and that not onely repeating the letter but in truth that those things which I have received have not beene from man nor woman nor any other thing but by the meere revelation of Jesus Christ in mee God manifesting himselfe in my owne flesh and therefore they much wrong both her and me that affirme it but especially they wrong or speake a lye of that God that did it for me and because I heare it so reported amongst you I thought good to write one word to cleare it that so whether you will heare or whether you will forbeare the word of truth might judge you give not eare therefore to all you heare though from brethren least you be brought into a snare for since the defection of the Churches men yea good men have been such lovers of themselves and their own opinions that they will speake largely upon little ground to keepe up their owne glory God having not yet undone them for were they once undone men they would willingly be what God would have them however the world accounts of them There is another thing which came to my care that it should be given into the Counsell by your two witnesses that the said Mrs P. should say that you cast her out for difference in judgement and when Collonell Rich and Collonell Harison asked to whom shee spake it they said to some of Abington Now indeed my husband said to you that he thought such a thing but when hee came home and saw so little ground for his thoughts I thinke he had but little comfort in telling you so and then brethren if you upon such slender grounds should act in this strange manner against her affirming this thing so publikely I thinke you have cause to bee humbled for it and justly to repent of your evill I desire you to beare a little with mee for truly it appeares to mee rather to bee your rage of spirit then your true love either to her or truth for mee thinkes it would savour more of a true Christian spirit if you had first spoken with her and have seene what change the Lord hath wrought in her as knowing that Mary out of whom seuen Divels had beene formerly cast was made the first messenger of Christs Resurrection yea and she must bring it to the Apostles and not the Apostles to her You say in your letter that you left her to the judgement of the great day and I beseech you brethren doe you not againe take her into your owne daie for truly I beleeve that daie in a measure hath come upon her and the Lord himselfe is at worke with her therefore doe not feare but the worke will be well done onely we as well as shee must have patience in it and surely this is the confidence that I have concerning her that she hath seen evill in that estate she walked in with you and certainly God is good to her in this shewing her what an abominable spirit of wickednesse may bee hid under the greatest practises and professions of externals not that these are the cause of it no the gold and the silver is mine saith the Lord but wee bestowing it upon our lovers and making our selves great with his ornaments he is fain in love to us to take us from them or they from us and so finde out a more sprirituall administration to perfect us in Oh the infinite riches of our God! where doth his bounty â—nd sure his waies of love are unsearchable eâ—d his paths of mercy in which he followes anore fallen man and poor backsliding soules are past finding out how narrow are our capacities we judge as men We may think as some did of David that there is no help for such things in God but all things in truth will be found possible with him even where they are altogether past our thoughts and conceptions and become to us impossible I beseech you therefore be perswaded to bow down to him I know you are conscious that all judgement is not committed unto you and therefore it is possible you may not judge right in this thing for truly brethren we may conceive many things even by the letter it self yet not living in that spirit that writ the letter we may erre I pray do not mistake me as if I would any way speak slightly of the letter farther than it speaks of it self no I blesse the Father for it and by sweet experience can say that I was never so confirmed in it now the Lord hath drawn me to him out of it even in that spirit that wrote it I am for the conscionable use of it but I would not abuse it I am sure those men that would set it above the spirit can hardly free themselves from that thing I hope therefore you will not count it your excellency to walk in the letter but rather desire the Lord to perfect you in that spirit that writes the letter for then and never till then shall we be able to walk by it aright and speak of the letter truly I have not yet acquainted my husband with your letter I shall wait upon God what answer to receive from you for truly dear brethren upon serious deliberation I know not how to approve my self faithfull in the eyes of God to my brethren here if I should deliver it for God having put it into my hand I must also see clearnes from him before I part with it for though blessed be the father we have a sweet hopefull people amongst us that wait upon God and have fellowship one with another yet whether they may digest such things as you write of I really question therefore it would be unfaithfulnes in me if I apprehending an evill to them or any other should not as much as in me lies prevent it and this I shall doe by detaining the Letter till further manifestation from God what to do with it Doe not judge me in this thing I beseech you I have one Judge even the Lord and he that put it into my hand will aâ— length clear my integrity in it I have nothing to doe for my self in it the Lord knows only to find out if it may be how I may approve my self â—aithfull to men in the Lord and for the Lords â—ake Your desire I exceedingly like that we may be kept from errours and the Lord keep us all from errours but who must shew us what errour is but the God of truth himself we have lived in errour and have suckt them in from our cradles and yet who will speak so much against error as we stating our selves still in the truth My sweet friends the day of truth is but now dawning upon us and how is it opposed even by those that are children of truth in their measure yet wee have all looked for it and prayed together for it a long time but truly now we will not own our prayers but turn away our face from our Saviour because he comes
friends with you 2. Letter My dear friend IN whom I have rejoyced I hold my selfe bound to acquaint you with the wonderfull dealings of my God with me It is so that I am called into judgement and the Books are opened and the booke of life is opened and I am judged according to all things which are written in the books Yet neither of these books is that Bible-book which we have hug'd so long as our onely happinesse I would not hore now be mistaken for I doe not say this judgement is not spoken off in the Bible neither those boâ—ks out of which I am judged for that they are both of them and yet I say that the Bible in the letter of it as it is bound up there is not the book I would not for a world take away any thing from the Bible or any of the excellency of that which is therein written but I would have it set in the right place I would not have it taken for God himselfe and yet God is in it and the letter of it is a very sweet manifestation of God but it is not God though God I say be manifested in this flesh But though wee have knowne things after the flesh yet henceforth we will know them so no more for indeed except wee come through the flesh which is the vail we cannot enter into the holiest for the outward Court is given to the Gentiles and it shall not bee measured wee all desire and strive to enter into rest the Lord give us hearts therefore that we faile not because of unbeliefe But indeed our lives and also our spirits are so full of prejudicate opinions that wee are apt to think the worst of every thing whereas if we were the children of God and like our Father we then should live in God which is love yea we should then be made one with this love Certainly we may feare that those Children are basely begotten that doe not in any way resemble their Father Deare friend such a like generation have we begotten amongst us for if we were like our Father we then should hope all things beleeve all things think no evill not be lifted up in our selves but thinke of every one better then of our selves But though the seed of the Serpent be sowen amongst us yet I say againe I would not bee mistaken by you for I am not against the use of the Bible for I see a true sweet lovely spirit in the writings of it though yet I would have you know that I dare not justifie all things as they lye in the letter of it not because the truth is not in it but because of the abuse of that truth by the fals translation of it for every one when he translates a Coppy writes it as he thinks fit and so puts in and leaves out according to his conceptions and we all are not ignorant what hands these coppies have come thorow I beseech you therefore to wait upon that one spirit which is in you he it is that shall lead you into all truth and I am sure that when God hath written his own truth within you then you will be able as well as the Apostles to write a Bible or any book else without you I am very confident did the Apostles live in our dayes they would be exceedingly grieved to see us appropriate the spirit onely to them when indeed the spirit cannot be confined for it is God himself and this God is in you and with you though you know it not so well as I could wish you did Let us therefore leave off all our appropriations and distinctions and then doe you tell me what you finde but God we have been apt indeed to say Lo hear he is and there he is but this is a lye for he is every where and he is not any where as confin'd or distinct from himself I beseech you therefore in the bowels of mercy that you be carefull what you doe I have one thing to acquaint you with which indeed was the cause of my present writing and its this That seeing as I have told you the great day of the Lord is come upon me and every thing is brought into judgement I cannot but minde you of one thing which past betwixt us and it was this you told me once of your visiting a maid which said that she lived in heaven and above the Bible even in God and by the Revelations of his own spirit which much stumbled both you and me Now I am come to tell you that this maid is risen in me and that I know now what she meant being by the wonderful goodnes of my God taken in to the same life my self and it is but lately accomplished upon my soule Shee meant therefore above the letter of that word in the Bible that indeed was dead too her but she lived in the spirit and life of it which was and is in God himself and this is the life which we all have groaned after and yet when God comes to take us out of those graves of sin and self apropriations and to loose those Chains and Bonds which we have in our darknesse and ignorance been brought into by distinctions we are afraid of him and not onely like Mary take him for the Gardner but wee are even afraid that it is Satan himself transformed as we call it into an Angel of light when indeed that is the very Satan that tels us so though he sets before us a seeming good but we are not ignorant of his wiles This was the Apple which he deceived our Mother Eve withall even this seeming good and hath ever since caused us to surfeit with it even to take things that are not for what they are in truth therefore take notice by the way that those things are not that seem to be or visibly doe appear to our sight but the things that are invisible and cannot appear to our fleshly sight those are the things in truth and therefore take notice of this that all this outward frame of things which doth appeare to our fleshly sight is but a resemblance or a figure of him which is invisible and cannot be seen but with a pure spirituall sight I speak all this for your and others sakes which yet stick in the flesh of Christ For I blesse my God I am got through it even within the vaile and I see him who is invisible with the eyes of my spirit and certainly I had these visible eys given me as a signe or a shadow of the substance Blessed therefore be the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ which hath not suffered me to stick in any thing below himself but hath brought me through all the wiles and cunning deceits of Satan and hath at length centured me in himself and hath caused me to sit down and rest in his own bosome Let therefore our heavenly Father bee glorified for this his great goodnes towards the Sonnes of
streames or of Euphrates the pleasant vallies turned into a parched wildernesse and all in order to a more higher fuller and excellenter glory this is prophesied of in the Scripture The Sunne shall bee turned into darknesse and the Moone into blood before that great and notable day of the Lord come that is not onely the Lord Jesus will be darknesse unto the world which I deny not but all that which was the glory and light of a Christian and high-way of communion with God his Sunne Moone and Starres shall be darkned c. before that notable day or that more excellent revelation of God in glory and 1 Pet. 3. 10. The heavens shall passe away with a great noise and the Element shall melt with fervent heat and the earth with the works that are therein shall be burnt up which is not onely at the last judgement but upon perticular administration which is figured out in the heavens earth and elements or those more or lesse glorious administrations and the fire shall try every mans work of what sort it is 1 Cor. 3. 13. 15. And as Christ crucified all that glorious administration in the flesh in which he was and it all dyed to a more glorious life so every Christian is to take up his crosse or to bring his highest and cheifest administrations to this crosse and to leave them all crucified to more higher excellenter discoveries and this is the knowledge of Christ crucified now many Christians who are sadded darkned and in much tribulation as to the administration they are under and in looking into the wildernesse seeing nothing but mount Sinai with blacknesse and darknes and tempest they take it for desertions and withdrawings of God when as indeed it is the presence of God darkning withering and consuming such administrations and the bringing in a more fuller and transcendent glory The next ministration will be the appearing of Christ in brightnesse and glory of Spirit destroying Antichrist with the spirit of his mouth and brightnes of his comming this shall be a glory without Sun or Moon or Star or any such low appearance as gift or ordinance but the Lord shall be there everlasting light and God the glory and light shall cover the earth as waters cover the Sea that is it shall not sparkle or be in bright beams as in a Gift or Ordinance but it shall slow out from the Lord swallowing up and overflowing all earthly administrations that expectation of him in externall administrations as Gifts or Ordinances c. is but to expect Christ in a fleshly way or appearance and not as he is in his own height spirit and glory in himselfe in his Saints their fulnesse and hope of glory Col. 1. 27. And therefore this is that which is to be expected an estate of spirit love meeknes self-denyall overcoming evill with good conquering by receiving in the wrath and enmity of the world into which estate God will gather up his people by times and degrees from all worldy and fleshly interests and ingagements wherein they shall be carried up into a more full injoyment of God and conformity to Christ in all his sufferings death and resurrection where God will be to all his sâ— glorified as broad rivers and streams where shall goe no Ship with sailes nor Gally with Ores And then it shall be as much apostacy in the Saints to go back to the first ministery of the Gospel times or first patterne which was the first discovery of that mystery hid from ages as would have been in them in the Apostles dayes to have gone back to the Jewish Tabernacle Temple and Priest-hood c. out of which God had departed as he also hath out of these late administrations Furnell 8. Letter Loving Cozen DEarly and much beloved there is some content in nature that you abide in the flesh with me and are yet an appearance of God upon the Earth for I confesse I have none so neere my heart as you of a fleshly beeing in the world therefore I have been affected with the kindnesse of the Lord that hath spared you that I might not have sorrow upon sorrow my sister being removed yet have I more sweet joy and content in understanding that you are in the fellowship of the Spirit growing forward through al the dark shadows of seeming glory into the substance which is reall glory for in that you say you see God is all and doth all I question not but you understand that all things below him are but shaddows of him yea Christ himself in his fleshly appearance was but a form of God which appeared to answer our distance from God for wee being departed from him by experiencing the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evill of which food I hope we have our fill now God condescending to redeem us from this by the way of Christ who was appointed of God to bring us unto God not to himself as he was Christ beeing but an appearance of God not the Father himself Therefore if we should sit down with Christ being come to him and proceed no further we are not brought by him to the Father And the will of God is that we be co-heires and joint heires together with him till we know that the Father and the Son are in one and we one with the Father as the Son For I believe that God even the Son of God doth dwell in us even the same that dwelt in Christ Jesus and I am waiting when that heavenly Image shall as plainly appear as the Image of the earthly hath appeared for we shal see his face and his name shall be upon our foreheads Deere Cozen since I received your letter I have seen you in a Vision and so was it represented to me that I understand that you have or shall bring forth the man Childe even Christ to open veiw for which you must die and be buried I mean you shall appear to some as one dead to truth and God and alive to errour and so you shall be as one dead and put into a grave of darknes and silence yet fear not for I have proved that the day of death is better then the day of Birth And that by death Christ brought to light life and immortality Remember also Christ was put to death in the flesh and was alive to God his flesh was as pure and honourable as even ours was yet by the eternall Spirit within it was offered a Spirituall Sacrifice to God whilest the dark apprehensions of men conclude that he suffered as a blasphemer therefore arm your self with the same minde always expecting we shall surely rise with him as we suffer together with him for indeed we are but one in life and death And he is the resurrection and the life even Christ in us who is rising in me and either is or will rise in you And when he doth appear we shall appear with him I pray you deare Cozen as often
c. And when that which is perfect is come that which is in part shall bee done away God hath hitherto as Joseph did by his brethren spoken to us by an interpreter because hee would act at more distance but when grace and love can contain no longer God will as Joseph did command all to goe forth and cry out I am hee and show himselfe in uncovered clearnesse this administration God hath entred upon already in some of his people and they beginne to get a glimpse of the face of God and are acquainted with immediate actings in their owne hearts I thinke the last meanes that God will make use of will be such as the creature will be glad to be free from I meane persecution reproach poverty c and possibly somewhat more terrible and contrary to wise and proud flesh then all this for as for these means of preaching praying gathering wherein the creature can be active and hououred and serve God and it selfe and goe halfe with him as I may say in point of honour the creature will with a great deale of reluctancy bee drawne from them for truly there 's much credit comes into us by such things and usually those who openly hate us doe inwardly honour us for them besides the secret confidence and comfort that our selves and friends have in them But when God shall administer under such meanes as we shall be more passive in and such as will sift us to the very soule and spirit and let us know all that is in our hearts such as will cause â—s to be suspected of our selves sleighted by others forsaken of our freinds and such too as have not onely beene one flesh but one spirit with us when religion shall come to that passe that he that will professe Christ must professe poverty disgrace c. then we shall be glad to be freed from the meanes and to have God be all in all for in this way that Saints are in for present they are so rich and abounding as I doe not wonder they are offended that God will strip the creature naked and bee all himselfe Verily its a terrible thing for one that hath thriven in the things of God and grown rich in reputation to be administred in such a way as Professors themselves will thinke him an Apostate an Atheist and those that are more charitable a deluded or a mad man well God in himself will make amends for God in the severest dispensations And there is that man-child ere long to be brought forth in us in spirit and truth which wee have hitherto been delivered of in flesh and darke appearances and when he comes the wildernesse and solitary place shall be glad for him or as Esay in another place Wee shall returne to Sion with Songs and everlasting joy upon our heads and John carries it further yet 1 John 3. 2. When hee shall appeare wee shall be like him for wee shall know him as hee is Your loving c. 13. Letter Sir I Lately received three Letters from you and some Books for which I thank you As for Mr. Sedgewicks book I am not to tell you at present what I think of it God will doe great things by himself the Army and all that they settle must be destroyed without hands the Spirit will blow upon all flesh and yet they are to settle because drawn out so to do and their setting up is Gods work as well as his throwing down he doth the one by the creature the other by himself I think the intentions of the Army are in their kinde so righteous as man will not be able to dissolve them but because all flesh is grâ—sse it must wither God will be great to the ends of the earth and every thing shall be restored into the glorious liberty of the Sons of God the heavens shall no longer conâ—â—â—â— him The earth shall be fild with knowledge of God the earth shall bee sanctified by the Word by the manifestation of God upon it things shall not be morally but spiritually restored the Serpent shall be shut out of Paradise the Tree of Life shall grow on both sides the River Publicans and Sinners shall rejoyce the wise and prudent shall mourn all the beasts of the field shall rejoyce and feed on the Tree of Life the Serpent shall be glutted with dust judgement shall dwell in the wildernesse the high-way shall be holinesse there shall bee no more sin for there shall bee no more self and no more curse but the fruit of the earth shall be beautifull and comely for death and hell shall be cast into the lake of fire Thou art righteous oh Lord which art which wast and shall bee because thou hast judged thus Let the heavens be glad and the earth rejoyce Let the Sea roare and the fulnes thereof for he commeth for he commeth to judge the earth he shall judge the world with righteousnes and the people with truth Yours in the Lord. 14. Letter Sir YOURS came to my hands when your friends were with mee who all of them in much freedome injoy your bondage till he that hath the Keyes of the bottomlesse Pit shall release you It s good being in Hell sometimes for variety and to be in the Sea to see the wonders of God in the deep I have beene lately my selfe in the bottome of it where I found a Pearle that 's richer then the earth and I doubt not but providence will prepare you a table in the wildernesse too It hath been the Lot of all of us to be where you are and I thinke some of us stay behinde on purpose to beare you company The bright day must bee brought in by the darkest night and the voyce at midnight will be the Bridegroome is come Since the flesh must dye it were well it were killed at once yet since the execution is so terrible its mercy we dye by degrees dye daily and if we did not dye too so as to perceive that we dye it would doe us no good however it is best you should be dispensed as you are because God will have it as it is whose will is the rule of goodnesse and not our understanding I conceive the reason why you have not heard from those your friends all this time is because they were not at home they were absent from the Lord sure it will not be alwayes thus but so long as there is any thing of earth in us there will bee Eclipses and absence when wee are caught up into the ayre we shall be ever with the Lord. Yours in the Lord. 15. Letter Loving Sister MY Love remembred to you and to the rest of my Sisters hoping that you are in good health as I am at this present These lines are for to certifie you concerning the present dealings of God with me He hath been pleased to make known much of himself and doth make me claim my ownes with himself saying That all things are of
not in such a garb as we imagined he would when we know it s his prerogative to cloath himself with what flesh or garment he pleases brethren what would you have doe you not know that a glorious day hath been spoken of ever since the Prophets and the Apostles Though the day was dawned upon them yet they bid their hearers not to be terrified as if that day were near for saith he there must be a falling away first and that wicked one be revealed notwithstanding Peter could them that he was a partaker or that glory that should be afterwards revealed However saith he you have a more sure word of Prophesie to which yee doe wâ—ll to take heed as if he had said Brethren we have been with the Lord in the mount and have beheld that excellent glory but yet to you that have not so seen Christ there is a more sure word of Prophesie for visions and revelations doe most especially confirme and strengthen those that have them but here is a word that is spoken to all and is as a light shining in a dark place therefore you do well to take heed to it till the day dawn and the day star arise in you own hearts and you be swallowed up with that glory that now you expect and wait for onely know this that no private spirit can understand these Scriptures that speak of that day it must be the spirit of God alone let us cease from our own spirits therefore for they are selfish and private bound up to this and that and so would confine God also but his Spirit is as large as himself it s without bounds it s neither here nor there distinct but it is individually every where But that which I desire you to consider from these Scriptures is that this day of falling away hath been and all the world hath wondred after the beast since the Apostles time therefore how near may we expect our glory we should not be troubling our selves therefore still with falling away but now look for a rising for sure man hath had his day and now the Lord will have his day now seeing this day of the Lord must have a dawning and some Disciples may be taken up into the Mount before other some it should teach us not to judge our brethren that spcak of higher injoyments then we have for we being behinde should rather judge our selves seeing we are more in the day of man and acknowledge our selves so to be still looking for and hastening to the day of God in which we may act self or selfishly no longer but our God may bring forth his own righteousnesse in us and truly brethren you may be satisfied in this that we are very industrious to keep our selves from errour but we know that in his strength we shall be perfected and when himself comes and speaks then shall we know that it is he and truly brethren I would not have you infidels but believing this day hath taken some unawares and though many may have it in notion yet I am sure that some have it in power I have one thing more to you concerning your letter and truly I cannot but wonder at it that is how you durst so peremptorily to judge the woman that she brought a delusion for a vision of God I beseech you consid er seriously before the Lord whether it was so or no before you make it so publike and send it forth with the authority of a Church surely friends you will much abuse the authority of your Church in affirming meer supposition for truth the Lord be pleased to open your eyes in this thing it may be your father in mercy desires a little to plead with you by a weak instrument and therefore put the letter into my hand that so he might put some stop to your furious driving and truly I can look upon it no other wayes therefore willingly meet your God in this mercifull act towards you for if you doe not the dumb Asse next time may reprove you I confesse soules I am the weakest of all a poore undone soule in my self the Lord alone take all the glory yet if I may be usefull as being one of the body in keeping you from doing greater evils I shall be willing and rejoyce though I go under never so great an odium my self for sure friends account of me how you will I am one of you tenderly affect you and in this thing would have God truly exalted For this grace is given me to love truth under any appearance though indeed that may sometimes appear to men to be truth which I cannot close with but I mean any appearance that my God comes in and I hope shall be more and perfected in it and indeed it is sweet to me that he hath given me through mercy to know his voyce from a stranger It may be the world may judge me for it because it comes not in their form but I shall rest in the Lord well brethren if you see mercy to you in that which the Lord hath spoken by me receive it and rejoyce in him it may be I may prove to you as Abigail did to David keep you from shedding blood and from avenging your selves with your own hand the Lord shew us therefore what that scripture meaneth I will have mercy and not sacrifice there be many things in the letter of the scripture which we through weaknes may think to be sacrifice as the Pharisees did when God abhors it and will have none of it in such a time as he cals for mercy therefore he bids us learn what that meaneth we may have it read it speak it but to learn the inside of it learn what it meaneth will be our comfort and our Crown and truly my dear friends I am perswaded that this is a time in which mercy is required of us towards our Sister and not such sacrifice If you please to send me a word of answer leave it with Mr. C. I doe not think it fit as yet that you acquaint my husband with it not for unlawfulnesse sake but inconveniency for surely brethren I am not willingly carryed to give you or him or any one offence onely as the Lord manifests it to be his will and then I must leave Father and mother and all and cleave to him Let me have your answer as soon as you can but I beseech you do not answer me but the Lord and then see how you can justifie your selves in him therefore shall I wait for it and dear souls though I am nothing and can doe nothing in my self yet I beseech you doe not reject any word of truth love and sincerity that God sends by my hand Job saith He did not reject the cause of his Maid servant when it came before him though the word saith they contended with him I can give you more satisfaction if you please how I came by the letter I am sure
as conveniently you may let me hear from you I would not burden you 9. Letter Deare Sister WITH the rest of my fellow heires in the Son-ship in this unity of Truth and Love I salute you I thanke you for appointing a freind to relate to mee your estate in the things of God of whom I received information to much content having for a long time before had great desire to understand your condition and am now fully satisfied in it as for the dealings of the Lord with me I am free to give you some account I am indeed in the judgement of those to whom the day of judgement is not yet come accounted and termed an Heretique but in the light and truth of God a Co-heire with Christ being annointed with the same oyle of gladnesse which is indeed joy to the spirit and as marrow to the bones and a perpetual light of truth in certainty and power and in such fulnesse already that he beares witnesse to himselfe in others that it is hee and fulnesse of wisdome and might to answer all the occasions that he is pleased to present himselfe to me and magnify himselfe in mee as for the Scripture it is much unsealed and I have sweet sellowâ—sip in that one spirit that throdgbout all ages declared the Father the Son as for the ministry of Angels I know it having for a long time beene under it but of late have had knowing understanding of it and fellowship with understanding among them truly my deare companions our God that saveth us is perfect and so is his salvation which when we shall be by him circumcised in heart which is the taking away the fleshly vaile and the face of the covering that is spread over all Nations Isaiah 25. then shall wee see and with joy possesse together that it is the same strong one that prepareth us and júdgeth darknesse I speake not this as if darknesse were contrary to this mighty God for in his light it is that hee is at unity with all the workes of wonder which hee brings forth darknesse is not so to him for the darknesse lo him is as cleare as the noon-day that is hee seeth as fully and posseth as contentedly his will in the darknesse as in the light and when wee are taken into that eternall light we shall see our God is as rich and wonderfull in the deeps of darknesse as in the clearest light for in the unity of the spirit it is easily discerned that God is one in all though different in comming forth for as in a garden the severall colours of flowers make the most glorious appearance even so light and darknesse are the two generall treasures of the Almighty in both which hee is infinite and wonderfull and as hee pleaseth to take us into either of these so it is to make himselfe known in his unsearchable greatnesse as in Isay he sayth Hee will give unto us the hidden treasures of darknesse and Malachi sayth that the Sunne of Righteousnesse shall arise upon us Both which Scriptures import to me that God himselfe in his apperance to us is both the treasures of darknesse and the Sunne of Righteousnesse and it is all one to me whether hee take me with him into the heights above or into the depths beneath for wee are ever together and I possesse the fulfilling of that Scripture which sayth where I am there shall my Servant bee so that when God my excellency will appeare in the externall creation which is a thick vail and the invisible one much hid in it yet I have sweet discerning of him and fellowship with him there and when hee takes me into the deeps of darknes God my glory is with me and we either see us one or lie down in one and when hee will ascend into the highest Heavens he carrieth me up along with him What is all this but the manifestation that his dwelling place is large and deepe and that hee himselfe is the one infinitenesse The fulnesse that filleth all in all things 10. Letter Sir I Received yours which brings mee the state of affaires then in agitation between the Parliament and Army you send mee what they best approve of and what they dare not owne No wonder if some good men are upon this dilemma many I know are almost broken betweene those principles they call of Reason and those of God the first acknowledging man to be compounded of two natures earth and heaven light and darknesse breake the actions into severall streames as if of two and not one person It is our misery and the sadnesse of our spirits that we are held in these chaines of earth and darknesse that wee are fetterd in these prisons of mortality and are not free in all things to act like our selves as sprung from a divine Principle as born of a nobler seed and putting forth the strength and power of the divine nature in actions purely and simply spirituall But if this light shineâ— not upon our spirits in its Meridian-glory let us wait till the Sunne riseth let us not walke in the paths of darknesse according to the principle and spirit of this world There is glorious light in the east already the Mountaine tops beginne to discover it When I looke upon the world and survay the actions of men when I consider the interests and principles of the most the fleshly toylings and struglings of the spirits of the worlds reformers I cannot but see much weaknesse and darknesse generating poore and spiritlesse designes which rend and teare and never bind up the breaches of a Kingdome 'T is true the body politicke as you write was desperately sicke and a desperate disease must have a desperate cure but consider the nature of the disease and then judge of the meanes to cure it All the properties of hell and darknes all the superfluities of folly and vanity all the mists of errour and superstition had formd themselves into a body of corruption and so assaulted and possessed the vitall parts both of Church and State seizing the heart and spirits of government and religion the soule of both were fled there remained little but a poore carkass a painted image a spiritless form without any motion but artificiall and violent But tell me what is the Physick to cure this Lethargy Parliament and People Church and State Soul and Body were languishing with this sickness A spirit of reformation begins to worke The faint breathings of the spirit of life puts some upon indeavours to undertake the cure some according to the spirit that acted them mixt ingredients earthly and carnall ignorant Empiricks who knew not the nature of the disease or cure others ransacke the bowels of nature and reason study the practises and prescriptions of the old Heroe's of the world the Heathen Conquerers and reformers of Nations and yet never rise so high either in magnanimity or greatnesse of spirit to doe good in their generations and command themselves