Jerusalem and that therein that vessel he bare the sins of the World and satisfied the wrath of God for sins past and overcame death hell and the grave and made way for the Seed to arise in all through the whole World who would believe in his light which then shined through him to all men wherein he might be seen to be the Way the Truth and the Life apparent openly triumphing over all that had passed above the Seed And much more might be said of him there finished all which I did believe according to Scripture which was as an opening of me to receive him from Heaven in the same spirit and power without which I could not have received the gift of that holy Spirit God having so purposed from the beginning that the Covenant of Eternal Life and power should be received no other way but by faith in him who in the fulness of time was there manifest in flesh for the taking away sins past and making a way for the Resurrection of life over all to save from sins for time to come The effect of which Faith when in the Light I first received it did turn my mind out of all my sins past and took my mind out of them and turned me towards God and holiness of life I then believed to attain in that faith and receive power therein to grow up in him to his fulness and stature which then I see no less Faith could save me then the perfect Faith of the Son God which before I had not received but then received with such gladnesse of heart that it set my face and delights out of all sin towards the perfection of Christ in which I then believed which was the Joy then set before me yet was not the work done and finished in me already though I having received the Faith and Hope of the Son of God and was turned from all my former sin and my own righteousness so that if I had departed this Body I had died in no less Faith then the Holy Faith of Christ Jesus and so being turned to his Spirit out of the works of the Flesh I was turned from my sin and so from condemnation yet was there a great work to do in me before I could witness freedom from the body of death and the root and ground of evil removed and the seed raised to reign and the soul brought into the holy City the resurrection of the dead and fellowship in the Father and the Son c. And that glorious liberty of the new Creature and all things to be of God in me as the scriptures do witness so this faith didnot work me into a conceit of my self glorying in knowledge and so to become a Teacher of others what I had conceived below the life but it led me down into the obedience of the Spirit of Light to wait therein for the Resurrection of Life and I came to see in that Light that the motions of sin did still work from the old ground and root and that must be removed by the power of Christ working in spirit and my obedience and watchfulness therein was required and that without obedience to this faith I could not come to perfect victory over the enmity nor the glorious liberty of the Sons of God for though this faith had turned my heart towards Christ and given me hope to attain him yet I had not then learned him nor was he yet formed in me so was I led in the Light of Christ to see what I had of this treasure in the earthen vessel which I found to be in me very little and that Seed the least of all Seeds so I became little in that eye which told me the Truth though I had been high in my own thoughts formerly And so to the Word of the beginning of Christ I was led or the first Principle of the Doctrine of Christ that with that which teacheth Christ I might learn Christ in every measure of him as I grew therein so was I brought to know him that was made under the Law and to the foundation of repentance from dead works and to Doctrines of Baptisms and to Eternal Judgement Then came I in Truth and Life to see what they were doing whom the Apostles exhorted to work out their own Salvation with fear and trembling after they had fully believed what Christ had done for them at Jerusalem in that vessel and many other Scriptures did he open to me as I learned him which before to me was a Mistery while I learned them in meanings without the Life of Christ which then was opened by the Revelation of Christ Jesus as they came to be fulfilled in me being led by the same Spirit in that work of Faith then came I to see that I through the Law must be redeemed from the Law and that my redemption from it must not be by making it void but by fulfilling of it and till then it had power over me and sin took occasion by it to strengthen it self in me but as I came to grow in the Spirit and Power of Christ I was in him brought through it it in him fulfilled and I dead to it as it came to be fulfilled and the words of Christ I found true I came not to break the Law but to fulfil it and it is easier for Heaven Earth to pass away then one jot of the Law to pass away tell it be fulfilled and I needed not a meaning to that Scripture but a fulfilling thereof in Christ Jesus And the School-master that brings to Christ I learned Christ formed the heir under Tutors before I knew the liberty of the Son of God or perfect freedom and then I saw the Scriptures could not be broken nor wrested but it must be learned in the life of it to Salvation which the unlearned wrest to their own destruction by meanings without life and that it was of no private interpretation but this one Spirit must open it all in the fulfilling thereof and this Faith in Christ Jesus onely was able to make wise unto Salvation of Eternal Life And then came I clearly to see Christ Jesus set before me in all things that I was to go through in that faith which I had first received and that the attaining of him was the hope of glory and no hope without him and this hope was as an Anchor in all hardships and temptations which was not a few I was led through but all was counted little while I stood in this Faith for the hope that was in me to win Christ And I clearly saw that now with standing my first faith in what he had done at Jerusalem yet if I did not continue therein to follow the same spirit in obedience thereto believing therein in all its leadings hoping to attain to Christ Jesus the end of that Faith in daily growing towards his Stature and fulnesse but had turned aside or set down short of the leadings
been short of this work as they were in whom the Child was unborn when he went away in the flesh and they knew not what Spirits they were of until he came again to them in Spirit and was revealed in them then could they preach the Resurrection of the dead and the Souls Redemption and desired to know him no more after the flesh when once they had received him in Spirit but Preached Christ within the Hope of Glory who till then looked for an outward kingdom and glory until they had received his promise He that dwelleth with you shall be in you I will not leave you comfortless I will come unto you the world seeth me no more but ye see me and because I live ye shall live also at that day ye shall know that I am in my Father and you in me and I in you And this was his promise whom they received whom the world seeth no more whose expectations are carnal neither can any see the Kingdom of Heaven but who are born of this Spirit and Heirs of this Life and he that hath the Son hath life and he that hath not the Son hath not life but the wrath of God abides upon him whatever he may say he believes and none hath the Son but as they receive this Spirit and are led by this Spirit and born thereof And this I found also that this Son of God doth not appear in any within or without but as he conforms them to his own Image which he hath alwayes born in this world as saith the Scripture When he shall appear we shall be like him who shall change our vile bodies and make them like his glorious body from glory to glory by the same Spirit And herein we have boldness in the day of Judgement because as he is so are we in this present world and this is not obtained with thoughts of believing without but by a lively working Power which works out the earthly image and nature and conforms to the heavenly in that spiritual birth which is not of flesh and blood nor could flesh and blood ever discern it in whom it was but ever hated it in whom it hath appeared in all ages Which is of a shining nature where it is begotten of the Father and cannot be hid where it is formed but by his fruits gives light to the world contrary to the worlds wayes showing of his coming to Judgement against the deeds of darkness And this heavenly begetting of the Father is to be holden forth in that clear Image of the Father according to every several measure as he grows therein without mixture that all may see that he is not of this world who also takes them out of this world as he grows in any or they in him forth of the world they must go bearing his reproach that the Scriptures may be fulfilled they are not of this world even as I am not of this world and this is the worlds light and condemnation even his coming And so I find that Faith which joyns to the world where it is and doth not overcome the world is not the faith of Christ nor layes hold on the Power of Christ though Faith may believe the History of the Scriptures concerning Christ which faith sets not up the Kingdom of God in the heart and casts out the world there that faith saves not the Soul from the pollution of the world through lust and so is but a conceit of Salvation and not the Power of Salvation as saith the Scriptures Whosoever is born of God overcometh the world and this is the victory that overcometh the world even your Faith and the faith which works not thus is like a body without a spirit which is dead But the living Faith that stands in Christ Jesus that Spirit purifies the heart and Conscience and makes toward God in Christ the example in all good things overcoming what ever would let the appearance of Christ in his temple or hinder the bringing forth his vertues which is believed to be in him to the utmost of what ever he hath received of the Father for such believers who believes not in a lye but in the Truth and Power of God as it is in Christ Jesus and hath been declared in Scriptures not for a discourse but for an inheritance of life of whose fulness we all receive according to our Faith till his coming and we be compleat in him and he in us and so not come short of the Glory of God the end of our Faith and Conversation that to the world he may be manifest in life and power to be the same that ever he hath been though he have appeared in several forms in the flesh yet one in Spirit to make up a compleat body And therefore we find those who were of this Faith witnessed Christ present which the worlds faith could never receive under any form or profession but counted it blasphemy and that spirit the spirit of the Devil And so Isaiah witnessed this Child born to them that so believed in his time who was the mighty God the everlasting Father c. whose Name they knew to be Immanuel and this was before he appeared in that Temple at Jerusalem and Ezekiel was called the Son of man before that time also and Paul said he was revealed in him and spoke in him and wrought in him and in his flesh that which was behind of the afflictions of Christ was to be filled up for his bodies sake which is the Church and to whom he forgave any thing in his time he forgave it in the person of Christ and many more might be noted who confessed the same Christ in them present both before and after his time at Jerusalem which Testimony could never be received by the wisdom of the world in his Temples before nor then nor since to this day for the god of this world being King in the heart and having blinded the eye of the mind that should see his spiritual Glory through the light of the Gospel he perswades the world that he is either past or to come but never present and as many as are brought to confess him before men find it so at this day who are hated of all men for his Names sake that the Scriptures may be fulfilled and his Testimony finished And this Faith which confesseth him present is that which the world cannot bear nor receive who will preach him themselves at a distance what he was and will be but this faith cannot reach his coming at present in any measure to grow to his appearance now nor will this faith ever give an entrance into his Kingdom upon earth nor the holy rest nor is this the Faith of Christ that puts him thus afar off which fills with all the fulness of God And by what I have learned this is clear to me for ever without any more Controversie That the faith that admits of sin is not Christs Faith nor hath
hear that the Lord hath raised him up Judges as at the first and Counsellors as at the beginning and the Heathen shall hear and fear and come to you to learn Judgement and Righteousness shall arise from amongst you to the ends of the earth the break of Gods day shall be with you first as to you it is first tendred if you be not found unworthy to receive him and he shall make you as a head in Counsel and the first born of all Nations unto God shall you be if you receive him wherein the blessing of God is bound up by an oath and his strength upon earth to all generations And this is the love of God to you all once more The Rulers of these Nations from the highest to the lowest that love might open your hearts that the earth hath shut and sealed that you might come to a feeling of your everlasting establishment and that your fears may cease in an endlesse union betwixt Christ your King and your own Souls to the dread of all your enemies and eternal praises lift up to him indeed who hath scattered your enemies many a time for you and all their dark Plots brought to light that you may love the light wherein is your Salvation and not Plot in darkness against his innocent ones as your enemies do but with hearts open and naked receive the truth which condemns all the deeds of darkness in you and in them least he bring your Plots and secret Counsels against the innocent upon your heads as he hath often done to your enemies for he will avenge the poor though long he suffer with them and in them and this is now seen concerning you as was formerly seen concerning them of which they were warned in words and witnessed against in sufferings long before it came who are now broken as a Potters vessel and cannot be made whole but what ever they do breaks them more And now are you warned and invited in love who sees before you this day what God hath done concerning them and suffered concerning you And I am bold in the love of God to send this to you all wherein there is a Seed of God and I know there is that of God in you which will answer to the truth of this and the Scriptures witness with me also so I am not alone but by two infallible witnesses every word is established either to life or condemnation and my prayers to God is and shall be as long as this of God in me hath breathings that you may receive the Kingdom of God which is near you through that spiritual Light and Key that opens the door of your entrance thereinto that you may come to be established in the Covenant of God and not of man and that you may not resist the Holy Ghost as hitherto you have many of you done nor kick against that which pricks you at your hearts when you are told hereof least you be broken in the end so as you can never be healed which is near at hand to be broken or established as you receive God or refuse him who hath long waited upon you that now are and with much patience is he finishing as large a Testimony of his suffering and forbearance among you as ever was since the world began though it be little seen where the light is rejected which the longing of my Soul is may be for the leading to Repentance that you may be established after all this shakings in that which cannot be shaken otherwise the most miserable Wo that ever was will come upon you your Profession of Christ being the greatest that ever was since the beginning And his Oppression answerable under which he suffers in all places of the Nations for a testimony that the Kingdom is near you whether you will receive him or refuse him whose life in measure is now manifest in mortal flesh and the light thereof ariseth in every Conscience to lead or condemne A Candle lighted to give the sight of the good Old Way of God at his coming from the wayes that now ensnares the simple A Voice in the Wilderness cryes aloud to all you who are talking of the Lords coming prepare his way make his paths strait make way for the Just to come to Judgement make him way in your streets he comes not in a Corner nor is he kept in the secret Chambers but openly in the streets of your great Cities where iniquity is committed openly whose Cry hath gone up before the Lord and he comes to see whether it be so indeed as the Cry hath been And behold here is no room for the feet of his Servants to passe in whom he comes The antient paths of Peace are broken up the Sea hath broken its Banks it rages and swells exceedingly and the good old Wayes are grown like a wilderness they are filled with heaps of Rubbish so that the Stranger cannot passe who hath no habitation in the Earth our streets are become as Sodom which God overthrew who can see and not lament How are the paths of the Just devoured How is Bryars and Thorns grown over the way of the Righteous which takes hold of the upright what way soever he turn if he come against sin So the Innocent cannot passe if he come in the Name of the Lord All hath freedom but the Heir and such as he sends before his face to prepare his Way Swearers Liars Drunkards and all deceitful workers are become Freemen have free passage and every one brings forth without fear but he that departs from Iniquity and testifies against it is beset about with them all as a Sheep in the Bryars what way soever he turns his bonds are increased How is true Judgement driven into a corner and wickednesse come into the streets which rises up without fear against him that Reproves it for Violence hath got into the Seat of Equity and hath framed Mischief by a Law and hath turned Judgement backwards Should not Truth have its way amongst you Professors and righteous Judgement passe upon its Enemies where they are found and plead its own Cause against Iniquity But he that letteth stands in the way with his Weapons to devour him that is more Righteous then himself and no man is able to restore to the upright his path Or can he redeem his own way but through bloud Shall he condemne Iniquity and not be a prey Or shall he reprove sin in the Gate and not be taken in their Dragg And when the Innocent is caught in this Net to whom shall he cry for Relief and not encrease his bonds Or who will plead his innocent Cause and not betray him If he would Appeal to Justice he cannot come at it nor doth Judgement sit in the Gate Is there help in the House of the King or will the House of the Priest plead his Right Or to whom may he commit himself with safety whose life and Faith is held in a pure
had them and the Lord was at their Table and they fed with him in his sufferings and blood and the rest made a large Profession of him but fed at the table of Devils and these grew great in violence and strong to devour and shed blood and the other excelled in meekness and patient in suffering and here were they separated into life and death never like to meet more And here now may all read the worship in spirit in such as know God in spirit and the worship in Letter in them that have not God know not what they worship and these know not what they do who know not what they worship and the Son of God faith Father forgive them they know not what they do who saith they worship they know not what who worship not in spirit who worship in their thoughts of God but not the Spirit of God in possession and knowledge who think they do God service to kill and destroy the Temple of God because they know not him in themselves that is worshipped therein as Christ hath foretold and must be fulfilled at the coming of the Holy Ghost And when God descends from heaven to walk on Earth in his Temples and to require his worship to himself out of all Sects and traditions this is his entertainment from all that look for him in observations whose coming is within and his Kingdom is within you And now to you he is come of whom you have been long talking and in that way he appears among you of which you are Preaching The Jews had but the prophesies and shadows to know him by reading without them but you read and Preach in words of the lively pattern in spirit and have heard of the same Life and Testimony which now he bears against you in his Temples and when he comes you cannot receive him who suffers the same things among you Oh England how wilt thou stand in judgement what wilt thou plead for thy selfe when he arises to judgement whose Testimony against thee is drawing to an end what will be thy excuse and who wilt thou say thou took him to be who now endures such contradiction against himself such haling beatings scourgings and mockings and banishings imprisonings and death without resistings hast not thou heard of him before he came that thou might have known in this thy day the things of thy peace hast thou not read of him that is sent to seek his lost in Temples Synagogues in Markets and where the greatest of the people be in which manner he now appears being refused of the rich gathers the poor in the high wayes and hedges yet hath no where to lay his own head hast thou not heard of the everlasting way of his walkings in Prophets and Apostles his pilgrimage in their bodies upon earth who was ever a stranger in the world at his coming from heaven what spirit wilt thou say this is which hath conformed so many at this day who was amongst you like wolves to devour others now to suffer the spoiling of their goods and torturings of their bodies and taking away their lives without seeking the least revenge wilt thou at that day say thou had thought it had been the spirit of the Devil as many of you now doth though in your consciences otherwise convinced Alas for thee how art thou wept over at this day And what a lamentable sorrow hath many of the Lords servants for thee whom thou hast cast in holes and prisons for their obedience to God and testimony of their conscience towards God in them whose patient sufferings and unparaleld cruelties are no more valued with thee then if they were dogs and this hath gone throughout thee from the least to the greatest till there be very few left which are not wholly hardned so that to hear of these evil dealings exercised upon the innocent doth no more enter your hearts then the rain enters a rock wherefore our souls are troubled for you and our hopes concerning your healing grows dayly less and our sufferings in the Lord Jesus dayly greater hasting to the full and what will you do in the end thereof Or whom shall we take to witness for you or may you be compared with any that ever hardned themselves in these wayes and escaped destruction that our hopes might revive and our prayers not cease did ever any thus deny the life of what yon Preach in words your selves and which some of you have in measure felt and suffered for and have been answered in by the Lord and your eyes have seen the vengeance of the Almighty and how dreadful it hath been both upon Kings Priests and Rulers for resisting Ah how much better had it been for you never to have known these things which you have seen read and Preached then now that they should be fulfilled upon you to the uttermost how well had it been for you had you been as those you call heathen rather then to Profess Christ and thus act against him at his coming even in the same way your selves Preach him Alas alas what hath the innocent done why he thus is used among you doth he cry against sin against pride against false worships against corrupt Rulers corrupt Teachers corrupt Lawyers c. And with much meekness bears his witness against these evils in you for a testimony of light to your words whom he hath lifted up in wrath and zeal and judgement against the same things in the persons of others and will not this arise against you of which you are witnesses all in one generation But say thou he breaks the peace and breaks our Law and is unmannerly c. But was he not ever so accounted and is he not now in the same way he ever walked what would that peace do for you could you keep it whole which is broken by reproving sin and deceit Is there any peace to the wicked from God will be keep that Law which will not give him liberty to Reign in his Temples and to lead his people by his Spirit or will you plead that Law against him in judgement when he comes to deal with you who should know his Law written in your hearts to limit you and not your Laws to limit him nor your manners must not bind the conscience where he is known to be King and this you know is truth and have pleaded it against others and now cannot own it will not the Laws of Christ and the manners of Christ of which you read in Scripture agree with your Government and peace who calls for his Kingdom to come amongst you and profess to rule according to Scriptures how will this stand at that day when you must not be your own Judges nor by your own Laws And why is he counted your enemy seeing his appearance now is in love to give you light out of this for your Eternal salvation against which he will certainly come in Judgement to
strengthening one another against the faithful witness of Truth when you have been wounded therewith and have belied the Lord and said it is not he and if it be he let him make me better and I cannot make my self and if the Devil be in me let him cast him out and that sin and Righteousnesse is all one to God and many of you openly denying God and much more such blasphemies out of you hath proceeded all which the Innocent Lamb hath born since the day he first invited you and the Just Lord who is in the midest of you hath seen it and of you he will take revenge for the Innocent Ones sake whom he will ease of his enemy Oh the terrible day that I have seen approaching towards you and the mistery that is coming nigh when you shall be dealt withal as you have done against the Meek and the Holy Seed which hath stirred in you unto life which you have betrayed and murthered for your lusts treacherously have dealt and treacherously will you be dealt withal then shall you know that there is a God of Power and Judgement when you shall be as a mad Bull in a Net and the Fier of God underneath you then shall you chuse death and it shall flie from you who have refused the way of Life and puft at it and you who have scorned the Light shall know Chains of Darknesse Ah how have you mocked at reproof the Lord hath heard your light answers and hath borne your mockings and you have made him to serve under your lusts he is oppressed and grived and broken with your whorish hearts and you have made heavy the burthen of the meek and lowly against whom you have sported and have not considered that all this is against your own Souls and to make strong Bonds for your own Necks which you must know and feel when the just arises to plead against you for all that is written against you Verily dread is upon me when I behold your end and the way you have to goe and how few there are to be saved Alas for you how have you heaped deceit and filled your Vessels with that which the Pure God abhors You have eaten and drunken your own damnation while you have served your lusts you have chosen deceit rather then Truth and therewith shall you be deceived when you look for rest you have got words and sought out cunning waies to stop the way of judgement in you therefore is your cup become full for condemnation from the Lord God of power you are filled with the names of blasphemie against the most High yea it is written He hath marked you out he hath set himself against you and while you are building a Wall of falshood is he preparing destruction and is watching over you for evil and not for good and your wall you have made of cunning deceits will stand betwixt you and Salvation and keep you from finding the place of Repentance And you high-minded Professors also who have gotten the wisdom of words and have preached high things of God and Christ which in you is not wrought nor fulfilled but is a lie this will be required at your hands with Truth and your own words shall arise against you in judgement and when you should come to him that should answer in your behalf your Wisdom and Knowledge which you have got in that Nature which hath oppressed him will stand in your way as thick Darknesse which you cannot remove nor pass then shall you curse your God who hath set you on Preaching Words above Life and lies by which the Spirit of Truth in you and others have suffered and been denied and Gods Witnesse lie waste and been resisted in its gentle Calls Motions and Reproofs All which a just hand and unresistable will bring upon you in that Day when Chains of Darknesse hath compassed you in the Horrible Pit Deceipt Discovered by its Fruits YOu that call the Children of Light Blasphemers and Seducers and many evil Names you give out to People against them because they Preach Christ the light of the world and Christ for Righteousnesse and Perfection c. Hear what Blasphemy and Seducing and Deceiving is and who are the Deceivers They were Blasphemers who said they were Jewes and were not and this was Blasphemy in Gods account To profess in words what they were not in works Rev. 2. 9. And they were Blasphemers who said He that wrought the works of Righteousness was of the Devil Mark 3. 22 28 29 30. And James said They Blasphemed that Holy Name by which the Saints were called who drew them before Judgement Seats and Oppressed them Jam. 2. 6 7. And Saul Blasphemed in persecuting for Conscience towards Christ Now this God calls Blasphemy Falsly to take upon them the Name of a Jew seeing the Jewes were to be a Holy People to the Lord and to bear his Holy Name before all the World in Righteousness and Truth and the fruits of his Spirit which Name they who had not the Life did Blaspheme by taking the Name of a Jew And Christ calls it Blasphemy to condemne the fruits of that Spirit to be of the Devil And the Apostles calls it Blasphemy to hale before the Judgement Seates and persecute the Poor that God had chosen out of the World These were the old Blasphemers in Gods account and their Children be in the same steps till this day and therein the Truth finds them and uncovers them So come to your Rule and be tryed as you are in Deed and not in Words in Gods account and not in your Own This is the Blasphemy to say You are Christians and are not to say You are in Christ and are not to say You are of God and do the Works of the Devil that old Murtherer and Persecuter to say Such as do the Works of God are Blasphemers and to Oppress your Brethren for Conscience sake And this Blasphemy exceeds your Fathers by how much the Name of Christ excels the Name of a Jew Will you bring forth the abominable Fruits that God hates and cover them with the Name of Christ and father them upon the Spirit of Christ and say you are in Christ and Redeemed and Baptized into him and have Communion in him and get up Likenesses and Imitations from the Letter to cover you with in a nature contrary to Christ And is not this the Height of Deceipt and Blasphemy What is the Name of Christ and the Redemption of Christ the Death of Christ the Baptism of Christ the Resurrection of Christ the Communion of Christ and the Words of Christ become a Cloak for the Works of Wickedness And doth not this Blaspheme his Name his Words his Spirit his Ordinances and his People and all his Holy Things and cause them to be Blasphemed amongst the Heathen and throughout the World But to Preach Christ the Light of the World and to Confess him in us so far as we feel the