else you well know there can be no begetting to God since nothing can quicken or make People alive to God but the life of God And it must be a Ministry in and from Life that enlivens any People to God We have seen the Fruit of all other Ministrys by the few that are turned from the Evil of their Ways It is not our Parts or Memory the repetition of former Openings in our own will and time that will do God's Work A dry Doctrinal Ministry however sound in Words can reach but the Ear and is but a Dream at the Best There is another Soundness that is soundest of all viz. Christ the power of God This is the Key of David that Opens and none Shuts and Shuts and none can Open as the Oil to the Lamp and the Soul to the Body so is that to the best of Words Which made Christ to say My Words they are Spirit and they are Life that is they are from Life and therefore they make you alive that receive them If the Disciples that had lived with Jesus were to stay at Jerusalem till they received it so must we wait to receive before we Minister if we will turn People from Darkness to Light and from Satan's power to God I fervently bow my Knees to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ that you may always be like minded that you may ever wait Reverently for the coming and opening of the Word of Life and tend upon it in your Ministry and Service that you may serve God in his Spirit And be it little or be it much it is well for much is not too much and the least is enough if from the motion of God's Spirit and without it verily never so little is too much because to no profit For it is the Spirit of the Lord immediately or through the Ministry of his Servants that teacheth his People to profit and to be sure so far as we take him along with us in our Services so far we are profitable and no farther For if it be the Lord that must work all things in us and for our selves much more is it the Lord that must work in us for the Conversion of others If therefore it was once a Cross to us to Speak though the Lord required it at our Hands let it never be so to be silent when he does not It is one of the most dreadful Sayings in the Book of God That he that adds to the Words of the Prophency of this Book God will add the Plagues written in this Book To keep back the Counsel of God is as Terrible for he that takes away from the Words of the Prophecy of this Book God shall take away his part out of the Book of Life And truly it has great Caution in it to those that use the Name of the Lord to be well assured the Lord Speaks that they may not be found of the Number of those that add to the Words of the Testimony of Prophecy which the Lord giveth them to bear nor yet to mince or diminish the same both being so very offensive to God Wherefore Brethren let us be careful neither to out-go our Guide nor yet loiter behind him since he that makes Haste may miss his Way and he that stays behind loose his Guide For even those that have Received the Word of the Lord had need wait for Wisdom that they may see how to divide the Word aright which plainly implieth that it is possible for one that hath received the Word of the Lord to miss in the Division and Application of it which must come from an Impatiency of Spirit and a Self-working which makes an unsound and dangerous Mixture and will hardly beget a right minded living People to God I am earnest in this above all other Considerations as to publick Brethren well knowing how much it concerns the present and future State and preservation of the Church of Christ Jesus that has been gathered and built up by a Living and Powerful Ministry that the Ministry be held preserved and continued in the Manifestations Motions and Supplies of the same Life and Power from time to time And where ever it is observed that any one does Minister more from Gifts and Parts than Life and Power though they have an Inlightned and Doctrinal Understanding let them in time be advised and admonished for their Preservation because insensibly such will come to depend upon a Self-sufficiency to forsake Christ the living Fountain and to hew out unto themselves Cisterns that will hold no living Waters and by degrees draw others from waiting upon the Gift of God in themselves and to feel it in others in order to their Strength and Refreshment to wait upon them and to turn from God to Man again and so to make Shipwrack of the Faith once delivered to the Saints and of a good Conscience towards God which are only kept by that Divine Gift of life that begat the one and awaken'd and sanctified the other in the Beginning Nor is it enough that we have known the Divine Gift and in it have reached to the Spirits in Prison and been the Instruments of the Convincing of others of the way of God if we keep not as low and poor in our selves and as depending upon the Lord as ever since no Memory no Repetitions of former Openings Revelations or Enjoyments will bring a Soul to God or afford Bread to the Hungry or Water to the Thirsty unless Life go with what we say and that must be waited for O that we may have no other Fountain Treasury or Dependence that none may presume at any rate to Act of themselves for God! Because they have long acted from God that we may not supply want of waiting with our own Wisdom or think that we may take less Care and more liberty in speaking than formerly and that where we do not feel the Lord by his Power to open us and enlarge us whatever be the Expectation of the People or has been our Customary Supply and Character we may not exceed or fill up the time with our own I hope we shall ever Remember who it was that said Of your selves you can do nothing our sufficiency is in Him And if we are not to speak our own Words or take Thought what we should say to Men in our Defence when exposed for our Testimony surely we ought to speak none of our own Words or take Thought what we shall say in our Testimony and Ministry in the Name of the Lord to the Souls of the People for then of all Times and of all other Occasions should it be fulfilled in us for it is not you that speak but the Spirit of my Father that speaketh in you And indeed the Ministry of the Spirit must and does keep its Analogy and Agreement with the Birth of the Spirit that as no Man can Inherit the Kingdom of God unless he be born of the Spirit so
the Saints in Light of a Kingdom that cannot be shaken an Inheritance incorruptible in Eternal Habitations And now as for you that are the Children of God's People a Great Concern is upon my Spirit for your good and often are my Knees Bowed to the God of your Fathers for you that you may come to be partakers of the same Divine Life and Power that has been the Glory of this Day that a Generation you may be to God an Holy Nation and a Peculiar People Zealous of Good Works when all our Heads are laid in the Dust Oh you Young Men and Women let it not suffice you that you are the Children of the People of the Lord you must also be born again if you will inherit the Kingdom of God Your Fathers are but such after the Flesh and could but beget you into the likeness of the first Adam but you must be begotten into the likeness of the second Adam by a Spiritual Generation And therefore look carefully about you Oh ye Children of the Children of God Consider your Standing and see what you are in Relation to this Divine Kindred Family and Birth Have you obeyed the Light and received and walked in the Spirit that is the incorruptible Seed of the Word and Kingdom of God of which you must be born again God is no respecter of Persons The Father cannot save or answer for the Child the Child for the Father but in the Sin thou Sinnest thou shalt die and in the Righteousness thou doest through Christ Jesus thou shalt live for it is the Willing and Obedient that shall eat the Good of the Land Be not deceived God is not mocked such as all Nations and People Sow such they shall reap at the hand of the just God And then your many and great Priviledges above the Children of other People will add weight in the scale against you if you choose not the way of the Lord. For you have had Line upon Line and Precept upon Precept and not only good Doctrine but good Example and which is more you have been turned to and acquainted with a Principle in your selves which others have been ignorant of and you know you may be as Good as you please without the Fear of Frowns and Blows or being turned out of doors and forsaken of Father and Mother for God's Sake and his Holy Religion as has been the Case of some of your Fathers in the day they first entred into this Holy Path And if you after hearing and seeing the Wonders that God has wrought in the deliverance and perservation of them through a Sea of Troubles and the manifold Temporal as well as spiritual Blessings that he has filled them with in the sight of their Enemies you should neglect and turn your backs upon so great and so near a Salvation you would not only be most ungreatful Children to God and them but must expect that God will call the Children of those that knew him not to take the Crown out of your Hands and that your lot will be a dreadful Judgment at the hand of the Lord. But Oh that it may never be so with any of you The Lord forbid saith my Soul Wherefore Oh ye Young Men and Women look to the Rock of your Fathers chuse the God of your Fathers There is no other God but him no other Light but his no other Grace but his nor Spirit but his to Convince you Quicken and Comfort you to Lead Guide and Preserve you to God's Everlasting Kingdom So will you be Possessors as well as Professors of the Truth embracing it not only by Education but Judgment and Conviction from a Sense begotten in your Souls through the operation of the Eternal Spirit and Power of God in your hearts by which you may come to be the Seed of Abraham through Faith and the circumcision not made with Hands and so heirs of the promise made to the Fathers of an Incorruptible Crown That as I said before a Generation you may be to God holding up the Profession of the blessed Truth in the Life and Power of it For Formality in Religion is Nauseous to God and good Men and the more so where any Form or Appearance has been new and peculiar and begun and practised upon a Principle with an Uncommon Zeal and Strictness Therefore I say for you to fall flat and formal and continue the profession without that Salt and Savour by which it is come to obtain a good Report among Men is not to answer God's Love nor your Parents Care nor the mind of Truth in your selves nor in those that are without who tho' they will not obey the Truth have Sight and Sense enough to see if they do that make a Profession of it For where the Divine Virtue of it is not felt in the Soul and waited for and lived in imperfections will quickly break out and shew themselves and detect the Unfaithfulness of such Persons and that their insides are not seasoned with the Nature of that holy Principle which they profess Wherefore Dear Children let met intreat you to shut your Eyes at the Temptations and Allurements of this low and perishing World and not suffer your affections to be captivated by those Lusts and Vanities that your Fathers for Truths Sake long since turned their Backs upon But as you believe it to be the Truth receive it into your Hearts that you may become the Children of God So that it may never be said of you as the Evangelist Writes of the Jews of his time That Christ the true Light came to his own but his own received him not but to as many as received him to them he gave Power to become the Children of God which were born not of Blood nor of the Will of the Flesh nor of the Will of Man but of God A most close and comprehensive Passage to this occasion You exactly and peculiarly answer to those professing Jews in that you bear the Name of God's People by being the Children and wearing of the Form of God's People So that he by his Light in you may be said to come to his own and if you obey it not but turn your Back upon it and walk after the Vanities of your Minds you will be of those that receive him not which I pray God may never be your Case and Judgment but that you may be throughly sensible of the many and great Obligations you lie under to the Lord for his Love and your Parents for their Care And with all your Heart and all your Soul and all your Strength turn to the Lord to his Gift and Spirit in you and hear his Voice and obey it that you may Seal to the Testimony of your Fathers by the Truth and Evidence of your own Experience that your Childrens Children may bless you and the Lord for you as those that delivered a faithful Example as well as Record of the Truth of God unto them So will the
nor neglect thou so great Salvation as is this which is come to thy House Oh England For why should'st thou die Oh Land that God desires to Bless Be assured it is he that has been in the mid'st of this People in the mid'st of thee and no Delusion as thy mistaken Teachers have made thee believe And this thou shalt find by their Marks and Fruits if thou wilt consider them in the Spirit of Moderation For I. They were changed Men themselves before they went about to change others Their Hearts were rent as well as their Garments and they knew the Power and Work of God upon them And this was seen by the great Alteration it made and their stricter Course of Life and more Godly Conversation that immediately followed upon it II. They went not forth or Preached in their own Time or Will but in the Will of God and Spoke not their own studdied Matter but as they were opened and moved of his Spirit with which they were well acquainted in their own Conversion which cannot be exprest to Carnal Men so as to give them any intelligible account for to such it is as Christ said like the blowing of the Wind which no Man knows whence it cometh or whether it goeth Yet this Proof and Seal went along with their Ministry that many were turned from their Life-less Professions and the Evil of their Ways to the knowledge of God and an Holy Life as thousands can witness And as they Freely received what they had to say from the Lord so they Freely administred it to others III. The Bent and Stress of their Ministry was Conversion to God Regeneration and Holiness not Schemes of Doctrines and Verbal Creeds or new Forms of Worship but a leaving off in Religion the Superfluous and reducing the Ceremonious and Formal part and pressing earnestly the Substantial the Necessary and Proffitable part as all upon a serious Reflection must and do accknowledge IV. They directed People to a Principle by which all that they asserted Preached and Exhorted others to might be wrought in them and known through Experience to them to be true which is a high and distinguishing Mark of the Truth of their Ministry both that they knew what they said and were not afraid of coming to the Test For as they were bold from Certainty so they required Conformity upon no Humane Authority but upon Conviction and the Conviction of this Principle which they asserted was in them that they Preached unto and unto that directed them that they might examine and prove the Reaality of those things which they had affirmed of it and its Manifestation and Work in Man And this is more than the many Ministries in the World pretend to They declare of Religion say many things true in words of God Christ and the Spirit of Holiness and Heaven that all Men should Repent and mend their Lives or they will go to Hell c. but which of them all pretend to speak of their own Knowledge and Experience Or ever directed Men to a Divine Principle or Agent placed of God in Man to help him and how to know it and wait to feel its Power to work that good and acceptable Will of God in them Some of them indeed have Spoke of the Spirit and the Operations of it to Sanctification and Performance of Worship to God but where and how to find it and wait in it to perform was yet as a Mistery reserved for this further degree of Reformation So that this People did not only in words more than equally press Repentance Conversion and Holiness but did it knowingly and experimentally and directed those to whom they preach'd to a sufficient Principle and told them where it is and by what Tokens they might know it and which way they might experience the Power and Efficacy of it to their Soul's Happiness Which is more then Theory and Speculations upon which most other Ministries depend for here is certainly a bottom upon which Man may boldly appear before God in the great Day of Account V. They reached to the Inward State and Condition of People which is an Evidence of the Virtue of their Principle and of their Ministring from it and not their own Imaginations Glosses or Comments upon Scripture For nothing reaches the Heart but what is from the Heart or pierces the Conscience but what comes from a living Conscience Insomuch as it hath often happened where People have under Secrecy revealed their State or Condition to some choice Friends for Advice or Ease they have been so particularly directed in the Ministry of this People that they have challenged their Friends with discovering their Secrets and telling the Preachers their Cases Yea the very Thoughts and Purposes of the hearts of many have been so plainly detected that they have like Nathaniel cryed out of this inward appearance of Christ Thou art the Son of God thou art the King of Israel And those that have embraced this Divine Principle have found this Mark of its Truth and Divinity that the Woman of Samaria did of Christ when in the Flesh to be the Messiah viz. It had told them all that ever they did showed them their insides the most inward secrets of their Hearts and laid Judgment to the Line and Righteousness to the Plummet of which Thousands can at this day give in their Witness So that nothing has been affirmed by this People of the Power and Virtue of this Heavenly Principle that such as have turned to it have not found true and more and that one half had not been told to them of what they have seen of the Power Purity Wisdom Mercy and Goodness of God herein VI. The Accomplishments with which this Principle fitted even some of the meanest of this People for their Work and Service Furnishing some of them with an Extraordinary Understanding in Divine Things and an admirable Fluency and Taking way of expression which gave occasion to some to wonder saying of them as of their Master is not this such a Mechanick's Son how came he by this Learning As from thence others took occasion to suspect and insinuate they were Jesuites in Disguise who have had the Reputation of learned Men for an Age past though there was not the least ground of Truth for any such Reflection VII That they rise Low and Dispised and Hated as the Primitive Christians did and not by the help of Worldly Wisdom or Power as former Reformations in part did But in all things it may be said this People were brought forth in the Cross in a Contradiction to the Ways Worship Fashion and Customs of this World yea against Wind and Tide that so no Flesh might Glory before God They could have no design to themselves in this Work thus to expose themselves to Scorn and Abuse to spend and be spent Leaving Wife and Children House and Land and all that can be accounted dear to Men with their lives in their Hands being daily
useless and Sophistical Science he had in him the Foundation of useful and commendable Knowledge and cherisht it every where Civil beyond all Forms of Breeding in his Behaviour Very Temperate eating Little and sleeping Less though a Bulky Person Thus he Lived and Sojourned among us and as he lived so he died feeling the same Eternal Power that had raised and preserved him in his last Moments So full of assurance was he that he Triumpht over Death and so even to the last as if Death were hardly worth Notice or a Mention Recommending to some with him the Dispatch and Dispersion of an Epistle just before Written to the Churches of Christ throughout the World and his own Books but above all Friends and of all Friends those in Ireland and America twice over Saying mind poor Friends in Ireland and America And to some that came in and enquired how he found himself he answered Never heed the Lord's Power is over all Weakness and Death the Seed reigns Blessed be the Lord Which was about Four or Five Hours before his Departure out of this World He was at the great Meeting near Lombard-street on the First day of the Week and it was the Third following about Ten at Night when he left us being at the House of H. Goldney in the same Court. In a good Old Age he went after having lived to see his Childrens Children to many Generations in the Truth He had the Comfort of a short Illness and the Blessing of a clear Sense to the last and we may truly say with a Man of God of Old that being Dead he yet Speaketh and though absent in Body he is Present in Spirit neither Time nor Place being able to interrupt the Communion of Saints or dissolve the Fellowships of the Spirits of the Just His Works praise him because they are to the Praise of him that worked by him for which his Memorial is and shall be Blessed I have done as to this part of my Preface when I have left this short Epitaph to his Name Many Sons have done virtuously in this Day but Dear George thou Excellest them All. And now Friends you that profess to walk in the way this Blessed Man was sent of God to turn us into suffer I beseech you the word of Exhortation as well Fathers as Children and Elders as Young Men. The Glory of this Day and Foundation of the Hope that has not made us ashamed since we were a People you know is that Blessed Principle of Light and Life of Christ which we Profess and Direct all People to as the great Instrument and Agent of Man's Conversion to God It was by this we were first Touched and effectually enlightned as to our Inward State which put us upon the Consideration of our Latter End causing us to set the Lord before our Eyes and to Number our Days that we might apply our Hearts to Wisdom In that Day we judged not after the Sight of the Eye or after the Hearing of the Ear but according to the Light and Sense this Blessed Principle gave us we judged and acted in reference to Things and Persons our selves and others yea towards God our Maker For being quickned by it in our Inward Man we could easily discern the difference of things and feel what was Right and what was Wrong and what was Fit and what not both in reference to Religion and Civil Concerns That being the ground of the Fellowship of all Saints it was in that our Fellowship stood In this we desired to have a Sense one of another acted towards one another and all Men in Love Faithfulness and Fear In the feeling of the Motions of this Principle we drew near to the Lord and waited to be prepared by it that we might feel those Drawings and Movings before we approached the Lord in Prayer or open'd our Mouths in Ministry And in our Beginning and Ending with thâ—â— stood our Comfort Service and Edification And as we run faster or fell short we made Burthens for our selves to bear our Services finding in our selves a Rebuke instead of an Acceptance and in lieu of Well done who has required this at your Hands In that day we were an Exercised People our very Countenances and Deportment declared it Care for others was then much upon us as well as for our selves especially the Young Convinced Often had we the Burthen of the Word of the Lord to our Neighbours Relations and Acquaintance and sometimes Strangers also We were in Travail for one anothers Preservation Not seeking but shunning Occasions of any Coldness or Misunderstanding treating one another as those that believed and felt God present Which kept our Conversation Innocent Serious and Weighty guarding our selves against the Cares and Friendships of the World We held the Truth in the Spirit of it and not in our own Spirits or after our own Wills and Affections They were bowed and brought into Subjection in so much that it was visible to them that knew us we did not think our selves at our own Dispose to go where we List or say or do what we List or when we List Our Liberty stood in the Liberty of the Spirit of Truth and no Pleasure no Profit no Fear no Favour could draw us from this retired strict and watchful Frame We were so far from seeking occasions of Company that we avoided them what we could persuing our own Business with Moderation instead of medling with other Peoples Unnecessarily Our Words were Few and Savoury our Looks Composed and Weighty and our whole Deportment very Observable True it is that this Retired and strict sort of Life from the Liberty of the Conversation of the World exposed us to the Censures of many as Humourists Conceited and Self-righteous Persons c. But it was our Preservation from many Snares to which others were continually exposed by the Prevalency of the lust of the Eye the lust of the Flesh and the Pride of Life that wanted no Occasions or Temptations to excite them abroad in the Converse of the World I cannot forget the Humility and Chast Zeal of that Day Oh! how Constant at Meetings how Retired in them how firm to Truth 's Life as well as Truth 's Principles and how Entire and United in our Communion as indeed became those that profess One Head even Christ Jesus the Lord. This being the Testimony and Example the Man of God before mentioned was sent to Declare and Leave amongst us and we having Embraced the same as the Merciful Visitation of God to us the Word of Exhortation at this time is that we continue to be found in the Way of this Testimony with all Zeal and Integrity and so much the more by how much the Day draweth near And First as to you my Beloved and much Honoured Brethren in Christ that are in the Exercise of the Ministry Oh feel Life in the Ministry Let Life be your Commission your Well-spring and Treasury in all such Occasions
in them that they might be quickned from the Sins and Trespasses in which they were Dead to serve the Living God in the Newness of the Spirit of Life and walk as Children of the Light and of the Day even the Day of Holiness For such put on Christ the Light of the World and make no more Provision for the Flesh to fulfil the Lusts thereof So that the Light Spirit and Grace that comes by Christ and appears in Man was what the Apostles ministred from and turned Peoples Minds unto and in which they gathered and built up the Churches of Christ in their Day For which cause they advised them not to quench the Spirit but wait for the Spirit and Speak by the Spirit and Pray by the Spirit and Walk in the Spirit too as that which approved them the truly begotten Children of God born not of Flesh and Blood or of the will of Man but of the will of God by doing his will and denying their own by drinking of Christ's Cup and being Baptized with his Baptism of Self-denial The Way and Path that all the Heirs of Life have trod to Blessedness But alas even in the Apostles Days those bright Stars of the first Magnitude of the Gospel Light some Clouds foretelling an Eclipse of this Primitive Glory began to appear and several of them gave early Caution of it to the Christians of their Time that even then there was and yet would be more and more a falling away from the Power of Godliness and the Purity of that Spiritual Dispensation by such as sought to make a fair shew in the Flesh but with whom the offence of the Cross ceased Yet with this comfortable Conclusion that they saw beyond it a more glorious Time than ever to the true Church Their sight was true and what they foretold to the Churches gathered by them in the Name and Power of Jesus came so to pass For Christians degenerated a-pace into outsides as Days and Meats and divers other Cerimonies And which was worse they fell into Strife and Contention about them separating one from another then Envying and as they had Power Persecuting one another to the shame and scandal of their common Christianity and grievous stumbling and offence of the Heathen among whom the Lord had so long and so marvellously preserved them And having got at last the Worldly Power into their Hands by Kings and Emperors embracing the Christian Profession they changed what they could the Kingdom of Christ which is not of this World into a Worldly Kingdom or at least stiled the Worldly Kingdom that was in their Hands the Kingdom of Christ and so they became Worldly and not true Christians Then Humane Inventions and Novelties both in Doctrine and Worship crowded fast into the Church a Door being opened thereunto by the Grossness and Carnality that appeared then among the generality of Christians who had long since left the Guidance of God's meek and heavenly Spirit and given themselves up to Superstition Will-worship and Voluntary Humility And as Superstition is Blind so it is Heady and Furious for all must stoop to its blind and boundless Zeal or Perish by it In the Name of the Spirit persecuting the very appearance of the Spirit of God in others and opposing that in them which they resisted in themselves viz. the Light Grace and Spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ but always under the Notion of Innovation Heresie Schism or some such plausible Name Though Christianity allows of no Name or Pretence whatever for persecuting of any Man for matters of meer Religion Religion being in its very Nature Meek Gentle and Forbearing and consists of Faith Hope and Charity which no Persecutor can have whilst he remains a Persecutor in that a Man cannot believe well or hope well or have a charitable or tender regard to another whilst he would violate his mind or persecute his Body for matters of Faith or Worship towards his God Thus the False Church sprang up and mounted the Chair But though she lost her Nature she would keep her good Name of the Lambs-bride the True Church and Mother of the Faithful constraining all to receive her Mark either in their Forehead or Righthand publickly or privately But Indeed and in Truth she was Mystery Babylon the Mother of Harlots Mother of those that with all their show and outside of Religion were adulterated and gone from the Spirit Nature and Life of Christ and grown Vain Worldly Ambitious Covetous Cruel c. which are the Fruits of the Flesh and not of the Spirit Now it was that the True Church fled into the Wilderness that is from Superstition and Violence to a Retired Solitary and lonely State hidden and as it were out of Sight of Men though not out of the World Which shows that her wonted Visibility was not Essential to the Being of a True Church in the Judgment of the Holy Ghost she being as True a Church in the Wilderness though not as Visible and Lustrious as when she was in her former Splendor of Profession In this State many Attempts She made to return but the Waters were yet too High and her way blocked up and many of her excellent Children in several Nations and Centuries fell by the Cruelty of Superstition because they would not fall from their Faithfulness to the Truth The last Age did set some steps towards it both as to Doctrine Worship and Practice But Practice quickly failed for Wickedness flowed in a little time as well among the Professors of the Reformation as those they reformed from so that by the Fruits of Conversation they were not to be distinguished And the Children of the Reformers if not the Reformers themselves betook themselves very early to Earthly Policy and Power to uphold and carry on their Reformation that had been begun with Spiritual Weapons which I have often thought has been one of the greatest reasons the Reformation made no better Progress as to the Life and Soul of Religion For whilst the Reformers were Lowly and Spiritually Minded and trusted in God and lookt to Him and lived in his Fear and consulted not with Flesh and Blood nor sought Deliverance in their own way there were daily added to the Church such as one might reasonably say should be saved For they were not so careful to be safe from Persecution as to be Faithful under it Being more concerned to spread the Truth by their Faith and Patience in Tribulation than to get the worldly Power out of their Hands that inflicted their Sufferings upon them and it will be well if the Lord suffer them not to fall by the very same way they took to stand In Doctrine they were in some things short in other things to avoid one extream they run into another And for Worship there was for the generality more of Man than God They owned the Spirit Inspiration and Revelation indeed and grounded their Seperation and Reformation upon the Sense and
and certain sound of the Word of Light and Life through the Testimony of a Chosen Vessel to an effectual and blessed purpose can many thousands say Glory be to the Name of the Lord for ever For as it reached the Conscience and broak the Heart and brought many to a Sense and Search so what People had been vainly seeking without with much Pains and Cost they by this Ministry found within where it was they wanted what they sought for viz. The right way to Peace with God For they were directed to the Light of Jesus Christ within them as the Seed and Leven of the Kingdom of God near All because in All and God's Talent to All. A Faithful and True Witness and Just Monitor in every Bosom The Gift and Grace of God to Life and Salvation that appears to all though few regard it This the Traditional Christian conceited of himself and strong in his own Will and Righteousness and overcome with blind Zeal and Passion either dispised as a low and common thing or opposed as a Novelty under many hard Names and opprobrious Terms denying in his ignorant and angry Mind any fresh Manifestation of God's Power and Spirit in Man in these days though never more needed to make true Christians Not unlike those Jews of Old that rejected the Son of God at the very same time that they blindly professed to wait for the Messiah to come because alas he appeared not among them according to their Carnal Mind and Expectation This brought forth many abusive Books which filled the greater sort with Envy and lesser with Rage and made the way and progress of this Blessed Testimony Straight and Narrow indeed to those that received it However God owned his own Work and this Testimony did effectually Reach Gather Comfort and Establish the Weary and Heavy Leaden the Hungry and Thirsty the Poor and Needy the Mournful and Sick of many Maladys that had spent all upon Phisitians of no Value and waited for Relief from Heaven Help only from above Seeing upon a serious Tryal of all things nothing else would do but Christ himself the Light of his Countenance a Touch of his Garment and Help from his Hand who cured the poor Womans Issue raised the Centurions Servant the Widows Son the Rulers Daughter and Peter's Mother and like Her they no sooner felt his Power and Efficacy upon their Souls but they gave up to obey him in a Testimony to his Power and with resigned Wills and faithful Hearts through all Mockings Contradictions Beatings Prisons and many other Jeopardies that attended them for his Blessed Name Sake And truly they were very many and very Great so that in all Humane Probability they must have been swallowed up Quick of the Proud and Bosterous Waves that swelled and beat against them but that the God of all their tender Mercies was with them in his Glorious Authority so that the Hills often Fled and the Mountains melted before the Power that filled them working mightily for them as well as in them one ever following the other By which they saw plainly to their exceeding great Confirmation and Comfort that all things were possible with him with whom they had to do And that the more that which God required seemed to cross Man's Wisdom and expose them to Man's Wrath the more God appeared to help and carry them through all to his Glory Insomuch that if ever any People could say in Truth Thou art our Sun and our Shield our Rock and Sanctuary and by thee we have leaped over a Wall and by thee we have run through a Troop and by thee we have put the Armies of the Aliens to Flight these People had Right to say it And as God had delivered their Souls of the warisom Burthens of Sin and Vanity and enriched their poverty of Spirit and satisfied their great Hungar and Thirst after Eternal Righteousness and filled them with the Good Things of his own House and made them Stewards of his Manifold Gifts so they went forth to all Quarters of these Nations to Declare to the Inhabitants thereof what God had done for them what they had found and where and how they had found it viz. The way to Peace with God Inviting them to come and see and taste for themselves the Truth of what they Declared unto them And as their Testimony was to the Principle of God in Man the precious Pearl and Leven of the Kingdom as the only blessed means appointed of God to Quicken Convince and Sanctifie Man so they opened to them what it was in it self and what it was given to them for How they might know it from their own Spirit and that of the Subtil appearance of the Evil one and what it would do for all those whose minds are turned off from the Vanity of the World and its Lifeless ways and Teachers and ad-hear to this blessed Light in themselves which discovers and condemns Sin in all its appearances and shows how to overcome it if minded and obeyed in its holy Manifestations and Convictions Giving Power to such to Avoid and Resist those things that do not please God and to grow Strong in Love Faith and Good Works That so Man whom Sin hath made as a Wilderness over-run with Briers and Thorns might become as the Garden of God cultivated by his divine Power and replenisht with the most Virtuous and Beautiful Plants of God's own Right Hand Planting to his Eternal Praise But these Experimental Preachers of Glad Tydings of God's Truth and Kingdom could not run when they List or Pray or Preach when they Pleased But as the Christ their Redeemer prepared and moved them by his own Blessed Spirit for which they waited in their Services and Meetings and Spoak as that gave them utterance and which was as those having Authority and not like the Dreaming Dry and formal Pharisees And so it plainly appeared to the serious Minded whose Spiritual Eye the Lord Jesus had in any measure opened so that to one was given the Word of Exhortation to another the Word of Reproof to another the Word of Consolation and all by the same Spirit and in the good Order thereof to the Convincing and Edifying of many And truly they waxed Strong and Bold through Faithfulness and by the Power and Spirit of the Lord Jesus became very Fruitful thousands in a short time being turned to the Truth through their Testimony in Ministry and Sufferings insomuch as in most Counties and many of the considerable Towns of England Meetings were settled and daily there were added such as should be saved For they were Diligent to Plant and to Water and the Lord blessed their Labours with an Exceeding great Increase notwithstanding all the opposition made to their blessed Progress by false Rumors Calumnies and bitter Persecutions not only from the Powers of the Earth but from every one that listed to injure and abuse them So that they seemed indeed to be as poor Sheep appointed
to the Slaughter and as a People killed all the Day long It were fitter for a Volumn than a Preface but so much as to repeat the Contents of their cruel Sufferings from Professors as well as from Prophaine and from Magistrates as well as the Rabble that it may well be said of this abused and despised People they went forth Weeping and sowed in Tears bearing Testimony to the Precious Seed the Seed of the Kingdom which stands not in Words the Finest the Highest that Man's Wit can use but in Power the Power of Christ Jesus to whom God the Father hath given all Power in Heaven and in Earth that he might rule Angels above and Men below who impowred them as their Work witnesseth by the many that were turned through their Ministry from Darkness to the Light and out of the Broad into the Narrow Way bringing People to a Weighty Serious and God-like Conversation the Practice of that Doctrine which they Taught And as without this Secret Divine Power there is no Quickning and Regenerating of dead Souls so the want of this Generating and begetting Power and Life is the Cause of the little Fruit that the many Ministrys that have been and are in the World bring forth O that both Ministers and People were sensible of this My Soul is often troubled for them and Sorrow and Mourning compass me about for their Sakes O! that they were Wise O! that they would consider and lay to Heart the things that truly and substantially make for their lasting Peace Two things are to be briefly toucht upon the Doctrine they Taught and the Example they lead among all People I have already toucht upon their Fundamental Principle which is as the Corner stone of their Fabrick And to speak eminently and properly their Characteristick or main distinguishing Point or Principle viz. the Light of Christ within as God's Gift for Man's Salvation This I say is as the Root of the goodly Tree of Doctrines that grew and branched out from it which I shall now mention in their Natural and Experimental Order First Repentance from dead Works to serve the Living God Which comprehends three Operations First a sight of Sin Secondly A Sense and Godly Sorrow for it Thirdly An Amendment for the Time to come This was the Repentance they preached and pressed and a Natural result from the Principle they turned all People unto For of Light came Sight and of Sight came Sense and Sorrow and of Sense and Sorrow came Amentment of Life Which Doctrine of Repentance leads to Justification that is Forgiveness of the Sins that are past through Christ the alone Propitiation and the Sanctification or Purgation of the Soul from the defiling Nature and Habits of sin present which is justification in the compleat Sense of that Word comprehending both justification from the Guilt of the Sins that are past as if they had never been commited through the Love and Mercy of God in Christ Jesus and the Creatures being made inwardly just through the Cleansing and Sanctifying Power and Spirit of Christ revealed in the Soul which is commonly called Sanctification From hence sprang a Second Doctrine they were led to declare as the Mark of the Price of the High Calling of all true Christians viz. Perfection from sin according to the Scriptures of Truth which testifie it to be the end of Christ's coming and the Nature of his Kingdom and for which his Spirit was given But they never held a Perfection in Wisdom and Glory in this Life or from Natural Infirmities or Death as some have with a weak or ill mind imagined and insinuated against them This they called a Redeemed State Regeneration or the New-Birth Teaching every where according to their Foundation that without this Work were known there was no inheriting the Kingdom of God Third To an acknowledgment of Eternal Rewards and Punishment as they have good Reason for else of all People certainly they must be the most Miserable Who for about Forty Years have been exceeding great Sufferers for their Profession and in some Cases treated worse then the worst of Men yea as the Refuge and Off-scowering of all things This was the Purport of their Doctrine and Ministry which for the most part is what other Professors of Christianity pretend to hold in Words and Forms but not in the Power of Godliness that has been long lost by Mens departing from that Principle and Seed of Life that is in Man and which Man has not regarded but lost the Sense of and in and by which he can only be quickned in his Mind to serve the living God in Newness of Life For as the Life of Religion was lost and the generality lived and Worshipped God after their own Wills and not after the Will of God nor the mind of Christ which stood in the Works and Fruits of the Holy Spirit so that which they prest was not Notion but Experience no Formality but Godliness as being sensible in themselves through the Work of God's Righteous Judgments that without Holiness no Man should ever see the Lord with Comfort Besides these Doctrines and out of them as the larger Branches there sprang forth several particular Doctrines that did exemplifie and further explain the Truth and Efficacy of the General Doctrine before observed in their Lives and Examples As I. Communion and loving one another This is a noted Mark in the Mouth of all sorts of People concerning them They will meet They will help and stick one to another Whence it is common to hear some say Look how the Quakers love and take care of one another Others less Moderate will say The Quakers love none but themselves and if loving one another and having an Intimate Communion in Religion and constant care to meet to Worship God and help one another be any Mark of Primitive Christianity they had it Blessed be the Lord in an ample manner II. To love Enemies This they both Taught and Practised For they did not only refuse to be revenged for Injuries done them and condemned it as of an Unchristian Spirit but they did freely Forgive yea Help and Relieve those that had been Cruel to them when it was in their Power to have been even with them of which many and singular Instances might be given Endeavouring through Patience to overcome all Injustice and Oppression and Preaching this Doctrine as Christian for others to follow III. The Sufficiency of Truth speaking according to Christ's own form of Words of Yea Yea and Nay Nay among Christians without Swearing both from Christ's express Prohibition to Swear at all Mat. 5. And for that they being under the Tye and Bond of Truth in themselves there was both no Necessity for an Oath and it would be a Reproach to their Christian Veracity to Assure their Truth by such an Extraordinary way of Speaking But offering at the same time to be punnisht to the full for false Speaking as others for Perjury if ever
in that any disappointment about them came so very near them that the greatest Honesty Virtue Wisdom and Ability were unwelcom without them Secondly It seasonably and profitably divided Conversation for making their Society uneasie to their Relations and Acquaintance it gave them the opportunity of more Retirement and Solitude wherein they met with better Company even the Lord God their Redeemer and grew strong in his Love Power and Wisdom and were thereby better qualified for his Service and the success abundantly show'd it Blessed be the Name of the Lord. And though they were not Great and Learned in the Esteem of this World for then they had not wanted Followers upon their own Credit and Authority yet they were generally of the most Sober of the several Perswasions they were in and of the most Repute for Religion and many of them of good Capacity Substance and Account among Men. And also some among them neither wanted for Parts Learning nor Estate though then as of Old not many Wife nor Noble c. were called or at least received the Heavenly Call because of the Cross that attended the Profession of it in Sincerity But neither do Parts or Learning make Men the better Christians though the better Orators and Disputants and it is the Ignorance of People about the Divine Gift that causes that vulgar and mischievous mistake Theory and Practice Expression and Enjoyment Words and Life are two things Oh! 't is the Penitent the Reformed the Lowly the Watchful the Self-denying and Holy Soul that is the Christian and that Frame is the Fruit and Work of the Spirit which is the Life of Jesus whose Life though hid in God the Father is shed abroad in the Hearts of them that truly Believe Oh! that People did but know this to cleanse them to circumcise them to quicken them and to make them New Creatures indeed Re-created or Regenerated after Christ Jesus unto good Works That they might live to God and not to themselves and offer up living Prayers and living Praises to the living God through his own living Spirit in which he is only to be Worshipped in this Gospel Day Oh! that they that read me could but feel me for my Heart is affected with this Merciful Visitation of the Father of Lights and Spirits to this poor Nation and the whole World through the same Testimony Why should the Inhabitants thereof reject it Why should they loose the Blessed Benefit of it Why should they not turn to the Lord with all their Hearts and say from the Heart Speak Lord for now thy poor Servants hear Oh! that thy will may be done thy Great thy Good and Holy will in Earth as it is in Heaven Do it in us do it upon us do what thou wilt with us for we are thine and desire to glorifie thee our Creator both for that and because thou art our Redeemer for thou art redeeming us from the Earth from the Vanities and Pollations of it to be a Peculiar People unto thee Oh! this were a Brave Day for England if so she could say in Truth But alas the Case is otherwise for which some of thine Inhabitants O Land of my Nativity have mourned over thee with bitter Wailing and Lamentation Their Heads have been indeed as Waters and their Eyes as Fountains of Tears because of thy Transgression and Stiffneckedness because thou wilt not Hear and Fear and Return to the Rock even thy Rock O England from whence thou wert Hewen But be thou warned O Land of great Profession to receive him into thy Heart Behold at that Door it is he hath stood so long Knocking but thou wilt yet have none of him Oh! be thou awakned least Jerusalem's Judgments do swiftly overtake thee because of Jerusalems Sins that abound in thee For she abounded in Formality but made void the Weighty things of God's Law as thou daily doest She withstood the Son of God in the Flesh and thou resisteth the Son of God in the Spirit He would have gathered her as an Hen gathereth her Chickens under her Wings and she would not so would he have gathered thee out of thy Life-less Profession and have brought thee to inherit Substance to have known his Power and Kingdom for which he often knockt within by his Grace and Spirit and without by his Servants and Witnesses but thou wouldest not be gathered But on the Contrary as Jerusalem of old persecuted the Manifestation of the Son of God in the Flesh and Crucified him and Whipt and Imprisoned his Servants so hast thou O Land Crucified to thy self afresh the Lord of Life and Glory and done dispite to his Spirit of Grace slighting the Fatherly Visitation and persecuting the blessed Dispensers of it by thy Laws and Magistrates though they have Early and Late pleaded with thee in the Power and Spirit of the Lord in Love and Meekness that thou mightest know the Lord and serve him and become the Glory of all Lands But thou hast Evilly entreated and requited them Thou hast set at naught all their Counsel and would have none of their Reproof as thou shouldest have done Their appearance was too Straight and their qualifications were to Mean for thee to receive them who like the Jews of Old that cryed Is not this the Carpenters Son and are not his Brethren among us which of the Scribes of the Learned the Orthodox believe in him Prophesying their fall in a year or two and making and executing of severe Laws to bring it to pass by endeavouring to terrifie them out of their Holy way or distroying them for abiding Faithful to it But thou hast seen how many Governments that rise against them and determined their Downfal have been overturned and extinguished and that they are still preserved and become a great and a considerable People among the Middle sort of thy numerous Inhabitants And notwithstanding the many difficulties without and within which they have Laboured under since the Lord God Eternal first gathered them they are an encreasing People the Lord still adding unto them in divers Parts such as shall be saved if they persevere to the End And to thee were they and are they lifted up as a Standard and as a City set upon a Hill and to the Nations round about thee that in their Light thou may'st come to see Light even in Christ Jesus the Light of the World and therefore thy Light and Life too if thou wouldst but turn from thy many evil ways and receive and obey it For in the Light of the Lamb must the Nations of them that are saved walk as the Scriptures Testify Remember O Nation of great Profession How the Lord has waited upon thee since the Days of Reformation and the many Mercies and Judgments with which he has pleaded with Thee and awake and arise out of thy deep Sleep and yet hear his Word in thy Heart that thou may'st live Let not this thy day of Visitation pass over thy Head
singular Indulgence of Judge Bradshaw and Judge Fell who were wont to go that Circuit in the Infancy of things the Priests were never able to gain the point they laboured for which was to have proceeded to Blood and if possible Herod like by a Cruel exercise of the Civil Power to have cut them off and rooted them out of the Country Especially Judge Fell who was not only a Check to their Rage in the Course of Legal Proceedings but otherwise upon occasion and finally countenanced this People for his Wife receiving the Truth with the First it had that Influence upon his Spirit being a Just and Wise Man and seeing in his own Wife and Family a full Confutation to all the popular Clamours against the Way of Truth that he covered them what he could and freely opened his Doors and gave up his House to his Wife and her Friends not valuing the Reproach of Ignorant or Evil Minded People which I here mention to His and her Honour and which will be I believe an Honour and a Blessing to such of their Name and Family as shall be found in that Tenderness Humility Love and Zeal for the Truth and People of the Lord. That House was for some Years at first till the Truth had opened its way in the Southern parts of this Island an Eminent Receptacle of this People Others of good Note and Substance in those Northern Countrys had also opened their Houses with their Hearts to the many Publishers that in a short time the Lord had raised to declare his Salvation to the People and where Meetings of the Lord's Messengers were frequently held to communicate their Services and Exercises and Comfort and Edify one another in their Blessed Ministry But least this may be thought a Digression having touched upon this before I return to this Excellent Man And for his Personal Qualities both Natural Moral and Divine as they appeared in his Converse with Brethren and in the Church of God take as follows I. He was a Man that God endued with a Clear and Wonderful Depth a discerner of others Spirits and very much a Master of his own And though the side of his Understanding which lay next to the World and especially the Expression of it might sound Uncouth and Unfashionable to Nice Ears his matter was nevertheless very profound and would not only bear to be often considered but the more it was so the more Weighty and Instructing it appeared And as abruptly and brokenly as sometimes his Sentences would fall from him about Divine Things it is well known they were often as Texts to many fairer Declarations And indeed it showed beyond all Contradiction that God sent him that no Arts or Parts had any share in his matter or manner of his Ministry and that so many Great Excellent and Necessary Truths as he came forth to Preach to Mankind had therefore nothing of Man's Wit or Wisdom to recommend them So that as to Man he was an Original being no Man's Copy And his Ministry and Writings show they are from one that was not Taught of Man nor had Learned what he said by Study Nor were they Notional or Speculative but sensible and Practical Truths tending to Conversion and Regeneration and the setting up the Kingdom of God in the Hearts of Men and the way of it was his Work So that I have many times been overcome in my self and been made to say with my Lord and Master upon the like Occasion I thank thee O Father Lord of Heaven and Earth that thou hast hid these things from the Wise and Prudent of this World and revealed them to Babes For many times hath my Soul bowed in an Humble Thankfulness to the Lord that he did not choose any of the Wise and Learned of this World to be the first Messenger in our Age of his blessed Truth to Men but that he took one that was not of High Degree or Elegant Speech or learned after the way of this World that his Message and Work he sent him to do might come with less Suspicion or Jealousie of Humane Wisdom and Interest and with more Force and Clearness upon the Consciences of those that sincerely Sought the way of Truth in the Love of it I say beholding with the Eye of my mind which the God of Heaven had opened in me the Marks of God's Finger and Hand visibly in this Testimony from the Clearness of the Principle the Power and Efficacy of it in the Exemplary Sobriety Plainness Zeal Steadiness Humility Gravity Punctuality Charity and Circumspect care in the Government of Church Affairs which shined in his and their Life and Testimony that God employed in this Work it greatly confirmed me that it was of God and engaged my Soul in a Deep Love Fear Reverence and Thankfulness for his Love and Mercy therein to Mankind in which Mind I remain and shall I hope to the end of my Daies II. In his Testimony or Ministry he much laboured to open Truth to the Peoples Understandings and to bottom them upon the Principle and Principal Christ Jesus the Light of the World that by bringing them to something that was of God in themselves they might the better know and judge of him and themselves He had an Extraordinary Gift in opening the Scriptures He would go to the Marrow of things and show the Mind Harmony and Fullfilling of them with much Plainness and to great Comfort and Edification The Mistery of the first and second Adam of the Fall and Restoration of the Law and Gospel of Shadows and Substance of the Servant and Sons State and the fullfiling of the Scriptures in Christ and by Christ the True Light in all that are his through the Obedience of Faith were much of the Substance and Drift of his Testimonies In all which he was witnessed to be of God being sensibly felt to speak that which he had received of Christ and was his own Experience in that which never Ers nor Fails But above all he excelled in Prayer The Inwardness and Weight of his Spirit the Reverence and Solemnity of his Address and Behaviour and the Fewness and Fulness of his Words have often struck even Strangers with Admiration as they used to reach others with Consolation The most Awfull Living Reverent Frame I ever Felt or Beheld I must say was his in Prayer And truly it was a Testimony he knew and lived neerer to the Lord than other Men for they that know him most will see most reason to approach him with Reverence and Fear He was of an Innocent Life no Busie Body nor Self Seeker neither Touchy nor Critical What fell from him was very Inoffensive if not very Edifying So Meek Contented Modest Easie Steady Tender it was a pleasure to be in his Company He exercised no Authority but over Evil and that every where and in all but with Love Compassion and Long Suffering A most Merciful Man as ready to Forgive as unapt to take or
give an Offence Thousands can truly say he was of an Excellent Spirit and Savour among them and because thereof the most Excellent Spirits loved him with an unfained and unfading Love He was an Incessant Labourer for in his Younger time before his many great and deep Sufferings and Travels had enfeebled his Body for Itinerant Services he laboured much in the Word and Doctrine and Discipline in England Scotland and Ireland turning many to God and confirming those that were convinced of the Truth and setling Good Order as to Church Affairs among them And towards the Conclusion of his Travelling Services between the Years Seventy One and Seventy Seven he Visited the Churches of Christ in the Plantations in America and in the United Provinces and Germany as his following Journal Relates to the Convincement and Consolation of many After that time he chiefly resided in and about the City of London and besides the Services of his Ministry which were Frequent and Serviceable he writ much both to them that are within and those that are without the Communion But the care he took of the Affairs of the Church in General was very great He was often where the Records of the Affairs of the Church are kept and the Letters from the many Meetings of God's People over all the World where settled come upon Occasions which Letters he had read to him and Communicated them to the Meeting that is Weekly held there for such Services he would be sure to stir them up to discharge them especially in Suffering Cases Showing great Sympathy and Compassion upon all such Occasions carefully looking into the Respective Cases and endeavouring Speedy Relief according to the Nature of them So that the Churches and any of the Suffering Members thereof were sure not to be forgotten or delayed in their Desires if he were there As he was Unwearied so he was Undaunted in his Services for God and his People he was no more to be moved to Fear than to Wrath. His Behaviour at Darby Litchfield Appleby before Oliver Cromwell at Launston Scarborough Worcester and Westminster-Hall with many other Places and Exercises did abundantly evidence it to his Enemies as well as his Friends But as in the Primitive Times some rise up against the blessed Apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ even from among those that they had turned to the Hope of the Gospel and who became their greatest Trouble so this Man of God had his share of Suffering from some that were convinced by him who through prejudice or mistake run against him as one that sought Dominion over Conscience because he prest by his Presence or Epistles a ready and zealous compliance with such good and wholesome things as tended to an Orderly Conversation about the Affairs of the Church and in their walking before Men. That which contributed much to this ill Work was in some a begrudging of this Meek Man the love and esteem he had and deserved in the Hearts of the People and weakness in others that were taken with their groundless Suggestions of Imposition and blind Obedience They would have had every Man Independent that as he had the Principle in himself he should only stand and fall to that and no Body else not considering that the Principle is One in all and though the Measure of Light or Grace might differ yet the Nature of it was the same and being so they struck at the Spiritual Unity which a People guided by the same Principle are naturally led into So that what is an evil to One is so to All and what is Vertuous Honest and of good Report to One is so to All from the Sense and Savour of the one Universal Principle which is common to all and which the disaffected profess to be the Root of all True Christian Fellowship and that Spirit into which the People of God drink and come to be Spiritually Minded and of one Heart and one Soul Some weakly mistook good Order in the Government of Church Affairs for Discipline in Worship and that it was so prest or recommended by Him and other Brethren And they were ready to reflect the same things that Dissenters had very reasonably objected upon the National Churches that have coercively pressed Conformity to their Respective Creeds and Worships Whereas these things related wholly to Conversation and the Outward and as I may say Civil part of the Church that Men should walk up to the Principles of their Belief and not be wanting in Care and Charity But though some have stumbled and fallen through Mistakes and an unreasonable Obstinancy even to a Prejudice yet blessed be God the Generality have returned to their First Love and seen the Work of the Enemy that looses no Opportunity or Advantage by which he may check or hinder the Work of God and disquiet the Peace of his Church and chill the Love of his People to the Truth and one to another and there is hope of divers that are yet at a Distance In all these Occasions though there was no Person the Discontented struck so sharply at as this Good Man he bore all their Weakness and Prejudice and returned not Reflection for Reflection but forgave them their weak and bitter Speeches praying for them that they might have a Sense of their hurt and see the Subtilty of the Enemy to Rend and Devide and return into their First Love that thought no Ill. And truly I must say that though God had visibly cloathed him with a Divine Preference and Authority and indeed his very Presence exprest a Religious Majesty yet he never abused it but held his Place in the Church of God with great Meakness and a most engaging Humility and Moderation For upon all Occasions like his blessed Master he was a Servant to all holding and exercising his Eldership in the Invisible Power that had gathered them with Reverence to the Head and Care over the Body And was received only in that Spirit and Power of Christ as the First and Chief Elder in this Age who as he was therefore worthy of double Honour so for the same Reason it was given by the Faithful of this day because his Authority was inward and not outward and that he got it and kept it by the Love of God and Power of an Endless Life I write my Knowledge and not Report and my Witness is True having been with him for Weeks and Months together on divers Occasions and those of the nearest and most exercising Nature and that by Night and by Day by Sea and by Land in this and in Foreign Countrys And I can say I never saw him out of his Place or not a Match for every Service or Occasion For in all things he acquitted himself like a Man yea a strong Man a New and Heavenly minded Man A Divine and a Naturalist and all of God Almighty's making I have been surprised at his Questions and Answers in Natural things that whilst he was Ignorant of
Gray Hairs of your Dear Parents yet alive go down to the Grave with Joy to see you the posterity of Truth as well as theirs and that not only their Natures but Spirit shall live in you when they are gone I shall conclude this Preface with a few Words to those that are not of our Communion into whose hands this may come especially those of our own Nation Friends As you are the Sons and Daughters of Adam and my Brethren after the Flesh often and earnest have been my Desires and Prayers to God on your behalf that you may come to know him that has Made you to be your Redeemer and Restorer to the Image that through Sin you have lost by the power and Spirit of his Son Jesus Christ whom he hath given for the Light and Life of the World And Oh that you who are called Christians would receive him into your Heart for there it is you want him and at that Door he stands knocking that you should let him in but you do not open to him You are full of other Guests so that a Manger is his Lot among you Now as well as of Old Yet you are full of Profession as were the Jews when he came among them who knew him not but rejected and evilly intreated him So that if you come not to the Possession and Experience of what you profess all your Formality in Religion will stand you in no stead in the Day of God's Judgment I beseech you ponder with your selves your Eternal Condition and see what Title what Ground and Foundation you have for your Christianity If more than a Profession and an Historical Belief of the Gospel Have you known the Baptism of Fire and the Holy Ghost and the Fan of Christ that winnows away the Chaff The Carnal Lusts and Affections That Divine Leven of the Kingdom that being received Levens the whole Lump of Man sanctifying him throughout in Body Soul and Spirit If this be not the Ground of your Confidence you are in a Miserable Estate You will say perhaps that though you are Sinners and live in the daily Commission of Sin and are not Santified as I have been Speaking yet you have Faith in Christ who has borne the Curse for you and in him you are Compleat by Faith his Righteousness being imputed to you But my Friends let me intreat you not to deceive your selves in so Important a Point as is that of your Immortal Souls If you have true Faith in Christ your Faith will make you Clean it will Sanctifie you for the Saints Faith was their Victory By this they over came Sin within and Sinful Men without And if thou art in Christ thou walkest not after the Flesh but after the Spirit whose Fruits are Manifest Yea thou art a New Creature New Made New Fashioned after God's Will and Mold Old things are done away and behold all things are become New New Love Desires Will Affections and Practices It is not any longer Thou that livest Thou Disobedient Carnal Worldly One but it is Christ that liveth in thee and to live is Christ and to die is thy Eternal Gain because thou art assured That thy Corruptible shall put on Incorruption and thy Mortal Immortality and that thou hast a Glorious House Eternal in the Heavens that will never wax Old or pass away All this follows being in Christ as Heat follows Fire and Light the Sun Therefore have a Care how you presume to Rely upon such a Notion as that you are in Christ whilst in your old fallen Nature For what Communion hath Light with Darkness or Christ with Belial Hear what the beloved Disciple tells you If we say we have fellowship with God and walk in Darkness we lie and do not the Truth That is if we go on in a sinful way are Captivated by our Carnal Affections and are not Converted to God we walk in Darkness and cannot possibly have any fellowship with God Christ Cloths them with his Righteousness that receive his Grace in their Hearts and deny themselves and take up his Cross daily and follow him Christ's Righteousness makes Men inwardly Holy of Holy Minds Wills and Practices It is nevertheless Christs because we have it for it is ours not by Nature but by Faith and Adoption It is the Gift of God But still tho' not ours as of or from our selves for in that Sense it is Christ's for it is of and from him yet it is ours and must be ours in Possession Efficacy and Enjoyment to do us any Good or Christ's Righteousness will profit us nothing It was after this manner That he was made to the primitive Christians Righteousness Sanctification Justification and Redemption and if ever you will have the Comfort Kernel and Marrow of the Christian Religion thus you must come to learn and obtain it Now my Friends by what you have Read and will Read in what Follows you may perceive that God has visited a Poor People among you with this saving Knowledge and Testimony whom he has upheld and encreased to this Day notwithstanding the fierce opposition they have met withal Despise not the meanness of this Appearance It was and yet is we know a day of small things and of small Account with too many and many hard and ill Names are given to it but it is of God it came from him because it leads to him This we know but we cannot make another know it as we know it unless he will take the same way to know it that we took The World talks of God but what do they do They pray for Power but reject the Principle in which it is If you would know God and Worship and serve God as you should do you must come to the means he has ordained and given for that purpose Some seek it in Books some in Learned Men but what they look for is in themselves but they overlook it The Voice is too still the Seed too small and the Light shineth in Darkness They are abroad and so cannot divide the Spoil but the Woman that lost her Silver found it at Home after she had light her Candle and swept her House Do you so too and you shall find what Pilate wanted to know viz. Truth The light of Christ within who is the Light of the World and so a Light to you that tells you the Truth of your Condition leads all that take heed unto it out of Darkness into God's marvellous Light for Light grows upon the Obedient It is sown for the Righteous and their way is a shining Light that shines forth more and more to the perfect day Wherefore O Friends Turn in Turn in I beseech you Where is the Poison there is the Antidote There you want Christ and there you must find him and blessed be God there you may find him Seek and you shall find I testifie for God But then you must seek aright with your whole Heart as Men that seek for
their Lives yea for their Eternal Lives Diligently Humbly Patiently as those that can taste no Pleasure Comfort or Satisfaction in any thing else unless you find him whom your Souls want and desire to know and love above all O it is a Travail a Spiritual Travail Let the Carnal Profane World think and say as it will And through this Path you must walk to the City of God that has Eternal Foundations if ever you will come there Well! And what does this blessed Light do for you Why 1. it sets all your sins in order before you It detects the Spirit of this World in all its Bates and Allurements and shews how Man came to fall from God and the fallen Estate he is in 2. It begets a Sense and Sorrow in such as believe in it for this fearful Laps You will then see him Distinctly whom you have Pierced him and all the Blows and Wounds you have given him by your Disobedience and how you have made him to serve with your Sins and you will Weep and Mourn for it and your Sorrow will be a Godly Sorrow 3. After this it will bring you to the Holy Watch to take Care that you do so no more that the Enemy surprise you not again Then Thoughts as well as Words and Works will come to Judgment which is the way of Holiness in which the Redeemed of the Lord do Walk Here you will come to love God above all and your Neighbours as your selves Nothing Hurts Nothing Harms Nothing makes Afraid on this Holy Mountain Now you come to be Christ's indeed for you are his in Nature and Spirit and not your own And when you are thus Christ's then Christ is yours and not before And here Communion with the Father and with the Son you will know and the Efficacy of the Blood of Cleansing even the Blood of Jesus Christ that Immaculate Lamb which speaketh better things than the Blood of Abel and which cleanseth from all Sin the Consciences of those that through the living Faith come to be sprinkled with it from dead Works to serve the living God To Conclude Behold the Testimony and Doctrine of the People called Quakers Behold their Practice and Discipline And behold the blessed Man and Men that were sent of God in this Excellent Work and Service All which will be more particularly expressed in the Ensuing Annals of the Man of God which I do heartily recommend to my Readers most serious Perusal and beseech Almighty God that his Blessing may go along with it to the Convincing of many as yet Strangers to this Holy Dispensation and also to the Edification of the Church of God in General Who for his manifold and repeated Mercies and Blessings to his People in this day of his great Love is worthy ever to have the Glory Honour Thanksgiving and Renown and be it rendred and ascribed with Fear and Reverence through him in whom he is well pleased his bloved Son and Lamb our Light and Life that sits with him upon the Throne World without End Amen Says One that God has long since Mercifully favoured with his Fatherly Visitation and who was not Disobedient to the Heavenly Vision and Call to whom the Way of Truth is more Lovely and Precious than ever and that knowing the Beauty and Benefit of it above all Worldly Treasure has chosen it for his Chiefest Joy and therefore recommends it to thy Love and Choice because he is with great Sincerity and Affection thy Souls Friend William Penn. London Printed and Sold by T. Sowle at the Crooked Billet in Holly-well-lane Shoreditch and near the Meeting-House in White-hart-court in Grace-church-street 1694.