again the false Church that persecutes is gone from the sound Doctrine of the Apostles and cannot endure it Now the Spirit of Truth that ministred in the Apostles hath opened the Mouthes of many to minister as they have freely received the Gift and sound Doctrine of Truth and the Teachers that were heaped up by them that were gone from the Word after their own Lusts cannot endure the Doctrine of the Light that manifests their Deeds of Darkness and that which the Apostles turned the People to the Teachers heaped up in Mens Wills turn the People from and so turn Peoples Ears from the Truth to give Ear unto Fables the Imaginations of the Heart that are gone after the Lusts and this Paul did prophesie should come to pass as hath been and is fulfilled saying For the Time will come when they will not endure sound Doctrine but after their own Lusts shall they heap to themselves Teachers having Itching Ears and they shall turn away their Ears from the Truth and shall be turned to Fables 2 Tim. 4.3 4. Here was an Apostacy prophesied of that in the Light is seen to be fulfilled in its Time And now by the Brightness of the Rising of the Son of Righteousness that is the Day-spring from on high that hath visited us and hath given Light to us that sate in Darkness and in the Shadow of Death and hath guided our Feet into the Way of Peace and the Light sown for the Righteous Thou ands witness Glory be to God on high for evermore And the Unrighteous Works of Darkness are denyed and reproved which the Children of Light can have no Fellowship with but are come out from them in Obedience to the Heavenly Vision the Voice from Heaven that is the Trumpet that hath awakened Thousands which saith Come out of her my People come out of her and partake not of her Sin lest ye partake of her Plagues And now the Lord hath according to his Promise in the latter Dayes brought us a Way we did not know out of her and led us in Pathes we had not walked in and this we can say that walk in the Light if it were the last Words that we should speak upon the Earth that the Way we are brought to walk in and in which the Faithful do walk is the Way that the God of Heaven hath brought us into let all the Earth speak what they will against it God that lives forever will make it prosper to the Ends of the Earth and the saved in this Nation shall and do walk in it and so shall the saved in all Nations that is in Christ the Light of the New Jerusalem as it is written And the Lord God and the Lamb is the Light thereof And all the rotten-Principle'd Men in all Nations shall not be able to stand before nor abide the sound Doctrine of the Word of Life that is Juick and powerful and a Discerner of the Thoughts and Intentions of the Heart except they come to the Hour of his Judgment and be judged as Men in the Flesh that they may be quickned by the second Adam and live to God in the Spirit And now being led out from among them that are in the Filthiness of the Flesh by the Spirit of the Lord and touching no unclean Thing the Lord hath received us and is a blessed Father unto his Sons and Daughters that he hath begotten unto himself by an Immortal Seed the Word of Life that liveth and abideth sorever And now those pretended Fathers in God who are called Lords Spiritual which Title the Bishops made by the Holy Ghost Overseers of the Flock of God never received not owned nor ever will and had you been our Fathers indeed who had begotten us in God we should have been your most dear and dutiful Children in all the Commands of Christ through you but you know by whom you were made but not by whom we are begotten for if you did we believe you would not labour to destroy us as some of you have done and still do but for such we desire that the Lord would forgive you and shew you what you do but not to convince us by sound Doctrine but by the Instruments of foolish Shepherds do you war against us sâ—â—h as they use whom you your selves account Anti christian as well as we for such that think the Way to save Souls is to afflict punish and kill the Body have not received the Truth as it is in Jesus nor the sound Wisdom from above Which is first pure then peaceable gentle and easie to be entreated full of Mercy and good Fruits for the Fruit of Righteousness is sown in Peace mark that but the Fruit of Unrighteousness is sown in Fightings Beatings Stockings Stonings Banishings Imprisonings Finings Robbing and Spoiling of Goods destroying of Families by making many Widdows and Fatherless-Children Is this the Way to bring People to the Kingdom of God then the Apostles were much mistaken for they never made Use of this Way but the contrary for these Things were uâ—ed against them by those that knew not God but those that have received the Spirit of Christ are Christ's and know the Apostles were not mistaken but it is you that are mistaken in suffering the Spirit of the World to bear Rule in you and that take to it the Honours and Preferments of the World that are but Temporal and so in the World are Lords many but in the Church of Christ one God and one Lord the great Shepherd and Bishop of his Soul who gives many Bishops or Overseers but no Lords as the Apostle saith But to us there is but one God the Father of whom are all things and we in him and one Lord Jesus Christ by whom are all Things and we by him 1 Cor. 8.6 And those who are by him now gathered out of the World that lyeth in VVickedness and have received the Spirit of Truth cannot but stand Witnesses against those that are of the World who receive and give Honour one to another and would be accounted sent of God to rule in his House which is the Church of the Living God 1 Tim. 3.15 But such manifest themselves by taking the World that lyeth in Wickedness to be the Church the House of God and so make all the Nation to be of their Church except such they have cast out which for the most Part are such that are gathered of Christ out of the World So that all the Thieves Murderers VVhoremongers Adulterers Whores Drunkards Swearers Cursers Lyars and all People of all Sorts that will heaâ— and pay you both Papists and all Sects and Sorts you account are of your Church except such you cast out as I have said so that Babylon and Egypt and Sodom and all is here by you taken to be the Church of Christ the House of God what a House have you provided for the living God to dwel in the midst of What a Church is here Is
this the Pillar and Ground of the Truth Do these hold the Mystery of Faith in a pure Conscience Or rather doth not the Mystery of Iniquity hold them in a defiled One But if they will hear the Priest and pay him as I have said let them believe or hold what they will all is received of the Church Oh! what a foul House is here for those you would force to dwell in who are called out to touch no Unclean Thing What a Body have you prepared for that glorious Head to be joyned to that is separate from Sinners and made higher then the Heavens Was not here sufficient Cause for the People spiritually gathered to come out from among you Do you put a Difference between the Precious and the Vile Yes you do for the Precious you curse out and deliver to Satan though some of them were never of you nor owned you And you have heaped up such a Company of your spiritual Children to reform your Church who are so Zealous for God Mammon that for Non-Payment of a Groat or two they cast out a Man and deliver him to Satan so it seems a Groat or two by them is more prized then the Soul of a Man 〈◊〉 yea or his Body Life and Family that they can deliver them to Prisons to the ruining of Families but as to their delivering to Satan it is past their Spiritual Skill in Reality who are erred and strayed from the Power of God which is the Way of God and that Power gives them Victory over Satan that are turned to it and so their Satan is some Goaler a Member of their own Body it is like they may be conscious to themselves that they have not spiritual Power to bind and loose the Souls of Men and therefore they will be sure to bind the Body in some nasty Hole or Prison but if Money come then Soul and Body and all shall be loosed and blest into their Church again though he be of the worser Sort to Men. These Practices savour more of a Synagogue of Satan then a Church of God for the Church of God that abides in the Doctrine of Christ and is a sweet Savour to God and all Just Men that live by Faith but these are a Stink in his Nostrils and an Ill Savour to all sober minded Men and one of the greatest Grievances in the Nation that is to say the Spiritual Courts so called that are yet of the World and cannot overcome the Flesh nor the Devil these pretend to cast People out of that which they were ever in themselves to wit the Church of God And some being cast out of their Church once and delivered to Satan as they pretend which in Truth is but the delivering of the Body to the Envy and Cruelty of that persecuting oppressing Spirit that dwells in their Adversaries and these that could never come to them to be restored yet have cast them out the second Time and some the third for not coming to their Church which was contrary to their own Law Was ever such Non-sensical Work acted by Men pretending to reform the Church Is not Hoseah's Prophecy fulfilled upon them as it was upon Israel when they went a whoring from their God and loved 〈◊〉 Reward The Dayes of Visitation are come the Dayes of Recompence are come Israel shall know it the Prophet is a Fool the Spiritual Man is mad for the Multitude of thine Iniquity and the great Hatred Hosea 9.7 What Prophets were they that were Fools in Hoseah's Dayes those that prophecied and the Lord never sent them who had not received the Word of the Lord but told the People their Dream for a Reward upon every Corn flâ—or but the true Prophets that had received the Word spake it or preached it freely as the Lord said He that hath my Word let him speak my Word freely what is the Châ—ff to the Wheat The Word is the Wheat the Chaff is what he preacheth that hath not received the Word that is but the Divination of his own Brainâ— and these were the Fools that had not received the Word of Wisdom from above that is fiâ—st pure the peaceable but the foolish Prophets that prophesied for a Reward he that resnsed to put into their Mouthes they prepared War against them Were these foolish and false in the Dayes of the Children of Israel and can those that walk in their Steps be true in this Age Nay for the Testimony of the Spirit of God was against such in all Ages and so it is against them in this Age Were they fasse then that preached or propliesied and had not received the Word so they are now Were they false then that prophesied for a Reward in every Corn-floor and are they not so now that preach for a Reward in every Corn-field Was the false Prophet then as the Snare of a Fowler in all his Wayes and Haâ—râ—ed against the House of his God and is he not so now All that have escaped the Snare know the Lord hath delivered them out of the Mouthes of the false Shepherds according to his Premise and hath exalted the Mountain of his House above their Mountains and above all Hills and thither he hath gathered and is gathering his People in this Nation and will gather them in all Nations into this House of the Lord where there is Bread enough and the false Prophets and foolish blind Priests in this Age are in Hatred against this House of the Lord of Hosts and against the Gatherings of his People in it and the Flewings together of the Nations unto it according to the Word of the Lord but the Work of the Lord doth prosper and will prosper and all Opposers of it except they repent will perish for the false Shepherds shall howl and their Pastere shall be spoiled For you have despised and rejected the Counsel of the great Shepherd and Bishop of the Soul and are Opposers of the Work of his Spirit in his People who have received the Truth the Spirit of Christ And if any Man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his as the Apostle saith and those that walk in the Obedience of the Measure of his Spirit you have hated and persecuted and some of you being fill'd with Envy against them have turned informers like Judas that informed against Christ for Money after he had betrayed the Truth in himself the Devil entered and fitted him with Envy to come against Christ and his Disciples where they were assembled to betray them into the Hands of their Enemies and hath not Envy filled some of your Hearts and so fitted you to inform against the Assemblies gathered in the Name and Spirit of Christ as some of you have done and have sworn against them and one confest before the Magistrate that he did not know that ever he had seen some of their Faces before and yet some time before had sworn they were at the Meeting but all must be
THE MARKS OF THE True Church THE Virgin Spouse of Christ that brings forth by a Holy Seed the Birth that pleaseth GOD. And the MARKS of the False Church or Whore that brings forth by an Evil Seed the Cursed Birth that never could please God Signified by a Voice from the Word of Life or a Certain Sound of the Trumpet that hath awakened Thousands that were asleep in the Night of thick Darkness and Apostacy who are come to the Judgment of the Truth that redeems out of BABYLON and brings to SION By which all are Summoned that are yet afar off to appear before and stand to the Judgment of the Ingrafted Word in their Hearts that by it they may know What they are joyned to By Morgan Watkins What know ye not that he which is joyned to an Harlot is one Body for two saith he shall be one Flesh But he that is joyned unto the Lord is one Spirit 1 Cor. 6.16 17. Printed in the Year 1675. The MARKS of the TRVE CHVRCH the Virgin and Spouse of Christ that brings forth by a Holy Seed the Birth that pleaseth God I. THey are such who are turned from Darkness unto Christ the true Light that shines in their Hearts who believe and walk in it and are turned from the Power of Satan unto the Power of God that they receive in Christ the Light to become his Sons having Redemption through his Blood the Forgiveness of Sin and Sanctification in and by that Life that is the Light of Men and made Partakers of the Inheritance of the Saints in Light II. Such who have received the Word in a Measure that spake in the Prophets by which they prophesied and was their Foundation which the Apostles were Ministers and Preachers of and was their Foundation which they turned the People to and they that believed it was their Foundation and they that believe and have received the Truth now it is their Foundation and the Rock in all Ages For other Foundation can no Man lay then that is laid which is Jesus Christ 1 Cor. 3.11 God's Foundation that he hath laid for the Salvation of every Man which is the Word grafted in them that is able to save the Souls of all that receive it Jam. 1.21 But they that reject it perish and are but the Chaff that the Wind blows to and fro III. Such who are in the Unity of the Spirit of Truth and the Righteousness which is of Faith that saith The Word is nigh thee in thy Mouth and in thy Heart that is the Word of Faith that Faith comes by the Hearing of and the Word which the Apostles preached Rom. 10.6 8. IV. Unfeigned Love to God and to the Brethren By this shall all Men know saith Christ that ye are my Disciples if ye have Love one to another John 13 35. V. Such who are born again of Incorruptible Seed by the Word of God which liveth and abideth forever 1 Pet. 1.23 And are renewed in the Spirit of their Minds being by one Spirit all baptized into one Body and have been all made to drink into one Spirit by which they are quickned into one Life which is the Flesh and Blood of Christ that comes down from Heaven the Children's Bread as Christ saith He that eateth me even he shall live by me John 6.57 And this is the Life that brings forth Fruit of Righteousness and Birth of God that overcomes the World and is made manifest to that of God in every Man's Conscience VI. Such who make a good Confession by giving up themselves to suffer for the Righteousness sake of the Kingdom of God and do not deny him before Men by a subjecting to their Wills against the Requirings of the Spirit of God but are made willing to drink of the Cup and be baptized with the Baptism their Lord and Master was baptized with patiently taking up his Cross contentedly bearing his Reproach and continuing faithful to the Death VII Humility and self Denyal hating Covetousness Pricle and the Pomp vain Glory and Honour of this World having the Faith of our Lord Jesus Christ without Respect of Persons Not having Mens Persons in Admiration because of Advantage but doing Good unto all especially to the Houshould of Faith Visiting the Sick and Imprisoned for Righteousness sake the Fatherless and Widdows in their Affliction keeping themselves unsported from the World Jam. 1.27 VIII Such who are Witnesses of the Spirit 's Confession that Christ is come in the Flesh and hath condemned Sin in it in the Hour of his Judgment that the Body of Sin might be destroyed by him that is come and received To take away the Sin and bring in the perfect Righteousness that being crucified with him and so suffering with him in the Flesh dying with him that is by the Strength of his Power that overcomes Sin and Death we come to be raised up with him by the Power that raised him up and so come to live to God by him and in him and no more to the Lusts of the Flesh but to the Obedience of the Spirit and Power that gives us Victory over Death and raiseth the Soul to Life by the quickning Spirit that gives us a Will Desire Hunger Power and Strength to live to the Good Will and Pleasure of our unutterable good and gracious God of whose Mercy and Goodness some feel more then Tongue of Man can declare and God is Witness such would that all Men might feel the same and God is hastening his Work that Thousands of Thousands may feel it and sing of it in the Glory of his Presence for evermore Amen IX Such who in their Measures witness the Reign of Sin and Death put down in them with all its great Power and Authority by which it reigned from Adam until Moses and doth still in all that have not received the free Gift of Righteousness in which is God's Power revealed and such are pleading for the Reign and Law of Sin and for the Body of Sin to live in them till they dye because they are under its Reign But as I have said The Members of the True Church witness him come whose Right it is to reign in them who having received him the Gift of God hath and is putting down all Authority and all Rule that is not of God nor ought to reign and rule in Man so casts out the Strong Man and spoils all his Goods And these know him in them mark that greater then he that is in the World who hath cast out the Prince of the World and reigns over Death and Hell And these are not looking for the Kingdom of Heaven to come with Outward Observations as the Hypocrites did of old and still do who look for the Reign of a Person without them and know not that Hell and Death reigns in them which some of late did know to their Sorrow that others might be warned who see not him that is invisible to the Carnal Eye
construed for the Purpose that is to spoil the Goods of those that cannot forsake the assembling of themselves together in the true Worship of God And some of you have procured Warrants to spoil the Goods of your Neighbours and some have spoiled them over and over and prosecuted those that would not spoil them Is this the Way to teach the People to Love their Neighbours as themselves and to do to all People as they would be done unto this is the Way indeed to manifest what Spirit you are of and so People may read your Father's Name in your Forehead 's whose Works do you do what Spirit leads you whether the Spirit of Cain that wicked One or the Spirit of Abel the Righteous One by your Fruits you are known Doth the Work of this Spirit confess that Christ is come in your Flesh that Righteous One or Anti-christ that Wicked One whom Christ is Consuming with Breath of his Mouth and the Brightness of his â—oming Was it ever known that a Minister of Christ was an Informer against Christian Meetings no it never was nor ever will be for such are not in the Doctrine of Christ but in the Practice of those the Scripture calls Wolves in Sheeps Cloathing but in this Work of Informing the Wolf only appears that comes to devour so that Spirit that preacheth for Hire is the same that spoils Men's Goods for Hire and he that takes Wages of Unrighteousness doth the Work of Unrighteousness Did not those that devoured Wiâ—dows Houses do the Work of Unrighteousness though for a Pretence made long Prayers and those were Enemies to Christ then and can they be Friends now no such are an ill Savour to God and a Stink in his Nostrils what have such to do to take his Name into their Mouthes who hate to be reformed by his Spirit and persecute those that are How many Souls are you guilty of the Blood of And how many Bodies have you cast into Prison till Death How many Widdows and Fatherless Children have you made in this Nation because they could not put into your Mouthes knowing what Spirit you were of and that the Lord never sent you as by your Fruits you have manifested to the View of the Nation and Thousands see you and will buy your Merchandize no more and if you cannot compel them by your Law then you make Merchandize and Spoil of their Goods But Wo is unto you that ever you were born because of the terrible Day that is coming upon you which you can no wayes escape but by coming out of her in whom is found all the Blood of the Saints and Martyrs and all that have been slain for the Testimony of Jesus upon the Earth For now the Everlasting Gospel is preaching that shall be preached to all Nations Tongues and Languages for the gathering of the Gentiles to their Light and Israel to the Hope of their Glory For to him shall the Gathering of the People be and the Gentiles shall walk in thy Light and Kings in the Brightness of thy Rising then thou shall see and shine thy Heart shall be astonished and enlarged because the Multitude of the Sea shall be converted unto thee and the Riches of the Gentiles shall come unto thee Isa 60.3.5 For the Lord shall be thy Everlasting Light and thy God thy Glory Ver. 19. Thy People also shall be all Righteous they shall possess the Land forever the Graft of my planting shall be the Work of mine Hands that I may be glorified a little One shall become a Thousand and a small One as a strong Nation I the Lord will hasten it in due Time And this is that Jerusalem prophesied of that should be a Burthensom Stone unto all Nations which is become a burthensome Stone in this Nation but all that burthen themselves with it shall be broken in Pieces by it and how many have been broken in Pieces by it that opposed it in this Nation and all that yet shall oppose it in this or any other Nation shall be broken in Pieces and confounded by it except they repent and be gathered into it for God is making his little One to become a Thousand and his small One a strong Nation and these are his holy Nation and peculiar People and spiritual Priesthood that are gathered out of the Flesh where none can please God into the Spirit of his Son where all walking do please him and these cannot please Men for the Gift that God hath given that Man is to receive if he please God the VVisdom of the Flesh did alwayes reject in all Ages and so it doth in this and it was a stumbling Stone and a Rock of Offence to the VVise and Prudent of this World among the Jews in that Age disallowed of Men but chosen of God elect and precious to those that believe both Jews and Gentiles in all Ages a tryed Corner-Stone the Power of God to all those that receive it who through Obedience of it become the Sons and Daughters of God And now I warn all in this Nation that profess Christianity to consider your Wayes whether you are entered in at the straight Gate and whether you walk in the narrow VVay that only leads to Life for out of it there is no Salvation And God is risen to overturn every false VVay in this the Day of his Power in which the VVay of the VVicked shall be turned upside down but the VVay of the Lord shall be exalted which as the Apostle saith Is the New and Living Way the New Covenant of Light to the Gentiles that is Israel's Hope of Glory which is Christ the Spirit of Truth and VVord of Life in Man that whosoever receives and walks in is of God and come out of the VVorld but he that receives it not is not past from Darkness but is under the Power of it in the VVorld that lyeth in VVickedness where God is not pleased but as many as have received the VVord in their Hearts and in it believe are grafted by Faith into Christ the Root the Vine and Power of Life the incorruptible Seed the Word of God that liveth and abideth for ever and because he liveth all in him are made alive to God again and these walk in him that is his Spirit that God the Father hath given to lead them into all Truth and out of him none can please God nor walk in his Truth and these be his Disciples in this Age that have received him the VVord and for the Obedience of him the World hates them as it doth him and now persecutes him in his Members as he said they would and we witness his Word fulfilled in us but in his Spirit we have Victory over the World and their Spirit because he that we have received the Word the Spirit of Truth in us is greater then he that is in in the World and that Spirit that is in the World is now making â—ar against the Spirit which