JACOB THE Plain Man Wrestling with God unâ—… Break of the Day and prevalling in the Ligâ—…â—…ereof for perfect VICTORY and DOMINIGN over ESAU THE Rough Cunning Man And over all that would hinder him from going up to Bethel the House of God to sacrifice unto him in the Place where he first appear'd unto him Whereby all may see how I was after long Wrestling with and seeking the Lord brought off from Professing and Preaching that for Gospel which made not free from sin in this Life that I might come to know the Light and Life of Jesus manifest in me for the Destroying the Works of the Devil and giving Power to supplant overcome all that would hinder from going up to the Mountain of the Lord's House to Worship and Serve him in the Life and Purity of his own Spirit which is blessed for evermore Whose Outward Name is Laurence Steel Printed in the Year 1677. Reader THese things were required of me to give forth to be read in the Fear of the Lord which if kept to will make a right Application of all unto thy own Estate and Condition either by way of Condemning thee or Justifying of thee and may if in Singleness of Heart thou readest help to open thy Understandin the Discerning of these things which the Lord through the Dayes of Judgment and Tryals that are past and those that are yet to come hath and will more and more supplant overturn and what he hath and will yet more and more establish and exalt in the room thereof that so thou mayst come timely to escape the one and to joyn unto the other lest the Day of the Lord which will be as a Thief in the Night overtake thee unawares A TESTIMONY TO THE Gospel of Christ Jesus AS Anciently preached and believed in by the Primitive APOSTLES and CHRISTIANS with the Manner of my coming to witness and receive the same THe Gospel of Christ as it was preached and witnessed by the Primitive Christians is the Power of God unto Salvation unto them that do believe in which Gospel the Wrath of God is revealed from Heaven against all mark All Ungodliness and Unrighteousness of Men who hold the Truth which is the Gospel that should save them in Unrighteousness So the Truth is in Unrighteous Men and testifieth against their Unrighteousness in which it is by them held down and imprisoned which keeps them from witnessing Deliverance thereby And in this Gospel there is no Glad-tidings to any in Unrighteousness nor Justification in Ungodliness but Wrath revealed against it and abideth upon all such as hold the Truth therein until they come to bow to the Wrath of God which is revealed in them for the cutting down of all Unrighteousness and Ungodliness and for the freeing of the Truth which is held therein and such come through the righteous Judgments of God to know that Righteousness which is Christ the Power of God to be revealed for the removing and taking away of the Wrath that was upon them and the bringing them to Life and Justification who are hereby made Witnesses that what may be known of God viz. of his Eternal Power to sanctifie and redeem out of Sin and Unrighteousness is manifest in them for God hath shewed it unto them to be his Gospel and Power unto Salvation who do come from holding of the Truth in Unrighteousness to hold this Mystery of Faith in a pure Conscience so this Gospel of Christ which is a Mystery was manifested or shewed to the Primitive Saints to be within And how was it shewed Not by Tradition from Man or any outward Letter but by Revelation Therefore it is said The wrath of God is revealed mark and The Righteousness of God is revealed and Paul calls the Gospel which he received not by Tradition from any The Revelation mark of his Son in him And how was it that Christ came to be revealed in Paul but by the Light which exceeded the Brightness of the Sun the outward natural Light which Light was the Appearance of Jesus of Nazareth which also inwardly shewed him and prickt him for his Persecution which he saw not nor was not judged for by the outward Letter of the Law according to which he was blameless And Paul being thus met with and stopt by a greater Power and Authority then that by which he was before acting it was hard for him to kick against the Pricks of this Light but he fell down both he and his Companions with their Commission from the High Priest and all their Letter Knowledge before this Light of Jesus which was greater then all and here Paul lay until the Light that struck him down said unto him Stand up and in the rising up after he had known the inward Pricks and Terrors of the Lord he came to receive a Power and Commission to turn the People from Darkness unto the Light which he else-where calls the Revelation of Christ in him and when the Saints heard that Paul preached of and by virtue from Christ revealed in him which Gospel he once sought to destroy they glorified God in him mark in him And this was and is the true Gospel and the manner of the Saints receiving of it viz. by Revelation not by Tradition from Men or Writings and if an Angel from Heaven should bring any other Gospel he was to be accursed And this was and is the true Foundation other then which no man can lay upon which the Ancient Christians built their Hope of Glory viz. Christ in them which was not another then Jesus of Nazareth who was with them and now came to be manifest in them for the destroying of the Works of the Enemy that so he and his Works being cast out the Seed of God which is Christ the greater Power might only remain in perfect Dominion and Possession of the Hearts out of the good Treasure whereof good Fruits and Works were to be brought forth to his Glory who is blessed forever Now this Gospel of Christ I could not meet with or hear preached in any of the Professions that I was conversant in whose Faith was that Revelation was ceased and that there was not a total Cessation from Sin which is the Work of the Devil attainable in this Life nor no such Grace or Light given to Mankind by which they might come to deny all Ungodliness and all Worldly Lusts but that if the Conversation were reformed yet there would be Lust and Sin still remaining within to the Life's end from the Commission whereof none could be fully freed by any Power or Strength which God had given on this side the Grave Nor did I receive this Gospel by Tradition from Man or any Writings Learning or Wisdom of my own but from the living God who separated me for his Service from the Womb and placed his Fear in me which inclined me in the beginning of my dayes to seek his Glory Honour above the Pleasures of this
World and by the Riches of his free Grace drew me out of those Wayes in which many Children were walking to their Destruction so that in the Feeling of the Movings and Strivings of his Spirit which I plainly remember from the sixth and seventh years of my Age I often left my Companions and Recreations that I was engaged with to seek some Place for Prayer and for the easing of my Heart unto him fearing that if I answered not his Call at that time I should not feel the same drawing afterward which sometimes I found to my Sorrow and the same Power constrained me to cry to him To acquaint me with himself and to convert me from every Evil Way and Work which I was prone to that I might gain others unto him and if he called me to it Dye for him as I read many of the Martyrs who were weak in themselves he enabled to do And being devoted to the Ministry from my Birth by my Parents who were zealous Professors of the Independant-Way they spared no Pains to instruct me in the Principles of that Religion nor any Cost for the Educating of me in the Knowledge of that Learning that was esteemed requisite for that Work So that about the twelfth year of my Age I was placed abroad with other Children at the School by whose Example and Importunity I was drawn to spend my Leisure-Hours in those Sports and Pastimes which were accounted harmless and by Reason of my Earnestness therein I neglected to answer the Movings of the Spirit of God which was near me and would often have kept me back from going with them whose Vain Words and Actions were a Burthen to me or else would have taken me off sometimes in the midst of my Play and called me to seek the Lord for my Soul the Motions of which were day after day quenched by my Disobedience until as to my Feeling it had ceased to strive with me so that when I went to pray or seek the Lord my Heart was shut up and my Words returned unto me again and I stood as one smitten before the Lord not being able many times to utter or bring forth a word because of the Guilt and Condemnation that was upon me when I came to be retired from my Companions which Guilt I heaped up for some years until the Reckoning was high between me and the Lord whose Judgments and Indignation so seized upon me at last as that I knew not but I was forsaken forever and had sinned out the Day of my Visitation and would have bowed to any Terms for the Heast Hopes of Mercy or escaping the Torments of Hell that were before me or for the obtaining the Stirring and Strivings of the Spirit of God with me as formerly I had felt it but my Cry seemed to be shut out so that my Life became a Burthen to me and all that I enjoyed was imbittered by the Wrath and Judgments of the Lord which followed me wheresoever I went or whatsoever I did so that there was no strugling with it or diverting of it which brought a Wasting and Consumption upon my Body which I never fully recover'd to this time this continu'd for many Moneths in which I scarcely open'd my heart to any but the Lord who through his Chastizements and Rebukes in which I did partake in Measure with Christ in his Suffering Baptism brought me by his Word of Power to some hope of Mercy and escaping of his Wrath not by justifying of me in my Sin but clensing me in Measure from Sin and the Love of it which Tidings was more precious to me then the Gain of the whole World though my Body was left very weak and my Strength decayed which in time was by the same Word restored to the Admiration of my Relations and Acquaintance that knew me in my Sickness And now my Fears and Distrusts were Banished by the Risings of the Life Spirit of God in me which wrought more frequently and powerfully then before drawing me into greater Watchfulness over my Thoughts Words and Actions and into an higher Abstinence from the Pleasure and Delights of this World moving Me to reprove such as dishonoured the Name of the Lord or did offend grieve his Spirit by the Mis-spending Time in Vanity in which I spared no Relations or others and oftentimes I was constrained to Warn and Reprove prophane and wanton People upon the Road and to ease my self in Evil Company by crying to the Lord which brought a Fear and Dread upon them and none durst to with-stand the Power that was with me in any Reproof Prayer or Exhortation which was administred in the Denyal of my own Will in which I never went without a certain Reward of Peace in my Bosome which were the best Times that ever I knew before the Truth was clearly manifested to me when I was not yet setled in any Form or Profession or observed any stinted Times or Way of Praying or seeking the Lord but as by his Spirit he moved upon my Heart at Home or Abroad to cry unto him I obeyed wondering and admiring what that was which was so sweet and pleasant in its Incomes and drew me into a daily waiting for it as my Life and by which I was broken and tendered in the receiving of every Mercy and Blessing as from the Lord and burdened and wounded with what was dead and unsavoury After which I was stirred up to seek after a People with whom I might have Unity in the Feeling of the same Life and Experience of the same work which I had pass'd through And in the Zeal of my Heart as one raised from the Dead that diligently minded the Improvement of the Time that I was intrusted with I neglected no Oportunities in all Seasons and Weathers without regarding the Health of my Body to go to hear such as were esteemed Lively Awakening Preachers first of the Presbyterians and then of the Independants unto whom I joyned my self as a Member among whom I felt a Measure of the Stirrings of the Power of God which brought Terror upon the Ungodly and seized many that were loose and vain with a Sense of their Iniquity and made them cry out under it and raised those Hungerings and Thirstings after Righteousness which caused many to break forth in earnest Cryes and Supplications unto God for Deliverance from the Bonds of Sin and Iniquity which was become burdensom unto them for the obtaining of that righteousness which was more precious in their Eye then the Glories and Pleasures of the World which they seemed dead unto for a time And with this Work I had Unity and delighted to be with this People in the dayes of their Tenderness and to spend Time in Prayer and Conference with them After which as we came to settle in the Form and to stint and limit the Spirit of God so I perceived a dying to the Life that moved and bubled up in us and caused us
to breath and cry to the Lord so that when we came together we were full of Complaints of Dryness Barrenness and Lukewarmness that we were come unto and for want of those living Breathings which once we felt which we were ready to believe that we should never come out of these Complaints to know perfect Victory over our Corruptions here below and here in the Integrity of my Heart I rather blamed and judged my self even when I knew no real Neglect by my self then to blame the Ministry and Way that was preached until the Lord shewed me the true Reason and Cause not to be from my own Carelesness in the Neglect of any prescribed Means which I followed but because of the Shortness and Defect of that Gospel in which there was no Power declared of that might free from Sin in this Life nor Faith to believe in the Manifestation of Christ who was come not only to bind the Strong Man which some of us knew for a time until he came to break his Bonds and get loose again but to destroy the seed of the Serpent and his Works in us which being destroy'd so as not to remain longer in us we might come to be born of God so as not to commit Sin because of the Seed of God which is Christ Jesus remaining alone in us in full Power and perfect Dominion over the seed of the Serpent and his Works But instead thereof they declared of a Justification and Salvation by Christ which was consistent with the remaining of the Enemy and of his Works of Darkness and Defilement in them unto the Life's End when the time of Redemption was past So that after they had brought the People to a sense of sin and iniquity and Desire of Deliverance which was good and precious in its day they could bring them to no further Perfection in this Life then the laying again and again as often as they performed any Duties or Services the Foundation of Repentance from Dead Works wherewith their best Services were poluted and the laying again of the Foundation of Faith towards God whom they professed still to be going towards but could not come to him having not their Consciences purged from Dead Works which all must have that would offer up living Sacrifices and work the Works of God which are never to be repented of And since according to their Gospel a through clensing from sin was not to be effected in this Life nor could not be after this Life in which the Redemption of the Soul ceaseth they should have shewed some Middle Place for the Accomplishment of this necessary Work without which there could be no Admission into the Kingdom of God And in the Sense of that Decay of Life and Spiritualness and that Earthliness that was got up among Professors who by their fashioning themselves according to the World had lost their Testimony for God I eased my self in the first publick Oportunity that was offered me in London the Place of my Nativity from these Words of Paul All seek their own things and not the things of Jesus Christ and another time at a Fast from the Testimony of Jeremiah Though Moses and Samuel stood before me yet â—ould not my Heart be towards this People cast them out of my Sight let them go forth Which things were uttered not to please man but to discharge my Conscience in the manifesting those Provocations which was a Grief to see in such as professed Salvation and Redemption by Christ Jesus and yet were not to be distinguished from them who made no Profession of him for my plain Dealing I met with much Love and soliciting to come oftner among them Thus having sought into the highest Professions I could hear of in which I was uprightly desirous to know the utmost of what was to be found of Life and Purity which did not amount to that Spiritualness and Victory over Sin which I looked for in a People and for which I was raised up wherefore in Refusal of more publick Imployments I accepted of a private Place in Dorset-shire where I was to tutor their Children and pray and preach in the Family for such a yearly Stipend which when it came to be paid I was not suffered to take any thing for preaching which also I denyed in London And in this Family where there were many of a seeking enquiring Spirit I kept up the Family-Worship according to the Practice and Example of the best reputed Christians which I walkt strictly by and the Meeting on the First Dayes unto which many People came until that I came to preach from those Words Heb. 4. v. 12. For the Word of God is Quick and Powerful and Sharper then any Two edged Sword Piercing even to the Dividing asunder the Joynts and the Marrow at the finishing of which Scripture after I was retired into my Chamber the Word of the Lord came to me after this manner bring no more vain Oblations before me but wait upon the living Motions of my Spirit to bring forth that Sacrifice which is accepted with me out of which I could see no Offerings accepted of God or prest by Christ or his Apostles upon any withal reminding me of what I had formerly felt of the Quickness and Sharpness of this Word to cut me down from my vain Pleasures and Pastimes which was the same that was now come to cut me down from my vain Oblations by which the Spirit of God was again quencht limited to bring me to that which was more pure spiritual and that the Issue of withstanding this Counsel of God would be the casting me under Despair again which Words as I was required so I declared them to one of the Heads of the Family desiring the Prayer Bell might not ring for me for that I now felt the Word of the Lord to be really as I had preacht it as a Sword to cut me down from all vain Oblations so that there was struggling or resisting or kicking against the Pricks of this living Word or satisfying of it but by coming out of all that which I had taken up by Tradition or Imitation of any out of its Leadings which was not out of any Disrespect to that spiritual Prayer Supplication which was exhorted unto in the Scriptures which I did the more earnestly watch unto but for Fear of offending God by offering that which was become Sin and Iniquity to him even the Solemn Assembly as it is called Isa 1.13 But all this while no man stopt me uor did any Persecution stop me but I was the more enlarged by it neither did I act from any Counsel or president of any of the people called Quakers from whose Converse I kept my self so as to be acquainted with none of them in that Country or in any other place where I had lived and also from reading their Books or going to their Meetings because of the Danger of Infection that was reported of them