed life towards GOD and a man's Neighbour with certain solid sober Interrogations which tend not to the custom of heathenish strifes and contests in the envious and malicious spirit of bitterness but purely sincerely and reverently in the humble spirit of fear of the LORD GOD to the proper and sole end of the Glory of GOD through the Salvation of Souls by his heavenly enlightning of Understandings with the Glory of his holy Spirit And savoury reprehensions of that spirit which sinneth and testimony against the Evils of the Land and the insertion of sundry spiritual Mysteries of the heavenly Kingdom with the spiritual Witness of the Father Son and holy Ghost and nothing therein contrary to the New Testament of GOD the Blood of the Covenant and immaculate Life of the Lamb nor any thing in opposition to that chast Spirit of Sanctity which was in Mary or any which was or is as that blessed Virgin was which upon further and due tryal I am able in the grace and power of GOD and the Life of our Lord Jesus to make appear unto that of God in you and all men whatsoever which my Language can understand upon the face of the Earth In which thing being justified First by GOD which sent me Secondly By example of the holy Prophets of old Thirdly By the practice of CHRIST and his Apostles which at large through the Mercy of the Lord God Almighty I am also able to hold forth unto you in the day of due tryal according to the undeniable Record and Witness of the holy Scriptures of Truth And therfore Righteousness saith Because that the nature of the matter was of a pure purpose should rationally have been recompenced by you with none other than a pure and Christian-like practice Seventhly Because the sweet savour and good report of our Innocency came to your City before us which God made divers of your Ecclesiastical Members to confess in plainness of speech to my face Eighthly Because the Witness of GOD which is greater than the Witness of Man testified in my spirit That all my honest Queries sweet and holy Admonitions pure Advertisments godly Reprehensions proceeded from no other but as Crystal streams from the fountain of the Father's Love which he hath made as a Well of Waters in my bowels And principally because that Reprehension is an infallible token of the Father's Love to his Seed in all Nations and Lands testified by the Spirit to John the Apostle saying Whom I love I rebuke and chasten be zealous therefore and repent Ninthly Because it is the undeniable Duty of all men upon the face of the Earth to love the Rebukes of the LORD as it is purely the LORD's Mercy and of his infinite Love to send them as Visitations of his Love unto all Nations Tenthly Because the resisting of the Rebuke is the resisting of the token of the Favour and Love of GOD which renders men unworthy of the Love and Mercies of GOD their Maker And because it vails the heart from the life of the true Zeal in spirit and hardens the heart in the Wrath of Cain towards Abel of Esau to Jacob and of the Jews to Jesus 11. Because the Righteous Law of God is of the same nature full of Judgment and Reprehension of every Evil not respecting the Person of any man and is at unity with every such spirit of its own nature in so good a work for the which cause it was righteously added of GOD for if there were no bridle how should the Beast be tamed if no Helm how should the Ship be sailed And without Correction there is no perfect Instruction 12. Because the Rebuke of Life is as a Steel which smiteth at the Flint of man's heart and kindleth in his Internals the fire of the fear of his Creator which is the beginning of Wisdom which reveals the knowledge of the countenance of the Father whom to know is Life eternal and because of Solomon's proverbial commendation of the work of Reprehension saying The Reproof of the Righteous is like Apples of Gold in Pictures of Silver 13. Because as the matter of my said Writings is manifestly composed of Righteousness and covered with the Countenance of the Word of GOD so the manner thereof stands in unity with the Scriptures of the Prophets and Apostles which were in the nature of Divinity which covereth not Iniquity with daubing Iniquity 14. Because Moses the Messenger of GOD justified him which prophesied in the Camp whom the People complained against thus answering and saying Would God all the Lords People were Prophets And because GOD Almighty is unchangeably the same as yesterday so this day and for ever of these stones able to raise a Seed unto Abraham 15. Because of the amiable Example of the gesture of David the King under the sharp Reprehension of Nathan the Prophet who persecuted not the Prophet but with a contrite spirit repented of his own sin And the like of the King and People of Niniveh who persecuted not Jonah though he cryed their Destruction in the Streets 16. Because the Prophet Isaiah prophesied it as the great Evil of such a People which would make a man an Offender for a Word 17. Because that for the same things like
or Are your Customs the Arm of GOD yea I say if that Conscience in whom GOD liveth and reigneth should ask of them all Are your Words or Customs or Forms of Worship the immediate Commandment of the LORD GOD from Heaven which shall endure for ever not one of a thousand either could or would give a ready Answer thereunto which if they would honestly answer negatively concluding their words not to be GOD nor their Customs the Arm of GOD why then do they set their Words above GOD as a limit and bound to the Spirit of GOD And why set they their Customs and Forms of Worship in the Seat of GOD to judge in more Power than the Arm of GOD To the sons of men it may be fully said To whom is the Living GOD known and the Arm of the LORD revealed For if GOD be a Spirit and is only known in Spirit to live in Spirit and to dwell with men in the Spirit How remaineth the knowledge of this true GOD among the sons of men who by the limitations of their Customs and Forms of Worship and Words in the Will out of the unlimited Spirit do thrust him the unlimited Spirit out of his true habitation To all the sons of men upon the face of the Earth who have reached as far as the Tradition but want the Life even unto all Sects and among you all I might largely and plentifully declare your Judgments of others and not with that of GOD in the Conscience answers not that of GOD in the Conscience of any man and GOD hath no Unity with your Judgment but his hand he turneth against it even as in all Generations past The Customs of your Worships and not in the Spirit the Spirit turneth against you and the Spirit will have glory over you for be you not ignorant how that the Spirit created the Times and in time Tradition and Custom came forth And the Spirit which changeth the Times will change the Customs and Forms and when GOD hath put all these things under foot he will be known to be All in All in the Conscience his own proper Seat and Dominion What art thou O corruptible man in whom God created a Conscience that sits above GOD in thy Will making a Law against GOD in the Conscience of another Knowst thou not that GOD hath the whole Dominion there Knowest thou not that GOD hath granted a Law against all Sin and written it in the Conscience his own seat where he cometh to Judgment of the whole World of Mankind as well in it the Heathen who have not the Letter of the Law by the same which he will judge both Jew and Gentile who have the Law and in the Life are found transgressors of the Law And makest thou a Law against the Light of the Throne of GOD against that which thou makest and settest a bound-mark limitation and Law which is in another in and by the self same thing in thy self shalt thou be judged of GOD because of thy Law and the LORD GOD will be known to be the Lord of Spirits and Father of Lights whose Spirit and Light by all the Customs Traditions Laws and Forms of Worship in the World is not in any measure comprehended to be equally judged or made in Righteousness subordinate unto in the Conscience of another and that of GOD in you all shall witness this for ever and bear its everlasting Testimony against your comprehensible corrupt wills which make Laws and constrain Customs and Traditions by Laws against the incomprehensible measure of GOD in another Wherefore a Warning from the LORD GOD the Father of Spirits and Lights to you all is come to give you to take heed in due season lest you be found fighters against GOD your Creator in the day that he calleth to Account and draweth near unto Judgment in the Land And lay it to heart with understanding that for this cause only that he was fought against in the Conscience by Customs by Laws by Judgment by Life by Traditions by Forms of Worship by Sinners by Rebellion against the Power in the Conscience by Jews and by Gentiles all the Overtures Desolations Confusions Destructions Captivities and Revelation of the Wrath Indignation and Vengeance of GOD from Age to Age reaching unto this present Age came to passe in the Earth Witness the Flood witness Sodom and Gomorrah witness the Red Sea witness the Walls of Iericho witness the Mulberry-trees witness the Battels of Israel and the Captivity of his Children witness the Worms that ate Herod witness the Destruction of Ierusalem and the scattering of the Iews in the Earth witness Greece Germany Scotland England and Ireland and yet the LORD will call the whole Earth to witness and bring heap upon heap and destruction upon destruction and desolation upon desolation by Fire and Sword in every Land that standeth against the Word of the LORD GOD. But blessed is he that cometh to know the ground and root of a matter in him to know the end of the Desolations determined to be in the Earth I might say unto you how that in the dayes of Luther GOD moved in the Darkness upon the face of the deeps thereof but they which made him their Rest are confounded and their head is broken as Clay He appeared brighter by Behman and Brown but they which built their Travels as Towers the LORD confounded with many Languages and even running up to the height Baptists Seekers and Ranters some made bounds for the pure and others in their lusts revolted wherefore GOD hath laid them one upon the other as a heap of confusion together And thus he hath begun the work of his hand decreed to perfect his purpose And the LORD GOD will make the Nations to know That he hath not sent down his Word in the Earth to be likened unto a breath of Vanity in the Air and that he caused not his Prophets to run in vain as him which comes short of the mark but that his Law which he wrote upon the Tables of Stone he writeth upon the Table of he Heart and both the Law and the Prohets no more as in the dayes of continual ransgression shall be told as a tale of tatlers and as a history of vain bablers pointed upon the tongue of a deceitful mouth but that they shal be fulfilled and witnessed yea and perfected in the Spirit in Life and in Power as by the Spirit in Life and in Power they were revealed and given forth to this only end of GOD in his Creature For which cause lastly JESUS the Saviour was revealed to perfect that which was lacking and to compleat the Redemption in fulness Therefore all you dwellers in the Monuments of the Earth Awake from the deadness of your Forms and Worships and draw near unto the quickning Power of the Righteousness of GOD which leads to Life in the Truth and Salvation from all Sin To which end GOD sent the Immanuel a LIGHT unto
regulating of that gluttonous Lust of the spirit of Revenge and so where the Judgment of Truth is alwayes suspended there the wrongs and injuries heaped upon the Innocent never come by the Magistrate to be removed and ended Fifthly Because that in the Land where Judgment is not equally practised but unrighteously detarded and tediously suspended the fame thereof breaks an inlet in that Land unto all Assaults Deceits Wrongs Robberies Riots Rapes and Murders For there the Judge's Insolencies is made the president of the Subjects Villanies and there the two can sup of one cup in the communication saying Give me of thy Broth and lo thou shalt partake of my Bread And thus the Just is violently led to languish in the Land Sixthly Because through the suspense of the Just Judgment of the Law which was added because of Transgression and provided as God's Ordinance for the removal of Oppression as the Innocent is thereby on the one hand oppressed and his Yoak not broken but strengthened so by the same on the other hand the Transgressor also receives not his due but a wrong and so no man hath right by the Law which God hath appointed for every man's right either of Condemnation or Justification by due and open Tryal at Tribunal of Law but thus the Law which GOD hath ordained for the removal of Oppression from all through violation is converted and made as an Instrument of Oppression unto all Seventhly Because the suspense of Judgment is contrary to the good Examples practised of God's holy men of old Witness Moses and his true Successors in the same seat and Solomon the wise King who when the cause of contest between the two women concerning the living Child came before him delayed it not but instantly called for a Sword and thereby in the Righteousness finding the true Mother immediatly gave her her due Likewise CHRIST who suspended not the Judgment of the Cause of the Harlot but quickly judged Whosoever is free from sin let him cast the first stone Eighthly Because the righteous Son of GOD marked out that unjust Judge by the name of a man that feared not God nor regarded man who suspended the Cause of the oppressed and wronged Widow and judged it not for the sake of Justice and Equity but detarded it until he found himself wearied with the Widows importunity Ninthly Because the very Jews hard-heartedness suspended not the Tryal of the Just Man JESUS by keeping him Two years or more under the temptation of the severity of Bonds to make him deny his Calling and consequently the Father which sent him but quickly and publickly though unrighteously and against Law judging Him worthy of Death exposed him to the pangs of the same and because also the Jews in the same unbelief and hardness of heart and the Gentiles in the Heathenism and Paganism divers times gave Audience to the open Declaration of Paul the Apostle in defence of his Righteous Cause Moreover though it might have been apprehended as an Affront to his Country-men when he the said Apostle in the day of his Tryal in the Court of Judicature appealed from them unto Caesar yet because of the Law had his Appeal assented him Tenthly Because That Person whosoever that under pretence of a Law violates the Righteousness of the Law by perverting the Law as the Jews did in the Judgment of Jesus or by unequal suspending of the Law which is given into his hands as a Stewardship to handle in equal administration of just Judgment unto all without suspense or respect of persons thus wilfully acting in contrariety to all true humanity the pure practice of Christianity the holy Law of GOD and Prophets and nature of the true GOD appears manifestly in the Chrystal glass of the Law of Equity but as a beastly lustful lawless fighter with his horns of Superiority upon the high mountain of Arrogancy an Oppressor of the Poor and Simple in his Innocency and so warreth not only against Moses and the Prophets purity and Christ's sanctity but also against GOD Almighty his Creator's Divinity and thus renders himself but as one in the Paganism and cursed Atheism a subject of the Vengeance of GOD's Just Judgments in the actual work of despairation which shuts from the true hope of the least drop of the Mercy of the LORD GOD. These things I call Silver seven times refined Drops of the Representation of Righteous Reason which in the substantial practical and living chanels run down like streams from the top of the Mountain of Sion which stands in the midst of the holy City of GOD the which if no man can confidently stand to oppose openly to my face yet if any man will wilfully withstand in secret behind my back let him send me in writing the strength of his Opposition and with further priviledge I in the only strength of GOD may haply shew his confusion that so the work of Righteousness may prosper in the Land the which is sincerely desired But finally if approved and not opposed then in Justice without further suspense let them serve to the effect of one of the ensuing Propositions 1. Either for my fair open cleer publick and legal Tryal at Tribunal of Law if any man hath justly to charge me as a Transgressor 2. Or if not a Trnsgressor then to be righteously acquitted of these Bonds In a word Consider in soberness O ye Heads and Rulers of ROME that if by any man's means I stand wrongfully represented before you as a transgressor whether more than Two years Imprisonment doth not equivolently answer such a Law as counteth not the represented Fact to be so criminal as that it is worthy of the cognizance of Judgment at the Bar of Tribunal For my God weigheth all things in an equal ballance Summarily if the strong will of causless irrational Revenge hath not glutted her appetite on me I am still the same in the same Kingdom of the Content and Patience as yesterday so also to day even unto the last day until her greedy mouth hath sucked my last blood and breath and so this very Prison to be made the Ax of Execution of a Martyr of Jesus And know ye to the utmost that I am of the Spirit of Stephen and Life of the Lord which prayed and despited not JOHN the lowly Lamb in the Life of JESUS the Son of GOD To the Pope of Rome THis City hath ill requited the simplicity of my bowels of the Eternal Love as well towards her Inhabitants as they have been largely manifested to thy Children in Ireland in the time of their most grievous distress Once when about 120 persons were imprisoned in the City of Kilkenny to be sent as Captives to the Barbadoes but one man more besides me in all that Land either English or Irish that durst to appear in their behalfs to plead their cause for them which the God of Heaven knows that I did without an Earthly Reward with the then Governor of
unto them my said Writings in life and nature the Prophets CHRIST and the Apostles by ungodly and unrighteous Rulers were persecuted and made sufferers in the world And because from the day of Cain's Cruelty even unto this moment there was never any other spirit in the world which did or doth persecute any soul for his pure Conscience of GOD besides the thick spirit of darkness which is of the old Serpent the Devil to which the Apostle in his day held his Testimony saying As it was then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit even so it is now 18. Because the Doctrine and Life of CHRIST teacheth his Church to recompence all men good for evil and not any man evil for evil seeing the recompence of evil for evil rendreth men manifestly as children of the Devil and much more the rendring evil actual for the work of good sincerely intentional And because that Christ reprehended that spirit of Revenge in the youth of his Disciples which would have had Fire come down from Heaven to destroy his Persecutors saying You know not of what spirit you are Who though the glorious Power of the Father was with Him which could do all things yet persecuted no man but suffered all things And because we do not persecute you nor any other Sect beside you 19. Because that when CHRIST so sharply reprehended Peter saying Get thee behind me Satan And when he said also to the Jews You are of your father the Devil and the lust of your father you will do and he was a lyar from the beginning Neither his friend nor his foes persecuted Him with that bitterness wherewith you have persecuted me I might moreover instance Jeremiah's crying against the Temple which once GOD commanded Paul's Reprehension of the High Priest Peter's of Simon Magus Paul's Declaration of Reproof to the Athenians in the open Court of the Arreopageans with many other Acts of CHRIST and his Apostles yea and a Cloud of Witnesses reserved to the day of Judgement and to testifie the Innocency of the Just at the open Bar of Tribunal 20. Because the Kingdom Weapons and Warfare of the LORD JESUS and his Apostles and Church were not nor are not carnal but spiritual and also because my Writings Sayings and Speeches are not carnal nor tending to a carnal end but spiritual tending to a spiritual life without end The which spiritual Holiness if you call spiritual Wickedness yet professing your selves to be the Church which is the Body should consequently in the Channel and clear Course of the running River of Righteous REASON be subject unto CHRIST whom you confess to be the Head of the Body and so the Body to be subject to the Law of the Head and not to make the Head subject to the lust of your body and then you would do as CHRIST did and as the Apostles practised cut down the spiritual Wickedness with spiritual Weapons For when the Jews said unto Jesus Thou hast a Devil and in the name of Beelzebub dost cast out Devils the LORD then whom you are not greater in whose hand all Power was persecuted not their persons but fought with them with the spiritual Weapons and said If I in the name of the Prince of Devils do cast out Devils then is his Kingdom divided and so with the spiritual Weapons cut down the spiritual Wickedness These are the things which I call Righteous Reason to every righteous rational man living Forasmuch also as for more than two years space as precited and in like manner in the interval of the said time as opportunities sundry and divers were presented I having in the spirit of sobriety moved and modestly urged for an open fair and legal Tryal according to the holy Law of GOD and of his Son JESUS CHRIST which righteously regulateth among his Church the which was many times promised but being hitherto never performed may give just occasion unto every person of prudent understanding which hath or may hear thereof to conceive that my continued Restriction thus debarred from the Judgment of the Law of Equity is of the nature of Apostacy from and consequently in Antipathy unto the sage moral Ty of humanity and all things which are of the Virtuous Substance heavenly And that from the consideration of the subsequent causes which I the rather intimate from the cogitation that they may be rationally as an Inducement and Instigation of you to expediate my hitherto detarded Tryal at open Tribunal of Law where I may justly find ample Audience to illustrate unto all attending Apprehensions the perspicuity of the Defence of mine Innocency In due progress whereunto therefore from this Spirit of meeknesse O ye Rulers of ROME conceive c. First Because the simple proper pure solid and sole end of the Law of GOD and all Righteous Laws of Nations is really righteously and equally for the expedition of Judgment on every Transgressor for the fact of his Transgression without respect of persons for the perfecting Righteousness in the Earth and where the end of the Law is made void there the substance of the whole Law is destroyed Secondly Because punishment inflicted upon any man by any Judge or Magistrate which hath a Law without Judgment and open Conviction by the Law is not according to Righteousness so much an act of Equity as directly contrary to all Law and unreasonable constriction of the cruelty of Tyranny and such an Act stains the glory of his Tribunal of Authority For by a Law he holdeth the Seat of his Superiority and the Righteousness of Judgement by the Law being the Glory of the Chair of his Magistracy Judgment being perverted the Just Tribunal is overturned and thereby the Glory thereof rendred as a stage of Infamy And thus the Law being violated mark what follows The Land by unrighteousness ruined Thirdly Because the constriction and continuation of Bonds through suspence of Judgment and Punishment of a Person without Judgment and open Conviction by the Law stands in contrariety to the pure practice and life of true Christianity which actually leadeth to the doing unto all men as a man would that another should do unto him in which also consists both the Law and the Prophets And because it is but of the same which the Proverb rendreth most infamous saying Hang a man first and Judge him afterwards Fourthly Because it is expresly in opposition to the pure Nature of GOD your Creator who looketh for the work of Judgment in the Land and sent Judgment into that Land in which the Righteousness thereof was scanted and where against the end of the Law the Judgment thereof is found delayed and suspended there the measure is scanted and the ballance falsified upon the Stall and there the presumptuous Lust of irrational and unsatiable Will ruleth in the Seat of wrongful Revenge in the enmity to the Righteousness of the Law it self which was added of Christ for the
the waves of temptations passing over your weary minds you shal not always mourn like doves for a mate nor grieve like Widows for the losse of their Beloveds neither shall your dayes be alwayes Tribulations nor the continuance of your time as surpassing pangs of pains But surely you shall draw into a good time wherein Beauty shall be given into your souls for Ashes the Oyl of Joy for Mourning and the Garments of Praise for the spirit of heaviness in which time the strength of the LORD your Maker shall be the Pavillion of you Peace and you shall rest in his Joys for ever Well therefore O ye tender Friends whom my soul is seeking in the Love of my Father to be united unto Him in his Holiness Come and experience this Doctrine and prove this new and living Way of the LORD though not another than that which from the beginning was but only new unto the old nature of all flesh which corrupteth its way in the sight of the Lord God which is the Way wherein the holy Apostles and suffering Servants of JESUS lived and walked and being but one as the Apostle saith There is one Way one Truth and one Life as ye believe and confess there is but one True GOD and therefore as ye find in your way coruption abounding ye have cause also to confess that the Way of God being but one cannot be the Way in which you walk Forasmuch as GOD hath said by the mouth of his holy Prophet speaking of the Messiah I will give him for a Way and for an high way which the wayfaring-men though fools shall not erre therein Who also spake by the same Prophet saying I will give Him for a Covenant to the People for a Light to the Gentiles that He may be my Salvation unto the ends of the Earth of whom also in the fulness of the dispensation of time John the Baptist bore Witness testifying Him to be the True LIGHT that lighteth all mankind coming into the World as Christ himself said I am the LIGHT of the World he thot believeth in me shall not abide in Darkness but shall have the Light of Life This is the Way even the true Way of the LORD GOD which I desire through proof your souls may experience And to the end that you may have the true Witness within you of the Power of Holiness which leads into perfect Unity with the Perfect GOD in the Innocent Life of the Lamb of GOD that taketh away the sin of the World I tenderly exhort counsel and advise you to turn your minds unto that Light of the Lamb of GOD which shineth into all your Souls convincing you in all your Consciences of all your sins and joyning your minds unto it in perfect Love of it because it is of the pure Nature of your pure Creator you shal come in due time to find and see assuredly that as that same Light which shineth in all your Consciences is of such a powerful and virtuous Nature as that it not onely searcheth your hearts and tryeth your reins and finds out your most secret sins but also convinceth you as well of the least as of the greatest of your sins so it will likewise free deliver and ease you from the burden of your sins which is the cause of your dissatisfaction and many sorrows because that as it is of GOD pure perfect and altogether virtuous in its nature cannot change from its property nature and vertue but as it convinceth of the least sin being loved and lived in must also deliver from the least sin and being still of the same vertue and nature of GOD convincing your souls of your greatest sins being loved and lived in must also free and deliver you from your greatest sins and being found of so pure and powerful a nature and vertue to free and deliver your souls from your least and from your greatest sins must also of necessity in the same love deliver you from all your sins The which all must confess excepting some in Atheism might say That the perfect Grace and Light of the Alsufficient GOD is an Insufficient Medicine to heal the soul perfectly of all its maladies and infirmities But I am better perswaded of all you that desire the true Knowledge of the true and living God having a sensible Understanding in you that there is such a Light shining into your souls that sheweth you all your sins the which ye may remember you have had from your Childhood because you cannot otherwise say but that from your Childhood it accused you of all your sins in the secrets of your Consciences which no one else could accuse you of but yet ye were not then directed unto it as you are now counselled and therefore could not know the power and virtue because you never proved its force strength and virtue through a perfect love yeelding in obedience unto its motions and often checks of your minds Wherefore this is the happy day of your Visitation wherein it is told you that if you love that LIGHT which shews you the nature of all Temptation unto Evil and joyn unto the LIGHT so as to be guided by the LIGHT which is contrary to all Evil it will deliver you from the end of the Tempter which presents the Temptation by saving you from the Evil which Light you will then know in the invisible power of the holy God which is given you for the perfecting of his Praise in your hearts through the forming and new-creating your hearts into the mind of his own Righteous Spirit which thing you cannot know but through the experience and tryal which in the tryal I am sure as God is holy and that measure of Light in your Consciences is of GOD which is holy vertuous and powerful will purifie you from sin and perfectly save and deliver you from all evil And therefore I must needs conclude that he is most extreamly sinful and desperatly evil that saith he desireth to be delivered from all sin and evil which will not try to experience such a power and virtue of the Grace of GOD given into his soul which is able to save and deliver him from all evil Be ye therefore wise O People unto your own Salvation having had experience of the vanity of your own way and wayes try ye now the Righteous Way of GOD in which you cannot transgress and that because in your wayes you have not found rest to your desirous and thirsty souls which of all things would choose rather to be cloathed with the Righteousness of the living GOD and after tryal by pure obedience in pure and undefiled love if ye find not deliverance from your sins which is the cause of your pressures and burdens and afterwards the peace of your poor souls and satisfaction of your simple tender minds even in fulness of Content and Joy in the Pleasures of Immortal Life which is the end of all your Desires Requests and earnest seekings Then
may ye also say we have sought in the way of Light but our Creator cannot be found there But truly this is my Testimony of my heavenly Father unto whom there is none like in Goodness Mercy and Deliverance That if any one seeketh Him in his Way of Holiness in which sin cannot be committed he will satisfie the desires of that soul in due time and overspread it with his abundant Fulness And therefore to that of GOD in your selves I cannot but commend you which is more safe for you to mind obey and follow than the invented customs wayes and statutes ordained of men which never came to live in that Grace of GOD which was the Light in all their Consciences which could have led them out of all their sins into the true knowledge of the washing by the Blood of CHRIST which cleanseth from all sin which being taken away puts an end to the supposed Purgatory for if any thing purgeth from sin it is the Everlasting Blood of the Lamb of GOD which was slain since the foundations of the World was which washeth away all sin And this also puts an end to the vain thoughts of the Popes remission of sins which stands in opposition to his professed Purgatory after this life for if he forgives all sins excepting one sin how is it that after his forgiveness generally all souls of his Sect must enter into Purgatory to be cleansed from that which he hath formerly forgiven them so that you may see either his profession of forgiveness is deceit and vanity or else that his professed Purgatory is a deceit and vanity because to the one work of forgiveness and cleansing from sin there is not a need of any but one thing to effect it and because I know that the Blood of CHRIST and only the Blood of CHRIST which is his powerful Life doth it I am assured in the Spirit of the holy GOD and therefore do assert it That both the Pope and his Purgatory which stand crossing one the others virtue and authority are both but a deceit and witchery This therefore may awaken you from all slumber of supposed security concerning your way and induce to take heed unto the LIGHT of GOD in your selves that it may lead you out of your own thoughts words and wayes to walk with God in Righteousness all your dayes that of Him you may be made Partakers of his Endlesse Everlasting Kingdom of Life Peace and Joy which will swallow you up in his high Praises who is worthy of the Glory of his Works in the whole Earth even for ever and ever Amen A Concluding Word to those that falsly accuse me and my Brethren of being Papists FInally Whereas there are divers that have accused me and my Brethren as being persons which in the bottom of our hearts are Papists This may plainly serve as a Testimony very substantial that we are so judged upon none other than a wrong and false account as hath been demonstrated by Doctrine Life Example and large Suffering among such persons and in such places as are counted the most reputed Papists upon the face of the Earth Which is more than ever Luther Calvin or any Protestant or other Sect testified or witnessed viz. against the persons in the same place yea than any would be willing to do amongst all the Sects in England that cry against Pope and Popery here at home in their own Liberties or upon soft Cushions on Pulpits yea I can say that I have found many that have falsly accused me of Popery that would not for a King's Ransom go to Rome and cry against it as I have done and therefore their own Consciences may rather accuse themselves of Deceipt or at least-wise as Backbiters whilst they speak that against the Pope in England which they would not speak to the Pope himself at Rome as I sought to clear my Conscience to the Pope's face and therefore are but like the Papists that backbite and speak evil of English Sects in the Countries where their own is tolerated and approved of which is but of one unrighteous nature in them all of all Parties From all which the Accusations of my Accusers do turn upon their own heads as an undeniable Covering of shame who henceforth in prudence may rather choose the keeping of silence than utterance of slanders c. Yet after all the precited Passages I do hereby intimate a few of the Papists Principles which I together with the rest of the People of God called Quakers do utterly deny as not being of GOD'S holy Spirit of Truth but consequently of the spirit which produced all their other invented Traditions which suite not with the holy Nature of the holy Eternal GOD. 1. We deny the Pope and his Cardinals to be of the Election of GOD Angels or Saints and therefore in their Places and Offices not of GOD nor the Truth but contrary to God and the Truth 2. We deny the supposed place of Purgatory which the Papists professe to be after death we owning no Purgatory for the Soul after the Body is departed this life 3. We utterly deny all Images which the Papists worship and bow down before 4. We deny the Masse both matter and manner thereof 5. We deny Prayers to be made unto Saints or Angels which the Papists use seeing Christ saith Ye shall henceforth ask nothing of me but of the Father in my Name Many other things I could insert but at present forbear But whereas lastly that I have denyed the abovesaid five Particulars to be any thing of Truth it lyes upon the Papists to prove them according to the Spirit of Truth if they are able and not according to their own nor their father's inventions else all men may see that they live in Deceit Errour and Falshood of which let all men take heed lest they should be wilfully destroyed John Perrot THE END