Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	holy_a	word_n	work_n	7,504	5	5.1951	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A76758	Mene tekel, or, The council of officers of the Army, against the declarations, &c. of the Army. Wherein is flatly proved by the express words of the Armies declarations, that the sixth article of the * late address of the said council of officers to the Parliament, point-blank changeth the cause of liberty of conscience, from the good old one, to a bad new one; from that which at first, and all along the Army engaged in, and for, and declared to that which they engaged against. Moreover, that the imposition therein is agreeable neither to the Armies solemn declarations and engagements, nor to liberty of conscience, nor to the Scriptures of truth, but is contrary to them all ... Geo. Bishop.	Bishop, George, d. 1668.	1659 (1659)	Wing B3000; Thomason E999_13; ESTC R207833	40,890	51

and different That viz. the Settlement hath onely these viz. That such as professe Faith in God by Jesus Christ words few and simple The Addresse That all persons who professe Faith in God the Father and in Jesus Christ his eternall Son the true God and in the holy Spirit God coequall with the Father and the Son One God blessed for ever Which because they are not all of them the words of Scripture for where saith it God coequall with the Father the Son And for that those of them which are Scripture words are no where spoken by the holy Ghost in the Scriptures so together as Ye have set them nor for that purpose viz. to hold forth a Distinction of Persons of three Persons in the Godhead or Trinity which the Imagination of Man hath formed of God which knowes not God And in regard these Your Tearms are laid as so many Shibboleths or Snares for the tender Consciences of those who cannot speak of God in the will and words that Mans wisdome teacheth which must be confounded but in the will of God and the words which the holy Ghost teacheth And forasmuch as ye are notwithstanding so Dogmaticall and peremptory therein as that ye make the Confession of this your Faith to be the Quallification sine qua non without which there is no Protection And have placed it as the bound or limit of Conscience-Liberty under which it must come or suffer which indeed destroyes Liberty of Conscience for where it is bound in any one Particular there it cannot be said to be Liberty of Conscience And inasmuch as Ye seem to set such a high value on the Scriptures that ye make the acknowledging of what ye have pleased to call it though not in its own words nor have ye made it to appear that it saith so of it self essentiall to Protection of which in the next particular And finally in that ye exact this Profession as the issue and fruit of all the bloud and Warrs and your late Deliverance I say upon these Considerations in the Name and dread of the Eternall God I do require you and all your Doctors and both their Mothers the two Universities and all their Children the Priests to prove in Plain and expresse Scripture words together where the Scriptures do attribute Faith or believing to the holy Spirit as a distinct Person as here ye have set it Or confesse that ye cannot and so raze out with your own Pens your new Confession of Faith contained in this Article which ye seek to enforce as the fruit and issue of all and with such a Penalty Or if ye are silent ye shall be taken pro confesso that is to say by your silence to confesse that ye cannot True it is the Scriptures bear Record of Christ that he said to his Disciples Ye believe in God believe also in me John 14. 1. And He that believeth in me as the Scripture hath said out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water this spake he of the holy Spirit which they that believe on him should receive for the holy Ghost was not yet given because that Jesus was not yet glorified John 7. 39. And no man knoweth the Father but the Son and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him The Comforter when he is come even the Spirit of Truth which proceedeth from the Father he shall testifie of me John 15. 25 26. And Paul said unto them at Ephesus Have ye received the holy Ghost since ye believed And they said unto him we have not so much as heard whether there be any holy Ghost And when Paul had laid his hands on them the holy Ghost came on them Act. 19. 1 2 6. And again In whom also after ye believed ye were sealed with the holy Spirit of promise Ephes 1. 13. And There are three that bear record in heaven the Father the Word and the holy Ghost and these three are one And there are three that bear witnesse on earth the Spirit the Water and the Bloud and these three agree in one 1 John 5. 7 8. And this we believe and set our seals to But where say they as ye have exacted it Now the words of Mans wisdom concerning God which knowes not God which must be confounded which must be brought to nought which the holy Ghost teacheth not and the Doctrines which are not from the Spirit of Truth we reject Secondly that the words viz. And do acknowledge the holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament to be the revealed or written word or will of God Are wholly added as so many Shibboleths or snares also for those who in tenderness of Conscience to God cannot say of the Scriptures what they say not in their own words of themselves And that there be who in tenderness of Conscience to God cannot do thus is known by the sufferings of many in divers parts of the Nation because of it True it is the Scriptures say of Christ Jesus that in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God the same was in the beginning with God All things were made by him and without him was not any thing made that was made And the word was made flesh and dwelt amongst us and we beheld his glory as the glory of the only begotten son of the Father full of grace and truth John 1. 3 14. Vpholding all things by the word of his power Heb. 1. 3. His name is called the word of God King of Kings and Lord of Lords Revel 19. 13 16. And of this Word the Scriptures are a true declaration Luke 1. 1. And all Scriptures is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for Doctrine for reproofe for correction for instruction in righteousness that the man of God may be perfect throughly furnished unto all good words 2 Tim. 3. 16. And the Prophesie came not in old time by the will of man but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the holy Ghost 2 Pet. 1. 20 21. And this the Scripture saith of it self and this we own and testifie and our Testimony is true but as for the terms revealed or written word or will of God where sayes the Scripture such words I require you and your Doctors again to prove it for we cannot take a testimony of the Scripures which is not from the Spirit that gave it which spake its own words and its words we receive who have received the Spirit which cannot be imposed upon by the wisdome of man which must be confounded 'T is strange and a thing to be noted that ye your Priests and Doctors who keep such adoe about the Scriptures and who have put you upon this and so magnifie the Letter cannot make four lines of a Confession of your faith in the Letter of the Scriptures as appears by this your Article and that those whom ye seek to ensnare with terms about the Letter which it

have I undenyably proved out of your own mouths in your own plain express words that ye have changed the Cause from that which ye at first and all along engaged in and for and declared even to that of your Enemies against which ye engaged And here I might end but being desirous out of truth of Love and Tender Compassion to you if by any means ye may see your error and be recovered as I said out of the Snare in which ye are taken I shall yet produce for your further conviction some further passages of that your Settlement against your Address in the Case yea the very Article out of which this New one would seem to be drawn and unto it to allude but is no more it than an Harlot is a chast Spouse though it be got into the Bed of the Husband and hath bedeckt it self with some of the Spouses Apparrel the better to deceive as by comparing the one and the other I shall by and by make to appear Settlement Pag. 24 Art 9. Ye say Concerning Religion we agreeas followeth 1 It is intended that Christian Religion be held forth and recommended as the Publick Profession of the Nation Now Christian Religion or the Religion of the Apostles and Disciples of Christ never limited the holy one of Israel as doth the Religion held forth in that your Article but by the unlimited Spirit it testified against all the Worships whether such as were commanded of God and had their end or not I say all the worships of them even in their times and places who limited the holy one of Israel as the Scriptures testifie as also of the Beatings Tumults Stockings Mockings Whippings and Imprisonments which such received from those who limited as it is at this day and it is to be observed that the word Christian Religion is not to be found in this your new one your new Article nay the Father of it knew that the very sound of the name would quickly cause the vizor to be pluckt off and that by it viz. the Christian the Hopocrisie of this Antichristian would be seen and discovered Settlement Which we desire may by the grace of God be reformed to the greatest purity in Doctrine Worship and Discipline according to the word of God The Scriptures ye mean where such a Religion as of Christ is not to be found but of Idolaters and Antichrists as limits God stints his witness compels conscience with outward force and casts all such out of protection as this your new one doth even all those who by the grace of God are instructed and unto whom the Lord hath spoken with a strong hand and instructed them that they should not walk in the way of this people the way of the false worships and worshippers of this Generation out of which they are come but to reprove and who have and must if the Lord will yet strive with this People reprove and bear witness against them I say the Lord hath spoken to them saying Say ye not a confederesie to all them to whom this people shall say a confederesie neither fear ye their fear nor be afraid sanctifie the Lord of Hosts himself and let him be your fear and let him be your dread and he shall be a sanctuary but for a stone of Stumbling and for a rock of offence to both the Houses of Israel for a gin and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and many among them shall stumble and fall and be broken and be snared and be taken The word of the Lord it is to them and to you and as concerning you in this matter Settlement The instructing of the People whereunto in a publick way so it be not compulsive as also the maintaining of able Teachers for that end for the confutation or discovery of Heresy Error whatsoever is contrary to sound Doctrine is allowed to be provided for by our Representatives The maintainance of which Teachers may be out of a publick Treasury and we desire not by Tythes In your New Cause and Profession there 's not a word of this viz. Able Teachers for the instructing of the People in a publick way so it be not compulsive the maintenance of able Teachers for that end and for the confutation of Heresie Error and whatsoever is contrary to sound Doctrine the maintenance of which Teachers we desire may not be by Tythes And as your Declaration to the said Settlement hath it Pag. 28. The taking away of Tythes the Sore suffering of Gods Witnesses and the Life of that Ministry which speakes in You and in the behalf of Its encouragement countenance and maintaining and putting that maintenance which shall be thought competent for able Teachers to instruct the People into some other way less subject to scruple and contention I say In your New Profession there 's not a word of this Nay the Spirit of it likes not this language it cannot speake it it 's too pure it 's Death to it it knows it not 'T is the voice of the chaste Spouse not of the strange Woman the Harlot whose bed is defiled Settlement 2. That to the publick Profession so held forth none be compelled by penalties or otherwise but onely may be endeavoured to be won by sound Doctrine and the example of a good conversation Pure Language indeed the voice of the Virgin of You in Your Virgin state but not of the Adulteresse of this Your adulterous state which compels by the high penalty of exclusion of Protection to the Bed of whoredomes out of which Protection it is cast as being too chaste and as Judging such a Defilement Now followeth the ARTICLE it self See the COMPARISON Settlement That such as Professe Faith in God by Jesus Christ Address That all persons who profess Faith in God the Father and in Jesus Christ his eternal Son and in the holy Ghost God coequal with the Father the Son God blessed for evermore However differing in Judgement from the Doctrine Worship and Discipline publickly held forth as aforesaid And do acknowledge the holy Scriptures of the Old New Testament to be the revealed or written Word or will of God shall not be restrained from but shall be Protected in the Profession of their Faith and exercise of Religion shall not be restrained from their profession but have due encouragement equal Protection in the profession of their Faith and exercise of Religion according to their Consciences in any place except such as shall be set apart for the publick Worship where we provide not for them unless they have leave   so they abuse not this Liberty to the Civil injury of others or to actuall disturbance of the publick Peace on their Parts whilst they abuse not this Liberty to the Civil injury of others or disturbance of others in their way of Worshipps Exceptions against this Article of Your New Faith First That in the first part of it concerning God the Tearms are more

saith not of it self and whom ye judge but unrighteously as undervaluing of the Letter and as not attributing that to it which ye would have yea as denying it and therefore have made such a provision should be constrained by your going from the Letter whilest ye are making the confession of your faith in the Letter and setting that your confession up for all to worship your Image of the Letter I say that they should be constrained or that ye should give them this just occasion to Judge you for departing from the Letter whose Judgment ye cannot avoid for that it is the Judgment wherewith by this your provision ye Judge and so thou art inexcusable O man who judgest another and yet doest the same thing for in so doing thou condemnest thy self And is it not also a strange thing for any to be so deluded by the Prince of Darkness as to believe that those who witness the holy Spirit which spake in them who spake forth the Scriptures as they were moved of the Holy Ghost and who by the Revelation of the same Spirit that moved in them who spake forth the Scriptures know it to be true and witness it to be fulfilled and fulfilling in them as do the people of the Lord who are aimed at in this provision I say to beleeve that such are denyers of the Scriptures and that such a snare and in such terms should be laid for them as such as in this Article surely they can as soon deny their life the holy Spirit in them as the words it spake forth But to your terms the revealed or written word or will of God How can any thing be called or said by the creature to be the will of God but what is Gods discovery of himself or Revelation to the Creature otherwise who can attribute or say any such thing of God as his will seeing that he is infinite and cannot otherwise than by the Revelation of himself and the language of his Spirit in the measure of himself be comprehended or exprest How is it then and from whence comes it that ye thus distinguish the Revealed will of God which implies something else that is or may be called by the Creature the will of God which cannot be affirmed so intruding into those things which ye have not seen in a voluntary humility and worshipping of the Scriptures into which ye are beguiled and of your reward for your former service to the Nations Liberty by the subtilty of men which have lain in wait to deceive you vainly puft up with their fleshly mind not holding the head from which all the body by joynts and bands having nourishment Ministred and knit together encreaseth with the encrease of God How soon do ye appear by this to be sunck in the Ground of your Divinity which ye lay as a foundation for all to build upon as a God for all to worship whilest ye are soaring aloft to speak that of God which ye do not understand to distinguish of Gods will who is undistinguishable And so Friends how soon is Babel writ upon your goodly buildings How quickly is your language confounded lifting it self up indeed to Heaven but is thus brought down to Hell Cease vain man whose breath is in thy nostrils to take upon thee to speak of Gods secret for wherein art thou to be accounted of cease ye potsherds of the earth to prescribe to conscience as to the things and worship of God of which only he is Lord least he dash you to peeces Come down to the door the witness of God in you the little thing that is as a grain of Mustard-seed to that which reproves the Dominion of God to that which makes manifest the Light which comes from the Son of God the Saviour of all them who believe in him least ye be turned out amongst the Beasts of the Field and times pass over you till ye acknowledge that the most high ruleth among the children of men that God alone is as of right Lord of Conscience Again as to the things of God revealed on record in the Scriptures or the Scriptures of truth Can any man say that Jesus is the Lord but by the Holy Ghost Is it not thus written can any man say that all Scriptures is given by inspiration but by the Revelation of the same Spirit which inspired the holy men of God who spake and wrote as they were moved of the Holy Ghost Knows any man the things of God but the Spirit of God and they who have received the Spirit that is not the Spirit of the World but the Spirit which is of God that they may know the things that are freely given them of God And are not the Scriptures the things of God the things freely given of God the deep things of God which none but the Spirit reveales none but the Spirit searcheth out Now the Lord is that Spirit and where the Spirit of the Lord is there is Liberty Are they not a Book sealed and is not the vision of all become to all who have not received the Spirit as a book sealed which men deliver to one that is learned saying Read this I pray thee and he saith I cannot for it is Sealed and the Book is delivered to him that is not learned and he saith I am not learned Is it not thus written yea Is it not also written Bind up the Testimony and Seale the Law among the Disciples those who have received the Spirit yea saith not Christ Jesus Father I thank thee because that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and hast revealed them to Babes even so Father for so it seemeth good in thy sight And said he not to his Disciples to you it is given to know the mysteries of the Kingome of Heaven but to them it is not given therefore speak I to them in Parables because they seeing see not and hearing they hear not neither do they understand And in them is fulfilled that of Isa c. and those were the Jewes of whom it is written that they that dwell at Jerusalem and their rulers because they knew him not nor yet the voices of the Prophets which are read every Sabbath day they have fulfilled them in condemning him How then can any man know of a truth and acknowledge them to be the revealed word or will of God but by Revelation the Revelation of the same Spirit as moved them who wrote it to speak it forth and if it cannot be of a truth acknowledged to be such but by Revelation how is it then that ye require all to acknowledge it to be the revealed word or will of God without having respect to the Spirit or to Revelation What faith is this that ye impose upon all People to confess upon pain of being denyed protection whether they have received the Spirit or not which Spirit unless they have received and by it speak they cannot acknowledg it to

c. are wholly left out And so the words shall not be restrained from their Publike Profession but have due encouragement and equal Protection in the Profession of their Faith and exercise of Religion must necessarily refer onely be so understood unto those of your own profession thus publickly held forth that is to say all such persons as are of our own Profession shall not be restrained from their profession but all such Persons shall have encouragement and equal protection in the profession c. and no others so setting up one Profession of Religion onely and protecting onely such as are of that Profession and this whilest ye are speaking of the fundamentals of the Good Old Cause and the endeavouring the Settlement of this Common-wealth upon such a foundation as may assert establish and secure the liberties of the people in reference unto all as men and Christians and of your full and fixed resolution through the assistance of God effectually even to the hazzard of your lives to endeavour the recovery and security of the same and of the signal Providences wherein the Lord hath owned the Parliament and you their forces both by Sea and Land in asserting that righteous Cause wherein the civil and religious liberties of the People of these Nations are involved so as all open opposition was beaten down before them and of the Discouragements which that publick Spirit which appeared in that work hath received since that time in the late changes of Government And of another raised up drawing back to the same things the Parliament had contended against even to the hazxard of the Essentials of that cause And lastly of your thinking it your Duty upon serious thoughts of heart once more to appear against those back-sliding wayes I say whilest ye are speaking of such things as these in the Preamble to this your profession Are not your eyes yet open Do ye not yet see how ye are deceived and who hath deceived you And how the smoak of the bottomless Pit hath smothered you whilest the coersive or imposing Spirit hath slipt up between your Representation and Deliverance Fifthly The fifth exception is that whereas your Settlement saith so as they abuse not this Liberty to the actual disturbance of the Publick Peace on their parts words honest and good neither limiting the Lord nor stinting his witness nor compelling conscience nor medling with worships things of Religion and conscience but with what is proper to the Magistrate to take cognizance of and to exclude protection viz. Disturbance actual disturbance or disturbance made by overt act or force qualifying it to the Law and speaking plainly that men may certainly know what it makes a transgression of the Publick peace and this on their parts too not on nor by occasion of or under the pretence of them such as shall so abuse the Liberty afforded them shall not be protected I say whereas your Settlement thus saith this article leaves this clause wholly out and adds another altogether strange and forraign and destructive to the Cause of Liberty of Conscience contended for in the Warrs and contained in the Settlement viz. The disturbance of others saith the Article in their way of worships neither saying what disturbance or explaining what shall be understood to be such a disturbance as shall exclude protection nor of what worships for there are many worships used in England and there is but one true worship and the true worshippers who worship God in Spirit and truth whome the Father seeks to worship him and the hour is come wherein the true worshippers worship the Father in Spirit and in truth seek not to man for protection nor qualifying it to the Actual disturbance of the Publick Peace and this on their parts but only to the disturbance of others in their way of worships general words like the bottemless Pit out of which they come so that be the worships what they will or the worshippers or the way of their worships how false invented vile wicked hypocritical soever be the occasion cause or ground witnessing against them never so righteous just and substantial be the command of the Lord never so urgent to bear witness against them If any such witness-bearing be whether in the time or place or out of it whether in Writing Speaking or Printing whether in looking standing still or sitting for it sayes not where nor when nor what nor how but disturbance in the general Term or latitude This as it hath been and the witnesses of God have suffered for as to all these things from this adulterous generation and the humble Petition and Advice hath a Law for most of it even to imprisonment working and whipping if they speak but to a Priest as he is going to or coming from his worship yea at the discretion or rather malice of the Justices for most of them were their enemies on a Civil and Religious account laid it cruelly upon them being given up by your General you in the time of your Degeneration as sheep to the slaughter is now desired by you yea that they be continued under the same slavery and sufferings for it and because of conscience for ever and this in the day of your bewailing of and saying ye desire to take shame to your selves wherein soever ye have back-slidden For in that ye say that all Laws c. to the contrary may be declared null and void those which are according to it are such as must be understood to be by you desired to stand yea as the foundation of the Common-wealth for so ye lay it in this your Address I say this as it hath been so it must be deemed a Desturbance in the construction of the Law aforesaid which ye have thus provided to stand unto which there must be recourse ye having not assigned the particulars wherein yea such a one as cuts off Protection so that the Lord in whom is the breath of your nostrils may not speak may not testifie against Idolatry or Idolators false worships or false worshippers Priests or People for those who shall speak his word and be his witnesses against such worships or worshippers or wayes of worships must have no Protection this is your new Cause and Religion this the fruit of your late Representation and Contrition Sixthly the sixt Exception is that ye say in the conclusion of this Article viz. And that all Laws Statutes Ordinances and Clauses in any Laws Statutes and Ordinances to the contrary may be declared null and void That is to say All Laws Statutes and Ordinances and Clauses in any Laws Statutes and Ordinances for Liberty of Conscience For this profession excluding all Professions from Protection but it self as I have proved cuts off Liberty of Conscience to any other Profession but it self and all Laws c. to the contrary of this profession which so cut off Liberty of Conscience being voided and made null it makes null and void

of the Lord what hath since been attempted and for that I also knew and observed the workings of him and he knew it that miss-led you from Worcester fight to that time yea I observed how that Principle entred and wrought from the time of his and many of your falling under the King by an Heart of unbelief assoon as he and you were delivered by the Spirit that rose in the Souldiery and the inferiour Officers at Triploe Heath from the Major party in Parliament which voted you Traytors unheard for your Innocent Petition intended to be presented them by your General for things necessary to you as Souldiers and ordered your disbanding as aforesaid which spirit as I have said he and many of you falling under viz. upon distrust how as the case stood then with you ye should be able to carry it against King and Presbyter in Parliament who and their interest ye expected would be united against you he being at that time in their custody upon that your new Engagement not minding the Arm that had delivered you so oft and but then had wrought your Deliverance to a Miracle and so taking into your Custody out of the Parliaments the King whom ye had opposed the Spirit of the King or of Absoluteness Monarchy or King-ship against Civil Liberty under which he and many of you fell then entred him and many of you as that of the Priests or the Spirit against Religious Liberty or Liberty of Conscience ye falling under it by an heart of unbelief assoon as ye were delivered hath now into you viz. upon diffidence how as was now your case ye should buckle with the same generation engaged against ye in Parliament and ye expected would be much more now upon that their Dissolution who ordered the Dissolution of your Counsels and ye know what that signified even the Dissolution of you should ye lay aside their Coersive Principle in matters of Religion held forth in their intended Declaration for a Fast May 1659. And consequently the Priests upon that your new state or condition not considering your former and but then astonishing Deliverance and so taking the Principle which ye had engaged against out of the Parliaments Declaration into your Address ye fell under it as I have said and it entred into you that Spirit of absoluteness being entred into him who had so withstood it and cut it down it never rested till as time opportunity would admit it had wrought it self into that Head-ship in him thorough multitudes of disguises as it was at his Death where It buried his Name and his Memory and his valiant Acts together with his Carcass in the Pit of Infamy and the Common-Wealth which he trampled upon and despised and made so inexpressibly to suffer in order to this end is rose over him as the same Spirit against Liberty of Conscience Mark what I say and remember for the time to come will do by as many of you as shall not speedily repent we will be to you out of whom it is not purged till ye die and Truth the Dominion of God in and over Conscience Liberty of Conscience which that Spirit in this your Article hath trampled upon and despised and all the Blood that hath been shed for it and against which it purposely provided as in that Article and laid a foundation therein to work it self Lord over Conscience or Lord as I may say over the God of the spirits of all flesh who is Lord alone of Conscience as the other endeavoured over the Common-Wealth and will through notable disguises yea more notable than have been yet endeavour and make to suffer in order to this end beyond what hath been or will be after it I say Truth the Dominion of God in and over Conscience Liberty of Conscience shall when it is as yea more unlikely than was the late case of the Common-Wealth yea I may say impossible as to men rise over your graves and carcasses and Spirit and Rule for ever The Lord hath spoken it and the things make hast blessed is he that endures to the end the same shall be saved ye may think these things strange but the time is at hand I say I was not for but against the late Interruption because it was not only foreshewn me by the Lord even what hath since come to pass yea that he would never return as there are that can testifie to whom I then told it but I knew and was within the Curtain of his Cable or misterious proceedings in order thereunto and did often put checks to his carreir in that attempt though single and alone for though I signified it to some Members of Parliament whom I could trust and proposed a plain way for the prevention thereof yet they had no heart thereunto and at length seeing how the design hastened to an Issue and that no Spirit appeared in them whose proper work it was to endeavour to crush it and having no other way before me in behalf of the Common-Wealth the Committee of the Coucil of State for Examinations and Discoveries of which I was Secretary being unrevived by reason of a vote for that purpose obtained of the New Counsel November 1652. by him for the security of his design I caused it to be devulged yea the very day when it would be and on which it was done if so be such an Alarm might raise up a Spirit in the Parliament to prevent it which it did not nor could any thing hinder it for the thing was of God for the stayning of the pride and glory of Man and the bringing about of his mighty works of wonder for the glory of his Name who alone will be known to be King and to Rule in the Earth Since the Interruption what I have done and suffered I speak not my life is given me for a prey after all the Secret huntings after my blood and my entegrity is with me having a Testimony among men as with the Lord that as from the beginning I never betrayed nor acted contrary to my Principle nor was induced thereunto upon any Temptation whatsoever neither valuing my life nor what I had in relation to the Common-Wealth so I have continued to this day mourning with them that mourned and weeping for them who wept for it When the late hour was I felt your burthen and the weight of the powers of Darkness which sought to overwhelm and obstruct you and the power of God wrought through me which overcame your difficulties and overthrew your enemies even at the very instant as there be that can bear me witness to whom I signified here what was doing at the time of its Action ye being delivered I waited and with much gladness of heart received whatsoever the Lord shewed me and required to write in order to your direction and sent it to you that ye might be preserved which was the earnest desire and breathing of my Soul yea that it might have