with the Light you will see the Kingdom of Heaven within which never gave consent to Sin and Evil like to a grain of Mustard-seed and to a Leaven which leaveneth into a New Lump And with the Light you will see the Field which is the World placed in your hearts where the Pearl is hid and with what you must dig to find the Pearl the Power of God and what you must sell for its sake to purchase the Field And waiting in this Light you will receive the Spirit of Truth the Comforter to to lead you into all Truth and to bring the Words which Christ hath spoken to your remembrance and it will shew you things to come and it shall receive of those which are Christs and give it unto you So loving the Light you love Christ and receiving it you receive Christ the first and the last For in the Light Christ is seen and handled his Voyce is heard and he is followed So in the Light you will see Christ to be your Teacher who saith Learn of me I am the Way the Truth and the Life by whom Life Eternal is given And you are brought again to Christ the Shepherd who draws you out of the Fall to God into his Image where the Green Pastures of Life are known and fed upon And no man commeth to the Father saith Christ but by me who enlighteneth every man that cometh into the World that by the Light all may believe And saith Christ Believe in the Light whilst ye have the Light that you may be Children of the Light So you being enlightned with the Light which if you believe in it you come to be Children of the Light and Heirs of Promise and Mercy and of the Power of a Life that hath no End And believing in the Light you pass from Death to Life from Darkness to Light and you come to know a Translation from Darkness to Light and from Satans Power to the Power of God and to know the begotten of God into his own Image by his Power as you have been degenerated from God and have lost his Image by the Prince of Darkness and so translated from the Image of God into the Image of Satan from the Power of Christ into the Power of Darkness so you must come to the Light that ye may have another Conversion from Satans Power to God from Darkness to Light to be renewed into the Image of God and this is felt within and as you feel this within you will know the Word of God within in your hearts which is the Word of Faith which the Apostles preached to the Romans which they were to hear obey and do And that is the Word which seperates the pretious from the vile your pretious thoughts affections motions and words from your vile So the Word is in your Hearts and Mouthes to obey it and to do it And it is quick and powerful sharper than a two-edged Sword And you shall not need to say Who shall bring it from Heaven or who shall fetch it from beneath But it is in the Heart and Mouth and this is the Word of Faith which the Apostles preached And the same Word is called a Hammer a Sword and a Fire to beat down to cut down and to burn up whatsoever is contrary to it So it is the same Word which sanctifieth and purifieth and reconcileth to God as beats down and cuts down that which is contrary to God and which seperates betwixt you and God So you may hear obey and do the Word for it is with you in all places and in all your occasions dividing good thoughts from bad good words and motions from bad For if all Christendom would hear and obey the Word in their Hearts which is pure and lives and remaines and endures for ever by which they would come to be born again of the Immortal Seed this Word would keep them from evil Actions and Words which are spoken and acted by them And so by the Word every one should be taught and should know the engrafted Word which is able to save the Soul which beats down and cuts down and burns up that which wars against it and keeps the Soul from the enjoyment of God And so in this Word they should know the annointing in themselves to teach them so that they should not need any man to teach them but as the same annointing teacheth them which teacheth Truth in all things And in this Light and Word which is in the heart they should know the New Covenant of God the Law written in the heart and put in their mindes by which they should not have need to say one to another Know the Lord for all should know him from the least even to the greatest And those are true Christians who come to witness this as thousands in England do witness it in this his Day among whom the pretious Pearl is found and the Field is bought among whom the Law of the Spirit of Life sets free from the Law of Sin and Death Who witness the Ages to come of which the Apostle spoke In which the kindness and exceeding riches of the Grace of God should be manifested again which the Lord in the Primitive Times made manifest amongst the Apostles who sat together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus In which places thousands are now come to sit Glory be to him for ever I. Concerning WORSHIP The Promise of Redemption is from that State in which Adam and Eve their Sons and Daughters are in the Fall driven from God into a State in which they were before they were driven from God to the Church in God Now they that sit down in a State driven from God are People far off from the Church in God Our Worship is in Spirit and in Truth in which the Devil abode not but is out of it who is the Author of strife and unrighteousness amongst People which Truth maketh the Devil to bow and cringe yea and destroys him and it is the Spirit that mortifies sin which makes the Separation from God Now we say that if all Christendom had worshipped God in Spirit and in Truth they had all been in Him out of which the Devil is and had been in the holy Mountain and had felt the Spirit ruling them in their own particulars and had felt the Spirit of Truth guiding and teaching them in them in their own hearts II. Concerning the CHURCH Our Church is in God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ which he Redeems with his own blood without spot or wrinkle or deformity or any such thing which blood we feel in our Hearts purging us from all sin with which blood we feel our Consciences cleansed from dead works to serve the Living God So this blood is witnessed in us and the excellency thereof by which we come to know the price of Redemption III. Concerning the WAY We say that Christ is Our Way which is Light which enlighteneth you and
Babylon shall be confounded and all Merchants which have Merchandized with her shall howle and lament and cry Alas alas How is this great City fallen For there hath been a merchandizing in this great City which must be thrown down and all the Merchants of this great City have been those that inwardly ravend from the Spirit of God who have built up and plucked down So unto this from which they have Apostatized you must all come before the Sheeps Life be known and so the Witnesses are raised and shall be raised who hold the Light and carries the Oyl to enlighten the Nations and to annoint them yea the Spirit and Power and Fellowship and Worship in which the Apostles were formerly in And the Cry is begun Fear God and give glory to him Come out of her my People lest you be pertaker of her Plagues And the Mourners shall go forth and the Prophets prophesie Who witness the Spirit of God fallen upon them as formerly among the Apostles And the Everlasting Gospel shall be preached to all Nations Kindreds and People XXXIII Concerning an OBJECTION of PEOPLE Objection But many people speak after this manner Have not we had the Gospel all this time till now Answer We say No You have had the Sheeps-cloathing while you are alienated from the Spirit and so not living in the Power which is the Gospel And the Bride the Lambs Wife is coming out of the Wilderness which hath been nourished of God for a time and times and dividing of times preparing for her Husband and the Man-Child is risen to rule all Nations with a Rod of Iron And the Lamb and the Saints shall have the Victory Glory to the Highest and people shall come into Gospel-Fellowship and to the Church of God and Church-Fellowship in the Gospel the Power of God which was before the Power of Satan was which Gospel was among the Apostles in which their Fellowship was and this is Gospel-Fellowship and in the Power of God they are over all false Prophets false Worshippers over the Dragon over the false Church and his Worship which are begotten betwixt us and the Apostles and are gotten beyond them and see their rise who are inwardly ravend from the Spirit and are gone from the Truth as the Devil and the Whore heretofore who set themselves against them who are in the Truth But here is the Faith and Patience of the Saints who seeth the destruction of the Whore the Beast the Dragon and the false Prophet by the hand and power of God who know the Seed of God to raign over all viz. he who is the First and the Last XXXIV Of the JEW Inward and Outward and of a CHRISTIAN in the Power and out of the Power The Uncircumcised Gentiles which have not the Law and yet do those things contained in the Law are better than the Circumcised Jews which have the Law and are more Sober and Moderate and so the Jew within in the Spirit is more Excellent than the Jew without in the Flesh And so a Christan in the Light and Power and Seed of God is more excellent than a Christan in the Form of Godliness and yet out of the Power and more Moderate and Patient XXXV Concerning CHRIST the COVENANT of GOD. Christ the Covenant of God was foretold by the Prophet who said I will give him for a Light and for a Covenant to the Gentiles and he shall be my Salvation to the ends of the Earth yea the New Covenant to the House of Israel and to the house of Judah So this Covenant is made to all People to them who were called the People of God and to the Gentiles also And this is that Covenant of Light unto which John came to bear Witnesse which enlighteneth every one that cometh into the World which giveth Power to all who receive it to become the Sons of God from him who hath all power in Heaven and Earth given to him And this is the Light in which people must believe by which they become Children of God and this is the Light which shineth in Darkness and out of the Darkness which is in the heart which giveth the Knowledge of the Glory of God in the Face of Christ Jesus from whence it comes and this is that Light which they who love darkness hate and will not come to it because it reproves them And by this Covenant of Light to the Gentiles which is Salvation to the ends of the Earth Now we who are Gentiles are become Christians and we obtain Salvation and by Faith in this Covenant we become Children of the Light and by receiving it we receive Power to become the Sons of God But they who hate this Light and love Darkness rather than the Light and do not come to it because it condemns them even this Light is their Condemnation XXXVI Concerning Plots and Conspiracies Plots Conspiracies Insurrections Tumultuous Meetings we utterly abhorre who live peaceably and seek the peace and good of all People upon earth There were about thirty of the fifth Monarchy men who made an Insurrection in England which Insurrection was wickedly laid to the charge of the People of God called Quakers from which Insurrection the Monarchy men themselves declared when they were to dye That we were Innocent yet nevertheless the Diurnals and News-Books have joyned us together with the Monarchy men in that Plot and Insurrection and have published us to the Nations as Plotters though we are Innocent And we say The Lord forgive them for wronging of us The lying Priests and Professors say That we deny the Scriptures and that we deny the Resurrestion and Christ and his Body and that we foame at the mouth and that we bewitch men and bind Ribband about their Armos which are altogether false and lies and from their Father the Devil the Author of them who is out of the Truth in which Truth we are however scandalized by them who are of the Father of Lyes And what evil soever they may bring against us yet we are in the Truth and can rejoyce Praised be the Lord who lives for ever XXXVII Concerning Original Sin The Devil is the Original of Sin which Christ destroyes God is the Original of Righteousness and Christ is Gods Righteousness which endures for ever but the Worlds Original is the many Languages whose Original is Babel which makes Divines as they call them with many Languages set a top of Christ And the Whore sits upon the Waters as it s spoken in the Revelation And John saith The Waters are Nations Multitudes People and Tongues which Tongues they call their Original To which Waters the Gospel must be preached before they can be established And ye are to be redeemed from Tongues and Tongues shall cease saith the Apostle and so from this Worlds Original the beginning of which is Babel and which keeps in Babylon the Saints are redeemed And this hath been set up as an Original among them who are
clash against the Truth as it is made manifest in others And indeed the Lord hath shewen me in Spirit several times that they themselves are guilty of that very charge and that he will so implead them at his Judgment Seat which they cast upon us even of denying that Christ which died at Jerusalem to be the Christ For he that owneth the words of Scripture as he apprehends or conceives them in the reasonings of his mind and doth not wait to have them revealed in the Spirit keeping out of his own reasonings and conceivings and waiting patiently till the Lord open the thing in the Spirit he setteth up his own conceivings or an Image in his mind of the mind of the Spirit but misseth of the thing it self which alone is known in the Spirit by them who wait upon the Spirit there to receive it and are not hasty to set up their own reasonings and imaginations concerning the thing in the mean time No man can in Truth call Jesus the Lord but by the Spirit But any man that is any thing serious and weighs the Scriptures in the natural part may so learn to acknowledge his coming into the World and that he is Lord and King c. and may thus call him Lord yea and kindle a great heat in his affections towards him but all this out of the Life out of the Spirit is but mans Image which he forms in his mind in his reading the Scriptures and observing things therefrom But the true calling Jesus Lord is from the feeling of his eternal Virtue in the Spirit and finding the Scriptures opened to him by the Spirit in a Principle which is above the Reason comprehends the Reason and confounds and brings it to nothing Again There is no true Knowledge of Christ no living Knowledge no saving Knowledge which hath the eternal Virtue in it but that which is received and retained in a measure of Light given by God to the Creature in the Faith which is the Gift in the Grace which is supernatural and spiritual whereas the resoning part is but Natural And such as have received the Spiritual understanding know it to be distinct from the Natural and we experimentally find a very clear distincttion between Scriptures searched out by the reasonings of the mind and so practises drawn therefrom and Scriptures opened by the Spirit and felt in the Life Now that Professors generally have not received their knowledge of Christ from the Spirit or from Scriptures opened it the Spirit and so know not the thing but only such a relation of the thing as mans reasoning part may drink in from the Letter of the Scriptures is manifest by this In that they are not able in Spirit and Understandind to distinguish the thing it self from the Garment wherewith it was cloathed though the Scriptures be very express therein Speak of Christ according to a Relation of the Letter there they can say somewhat but come to the Substance come to the Spirit of the thing come to the thing it self there they stutter and stammer and shew plainly that they know not what it is Now the Scriptures do expresly distinguish between Christ and the Garment which he wore between him that came and the Body in which he came between the Substance which was vailed and the Vail which vailed it Lo I come a body hast thou prepared me There is plainly He and the Body in which he came There was the outward Vessel and the inward Life This we certainly know and can never call the bodily Garment Christ but that which appeared and dwelt in the Body Now if ye indeed know the Christ of God tell us plainly what that is which appeared in the Body whether that was not the Christ before it took up the Body after it took up the Body and for ever And then their confining of Christ to that Body plainly manifesteth that they want the knowledge of him in Spirit For Christ is the Son of the Father he is the infinite eternal Being one with the Father and with the Spirit and cannot be divided from either cannot be any where where they are not nor can be excluded from any place where they are He may take up a Body and appear in it but cannot be confined to be no where else but there no not at the very time while he is there Christ while he was here on Earth yet was not excluded from being in Heaven with the Father at the very same time as he himself said concerning himself The Son of Man which is in Heaven John 3.13 Nor was the Father excluded from being with him in the Body but the Father was in him and he in the Father whereupon he said to Philip He that hath seen me hath seen the Father What did every one that saw that Body see the Father also Nay not so but he that saw Christ the Son of the living God whom flesh and blood revealed not but the Father only Mat 16.16 17. he saw the Father also O Frinds look to your knowledge of Christ and to your Faith and Knowledge of the Scriptures and to your Prayers also for it is easie missing of the living substance in all these and meeting with a shaddow which may please and make a great shew in the earthly part in the natural understanding and affections but satisfieth not the Soul or that which is born after the Spirit but still the cry there goes out where the Soul is awakned after Truth Substance Life Virtue from Gods Spirit in the Spirit which it alone can feed upon These four things following I am certain of which he that cometh into the true Light shall infallibly experience them there First That nothing can save but the knowledge of Christ even of that very Christ and no other who took upon him the prepared Body and offered it up at Jerusalem Secondly That no Knowledge of Christ can save but the living Knowledge Not a knowledge of him after the Letter which the carnal part may get much of and value it self much by but a knowledge of him in the Spirit which is only given to that which is begotten and born of the Spirit and only retained by that which abides and remains in the Spirit and runs not out into the fleshly reasonings imaginings and concevings about the things mentioned in the Scriptures Thirdly That that man who knoweth not Christ in Spirit nor keepeth close to him in Spirit but through darkness and misguidance of the spirit of deceit called the shinings of his Light his reproofs his checks for that which is evil and his secret motions to that which is good natural This man though he seem to own Christ never so much according to the Letter yet in Truth denies him Fourthly He that denies Christ in his knocking 's and visitations of him in his own heart and before men in the Truths which he holds forth by his Servants and Ministers of his Spirit him will he
power and in his love sweetness and meakness We are not to take wayes according to our own wisdom but there must be a strict watch set in the Life least that get up again nor must we speak such words as mans wisdom would call wise nor may we go in our own will to seek any but the Lord must go before nor may we make use of our own strength but feel his arm in our weakness nor may we go forth in that love sweetness or meakness which is pleasing to the fleshly mind but we must be true to God handling the sword skilfully and faithfully judging and cutting down the transgressor in the power and authority of God and when the meek the lowly the humble thing is reached and raised then the true love the sweetness the tenderness the meekness must go forth to that The Lord God is rough with the transgressor and all along the Scripture heweth and judgeth him and if we come forth in the same spirit we shall find the same leadings where we meet with the same thing for the Lord God will never be tender there nor can that which comes from him lives in him is lead by him be tender there wheâ—e he is not Now the very root of this severity is good and of God and hath love and sweetness at the bottom of it yea in pitty love and bowels do we use the sword It is in pitty to the poor captived creature that that might be cut down which keeps it in bonds and captivity And though we seem enemies to all sorts of men for the Lords sake yet we are not enemies nor could do the least hurt to them any way but are true freinds to their soules and bodies also and our only controversie is with that which captives and maks them miserable for we fight not at all with flesh and bloud but with the principallity and power which led from God and rules in it against God to the poor creatures ruine and distruction Yea if we had all the powers of the earth in our hands we could not set up our own way if after the manner of men I may so call it or so much as disturb others in their way thereby but should wait in patience till God gave us an entrance by his power Now let not men run on in heats against us but let them seriously consider whether we be of God or no and let them consider not with the reason and understanding which is alienated from God but with the witness which lies hid in the heart There is one great palpable argument that we are of God which is this all the World is against us the Worldly part every where lights with us the Worldly part in every sort and Sect of men opposeth us the rage of man every where riseth up against us But those that are so hot against us if at any time they become but meek and calm patiently considering our cause and consulting there upon with the testimony that they find in their own hearts concerning us they soon become pacified and see that we are no mans enemies against no righteous Law not against Relations not against Governments not against any thing in the world that is good but only against that which is evil and corrupt And of a truth the corruption of things God hath shewed unto us and daily cals us forth after an immediate manner to witness against Therfore let men be sober and take heed what they do least they be found fighters against God for the reproaches the scoffs with other persecutions which seem to be cast at us light on him It is not as we are men but as we are obedient to him as we stand witnesses for him that we meet with these things Now as it is not we our selves that do these things but the life and power of God in us so it is not we that are struck at but the Life and Power if it were not for that we might be as acceptable as other men It is because we are not of the World but God hath called us out of the World that we are so hated of the world This is the true cause though the world will no more now acknowledge it then it would in former ages Yet I do not speak this for my own sake to avoid my share in the Cross for the reproach of Christ is our riches yea far greater treasure then is to be found in the pallace of Egypt Yea the Presence of God the sweet power of Life makes up all our losses so that we have no cause to complain It is very sweet pleasant and profitable for us to be found Sufferers for God but we know it will not be profitable for you to be found Persecutors and this is told you in true love and good will by one who wishes no evil to you for all the evil that ye have exercised towards the dear and pretious People of God for these many years O that God would open your eyes that ye might see whom ye have opposed and against whom ye have hardened and strengthened your selves that ye might bow to him and receive life from him and not perish in your gainsaying and opposition Isaack Penington Grounds and Reasons why we deny the worlds Teachers FIrst they are such shepheards that seek for their gain from their Quartâ—rs and can never have enough which the Lord sent Isaiah to cry out against who bid all come freely without money and without price and was not hired but spake freely and these make marchandise and a trade of his words and therfore we cry out against them and deny them Isa 56.11 and 54.1 They are such Shepherds that seek after the Fleece and cloath with the wooll and feed on the fat which the Lord sent Ezekiel to cry wo against who made a prey upon us and the Lord said he would gather his Sheep from their mouths and that we should be a prey to them no longer and we do witness the promise of the Lord fulfilled and therfore we deny them Ezek 54.34 They are such Priests as bear rule by their means which was a horrible and filthy thing commited in the land which the Lord sent Jeremiah to cry out against while we had eyes and did not see we held up such Priests but the Lord hath opened our eyes and we see them now in the same estate that they were in which Jeremiah cryed out against who did not bear rule by his means and therfore we deny them Jer. 5.31 They are such Prophets Priests that divine for money and preach for hire which the Lord sent Micah to cry against and whilst we put into their mouths they preached peace to us but now wâ— do not put into their mouths they prepare war against us and therfore we deny them Micah 3.11 They are such as are called of men Masters call men Masters and have the chiefest place in the Assemblies and stand
your Colledges for our Brother Paul the Tent-maker said If you will not work you must not eat For would you own Christ if he had come in your day who was called A Carpenters Son You Popes with your Triple Crowns and you Lord Bishops with your Coaches and fat Horses and gorgeous Aparrel with your Black Coats and white Coats and Girdles Are you like to entertain him who is called A Carpenters Son or to cast him and his mother into the Manger in your Stables This was the Word by which John the Evangelist saw Christ which did enlighten every man that came into the world and saw how he became flesh and came to his own and his own did not receive him but to as many as received Christ the Light to them he gave power to become the Sons of God which all they that are Ministers of the Letter made by the seven years Colledges and not the Word hate the Light And by this Word the Minister of the Word preacheth Christs Word Life Death and Resurrection And therefore as John saith in his Epistle That which our Eyes have seen our Hands have handled and our Ears have heard of the Word of Life do we preach unto you that which was from the beginning in the beginning was the Word though since the beginning were the words and letters for the Scriptures of Truth are the words of God and the words of Christ and he that adds to these words saith John in the Revelations God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book So the Word was in the beginning and Christs Name is called The Word of God but Christ is neither called Scriptures nor Writings for Scriptures signify Writings So In the beginning was the Word since the beginning were Writings and Scriptures In the beginning was the Word since the beginning were all false Wayes false Churches false Teachers and in the Word ye comprehend them all The Priest saith That Hebrew Greek and Latine were the Original the many Languages and the many Languages began at Babel which Nimrod the Hunter before the Lord began to build after God had destroyed the Old World with water then would he go build a Tower which should reach to Heaven then God came down and confounded them into many Languages so he hunted before the Lord but the Lord followed him and confounded him in all his work as he will do all the Builders that run before him and so all the Priest that have gotten the many Languages which began at Babel they tell simple ignorant people that they have the Original and are the Orthodox men and get in a different habit from them and say the Quakers are a simple people and despise the Learned Orthodox men who have the Original Give ear O people if these Languages which came up at the confounding of Babel are the Priests Original that makes them Orthodox and Divine then Pilate that crucified Christ was as good an Orthodox Divine as they for when he crucified Christ he writ a Paper in Hebrew Greek and Latine and set a top of him he was as ignorant of Scripture and of Orthodox and Divine matters as you and you as he and the Apostle saith That Tongues must cease then that which makes Orthodox men and Divine as you say must cease according to the Apostles Doctrine and so then Tongues neither are the Original nor make Orthodox nor Divine and John that gave forth the Revelations saith That the Whore and the Beast are set upon Tongues and the Everlasting Gospel must be preached again to all Kindreds and Tongues which were before Babel was who was the first beginner of Tongues Now it is clear that the Gospel must be preached to all Nations and Tongues and that Tongues are not the Original neither do they make Divines or Orthodox men but it is clear that it is the Word which was in the beginning which makes Divines yea Tradesmen which are base and contemptible in the eyes of the proud and them that have gotten Babels Tongues who are confounded by the ministers of the Word which was in the beginning before Babel was for all the Earth was of one Language and Speech before Babel And you that call your selves Orthodox men made by Tongues and say that is your Original who are so blind and cannot see that there was an Original before Babel was for did not Enoch the Prophet the seventh from Adam who prophesied in the Old World before it was destroyed and long before Babel was concerning the coming of Christ in Ten thousand of his Saints as in Jude and Lamech prophesied in the Old World concerning Noah and Adam and others might be instanced before your Tongues which you call your Original were and so we say that the Word of God is the Original which doth fulfil the Scriptures and the Word is it which makes Divines which is called a Hammer but it is a living Hammer and a Sword and Fire but a living Sword and a Fire to hammer cut and burn up that which separated and kept man from God by which Word man is reconciled again to God which is called The word of Reconciliation by this word are men and women sanctified and made clean and this is the Word that makes both men and woman Divines and brings them into the Divine Nature which hammers and cuts down that which corrupted their nature and by this Word aâ—e they brought into a Divine Wisdom Understanding Knowledg Spirit and Power And this is the Word that lives and abides and endures for ever by which the Saints are born again of the Immortal Seed and Word of God who feed upon the Milk of the Word up into a Divine Life Wisdom and Understanding and Divine Nature and by this Word they do see all Flesh to be as Grass and as the Flower of the Field that fadeth and the Word of God that lives and abides and endures for ever which is Christ whose Name is called the Word of God And so to Keep the Word of Patience which is over all the impatient Spirits and then you will know the Word of Life the Word of Patience and Word of Wisdom is Everlasting and abides and endures for ever which all they that be in the Letter out of the Life and Word have neither Patience to themselves nor others for the Word of patience and the Word of Life which is to be kept in all Tribulations was before Death and impatient Spirits were Concerning the Heathen Idolaters naming their Dayes and Moneths THE old Pagan Saxons in their Idolatry Were the first that brought in the names of the Days which those called Christians have retained to this day for they adored Idols and unto them offered Sacrifices and Worshipped the Planets See Vestigans Antiq. and Cambdens Brit. As touching the Idols which these Saxons adored they were divers and though they had many yet seven among the rest they especially appropriated unto the seven
to be come in the flesh and to deny Christ to be offered up the offering once for all and was not theirs of the Tythes a heave-offering and was not that Offering to be ended by Christ offering up himself and had not the Priests a Commandment to take Tythes of the People of their Brethren and do not you transgress the Law of God which take them of those you do not call brethren and was not the Widows Fatherless and Strangers to have a part of the Tythes and was every Priest and Levite and them that was to have a part of them to have a particular Tythe-Barn and was Tythes to be sold and was there any Impropriators and whether they do not hold up the Priests of the Jews and their Law and Commandments that take Tythes and give Tythes and so denyes Christ the Priest in holding up the Jews Priests 15. And whether or no MELCHISEDECK did taâ—e Tythes of all other Nations that were under him or any other Spoil but once of ABRAHAM and whether he had a Command for doing it or whether it was an Example 16. And whether the Jews did take Tythes of the Canaanites or any of those Nations that lived among them or of any People where ever they came that they had the power over that was not of them 17. You that speak so much of Christs Reigning whether or no Your Swords are beat into Plowshares and your Spears into Pruning-hooks that you do not learn War any more that Nation shall not lift up a Sword against Nation And whether or no this Ministration should be amongst Christians seeing that it was Christs Doctrine That they should love one another and love Enemies And he bad Peter put up his Sword And the Apostle said Their Weapons were Spiritual Secondly Doth not Peter say That the Heavens must receive Christ Jesus until the time of Restitution of all things which God hath spoken by the mouth of his Prophets since the World began Act. 3. Now do you look at restoring of things then by what doth Christ restore whether by his Light and Power within People or without them seeing the sin is within them and whether or no Christ doth not remain in the Heavens untill all things be restored and whether or no Christ doth not now Reign and whether or no he is not restoring and then by what as I said before doth he restore seeing he is in the Heavens and must remain in the Heavens until all things be restored and whether or no some was not restored when they sate in the Heavenly places in Christ Jesus Ephes 2. And whether or no he that remaines in the Heavens be not also manifest in man that is restored and lives and walks and reigns in him Answer this you that talk of a Personal Reign 18. What is that Voice of Christ which his Sheep hears and knows from all false Voices and all that hear cannot endure any more to hear the Voice of a Stranger Hireling or Thief 19. What or where is the Word that People shall hear behind them saying This is the Way Walk in it when they turn to the right hand or the left or what the Word of Faith that none needs to say Who shall ascend to Heaven or into the depth to seek Christ fâ—om above or below but was nigh in their hearts and Is not the same now Answer in Writing the thing Queried G. F. CONCERNING THE SCRIPTURES WE Witness the Life thereof and by the same do we witness the Scriptures to be Truth and serviceable in its place and was written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the World is come 1 Cor. 10.11 And to us it is given to know but to the World in Parables Luke 8.10 And he that would go about to unfold the Parables to the dark mindes by the Serpentine Wit and Imagination he must be kept out of the Scripture and he who takes the Scriptures and makes a Trade of them professing to interpret them and so gets a living by them which was spoken forth freely he is a deceiver and must be shut out of the Scripture and who reads or takes the Scripture to talk or dâ—scoâ—rse of and is ignorant of the Life must be kept out of the Scripture for all those runs in with their Scripture Wit and Imaginations wresting them for their own ends adding and diminishing to their own destruction and so he must be shut out of the Scripture for hence arises all these Sects and Opinions in the World running into the Scripture with their Wit Imaginations and dark mindes one imagining one way and another another way and one of this opinion and another of that opinion but opinion are no assurance but are fallible and every one out of the way because they want the Life which is the Mystery and this is the difference between all Sects and Opinions and the infallible Truth and so they come not in by the door but are climbing up another way and so are shut out of the Kingdom but the same which gave them forth the same can open them and to it they are no Mystery nor Parable nor needs any meaning for they are of no private interpretation nor came they in the old time by the will of Man but holy Men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost neither can the will of man open them but the same which spake them forth the same can open them and speak them forth freely so let him that hath a dream tell a dream and he that hath my Word let him speak my Word faithfully What is the Chaffe to the Wheat saith the Lord So he that hath the Letter let him speak the Letter and he that hath the Life let him speak the Life What is the Husk to the Kernel And what should Swine do with Pearls whose Life is in Husks and there they feed He that can receive let him the same which gave it forth the same can open it And he who saith the Letter is the Word is a deceiver and erres not knowing the Scripture for the Scripture saith In the beginning was the Word and the Word was God John 1.1 And the Word of the Lord came to the Prophets and they spake from the Word of the Lord Jer. 2.1 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among the Apostles and they saw the glory thereof as the glory of the only begotten Son of the Father full of grace and truth And the Word is quick and powerfull sharper than a two-edged Sword and the Word is immortal and this the Apostles in whom the Word dwelt bore witness of and hath left it upon record and we witness the same the Word is the same which was is and is to be for ever and who putteth the Letter for the Word is blind and putteth the Shadow for the Substance and must be shut out of the Scripture And he who saith the Letter is the