the Civill Law if that will take hold of the offence or by some other way if nothing will satisfie you but her blood take some present course that may put an end to this great difference but if you think this be too grosse or more then the offence requires then I beseech you for the Lords sake to consider your own actings in this thing whether you do not as much as in you lyes carry on the same designe though more closly from the eyes of the world but sure before the Lord it can appear no other but the hunting after her life nay is it not more then to take off one single life at once or which is greater cruelty for a Tyrant to take a man life at once or by degrees and then your selves be judges whether your proceedings towards her be not a killing all the day long for you cannot be ignorant that she hath no livelihood amongst men but what she earns by her hands and your defaming her in this manner cannot in an ordinary way but deprive her of that and so at last bring her blood upon you if you say you acquaint none but the Saints with it that is evident to the contrary for your open publishing it in the Councell of War caused the world to take notice of it and yet your spirits rest not here truly dear friends as the evil spirit wrought in her one way when with you so consider whether the same spirit do not highly work in you at this time another way the Lord give you understanding in all things But if her life be not that which you aim at then is it these divine discoveries of life and light which God makes out to the world by her if it be so then you are to know that he is too stronge you strive with but about this I would a little quere first whether do you think that because such evils were manifest in her when with you therefore it is impossible now that any good should be brought forth by her do you not hope to grow better and better But secondly is it not Gods usuall way to manifest himself there highest where in time past he was by the evil spirit kept lowest yea doth he not suffer himself for this very end many times thus to die in appearance and to leave a soule to it self that so it may see what it is in it self and so learn to die to it self that so he may have the more glorious resurrection in that soul I beseech you for the Lord sake to consider these things as for her outward person I conceive she cares as little for it as you can therefore you may take your fill of trampling on it but I beseech you be carefull how you medle with the spirit that breaths in her for surely brethren I know not what spirit manifested it self in her while with you I am sure and I speak nothing but the truth that I have found a most divine spirit in her as far as I could discern and that which comes to the spirit and life of things and in this methinks you should rejoyce for truly I have heard many professors and professions but to my knowledge I never heard one come so near the power I do not speak this as being affected with any person party or opinion I blesse my God I am now in his strength delivered from that though some have falsly affirmed my being deluded by her but I am confident I can say with Paul and that not onely repeating the letter but in truth that those things which I have received have not been from man nor woman nor any other thing but by the meer revelation of Jesus Christ in me God manifesting himself in my own flesh and therefore they much wrong both her and me that affirm it but especially they wrong or speak a lye of that God that did it for me and because I hear it so reported amongst you I thought good to write one word to clear it that so whether you will hear or whether you will forbear the word of truth might judge you give not ear therefore to all you heare though from brethren least you be brought into a snare for since the defection of the Churches men yea good men have been such lovers of themselves and their own opinions that they will speak largely upon little ground to keep up their own glory God having not yet undone them for were they once undone men they would willingly be what God would have them however the world accounts of them there is another thing which came to my ear that it should be given into the Councel by your two witnesses that the said Mrs. Poole should say that you cast her out for difference in judgement and when Coll. Reeth and Coll. Harison asked to whom she spake it they said to some of Abington now indeed my husband said to you that he thought such a thing but when he came home and see so little ground for his thoughts I think he had but little comfort in telling you so and then brethren if you upon such slender grounds should act in this strange manner against her affirming this thing so publikely I think you have cause to be humbled for it and justly to repent of your evil I desire you to bear a little with me for truly it appears to me rather to be your rage of spirit then your true love either to her or truth for me thinks it would savour more of a true Christian spirit if you had first spoken with her and have seen what change the Lord hath wrought in her as knowing that Mary out of whom seven Devils had been formerly cast was made the first messenger of Christ Resurrection yea and she must bring it to the Apostles and not the Apostles to her You say in your letter that you left her to the judgement of the great day and I beseech you brethren do you not again take her into your own daie for truly I believe that daie in a measure hath come upon her and the Lord himself is at work with her therefore do not feare but the work will bee well done onely we as well as she must have patience in it and surely this is the confidence that I have concerning her that she hath seen evill in that estate she walked in with you and certainlie God is good to her in this shewing her what an abominable spirit of wickednesse may be hid under the greatest practices and professions of externals not that these are the cause of it no the gold and the silver is mine saith the Lord but we bestowing it upon our lovers and making our selves great with his ornaments he is fain in love to us to take us from them or they from us and so finde out a more speciall administration to perfect us in Oh the infinite riches of our God! where doth his bountie end sure his waies of love are unsearchable
and his paths of mercy in which he follows poore fallen man and poore backsliding souls are past finding out how narrow are our capacities we judge as men we may think as some did of David that there is no help for such things in God but all things in truth will be found possible with him even where they are altogether past our thoughts and conceptions and become to us impossible I beseech you therefore be perswaded to bow down to him I know you are conscious that all judgement is not committed unto you and therefore it is possible you may not judge right in this thing for truly brethren we may conceive many things even by the letter it self and yet not living in that spirit that writ the Letter we may erre I pray do not mistake me as if I would any way speak slightly of the letter farther than it speaks of it self no I blesse the Father for it and by sweet experience can say that I was never so confirmed in it now the Lord hath drawn me to him out of it even in that spirit that wrought it I am for the conscionable use of it but I would not abuse it I am sure those men that would set it above the spirit can hardly free themselves from that thing I hope therefore you will not count it your excellency to walk in the letter but rather desire the Lord to perfect you in that spirit that writes the letter for then and never but then shall we be able to walk by right and speak of the letter truly I have not yet acquainted my husband with your letter I shall wait upon God what answer to receive from you for truly dear brethren upon serious deliberation I know not how to approve my selfe faithfull in the eies of God to my brethren here if I should deliver it for God having put it into my hand I must also see clearnes from him before I part with it for though blessed be the father we have a sweet hopefull people amongst us that wait upon God and have fellowship one with another yet whether they may digest such things as you write of I really question therefore it would be unfaithfulnes in me if I apprehending an evil to them or any other should not as much as in me lies prevent it and this I shall do by detaining the Letter till further manifestation from God what to do with it do not judge me in this thing I beseech you I have one Judge even the Lord and he that put it into my hand will at length clear my integrity in it I have nothing to doe for my self in it the Lord knows onely How I may approve my selfe faithfull to men in the Lord and for the Lords sake your desire I exceedingly like that we may be kept from errors and the Lord keepe us from all errors but who must shew us what errour is but the God of truth himselfe wee have lived in error and have suckt them in from our cradles and yet who will speake so much against error as wee stating our selves still in the truth my sweet friends the day of truth is but now dawning upon us and how is it opposed yea by those that are children of truth in their measure yet wee have all looked for it and prayed together for it a long time but truly now wee will not own our prayers but turne away our face from our Saviour because hee comes not in such a garb as we imagined he would when we know it s his prerogative to cloath himselfe with what flesh orgarment he pleases bretheren what would you have doe you not know that a glorious day hath beene spoken of ever since the Prophets and the Apostles Though the day was dawned upon them yet they bid their hearts not to be terrified as if that day were neare for saith he there must be a falling away first and that wicked one be revealed notwithstanding Peter tould them that he was a partaker of that glory that should bee afterwards revealed however saith he you have a sure word of Prophesie to which yee doe well to take heed as if he had said brethren wee have beene with the Lord in the mount and have beheld that excellent glory but yet to you that have not so seene Christ there is a more sure word of Prophesie for visions and revelations doe most especially confirme and strengthen those that have them but here is a word that is spoken to all and is as a light shining in a darke place therefore you doe well to take heed to it till the day dawne and the day Star arise in your owne hearts and you be swallowed up with that glory that now you expect and wait for onely know this that no private spirit can understand these Scriptures that speake of that day it must be the spirit of God alone let us cease from our own Spirits therefore for they are selfish and private bound up to this and that and so it would confine God also but his Spirit is as large as himselfe it s without bonds it s neither here nor there distinct but it is individually every where But that which I desire you to consider from these Scriptures is that this day of falling away hath beene and all the world hath wandred after the beast since the Apostles time therefore how neare may we expect our glory wee should not be troubling our selves therefore still with falling a way but now looke for a rising for sure man hath his day and now the Lord will have his day now seeing this day of the Lord must have a dawning and some Disciples may bee taken up into the Mount before other some it should teach us not to judge our brethren that speake of higher injoyments then we have for wee being behind should rather judge our selves seeing we are more in the day of man and acknowledge our selves so to bee still looking for and hastening to the day of God in which wee may act selfe nor selfishly no longer but our God may bring forth his owne righteousnesse in us and truly brethren you may bee satisfied in this that wee are verily industrious to keepe our selves from error but wee know that in his strength wee shall bee perfected and when himselfe comes and speakes then shall we know that it is hee and truly bretheren I would not have you infidels but believing this day hath taken some unawares and though many may have it in notion yet I am sure that some have it in power I have one thing more to you concerning your Letter and truly I cannot but wonder at it that is how you durst so peremptorily to judge the woman that shee brought a delusion for a vision of God I beseech you consider seriously before the Lord whether you are sure that it was so or no before you make it so publike and send it forth with the authority of a Church surely friends you
her offence which is the spirit of Justice and is in you For I know no power in England to whom it is committed save your selves and the present Parliament which are to act in the Church of Christ as shee by the gift of faith upon her shall be your guide for the cure of her body that you might therefore commit an unsound member to Sathan though the head as it is flesh that the spirit might be saved in the day of the Lord I believe And accordingly you may hold the hands of your husband that he pierce not your bowels with a knife or sword to take your life Neither may you take his I speak unto you as Men Fathers and Brethren in the Lord. who are to walk by this rule Whatsoever you would that men should doe unto you doe yee the same unto them I know it would affright you to be cut off in your iniquity but O how fain would you have your iniquity taken away Consider also others in their amazement I know you have said it and I believe that if you could see suitable sorrow for so great offence you should embrace it I beseech you in the bowels of love for there it is I pleade with you look upon the patience of God towards you and see if it will not constrain you to forbearance for his sake I know the spirit of sanctity is in you and I know as well the spirit of bondage holdeth you oft-times that you cannot but groane for deliverance Wherefore I beseech you for the Lords sake whose I am and whom I serve in the spirit that you let not goe the Vision which I shewed you concerning the cure of England as it was presented to mee Wherein the party acting being first required to stand as in the awfull presence of God and to act for her cure according to the direction which he should receive from the Church by the gift of faith upon her Act he must but not after any former rule by men prescribed for cure but after the rule of the gift of faith which I humbly beseech the Almighty Lord to establish in you I rest Your servant in the Church and Kingdome of Christ Elizabeth Poole After the delivery of this she was asked whether she spake against the bringing of him to tryall or against their taking of his life She answered Bring him to his tryall that he may be convicted in his conscience but touch not his Person A Friend to truth and of the Authors to the Reader THe occasion of the next ensuing Letter written by T. P. in vindication of the Author was this the Author Mrs. E. Poole having delivered a Message of the Lord to the Generall Counsell of the Army forewarning them against that great sin fore told of by the Apostle to be the sin of these latter dayes viz. Selfe-love the forsaking of which would be a great stop and let to the Independent designe viz. the taking away the life of the King there arose diverse false witnesses viz. W. K. Mr. P. and Mr. John Fountaine but none of these stood to the publike test but Mr. Fountaine who endeavouring to weaken the Message by scandalizing and reproaching the Messenger charging her with some follies committed many yeares agoe and long since repented of and with other things she knew not The old Serpentine trick new revived but in a finer dress For it is not unknowne to thee good Reader how the Lord Christ when in flesh was called a glutton a wine bibber a friend of Publicans and Harlots and shall Christ in spirit thinke you fare any better As also thou art not ignorant of that place in Math. 13 25. where it saith the Kingdome of Heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his feild but while men slept his Enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way this man is the Lord from Heaven who sends his Servant to sow right good seed viz. wheat the word of God the Child Jesus in his feild even your hearts but while you sleepe the Enemy comes the Devill the accuser of the brethren who alwayes comes in a sleeping time in the night and dark understandings of men when they are commanded from him to watch and stealingly soweth tares among the wheat on purpose to choake the wheat or at least to cause it to be despised upon the instant of time when Christ was borne in the flesh King Herod fearing his Kingdome and government should be taken from him sent forth * Mat. 2.16 and slew all the children that were in Bethlehem and in all the Coasts thereof this was a figure of that which was to come to be done upon the first appearings of Christ in spirit for as the child of the bond-woman did persecute the childe of the free-woman so they that are borne after the flesh doe persecute them that are borne after the spirit and the first borne of the forme will persecute them that come in the power of the most high you know the Story in the 12. of the Revelations * Rev. 12.1 2.3 4 â— 6. c. of the woman cloathed with the Suane c. being with child cried traveling in birth and pained 〈…〉 deliuered and a great 〈◊〉 â—â—â—gon having 7. heads c before the woman c. to devoure her childe as soon as it was born the issue of it was the great Dragon was cast out the old Serpent called the Devil and Satan the accuser of the Brethren and I make no question but the same effect it shall have upon some I pray let these things be considered by thee ver 9.10 the Lord himself will make application of this in due time to the hearts of these refined persecutors Farewell The Copy of a letter as it was sent from T. P. a friend of Mrs. Elizabeth Poole To the Congregation of Saints walking in fellowship with Mr. William Kiffin DEar brethren in the bowels of love and meeknes I kindely salute you wishing you an encrease of all faithfulnes and true knowledg in the mystery of Christ The cause of my present writing is to acquaint you that providence hath lately brought a letter to my hand directed to my husband concerning one Mrs. Poole once a member with you which woman say you for scandalous evils was cast out Now it being some years since it was done I humbly desire a little to reason with you about the grounds why this still remains upon your spirits seeing Christ saith forgive yee one another as I forgive you and God is said to remember our sins no more this therefore is a note of forgivenesse not to remember and sure we should shew our selves children of our heavenly father but further I desire before the Lord that you examine your own hearts in this thing what your end is in it if it be you think she is not worthy to have a livelihood amongst men then why doe you not either by