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
and so calling upon the Name of the Lord whom they serve and obey he answereth them and gives them more Grace more Strength more Power to rule over much because they are faithful in a little and this is the profiting by the Gift the Manifestation of the Spirit that is given to every Man to profit withal without which there is no profiting nor pleasing God And this Ministry that comes in the Name of the Lord but few will hear because he comes with the Sword of the Spirit to slay that Life that lives in the fleshly Lusts that wars against the Soul but they that do hear him that comes in the Name of the Lord they do hear the Lord who saith Hear and your Souls shall live that is who do obey the Voice of the Lord they receive Power to become the Sons of God but he that is not sent of God may have the Words but not having received the Word hath but his Dream and the Words to tell who comes in his own Name that is his own Power and Wisdom and the People being in the same hear him and receive his Doctrine because he spares their Life of Pleasure in the Flesh and makes them believe they shall receive a Life of Glory after Death and that is his Dream he tells for Money and so deceives the Soul and keeps it in Death serving the Lust and so the Sin yet perswading themselves by the Help of the Hireling that they serve the Lord But no Man saith Chrst can serve two Masters especially whose Wayes are so contrary one to the other and so being taught to confess him in Words but deny him in Deeds drawing nigh with their Mouthes but the Heart is after other Lovers these having at most but a Form of Godliness but denying the Power thereof These the Children of Truth deny and turn from therefore are hated and persecuted by them whose false Religion they deny who themselves shew it to be false by their persecuting Spirit that is of Cain for Cain's Spirit can bring forth no other but Cain's Religion that ist a Worship and Sacrifice that is out of the Truth that can never please God nor ever will but it ever pleased most Men and so it doth now but we can say The Lord forgive them they know not what they do and so we must drink of our Master's Cup and be baptized with his Sufferings and so suffering with him shall reign with him World without End Amen The MARKS of the FALSE CHVRCH or Whore that brings forth by an Evil Seed the cursed Birth that never could please God I. SHE is made up of such Members who walk in Darkness and love Darkness rather then Light because their Deeds are Evil For every one that doth Evil hateth the Light neither cometh to the Light Joh. 3.20 Therefore it is clear they that walk in Darkness are Evil-doers and Evil-doers are the Members of the false Church or Whore For if any that walk in Darkness say they are Members of the Church of Christ and have not Fellowship with him they lye and do not the Truth 1 John 1.6 And so all that cannot witness in Measure Darkness to be past are still in it and Children of it II. Such who have not received the Word grafted in them yet are professing the Words but will not come to the Word of Eternal Life that gave forth the Words and being astray from that Err not knowing the Scripture nor the Power of God being out of the Faith of God's Elect that overcomes the Word which Christ the Word is the Author and Finisher of and is a Mystery held in a pure Conscience and whosoever hath not this Faith the Gates of Hell will prevail against him and his House not being built upon this Rock Christ the Word of Life in the Day of Tryal will be overturned and great will be the Fall thereof but the Foundation of God for Salvation standeth sure that is the Ingrafted Word that is able to save the Soul that dwelt richly in the Children of God in all Ages and also in this Age who were the Houshould of Faith Members of the Church in God III. To be of a Faith or Belief that is not in the Unity of the Spirit of Life but of that which Man is Author and Finisher of which he hath made and formed in the House of his Imaginary of the Words and Confessions of the Saints in Light and Children of God that were in the Faith of that they confessed and witnessed and so in the Mystery that they which have only the Words of the History cannot see nor doth that reveal it to them IV. Professing Obedience to God and Christ in Words but living in the Disobedience of his Spirit and so in Works deny him doing the Things they ought not to do and leaving the Things undone that they ought to do these love not our Lord Jesus Christ but are in the World's Love which is selfish and Enmity to God from whence proceed the Lusts that war in the Members the Fruits of the Flesh and being in the Flesh cannot please God V. Are such whose Head is a visible Man without them who takes in and puts out in his own Will and Pleasure these chuse rather to obey Man then God and cannot suffer for Righteousness sake because their Head is not Christ the Righteousness of God VI. Such in whom the Unregenerate Nature bears Rule and the Seed of the Serpent is Head and the Government of Christ is not set up within but Death through the Lusts reigns and captivates the Soul under it that it lives not to God nor brings forth Fruit of Righteousness but is the Tree that cumbreth the Ground that will be hewn down and cast into the Fire VII Are such whose Weapons of their Warfare are not Spiritual but Carnal therefore the strong Holds of Satan are standing in them who are Aliens and Strangers from the New Covenant in which is no Fighter Killer Murtherer nor Envious Wicked Person but the New Creation is witnessed in which dwelleth Righteousness the Sword turned into a Plow-share and the Spear into a pruning Hook where War is learn'd no more VIII Such who despise and neglect the Gift of God the Light that shines in their Hearts the Manifestation of the Spirit that is given to every Man to profit withal without which none can please God nor worship him as I have said but are unprofitable Servants out of the Way of God in their own Way the Way of Sinners out of the Counsel of God's Spirit in the Counsel of the Ungodly Spirit out of the Way of Light Life in the Way of Death and Darkness dead to God but alive to the World and in the Wickedness thereof IX Such who are not turned to the Spirit of Truth in which God is worshipped cannot worship him but as Christ said Ye worship ye know not what such Worshippers are all that are astray
we have received and is in us that are not of the World And here is the Lamb's War against the Beast and the false Prophet And as sure as John saw the Beast and the false Prophet overcome taken alive and cast into the Lake of Fire so sure shall we overcome in his Spirit that hath overcome in his own Body the World the Flesh and the Devil and now is revealed in us to overcome for us in whom we have good Comfort and in the Faith see that Spirit that makes War against us in Priests and Professors and all persecuting Rulers and Magistrates shall be overcome and all that come not out of that Spirit but continue in it in the Hatred and War to the End will be cast into the Lake of Fire as John saw in the Revelation of the Spirit of Truth that cannotlye Therefore I warn you all to hear the Voice of the Spirit of Truth that calls to you from Heaven to come out of her in whom all the Blood is found that is that Spirit that persecuted the Church of God in all Ages the Spirit of the World that rules in the Children of Disobedience that is he that is in the World and the World are in it that is all that have not received the Spirit of Christ are they that are none of his but they that have received his Spirit are they that the World hates as he said it should be for as he is not of the World so all in him that is his Spirit are not of the World And now let all consider what Spirit they are joyned to For they that are joyned to the Lord are one Spirit but they that are joyned to the Harlot the False Spirit or False Prophet are one Body whatever they do profess for a Religion it matters not for Hypocrites in all Ages were such that said and did not and so they are now that call themselves Christians and are not in Christ's Spirit for as saith the Apostle If any Man say he is in him he ought himself to walk even as he walked and he that is not in Christ's Spirit is no Christian but professing Christ's Life and living after the Flesh is in Hypocrifie and the Life of Christ in his People judgeth that and condemns that Religion and declares that Life to be Antichristian and but the Birth of the Flesh that persecutes him that is born of the Spirit and though that Birth by its great Profession may have a Name to live and be persecuted for its Name yet having not the Nature of Christ to be its Life cannot hold out to the Death but must give Way and flee before their Enemies into Holes and Corners because they are not come to the Power of God in themselves that is he that is greater then he that is in the World And therefore all you great Professors that are against the Light of Christ in you in which Power is received to become the Sons of God and over come the World you are overcome by him that is in the VVorld and he makes you leave your great licensed Meeting houses to the Bats and the Owls that love the Light Natural no more then you do the Spiritual as of late in many Places you have done and so your Gatherings in the Imaginations of your own Brains come to be scattered according to the Imaginations of your Enemies who have not therein imagined a vain or ineffectual Thing against you but they see they have against those that the Lord gathered out of Darkness into his marvelous Light But if you were not blind you might see that you are not gathered in the Name that is the Power of God the Rock that God built his Church upon in all Ages that the Gates of Hell might not prevail against them Cannot you see what Power it is that scatters you what Spirit and Power is it that leads the Informers which for the most Part are the wickedest of Men Is it not he that led Judas the Informer whem the Rulers paid and the Devil set at Work and you in your Anti-christian Prudence flee before for Christian Prudence leads to do that which is given of Christ to do for as it is given to believe so also to suffer for his sake in whom we have believed But where the Gift of God is not received there true Faith is not witnessed but Flesh and Blood is consulted withal that never led to do the Will of God but he that suffered himself and in it did the Will of God is the Leader of all his that suffer for Righteousness sake for they that will not suffer with him cannes reign with him over that Spirit that makes War against him which is to be conquered by Suffering for that Spirit that leads to decline a publick Testimony and to flee from Suffering Persecution for Righteousness sake is one with that Spirit which persecutes for that Spirit that leads to persecute the Children of Truth can never lead to suffer for the Truth for it is out of it So that it is clear that Spirit that leads to run from Persecution when they have Power will lead them to persecute as in New-England doth appear by such who could not suffer for their Religion but joyned to the Power of Darkness and persecuted to Death the Children of Light that could so they have conquered that Spirit and their Life doth tread that Religion under Foot for it s but Cain 's Sacrifice without Faith that worketh by Love which the Spirit of the Lord loathes being in that Spirit that slew his Brother in which they preached that shall be ashamed of their Gospel not being the Power of God to Salvation for if it were they that hear and they that preach it would not flee before the Power of Satan but where he that saves the Soul is not received he that kills the Body will be feared and so the Counsel of Christ being rejected his Commandment comes to be transgressed and thus the Wind that purifies and winnows the Wheat blows the Chaff unto the Dunghil So they that cannot stand in Time of Tryal declare themselves to be but Chaff that the Wind blows too and fro for if the Waity Life dwell not within such Mens Religion is but a foolish Thing for he that saith VVithout me you can do nothing is he that is come that all might have Life and Power to do the Will of God and he that hath received him hath Life and Power to do the Will of God and so becomes a Child of God but he that hath him not hath not Life nor Power to do the Truth and that Mans Religion is vain So it is clear that all those that deny Christ the Light to be come in Spirit within are Anti-christian as well as they that denyed him come in the Flesh and such are not of God Given forth in the Love of him who would have all Men to be saved and to come unto the Knowledge of the Truth This 3d of the 2d Moneth 1675. M. W. The Prophecy of John Hus Prophesying of the Reformation of the CHVRCH THE Church he saith cannot be reduced to her former Dignity and reformed before all Things first be made new the Truth whereof appeareth by the Temple of Solomon as well the Clerks and Priests as also the People and Laity or else except all such as now be addicted to Avarice from the least to the most be first converted and renewed as well the People as the Clerks and Priests Things cannot be reformed Albeit as my Mind now giveth me I believe rather the first that is that then shall rise a New People formed after the New Man which is created after God of the which People New Clerks and Priests shall come forth and be taken who all shall hate Covetousness and Glory of this Life labouring to an Heavenly Conversation notwithstanding all these Things shall be done and wrought in Continuance and Order of Time dispenced of God for the same Purpose and this God doth and will do of his own Goodness and Mercy for the Riches of his Patience and Sufferance giving Time and Space of Repentance to them that have long lain in their Sins to amend and flee from the Face of the Lord's Fury until at length all shall suffer together and until both the Carnal People and Priests and Clerks in Process and Order of Time shall fall away and be consumed as is the Cloth consumed and eaten of the Moth. THE END