knew it to be the Word of Faith and the Word of Eternal Life and the Word is the same this day and the glory of it is seen and the vertue of it is felt and fed upon for as in the beginning it generated and generation was brought forth by it so now it doth regenerate and the new born babe desires the sincere milk of it and the Word feeds it and nourishes it with its own goodness so the babe feeds upon the Word and receives the milk of the Word as its natural food and it doth not live by any other thing and whilest it is a new born babe the Word gives it milk but when through nourishment it grows into strength then it eats the flesh for the Word is made flesh and the flesh is meat indeed and this must people eat if they have life in Christ for Christ is the Word and Christ is the Life and they that do not eat him have no Life in him And this is a hard saying to all unbelievers for such said in times past how can this man give us his flesh to Eat and this is the bread that comes down from Heaven which if a man eat he shall never dye they are blessed that believes in this for Christ is the Bread of Life and all that hungers after him in truth he feeds them according to his own pleasure and here is living water felt from Christ the fountain and here is meat known that endures to Everlasting life and with his vertue and goodness the soul is replenished and comforted and this is the Word which is near every man who shall ascend to fetch it down from above or who shall descend to fetch it from below but what faith it the Word is night thee even in thy heart and in thy mouth to obey it and do it and there must man know it and obey it if ever he come to feed upon it and he must first know it as a reprover and then as a hammer and a fire to break down and burn up all that drossie nature that is in him and the rebellious part that stands in opposition against the Lord. And this is the Word which is nigh unto every man alwayes taking hold upon the transgressor in Judgment and as a swift witness overtakes the transgressor in all his wayes and in that place it is quick and powerful and sharper than a two Edged sword if a man commit Evil the Word hath a quick motion to find him and is powerful to judge him and sharp to wound him and the hairy scalp of the wicked is wounded by the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God and so it manifests it self in man according to the present disposition of a man if darkness dispose him and that he be in the Evil either in thought word or deed then the Word stands against him and is quick and powerful and sharp and a hammer and a fire and man may feel it to be so in its operation for it is to be understood that the Word in it self is an unchangeable being and one pure perfect intire body of love yet the manifestations of it appears diversly as man stands before it and it hath its operation in man according to mans present disposition for if he sin he is quickly overtaken with Judgement and that which overtakes him and Judges him is the Word and there he may feel it powerful and sharper then a two Edged sword and through his obedience to it in that manifestation then it becomes a hammer and a fire in its operation and it is as a fire in his bones to consume the fleshly part in every place And by this a young man may cleanse his wayes for if a man take heed to the Word when it manifests it self with Reproof and when it shews him the out-goings of his mind and his wandering thoughts and vain imaginations and the body of sin and death that is in him and doth defile him and separate him from God if he take heed to the Word when it manifests secret Evils which is its nature to do then it will become a light to his feet and a lanthorn to his paths and he will find it to be a true guide unto him yea in his lowest state it will be a light to his feet and guide his feet and then man doth not err when he comes to the Word in himself and takes heed unto it then the Word becomes a light to his feet for the Word is light and man following the light and walking in the light he doth not stumble but walks safely and with the light of the Word he sees his way and sees all dangers as they lye And he that thus takes heed to the Word and answers the Word and comes to obey it when it reproves him then the Word lifts him up and sets his feet in the way and so becomes a light to his feet to guide him that he may not err and the Word gives man strength to follow it and then he begins to travel out of the dark Corners of the Earth and out of the Earthly habitations and follows the Word and believes in the promise of the Word and this is an Express Word in every man it speaks Expressly in his Conscience according to the state it finds him in and so it may be known manifesting it self as mans present state and condition is and as man takes heed unto it he takes heed to the light and the light guides his feet out of all perverse wayes and crooked wayes and froward wayes and guides him and leads him in the way of peace and so it is a cleansing Word who takes heed unto it are cleansed by it for a young man may clense his ways by taking heed to the Word and by obeying the word and man that takes heed unto it and obeys it the cleansing water of the word goes through him and it cleanses out of him all the corrupt and bad nature that hath defiled him and made him unclean then man may feel the water of the word to wash him and the water of Regeneration to renew him and here the word plunges man in its own pure water and washes him and makes his in-side clean and so his heart is washed and made clean and his mind is made clean and his body clean and here is the Baptiser and the baptising which doth not lye outward for the taking away the filth of the flesh but makes a man clean within and renews him in the spirit of his mind unto God and so washes away the filth of the old nature which hath loadned and burdened the tender Seed And this is the water of the word which flows in man as man takes heed unto it and obeys it and then man is sanctified by the word and the word is truth and being thus cleansed and washed and sanctified by the word then it becomes the word of reconciliation and the
honest and a just thing in the sight of all men and is not vanity the contrary for when people are in their honest labour they are bold and cares not who sees them but when they are in vanity there is a shame comes upon them when sober people beholds them and sometimes they lurk into secret places to be out of sight when they practise vanity And doth not the observing such dayes after such a manner do more hurt than good every way is not both Masters and Servants wronged in the end of it and the Creation burdened with it and Gods Spirit grieved But some may say If Servants have no liberty they would be discouraged and cast down and their slavery would be great if they were alwayes kept to hard labour This doth not diminish any thing from their liberty but adds unto it for that which is pretended for liberty proves their greatest bondage every way and they are far more in bondage to their vanity than to their labor because the mind and delight being in it they are not so well satisfied as when they are in the practise of it and if they be at any time restrained then they are in great bondage and trouble and so the unruly vain mind worketh over the good and if it be not satisfied they are in bondage to their own heart lusts for by their vanity and wicked practises their souls are oppressed and there is bondage within and by the exercise of their bodies in vanity they will be so wearyed as somtimes they cannot follow their labour for some dayes after and that is bondage to the body then where stands their liberty but in their vanity and so uses their liberty as an occasion to serve the flesh for if Masters and Dames did order their servants in Gods wisdom and if servants were kept in the fear of the Lord God then there would be as true liberty as any service might open for their liberty and it would not stand in observing days or times but as any needful occasion might offer it self for the servants benefit then they might have true liberty on their own behalf and in their own business as need required and not be gainsayed and they would not expect or desire any liberty beyond that in any case if they were but brought into Gods fear and good order and they might then have liberty allowed them to serve the Lord and to wait upon him and to exercise themselves in the worship of his Spirit at any time or upon any day as there might be occacasion and not to keep a day as a holy day and pretend a worship to God upon that day and prophane that day which they pretend to keep as holy that is not good order nor decent for to pretend the observation of a day and a worship to God upon that day and to go to a Steeple-house a few hours and observe the practise of such Ceremonies as is there observed and then to run into vanity and wickedness the remaining part of the day these things grieves the Lord from day to day Therefore you that have servants under you First mind the principle of God in your selves the Light of Christ Jesus in your Consciences and receive the testimony of it and do not gain-say its reproof in your selves then you will know what to reprove in your servants and coming to the Light of Christ in your selves with the Light to be guided and ordered in your own particulars then you will be good patterns and examples to your servants for you being from that of God in your selves which would guide you and lead you into truth and righteousness you become bad patterns to your servants And how can you reprove or reform their evil practises in any place when their eyes behold you in the practise of the same thing which you in words may reprove in them nay many times you exceed them in vanity and profaneness and so are out of order in your selves not being guided by the Light which is pure And who are convinced of profaneness and in your selves are ordered into moderation and soberness and have some desires after God and sets up a practise in your Families of reading or expounding Scriptures and prayer and singing David's Psalms which you call Family Duties Take heed you be not ensnared in that place for there is a danger lyeth near though your practise may have somthing of a shew of godliness in it for though at first you may practise such things in some tenderness towards God and perform them as necessary Duties and in that place standing faithful to God in what is made manifest and not a further manifestation opened to you your practise is not condemned in that place but this is the danger when the observation of a practise centers the mind in the form of what is practised and so in time is content with the observation of the form only this is a place where many loses the life and the savour of it and that which at first was truth in it self in the manifestation and practice doth in time become false through the observation in the form only and there the Kingdom of God is not found nor true peace enjoyed But some may say Is not Family Duties good Order Yes they are so but not as they stand in the observation of a form only for such a practise may be observed and continued when there is not any thing of God to move unto it and that observation cannot then stand in the order of God but in the disorderly part of mans own will who sets his own time and speak his own words and in that performs somthing as a service unto God Therefore who are in this state and would have your Families come into good order in this place keep your minds to the Spirit of God in you and wait to know the motion of it and it will shew you the time and will give you words if there be need in the time and will move to prayer as there is need and will teach you how to pray and what to ask for the Spirit knows your infirmities and makes intercession with groans many times when never a word is spoken and when the Spirit of God moves you to a Duty either on your own behalf or the behalf of your Family in any place then neglect not that time but call your Family together and sit down in Gods fear and wait upon him that in his spirit you may discharge your Duty and then if any thing be out of order in your Families by which you are grieved there will be a word of Reproof given in the Spirit or if there be need of Exhortation the Spirit will give a word of Exhortation and when it is a time of Prayer the Spirit will move to prayer and give words in Prayer And this will stand in Gods order and out of your own wills and you will have comfort in it and
fear to be cheated or deceived because the uprightness deals plainly and simply and speaks of things as they are and not otherwise and cannot conceal any fault if it know it to be a fault and then there would be a closing in few words as the Commodity was liked and yea and nay would stand on both sides And in this is the good order and is comly and commendable amongst men and a good savour unto God whereby he is honoured And when you have done your markets then repair to your outward dwellings and do not sit and drink and revel in Ale-houses for by that you many times doubles your offence and when you have gotten some dishonest gain by deceit in bargaining then to sit at an Ale-house until you have spent it and it may be much more then had you not better been without it every way for it adds sin to sin with grief Therefore be careful and eschew such evils and when you have refreshed your selves as need requires then do not run into excess for many are taken and wronged in that place who goes to use the creatures only for refreshment and when they fall into company and the strength of drink doth begin a little to strike upon their naturalls then they are overcome to continue until they wrong themselves every way Now the light of the Lord Jesus Christ guides out of all those evils If that you mind it and obey it it will guide you from lying and learn you to speak truth it will guide you from drunkenness and learn you soberness and so will change you from all those Evils wherein ye walk as it hath done many in this day who sometimes were such in some degree but now are washed and changed by the light and walks in the way of peace with God and can commend it unto you from a certain ground if you can but receive the report and they can tell you in truth that it is better to walk one day in the light though it be in the Cross unto themselves than to satisfie themselves by gaining the world through Invention and this is the Word of the Lord God unto you all people forsake your way and live and walk in the way of understanding that you may honour God in your generation and that you may be a good savour unto God and unto one another and in all things chuse the good and let the evil go then will your dayes end in peace which otherwise will end in sorrow and in that day you will remember the time you have mis-spent which then you cannot recover again though you may seek it with tears therefore whilst you have it prize it and do not spend it vainly for you have spent too much after that manner A General Exhortation NOw as there is a view taken of this great body and every particular state being seen in its several place how it lyeth and an Information being gone forth in the universal love of God unto them all whereby they may behold their error from the Created uprightness in every place and may also behold a way open to come in again into the good and blessed state of Innocency and to be gathered into the way and path of simplicity where no deceit nor guile nor hypocrisie can have beeing and so to come into the holy and good order of wisdoms Government and to stand as so many branches in their several places to be a good savour to God and honour God for if there were unity in the life and power of God through the universe how sweet would every one be in their place and what a good savour there would be through the Creation and then the Creation would be set free from that which now burdens it and God would have honour and glory and praise in his own work and his goodness and his blessing would rest upon it and there would be plenty to every man in his particular place and he would rejoyce in his own portion and then no deceit nor guile nor lying and swearing would be used amongst people to get dishonest gain and how would such a generation honour God! and how amiable would such a generation be in their places how amiable a thing would it be to see parents of children to bring up their children in the fear of God and to nurture them in the wisdom of God and to train them up in love and peace and unity together and to see Masters and Dames of families to order their families in Gods wisdom and to keep them in good order every way and to see servants in their places serve with diligence and to see aged people filled with sound wisdom and gravity and to see single people wholly given up to serve God and to see young people remember their Creator in the dayes of their youth and to see children fear the Lord in their infancy and to see such as are in outward Government to be cloathed with the wisdom of God and to see Ministers of Parishes deny deceit and come into the truth and to see Lawyers in true Judgement and Equity and to see all Trades-men with Just Weights and Measures and to see all Buyers and Sellers in the created uprightness then would hearts and minds come neer together in the one principle of God and unity and peace would abound amongst people And therefore as one body you are all exhorted to fear the Lord God and turn to his light with which you are enlightned and yield to obey it when in your Consciences it doth reprove you hearken diligently to that voyce which calls you to return and do not reject the Counsel of the Lord in any wise but be still and quiet and bow to the light in every manifestation and believe in it as it doth manifest it self that with the light the disorderly nature may come to Judgement in every place and that through Judgement the Creation may be delivered which at this day travels in pain grief and sorrow for the disorder is above and by disorder you are all out of your places and so runs in wicked practises with which you dishonour God and wrong your own souls Therefore you are all exhorted to mind the Light which would do you good and do not run your selves wilfully into eternal misery for the Lord would not have you perish but would that ye might come to the truth and be saved And this is his compassion towards you and his patience and forbearance concerning you for who amongst you that have not deserved cutting down if the Lord should not exercise his mercy every instant of time he may justly smite you and bring your dayes to an end in a moment Therefore consider for what end you are yet a breathing Generation and have yet time given you is it not that you may behold Gods goodness and come to repentance and that you may know the Light with which you are enlightned to be your redemption from
are drawn to love God again and so there is not any people in the fall that first loves God untill he have manifested his love unto them by Jesus Christ which love is certainly manifested through Christ unto all people which love being received it draweth to its self and begeteth a love to it self whereby man comes to love God not that he loved God first but that God first loved him and gave his only begotten Son for him and through his own love manifested in Christ Jesus he begetteth man to love him again and as man receives Christ Jesus in the reproof he receives the love of God for if man do not joyn unto Christ when he reproves him and close with the tender of love in that dispensation he is an opposer and a rejecter of Christ in whom the Fathers love is made manifest and so will not come to Christ to receive the love and the life that is in him and hence it is that so many are destitute of God Christ and wants the salvation and the peace and the vertue of love because they are more in love with those things that are reproved than with that which doth reprove and though Christ do come to do the Fathers will and tender the love of the Father in himself yet many do reject him and outstand him and proves rebellious against him and though he waite to shew mercy and from time to time doth manifest his kindness in tendering yet there is not a readiness of receiving but rather of despising and contemning and here he comes to many but they receive him not and here he wooes many but they will not come unto him that they might have life in him so do many turn their backs upon him and with their rebellious nature grieves him and causes him to draw his love into his own bosome and so they lye destitute of love though in it self it be large and full and in its manifestation universal And such are miserable and wretched who rejects the love of God which is tendered in Christ Jesus But to as many as do receive him to them he gives power to become the Sons of God even to as many as believes in his Name which are born not of flesh nor of blood nor of the will of man but of God Mark they that receives Christ Jesus they come to be born of God and Christ gives them power to become the Sons of God and this is a state beyond the birth of flesh and blood and the will of man for that birth hates the light and loves darkness rather and will not come to the light left the light should reprove its deeds but they that love the light they bring their deeds to the light and they are manifest to be wrought in God and such grows in the love and springs in the love and is nourished with the vertue of the love and the love is the babes consolation for the babe bring new born in the love it is brought forth a little child filled with Innocency it waits for nourishment from the brest of love and waits to grow in strength through the nourishment and it hath no will to any thing but delights to do the will of the Father only and thus God is known to be love through the measure of his love manifested and received in Christ and all that have received Christ they have received the love of God and in that love they love God again and are born of God and knoweth God for every one that loveth are born of God and knoweth God and there is the true knowledge of God and of his love by Jesus Christ and they that do not thus know God they have not yet received Jesus Christ his Son and so neither knows the Father nor the Son with a true knowledge neither do they walk in the way of peace nor feels the vertue of the streams of love and all such are dry and withered and only please themselves with their own imagined way But the birth born of love drinks in the streams of pure water and it knows the fountain that holds it and it grows up to the enjoyment of the fountain and so comes to the spring and drinks full draughts of an overflowing cup of blessing and rejoyces in the possession of its portion And thus to know God is life Eternal for all born of love they know the Son and the Son reveals the Father and is the way to the Father and they that have the Son they have life and are in the possession of life which can never be compassed by the wisest part of man nor fathomed with all his wisdom but to an innocent babe it is revealed and the babe knows the secret and gives thanks to the Father that he hid those things from the wise part which would have gained them for knowledge out of the life and this is the greatest attainment who are born into it such knows the End of all flesh and sees faith hope and love remain but the greatest of all is love and if love be wanting there is nothing profitable though a man should give all his goods to the poor and his body to be burned if he want love it profits him nothing so that the greatest of all is love for there is the fulness known and there is the Inheritance sealed and that is the End unto which faith looketh and for which hope hopeth in the travel which being possessed and enjoyed then the End of faith and hope is fully answered and the salvation of the soul is witnessed and the heir rejoyces in the fulness of his portion which is love And here is faith hope and love briefly opened and in themselves are in one perfect body united which in every manifestation there is comfort found according to measure but the greatest of all is love and in love the Babe sits down and is in co-heirship with Christ and in the Kingdom Everlasting and in the Power of an Endless Life it possesseth the durable Riches and Treasures and is filled with joy and peace and blessing and crowned with glory and renown for Ever Concerning the Word THe Word is pure and the whole Universe is upheld by the Power of it all things that were made were made by it for it was in the beginning with God and was God and it hath never changed from what it was in the beginning Adam heard it in the Garden and Abraham heard it in his own Countrey and it called him forth and he obeyed and followed it and he was blessed Moses heard it in the Mount and he received the Law from it the Prophets heard it and they prophesied in it and in fulness of time the Word became flesh and dwelt amongst men and they beheld it as the glory of the onely begotten of the Father full of grace and truth And the Apostles had the Word and they preached the Word and that was their Message and they
word of eternal life and it brings man to God in a clean washed state and reconciles him unto God in its own holiness and righteousness and then man knows peace with God through Jesus Christ and there the clean enters the Kingdom and all the unclean which cannot enter is washed away then man knows Christ his Redeemer his Saviour and Intercessor and hath access to God the Father by him and so comes into the Kingdom and sits down in the Kingdom and inherits the joy and the peace and the blessing so it is to be considered that though the manifestation of the Word be divers yet the nature of its self in its perfect body is an unchangeable beeing and is the same this day as it was in the beginning and it is the Word which lives and abides for ever and unto it all people are to take heed for it never loses its Testimony but according to the present state and condition of man so doth it manifest it self and whilst man is in sin it is a word of reproof and when he yields to obey it then it is a hammer and a fire and hath an operation for to break down the Mountains and the hard Rocks and to sever the dross and burn the chaffe and then it becomes water to cleanse and wash away the filthiness of flesh and spirit and then it sanctifies in its own Righteousness and so brings man to God and reconciles him to God and then it is the Word of reconciliation and the Word of Eternal Life unto that man for he lives in it and dwells in it and feeds upon it and there Christ is known the Word of Eternal Life and his Flesh and his Blood is fed upon with joy And this is substance which doth endure and never decayes nor changes Mans restless part and the Election SEarching hunting and comprehending to know is an uncertain state and genders to bondage in every place and no assurance or true satisfaction that any can receive through that labour for the end of those things is death and whosoever searcheth after life and not in the Light through which life is revealed they run over the innocency and hunts above the simplicity and the house of bondage is their place and in that place there is no certain peace for if the restless part be not bruised down and kept under in every place the Seed of the evil doer doth rejoyce over the Seed of God and it being of a contrary nature the weight of its nature falls heavy upon the just and sorely oppresseth the holy one and when a man is overcome by any thing of that nature and falls under the power of it he is in bondage to that very thing and though much may be put down that hath ruled and unto which man hath sometimes been in bondage and under the power of which he hath known grief and then comes to feel ease given by the removing of it and in that place may sit in peace yet notwithstanding something may remain untaken away unto which he is in bondage and in that place he hath grief and not peace for unto what a man yields himself servant to obey he is a servant unto that very thing and if it be a presentation from the body of darkness if he yield unto it he serves it and comes under the power of it in which place he sits in bondage And here many are taken unawares whose minds are not stayed upon God for by searching into things and not in the measure of God and by running before their measure and in the hunting part would compass something to themselves in that very path the snare is laid and in that state they have not a clear eye neither can they distinguish things that do appear and being upon the search before the light and pursuing the search with eagerness darkness transforms it self into the likeness of that thing which the search is after and then holds it forth and presents it to the hunting part and that part being hunting out of the light it cannot discern the danger as it lyes in that presentation but coming transformed in a likeness and presenting it self to be true the hunting part joyns unto it and a belief closes in with it and it is received and treasured up for the true matter and in this place yielding man becomes a servant to that very thing with which his belief is closed and is under the power of it and in bondage to it And these lying signs which are transformed and presented from the body of darkness doth overcome the hunting part to believe in them and so darkness ruleth and the Seed of God bears the burdens and in that place there is no peace and though there may be liberty taken through such a belief and that part which hath joyned may in that place rejoyce yet neither is the belief nor the thing believed in true and therefore it is sin in the ground not being in the true Faith And here many please themselves in those things with which their belief is closed and in that very place rejoyces over the witness of God and doth not regard when reproof cometh because a strong perswasion standeth in that thing with which their belief is closed and such casts reproof behind them and doth not look at reproof to belong unto them in their place and being in that thing closed through a belief they conclude that it is not to be condemned as evil in them because it is their faith and being their faith it is not evil in them and by such a belief in it they create a peace and a joy but in that place the Seed of God is grieved and afflicted and that which creates a peace and a joy over the Seed must all come down into mourning and bitter lamentation for all such rejoycing is vain and there is no peace given of God unto that part I having a deep consideration of these things and beholding how many are intangled and having my self been a traveller amongst such dangers I am moved in compassion to the elect of God to open some snares and dangers and to hold forth a certain way of recovery unto all that are in hold And this observe that when the fallen wisdom runs into a search and with its subtilty hunts to find out secrets then doth Nimrod begin his inventions and that part would build a Tower to reach to Heaven and with its own handy work would preserve it self in safety and that is Babels institution and the ground of its erection which in all places is confusion and is for utter desolation and destruction in every place So who would be a true Searcher into the divine mysteries and into the secrets of the Most High they must learn to stand still and in the silent state wait upon God and keep their minds stayed in the Light in which Light hidden things are discovered and the counsels of all hearts are made