to the light which is the true light and then you might see what God requiers Truth in the inward parts which Psal 51. 6. though it may be you have red oft yet are not come to it while you despise the light and have not as I know none has out of the light found that God requiers and what stead will all that stand you in which he requireth not and so all men and women come to the light It is the words of Christ Jesus He that walketh in the light stumbleth Iohn i. 9 10 not and all from it have and do stumble and fall and therefore as you love your souls and prize your everlasting welfare give heed to the most sure word of Prophesy then that voice which come from heaven your teachers tell you that 's the Scripture but thus it is written You do well to take â—eed to the more sure word of Prophesy as 2 Pet. â— 19 to a light that shines in a dark place till the day dawn and the day star ar se in your bearts as to this you come the subtlety of the deceiver which hath beguiled man and led into the transgression may be manifested and you shall come to see what thou wert and what thou art and what thou must be before thou come to inherit the purchased inheritance for thou wert made in glory O man and woman in the Image of God but by transgression art become as a brute beast that perishes and knowest nothing but what thou knowest naturally as from that wisdom which is sensual and devlilish for here sits the Devil in the sensual fulfilling the lusts slaying the soul and yet seeming religious here 's Cain's offering Esaus tears but not the blessing for that 's to the seed for ever and ever and in the Gel. 3. 16 light only must thou come to know the promised seed which is to break the Serpents Gen. 3. 1â— head So to that of God in every man I speak who has not left himself without a witness in the worst of you that you harken diligently to that which hath at somtimes shewed your iniquities and called you out of it for it is better to harken then to offer the sacrifices of fools and till you hear him that called Abraham how far are you Sam. 15. 22 Hâ—b 11. â— from the election that cannot be deceived in the deceit in the error and yet talking of others to be Hereticks and deceivers but we know who holds the truth in unrighteousness who neither hear nor obey the call of God Mind Titus 2. 11. 12. people who are talkers so much of free grace what have you learned of it are you sober that hail and pluck and fight and laugh and scoff even in your most holy assemblies Have you learned to deny all ungodliness and wordly lusts who are in the lust of the flesh the lust of the eye and the pride of life Do you walksoberly and righteously in this present world Are your women the Daughters of Sarah that wear not gold nor silver nor pearl not brodered hair Are you the men whose moderation and temperance is seen unto Isa 56. 12 all who live in the excess eating and drinking and in pride and covetousness Rom. 2. 11 and wantonness respecting persons that are rich and oppressing the poor despising the needy and in the middest of all these your iniquities call your selves Christians and say you are justified by Christ Jesus and saved by his blood Will not the Lord be avenged for these things Will not the righteous God do righteously Doth he justifie the wicked or wil he save the ungodly Psal 7. 11 Exo. 34. 6 7 or acquit the guilty nay a due recompence wil be rendered unto all the workers of unrighteousness who are puting the evil day afar off and are crying where are the dayes of his coming things are as they were let ns eat and drink for to morrow we must dye but Mark 9 44 the Worm which must never dye wil be your torment for as the tree stands it shall fall and after death comes judgement and in righteousness wil he rain who shall give to every man according to his works done in the body whether they be good or evil and in vain wil a talk of salvation be in that day for all you that are out of the covenant and I knowing assuredly that God is revealed from heaven in flames of fire to take vengeance on all that knowes him not 2 Thes 1. â— 18. cannot but warn you while you have time to cease from all your imaginations of God which are vain and to come to that which is only able to redeem from the powers of darkness and bonds of Satan whereby you have been and are captivated and all having a gift to profit with all come to know it in your selves for by this must all be presented before God who is just in all his judgements and requiers of no man according Rom. 6. 2. 2 Tim. 1. 6 to that he hath not but according to that he hath his own is he come â— Pet. 4. â—0 for and though the unprofitable hide it yet it is good and perfect O that you knewit and the power thereof for this only can redeem your souls out of the pit and break all the bonds of iniquity and clense from sin which hath seperated Luke 2. 48 you from God and this was it which the Prophets witnessed to set Psalm 4. 1 their souls at liberty before they could say the Lord is my righteousness and you that know not this gift which is from the father of spirits to be your leader and guide and teacher your best works are but self-righteousness Heb. 6. 1 dead works and to be repented of but we who have gained to that which shewed us the evil of our wayes and the vanity of the world with the glory thereof have been brought to cease psalm 4. 2 from our own works and words and come to stillness in which the still voyce hath been heard of God who complains of all you that are walking in vanity turning your makers glory into shame by speaking deceit and following after lyes and in this stilness standing are we come to possesse sure salvation by his redemption that saves his people from their sins and so it is God that works all our works in us and for us and self and the boaster are shut our by the powers of the eternal word of seperation and so our joy and boasting is in God all the day long but you out Mat 1. 21 Esa 26. 13 from the light disobedient to that which shews your misdoing have nothing to warn you or to rejoyce you or give you peace but wat is from the fire of your own kindling and this you shall have at my hands saith the Lord Esa 50. 11 to lye down in sorrow and this is the truth
of Christ Jesus you have proved your selves though you say you are the children of the kingdom and no church of Christ but in the world you are which lyes in wickedness and enmity against the life of Christ Jesus and in the very same works which he said you would do teacher and people are found and are not built on that foundation that bears and tries all things which cannot be shaken but as the troubled Sea roring and swellings casting mire and dirt as the Scriptures saith of the wicked world which some out their own shame and shews what you have Esa 57 20 â—ude 13 been long treasuring in your evil hearts and so out of the abundance that is Maâ—â— 12 34 therein you have powered out upon the servant of the Lord just as your fore-goers have done and as he foretold who is this day a swift witness against you who have set your selves against him and the day hath declared it that you have no part in the sufferings of Christ Jesus but your part is proved to be with them who hath shed his blood since Abel to this day The world by wisdom knowes not God saith the Scriptures which is now fulfilled in this generation where are high notions swelling words great professions and zealous formes all in the world without God in them boasting themselves in a lye who profess redemption in words but in works are in the world and in the darkness thereof blindness of mind hardness of heart and earthly captivity without life and power in you to give you victory over the prince of lust the God of this world over your own spirits which lusts to pride lusts to envie lusts to strise and covetousness and oppression and all that unreasouable nature which devours the creation and keeps it in bondage under the power of Satan and under wrath and the curse which daily groans to be delivered into its former glory into it's first being in God and his sons which is right redemption without a lye where all things are of God and in the truth set free from the devourer which rules in worldy men and women where all things are not become new and where all things are not of God yet professing redemption with pride lust and covetousness and all vanity in your Vessells not knowing him who is the greater to be in you to condem these evils then he that is in you to entice you to all these things and blind you in them and here you are seen with the pure truth that is in God to be out of God in the world and in the lye not doing in the truth nor redeemed thereto but the witness of truth lyes slain denyed and buried in you and where he raigns not in the light there you are in the darkness of this world blind in your hearts and there the false Prophet is up in the seat of Judgement teaching lyes and false-hood to make you more blind still and to harden you therein to seek to blind others also and to turn truth backward that he may grind the poor and needy to satisfie his lust in you and to that end you are fitted for the destroyer and so comes the truth to reprove your pride and devouring vanities which wasts the creation and turns it quite to another end then God gave it you for and when you say what might so many poor people live on if we did not wear these things as though your pride which is the ground of all oppression did releive the oppressed and thus you turn truth backwards with shameless and unreasonable words not having a shew of a truth and then if truth arise stop your mouth in the open falshood then you have more hidden deceit to cover your lust And you say pride is not in the out-side it 's in the heart when all men may see it in the out side and as many as have that eye open in the heart which you hav blinded with lust sees and knowes that your pride had its first rise and rooting in your heart ere it came to spring forth it's cursed branches which now shines in the open streets without shame that this which speaks outward is but part of that fullness that is within in the heart though your blindness be so great you see it not neither within nor without and your hearts too hard to feel it but have set up there the Idol and stumbling block to blind withall and then you say what was these things made for if we may not wear them where the truth of God in you would answer were it not denyed and betrayed by your evil eye that they was not made for the devoured nor to be spent on your Justs to the lust of the eye and pride of life but for the service of the needy and co cover the naked that there might be plenty in the creation and none might want which would be so were the devoured judged in you cast out and did you know him in you to order the creation which made it who would lead you that are rich another way to releive the poor then with being proud and vain and wastfull of his freeness and fullness and that spirit would let you see that were it not for that devourer which in you speaks and acts there would be no poor for he gives plenty for all that he sends into the world and the lust arising in the heart of men and women is it that makes poor and accursed and keeps poor by oppression in you those that are under the power thereof and cease but your oppression of them to satisfie your pride and judge the destroyer in you that wasts it and the poor would arise through the fullness of him that filleth all things which is kept back by the devourer and the curse that is upon him in the creation through you in pride gluttony and drunkenness who have all one head against truth and so the glutton saith What are the creatures made or but for man to eat c. and the Drunkard being reproved hath the same pretence of mercy to the pore as the proud saith he How many poor people lives of Brewing and might begg did not such as rich drink it as they brew it c. And thus deceit utters it's voice in all the world where it is head who are without the true God in them as though is was the work of the devourer that did uphold the creation in plenty and keep the poor from want and how great is the darkness of this generation in whom this passeth for truth Is not this the world which by wisdom knowes not God but are given up to vile affections and to believe lyes Oh men how deep is truth fallen in you that nothing of it doth arise to condemn this doctrine him that lives by it in you what deceit is this that hath filled your hearts to make you believe you take care for the
wants of others by wasting that which should releive them spending as much one of you upon your lust and vanity as would feed two plentifully if not ten And this is all the care of proud men and women and gluttonous men and women and drunken men and women to serve your selves and feed the devourer in you with the mercies of God which he gives freely that all might be feed and praise him therein And then you say you spend but your own and it 's for you that are rich to live thereafter c. But then what do you to profess the knowledge of God or name of Christ or redemption that is in him If you live as the heathen Gentiles do then bear their name and pollute not the name of Christ and live as do the Gentiles not knowing Christ in you to restore all things in you to God that you may see them to be his and not your own know him in you to order them who made them which all the redeemed of Christ Jesus doth in whom the restauration is wrought by Jesus Christ and all things of God as in the beginning before the prince of pride the glutton the whoremonger the drunkard or the false Prophet that teacheth lyes entred into man or was exalted in the seat of truth to deceive and bewitch people by calling evil good and good evil as in you he doth who they preach practise and profess to devour which Christ comes to restore and your life to condem and to deliver the creation from the waster and destruction and to redeem it to the guiding of God the service of God in his will and not the will of men nor the blind boaster who saith I spend but my own And who is exalted in Pride and excess because of abundance who knows not redemption to him that giveth all things but are out of the fear far from restauration for were you redeemed to God your selves you would also know that all you have was restored to God in your redemption out of the power of the destroyer and into the disposing of that spirit which works the repemption for the redeemed indeed are no more their own much more is not that they have received Wherefore men be sober minded and take heed what you plead for and boast not in your wickedness then double your iniquity by professing the pure name of God the nature of redemption lye not against the truth of Christ Jesues â—n saying our redeemer our redeemer further then yoâ— konwhis spirit power living in you tâ—nlighten and quicken you against â—â—se evils by which his holy spirit 〈◊〉 the creation suffers and power in 〈◊〉 over them and the Prince thereâ—â— that you may serve his spirit in you 〈◊〉 a new life not serving divers lusts 〈◊〉 serving your bellyes but in fear 〈◊〉 sober meekness of spirit serving 〈◊〉 Lord in your souls and bodyes â—â—d estates and this only is redemptiâ—â— without a lye or without hypocriâ—â— And this is the confession of Christ â—ome in the flesh in life and power to â—â—ucifie the flesh the affections and 〈◊〉 thereof which wars against your â—ouls and against Christ so long as â—ou live therein and in works you deâ—y Christ to be come in the flesh â—hough in vvords you confess him â—herefore let that mouth be silent that â—eaches lyes and let truth speak in â—ou all and cease to say pride is not â—n your hearts when it hath taken â—oot there and is grown as a covering and hath over-spred you in the â—ight of all men and say not you do it to releive the poor for shame blush at such deceit and let not the drunkard say the same with you for you are seen to be the devourer and destroyer of the creation nor let the glutton say the creatures are made for him for the day is at hand that he must vomit them up and then he will know that they were not made for him when truth comes to judge in you all and to devide aright between the oppressed and the oppressor this will be confessed nor let the covetous person say his Idolatry is but providing for them of his houshould nor the swearer say it 's but to confirm the truth which is found out of the truth which saith swear not at all nor the wanton person say there is a time to be merry whose times are not in the Lord Jesus nor ever knew the man of sorrows nor him that in secret mourns for that abomination which wantons lives in whose time of mourning is to come which you that now laugh â—â—ould remember for truth must come to sit as Judge upon all your pretences then these things will not cover you nor lyes be a safe refuge for you Wherefore wait to know the truth of Christ Jesus the light of the world in your own hearts to give you the good understanding which wil let you see that this is from the root of wickedness in your hearts that these things â—rise and that piety and pitty mercy is but a pretence to cover the destroyer in you while he gets his work wrought of his servants lest he should be seen in your selves or by others and that you are but wise to do evil and plead for it whereby you do but shut your selves out from the power of truth and feed upon lyes and put on false covers which God vvill rend in judgement and your wisdom of words cannot cover your works from the light which sees the covetous proud envious gluttons drunkards and all lyars and vain persons and cursed speakers to be without God not knowing in you the povver of an holy life nor him that is made redemption and sanctification though in vvords you profess Father Son and Holy Ghost do you knovv God in you of vvhose off-spring all these good creatures are vvhich you wast and by vvhose vertue they are made to spring in their kind and vvhose life suffers vvhere they are spent on the lust Do you know the Redeemer in you vvhose vvork is to restore all things to God in you who say you spend but your own when you are reproved Or do you know him in you to live to who sayes you must live after your riches Are you richer then he that had all fullness in himself and yet said let nothing be lost this would you say also did you know that life in you that gives it forth which your lust devours who is pressed therewith as a Cart with sheaves who is broken with your whorish hearts and made to serve with your sins whom you know not though he be not far from every one of you yet his knowledge you have loft and your hearts are too hard to hear his voice and your wisdom is too high to bow to his government in you but being got above the meek you have lost the way which gives light to the blind and grace to the lowly and that which should measure and search your hearts is out of your sight who are seeking without for that you have buried within under your pride and fullness lyes the pearl shut up in the earth and the key of knowledge you have lost in your wisdom by your wanton living on the earth the holy one and the just you have slain the man of God is fallen into your streets the man of mercy and pitie is perished by the proud and there is no Judgement nor deliverance in you for the ear is stopt that should hear the cry And where this is so within what knowledge of God is there but man is become like the beast that perisheth The End
or do so have been hated of men as he Ioh. 7. 15 18. declard at Jerusalem and is fulfilled at London as well as in other places They shall bare you for my Name sake speak all manner of evil of you and they shall think they do God service So blind are all men who from the light are erred in which God dwells the Creator of all things who commanded light to â— Cor. 4. 6. shine out of darkness and hath shined into our hearts who by the light are subject to give us the knowledge of himself in the face of Jesus Christ and Tit. 2 11 being made a partaker of this Grace which is free and hath appeared to all â—ear my testimony as the truth is in Jeâ—â—s that if you obey it not you are out of the Covenant so out of the blessing and under the curse and know not the Word of God though it be near unto you all and many hath been thereby quickened to God and it is that which made all things and by it are all things upheld for in it is life Ioh. 1. 4 â— and the life is the true light of men and this is the true light which enlightens every man which comes into the world as it is written John bare testimony of it without your meanings declaring what he had seen felt and handled of Iohn 1 12 13 the Word of life that to as many as believed in him he gave power to become the sons of God not of blood nor of the will of man but of the will of God of which birth which onely must inherit the eternal Kingdom are all you ignorant who preach and pray and hear and act in your own wills though your profession be high as mine once was you are not yet come to the first principle of repentance from dead works which all that are in that have not been quickned by the eternal word which Word abides for ever and is Heb. 4. 12 quick and powerful as a two-edged sword dividing asunder and making manifest the secret thoughts and intentions of the heart and this is not ink and paper or words which the worst of men or the Devil may read or talk of but it is spirit life and power killing and making alive as a fire in the besome did and do the Prophets witness it as a Sword and a Hammer to â—er 23 29 cut off and break down all the uncircumcised of ears and heart This is it that Moses who was faithful called unto this was the Word of faith which Paul preached who was called of God and not of men and all so called bear the testimony to it as he did that none need to say Who shall ascend fetch Rom. 1â— 6 7 8 Christ down Or descend and fetch him up for he is near thee in the heart and in the mouth and this is the Word which we preach saith Paul who was sent of God Now they that tell you the Letter without is the Word and the Gospel they preach another Gospel then the Apostles did O that you had ears to hear and hearts to understand the things that belong unto your Peace who have been and are professing godliness for many years and yet stand where you did in the customs in the fashions in the love of the present World and call the Scriptures your rule mind you Scripture-readers is it not written in the World God is not known and who loveth the World the love of God Iames 4 4 is not in him the love of the Worldis enmity to God and is it not the words of him that cannot lye The world loves its own and that his are are not of this world as he was not of Ioh. 15. 19 this vvorld therefore the vvorld hates them So professors of Scriptures see vvhat is vvritten in Scriptures What 's the true Religion Is it not thus vvritten To visit the fatherless and keep Iames 1. 27 unspotted from the vvorld are you this people vvho are in the vvays vvorships and fashions of the vvorld and excess of vanity and pride and fulness and vvhole families of your ovvn flesh and in your own ways ready to perish for want of food and rayment sure you are not they which visits the fatherless sure you are not the Israel in which there was no beggar nor you have not the Storehouse in which all the tythes were put to feed the Widows and the Fatherless and sure you are not in the narrow way in which few walk for the way that you walk many there is in and they walk at ease I feel what I speak who walked there many years and as concerning the Law written in stone blameless as any and had a zeal though not according to knowledge Rom. 7. 9 and when the Commandment came the new Covenant sin revived and I dyed 1 Cor. â— 1â— and only by the power of the Cross which in the Wisdom of the World Gal 6 14â— was and is esteemed foolishness do I live in the life that never shal have end and in this only do I rejoyce whereby I am crucified to the World and the World to me and this to the World is a mysterie who by Wisdom cannot know the things of God which are spiritually discerned and therefore are in vain imaginations of which God did and doth complain bringing out likennesses Con. 6. 5 â— of it as the Papists in Wood Stone or Gold others calling the Cross that which you cannot flye from not knowing the Cross which is daylie to be taken up but we who of him have learned who saith Take up your cross and follow Luke 9. 23 me know it to be the power of God unto salvation and by it hath the Devil been overcome and before it must all the powers of darkness flye and this is and hath been the defence of the righteous Seed in all generations and the Scriptures declare of it and shall bear a testimony for me and all the children of light against all you that have the words of the Scriptures and yet are found haters of the light which gave forth Scriptures and if ever that eye be opened in any of you that the god of this World hath blinded you shall confess that that wherein you have trusted shall witness against you and however your Teachers which are blind may lead the blind till both fall into the ditch yet is there a seed among you that the Lord will gather unto us and therefore doth his long suffering lead unto repentance but many shall be cut off in their iniquities Isa 65. 12 to whom he hath called and they would not hear and they shall cry and he will not hear but laugh at your calamitie when destruction shall come as a swift Whirlwind and with the Prov. 1 28 beasom of the Lord shall all the Workers of iniquity be swept away and his fierce Wrath
are found and call not your selves Christians for Christ owns no such workers for that of Christ suffers in you and by you and though you say God is your Father as they did yet you do the works of the Murtherer and though you say Christ is your Saviour yet the destroyer is head in you and though you say the Scriptures is your rule yet they condemn your lives and cast you out amongst such who persecuted them who gave forth the Scriptures and while you stand in that nature you have no part in the Scriptures to inherit but the plagues and woes therein foretold for such workers And the Scriptures needs no meanings to prove you there but are fulfilled in you in the behalf of him whose work you are doing but when you would take them to prove your Teachers or your selves to be of God then you must do it with meanings twinings and wrestlings for in plainness and truth as the Scriptures were given forth they shut you out And when your Teachers and your selves with all their learning and crast have taken the Saints words and put them upon your selves that you might be taken for sheep a sheep indeed is sent forth amongst you and all your covers are too narrow to hide the Wolf that is within and how little a thing of Gods choosing quickly confounds so great a building and profession and lays naked that which many years you have been hiding and thus when the weakness and foolishness which is of God comes amongst you it lays waste your great wisdom great professions great notions long prayers separations and gathering and Names of Ministers of Christ and people of God Church of God and House of Prayer and all is shaken and gone and nought of all this left but a heap of confusion tearing haling beating pulling stoneing laughing and evil-speaking not the least face of a Church of Christ left nor one jot of all your sheeps clothing to be seen and the poor Instrument by which this is done you count but a fool or mad or one not worth hearing speak or worthy an Answer that the Scripture may be fulfilled which saith God hath chosen foolish things weak things base things of the â— Cor 1 World and things that are despised to confound the wise and mighty and bring all to nought that is not in himself and this day is coming upon you unawares who are professing the Scriptures with your Candle out and so not having the light of Faith in you to guide you it is risen against you in the weak to lay open your nakedness blindness and hardness of heart before your selves and all men So thou that would be counted a shepherd and a guide behold thy Flock and the fruits of thy Ministry When I was to come amongst you in obedience to the Lord Jesus Christ and in the power of his spirit to prove you did you carry your selves as sheep towards me Let moderation judge you and be ashamed What a heap of confusion was you all turned into on a sudden when the foolishness of God appeared amongst you in weakness and contempt And did thou carry thy self as a true Shepherd to flye and leave thy flock in such a tumult upon a poor despised woman and neither to stay and answer one question nor to rebuke the devourer which was head in thy flock So that if the Lord had not strengthened and preserved this weak body it might have been crusht with violence pushing and haling to and fro for as one in the waves of a raging sea so was I amongst thy flock Oh shepherd be ashamed of thy flock and they of thee from that day forward till you repent Vine-dresser be ashamed of thy Work how is thy Vineyard over-run with bryars and thorns that the meek cannot pass unless he be fenced with Iron and Steel Oh husbandman What dost thou sow amongst them where this is reaped And people be ashamed of your shepherd and of his hire and of your defence and let the Words of Christ judge what he is that flyes and leaves his flock and hath not the Weapon of truth in the spirit of meekness to defend himself and his flock with let your fruits judge you in the light of Christ Jesus what he hath sown and in what ground it hath sprung up now it is laid open to your faces and the nature of sheep is not in your fold violence hath filled your House of Prayer the abomination that makes desolate is got up therein and stands where it ought not pride is exalted and the wicked worker is set up and the blind is got into the seat of judgement and leads the blind who calls light darkness and darkness light and the ear that should hear the true shepherd you have stopâ— and the eye of a spiritual mind is blinded by denying the light within and you have lost the defence of truth and so there is no way to make you understand what you are but by laying you open by your fruits before the sun in whose light your fruits are condemned you seen to be none of his flock nor he your defence but enemies to it and his appearance in the weakest thereof whom he chooseth for such a work Glory to the Lamb And let all that learn his nature praise his Power and Wisdow sor evermore for he hath fitted the meek of the Earth for his defence but the horse and his rider he hath cast into the sea And so people had there been in you reasonableness or moderation or any desire to have known the truth in its power when I did but ask a moderate question of your Teacher you would have been stil and sober moved him to answer and in meekness of spirit you to have heard both parties that so you might have judged with that of God in you which wil arise to the truth where it is who had truth on his side and if your Teacher had had it in him is it not stonger then all to defend him and you therewith which is Christs weapon against all errors whatsoever and then if he had had the Staff of the true Shepherd to have stood over you and defended you then had he shewed himself like a shepherd and you like sheep and not he to betake himself to flye for his defence and you to carnal Weapons and with the fist of wickedness list up run all a heaps in rage and confusion to defend your Teacher and his Doctrine by uncivil demeanor not becoming men and women of government wherein you have but made it appear openly to be Truth that you withstood by what way you took against is as truth hath foretold in Scripture concerning the Worlds Teachers and Professors and what usage Christs sheep should have in the midst of Wolves and upon you this day is this Scripture fulfilled for a witness against Teacher and People and out of it you are cast and out of the Kingdom and patience