head with Notions and comprehending of Mysteries which were very pleasant and delightful unto me Thus I wandred up and down from one tree of knowledge to another and in many a by-path I trod seeking for rest but found none and though the Spirit of innocency often cryed in me Return return and come into the narrow-way which leads to life yet I flattered my self that I had been there already and that I was now come to the Borders of Canaan one while conceiving my self there and set down with Abraham Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdom but by and by a branch from the old Root would arise in me and break forth into passion rash and hasty words and overturn all my Confidence again and give me to understand I was not in that Kingdom for that there was nothing of Pride or Passion self-conceit or vain laughter or foolish and idle talking and jeasting but giving of thanks and rejoycing in the Lord continually and that they who were in that kingdom were led by the Spirit lived in the Spirit and walked in the Spirit and were at rest in the Lord injoying the fellow ship and society of just mens Spirits Now that I was not here I was clearly convinced often and instead of enjoying this state I had the other set before me as my Condition and the Lord let me see how my poor Soul was be-wildred And then after 14 years wandring up and down I began to see and find my way out and not till then Then I saw my self at a loss and in the dark and was made to confess That if I had perished in the Wilderness yet the Lord was righteous in my destruction because that when he would have led me by the gentle motions of his Spirit and Light in me yet I Refused it and went forth to men chusing the tree of Knowledge and neglecting the tree of Life for my â—ood But blessed be the God of Israel who is not a barren wilderness to those that seek him in truth and singleness of heart He shewed unto me the way that I should walk in to wit The strait and narrow â—ath which leads to Canaan and that by a foolish people in the Worlds esteem was I directed the way to eternal life But after I was perswaded of the way to life and convinced of the truth as it is in Jesus and after the seed of the Kingdom began to stir in my earthly tabernacle and to take root to my heart then the Enemy came in the form of an Angel and set me on a suddain upon the Pinacle of the Temple where I was made to beleeve I saw over all the Children of truth and was ready to sit down there also But after the Lord in his rich Mercy had let me see my danger and how I had been misled by the Angel of false Light He directed me to the low valley there to abide and assured me that if I would be a true Disciple of Christ indeed I must take up the Cross daily and follow him and be obedient to his Light in my Conscience which convinceth of the most secret sin And now that I may bring in my Testimony to the truth which was once delivered to the Saints and which now is again made known to the Children of the most High and That I may set to my Seal to the Doctrine of the Cross I here Declare to all the Sects up on earth and to all people high and low Professor or Prophane That the despised people whom the scorners of this age call QVAKERS are the true Disciples of Christ Jesus viz. Such amongst them as are faithful followers of the Lamb and obedient Children of the Light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world By them is the Everlasting Gospel preached again to the Sons and Daughters of men and blessed are all those that hear and obey the sound thereof The glad tydings of Salvation I say is preached by them and whosoever he be that shall bring any other Gospel is disowned by all the true Disciples of Jesus and Sons of the Light They are the Sheep of Christ and amongst them is the true Shepherd of Israel known and he goes in and out before them To them and in them hath the Light of the world appeared and the life of men communicated himself and I must say I sate in darkness till I heard them These are they who having past through all forms are come into the power and are knit together into one body whereof Christ Jesus is head These are they who take up their daily Cross and follow him These are they who pass through great tribulation and through many and fiery tryals These are they who are the true Worshippers who worship the Father in spirit and in truth and love not their lives unto death These are they who are Redeemed from the Earth though upon it These are they that are come to Mount Sion and to the City of the living God and to the innumera 〈…〉 of Angels and to the Spirits of just and 〈…〉 and to the General Assembly of the fir 〈…〉 se Names are written in Heaven These are 〈…〉 who are Sons of God and are led by the infallible spirit into all truth These are they who are joint-Heirs with Christ whose fellowship is with the Father and the Son in the Spirit and they shall Reign with him for ever and ever Glory be to his Name for evermore Friend by these I say was I directed to obey the light in my Conscience which convinceth of sin when nothing else can and to which they direct all men who are in the dark to follow In so doing was I brought out of darkness into his marvelous Light Glory be to the Light and to the Laâ—â— for evermore Thus I have given thee a short account of my journey so far and now can boldly say with David My hearts is fixed my heart is fixed and I have nought to do now but to give thanks and to follow the Lamb of God whithersoever he goes And now Friend let me ask thee Is the Lord the desire of thy soul And dost thou pant and breath after him as the Hart doth after the Water-brooks Is truth in the inward parts the thing thou would have And art thou indeed and in truth a true seeker of the Kingdom and restless till thou findst it Then let me advise thee Seeke the Lord where he may be found to wit in thy own heart for that it his Temple and there will he dwell if thou be upright I say the tabernacle of the Lord is with men and there only will he be found Scourge then out those Buyers and Sellers that dwell there suffer not the House of God to be a den for Thieves and Robbers to reside in for whilest thou givest entertainment unto them the Lord will not make his abode with thee Put therefore the evil thing out of thy Camp that so thou mayest receive
them not with mild perswasions but with cruel and merciless stripes upon their naked bodies with stockings stonings beatings long and tedious imprisonmets and other bitter usage which for shame I cannot mention And as if this had been too little I have caused some of them to be scourged twice or thrice for not bowing to my corrupt Will and worshipping me with their Hats off or for speaking to our blind Guide who calls himself a Minister And all this I have done contrary to the Law of the Land too and when I have so done I have with Passes sent them away as Vagabonds and Wanderers not suffering them though sufficient men and of good Estates near us to have a place in our quarters to dress their sore stripes deep wounds which my bloody Executioners have made upon their innocent and harmless bodyes nor yet a place wherein to rest their aking heads except in stocks dungeons close holes of little ease or filthy and stinking Goals amongst thieves and murtherers where many of them have finished their testimonies by death Now saith the guilty Magistrate This is the truth of my condition and thus have I served the Embassadors of Christ Jesus whom the malicious World cannot accuse of evil and my case is lamenable and the worse because what I have done was through the instigation of our Gospel-Minister as he called himself â—nd to please him who otherwise would not suffer me to be at rest crying out against them that they will undo us and our generation after us and render our Gospel to be Antichristian and our selves false Prophets as indeed we are and will make our nakedness and ignorance appear to all sober men if they be tollerated But that which is more considerable then all this I am afraid I have sinn'd the sin against the Holy Ghost which can never be forgiven and how shall I escape the damnation of Hell Friend Is this thy case indeed And art thou guilty so deeply as this in truth makes thee 'T is sad indeed Yet consider and for thy comfort I have this to say unto thee St. Paul was as great a Persecutor of the Saints as thou possibly hast been and as mad against them as the most of you have been or can be yet when the Light appeared to him and struck him from his horse or beastly nature of persecution he presently fell to the earth and with trembling and astonishing said Lord what wilt thou have me to do He did not as the blind Guides of this age say That the Light of Christ was natural and insufficient to guide him out of his darkness but he became obedient to the Light immediately though he saw no body consulting neither with flesh nor blood nor yet running to Gamaliel a great Doctor under whom he had been brought up for counsel but forthwith ceased from the sprit of persecution and obtained mercy So he being obedient to the Light became a true Disciple of Jesus and Preacher of the everlasting Gospel Acts 9. And now oh Magistrate know this That though thou hast been the greatest persecutor of the Saints amongst thy numerous Brethren and hast persecuted them until death as many in England have been for conscience-sake within these few years under a pretence of maintaining the Popish and Antichristian Law for Tythes and suppressing of Hereticks yet there is some hopes of mercy for thee also if thou canst in truth say That what thou didst then hast done ignorantly But if this be not thy case but hast wilfully transgressed and rebelled against the Light in thy conscience then O then â—hy condition is sad indeed and thou with the blind Guides art of all men most to be pittyed Examine therefore â—y own heart in secret and if thou findest that thou hast been a wilful Persecutor of Gods Servants cry mightily unto the Lord that the iniquity of thy heart may be forgiven thee and possibly thou mayest find hopes upon thy unfeigned confession and resolution to turn to the Lord and obey the Light within thee to obtain Mercy Cease I say from that Spirit of Persecution and become obedient for the future if peradventure thy fins may be blotted out A view of false Doctrines Or A Word of Reproof to false Teachers who boast that that they have the Original and yet are ignorant of the word of life FRiends to you all I speak who disown the Light of Christ within and count it a low thing a wo is pronounced unto you for your light is turned into darkness and your sweet into bitter and for the present see not your way before you the whole World lyes in wickedness and darkness is upon the faces of all who are led by you who preach for hire and divine for money contrary to the prophets phets and true Ministers of Christ you preach false Doctrine and practice persecution and therefore are you none of the children of Light nor Ministers of the everlasting Gospel You say That the best of Gods servants cannot be free from sin in this life whereas the holy Scriptures say Without holynesse no man shall see the Lord Christ himself hath preached perfection and hath commanded his Disciples to be perfect as their heavenly Father is perfect but you say No perfection is not to be attained here You say many of you That the Light of Christ in the conscience is natural not considering that he himself is spiritual and that his Light must of necessity be so too You say Revelation is ceased not considering this That no man knows the Father but the Son and him to whom the Son will reveal him You say No man hath the infallible Spirit now not considering That he that hath not the Spirit of Christ is none of his For where-ever the Spirit of Christ is it must needs be infallible and you that have not the infallible Spirit you are none of Christs and if so then consider with your selves whose childrern you are and what spirit guides you and whither for it cannot lead you into all truth nor any part thereof Some of you have been heard to say That the Devil is the Power of God and that the Gospel is not the Power of God no more then a Rose Cake and further That the Light of Christ Jesus is carnal and darkness Friends I hope better things of many of you but assuredly this Doctrine is damnable and pernicious to the souls of men And therefore I warn you to forbear preachihg in the Name of the Lord whilst you are of this Faith which I affirm is of the Devils and not of the Saints whose faith overcomes the World and who believe they must be holy as God is holy and perfect as their heavenly Father is perfect in their several measures They know that the Son of God is the Light of the World and life of men and is not darkness carnal natural or insufficient to lead them to purity as you declare And because I wil not
instigated the corrupt Magistrate by the Rage Envy and Malice of this persecutiâ—g spirit in you both to stock beat mock and most cruelly whip and imprison until death the free-born people of the Naâ—â—on because they could not for conscience sake sat is fie your Lusts and greedy appetites with that Popish Maintenance by Tythes or otherwise because they have spoken to you as they were moved of the Lord in your places of idolatry and false Worship 7 Whether are you not the greatest Opposers of Authority and Disturbers of the publike peace that are in the Nation obstructing the setling of the Common-wealth and Reeping it from being a free Nation when as you take up Arms and carnal Weapons to fight against the civil Magistrate whom in all just things you ought to obey and preach subjection unto 8. Whether is it not the height of ingratitude pride and rebellion in you to kick against your Governors and Feeders and set them at naught who are your supporters in your Trades for filthy lucre Oh ye seed of Evil-doers when will you you see your wickedness against the Lord your true Husband from whom you have gone a whoring and entertained strange Lovers and return to him by true repentance for your many great and crying sins 9. Whether is your Gospel free and without charge as the true Ministers of Christs was and still is or do you no buy it and your abilities to preach at Schools Colledges Universities of Arts Sciences and humane Learning 10. Whether is the incorruptible seed of God in all men yea or nay And 11. Whether is that seed of God in Man sufficient to guide man to his true rest Or is there any thing besides that which can lead man into the path of life and enable him to walk therein 12 With what did the Lord say he would search Jerusalem and where was it 13. Whether is not the Spirit of God in man the Candle of the Lord with which he Will search all men and whether if once it he put out or removed the soul be not left in eternall darknesse 14. Whether if man obey not the Light or Candle of the Lord in him which shews him the evil of his way and judgeth him for a vain thought when nothing else can it will not be his condemnation for ever 15. Whether do you know the word of life in the heart and quickning Spirit within from the dead letter without 16. Whether of these two viz. the writings of the holy men of God and their experiences of God declared unto others or the Spirit it self by which those writings were penned is mans true Guide and infallible Rule to walk by 17. Whether is the quickning and powerful Spirit of God in man by which he became a living soul subjected to a dead letter Or is that which was from Eternity of lesse esteem because it is in man then the thing which hath proceeded from it and in comparison thereof is but as yesterday Oh blush and be ashamed ye Builders of Babel c. that you have refused the Corner stone and Well of life and hewn unto your selves empty cisterns that will hold no water I mean your University-Learning and have prefe red a dead letter before the living word of God 18. Whether do you in deed and in truth own the holy Scriptures If so how comes it to passe that you preach so contrary thereto saying Revelation is ceased And that the Saints cannot be free from sin here That perfection is not attainable in this life And that the Commandments of God cannot be kept And that no man now hath the infallible spirit Can any one of these be proved by Scripture if so make it appear if not stop your mouths and forbear to take the holy name of God into your polluted lips till you have learned the truth as it is in Jesus 19. Whether can man by all his Learning open the holy Scriptures yea or no or can he by all his study pains or humane industry get the true knowledge of God in Jesus Christ 20. Whether is the Knowledge of the whole body of your Divinity sufficient to empower man to conquer the least sin or subdue the smallest corruption in him 21. Whether is the learning of the two Universities of Oxford and Cambridge on whose legs you yet stand necessary for the begetting encreasing or perfecting in the truth the true Disciples of Iesus Christ if not whether are they now employed to a right use 22. What have you to say why the said Universities and all the Colledges therein should not be converted to pious and charitable uses as Hospitals Alms-houses and places to set the poor at work in when as instead of being Universities of Piety they have been places of contention pride idleness ignorance and idolatry 23. Whether are not the two Universities Cages of unclean Birds and of foul and hatefull Spirits when as those who proceed from thence are so infections as to hold forth a necessity of living in pollution whilest they live saying it cannot be otherwise 24. Whether instead of seeking the Kingdome of heaven within you and teaching men so to do Yot do not seek and teach it to be sought without And whether you be not searching into the fallible sayings of old authors and sweeping your University-Libraries and Temples made with hands to find the lost groat which lies hid in your own houses or earthly Tabernacles 25. Whether are not false Teachers the Cause of so many Errors Heresies Sects and divided judgements as are in the Nation and whether it is like to be otherwise whilest false Doctrine is so frequently preached and the Fomenters thereof upheld by a Law 26. Whether do you not take upon you to be Heads of Colledges Churches Congregations and Assemblies and so make many heads and many Masters when as Christ Iesus saith his Spouse or Church is but one and he is the Head thereof 27. Whether do you not as much as in you lies divide the body of Christ by your many Sects and select Societies when as the Saints though many Members are but one body united in Christ 28. Whether in truth and singlenesse of heart can any of you say That the fruits you are known by are love joy peace meekness long sufferance gentlenesse self-denial faith patience temperance moderation and the like or are not your fruits contrary to all these and the root of the first Adam still growing in you 29. Whether have you been born again of the incorruptible seed and are you entred into the Kingdome of heaven where none comes but such as are dead to this world and the friendship thereof or are you not still shut out as unbelievers c 30. Whether are you not those that shut up the Kingdome of heaven against men and neither go in your selves nor suffer others And whether insted of preaching the Gospel and glad tidings of salvation you deny it not and preach down that