A VISITATION OF LOVE To the tender Plants of Gods VINEYARD Given forth by HENRY JACKSON Also two Generall Epistles given forth by WILLIAM CATON LONDON Printed in the Year 1663. A visitation of LOUE unto the tender plants of Gods Vineyard DEar and tender plants of my heavenly Father the salutation of my love dearly doth greet you all in the spirit that giveth life by which you are brought afresh to my remembrance even at this present time in these my present bonds for the word of God and the testimony of Christ Jesus and that not without living breathings ariseing in my heart unto the Lord for you that the God of all life vertue and living refreshment may daily water and nourish you with his heavenly life love and vertue causing you to abound in all the fruits of righteousnesse to the everlasting praise of his great and glorious Name that so you being fully rooted fixed and established in the root of life the stem and off-spring of David may grow up as plants of righteousness and flourish as Willows by the water courses that your branches may never wither nor your fruit perish but that the vertue of your leaf may be for the healing of the Nations and your fruit may remain in the winter stormes and tempests to the everlasting praise and glory of the Lord God of the vine-yard who hath planted and watered you and who also hath and will give an encrease unto all you who exalt not above the root nor lift up your selves against the other branches but abides in the true vine and keeps your place in the ground and root of life into which the Father hath implanted and grafted you that ye never may be plucked up nor cut off as withered and unfruitfull branches but that the vertue of the root of life may put forth it self through you and in the vertue and life thereof you may grow up fructifie and abound in all the fruits of righteousness thankesgiving and praise to the everlasting glory and renown of the Lord of the vineyard who is God over all blessed for evermore And dear and tender plants this is with me further to signifie unto you that it was purposed in my heart to have visited you in the bowels of eternall love with my dear and honorable Brother and companion in the Lord W. D. But Sathan hath hindred us who in Ages and Generatiâ—â—s past sought to withstand the servants of the most high God and even â—â—w also worketh mightily in the hearts of unreasonable and wicked men â—eeking to stirre up wrath against us and to cast our bodies into prison thereby intending to let and hinder the work of the Lord and to stop the wells of Iacob by depriving the heritage of the Lord of those pretious and refreshing oportunities which our God hath afforded us in our holy assemblings and comings together to wait upon him to be strengthned and refreshed by him and to build up strengthen and comfort one another in the most holy saith even with the same strength vertue and consolation wherewith we our selves are strengthned comforted and refreshed of our God And glory be to the Lord God for ever concerning this I am fully assured that the expectation of the wicked one herein shall be frustrated and that the God of all comfort and consolation hath and doth answer the request of our soules concerning you who abide faithfull to him in the light of his everlasting covenant in that he will manifest his heavenly vertue with you whether together or assunder as outwardly and open the spring of eternall life in you and therein make you as a well-spring of living refreshment one unto another And though he hath permitted the adversary so far to prevaile against us or to exercise his rage on us as to cast our bodies into prison is he did the very dearest Saints and servants of the God of Heaven în thâ— dayes past yet herein also I am fully confident that the wrath of men shall be turned to the praise of our God and the remainder thereof he will restrain and so concerning this I am fully satisfied and rest in peace in the will or rather permission of our God believing assuredly that this also shall work for our consolation that the depth of the riches of Gods love unto us ward may more abundantly be made manifest both in the preservation and deliverance of us in his own appointed time untill which we rest in the will of our God being singly given up that that may be done by us and fulfilled in us In which rest yee with us my dear friends for though in bodily presence we are seperated from you and letted from visiting of you for a little season yet in spirit we are with you in the bowels of eternal love our hearts are enlarged towards you much more then what is needfull to be expressed in lines of this kind seeing in the word of the Lord God you may read us and feel us near unto you and with you all even as in an epistle written in your harts to be seen and read by you all Wherefore in that receive ye a visitation of tender love from him that travels in spirit although outwardly in bonds for your preservation growth and prosperity every way in Gods pretious truth by which you were at first convinced for there is not preservatian growth nor any true prosperity in or by another then in that which hath been declared of unto you from the beginning even the light of Christ Jesus the word of the gospel of truth by which at first your hearts were opened and turned towards the Lord and repentance given unto life never to be repented of and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ and fervent love begotten in your hearts one towards another by which word of the Gospel my heart is enlarged unto you in an abundant manner and therein also let me inlarge my self a little by writing a few lines unto you in simplicity and truth though you need it not who are taught by the anoynting that dwelleth in you in all things and your hearts established in righteousnesse yet seeing all aâ—e not come so farre that are convinced of the truth of God bear with me a little ye that are strong if I write a few words in generall by way of caution or to put you afresh in remembrance O you dear and tender plants of my Father that ye be watchful at all times and take heed of that which would exalt you above your root or draw you into highnesse and loftinesse of minde above the feeling of the daily crosse kept over and above the earthly or flâ—shly part for that is to be beat down and kept in subjection or else it will cause you to wither and dry up at the root if that be nourished and cherished in you which the Lord God hates and resisteth but he giveth grace to the humble wherefore my dear friends in lowlinesse
his end in redeeming of you which may be answered by your faithfulnesse unto the Lord and in so doing every one will have his reward with him for every one that answers the Lords end for which the Lord called him comes to enjoy his presence comes to be filled with love life joy and peace and such do really shew forth his praise and declare his wonderous works to the bringing of honour and renown unto him and not unto themselves but they that are unfaithfull and disobedient though called they do not answer the end for which they were called and therefore doth not the Lord so reward them through his dwelling with them through filling them with love life joy and peace as he rewards the other that are faithfull but on the contrary they who are called and are not faithful as to answer the end for which they are called they I say are filled with sorrow and unbelief with trouble and anguish and condemnation pursues them from that which called them which they being unfaithful unto it ministers not consolation but condemnation it speaks not peace but warre c. And this being alwaies present with them to put them in mind of their neglect of their unfaithfulnesse of their disobedience and of their unworthinesse they are alwayes disquieted and tosticated in themselves and in such the murmurer and unbeliever hath place and such are very unfitting to bear crosses tryals and sufferings for all these will adde to the trouble which they were before possessed withall so that very many inconveniences do ensue where the end for which God called a people is not answered by them that are called therefore my dearly beloved friends be mindeful not onely of the end for which you are called but of answering the same that the Lords delight may be to do good unto you who are his peculiar treasure and live all in his eternall power and spirit that you may know the Lord and his eternall truth to be on your sides when furious men rise up against you then need you not be afraid of what they can do unto you for hath not the Lord oftentimes already suffered many of you to be tried through the fury of the wicked which at sundry times hath been high against you but how hath the Lord turned it backward and how hath he restrained the wickednesse of the wicked by his mighty power from being executed upon you even to your own admiration and hath not the Lords end in this been to engage you through his infinite mercy so much the more unto him who oftentimes suffered the fury of the ungodly to break forth a little yet not for the destroying but for the trying his people and how near have we found him unto us even as a rock of defence to fly unto in our greatest straites difficulties and temptations and what free accesse have we had unto him through his eternal spirit in our selves when by Jayles houses of correction force of Armes and the like we have been hindred from having accesse one unto another or for meeting together in the outward yet by those things before mentioned we could not be hindred from meeting together in the Lord I mean in the eternal spirit when the fury of the wicked hath been as the rageing of the Sea and having then the testimony of the Lords eternal Spirit in our selves that we had answered the Lords end in his calling of us in that we had faithfully shewn forth his praise and brought honour and renown unto his Name upon earth Oh! what joy and peace that did bring unto our soules and how did we rejoyce in the Lord when he covevered our heads as in the day of battell even untill that the fury of the wicked came to be abated so oftentimes you know have we seen the eminent hand of our God stretched out for our deliverance which hath hitherto preserved us to our great admiration therefore let us who have had such experience of the faithfulnesse of our God endeavour to be like unto him even faithfull as he is faithfull And now forasmuch as that in these perillous times we cannot well serve our God in that way in which he required us to walk without being in jeopardy of bonds and imprisonments or to have other sufferings imposed upon us by reason of our meeting together to wait upon the Lord and it doth therefore so much the more concern us to feel the drawings of our God by his eternal Spirit to our meetings that when we are met we may so much the more enjoy his presence in our meetings to the refreshment of our soules and then if we suffer for waiting upon him he will not leave us comfortlesse in that suffering which for that cause comes upon us and this is the word of trueth unto you neither will it be grievous to us while we keep in that through which we enjoyed him in our meeting for in that may we enjoy him in our sufferings and then it will be better to be one day in a prison with the Lord then a thousand else where without the enjoyment of his presence in which we have found as you know much joy and peace much comsort and consolation and therefore have we cause to hazard our liberty through our keeping of our meeting though we be accounted by men offenders for so doing rather then through the neglecting of them we should become offenders in the light of the Lord through whose mercy we are come to know the benefit of them to the end we might prise and frequent them and not slight nor neglect them for it is certain if we neglect them we shall not reap any benefit by them but if we frequent them according to the manner of the faithfull then will the Lord be with us at them and amongst us in them and then his end in bringing of us into the practise of such meetings will be answered to his glory and our comforts Again as concerning swearing what was the Lords end in giving us to see the evil of this was it not that we should keep clear of it and bear our faithful testimony against it as against a hurtful evil which is direct contrary to the doctrine of Christ and seeing we have known the terrours of the Lord God against this evil and have therefore perswaded others from it how can we therefore in any wise consent unto it as to do it though we should therefore lose both our liberties and estates for surely the Lord hath an end in convincing us of it in shewing us the evil of it and if we keep clear of it and bear a faithful testimony against it unto the end then the Lords end in convincing us of the evil of it will be Answered who knew before what would come upon us by reason of our testimony against it And if God had not suffered this as a snare in the hand of our enemies there would have been something else
as there are besides things many which they take up as occasions agâ—inst us as covers for their wickednesse and these things are not without the Lords permission who will try his Jewells as Gold that is seven times purified and the more that we keep our Consciences void of offâ—nce towards him and man the more precious we shall be in his sight but if we should love our Liberties our Estates or Lives more then him who hath said Swear not at all and for the saving of these should swear conttary to his command we should not onely neglect answering his end in forbidding of it but incurre his displeasure against us and while through doing that which he forbids we may think to save our Liberties estates and lives we might even in a moment loose them all for we know they are uncertain therefore let us answer the Lords end in shewing us the evil of this also and in being faithful in this and in all other things we shall find life riches and liberties which the world can neither give us nor take from us Moreover Friends as concerning your Return again to the Steeple-houses and unto which some would force you at this day but alas shall not he that sitteth in the Heavens laugh at their folly for doth not the least amongst you know that was not the Lords end in bringing you out of them I mean that you should return to them again neither needed you have suffered upon this account by that generation that continues in them if God had not determined to have tryed you out of them and that by the suffering which comes and will come upon you for not repairing to them yet neverthelesse if you would rather answer the Adversaries will by your returning to them again then the Lords end in calling you out of them then you might suddenly free your selves from suffering upon this account but I doubt not out you are otherwise minded yea resolved to answer the Lords end in his calling you out of them notwithstanding your Adversaâ—â—â—s present threatnings forcing and compellings which is not of from by nor through the Spirit of the Lord God therefore in the Spirit with patienec must you bear what the Lord suffers to come upon you upon this count for I testifie unto you it is not for the destroying of any though it may tend to the proving of many Wherefore my dear friends let none be discouraged nor terrified at what the Lord suffers to come upon you by reason of your meetings by reason of your not swearing by reason of your not going to their publick worship or by reason of any other particular thing as in relation to the truth of our God for while suffering comes upon you onely by reason of the truth you need not be ashamed of it neither will the Lord leave you comfortlesse in it for he is ready to succour such as for conscience sake suffer by reason of these things even as thousands who have found it by experience can testifie In the mean time comfort ye one another in the bowels of love and be ye tender affectionated one to another and regard not the present threatnings of men nor look not at the present tribulations but regard the truth in your selves and look unto the Lord and hear what he saith and if he speak peace be not ye troubled though men speak and prepare war against you but hold ye alwaies fast the word of Gods power and patience which is able to preserve and keep you in all your sufferings and tribulations even unto the day of salvation and unto this do I commit you all my dearly beloved friends as unto that which is able to save you all to the utmost so the peace and blessing of the Almighty be with upon and among you all for evermore I suppose many of you have heard of my bonds how that after God of his mercy had delivered me out of a mighty violent storm at Sea I was cast in here where they in Authority have shewed themselves to be worse to me and the friends with me then the Barbarious people of Melita was to Paul and them that were with him who shewed them no small kindnesse for they received and lodged them courteously but these that are called Christians shewed themselves to be barbarous rather then courteous in that they broke up our Meeting with many Souldiers and afterwards committed us to prison and in stead of shewing us much kindnesse they have been so cruell to us as that sometime it was difficult for us to get water and bread and so were farre from courteously entertaining of us or with honouring of us with many honours as the Barbarians did them before mentioned howbeit the Lord is with us and their cruelty hath been little to us for we know that our God will in his own due time deliver us out of their hands when our testimony is sufficiently born amongst them but of this I am very sensible that with the baptisme of suffering under this spirit of persecution in the Nation many are to be baptized into the fellowship of the Gospell with the Saints in light and blessed and thrice happy are they and will they be that continue faithfull unto the end for they shall be saved Farewell in the Lord in whom I remain Your dear friend and Brother WILLIAM CATON My fellow Prisoners salutes you all This for Friends to be read in their Meetings Yarmouth the 14. of the 11. Moneth 1663. DEar Friends Brethren and Sisters who are called to follow the Lamb whâ—thersoever he goeth my very soul greeteth you all with the salutation of my unfeigned and entire love in and through the eternal spirit which the God of our strength and comfort hath sent into our hearts through which I am made to share with you not only of your sufferings which you meet withall through your following of the Lamb but also of your consolation which you find in the midst of your suffering and truly my heart rejoyceth in this fellowship with you and my soul claims a part with you of all your sufferings and consolations which you meet withall in this your return to Zion and my heart is affected with the dealings of the Lord with you and with his infinite love and mercy unto you and often doth my spirit intercede unto him with strong sighes and groans which cannot easily be uttered on your behalf whom he loveth though the world hate you whom he hath respect unto though the world despise you whom he careth for though the world trample upon you whom he hath brought into fellowship with himself and with his Saints in light though the world excommunicate you wherefore then should any of you be afraid of their threatnings or regard their excommunications which in my heart I have considered of and pondred upon And this I have seen in the light of the Lord that they that cannot bring people from under the power of
Satan they cannot give up them unto Satan who through the power of God are brought as you are from under Satans power 2ly I have seen that the curses of them that pretend to excommunicate you are but like the curses of Shemi that cursed David or the curses of of prophane Publicans who when they are troubled at you will curse you for the good counsel you give them when you exhort them to the fear the Lord and to forsake the evil of their waies 3ly I cannot see that they can excommunicate you out of that which many of you never were in I mean their Church or its fellowship but suppose you had been in it what evil can they lay to your charge by reason of which they should deliver you unto Satan of which they not being able to convince you ought not thâ—refore according to that which they professe to be theâ—â— Rule excommunicate any of you 4ly They should first make proofe of their Ministry through bringing people thereby from under Satans poweâ— and by bringing you first into fellowship before they had gone about to have excommunicated you out of that which many of you never have been in And though at first they may pretend love unto your souls but hoâ— do they manifest it seeing when you refuse to come at their call they presently after their manner will deliver you over unto Satan is this then love let the wise in heart judge But methinks I have seen them as men in an old decayed ruined ship at sea that was ready to perish who cryed to some that were in a safe harbour to come to their ship for safety and pretended much love unto them but they in the harbour being wise would not come into their rotten ship for many good reasons whereupon they in the ship grew angry and pretending to force them into the ship but did presently throw them into the sea before ever they got them into the ship thus their treachery appeared who pretended love but were filled with envie Is it not thus with them that goe about to draw you from your safe harbour at which many of you through mercy are arrived who while they pretend they would force you out of love to your souls into their Church fellowship do in their haste before they get you so farre deliver you so much as in them lyeth unto Satan oh who would therefore put confidence in such men for surely they are of them who rather seeks your's then you and had rather share your Estates then have your society therefore well said the Apostle Turn away from such and in the same spirit according to my measure say I Turn not again unto such least while you turn unto them you turn from following the Lamb and come then through the Lambs power to be excommunicated out of the fellowship with the Saints in light and come thereby to be delivered unto Satan which God forbid And Friends however of this I am assured and can assure you that by all their power whether Ecclesiastical or Civil they shall not be able to excommunicate you out of that Church which is in God nor out of the fellowship of the Saints in light neither shall they by their power whether Ecclesiastical or Civil deprive you of your peace and comfort in the Lord while you abide faithful Let this therefore be your comfort in the height of your sufferings when they cast you out of their Synagogues and say Let the Lord be glorified and when they spoil your goods and cast your bodies into prison and say they will make you examples that others may fear oh be not ye troubled at any of these things for the Lamb â—hom ye follow will not leave you comfortlesse for if you be in prison he will be with you if you suffer hunger he will feed you if you suffer the spoiling of your goods for the testimony of his eternal truth he is heir of all things and he hath all power in his hand who cloatheth the Lyllies and feedeth the Ravens and what will he not provide for you his followers that make warre in righteousnesse through faith under his banner of love yea yea my beloved friends he will reward you into your own bosomes though for the present you suffer such buffetting and beating such imprisonment and spoiling of your goods and such cruel usage in many respects and he will not suffer the rod of the wicked to rest alwaies upon your lot Therefore be of good chear in the midst of these your sufferings which now you are to follow the Lamb through who through sufferings was made perfect and now sits at the right hand of his father in the highest heavens where they that now suffer upon earth for his names sake shall reign with him in glory and immortality for ever and ever Wherefore comfort ye one another with these things in the midst of these your present sufferings which are not worthy to be compared to the glory which shall be revealed when the Lamb and such as now follow him through suffering shall have the victory with which God of his infinite mercy crown you all my dear Brethren and Sisters and blesse you all with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in the son of his love the Captain of our salvation to whose safe custodie and protection I commit you all and remain Your dear Brother and Companion in tribulation and yet in bonds for the testimony of Iesus WILLIAM CATON Another EPISTLE To Friends DEar Brethren and Sisters in the Lord Jesus Christ I salute you in the bowells of tender love Dear Friends all keep low in the life that the living vertue you all may feel to nourish the tender Babe of God and all be tender over the principle of God in your own particulars and that will lead you to be tender over one another and all keep in the pure wisdome of God and watch one over another with a single eye and you that are strong bear the weak and come into onenesse onenesse of mind for there the blessing is so dear hearts I am filled with the streams of Gods eternal love and my streams of love floweth towards you all So friends sink down into the life and power of God that you may be preserved pure and clean that nothing may arise which would break your peace with God that you may be preserved in unity with him and one with another that pure love may spring up one to another in which love you will be all refreshed and be as a watered Garden feeling the well within from whence the living streams flowes forth and this keeps all broken and tender so all that which is hard rough untoward or pievish is kept out yea all that which would make a rent is seen and comprehended and with the light of Jesus Christ judged and you by the word of power reconciled unto God and one to another and let your meeting be in that so will you all feel the presence of the living God amongst you and there are we knit together in one and in that am I with you and near you all and feel you who are in the life and power of truth where the presence of the Lord is felt where we reign and trample upon all that which would lead from the truth So dear friends keep within and stay your minds in the light of Christ that you may grow up in the soundnesse to be of a sound mind not soon shaken but seek the rock Christ to stand upon dwell in that which changeth not that in the onenesse you may be kept for the Light of Christ changeth not to all that which is in the changing is not of Christ who changeth not And to that measure of life I commit you all which at first convinced you which begot love and tendernesse in you towards God and towards one another Ah friends in that keep so shall you feel peace RICHARD SCOCHTHRAâ— Given forth in the time of his Imprisonment at Bridewell for Gods unchangeable trurh who since finished his Testimony who travelling in the service of the Lord laid down his Earthen Tabernacle about the year 1661 far from his naâ—â—ve Coâ—â—try in the Island Zant. The End