door of entrance in with him be shut against you or you prepared for his entertainment the sloathful Servant being apt to delay the doing of his Duty to the Lord imagins that the Lord delays his coming then he doth that which he should not do and so causeth his Lord and Master that is full of Mercy and Love to be angry with him and reward him according to his Deeds Dear Friends therefore love the Cross of Christ whereby you will learn to take up your daily Cross and follow your Captain Christ Jesus the Captain of our Salvation that endured the Cross and despised the Shame and was made perfect through Suffering follow him in the Cross as you desire to have the Crown despise the Shame of the Cross and endure it and do not shun it for you will not be as David nor witness David's House to be as God's if you shun the Cross nor will you grow stronger and stronger as you ought if you are troubled at the shame of it you will never deny your selves much for Christ if you shun the Cross or be amazed at the daily taking of it up whilst 't is so with any convinced of God's heavenly Truth they will not shut out the world's Spirit Words nor Actions but will be lusting after the world's Words vain Fashions Wayes and not come out into a clear seperation from them nor be capable to bear witness against the World nor their Words Wayes vain Fashions and Actions that are contrary to the Lord and whereby his holy Spirit is vexed from day to day such amongst us that will not cross their own Wills and unbridled Tongues to speak Thou to any single Person high or low but give way to a worldly and fleshly Will and fleshly Desires will not be willing to follow the Lord and his Servants the Prophets and Apostles in their true Language which was used by them that writ and gave forth the Scriptures from Genesis to Revelations and can such be now good or is their Religion good who have been long convinced and come amongst us that have not a Bridle for their Tongues nor do not know the Power of God's Truth professed by them to tame their Tongues Why are some in this estate anciently convinced but because they would not subject their worldly corrupt Wills to God's holy Power which would have made them willing so to do and would have made them willing to have left all for Christ and to have suffered the loss of all things though it had been never such a Darling-beloved for Christ's sake So let every one leave and forsake all which the Lord hath called you to forsake whether it be Father Mother Wise Children Lands or Livings and come to that whereby the laying down of a man 's own Life may be made easie which a Disciple of Christ ought to do when called of God thereunto And as you all keep in the Cross of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ you will be preserved in a pure seperation from the whole World that lieth in Wickedness and are Ungodly as the old World was which God destroyed by Water and you will be Preachers of Righteousness as righteous Noah was by a righteous Life and Conversation which will speak more expresly and have a louder cry in their Ears than Noah's building the Ark had although that had a speaking in it if the old World had not been dull of hearing and closed their Eyes they might have heard God's speaking Voice and have seen his Providence in it to preserve Noah and his Righteous Family though they were but few in number God saved them and preserved them in the Ark which Noah was a building before the Flood came and drowned the Ungodly old World and he will not spare the Ungodly World now but till their Sins be full and they ripe for a Deluge or Destruction and then it will come upon them and overtake them before they are aware thereof and now many are uncircumcised in Heart and Ear and will not be warned nor take notice of God's hand that is lifted against them Friends take heed of mixing with the wicked World now have no fellowship with them nor their works of Darkness for as you are the Children of the Light and of the Day what fellowship can any of you have with Darkness or the works of the whole World that lieth in Wickedness or how can you touch with them in their corrupt Communication Wayes or Worship or any of their unclean and polluted things but rather reprove and rebuke them that are found therein And keep true and faithful to the Lord God who called you out of the World and seperated you from the Kindreds of the Earth to stand for God and to be living Witnesses against the Devil and all his works and you are called of God to stand with the Lamb and his faithful followers against the Devil never more to joyn with the Devil or take part with his prophane ungodly Followers in their Sins and Trespasses nor in their Wrongs Oppression and Cruelty nor contribute any strength to them stand clear and in a pure and spiritual seperation from all that which God's holy Spirit and Light condemns and judgeth to be evil and contrary to the Light Spirit and Grace of God give not way to that to save the world or its Favour temper not with the Snares nor Baits of this World but in the hour of Temptation keep low waiting upon the Lord God who knows how to save deliver you and mightily to succour you when you are tryed and to preserve you out of the power of your old Adversary or any of his Snares Baits or Temptations God hath by his Light let you see what you ought to chuse and what you ought to refuse chuse the good cleave to the good whatever you may go through or suffer for so doing chuse Lise that you may live forever and how sew or many soever your dayes may be in this World refuse the evil and the wayes of Death and Destruction whatsoever hath not the mark of Truth upon it as to Way Worship or Religion refuse it and enter into no Consultation with the Devil or his bad sensual Reasoning which he will fill them with that desire and consult wayes to conform in this or the other thing relating to Faith Religion and Worship which never was nor is of the Lord and when the Wind bloweth high Rain fall and Sea rage and foam then especially look carefully and diligently to your standing and look to Christ Jesus the everlasting Rock that is higher than you and higher than the Heavens and who is the author and finisher of your Faith all steadfastly look to him trust in him fear him and think upon his Name and still remember that the Lord God by a mighty Hand and Arm stretched forth brought you out of Egypt spiritually Do not forget that we were once Bonds-men in Egypt nor how the Lord
Arrows against themselves and make all their Weapons they form against you unprosperous and cut off their expectation that seek your Ruin and Destruction And as Innocency is found in you and you preserved in a godly and peaceable life you will never envy them that oppress you nor chuse any of their ways but will mind Gods good old Way Truth and Life and will not walk in the way of the Wicked Ungodly men nor sit in the seat of the Scornful Proud and Arogant which leads to Death and Destruction if you see many in that way let not that be an occasion for you to stumble at or to forsake the way of the Lord which is narrow and leads to Life Peace and Rest that is Everlasting wherein you have learned to trust in the Lord to stand resign'd up to his will in the most perilous times when they come and wherein you have learned to love the Lord and one another with that love which is shed abroad from God in your hearts and is unfeigned in which dear Friends forever dwell and shut out all Deceit Hypocrisie and Dissimulation which doth render them black amongst us that have not put away or are not purged from such things and so doth Envy Wrath or Malice where-ever it is which is all for the fire and to be purged away that you may pray in the Spirit of the living God by which you were all quickened quench it not neither grieve it nor rebel against it for that hinders the heavenly joy and comforts of the Spirit when Tribulation ariseth because of the Word Let not any of you be found without true joy and comfort when you may have need enough of it and behold many weeping and wailing for want of it for certainly it will be woful and miserable for that man or woman that is without the comfort and joy of the holy Spirit when no comfort and lasting joy will be found in any visible created thing which this World can afford mens hearts already begin to be astonished and to fail them for fear because of the things that are coming to pass for not only the Powers of the Earth but the Powers of the Heavens shall be shaken Friends let not any of you be found an evil or sloathful Servant that shall say in his Heart My Lord delays his coming and so put his Day afar off to let Night again over you You may remember what Sorrow and Heaviness we endured when we were Children of the Night and covered with thick Darkness and what Joy came in the Morning of God's glorious Day as it dawned in our Hearts did not many then sing for Joy of Heart and experimentally could say The singing of Birds was come But the evil and sloathful Servant that saith in his Heart My Lord delays his coming cannot sing out of any sence of heavenly Joy in his Heart and therefore frets and smites his fellow Servant and eats and drinks with the Drunken such become the Companions of the evil and sloathful Servant he delights not to be a Companion to them that fear the Lord and are diligent in his Work nor will not say to the workers of Iniquity Depart from me I will keep the Commandments of my God but rather joyns with the workers of Iniquity and is one with them in breaking the Commands of God and rebelling against him and its just with the Lord to suffer Night to come over such again that have been called to serve the Lord in his House but are evil and sloathful Servants not good not diligent nor watchful but are found bad negligent and unwatchful and unsensible of God's presence and the coming of the Lord which draweth nigh Oh! keep in the Spirit and Power of the Lord God and that will preserve you all fervent in love to him and one another and diligent in the Lord's work whereunto you are all called with a holy calling to watch war against the Devil and whatsoever is of him let it have no place in you nor let not the Devil ever enter your Hearts any more and if he do not to dwell there but feel you the Arm and Power of the Lord to cast him out keep him out that he may never work in you any more nor have any Lordship or Rule in you or over you then I am sure you will be ready in Heart and Mind to follow that which is good and resist the Devil and all his badness which is so beloved of the World and then you will be prepared to avoid every appearance of Evil and will give no place to it but will keep faithful to God over it and then you will be made capable in the Spirit of Love and a sound Mind to reprove such as are light vain and of a loose behaviour and shun the Cross of Christ not indulge that Nature Spirit that keeps some high and unsubjected and in disobedience to the Lord God and for this cause some are weak and sick amongst us and some fallen asleep had they but taken up the daily Cross and kept therein there would never have appeared that Self love Weakness Sickness and Sleepiness that is in some that are amongst us that would be accounted wise Virgins and indeed have come long enough among us to have been found such at this day but are not but are weak as in the time of their first Convincement and as if they had not waited upon the Lord with us they so faint and have so little strength to stand in the day of Tryal or hour of Temptation that it appears their strength is but small I say in the Lord if they that now faint in the time of Adversity had waited upon the Lord in diligence and sincerity of Heart doubtless they would have had more strength and received more Power from God than they enjoy or feel and would have grown more in the Grace and Knowledge of God than they have done and would not have been so sick at their Stomachs as some are that they cannot digest wholsom Food but slight and dis-esteem it whereby some Members suffer and indeed it hurts the whole Body when any of the Members thereof suffer especially as the Apostle said then when many were Weak and Sick amongst them and some fallen asleep for want of subjecting themselves to that Spirit and Power which would give all strength if they kept in it and preserve all in God's saving health and with a good Stomach to that which is good and for Food if they did wait for it and keep in the Spirit and Power of the Lord God this would rouze up and awaken all careless and sleepy Virgins that want Oyl in their Vessels and Lamps who have not their Lamps trimed nor are ready when the Bridegroom comes Beware ye sleepy foolish Virgins lest Mid-night Sleep come quite upon you so that the Cry of the Bride-groom's coming be before you are prepared for him or the
and for Israels sake he cut Rahab wounded the Dragon divided and made a way in the Sea a good and safe Passage for them in the Journey which the Lord led them on in he carried them on Eagles Wings and rebuked Kings and subdued strong Nations before them but when they rebelled then he turned to be their Enemy and fought against them whom he had often saved and had been afflicted with them in their Afflictions So dear Friends you that are gathered to God by his gathering Arm of Love and Power keep with the Lord and forsake him not whatsoever you may suffer for his Names sake therein the Lord will appear to your joy and will afflict them that afflict you for your obedience to God and the keeping your Consciences pure and good in his sight Let not a revolting or rebellious Heart be found in any one of you such cannot continue or abide with the Lord whose hearts are evil and rebellious out of them cometh not good things their hearts are defiled with evil filled with it and bent to do wickedly and they cannot cease from sin And how hath the Devil loaded some with Iniquity that do yet profess the same Light and Way of God with us How do they manifestly appear Children that are corrupters or corrupt Children endeavouring to corrupt the Minds of the Professors and other People by the seeds of Corruption which they have sown and printed for them to feed upon and it s the evil Seeds-man that sows corrupt or evil Seed What Instruments soever are by him made use of in that work mark them and avoid them as Instruments of Unrighteousness Oh Friends as you love your eternal Rest and Peace with God watch against and shut out the seed of the Serpent and his evil Seeds-men that sow it abroad by the Light of the Lord which shines in your hearts and hath given you the knowledge of God you may discern and see clearly the old Serpent's cunning in his Agents what high swelling words soever in their vain minds they may come with amongst you or print for Food to the uncircumcised and the unclean Be ye stedfast always abounding in the work of the Lord unto which you are called of God be not beguiled any one of you by the Serpent's cunning wait low in the pure Simplicity and that will give knowledge and understanding of the wiles and cunning working of the creeping Serpent And now is the seed of God risen to break the head of the Serpent and to tread under foot his power and authority which he hath got in man and women by disobedience and their rebellion against God whereby man in the beginning was subjected to vanity and not willing but by a salfe hope the Devil had begotten in them which was the cause of their being beguiled the begetting of that false hope that they should be as Gods knowing good and evil and as if they should not dye notwitstanding their transgressing the Command of the Lord which the Serpent's deceitful and beguiling Doctrine subjected them into the belief of Therefore take heed that none of you be beguiled as the Serpent beguiled Eve and draw you from the simplicity that is in Christ Jesus It seems the Believers which the Apostle writ to had a godly simplicity and stedfastness in the Truth of God but afterward were in some danger to be drawn from it but Eve had not been so beguiled if she had minded to keep Gods command counsel and not hearkned to the Serpent So hearken not to the doctrine or voice of the Serpent which leads from God into Transgression and to death from the Life of God and to lose the Image of God which Adam and Eve were deprived of though once beautified therewith And so Gods Image may be lost now by them that are come into it and have born it and the beauty of Holiness that any one had may be lost if there be not a keeping in that Power which brings into it and preserves the faithful in it The heavenly Creator in the new Creation createth us in Christ Jesus unto good works and he restores his People to God in his Image which is after God in Righteousness and true Holiness so we become holy as the Lord our God is holy and perfect as our heavenly Father is Perfect and so we are a chosen Generation and a royal Priesthood to God and are prepared of him to offer an Offering acceptable and well-pleasing in the sight of God and come to know how to please God in all things and to hearken to his voice and obey his Voice that is better than Sacrifice or the sat of Rams which some content themselves with even a bare Profession of the Truth and Knowledge of but do not obey it nor walk in it but rather cause the way of Truth to be evil spoken of opening the Mouthes of Adversaries to blaspheme that holy Name by which we were called and who know the Truth but act contrary to the guidance of that Spirit of Truth which led them into the Truth and the Way wherein they should go and so go into the Apostacy and to turn back again into Aegypt which all ought to beware of for we were not brought out of the Apostacy or delivered out of Aegypt either to look back or go back again Did not the Lord by a very mighty hand stretched out Arm bring us out of Egypt spiritually as really as he did the Children of Israel out of outward Egypt in the days of old And how did God wound and overthrow our Enemies though strong and potent not by any might or power carnal but by his own holy Spirit and Power which he made known in our hearts and which we received from him Hath not this conquered and overcome many of your Enemies that oppressed you which you groaned under and were sorrowful because of till deliverance came And cannot many of you say that the right hand of the Lord hath brought mighty things to pass and that the right hand of the Lord hath done valiantly And cannot you say the Lord was on your side and now is the same and that greater is he that is in you than he that is in the World Although dear Friends you have many Enemies yet to encounter with fear not neither be at all dismayed only look to the Lord and believe in him and love and trust in him fear not man nor put no trust in Princes nor in any Arm of flesh and if the wicked bend their Bow and shoot their Arrows at you who are innocent in your Minds and of a peaceable Life matter it not but look to the Lord that Innocency and a peaceable Mind still may be found in you all leave your cause to the Lord to plead who in his own due time will plead your cause execute judgment for you the Lord can if he please soon break the Bow of the Wicked and turn their
Israel in this day and though Rahab and the Dragon stand up in the way of Israel God will cut Rahab and wound the great Dragon and whatsoever would stand up in his way to hinder his Work snall be confounded and fall before him for strong iâ— the Lord that judgeth the great Whore and divideth the Waters thereon she sits and who will give her Blood to drink who hath long drunk the Blood of the Saints and still thirsts after more Blood to drink about Conformity in matters of Religion and the worship of God but the hour of her Judgments is come her Paint is seen through and her golden Cup full of Abomination is clearly discovered 't is in vain for the Kings of the Earth to think to support or heal her nay she is not willing to be healed but thinks she hath no need of any healing Medicine and truly I know none for her that is to be destroyed and must certainly be destroyed even that false Church mystery Babylon the Mother of Harlots which hath called her self Christ's Spouse but hath the marks and attire of an Harlot My dear Friends as God hath called you out of her not to partake of her Sins Abominations any more keep out of her and stand clear of her Devices and and subtil Strategems she doth now or hereafter may make use of to draw ye from Christ Jesus and the Church that is in God to a House of Wood and Stone which they that are in Babylon call a Church and call to the Sons and Daughters of Sion to come to their Church and receive the Sacrament who are come to the true Church which is in the only true God and are living Members thereof united to Christ Jesus our Head and Husband and we need no other Head or Husband nor need not come to any Church but that which Christ is the Head and Husband of from whom we receive of his living Bread and Wine of his Kingdom and his holy things are given to us by the Spirit that comes from the Father and the Son and you know Friends that whereas Christ said a little before he went away as to his appearance in the Flesh he would send the Comforter to his Disciples which was the Spirit of Truth to lead and guide them into all Truth promising them that the Spirit should take off his and shew it unto them which as they then did receive it we are made now certain Witnesses of it So need not go to a House of Wood and Stone called Church and there sit amongst the corrupt putrified company of diseased misorable Sinners that are so much out of Health that they have no whole part in them what comfort can a healed Soul or a sound mind have in coming or sitting amongst them where one may sooner come by an evil Disease than ever be soundly cured of any inward Distemper or Sickness and you partaking of God's goodness and his holy things at his Table and having spiritual Fellowship and Communion with him that is abundantly better than all the Bread and Wine which is outward and will decay given by impure Hands to such as communicate with them as many times it is administred without any Commission from God and yet that we must by these Church-men be forced to come amongst them and eat and drink unworthily with these unworthy Administrators and Receivers of that which they call the Sacrament is certainly both Unchristian and Unreasonable and very Unchristian-like as the Administrators and Receivers of it who would now compel us to eat and drink with them will one day know to their Wo if they Repent not in time and we may justly deny such as for their Bellies sake without any authority from God presume to take upon them in a rude unchristian manner three times with the same Mouth that they bless God and curse Men to admonish us You that are taught of the Lord and have received his Counsel and spiritual Admonition from him have learned of him to admonish one another and know them that watch for the Soul from them that watch and lay in wait for their Prey and dishonest Gain whose God is their Belly and who glory in their shame who hunt you into their Courts to sleece you and seed themselves with the Fat and cloath themselves with the Wool which they obtain by making you and yours their Prey in spoiling of your Goods But dear Friends let none of these things that are at present or things to come be able to move you from the peaceable Habitation in the Life and Power of God to which you are come and have been kept living Witnesses of fear not neither be at all dismayed consider whose the Earth is and who hath Power to give it when and to whom he pleaseth for it is not the Devil 's nor his Servants Man is but as a Tenant of it at the will of the Lord God who hath given us that great gift his Son shall he not with him freely give us all things And be patient and rest quiet and contented although you should be fed with the Bread of Affliction and Water of Affliction for a season and that shall not be unless God see it convenient for us let this still comfort you the beholding of your Teacher near you that cannot be removed into a Corner and feel God's covenant which is everlasting that he made with David in all things well ordered and sure said David although then God made it not to grow he had a sure Hope and doubted not of the growth of it in God's time and appointed season And the Vision was for an appointed time and at the end it shall speak the Prophet said wait for it it will surely come and will not tarry You tribulated Followers of the Lamb that are come to stand with the lamb upon Mount Sion never regard the high looks nor threats of them of Babylon Sodom or Egypt although they may hate you and cast you out for his Name sake in whom you have believed God will make them blush for shame for their high looks for God will smite them that threaten your Ruin and Destruction and their designs God will discover and confound them before they be put in execution as the Wicked desire whom the Moth shall eat as doth a Canker and the Wind shall drive them away like Stubble the Righteous shall see it and rejoyce over Babylon when her Merchants and them that traded with her shall howl and lament for Widdowhood Sorrow and Destruction shall come upon her in one Hour and 't is greatly dangerous to buy any of the Merchandize of this great Whore and false Church that would force to their Church Religion and Worship such that believe it cannot make them better or do their Souls any good What Church but the false will by Prisons and great Penalties endeavour to make them come to their Church that are not of their Church nor