A SEASONABLE WORD AND CALL To all those called Ranters or Libertines THROUGH-OUT The three Nations to come into the true Faith and pure Fear of the Lord in this his Day of grace and visitation by turning into the Light of Christ or witnesse of God in their consciences from which they have swerved and against which they have transgressed Written in tender Love to their Souls By John Chandler Who hath been taken in the same snare but by great Judgment redeemed out of it LONDON Printed for the Author 1659. TO all you who are or may be called Ranters or Libertines either for your loose practises or principles which ye esteem to be good pure and without deceit This is a word of knowledge or experience from one who hath obtained mercy from the Lord in turning to him that smote him and whether you hear or forbear know and remember that in a day of Grace and an acceptable time wherein the Lord is gathering all sorts of wanderers and stragglers into his fold Ye have been put in mind and warned to return Even you I mean in the first place who formerly have had convictions of trouble sorrow for sin against the Lord and after that some inlets and openings of peace and reconciliation and tasts of the good Word of God within you and of the pure powers of the world to come even of an endlesse life with and in God the Father of Spirits whom ye then believed to be an exceeding great reward to all that walked before him in uprightnesse and with a perfect heart as he declared to Abraham the Father of the Faithfull who saw Christ's day and rejoyced therein Which melted your hearts and made them tender and you conscious of thinking speaking or doing vainly idly or unjustly Now know this all such that in the pure and unfeigned love of the Spirit which dwelt in the Apostle James do I write unto you who truly and sweetly said to the Brethren If any among you shall wander from the truth and any one shall convert or turn him let him know that he which hath turned a Sinner from the Errour of his life doth save a Soul from death and cover a multitude of sins So it appears there were those in his daies who wandred from the truth and so fell into errour of their life as ye have done which brought their souls into death and danger of eternall death which they could not see at the present or at least were unsensible thereof by reason of their wandring minds and hearts which brought a Vail over the Understanding or stupified the Conscience whereby it is no wonder if such then and you now did and do call Evill Good and Good Evill put Darknesse for Light and Light for Darknesse bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter Bondage for Liberty and true Liberty for Bondage promising others Liberty when they and you were and are both the Servants of Corruption the cause of all which hath been I testify the going from or forgetting that which first convinced and troubled for the Sin and Evil whereby that conviction and trouble was thought to be raised up in the mind and conscience by misapprehension or imagination onely and not from a true thing or principle which was the true Light that enlightneth every man that comes into the World which could not lye dissemble or flatter but shewed Sin Evill to be so because they were so really therefore troubled vexed terrified the sinful Soul So by you called Ranters or Libertines when ye grew into a carnall freedom the Master of the House was called Beelzebub to wit the pure holy just and righteous Principle of God taken by you but for a Fancy whereby all that was truly good in you soon went to wrack for hereby shipwrack was made of Faith and a good Conscience of Faith because there is nothing that doth or can discover to a Man or Woman's Soul the true Object of Faith but the true Light within which first reproveth and then giveth the knowledge to the penitent and obedient which Object of Faith or Belief is Christ either as the living Hope Gain and eternall Reward to those that love him keep his Commandments and waite for him as the Saints formerly witnessed him for saith the Apostle He that cometh to God must believe that he is and that he is a Rewarder of those that diligently seek him or as an eternal Judge and Minister of the Father's justice wrath and vengeance to all that follow and obey him not but their own Wills and Lusts according as it is written Tribulation and anguish upon every Soul that doth evil both to the Jew and Greek So that ye miscalling the Reprover in you for sin as aforesaid soon fell from this belief of the eternall Reward and Punishment looking upon man as to his own particular self to dye and be but as the Beast that perisheth although in the course of one Generation succeeding another ye framed up a Unity and Salvation in your erring minds whereby even as a Ship that hath lost his Anchor runs at randome in the Sea so ye having lost the Anchor of your Souls were let loose to think Sin and Evil to be no such thing and some of you to commit all iniquity with greedinesse For the strong consolation in the light by the Spirit and hope which the Saints have which hope entreth within the Vail even into the Glory that was with the Father before the World or succeeding Generations began is the Soul's Anchor as it was of Christ's the Elder Brother Who for the joy that was set before him endured the Crosse and despised the shame and is set down at the right hand of God And the same that led you not to believe this particular and eternal Reward led you also to deny the eternal Punishment when as Christ who was the true Light and meant as he spake without dissimulation or equivocation saith If thy right hand or eye offend thee cut it off or pluck it out and cast it from thee for it is better to enter into life maimed than having two hands or eyes to be cast into Hell where their Worm dieth not nor their fire never goeth out To which truth the Holy men of God in the Scriptures plentifully witnesse as knowing the terrour of the Lord they perswading men for the Lord God is known by the Judgment which he executeth on the wicked as well as by the Reward which is himself that he bestoweth on the righteous but ye being erred from the right Spirit which David after a fall desired might be renewed within him in your own phansies and imaginations Satan having transformed himself into an Angel of light within you have put secret meanings and interpretations upon the Scriptures as though Christ and the holy men of God did not really mean as they spake of these and divers other things which I shall not now name particularly but
season Ye Libertines know nor nor cannot know while ye are as ye are in what a high and sweet state they lived But ye speak proud and swelling words of vanity of things ye know not nor live in and would be at the top of the Ladder before ye are come to the foot even to know Judgment upon the transgressour in you Ye are not ignorant that the Apostles and Saints believed perfection pressed after it and might obtain it But that it was such a perfection which ye dream of I utterly deny for it was a destroying of all the Devir's works and a plucking up of all the evill Plants which the heavenly Father had not planted by Christ the pure power of God who was manifested in the flesh to that end And know ye Oh ye haughty and conceited ones there is never any other new dispensation different from this to be brought forth in the World but that the Glory of the Church in these last times is to be wrought out by the pure and powerfull appearance of the Lord God in this very way of purifying and refining his People for through Judgment is Zion to be redeemed and her Converts with Righteousnesse for Sin Unrighteousness staines marrs the beauty of any People or Person making them to become drosse an ill savour and a smoak in the nostrils of God and a fire that burneth all the day Wherefore that every thing which offendeth the pure eyes of his Glory may be gathered out of his Kingdom will he purge his people by the Spirit of Judgment and burning and by fire and by Sword plead with all flesh and the slain of the Lord shall be many and those be they who they will or have what high conceits they can of their own security that will not fall upon his Corner stone Christ the true Light that leads to the Life that he may be broken and humbled and melted by him into godly sorrow for sin and a sorsaking thereof in thought word and work this stone shall fall on him with a heavy hand at last and grinde him to powder So when such a one is by the Judge delivered to the Officer and then by him cast into prison he shall never come forth out of those chaines of darknesse and that Dungeon of torment that the Almighty hath prepared for all the wicked till he hath payed the last mite Now Let me ask you Libertines that sore so high in your talk of this last dispensation of God to his People one Question What do you think of the new Jerusalom which is from above the holy City of our God Is she not the Mother of all the Saints Is she not the Bride the Lamb's wife and must she not then be like the Spotlesse Lamb her Husband and doth not John in the Spirit testifie that there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth neither whatsoever worketh abomination or maketh a lye but onely they which are written in the Lamb's Book of Life which must needs be none but those that are free from all defilements for saith he The fearful and unbelieving and the abominable and Murtherers and Whoremongers and Sorcerers and Idolaters and all Lyars shall their part in the lake which burneth with fire and Brimstone which is the second death Now what think you Doth the Spirit in John mean as it speaketh or not Or did John mean as he spake Do you think the mind of God in these words were to this purpose that a man might do that which is counted Whoredome or Adultery or Lying or Drunkennesse or Swearing and Cursing or bowing to any Idol or bewitch Peoples Souls or Bodies by Sorceries or murther ones Neighbour Brother or Enemy or do any other such thing which is declared evil in the Scriptures of Truth and yet if he count it pure to him and he see no evil therein he may do it and yet enter the holy City Search with the light if ye are not quite past all honesty tendernesse and feeling and see whether that doth or can give such an interpretation thereof or whether any thing but man's fleshly and corrupted Will and blinded Judgment can do so But Lord how have some so darkned the pure eye that should see things as they are in truth and simplicity by often transgressing against the Light that now they even as desperate do not desire to have the blind eye opened But Father of glory I beseech thee for thy Seed's sake whom thou hast promised to gather from the remotest parts of the Earth to shew thy Almighty Arm in the ransoming of them out of the hands of the spiritual Enemy who hath beguiled these People as he beguiled Eve by drawing them to eat the forbidden Fruit whereby they must needs know evil as well as good whatever they may affirme yet far from being as gods but cast out of Paradise that so thy ransomed ones may come after Judgment known wich songs to Sion praising and magnifying thy holy name as I have done and do for thy infinite goodness and mercy never to be forgotten But ye make other Objections as Where there is no Law there is no Transgression and To the pure all things are pure and It 's Prophesied in Isaiah that the Lord will lead his People by a way that they knew not and He will make Darknesse Light before them and crooked things straight c. Also Solomon hath some expressions tending to confirme our Judgment yea and Christ himself saith If the eye be single the whole body is full of Light but if the eye be dark the whole body is full of darknesse so that all things are but as they are looked upon and so is sin and evil Where there is no Law there is no Transgression that 's certain but where is the man as he is in the Fall throughout the World that hath no Law placed within him since the Law is light and Christ the true light hath enlightned every man So then there is real Transgression in every man whiles in the Fall for there is a Law left in him to shew it now when as a man comes into the Law of the new Creature or of the spirit of Life which is in Christ Jesus so as naturally to refrain from all sin and to do the will of God the Law is no longer his reprover and so where there is no Law there is no Transgression and on the contrary yet such a one is not without Law to God but under the Law to Christ Let him that heareth understand Likewise all things are pure to the pure But that which is impurity it self in the Root as Pride Envy c. and those words and actions which can flow from nothing else but that impurity cannot be pure to the pure in heart because He cannot but hate all such things Now Paul's words are exceedingly abused by unclean spirits for he speaketh of the things of this life as Food
according as ye would have them to be understood whereby Christ the true light and those that were enlightned and enlivened sanctified by him were by some of you accounted even such as your selves who live in divers lusts so far hath the deceit entred into you But ye shall know in the day of the Lord 's righteous Judgment as I have truly known by turning to that which judged aright and made manifest Sin to be exceeding sinfull that Christ and the former Saints and holy men and women were sincere in their thoughts words and deeds haring no mental reservation in what they spake and that they lived according as their words hold forth being wise as Serpents yet not in the Serpent's wisdom and harmlesse as Doves yea fleeing from all sin and wickednesse as from a Serpent And now I will say How are the hidden things of Es au searched out by the light which is the Candle of the Lord even of prophane Esau who for a morsel of meat sold his birth-right And let me in God's wisdom and fear reason with you a little Are not some of you prophane Esaus who for a few momentary pleasures and unsatisfying Lusts have quite parted with and for ever bid Adieu to the sense and feeling of that which ye once counted better then life it self to wit a broken heart and contrite spirit and godly sorrow for sin which things wrought you to some Repentance whereof ye had never just cause to repent As also comfort and peace in your Spirits as your minds were kept in that which was pure open to the Lord and being afraid to offend him Such a step in the truth no doubt some of you have made but now your hearts are as hard as an Adamant so that ye find no more place for Repentance than Esau did nay not going so far as he for he sought the Blessing with tears though he obtained it not being still prophane but ye desire not to returne in any outward shew yea perhaps will laugh and scoff at any that shall exhort you thereunto Had it not been good for such if they had never been born And are you not all prophane ones from the greatest to the least that have left your first love to simplicity and sincerity purity holinesse sobriety temperance and other the good fruits of the Spirit and think your selvs to have attained the higher perfection the more freely ye can act contrary to these without check or controul in your selvs which ye count but the working of the Fancy over which to get victory that it should not at all trouble you ye count your perfection redemption justification sanctification and salvation So ye quench the Light which is God's faithful witnesse within you that in love often pleads with you for a return kill the Just one stop the cry of the innocent trample upon the holy Seed that should bruise the Serpent's head who is head in you call it your perfection redemption would if it were possible set God at variance against himself accounting that to be God's arme and power in you which slayeth his reproving witnesse which is his good Spirit which Spirit know ye shall not alwayes strive with you for good Therefore I charge you by the Lord to bethink your selves ye that are not past feeling of your former estates when ye were conscientious and tender for it was much better then with you than now and commune with your own hearts by turning in to the witnesse of God that calls for purity and holinesse in thought word and deed for sobriety and temperance and chastity and all godlinesse and honesty and that while ye have time lest your consciences be quite seared and the Lord God sware in his wrath Ye shall never enter into his pure and everlasting Rest for this is God's very and true day not an imaginary one which ye have conceited for some years past to your selvs and so no time to dally with the wicked and back slider for Woe saith the Lord God to him that in the land and time of uprightnesse will deal unjustly and will not behold the majesty of the Lord. And if any of you have or shall have stirrings and thoughts raised up in you of waiting upon God's witnesse and any true desires begotten to know by the light within you which makes manifest all things wherein ye have erred and done amisse I charge you flee it not though it begin to bring some terrour and shame upon the carnal part for as ye have made the pure seed to suffer by your sin and deceit so you must expect to suffer by the Seed when he comes to bruise the Serpents head to whom ye have been joyned and accept of the punishment of your iniquity and say It is all far lesse than we have deserved and let your uncircumcised hearts be humbled and wait low and humbly to know the Lord's mind and be willing to forsake all evill and cleave unto and do all good that the Lord by his Light shall lay open before you who will bring Judgment to the line and Equity to the plummet and be willing to come into Unity with the Holy men of God and Christ's words in the Scriptures which testify against all the fruits of the flesh let them be done under never so fair a pretence of liberty and above all things desire sincerity and uprightnesse of heart for so it was with me at my return and this was the word in me His countenance shall behold the upright and then will the Lord have compassion and by degrees heal your land I mean your poor Souls and ye shall see Faith in the truths of God and a good conscience and the pure fear of the Lord grow and spring up together in you for 't is Faith that purifies the heart But if you flee in Winter and will not bear the Judgment till the indignation be over-past or will be ashamed to be ashamed of your evill wayes and so let deceit prevail over the pure and make up a healing to your selvs by quenching the witnesse ye shall receive the fruit of your own doings even to lye down in perpetuall forrow in the end But I hear some of you asking What is Sin and Evill Do ever any of you find any of the Holy men of God from one end of the Scriptures to the other to have asked such a Question Nay For they believed the Lord's witnesse which he had placed in them without their own reasonings and disputings as finding twins in their womb two Seeds opposite each to other which brought forth contrary fruit and by the Holy Seed which is the true Light they saw the good Tree and the corrupt Tree the good fruit and the corrupt fruit for the Light reproved them for evill and corrupt motions and all words and actions proceeding there-from but it justified them and gave them peace in pure and holy motions and
all words and actions issuing from thence which were seen to be of its own begetting David witnessed these two States Saith he Thou hast set my sins in order before me Mark He believed God's witnesse without disputings the Lord had set them before him he therefore believed they were sins or that which was against the Lord which his pure eye had a controversy with Now the Lord doth not set a thing that is not before us but that which is Again he saith Oh Lord I am thy Servant I am thy Servant the Son of thy Hand maid thou hast loosed my bonds There he felt God's acquittance and Justification not in giving him a liberty to do what he list without controul but in enlarging his heart to run the waies of his commandments in which he was accepted even in that which enlarged his heart so to do For saith he in another place Then shall I not be ashamed when I have respect unto all thy Commandments Consider also that they were the wicked and ungodly who did say Tush our Tongues are our own we will speak Who shall controul us As if they had asked in derision What is Sin or Evill Not because there was not such thing in reality but onely according to mens apprehension but because the Serpent had got such a head in them that they scarce felt a Controuler when they so spake But if you will be to learn what Sin is Paul and John in the course of their ministry but not in answering such a Question proposed to them by the Saints do experimentally declare The one saith I had not known sin but by the Law Mark the Law written in the heart by the finger of God of which the two Tables of stone were a declaration made Paul to know sin to be Sin Now God's Law in the heart is Light as David long ago witnessed and Christ is the true Light that Lightneth every man Now Christ was he which spake to Moses in the Mount Sinai from whom Moses received the Law to declare it to the People as Stephen when he was full of the Holy Spirit testified So then Christ the Light is the Law-giver whereby Sin comes to be known now if he hath enlightned every man and he be the true Light then he sheweth a truth to every man which is that he hath transgressed his Law or Light by dark motions words and actions arising from a contrary ground and so sin is not a fiction or fained thing in any man whatsoever because sin is known by a Law which Law is Light which Light is in every man which Light is true and discovereth nothing but a reall thing in every one The other saith Sin is the transgression of the Law He knew the Law in his heart or the righteous principle of God which he had been a Transgressour against He doth not say Sin is nothing but an apprehension that there is such a thing but that sin is a reall transgression of a reall Law or Principle of God Again John saith all Unrighteousnesse is sin There is Unrighteousnesse and that of sundry sorts both toward God and man and all this Unrighteousnesse is sin Now saith Peter by the Spirit of truth In every Nation he that feareth God and worketh righteousnesse is accepted of him But saith Paul all they that had pleasure in Unrighteousnesse should be damned Here are contrary works really so and they have contrary effects for the wrath of God is revealed from Heaven against all Unrighteousnesse with all which Unrighteousnesse the Gentiles were and are filled to wit with fornications wickednesse covetousnesse envy murther Covenant-breakers despisers of those that are good implacable unmerciful c. Who saith Paul knowing the Judgment of God that they which commit such things are worthy of death not onely do the same but have pleasure in them that do them Here he witnesseth and we see and know it so to be that they were filled with all Unrighteousnesse and that the things mentioned were reall Unrighteousnesse to prove which none need go any farther than their own consciences wherein they knew and felt by the true Light the Committers of such things to be worthy of death even eternal death or separation from the life and enjoyment of God even as a Labourer is worthy of his hire which cannot be an imaginary but a real thing But ye will say to me The Patriarchs Prophets and Apostler spake according to the several dispensations or ministrations they were under The Jews before Christ were under a Vail and the Apostles after the renting of the Vail of the Temple though they saw clearer than they yet not so clearly as we see now in this last and highest dispensation The Vail that was over the Jews hearts consisted in this that their Church-Ministry and Ordinances being according to the flesh letter and written in Tables of stone they felt not for the generality of them the Spirit and finger of the living God writing his Law in the fleshy Tables of their hearts according to his new Covenant Their Church were Jews outward their Priests Ministers of the Letter which left their Souls in death who had need both to offer up Sacrifice for their own sins as for the sins of the People and so the Law outward made nothing perfect but it was the Ministration of condemnation to them for want of quickning life from Christ to ease them who is the Minister of the Spirit and of Righteousnesse and Peace at which Corner-stone they stumbled because of the old and long Vail that had been upon their hearts which Vail to this day when Moses is read in their Synagogues abideth on them who when hey shall turn to the Lord the Vail which is a false apprehension of being accepted in their carnal Services Performances and Ordinances from a literal rule without a feeling of the life of Christ in whom all Sacrifices should be offered up shall be taken away and then shall they feel a ministration of Righteousnesse in the Spirit in respect whereof their other ministration had no Glory But what is all this ô ye Libertines to your purpose for they were not nor are vailed in seeing sin which the true Light that lightneth every man reproveth to be sin for that is not from darknesse of Understanding but from light set up there without which they could not see it at all Yea this was that which ministred condemnation unto them all both the righteous and unrighteous so far as sin was standing and they could not nor ought not otherwise to apprehend because else they should as you do have believed against God's witnesse in them which is to make him a Lyar an abominable presumption As for the Apostles and Saints both Jews and Gentiles who had the Vail rent and lived in the dispensation or ministration of the Spirit and of righteousnesse which exceeded in glory that of condemnation which was and is also glorious in its time and