done much harm in them by bereaving them of the feeling they once had of the truth of God and of them that walked in it and they thus hardning their necks against the Lord and his precious servants nor not willing to remain subject to the Spirit of the Lord in themselves which had exceedingly striven with them to bow them to subjection nor not being willing to forsake that which was so dear to them which yet remained in them unmortified which having again gotten power and strength the Lord hath finally ceased striving with them and hath given them up to themselves and to their own wills and hath left them to themselves and thus were they at last made vessels of wrath nowithstanding the great and unspeakable long-suffering of the Lord that the Lord might manifest his power and righteousnesse upon them and some of them are made already so sad dreadful and lamentable examples whose misery is unspeakable and whose recovery is not to be expected Oh miserable above all misery much better it had been for them that they had never known the truth of God And my dear unfeignedly beloved friends seeing it hath pleased the Lord after his so great and long suffering forbearance and patience so to reveal his righteousness upon some as before mentioned who have not remained in subjection to his Spirit unto the end Oh let this than serve as a living example unto us lest that any of us at any time should be found in the like unbelief and unfaithfulness and that the Lord therefore should use the like righteous severity against us which he hath done unto them for what are we more then they if our minds should come to be drawn out and alienated from the grace of God in our selves whereby we have had such a feeling of the Lord of his truth and of those that walk in the same I say if that Satan through his subtilty should come to scatter our minds from the feeling thereof in our selves what should we then be better then they but it would be more like that such misery and wrath should be suffered to come upon us as is come upon them And now seeing that it is so that the mind can be so easily moved and drawn out from that in which the Immutability consisteth through the manifold temptations snares deceivable subtilties and subtile seducing of Satan even as its possible the most have found by experience in themselves Let us therefore keep perpetually in the light in our own particulars heartily loving embracing cleaving unto and uniting our minds to it for that same that convinced us in the beginning of our sins and unrighteousness is the same that must preserve us to the end for in the same is lite mercy and peace and through being preserved holily in the same we become partakers of the vertues of eternal life as they are in Christ Jesus for through the light hath the Lord opened our understandings and in the light have we seen and felt the fulness of grace and through the same the unspeakable mercy of the Lord is perpetuated which every morning is renewed to his Children who continually in his fear and in his light do wait upon him calling upon him in his light praying praysing and thanking of him for his unspeakable love grace and mercy which he so often and abundantly hath manifested to them whereby they are often overcome in themselves and constrained to humble themselves before the Lord in true tenderness brokenness simplicity and uprightness of their hearts from the bottom of the same to glorifie his holy Name Oh my friends how doth my soul long for all your establishment in the truth according to your faithfulnesse and uprightnesse of heart and after your simplicity singlenesse and tendernesse before the Lord that you might be exalted and established above all that which would arise to hinder you in your precious running and holy intent that you therefore might be found stedfast and diligent keeping your watch in the light that he who goes about continually as a roaring Lion seeking whom he might devoure might never have cause through any of his subtilties through deceit to trap or ensnare any of you and that before you your selves be aware of it or by bringing one thing or other into your hearts therewith to trouble and disturb you and to spend your time and through such occasions may seek to draw your minds from the light and from watching in the same even as he hath done with some who had neglected the watch in the light over whom he hath gotten power they having made shipwrack of faith and of a good conscience having scattered that which once with diligence they had gathered and having lost that which once they were sensible of so with the Dâ—g turned to his vomit again and with the Sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire again and that after they were in measure washed And though in the beginning of their Apostacy and degentration they gave credit unto Satan who sought to make them believe or rather to imagine that they should be no lesse then they were before not then the people of the Lord but that they should be more perfect and become better holier perfecter simpler uprighter and faithfuller then these who simply wa'ked in the truth and more established in it but finally it became manifest what Satan was determined to do with them and the same it manifest it when they could hide that no longer which was grown up in their bosomes when that came to break out which they had for a long time secretly hidden Oh that Satan should ever so far prevail over any and now that the like might not come to passe concerning any of us who are yet sensible of the grace of God in our selves and of his everlasting and unchangeable truth in our own particulars therefore is my heart so often turned to the Lord and pured forth before him praying for the salvation of Israel and for all in Israel that are of a tender and broken heart that Satan might not in any wise bereave them of their simplicity in the light or of their tendernesse to the truth yea because of this for the truths sake is my life often poured forth before the Almighty Father praying and interceding in much travel sweating and waking night and day that the Lord might be pleased through his unexpressible grace and fatherly mercy to obstruct that which Satan hath purposed and determined for this I may say plainly he hath not yet ceased neither hath he yet despaired neither is he who is the accuser of the brethren cast out of all but goes yet about as a devouring Lion seeking whom he may devour Oh therefore my dearly beloved and pretious Friends is it not exceeding needful to keep our hearts perpetually in the light upon the watch to the Lord in openness and simplicity that nothing but the Lord alone and his work and truth might have
THE BACKSLIDER BEWAILED THE Careless Warned AND THE FAITHFUL ENCOURAGED WITH True desires and living breathings for the Preservation of the whole Israel of God Written by P. Hendrick who is a stranger in England but a fellow Citizen of the new Jerusalem and a member of the true Church of which Christ is the Head Translated into English by W. C. Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed least he fall 1 Cor. 10.12 Of a truth I perceive God is no respecter of persons but in every Nation he that feareth him and worketh righteousness is accepted with him Act. 10.34 35. There is neither Jew nor Greek there is neither bond nor free there is neither male nor female for ye are all one in Christ Jesus Gal. 3.38 Where there is neither Greek nor Jew circumcision nor uncircumcision Barbarian Scythian bond nor free but Christ all and in all Col. 3.11 For by one spirit are we all baptized into one body whether we be Jews or Gentiles whether we be bond or free and have all been made to drink into one spirit 1 Cor. 12.13 Printed in the Year 1665. MY near and cordially beloved friends Although for the present I have no new thing nor any thing else to declare unto you then what you have heard from the beginning from our dear brethren the faithful servants of the Lord nevertheless I cannot omit to write these few lines unto you which may serve for a token of our peculiar fellowship and feeling one of another in that whereby we are so often made sensible one of another Oh! blessed be the Lord who through his unspeakable love and infinite mercy hath made us so often sensible of that from which the world is alienated and of which it is ignorant to wit the revelation of his holy eternal spirit and divine power in us through which we could have no peace day nor night while we walked in the dayes of our ignorance alienated from him in the time of our nakednesse and misery but he often revived his own spirit as a living witnesse in our conscience to the reproving convincing and judging of us for our known and some then unknown corruption of our hearts besides often did he with friendly exhortation beget such good strong and pretious desires after himself and after the redemption from the garment of sin the old garment of the flesh and not alone so but often hath he powerfully drawn us yea and in a manner constrained to subjection obedience and fulfilling of his will and commands and this hath he done of himself not onely when we have found no power in our selves nor of our selves but also when our hearts have in a manner consented to the evil and our minds in some measure captivated by the enemy yea he himself in such a time I say hath kept us from the evil when we our selves nor no man else could not preserve us And in this manner hath he thus very meekly handled with us when we daily resisted his spirit through disobedience and when and that almost perpetually works were brought forth which grieved his spirit neverthelesse through his unspeakable mercy hath he as it were looked over them things and hath reached over them to his own seed and hath sought to raise and revive that and hath tenderly nurtured and cherished it as a mother nurtures her child or as a hen her chickens And now oh his mercy that the should even chuse us as the first fruits from among so many thousands yea ten thousands which are yet walking in the enmity and alienated from him that gives them breath and life and who hath born with them until this very day against which they have heaped up a treasure of wrath through their disobedience and obstinacy in which condition they are often cut off and so rewarded according to their work And if the Lord had dealt so with us how could we have accused him nay in the depth of our misery must we have justified his Judgments But oh how contrarily yea how fatherly how gently and how graciously hath he dealt with us what tongue with words can declare the same oh the depth of his mercy and unspeakable goodnesse yea the consideration of the same doth so overcome the hearts of his children that often times they cannot expresse that which they see and feel that the Lord hath done for them and now through the same love and free grace hath he called us out of the world and separated us from the same through his power which in a great measure hath redeemed us from the same in many respects both inwardly and outwardly and having shewed and opened unto us a place of holinesse in which as we abide we shall be kept unsportted from the world And all yea all this hath the Lord done for our good that he might have cause to manifest his love the more unto us and to make us partakers of his heavenly vertues yea of his fulnesse of his love peace joy consolation and gladnesse in his holy spirit of his long suffering loving kindnesse forbearance and mercy yea in short to make us partakers of his own nature And many who have taken to heart this acceptable day of friendly visitation and time of great mercy and have esteemed the day of grace more precious than all that is in the world yea than their own life and who also have continued stedfast in the time of tryal for so certainly as the Lord hath ordained a gracious and merciful day of visitation so assuredly hath he prepared a time of trial and I say these that have continued stedfast in the same and through the same have been confirmed in the Lord oh how well is it with them yea how well is it with such but on the contrary those who have not regarded the day of visitation which was for their good but have despised the same and carelesly have let it passe by not sufficiently laying to heart their eternal peace nor considering how tenderly the Lord hath dealt with them and born with them and how fatherly he hath cared for them yea if it had been possible and that they had been worthy he would have constrained them to have entred into his rest but alas they looking at the visibles and not giving up their old and evil accustomed life to the Judgment which was so near unto them and ruling in them shunning the Cross and following the vain imaginations of their hearts and the lusts of the world and so have let the day of their visitation which was out of love unto them passe over their heads Oh! in what a miserable condition have they remained and what a precious thing have they neglected but yet a greater misery is to be observed which is come over some such which have not absolutely refused the day and time of their gracious visitation but embraced the same with joy being powerfully convinced of the truth of God in their own consciences
that all that the Lord wrought in them and for them was for their good for whose preservation the Lord even sought to do what he knew needful to be done yea even as for us whereby they have also been constrained to forsake much for the truths sake and have been sometimes a good favour to the same and their service was once before the Lord not very unacceptable so long as they remained little before him and and little in their own eyes when their hearts were broken and tender and when they were single before the Lord and given up to his will and so long as they did not turn their eye backward but remained diligently waiting in the daily Crosse and in the love of the same and when they had put on the same as a garment and as breast-plate before their breast and as a girdle upon their loyns had girded it in which time of their tendernesse and fruitfulnesse the Lord found cause to manifest his large love unto them and very much open some of them and enlighten the eyes of their understandings and gave them knowledge and wisdome and in a great measure gifted them with authority and courage even to the admiration of their enemies who had sought to provoke them to resist that truth which they bore testimony of but often had the power over them yea to tread upon the imagined wisdome of the wise as upon dung and to sing the song of triumph over them these and many more remarkable things hath the Lord brought to passe concerning them and often in such a condition hath he made them sensible of his grace and mercy of his kindnesse and love of consolation and refreshment yea in short of the powers and vertues of the world to come without end and of the everlasting Judgment so that one might ask what hath not the Lord done for them or what hath the Lord omitted to do that he should have done for them so that it hath not in any wise been wanting on the Lords part but alas now when they had gotten some wisdome yet neverthelesse through the grace of God in such a time when they were as fools in their own eyes yea as ignorant fools not knowing any thing and when they were become sensible and partakers of several good gifts in the time of their tendernesse and when they were little in their own eyes and when they kept close to the light and loved the daily Cross But oh not stedfastly abdiding upon the watch in the light and fear of the Lord until than the Lord should be pleased to become all in all in them and until that he had totally consumed him that had the power of death to wit Satan and that they might have learned to have known him and all his devices subtile deceivings and deceivable appearances therefore have they been through his cunning snares and subtilties detained and as an untimely birth have not been brought forth unto life for as Satan is exceeding cunning and goes continually about seeking whom he may devour even so is he an utter enemy to mans peace with the Lord and seeks upon divers manners how he may obstruct the same yea even as the Lord is labouring night and day for mans preservation to judge the evil and afterwards to shew mercy even so is Satan busie night and day to accomplish that which he hath determined And although there was a time wherein he could not easily seduce them yet did he not despair corcerning them but took his opportunity and appeared to them when they had taken up some rest in a more glorious form and changed his countenance as if he had been an angel of light seeking to imitate in motion and appearance that which before had proceeded through the power from the life yea even as the Magicians of Egypt who through their witchcraft could imitate much of that which was done by the power of the Lord even so this deceivable seducer And on the other hand even as Israel through the mighty hand of the Lord was redeemed out of Egypt for whom the Lord had done such wonderful things nevertheless this being but a little over and they not imprinting all those things which the Lord had done for them in their hearts then were images soon made and Idols set up and then they said Behold Israel these are thy gods which have brought thee up out of the ladn of Egypt and even so was it with them before mentioned when Satan had drawn their minds from the watch in the light and they being become wise in their own eyes hearkened to the imaginations and inventions of their own hearts and then did they make unto themselves Images of the every finest gold saying in their hearts to them these are your Gods but he who is a very jealous God will not have any god served honoured nor worshipped besides himself who in a short time hath manifested such unspeakable grace mercy and goodness to them he beheld this their present condition with much sympathizing and heaviness over them and sought with great kindness in much long suffering and tenderness to warn them from them sometimes powerfully convincing them of his truth in their own consciences and oftentimes making them sensible of the danger which they are in in laying their heart and condition clearly open before them seeking then friendly to reprove or to judge that which will not be subject to his spirit but alas the Judgment was become heavy to them yea too heavy especially to the perverse part and the Cross was become bitter and there being yet something remaining ever in them not yet mortified nor wholly forsaken and though the same could not wholly reign nor have the dominion while they were tender before the Lord loved the Cross and abode in the light yet nevertheless hath it afterwards encreased and is become strong until that it finally did sufficiently get the dominion again But oh what hath the Lord born with them and how graciously and mercifully hath he handled with them and laboured with them for to bring them off from it yea how hath he laboured with them and not alone the Lord but also his Children and faithful servants who also being constrained through love were very diligent in watching over them for the best as in the truth it became them in much watchfulnesse tendernesse and wisdom but their minds being drawn out through the subtilty of the enemy from the light life and feeling of the Unity and an evil sharp eye that looked out being opened in them then did they seek to pervert every thing to the worst sence that was done by those who simply and uprightly from their very heart feared the Lord whether in their dealing with them or towards them or otherwise And when the evil and perverse eye was opened in them then did prejudice and hard thoughts creep in against their Neighbours which when it was let in encreased as a Canker and hath