that hitherto yee have been labouring but in the fire as to the producing any work of Reformation which God allowes of yea and going rather backwards from what was once attained to loosing and plainly contradicting the true and honest principles of your worthy Predecessors which one thing rightly considered may evidently demonstrate to you that your work hath not been nor is of God The presence of God having been very eminently with the Author of these Papers in his enquiry after these things this his service may be very useful for you and will be so found and acknowledged by those whose eyes shall be opened to behold how the Lord comes forth in this day of his power to try every work of man and by the foolish things of the World to confound the wise And to what is there said as to that particular annent the qualifications of a true Minister I shall only add these few words that which so was necessary from the beginning that which we have heard and seen and handled with our hands of the word of Life even the power and presence of the Lord in his people do we whom in scorn yee call Quakers declare unto you as the only essential qualification of a true Minister of Christ. And if this be it yee are so affraid of that through the increase of this the spirit of Prophesie the true Church and Ministers of Christ shall suffer loss your fear upon this account is groundless for these must stand and only in that way must they prosper so as that the gates of Hell shall never prevail against them but if your fear be for the fall of that supposed Church which they the hirelings I mean and yee so contend for both among your selves and with others which is truly Antichristian and no better then undoubtedly your fear is coming upon you and for preventing of it as yee may suppose it is no marvel that ye so fall in with them for the defence of Rome and her Ministry or else as some who have been and yet are famous among you have both spoke and written that yee must not only lose your Church and ministry but your Baptism and the Bible which the witness of God in your Consciences cannot but tell you how much yee did sometime detest and abhor so to say or think untill of late through the growing light of this day in these and in many other truths of the like nature your skirts are so discovered and your heels made bare and your way so hedged up of the Lord that yee cannot escape either to own Rome as your mother Church and so to return to her again or fully to part with and come out of her for ever and thence not to bring with you a stone of hers either for a foundation to Zion or for a corner nay she must not be healed any more which yee have been for a long time so endeavouring but destroyed for ever Ier. 51.9.26 and the time draws near and yet thereby neither the Church nor Ministers of Christ nor the true Baptisme nor the holy Scriptures of truth nor any other of his true Ordinances shall thereby sâ—ffer loss but great and glorious advantage to them who wait for it And because there be some with whom I have had sweet fellowship in the Lord who its very like would have expected some other thing from me then such sharp and peremptory expressions and conclusions against them and the way of the so called Kirk of Scotland in which I was bred with them and had my beginning in the way of Godliness I know very well as things now stands with you yee may think so of what I have said as also that it may be yee would rather have expected some account of the grounds moving me to and the advantages that I either looked for or have found by such a thing Now to speak shortly a word to this I trust for it yea I am not without hope in it that the day is coming and frequently have I sought it of the Lord on your behalf when ye shall so come to see the truth of what I say and the necessity that on your account was on me for it as that ye shall willingly acknowledge that it was the greatest evidence of my dear and tender love in the Lord to you which next to his glory led me to it and that otherwise I should have been wanting of the expression of that true and sincere love which still I have unto you as to the advantages I have found which might be also offered as the reasons whereby I was moved of the Lord to make that so strange a change as yee account it in owning these despised people called Quakers I need say but little if what is in this and the following Papers be well considered of and I know it is my place to lie low in the fear of the Lord and to speak but little as to advantages or any progress that I have made and I acknowledge no man hath more matter so to do yet in this case I may not be silent but must in the fear of the Lord give this my Testimony to the pretious people and the truths of God asserted by them that they do truely and really both profess and practice the new and living way in which holiness by mortification and subduing a body of sin and death is attained and have indeed come to the discovery of these things even the life and power which throughout the dark night of Apostacy hath lyen much hid and hath been but very little felt or known yet such is the goodness of God to that pretious people count of them and call them what yee will the true power and life of holiness is more truly known to them and eminently holden forth by them then by any people else that have come forth since the Apostles dayes and a greater measure do they yet wait for and as they are faithful it will be multiplied on them for the presence of the Lord is with them and all their opposers must fall before them Dear Friends consider then how far yee have been mistaken concerning them and with groundless jealousies carryed on with prejudice against them as grosly erronious blasphemers and the like Nay nay friends it is not so and upon search yee shall find it far otherwayes let your informers who many of them sinfully take things on report without tryal and others who for maintaining of your own interests have made lies their refuge let such say what they will they are and will be found a blessed people who as instruments in the Lords hands may be called the repairers of the breach and the restorers of the paths to dwell in they own dearly and rejoyce in the use of the holy Scriptures and desire to live up to the practice of all the truths of God declared in them Beware then what yee say or think of them and that yee approve
typically dâ—d represent your estate As for this Moses we know not what is become of him let us take our jewels and ear-rings of gold and make it into a god that may go up before us into the Land and now after your long and sore travel in the Wilderness wherein ye have abode many years going backward and forwards wandring up and down having lost the sight of the cloud which pointed you the way and forgotten that rock which followed and accompanied your fathers out of which living waters flowed to their refreshment which rock was Christ and after many of your carkasses have fallen because of unbelief and more are yet to fall It hath pleased the Lord to raise up to us among your selves that Prophet whereof Moses wrote and his Word we have heard sounded forth which is near even in our hearts saying to us by the powerful breath of his Spirit Arise arise this is not your rest it is polluted it will destroy you with a sore destruction and the voice was so powerful that it hath quickned us who were dead with you while we were living and the firy-piller hath appeared to us glory to God for his gift and shineth forth with beams of glory and the Lord hath opened the windows of Heaven and rained down on us the Manna from Heaven which is the food of Angels and not like the Manna which the Iews did eat and died but that which feedeth us unto life everlasting and the rock even the eternal rock and salvation of Gods people is revealed unto us out of which springeth pure living water from the fountain of life and Ioshua which is Jesus is given us for a head to lead us into the Land of Promise an entrance into which many witness at this day and others are in the way and have got a fore-taste of the Vine-grapes of the Land and hath sounded forth a good report concerning the same and many hath believed the report and tryed the truth thereof and found it to be true even some of your selves who were as you whose eyes the Lord out of his infinite mercy hath opened and they have found a place of repentance for all their hard speeches and enmity against the people of the Lord in the time of their ignorance and his work and appearance and have become ashamed and confounded therefore and I know assuredly it shall be so with others who for the present through the ignorance that is in them may be persecuting the Saints of God but alas alas how dangerous and deplorable is the condition of the most part of you for the time with whom our testimony can have no room nor find place in you and the good Land whereof we report has no more credit with you then if it were a cunningly devised Fable even the Kingdom of God and of his Christ in the Revelation of his eternal Light Life Power and Spirit in our hearts which fills us with joy unspeakable and full of glory and satisfies the desires of our souls so that we have true content in the injoyment of our God and have all and abound possessing him in whose favour is life and at whose right hand are pleasures for ever more the streams thereof your thick walled prisons and bolted gates within which ye shut us up cannot hinder from flowing into our souls and for the pretiousness and excellency of his dear and sweet love which he hath caused and does cause us to feel shed abroad in our hearts are we made willing patiently and contentedly to go thorow all the reproach and opposition we can meet with from you if possibly we be made instrumental to reach some of you that thereby ye may be saved with us and induced to walk in the Light of the Lord with us which has appeared and shined forth in its glory and as Solomon said Truly it is a sweet and a pleasant thing to behold the light O how sweet is it how pleasing how refreshing how healing how comforting how sure a Guide what assurance and satisfaction it gives to the soul none knows but such as are come to perceive it in their own hearts this this was it discovered unto your fathers the many gross abominations and superstitions of Popery so that they came to loath and abhor them this led them forth out of Egypt this discovered unto them Babylon the mother of fornications and the cup wherewith she had bewitched them so that they had no rest till they vomited up so much of the same as they perceived to be poysonous And oh had you their posterity kept chast to the leadings of the Lord by his Light which was near unto you as well as unto them even the light of Christ which enlightens every man that comes into the world and shineth in darkness though the darkness cannot comprehend it had you I say kept chast thereto and given it the preheminence above all how unspeakable had your happiness been at this day and now is your misery the greater that ye have adulterated there-from and become so impudent and shameless as to deny it for a leader or to give it the preheminence for have ye not set the letter of the Scriptures above it and made them unto your selves a golden Calf to be a Guide Leader and Rule unto you whereas if ye had given them the proper place setting them under the Light and Spirit of Jesus Christ from which they came and to which they point it being their own testimony that they are not that light but were given and sent forth to bear witness of the light that all in the light not in them might believe I say had you given to them their proper place they had been as jewels and ear-rings of gold unto you and useful in their room whereas through your abuse of them and setting their testimony above the inward and immediate testimony of Jesus which is the spirit of Prophecie Rev. 19.10 they are become your snare and a sealed book unto you that ye cannot read nor understand their interpretation because ye have gone from the key the Light and Spirit of Christ which would have opened them unto you and now they are parables unto you and dark sayings though you call them plain but plain indeed aâ—e they and easie to be understood by the children and Babes of Light and because ye have so gone a whoring from that which would have proved a soveraign remedy and antidote against the wayes and wiles of the Devil and Babilons cup of fornications therefore the light being a holy pure and chast thing hath been provoked much to withdraw and 〈◊〉 have cause to be afraid lest it eternally depart from you and you be shut up in blackness of darkness who hath so forsaken and undervalued your own mercy and misprized the gift of God unto you given you to profit withal and which only can open your eyes and give you the knowledge of the glory of God
which is life eternal and you being wandred from the light which is the first principle and key to open up the oracles and mysteries of God's Kingdom you have come to read the Scriptures with a false eye and have understood them yea and used them as weapons to fight against the appearance of Christ in his people at this day as the Iews did against the same Lord Jesus Christ in his appearance according to the flesh at Ierusalem they disputed against him from the Scriptures whereas they testified of him but the vail was upon their eyes and they had lost the key which was the light and Spirit of Christ that gave them forth which their Teachers had taken from them as your Teachers have done from you Oh let this be a Lamentation for ever that of the rock that begot you yee are become so unmindful and turn'd against that which was the very life marrow and substance of your reformation and you having lost the same what remains but a dead carcass or rather an image of a reformed Church 〈…〉 with a wrong spirit which is the life of the Wâ—â—re Beast and false Prophet who are all for the Pit And Oâ— how have yee betrayed your own cause and given it a way into the hand of your enemies as appears by your arguments yee make use of against us the very self same the Papists took against your Fathers did they not upbraid them with innovations and the novelty of their Religion being but of a few years and dayes standing did not they upbraid them with the fewness of their number did they not upbraid them with their ignorance calling them idiots and unlearned as indeed they were to Humane Learning many of them but they were taught of God which was far better did they not nick-name them calling them after such base and contemptible names whereby to render them odious unto the people did they not raise up many false slanders and reports against them did they not persecute them with fire and faggot imprisonment and spoyling of their Goods which they took joyfully and did they not question them as the Iewes did Christ and his Disciples and as yee do us concerning the authority who gave them a command to preach and reform and had your Fathers any recourse to make but unto that which could well bear them thorough as it does us to day viz. the immediate call of Gods Spirit in their hearts and have yee not so used us have yee not nick-named us and raised many false reports concerning us and greedily sucked in the fame of them from others who invented them Oh how strange have we been and are to you at this day have yee not refused us the name of Christians which yee will not scruple to give to drunkards cursers whoremongers murderers prophane and abominable persons among your selves whom yee own as your Church members have yee not called us worse then the very vilest of men even then Turks or Pagans saying we are unworthy to live and have yee not given it forth that our design is to overthrow and root out of the world the Christ an Religion and that we strike at the very foundamentals thereof Oh that we should be so mistaken by you if your Predecessors were live in the body many of them we could willingly appeal unto and next under God set them to judge betwixt you and us in this matter and we are sure they would not have so mistaken us as yee have done for although they had not come to see things as they are at this day seen and were far short of the knowledge God hath now given to his people being as it were the morning dawning or twy-light unto them so that they had not discovered the bottom of all Babilons treasures nor got rid of the many inventions and traditions of men yet a measure of truth many of them received from the Lord and were gathered in a measure to walk in the Light and life thereof and had confidence in the Lord to seal their Testimony with their blood against the Man of sin and they being in a measure of truth themselves could not but have known us for all the children of light and who are begot of the living word of truth which gives a discerning to know one another in the truth and in the light and spirit which first begot them and this is the true rule of knowing one another and who come hither can dearly own and haue uniâ—n with others as brethren though differing from them in some things if they can feel them in the living word and spirit of truth in which their life stands and their fellowship and communion with God and one with another and it 's not the many opinions agreed upon that is the bond of peace but the unity of the spirit now yee having wandred from the Word of truth and light and spirit of Christ which gives and preserves in the discerning and feeling one another as members of one body yet retaining somewhat of the form of truth and some of their opinions yee could not but mistake and oppose us as your greatest enemies and your fathers enemies also in whose succession ye so much boast though we be much nearer them then your selves both in principles and practices excepting some things they had not got rid of some of Babylons waâ—es and baggage which they brought away with them I mean some Popish opinions custâ—ms and traditions which in that day passed for the matters of God but now they are seen in the light which hath broke up in a greater measure to have Antichrists superscription upon them and Babylon the Whores superscription which we coming to disceâ—n could not but give her what was hers now it hath been so alwaye that such who have got into the form of truth and not into the power spirit and life thereof hath most persecuted these who had come thereunto witness the Professors among the Iews with their Priests Teachers Doctors and Rabies who were the greatest enemies to Christ and his Disciples Oh how shall I bemone and bewail you people of Scotland who have been and are in your own apprehensions exalted unto the Heavens and looked upon your selves and were so reputed by others as the choicest Nation in the World for the purity of the Gospel and Gospel Worship and Ordinances Oh how are yee fallen and become a hissing and reproach to all round about you and the enemy hath gotten this advantage over you saying ah so would we have it this is the day we looked for and it is come is this the royal and magnificent City which gave her self forth to be the praise of the whole earth and a dread and terrour to her enemies round about let our eye look upon her for she is become defiled she is become as one of us how is the stately City fallen how is her glory defaced how is her bulwarks and walls broken down who boasted
getting many of the outward forms and words of the Saints the sheeps cloathing but inwardly adulterated from the life and Spirit of Jesus Christ the only foundation of the true Church and was not the ground of the Dragons Whores Beasts false Prophets quarrel against the Martyrs and witnesses of Christ principally this that they held the testimony of Jesus which is the spirit of Prophecie Rev. 19.10 and bear witness against the Whore who had the form retained without the power yea denyed the power of godliness denyed the teachings and leadings of the Spirit of Christ and the Revelation of him in the hearts of the children of men this is the Antichrist who denies Christ the Son come thus in the revelation of himself in the heart for that coming of Christ in his bodily appearance at Ierusalem Antichrist will not does not deny it being he knows it will never harm his Kingdom so to confess him come providing Christ his Kingdom be not set up in the heart now was there not such a dispensation in the earth were there not a people in the Apostles dayes who witnessed Christ come again in spirit according to his promise who said If any keep my commands I and my Father will come and dwell with him And again I go away but I will not leave you comfortless I will come again unto you Iohn 17. And after the Resurrection and Ascension of Christ were they not indued with the Spirit from on high and filled with the holy Ghost did they not live in the Spirit walk after the Spirit did it not give the knowledge of the mysteries of God's Kingdom unto them did not the Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation open the eyes of their understanding to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge and while they kept here did they not remain a pure chast Church unto Christ and while the eye was kept open and single by the revelation of the Spirit of Truth could the Dragon or Whore or Antichrist prevail over them could the many traditions or inventions get place as the Ordinances of Christ had they kept to the evidence and demonstration of the Spirit of God Now was not the principal Defection and Apostacy from this even the pure chast Light Life and Spirit of Christ revealing God and the things of this Kingdom unto them and when people wandred from this there the inventions took place and Babylons cup was drunk for the vail came over whereby the true discerning was lost and a wrong eye opened which could not but judge amiss of the things of God and of his People and wrest and abuse the Scriptures Now ye who say That there was indeed such a dispensation but now it hath ceased and is never any more to take footing in the eaâ—th do ye not hereby demonstrate your selves to be of the whorish Church for hath not this been her plea all along this dark night of Apostacy that the Revelation Teachings and leadings of the Spirit of Chirst is ceased therefore another Head was set up in the Church then Christ Jesus and the Pope and his Council was made Judge to determine all controversies of Religion and no man was to look at an infallible Judge the spirit of Truth within him and are ye not become as bad who openly affirm that ye are not led by the infallible Spirit and consequently not by the Spirit of God and your Church Confession of Faith saith The former way of God's revealing himself by Prophecy and immediate Revelation is ceased and God hath committed his counsel wholly into writing or to the Scriptures and nothing is to be added thereto by any new revelation of the Spirit And oh how faâ— are ye in this point degenerated and apostatized from the primitive Protestants and Reformers who not only affirmed that there was immediate Revelations from God and that the Spirit of Prophecie was not ceased but witnessed the same in themselves and foretold many things of consequence by the spirit of Prophecie which came to pass did not Iohn Knox and George Wishard prophecie exceeding clearly of whom it was said That from the day he entred upon his Ministry tâ— his death there never came a storm upon the Church but he foresaw the end of it as may be seen in the Book of the Reformation of the Church of Scotland and many others did prophecie as ye may read in Fox's Book of Martyrs and was not this the main and only pillar of the Protestant cause against the Papists who should be the Judge of Controversies and the interpreter of Scriptures The Pope and his Council with the Fathers said The Papists no said the Protestants but the Spirit of God And I read in the fore-cited Book of Martyrs how when some who were burnt for their testimony to the Truth in Queen Maries dayes were called before the Popish Clergy and Bishops who disputed with them and when the controversie arose concerning such points or Scriptures the Popish party alleadged the determination of the Church but the Martyrs pleaded for the determination of the Spirit of God and when it was queried if such had the Spirit of God and it was answered Yea and one brought that Scripture for his assertion who is Antichrist but he that denyeth that Christ is come in the flesh the people partly flouted thereat and laughed them to scorn as yee do us at this day because we affirm that we have the Spirit of God and that Christ is come and his life made manifest in our mortal flesh as saith the Apostle Paul And that which sounds very harsh in your ears at this day and is mocked at by you yea accounted delusion and blasphemy viz. Enthusiasm or the Inspiration of God and the motion of his Spirit was a thing usually known professed and possessed also by them as may be read at large in the aforesaid books and they said faith was the Inspiration of Gods Spirit and so it is and I deny that there is any true faith but that which comes as really and immediately from the inspiration of the Spirit as ever Paul or Peter or any of the Apostles and Prophets witnessed the same whom yee your selves acknowledge to have been inspired and were they now living yee would hiss at them as yee do at us calling them Inthusiasts and Oh what a time are we fallen in that the inspiration of the Spirit of God which is the very breath of life into the souls of the Lords people should be scorned and such as witness such a blessed and glorious dispensation nick-named Fanaticks and mad men even by them who have pretended so highly to be the reformed Church and at such a time wherein the day of God is broke up in such clearness in the midst of them yet they know it not 2. Your fore-fathers the primitive Protestants and Reformers who saw a little further into mysterie Babylon then others that went before them for the day brake up gradually and
there succeeded a people who saw over these who compiled or rather Englished the Service-book and they disowned it as they did also all other set forms of Prayer and cryed them down as dead lifeless things and they were for a worship in Spirit thus is was but even of very late dayes in Queen Elizabeth and King Iames the sixth and such were nick-named by their enemies Puritans and they affirmed that the Spirit of the Lord was only to teach them to pray and worship and not any Book or Man whatsoever and were not set forms of Prayer cryed down also in Scotland as lifeless barren things and the service-Book denyed and now have ye not again licked up that vomit and through your Cities men set up mostly also scandalous in their conversations at such hours of the day or night to read a set form of Prayer and is there any material difference betwixt this and the Service-book And have not your brethren in England taken it up again and when it 's offered to you to read will ye not also do the like there is no question of it but most of you will and worse also when ye are put to the tryal and oh what a mysterie is it to you praying and singing in the Spirit are ye not become so impudent as to mock this also as I have oft witnessed my self when your Church-members hath been so shameless as to cry in the very streets at us when passing by When came the Spirit last upon you give us a Prayer from the Spirit And do ye not flatly deny praying and worshipping in Spirit who deny Enthusiasm which is to say being interpreted for it 's a Greek word the inspiration of the Spirit of God which is the only flame that kindles up holy 〈◊〉 in the soul after God and you who can prate and talk unto God without a Book in your Pulpits and chief places of the Synagogues and elsewhere in your own wills and times and in the wills and times of others from a rhetorical strain as if ye were complementing some great Prince your prayers are as life ' ess and spiritless as those said of the Mass-book and were ye come truly to the spirit of prayer ye would know a bridle to your tongues without which your Religion is but vain and that the Spirit of God which bloweth as well when and where it listeth is also as far from being limitted to set times as to set forms and we read not in the whole Scripture that the Lord hath appointed any set times of prayer under the Gospel to his people at all whose great and most important work is to wait the movings of the Spirit of Life from God at all times whether to pray or give thanks or to any other spiritual exercise and blessed are they who come hither for they shall know that it is not in vain to wait upon the Lord for we have waited patiently upon him and have witnessed and do witness the pourings forth of the spirit of Prayer and praise supplications and thanksgivings filling our hearts and souls night and day to the God of our life and true prayer is the gift of God which cometh not at all in mans will or time and therefore the season is to be waited for which God hath kept in his own hand and hath the key of the heart to open it when he pleaseth and the key into the house of prayer where is the throne of grace without access to which in the drawings of the Spirit-of life man hath no acceptation with God nor his service or worship all is but idolatry and abomination only such who come to God through the Mediator and Intercessor Christ the Life feeling the living drawings thereof in the particular are accepted of him and made joyful in the house of prayer and hath it not been the regret of some among you and may be yet when ye are in a sober mood that the spirit of prayer is much lost and a dry complementing of God come in the room thereof 3. Were not your fore-fathers the primitive Protestants and Reformers a separated people did not they disown the Popish Assemblies and their preaching and worship as idolatry and forsake it and did not those called Puritans both in England and Scotland separate themselves from the other party who stuck to the Service-book and other superstitions and did not the sober people in Scotland in the former times of Prelacy separate from the Prelatical Assemblies and their Conformists did they not meet apart and talked together of the work of God on their own hearts and worshipped God in Spirit and his blessing and presence was among them while they kept chaâ—t to him and mixed not with Idolaters Now have ye not apostatized herein also and mixed your selves in with the profane rabble of the world as bad and worse then Papists Turks Pagans which hath provoked the Lord to withdraw from among you and ye can pray and sing and communicate with such Is not this Babylon indeed which is to say Confusion and is not our separation from you also as justifiable as the separation of your fathers from Papists being we have found you to be of the same spirit and mostly of the same principles and practices with them and generally as wicked loose scandalous prophane and covetous and abounding with all manner of iniquity as they and are not all such Idolaters is not thee vetous man an Idolater whereas covetousness is idolatry as saith the Scripture and are not all Idolaters to be denyed as to any fellowship with them in worship and your fathers did not plead such dirty stâ—ff as you the Professors have learned now to do to shun the Cross for keeping the Popish and Prelatical party their Assemblies Service-book worship alledging That they sit in Moses chair and therefore are to be heard and we may like their good and leave their evil Such reasons prevailed not with your fathers nor ought they for the Christians come not at all to the Scribes and Pharisees who sit in Moses chair but meet apart unless to bear a testimony against them and bad men with all their good words can never edifie a soul in faith or true knowledge which is life eternal all they can do is to edifie in the notion and feed the wrong part and spirit which delights in the notion of truth and is satisfied in the notional knowledge out of the life and the finest truest words out of a bad mans mouth can never reach the seed of God either to the raising of it up or refreshing it but on the contrary burdens and kills as said the Apostle of the false Apostles who had the letter and were Ministers of it out of the Spirit and Power and the letter sayes he kills and so we have found it in our experience but these above-mentioned arguments have prevailed with you so that ye are herein also apostatized from them 4. Your
in Synods with them and coming in the ordering of Church affairs together and your obeying their commands a disowning them Nay yee cannot say it except yee bewray your exceeding folly well then ye neither own them nor disown them and is not this the detestable neutrality yee vowed against and if perhaps some of you have not given any oath or promise to these men and it is rare if it be so yet your practice is as real a breach as an hundred oaths and promises and whereas yee say obedience may be given to their lawfâ—l commands I answer such as are not lawfully constitute Rulers but Usurpers as many of you affirm no command proceeding from them is lawful as such though never so lawful upon the matter for there are a great many Circumstances required more then the matter of the thing commanded to make it lawful one maine is that the imposer of the command have a just and lawful authority and power from God thereto for there is no power but from him the powers that be are ordained of God Romans 13. And as for your alledging these things are not so weighty required of you as that yee should be put from your preaching I answer admitting yee were true Preachers or Ministers for I argue according to your own principles yet e're the least circumstance yee should yield unto 〈◊〉 which is sinful and forbidden of God yee were to give up the service of your Ministry were it never so useful for that yee are not to ballance your Ministry with the smalness of the things upon the matter on the one hand and the service yee can do on the other but to look alwayes to the command of God and the honour of his name and truth which is weighty enough to down-weigh all other considerations though never so weighty 13. And your Fathers the Primitive Protestants affirmed that when any thing contrary to sound Doctrine was set up and brought in the Ministers who stand upon the watch tower should not keep silence but testifie against such a thing and forewarn the people to be aware thereof and they judged silence to be a sinful connivence witness the Protestations made several times against such things and but of late dayes the Protestation made at the Cross of Edenburgh on the 22. day of the Month called September in the year 1638. wherein they largely shew backing what they spoke with pertinent Scriptures to that purpose that they ought not to be silent Likewise it was a principle among them the first Reformers that they should not forbear to preach though all the powers on earth should forbid them whatever punishment could be inflicted upon them therefore and it was their practice also for they put their lives in hazard and many of them lost their lives bearing their testimony and they accounted the winning of souls of people of more worth then the saving their bodily lives and as yee may read in the History of the Reformation in Scotland to such who queried why was not obedience given to the Magistrates command it was answered its better to obey God then man as Peter answered the Rulers of the Iews Now such of you of the National Ministry who stuck to take the Canonical oath or to make an active complyance with the Bishops as the rest of you have done yet have yee not shamefully shrunk he ein yee who could open your mouths wide against these things now set up before they were brought in among you when there was no hazard of speaking and talk boldly against the Bishops and their corruptions and spend a good part of the hour glass on such a purpose but now are yee not shrunk dumb with a panick fear that hath overtaken you and yee have quit your Ministry at the command of man far unlike the good Shepherd that flees not when the Wolf comes but stands up to defend the flock from the Wolf and laies down his life for the sheep but the hireling flies because he is an hireling as yee have done and have yee not rather obeyed man then God if ever the Lord called you to your Ministry had man power to have taken it from you is it not too manâ—fest a proof that your call and power to preach was but of men who as they gave it you can take it from you as they have done and yet poor men ye think ye are suffering for a testimony of a good conscience but alass it 's a thred-bare testimony so to speak and as it stands the Lord will not take it off your hands for have yee not chosen a lesser suffering to shun a greater your stipends are taken from you but is that enough to make you leave off feeding the flock I speak according to your own principles regard yee no more their souls nor your bodily maintenance or is there any other put in your Pulpits is that enough either can yee not preach elsewhere then in a Pulpit may yee not preach in a field or from house to house as did Paul and many others yea your Fathers did so or do the people refuse to hear you then yee have but badly learned them they are not taught so much love as to stick to their Pastor when the wolf comes but should yee not preach to them whither they will hear or forbear as Ezekiel did and was commanded of the Lord so to do or have they commanded some of you to go over Seas should yee have obeyed that unjust command or if they had taken you away by violence what hinders but yee may return to the flock were not the fear of man over you I know nothing in the will of God but prisonment or death or some such outward violence could hinder a true Pastor from the Flock or hath the so called Church commanded you silence but if their sentence be unjust as yee think it is should yee have obeyed it and yee have but a poor plea when yee say it 's for peace sake yee so do for the peace which is in hazard for the testimony of the truth is but false and so not worth the keeping but that it was not the peace sake of your Church or any reverence to their authority though this be your main defence but the fear of man that hath prevailed with you to quit your charge manifestly appears by your practice but a very few years ago when you called Church men could either 〈◊〉 the Magistrate or when he winked at you then yee were busie with your Protestations and yee became divided into two parties or factions called Protestators and publick resolutioneâ—s and your brethren charged you who either protested or adhered to the Protestation with breaking the peace of the Church and disobedience to its Authority and in that day yee could roundly answer them that yee were to be more careful for the preservation of the truth then of a peace that could not stand therewith and their authority yee
with you and when any such die the cry goes through your streets there is a faithful brother departed c. or when any of them hath a child to be sprinkled the Priest will cause him to rehearse the Articles of his Faith and he hath no more faith nor so much as the devil for the true faith purifies the heart and lodges in a good conscience Oh horrid abomination and is not the zeal among Professors quite withered and deadness laziness stupidity security neutrality carelessness and sottishness generally overgrown them and all manner of iniquity abounds POSTSCRIPT ANd now ye who accuse us in derision called Quakers by you as Apostates and that we have denyed our fore-fathers Faith try your selves and parallel your fathers principles and practices with your own and also with ours and ye shall find ye are degenerated from them exceedingly as we were while with you but through the grace of God are we recovered and brought to witness the Spirit and Life of the primitive Protestants and Christians and in all 16. above-mentioned Articles we agree with them and ye disagree with them and ye cannot instance to us one particular wherein we dissent from them warranted from the very letter of Scripture for these things wherein we have forsaken them we have discovered by the Light which hath opened the Scriptures to us to have been but the inventions of men and Babylons more subtile cup of fornications which because that the day was not so broken up among them as among us now they did not discern but now the Light hath shined forth in such clearness that we have seen to the bottom of all Babylons treasures and were they living in this day they would concur with us in disowning these things and I am satisfied in it they have been accepted of the Lord according to their faithfulness but supposing ye were not shrunk from any of their principles it 's in vain for you to think that God will take that off your hands he received from them winking at their weaknesses in the day of ignorance for that which makes a people acceptable with God is their faithfulness to the dispensation of knowledge in their day and their answering his requirings therein and following him whithersoever he leads of which ye are very short and this is your condemnation Written in the 10th Month from the Tolbouth of Aberdeen G. K. True and righteous Iudgement from the God of judgement separating the precious from the vile concerning the late proceedings of the people of Scotland in the matter of their Reformation from and their covenanting against Prelacy with the corruptions and popish Superstitions accompanying it as also concerning their Church constitution Ministry Worship and Government set up by them after the pulling down of the former and discrying it as Antichristian wherein likewise the Lords controversie with them in laying them by and suffering this day to come over them is shewed in which their building is also laid in the dust and its the will of the Lord that it never be again rebuilt GIve ear unto me O ye people of Scotland of what quality or degree whatsoever and I will shew you the true and righteous judgement of God from whom I have received it and by whom I am moved to declare it unto you for your good concerning your late proceedings in the matter of your reformation from and your covenanting against Prelacy and the corruptions and popish Superstitions accompanying it and other particulars above-mentioned A zeal there was in many of you Rulers Teachers and People in that day for the Lord and his name and truth which he did tenderly regard and it was marked before him though the most of you all along minded more your selves and how to compass your selfish covetous and ambitious designs then his honour and ye made the name of truth and Religion a meer clock to cover and mask your hypocrisie with yet a true simplicity and uprightness of heart was among others of you and ye did well in disowning and departing from such men who gave themselves forth to be the Lord's Ministers and servants but they ran and he sent them not and their covetousness and ambition and seeking how to please men for their own ends and not his honour nor any true zeal for him set them on such a work to Lord it over the people which he had forbidden and it is abomination to him together with the many things accompanying them which they gave forth for his ordinances good order decency and comliness in the Church but were the meer inventions of men and Babylons golden Cup of Fornications and that ye vomitted up and refused any more to drink of this cup or to admit of such things as his Ordinances or belonging to his worship or as if he allowed it whereby your iniquity is exceedingly agravated before God and his indignation and jealosie burns as fire against you for your returning thereto and because of the iniquity of such men their pride pomp covetousness tirany and ambition his wrath kindled against them and he poured contempt and desolation upon them for the cry of their wickedness together with the Prayers and â—upplications which came from many in that day because of them ascended up into his Throne in the time of their great affliction of Spirit to see his Truth and Name so much dishonoured and the Lord heard and regarded and delivered them from that which was their trouble and grief of heart and he removed that out of the way which was a great let unto his work and glorious appearance in the Land and after the removal thereof the Lord put a fair oppertunity in your hands to have been blessed instruments in his work whereby had ye improved it ye should have been at this day a glory in the Earth a Praise a Renowne and a Blessing and your memory should have endured as a sweet savor unto all succeeding Generations But he had many things against you whereby he was provoked to lay you by also so that ye should not be honoured nor ever shall be in the state ye are in and way of your proceedings as instruments in his glorious work which he hath purposed to bring and is bringing forth in the earth even a work of wonders and admiration whereby he will make to himself a name everlasting therein and give matter to all the simple-hearted of thanksgiving and praise for ever and ever and this work he is bringing forth this day in the midst of you and yee are so far from joyning issue with him therein that ye are all opposing it but it shall go on and prosper over the heads and bellyes of all gainsayers on the face of the whole Earth and if yee repent not and give way unto his determination he will bring this word to passe against you Behold ye dispisers wonder and Perish And now hear the righteous judgment of God concerning these things he hath to
God having experience of the saving work of his right hand on their hearts who speak because they believe and are indued with power from on high and filled with the holy Ghost whereby they are made able Ministers of the new Testament having received gifts by the ascending of Christ on high even for the rebellious that he may dwell among them for the work of the Ministry to the perfecting of the Saints and edifying of the body and such Minister from the Light and from the Life and from the power and Spirit and Word of God whereby those to whom they Minister may come into the fellowship of the mystery with themselves and be made partakers with them of the Unction or anointing from the holy one which may be with them for ever and a teacher unto them of all things good necessary and expedient for them to know even to bring them unto the Spirit of truth which may lead them into all truth and instruct them in the will councel and commandement of God at all times whatever it be and to espouse them unto Jesus Christ the great King and Lawgiver in and to his People the great high Priest from whose mouth the Law is to be received the great Prophet by whom God speaketh now to his People wherof Moses writes who is the head in all things and who so will not hear that Prophet shall be put to death and this Prophet Jesus Christ is nigh unto us yea more nigh then all the men or books upon the face of the earth he is both our Maker and our Husband the anointed of the Lord the breath of our nostrils so that our fellowship and communion with him is most intimate and immediate and nothing else does satisfie our souls but the immediate imbraces of his dear and sweet love the seeing of his Countenance which is comely and the hearing of his voice which is pleasant and powerful and glorious and full of Majesty and the Bride rejoyceth greatly because of the voice of the Bridegroom himself and now we need not say who will go down into the grave and bring up Christ to us or who will ascend to Heaven to bring him down to us or who will go over the Seas and bring us tidings of him from Ierusalem where he suffered in the flesh him whose name is the Word of God Rev. 19. we of a truth witness nigh us even in our hearts so that we need not either ascend or descend or go forth the word of life the word of power the word of faith which Paul preached and Moses before him and all the true Ministers and pointed people to this which was able to save them as they turned their minds thereto and gave up to be taught and led thereby And this the Ministers and Servants of the Lord among the People called Quakers do preach without money or price being the free gift of God and many have believed and received it not as the Word of Men but as it is indeed the Word of God and found it after diligent attendance turning their minds inward thereto to spring up in themselves and to be living and powerful and sharp as a two edged Sword to the dividing of soul and spirit and discerning every thought and intention of the heart and though one evil and unbelieving Generation will not give credit thereto no nor yet those of the National Ministry who give themselves forth for the Ministers of Christ but are found lyars they call it a fancy and delusion and turn People from it which is the only Rock that can save them yet we know it to be the Word of God and we have tasted the Heavenly sweetness of it yea and our very hands have handled that Word of Life and we have hid it in our hearts as an only Treasure and we do daily and hourly witness the pretiousness and worth thereof for it is the food of our souls the food of Angels the living bread which came down from Heaven to give life unto the World the Manna incorruptible which feedeth us unto life everlasting and when we are an hungred it refresheth us and satisfieth our souls with good things it 's milk to the babes and flesh to the strong it 's health to our navil and marrow to our bones it 's the bread which strengthneth mans heart and the wine which maketh it glad and oyle which maketh his face to shine and when we thirst living water springeth forth from this word of life in our hearts and ministreth drink unto us out of the living fountain and we witness the promise fulfilled he that believeth in me Christ the Word out of his belly shall flow a well spring of liveing water and when we are weak and our hands hang down and our knees wax feeble the Word maketh us strong and lifteth us up as an Eagles wings so that we run and are not weary and walk and are not faint and when we are heavy through sorrow the Word springeth forth in streams of pure joy and consolation from the presence of the Lord which causeth us to forget all our former troubles and we are comforted in our God in all our straits and difficulties and when temptations from the Devil and his Instruments assault us and the powers of darkness environe and surround us as if they would swallow us up the Word sendeth forth sweet and comfortable beams of Light and openeth the eye-lids of the morning upon us and breaketh through the thick Egiptian darkness as a fiery flaming sword and divideth asunder and giveth us victory and deliverance And when we are hated of the World the Word saith peace in us and causeth it to flow into our souls like the waves of the Sea and when Sathan transformes himself with his Messengers into an Angel of Light that he may deceive us coming up out of the deep with Samuels Mantle the Word of truth which searcheth into all the depths of Satan and to the bottom of the mystery of iniquity discovereth to us the foulers snare and the voice of the inchanter so that our souls escape as a bird out of the net and the Word defends us by night and by day so that we need not fear the terror by night nor the arrow that flyeth by day nor the pestilence that walketh in darkness being girded with the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God and the Word is a light to our feet and a Lanthorn to our pathes the Vâ—im and the Thummim by which the Lord answers us and giveth us counsel in all things pertaining either to the temporal or eternal life and herein we meditate day and night and by it are we made wiser then our Teachers and it 's sweeter to us then the honey and the honey comb and more precious then thousands of gold or silver and in the Word our fellowship stands with God and one to another whereby we know and enjoy and have communion one
hearts for they are not come to the Light and Word of Truth whereby to discern the true upright genuine desire from the false and hypocritical and this thing hath proved also a great share unto the people who hath heaped up to themselves Teachers after their own hearts lusts who might speak false peace unto them and that whereon there is so much stress laid to wit the calling of the people or Patrons is not of God but of Babylon for in the state they are in they will be loth ever to call a good man unto them supposing he could be found but such who will wink at their faults and run with them thereinto and when at any time they let a reproof fall it stinks out of their mouths being guilty of the same things themselves and away with the education of youth at Universities and Colledges of Philosophy so called I may say of them which Luther stuck not to call them in his day That they are the stews of Antichrist for out of them comes this ignorant profane scandalous Ministry wherein they learn to talk of things they understand not and to prate in mans wisdom which is carnal earthly and devillish And the Philosophy so called which is taught them is but meer deceit and pedantry which even I came to see when among them and many of themselves see it and confess it to be but vanity and none can teach either the knowledge of God or of the creation but such who come to be indued with a measure of the wisdom of God which made the creation in number weight and measure according to it 's pure holy Law and neither God nor the work of his hands can be truly known but in the light which makes all manifest which the Doctors and disputers of this world are strangers unto and it's follishness to them and many among themselves have attempted the reformation of their so called Philosophy and squeezed their brains to find out a new one but all in vain it shall never be found out till they come to the Cross of Christ and under his cross denying their own wisdom become the disciples of Christ and learn of him in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom knowledge the true Science of the creation as well as the of the Creator for the world was made by him and he can best teach it and in him manifest in man the invisible things of God from the creation of the world are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made which carry upon them indeed the characters of infinite wisdom goodness and power but are a sealed book no less then the Scriptures to such who are not come to the teachings of him who made them and can only give an eye to read them with a true understanding and to advantage And this I testifie who have had a tryal and experience both of the one and the other the wisdom of man wherein I laboured much and long and profited above many of my nighbours and the wisdom of God in which now I see and for which I truly account that other loss and dung even for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ the Wisdom which was vvith the Father before the World began and I certainly know the humane Wisdom or learning is one of the main Bulwarks of Antichrist against the Revelation and setting up the Kingdom of Christ in the Earth and because this is arising and shall rise down must the other go and all who seek to uphold it shall fall therewith And away with the many Doctrins and opinions yee have drunken from your teachers who have abused the Scriptures and you both giving you to believe they were grounded on Scripture and are nothing but their own imaginations which the erring mind through Sathans suggestions hath begot both in them and you and rid your selves of all whatsoever yee have taken upon trust and what yee have not seen and learned in the openings and manifestation of the Word and Spirit of truth in each particular and make the revelation of the Spirit of truth in all things the rule and analogy of your faith believing nothing less or more then what is revealed to you therefrom and where that opens not keep wholy back from passing any determination for or against And away with that manner of interpreting Scripture and searching truth by drawing and knitting consequences by the fallible erring mind and natural understanding keep close in all things to the judgment and determination of the Spirit of God and where that leads you as it did lead Christ to infer upon the Saduces the Resurrection from the dead from that Scripture I am the God of Abraham and God is not the God of the dead but of the Living to draw a consequence or frame an argument do it else forbear And away with determining of things as yee have hitherto done by Plurality of Votes it 's not the way of God and will never further the Lords work or truth their votes or consents not being in the unity of the Spirit of truth And away with thinking general Assemblies Counsils or Parliaments in the state they stand in will do you any good in order to a perfect and through Reformation they will certainly marre it but never help it forward being out of Gods wisdom and its foolishness unto them And your looking too much to these things in former times hath been a great snare unto you And thus now I have showed you good advice and councel concerning your becoming a perfect and thoroughly reformed people and the witness of God in all your Consciences as yee heed it will not fail to answer me to the truth and expedience of these things I have laid before you And principally every one mind the through reformation and change of your own hearts and lifes by turning in your minds to the Light of Christ in all your consciences which must do the work else it never will be done and as the reformatiâ— of particulars grows so will the same do in the general And now what I have declared unto you and the manifestation of the Spirit of truth will shew you much more even the perfect patern of the house of God in the Mount concerning these things which are necessary and expedient in order to a thorough cleanly and perfect reformation we the people of the Lord called Quakers have fallen upon them being taught and directed thereto by the wisdom of God which buildeth the house else the building is in vain and we have found and do find the blessed usefulness of them as ye shall also find if ye be followers of us as we are of Christ And now ye who say or shall say Tush all this is but vanity and folly we will not daine to take councel from you we are wiser then your selves we will not learn at you and yee but boast of things yee know not and we expect a glorious comfortable breaking up of the day of God in order to a more perfect and thorough reformation then as yet hath been among us but it shall never come to us through your airth we can never expect good of you for yee are but a pack of poor silly deluded brainsick fools therefore get yee from us we will none of your councel the day shall never dawn upon us if it rise not in another airth then yee tell us of To such I say Oh yee foolish and unwise how like are yee to the former generations who ever were enemies to the wisdom of God through their carnal earthly and devilish wisdom and to the Iewes of old who despised the son of God and crucified him the Lord of Glory whom at that very time they were expecting to come the promised Messiah and when he came they mistook him and received him not because of his weak lowly contemptible appearance to the carnal eye but such who had the eye of Faith saw the glory of the only begotten of God upon him thorough the vaile which covered him from the sight of others and he disappointed them in all their carnal expectations and they are yet looking for him and have looked these sixteen hundred years but have never seen him nor shall see him in the way they look for him as neither shall yee and your judgment shall be one with theirs you being shut forth into utter darkness and plagued with hardness of heart if yee do not speedily repent And now whether ye will hear or forbear this I do declare unto you in the name and power and authority of the living God the day of the Lord is of a truth broken up among us and ye shall look till your eyes fail you and rote within your eye-holes e're ever yee see another day or appearance of Jesus Christ to your comfort then what we the people of the Lord called Quakers do witness come and yet more abundantly coming and if yee will not hear my soul shall mourn for you in secret places and weep before the Lord on your behalf And yee who in the perverseness and obstinacy of your hearts gain-stand and oppose with all your might and power the appearance of Jesus Christ in this day and yet are calling for the day of the Lord To what purpose do yee call for it that I may use the Prophets words in the like case Wo unto you that desire the day of the Lord to what end is it for you the day of the Lord is darkness and not light as if a man did flee from a Lyon and a Bear met him or went unto the house and leaned his hand on the wall and a Serpent bit him shall not the day of Lord be darkness and not light even very dark and no brightness in it Writ about the beginning of the 11 Month in the year 1664. THE END ERRATA IN Page 5. line 38. for and read an p. 16. l. 39. f. live r. alive p. 17. l. 39. f. these r. those p. 20. l. 30. r. in the world p. 22. l. 37. f. this r. his p. 30. l. 4. f. Laâ—ely r. Layety p. 44. l. 35. f. ease r. case p. 60. l. 8. r. did arise p. 63. l. 38. f. one r. an p. 64. l. 21. f. an r. one p. 66. l. 4. f. hear r. heart p. 68. l. 29. f. their r. her