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ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A39303 An epistle to friedns [sic] by Thomas Ellwood. Ellwood, Thomas, 1639-1713. 1681 (1681) Wing E619; ESTC R37790 10,254 11

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O let the Lot be cast let search be made by every one and let every one examine himself that this Achan with his Babylonish Garment may be found out and cast out for indeed he is a Troubler of Israel And all Friends who upon true search shall find your selves concerned in this particular I warn and exhort you all Return to that which at first convinced you to that keep close in that abide that therein ye may know as at the first not only a Bridle to the Tongue but a Curb to the roving mind a Restraint to the wandering desire For assuredly Friends if Truth be kept to none will need to learn of the World what to wear what to put on or how to shape and Fashion their Garments but Truth will teach all how best to answer the end of Clothing both for useful service and modest decency And the Cross of Christ will be a Yoke to the unruly will and a Restraint upon the wanton mind and will crucifie that nature that delights in Finery and in Bravery of Apparel in which the true adorning doth not stand but in the hidden man of the heart in that which is not corruptible even a meek and quiet Spirit 1 Pet. 3 4. And the Grace of God which hath appeared to all and which hath brought Salvation to many will not only teach to deny ungodliness and worldly Lusts and to live soberly righteously and godly in this present World Titus 2.11 12. but will also lead them that obey it out of all Excess and out of all Superfluities and worldly vanities and will teach them to order their Conversation aright Therefore to this heavenly Grace be every mind turned and therein staid that thereby all who profess the Truth may be kept within the holy Limits of it that in the whole Conversation and Course of life in Eating in Drinking in putting on Apparel and in whatsoever else we do or take in hand all may be done to the glory of God 1 Cor. 10.31 that our Moderation in all things may appear unto all men And let not any deceive and hurt themselves with a false Plea saying I will be left to my liberty I have Freedom to do go or wear so and so And Religion stands not in Clothes c. For that liberty which the worldly Spirit leads into is not indeed true liberty but is a false and feigned liberty which leads into true and real Bondage And though Religion stands not simply in Clothes yet true Religion stands in that which sets a bound and limit to the mind with respect to Clothes as well as to other things So that where there is a running out into Excess and vanity in Apparel that is a certain indication and token that the mind is got loose and hath cast off the Yoke and is broke away from its due Subjection to that divine Power in which the true Religion stands Great hath been the hurt which the Enemy hath done in this day by leading into a false Freedom and crying up a wrong Liberty for under this Pretence have crept in great Disorders some running out one way and some another some mixing in Marriages with the World's People and some going to the Priest to be married And many loose and unclean Spirits have shrowded themselves under this plausible Pretence of being left to their liberty unto whom Truth 's Order is irksom and uneasie and they kick against it and call it Imposition because it checks their licentious Liberty Therefore all who joyn with their Plea examine and try what Liberty it is ye claim and stand for for the true Liberty is not inconsistent with the Cross of Christ nor repugnant to his Yoke but agrees with it and is obtained through it and maintained by it And none whom the Son hath made free indeed will or can plead or make use of that Liberty in Opposition to any Means which the God of Order hath appointed or set up in his Church for the keeping out Confusion disorder and Loosness And hereby all may take a right Measure and may certainly know what kind of Liberty that is which some have so hotly contended for in Opposition to that necessary and commendable Order which God hath led his People into and which the Enemy in his Agents labours so hard to lead or drive them out of For the Enemy well knows that the tendency and service thereof is to detect and discover his secret workings and to bring his Deeds to Light and Judgment and therefore he strives with might and main to overturn it crying out through his Instruments Away with your Order Let every one be left to his Liberty By which seemingly fair and specious Plea not only the loose disorderly factious Spirits have been let up and encouraged to greater boldness and licentiousness but some simple and well meaning Friends also not seeing the design of Satan herein have been misled thereby and made use of by the Enemy and the more subtle of his Instruments to oppose the good Order of Truth Thus hath the Enemy wrought and sought to lay waste the work of the Lord. But the Lord magnified be his holy Name hath not been wanting to his People that in sincerity of Heart have diligently waited on him and trusted in him for he hath all along raised up some whose Eye he hath opened to see the Design and working of the Evil One and whose Spirits he hath engaged to stand up in a faithful Testimony against him contending for the way of Truth Which when they in whom the Enemy wrought perceived and found they could not run over the heads of Friends and carry things on as themselves pleased they set themselves in a heady willful Spirit to raise Disturbances in Meetings for business by encouraging and abetting such heady loose contentious and disorderly persons as would joyn with them thus hardning themselves and provoking the Lord to give them up to blindness and hardness of Heart till at length the Enemy prevailed so far upon them as to work them by degrees from Discontent to Prejudice then to Enmity and so at length in divers places to an open defection Apostacy and Separation Now although I know my dear Friends that ye who have kept your Habitation in the Light of the Lord and whose Eye is single therein have a clear sight and understanding that the Spirit which hath thus wrought and fought against the Truth is not nor can be of God but is of the Wicked One And although the Fruits it hath brought forth through the Agents and Instruments in and by which it hath wrought viz. making Disturbances in Meetings to the Breaking the Churches Peace Causing Divisions amongst Friends Publishing to the World most wicked Malicious railing and scandalous Books against Friends an effect of the greatest Enmity shutting and keeping Friends out of their common Meeting-houses in which they have a just Right and Property and not suffering them to meet therein
Bread nor drink Water in this place ver 8. This was where the Separate Altar was set up And he gives a forcible Reason for it For so was it charged me by the Word of the Lord ver 9. Here now you see both the Charge of the Lord and the good Resolution of the Man of God I will not go in with thee who hast revolted from God neither will I eat or drink in this place where an Ensign of Separation and Opposition to the way of God is set up Consider this well I warn you All in whom there is yet any true Breathings after the living God who retain any Tenderness and in whom there is any Simplicity left Consider this well I say when thy pretended Friend or Friends in a great deal of Seeming love and kindness shall invite thee to partake with them at their Separate Altar to sit down with them in their Separate Meeting Thou canst not be a Man of God and go in with them or Eat or Drink in that place Thou canst not sit down there to wait for the Bread of Life or the Water of Life to be given thee there No The Word of the Lord if thou give heed unto it will Charge thee otherwise Therefore to that pure living Word let every mind be turned and thereto kept in a diligent waiting to receive Wisdom Strength and Power from the Lord therein that none may be betrayed by the Subtilty of the Enemy with whatsoever fair pretence He may come For remember how the Man of God that was enticed by another to eat and drink outwardly at Bethel the place where the Separate Altar was set up lost his outward life therefore vers 18. and 24. And if thou shalt presume to go in to Eat or to Drink Spiritually that is to joyn in Worship with the Sons of Nebat at this day in the separate Meetings that any of them have set up in Opposition to the Assemblies of God's People and to the Blessed Way and Work of the Lord how know'st thou but thou mayst for ever lose thy Spiritual life and never know a day of Quickening more Therefore all Friends watch against every Temptation thereunto as you love your lives as you regard the good and eternal welfare of your Souls and let not the Name nor person of any Man have Power over you to draw you aside neither let Numbers sway with you in which I know these Adersaries of Truth do not a little boast though blessed be God with little reason but remember that Ieroboam of old had Ten Tribes out of Twelve to cry up his separate Altar Notwithstanding which he is branded to Posterity in the holy Record with this Brand Jeroboam the Son of Nebat WHO MADE ISRAEL TO SIN 2 Kin. 14.24 Therefore let not any follow a Multitude to do Evil Exod. 23.2 but all follow that which is good both among your selves and to all Men 1 Thes. 5.15 For Friends you know whither the broad way leads and what it is the wide Gate opens into which the MANY go in at But keep ye to the strait Gate and walk ye on in the NARROW way sor in it is safety and at the end of it everlasting happiness But Friends because of the straitness of this Gate and the Narrowness of this way some that have attemped to walk in it are grown weary of it and have sought out another way a way which Ieroboam like they have devised of their own Heart wherein they may have more room more scope more Company Ease in the Flesh Liberty to the Flesh and all without controul And this I am satisfied hath not been the least motive to the Separation in this day as it was the greatest in days past though some that have been drawn into it may not perhaps see the Ground upon which it was undertaken But the Lord hath opened an Eye in many which sees the Rise and Ground Entrance and End of this libertine Spirit and its work And this Eye will the Lord daily open more and more in all that diligently and in sincerity wait upon him Therefore All Friends every where who have not yet a clear sight and a thorow Understanding of the Nature and Work Design and Drift of this Dividing Spirit Wait I beseech you in Simplicity of Heart and Lowliness of mind upon the Lord and keep to the measure of the Grace you have received from him and suffer not your minds to be swayed or byass●d by any personal Kindness natural Affection Relation Kindred or Acquaintance but stand Single and open to the Lord not joyning to or any way countenancing that which the Testimony of Truth in the arisings of the Heavenly Life and breakings forth of the divine Power through any goes forth against So will your present standing be safe and you be preserved out of the snares of this insinuating and treacherous Spirit And the Lord in his appointed time as ye abide with him will open your understandings further and give you a clearer Sight of that which at present you do not fully see and thereby bring you to that Certainty and assurance which blessed be his Name he hath brought many unto And you my dear Friends whose Spirits the Lord hath stirred up and whose Hearts he hath engaged in an holy Zeal to stand up for his Blessed Name and Truth and to bear a faithful Testimony against this wicked rendring Spirit Go on in the strength and power of the Lord in the might of the God of Iacob for you are assuredly on the Lord's side and the Lord Iehovah the strength of Israel is on your side Therefore Friends be encouraged in the Lord to stand stedfast in your Testimony not giving way to the Enemy no not for a moment And take heed I beseech you in the Love of God how ye enter into any Treaty of Peace or Terms of Agreement with this ungodly treacherous Spirit which is out of the Truth and draws out of the Truth and fights against the Truth For there is no Peace unto it saith my God And they who have joyned themselves unto it and have Wickedly given themselves up to be acted by it and to act for it must pass through the River of Iudgment if ever they be Redeemed from under its power Friends Condemnation must first be felt and owned before Reconciliation can be known and the fire of the Lord must pass upon the Transgressor to consume the works of darkness the Ungodly Deeds the Envious Reviling Speeches the wicked malicious slanderous Books and Pamphlets c. and to burn up the Ground from whence they Sprang For a Flaming Sword hath the Lord God set in his Eden which turneth every way and none that are gone out can ever come in again but they must pass under the flaming Edg thereof Therefore my dear Friends stand your ground in the authority of the heavenly life and tamper not with God's Enemies Remember the word of the Lord to the Prophet Let them return unto thee but return not thou unto them Jer. 15.19 And then what follows I will make thee unto this People a fenced Brasen Wall and they shall fight against thee but they shall not prevail against thee for I am with thee to save thee and to deliver thee saith the Lord ver 20. So the God of Life fill your Hearts daily more and more with a Phineas Zeal for the honour of his Name and furnish you abundantly with Wisdom and Counsel with Boldness and Courage with Strength and Power to encounter and overcome the Enemy And make every one more watchful against the Spirit of the World to withstand it in all its allurements to vanity of whatsoever kind that whatsoever would defile the Camp of the Lord may be purged out and kept out that the Lord may more and more delight in his People and shower down his Blessings upon them which is the fervent desire of Your Faithful Friend in the Love and Service of the Vnchangeable Truth Thomas Ellwood The 24th of the 2 d. Month. 1686.