the Saints formerly and the testimony thereof we know is true and your deceit and hypocrisie comes to be laid open as theirs were whom ye have been crying against for many yeares the Scribes and Pharisees and Jewes who crucified Christ and killed the Saints and Prophets and have been envying against them and have a Law made that none of the Jewes should come into this Nation c. and speake against them as they did against the false Prophets and their fore-fathers that slew the true Prophets and said if they had been in the dayes of their fore-fathers they would not have done so but Christ told them not withstanding that they were the Children of them that killed the Prophets and they built their Tombs and garnished the Sepulchers of the righteous And he called them Whited Walls and painted Sepulchers and Serpents and a generation of Vipers c. Therefore come now ye Professors and Teachers and Priests own your fore-fathers the Scribes and Pharisees and Jewes which are gone before you whom ye have cryed against and said ye would not have done as they did And yet have ye not done and are doing many of the same things as they did in persecuting of the righteous for now have ye not slaine the Prophet in you which Moses spake of Saying Like unto me will the Lord raise up a Prophet in the midst of you him ye shall hear in all things c. And are ye not slaying and persecuring the righteous and killing the just who doth not resist you and are painting and garnishing the Sepulchers and building the Tombs of the Prophet and of the righteous And are in your faire outside Worships as they were to be seen of men and crying 〈◊〉 this Forme and the other Forme of Church government and this Ordinance and the other Ordinance and this way of Worship and the other way of Worship and crying up this Learned man and the other Rabbi and are in your Observations as they were and have set up the Jewes Tythes which were to the first Priesthood and so deny Christ Jesus the second Priesthood and have set up Sacraments and Sabboths and Schools and Colledges and Churches which God never commanded and giving them Saints names as the Papists do and call the Papists old Masse-houses Churches and so are crying up dead things and dead Names and Ordinances of men and Doctrines of men and things which may be touched tasted and handled which all perish with the using And by these things have ye kept people in the Death while they have seemed to live and have made a great stirre and bustle in the World for many hundreds of yeares by crying them up and setting them up and your Ministry or Ministers as the Oracles of God and the maintenance for them and have killed some for witnessing against these things and have been ready to kill one another about these things and could not agree about them and one hath built a Wall and another hath dawbed with untempered Morter and so have been dawbing and dawbing to keep it up from falling and whiteing of it to make it appear beautifull to please men and to be seen of men And all this invented Worship and Imitations which ye have set up and brought people into are but as so many Tombes and Sepulchers of the righteous and these have been cryed up by the Priests for Divine Institutions and Orthodox and Canonical and whiteed over with large Pretences and plausible Arguments and undeniable Consequences as they have called them and the poor people have received all this for Gospell and Ordinances of Christ and of his Church as if Christ had been there present who is the true Prophet and the Righteous Seed which the Promise is to when as there was nothing but Tombes and Sepulchers of the Prophets and of the Righteous which they had garnished And so people while ye have been in these things ye have been all in the darknesse and in the Death and have been all as Graves which men goe over unawares being erred from the Spirit which quickens and makes alive which Spirit was in the Prophets by which they Prophesied and declared forth the Truth which came to passe accordingly to the Jewes That in seeing they should see and not perceive and in hearing they should hear but not understand which also is come to passe in these our dayes among all the Teachers and Professors who have been thus dawbing and building and painting the Tombes and Sepulchers and whiteing the Walls the just hath been killed and he hath not resisted you and the Prophet lyes flain in you all and ye understand not nor hear him nor see him neither have perceived nor known his Voyce who is the true Light that lighteth every one that all in the Light might beleeve him whom Moses said was like unto him whom the Lord would raise up a Prophet from the midst of them whom ye should hear in all things And it shall come to passe saith he that whosoever will not hearken unto this Prophet shall be cut off from amongst the people And so Moses saw and declared of concerning Christ that which ye do not know nor see nor hear though ye have long been talking of him and naming of his Name but it was but death speaking of the fame of Wisdome because ye have been erred from his Spirir which is the Spirit of truth which convinceth the World of sin and reproves them for sin but this the World cannot receive which doth reprove them for their sins and evill deeds because they love their sins and evill deeds and not God Now they that love the Lord hate evill but he that loves not God nor receives the Light of Christ nor beleeves in it which is the true Pro and faithfull Witnesse of God he loves his evill deeds but hates the Light which reproves him for his sins and evill deeds and therefore the Light is his condemnation as Christ saith and so this is not their Comforter who beleeve not but love their evill deeds But this is he whom we have received and followed even Christ Jesus who is come a Light into the World and denyed our selves and our own Wills for him and taken up his Crosse and we know the Prophet raised the Spirit of truth come which is our Comforter in all our troubles and leads us into all truth and brings all things to our remembrance and knowledg which were spoken before by the Prophets Christ and the Saints which Spirit is in us which was made manifest in the flesh and dwelt amongst the Saints and they saw his Glory who was the begotten Son of God and did hear Testimony of him who said unto them who beleeved in him I will pray the Father and he shall give you another Comforter that he may abide with you for ever Even the Spirit of truth whom the World cannot receive Mark Because it
so dawb with untempered Morter and speak peace where the Lord speakes no peace and so lead people about like silly women laden with sins and diverse lusts ever learning but never able to come to the knowledge of the truth For who knowes the truth the truth makes them free and brings them from under the load and from under that which burthens and vexeth the righteous soul as the righteous soul of Lot was vexed from day to day with the uncleane conversation of the wicked Sodomites Now these would keep people in Sodome and Egypt under the heavy burthens and loads in the fleshly lusts and filthinesse by the flesh-pots of Egypt that even peoples hearts and minds have been boyling up with wickednesse and uncleannesse and their eyes full of Adultery who cannot cease from sin and here they have been ever learning but could not know truth while they are there and so by this means they have made people to pay them for reaching of them and to uphold them and give them fire and these are the blind leaders of the blind into the Ditch But who comes to the Light which Christ Jesus hath enlighmed them withall to waite in it and hearken diligently to it they hear the Voyce of Christ and live and arise up from their seats and so come out of Egypt and out of the shadow of Death and the house of bondage and from under Pharaoh and his Taskmasters and they come through the Sea as Israel did and was Baptized unto Moses in the Cloud and in the Sea and through the fire to be Baptized into the name of Christ with the Spirit and with Fire and to be baptised all into one Spirit and to be made like unto Christ in his Death to be made dead unto sin that they may not live any longer therein and to drink of the spirituall drink and to eate of the spirituall meate and to drink of the spirituall Rock which Rock is Christ that is gone before us which Rock is the same which Israel drank of which followed them who were under the Law untill the Seed came which Seed is Christ who redeems from under the Law who was made under the Law that he might redeem them which were under the Law who fulfilled the Law and blotted out the hand writing of Ordinances and nayled them to his Crosse which whosoever are followers of him they must take up this Crosse which crucifies the flesh with the affections and lusts and makes dead unto sin and slayes the Transgressor and so makes peace through the blood of his Crosse I say this Crosse must be taken up dayly by all who will be true Disciples indeed and true Christians the Preaching of which Crosse now to the World and Professors therein is foolishnesse and is despised and cannot be endured as it was formerly to the Jewes a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishnesse but unto them that beleeved therein both Jewes and Greeks it was the Power of God and the Wisdome of God and to them that believe now it is the same but unto the unbeleeving it is foolishness even to all who are not yet turred to the Light of Christ Jesus within which he hath enlightned them withall they are still in the unbeliefe and so never yet knew the Power of God nor the Wisdome of God and so it is foolishnesse to them for they are all spiritually blind and so cannot discern the things of God which are spiritually discerned but are all as foolish and sottish Children without understanding and untaught and unlearned neither are they come to receive the Law from him who is the Law-giver that they might be taught of him who sarth Learne of me I am meeke and lowly im heart and ye shall finde rest for your soules and be made wise unto salvation for in him is hid the treasure of wisdome cand knowledge Now all those who only lookes out at the Scriptures and comes not to the Light of Christ within which the Scriptures declares of the treasure of wisdome and knowledge is still hid from them for it is in Christ Jesus from whence the Light comes which Light leadeth to Christ where the treasure is hid and where the Life is hid from all the world yet who are searching the Scriptures and thinking in them to have eternall life But ye will not come unto me that ye may have life saith Christ I am the Life the Way and the Truth and our Life is hid with Christ in God sayd the Saints Therefore now all people this is an Invitation of love to all your soules to turne in your minds to the Light of Christ within you which is spirituall holy true just and good which will let you all see what your words are your actings are though done in secret and what the thoughts and intents of your hearts are it will try them all and let you all see your minds being truly turned to it what is in your hearts and minds and what your wayes are now and have been and what your lives are and how you have lived Now this I say which lets you see these things and reproves what is contrary to it will let ye see whether ye are come to Christ yea or nay who is the Way unto God the Truth and the Life and the righteousnesse of God from whence the Light cometh and so here every one of you will know Judgement layd to the Lyne and righteousnesse to the Plummet and that which is lyes and deceit and hypocrisie will be Judged and condemned in every particular with the Light which is and will be the condemnation of the world who love their evill deeds evill wayes evill lives evill thoughts and intents of their hearts and evill words rather than the Light which doth reprove them and therefore the way the truth and the life which is Christ is hid from them and they know not him in whom the treasure of wisdome and knowledge is hid Now the Light is that which doth Reveale and make manifest that which is hid and hath been hid from the wise and prudent men of this world and hath been hid from ages and generations past But now is the Truth plainly seen and known and declared as it was in former ages by them whom it was then manifested to by the Spirit of God Even by us whom the world in soorns call Quakers who have beleeved in the Light of Christ and received the manifestation of his Spirit which is Light which is freely given and tendered unto all and hath appeared unto all but is not neither hach been received by all But as many as receiveth him to thom doth he give power to become the Sons of God even to as many as beleeve iâ— his Name who is the true Light and who is true and faithfull and everlasting The same to day yesterday and the same for evermore
the right hand and the left the Sheep and the Goats him that serveth God and him that serveth him not between the righteous and the wicked between him that sweareth and him that feareth an oath So then ye will not put darknesse for Light and Light for darknesse nor call evil good nor good evil nor put bitter for sweet not sweet for bitter nor call that which is corrupt holy nor the proud happy as they did in former times who wereblind and as they do now who deny the Light of Christ and teach people that it is but a natural light c. These are they now who are blind and without discerning and tasting and savouring of the things of God and their hearts are hardned through the deceitfulnesle of sin and they are without feeling Now the Light of Christ wil let you see what is in your hearts and in your minds and in your thoughts and what ye think and what ye speake For a good man saith Christ out of the treasure of his heart bringeth forth good things and an evill man out of the treasure of his heart bringeth forth evill things Now whose minds are turned to the Light of Christ within it will let you see what treasure you have in your hearts and what ye do bring forth or whether ye be the good men which brings forth good things good words and good deeds good desires good motions good thoughts and good affections or whether ye be the evil men who out of the evil treasure of your hearts brings forth the evil things as evil thoughts evil words and evil deeds c. This will let ye see whether the good things be there or the evil things be there at all times if ye do minde it and shew ye what ye bring forth and what ye keep in secret which ye would not have seen for that is the evil doer who doth not doe truth that would not have his work seen and so doth not love the Light because the Light will reproove him but the good man who doth truth he loves it and brings his deeds to the Light to be proved And the Light will let ye see if there be any deceit or hypocrisie in your hearts or desperate wickednesse there and it will reprove for that and will search your hearts and try your Rains and let you see what rules there and what Reigns there in your hearts and in your minds and desires and affections and whether ye have any Rains to hold in your desires and affections that they should not run into the lusts and vanityes of the world and of the flesh yea or nay And it will let ye see whether ye have the girdle of truth to girt up the loins of your minds to God or whether they are at liberty and loose and tossed to and fro as the raging Sea yea or nay And it will let ye see whether ye have a Bit and Bridle for your tongue which otherwise will be unruly and thereby you will offend if ye use it as your own I say the Light will discover this unto every one whose minds are turned to it and wait in it and who hearken diligently to it and beleeve in it and obey it they shall come to know their souls to live For obedience to it is life and disobedience to it is death And now whilest men who have been in power to govern the Nations have been making laws without to bind mens consciences and to limit them and compell them to this or that worship and have been talking long of Reformation and Church-Government and have gathered-Churches as they have called them and made Leagues and Covenants and Assemblies of Divines so called to make confessions of Faith Catechismes and set-Forms of worships as Directoryes c. to worship God by and to settle Church-Government and have Laws that all that would not worship God in such a way and such a Form as they had set up to fine them imprison them and whip them and stock them and banish them and hang them or cut oft their ears c. These have been the Reformations in the world in the Apostacy among the Apostate Christians since the dayes of the Apostles ' Among the Protestants and Papists with their Laws and Statutes and Customes and Ordinances without and carnal Weapons and Goales and Whips and Houses of correction and Inquisitions and Fires and Faggots and Courts and Pennance and Stools of Repentance so called now all these things have been and are in order to their Reformation and worshipping of God and to bring people to the Kingdom of God But now mind People what hath all this produced For they have all this while begun at the wrong end of the work and their labour hath been in vain hitherto and will be and little Reformation hath been wrought among people all this while for many himdreds of years past but one Generation hath exceeded another in wickednesse pride and covetousnesse drunkennesse uncleannesse deceit and hypocrisie c. I say what hath it brought sorth but to make people hypocrites not Saints false Christians not true Christians and Wolves in Sheeps cloathing to professe God and Christ in words but in works to deny God And professe the Scriptures to be their Rule and yet they are walking as contrary to that which they call their Rule as if they had no Rule at all nor no Scripture at all nor no Law at all to bind them to this or that form of worship These are but Babels builders whose work the Lord is comingto confound throw down their languages is already confounded and they are all on heaps still After all their bustle and stir which the many builders have made for many hundreds of years about Religion and worship and Reformation and they are as far from the true worship as they were And people do not yet know the Truth nor the true worship of God which is in the Spirit And the Lord is seeking such to worship him as worship him in the Spirit and in the Truth for God is a Spirit But all the world Teachers and the Priests and Professors therein do not know the Spirit of God nor know not the truth yet and so were not like to worship God in it or to find him in their outward worships and carnal Ordinances and Doctrines and Commandements or in the outward Observations and Forms which men have prescribed Nay God is a Spirit and they that worship him must worship him in Spirit and in Truth Now all this while people have been erred from the Spirit of God and the Wolf hath been covered with the Sheeps cloathing and the Wolves nature still retain'd and lived in and not the Sheeps nature They have been all inwardly ravening Wolves and not in the true Christians nature which is the Divine Nature Innocent and harmlesse and separated from sinners Now it hath been contrary
AN ALARUM OF TRUTH Sounded forth to the Nations OR The Way of Truth from the Way of Errour plainly Manifested and Declared And the true Worship of God which is in the Spirit from the false worships of the World distinguished Whereby people may come to know which Way they are in and what Worship they are in and what Spirit they are of and led by Whether they are in the Spirit of God which the Saints were in and now are in at this day or the spirit of this World which is the spirit of Antichrist gone out into the World which hath the words of Christ and the Saints and a forme of godliness but denyes the power where it is manifest and is turned against it and persecute it But that spirit is denyed and the true Spirit witnessed Also an invitation of love to all people and Professors of all sorts and sects to turn in their minds to the Light of Christ Jesus in them which doth reprove them for sin which is the manifestation of the Spirit of truth which is freely given that with it they may all see and try themselves and all their Teachers whom they have long followed what spirit they are of seeing they cannot say they have the same Spirit they Apostles had Written by a Friend to Truth called HENRY FELL London Prinred for Robert Wilson and are to be sold at the Sign of the Black-spread-Haâ—â—e and Windmill in Martins Le Grand 1660. To all the People and Teachers and Professors of all sorts in these Nations or elsewhere FRIENDS and People the Truth hath been declared among you and the sound of it hath been heard by you and the everlasting Gospel hath been preached and must be preached to all Nations Kindreds and Tongues that thereby the large love of God may be known and made manifest unto all mankind that he would not have any to perish but that they might all come to the knowledg of his truth that they might be saved And therefore he hath uttered forth his voyce from on high and is causing the sound of it to be heard in the Nations that all people should fear God and give glory to him for the hour of his Judgement is come and coming and his day is appearing after so long a time of darkness and night of apostacy which hath been over the face of the earth even over all Nations Kindreds and People for many ages and Generations past So that darknesse hath covered the earth and grosse darknesse the people and the way of the Lord hath been hid from them which is a straight way and a way of holinesse wherein the unclean cannot walk but they have been walking in untroden paths in crooked ways have been erred from the Lord and from his way dayes without number nor have not known it For their hearts have been filled with filthinesse and all manner of uncleannesse in so much that they have committed sin with greedinesse and followed after the vanityes of their own minds and walking after their own hearts lusts to the satisfying thereof and have been stubborn and rebellious children against the Lord in so much that the Lord hath been against them and his jealousie hath been provoked and his indignation hath been kindled against them and his wrath hath been revealed from Heaven against all ungodlinesse and unrighteousnesse of men who have holden his truth in the unrighteousnesse and there hath not been peace to him that came in nor to him that went out for that which was manifested of God in them hath not been regarded therefore hath the anger of the Lord been kindled and his hand hath been stretched out still because of all the abominations that have been committed in the Nations and among the people who have professed the knowledge of his name whereby his Name hath been prophaned and blasphemed among the Heathen round about and his Truth dishonoured which they have professed in words but in works denyed and held it in the unrighteousnesse Who have not received the truth in the love of it which God hath shewed unto them nor have not obeyed it but have taken pleasure in unrighteousness therefore have they been given up to strong delusions to beleeve lyes and to commit iniquity with a high hand and rejected the truth and erred from it in their hearts and striven against it and have loved their evil deeds and their unrighteous wayes and have not chosen the way of the Lord nor served the Law of the Lord with their hearts nor with their minds but whilest they have drawn nigh unto God with their mouths and with their lips have honoured him their hearts have been removed far off from him And their fear towards him hath been taught by the precepts of men for the Precepts of God and his Commands and Law in the heart hath been disregarded and cast behind their backs And they have despised the word of the Holy One of Israel Therefore as the fire devoureth the stubble and as the flame consumeth the chaffe so their root shall be rottennesse and their blossom shall ascend as the dust for behold the Lord will come with fire and with his Chariots like a whirl-wind to render his anger with fury and his rebukes with flames of fire for by fire and by his sword will the Lord plead with all flesh who have corrupted their wayes before him and delighted in the thing that was not good whereby he hath been provoked to anger And now this is come to passe among all the Professions in the world who have had the Scriptures of truth which was declared and spoken forth by the Holy men of God from the Spitit of Truth which was in them and dwelt in them whereby they were made able Ministers not of the letter but of the Spirit by which they were able to try and judge of all Spirits whether they were of God and saw many in their dayes who had gotten the true words and had a form of godlinesse but denyed the power and so they turned away from such and did bear their testimony then against such whom they saw separating themselves being sensual having not the Spirit and saw such as were erred from the Spirit going in the way of Cain to envy and running greedily after the errour of Balaam for gifts and rewards and for the wages of unrighteousnesse And such as served not the Lord Jesus Christ but their own bellyes and preached for filthy lucre and through covetousnesse with fained words made merchandize of the people and were enemies to the Crosse of Christ whose God was their belly who gloryed in their shame whose and was destruction who minded earthly things And such as had great swelling words of vanity whilest they themselves were servants of corruption and what they knew They knew naturally as bruit beasts and in those things they corrupted themselves And false Prophets there was as there shall be
the hidden things of dishonesty comes to be laid open to the view of all men For the day is come and coming which reveals all things and which will prove every mans work of what sort it is And every man shall receive a reward according to his deeds done in the body whether they be good or evil Therefore all people in whom there is any fear of the Lord or any desire after the knowledge of his way or any love to his truth or to your souls peace and welfare It is high time for you to look about you and to consider your wayes what ye have beendoing and what ye are doing for the times of ignorance God hath winked at but now he calls all men every where to repent For it is not a Profession of the words now will serve you without the possession of the life for that will not be accepted of God But all to repent and turn from the evil of your wayes which ye have long been reproved for by the light of Christ Jesus in you which is Gods witnesse in all your consciences which otherwise will be your eternal condemnation for your profession of Christ will not serve you nor hide you nor your mountains nor your hills where ye have been gotten up high and looking for salvation from them but it hath been all in vaine Come down from them to Gods witnesse in you and hearken to that what that doth testifie to you for that is true and will not lye nor deceive you for that is of God and leads to God And with the Lord Jehovan alone is Salvation and with him is everlasting strength For those mountains will all fly away from you which ye now do trust in and they shall not hide you from the face of the Lamb though ye may call to them to cover you and to the Rocks to fall upon you nay though ye seek death it shall fly from you Therefore I say in time all be warned and hearken diligently that your souls may live And away with all your false and deceitful coverings which are but as so many Fig-leaves sowed together to cover your nakednesse which will not endure long and your profession will wither suddenly and your nakednesse will then appear more to your shame then if ye had made no profession at all to have that pluckt off wherewith ye have been covered all this while which made ye seem to be some body when that is gone then ye will be naked and as it were like no body and have nothing to cover your shame from the eyes of all for Christ Jesus disowns ye who are workers of iniquity and ye must depart from him and not name his Name For it s not every one that saith Lord Lord shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven but he that doth the will of my Father which is in Heaven saith Christ But while ye have been seeking to be justified by Christ and yet lived in sin and are found sinners ye have not been doing the will of God for thereby ye would make Christ the Minister of sin who came to destroy sin and the Devil who is the Author of it and therein he did the will of the Father and plased him And so as many as receive him and beleeve in his name to them he gives power to become the sons of God and to doe his will in earth as it is done in Heaven which ye have been praying so long and saying these words but do not beleeve in your hearts that any shall ever attain to that here which you pray for therefore it s not of faith for with the heart man beleeveth unto righteousness c. and ye are not like to recelve that which ye cannot beleeve so ye are not come to the measure of faith even as a grain of Mustard-seed for he that hath it shall say unto this Mountain be thou removed into the Sea and it shall be so saith Christ But these are all parables to all you Professors in the world unknown as it was to them to whom they were spoken then But who comes to the Light of Christ Jesus to beleeve in it they read the parables and they know the faith that removes the Mountains and brings them down and exalts the valleys and makes the crooked ways straight and the rough wayes plain and prepares the way of the Lord in the Wildernesse and make straight paths for his feet and such knows the kingdome of God to come where his will is done on sarth as in Heaven and where the daily bread is received and sins forgiven and enemies loved And Christ said to those that did not know nor beleeve If I toll ye of earthly things and ye cannot beleeve how should you beleeve if I tell you of Heavenly things John 3.12 And again I speak that which I have seen with my Father and ye speak that which ye have seen with your father John 8.39 Therefore all ye Professors of the Scriptures and Teachers of the Prophets and Christs words and the words which ye have received by tradition from your fathers It s no wonder if the things declared of by the Prophets Christ and the Saints be strange to you that ye neither know them nor can believe them seeing ye me all erred from the Spirit of the Father even that Spirit which was in the Prophets Christ and the Apostles and Saints which shews plainly of the Father and shewed them things to come which was and now is the Saints Comforter which Christ said he would send Even the Spirit of Truth which should lead them into all Truth and should bring all things to their remembrance This the Saints did receive in former times by which they did plainly declare what they had heard and what they had seen and tasted and handled of the word of life And this the Saints do now receive even the same Spirit of the Father which was in the Saints and is now in the Saints and shall be in the Saints to the end of the World as Christ said by which the Saints do now know the Scriptures which were spoken forth by the Spirit of God in the holy men of God and understand them and witnesse the thing they speake of So that they are not a Book sealed to us nor parrables to us who come to enjoy the things they speake of which is freely given to us of God as they were to them who spake forth the Scriptures as the Apostle said 1 Cor. 2.11 12 13. We have not received the spirit of this World but we have received the Spirit which is of God by which we know the things which are freely given to us of God which things we declare in the plain demonstration of the Spirit and not with words which mans wisdome teacheth comparing spirituall things with spirituall But the naturall man perceiveth not