in the heart and reveals Truth in the inward parts and so becomes the Author of Faith and of eâ—ernal Salvation and the Mysterie of this Faith is held in a pure Conscience where his Arm hath been working and purging and purâ—fying And as you give up to that Measure of LIGHT in your own Conscienceâ— and wait to be guided and led by it and exercised in it you will know CHRIST revealed within you whom you are looking for without you and puts his Day far off from you And so you live in want of him and know not how to come to him nor the place where to find him but live in the Dreamings and the Nâ—ght-Visions and have a talke of him and what he hath done for you and so spend your precious time in slumbering and dreaming but do not behold the Light of his Countenance noâ— feel not the Joy of his Salvation nor drink not at the Wells thereof Now wait to feel him in the Light which makes all things manifest within you and when he draws near unto you reâ—ect hâ—m not if you feel an evil thought discovered that is his appearance that makes the â—â—iscovery then do thou sink down to that which makes manifest and be still and quiet in thy mâ—â—d and in the stayedness wait to receive him and though it 〈◊〉 but a little thing in its first appearance do not thou despise the Day of small things nor cast behind thee the Grain of Mustard-Seed because it is a little one but wait to know the glory of the Day and the branching forth of the Graâ—n of Mustard-Seed until it be grown up and spread it self over all The Lords Love freely opens unto all you that in tenderness and simplicity thirsts for his lâ—ving presence and for your sakes plainness of speech is used and God's pure Truth opened in the Life of his own Spirit that you may come and partake of the Riches of that GRACE and MERCY which from the FATHER is revealed and appears in you all that you may truly know the benefit that is in the Lord of Life and Power and feel his Eternal operation your Consciences to purge and your Hearts to purâ—fie that you may have fellowship with him in the everlasting Covenant of Peace and know the Blood of the Covenant to take away your sin and to pardon your Iniquity and so the Redemption through his blood you wil feel and the forgiveness of your sins according to the Riches of his Grace And this is unto you from the Lord God Eternally moved who breaths after Life that you may Arise and follow the Leadings of God into his own House and from his Hand receive your Daily-bread and drink of the Water of Life freely and this will satisfie and refresh you and daily renew strength unto you to follow the Lord God in the Light in all obedience and faithfulness without any weariness or faintness so will the Lord God receive you and be a Father unto you and make you Sons and Daughters and give you an Inheritance amongst the Saints in Light who are justified by Faith in Christ Jesus Be swift to hear and slow to speak A few Words of tender Counsel unto the BAPTISTS with all that walk in that WAY HEar you seperated ones who have set your selves in the Highest Seat and whose Branch puts out over all the Branches of the Tree you are beheld though you be climbed high and your Work is seen of what sort it is you must come to Tryal for your Work is not right before the Lord Once did the Morning open unto you and a Measure of Light out of Darkness shined and a sight you had of something which was out of the Truth and beheld Babylon without you in Practice and Worship and saw her Merchants that traded in her and could not for Conscience-sake Trade with them any longer nor buy their Merchandize any more but you separated from them in Practise and Worship And that which made these things manifest to your Understandings was Light and it was near unto you though you were but little acquainted with it you had Clearness in sight through Forms and Traditions then in practice amongst men and something opened before you that appeared more excellent and you did not onely depart out of that which was manifest to be out of the Truth but there was also a true waiting amongst you that you might come to enjoy living Bread that something in you hungred for and in that day a tender people you were whilest the true fear was in your hearts placed and in the fear you diligently waited and were kept low and little in your own eyes and you had fresh Visitations of God's Love and felt that which truly judged the Abomination and Vanity which you beheld in the World and you were convinced of the evil thereof and could have no fellowship with them and you cannot say in truth but in that Day the Lord was near you to have wrought his Work in you had you enclined to his Counsel and as you were kept in lowliness to wait and met and assembled in God's fear he was not straitned towards you but did relieve you and succour you in your wants and had compassion upon you in all your needs What Hungerings and Thirstings Breathings and Pantings were raised in the earnest for Life and Salvation And what a tender love was raised in many of you after the best things And how did you delight to walk in that Way which then was made manifest to you Was it noâ— better with many of you in that Day then it is now Consider soberly in the fear of God and judge down the rash wrathful Spirit which hath a Seat in many of you Are you not gone from that in which the Lord did first visit you and in which his tender Love was made manifest in you Was it any thing without you that first let you see your Way to be corrupted and that brought you into a sensibleness of your want and of your miserable and undone state without the Salvation of Christ Was this made manifest unto you by Reading or Hearing or by the Gift of God's Spirit manifest in your own hearts How hath the old Enemy deceived you and drawn your minds into the Visibles to look after and behold the things that are seen and there tenders you Satisfaction and so draws your minds from the weightier matter and that which is of absolute necessity for all to know a part in And so you are cumbred about many things and are got into the many Words and there you are sucking your nourishment and labouring to receive strength and there have taken up your rest What have you to live upon besides the Letter And what do you know of GOD and CHRIST more then what they declared who enjoyed his Life And if you say that it is sufficient for you to mind the Declaration and to know GOD and CHRIST as the Saints
quickning Spirit and the faith that they have made is not held in a pure conscience but is conceived in the heart that is degenerated and corrupted So people being from that of God in them which he makes manifest unto them 〈◊〉 god of this world rules over them and blindes their mindes that those things which are eternal they cannot perceive then doth he lead forth their mindes into the temporals and they make haste thither and opens their eyes to look at the things which are seen and this is pleasing to the carnal minde which is willing to turn any way that it may escape judgement And what was by the Saints given forth and appears in writings without them that their life is in and that they contend about and all strives to set up their own Conceivings and teach for Doctrine mens traditions and minde not the measure of God in themselves but stretch beyond it in the comprehension and run into other mens lines and labours and are all upon the earthly root and in darkness and confusion in their practise and worship that from the crown of the head to the sole of the feet the Image hath no whole part in it but is full of putrifaction and corruption and every branch rotten and deceitful and no good fruit is found for the bringing forth of all is from the heart that is deceitful and corrupted which lyes fallen and degenerated from God and cannot bring forth any thing that is pleasing to him or accepted by him for as is the root so is every branch in its nature from high to low and through all these appearances there is not a sound part found but some of them abominable filthy others have healed the sore sleightily and are all out of the life power of God and are all found wanderers in the night of Apostasie and in the darkness have taken the Whores Cup and do drink it and received the mark of the beastâ— and do bear it and this is Babylon the Mother of Harlots and the abomination of all uncleanness who hath held forth a Golden Cup in the night of Apostasie and hath through her Sorceries and Inchantments bewitched many to receive it and drink it untill they have been drunk with the Wine of her Fornication and have committed Whoredome with her that many children have been begotten and many Bastards brought forth of flesh and blood and of the will of man which is the birth that persecutes the Son and Heir And unto all those is the Cup of Gods indignation poured forth and they must all come under the severity of his Judgement because they are Bastards and not Sons for these adulterous births have provoked the Lord and grieved his Spirit and he hath long forborn and spared But on Babylon he will be avenged and all her Brats and Children he will dash in peeces in the fierceness of his anger and not one of them must stand though never so seemingly glorious for the day is come and the true Birth is born whose right it is to Reign and his glory he will not give to another nor his praise to graven Images he is the Son and in him is life and his life is the light of men all must bow before him and all that is contrary to him must under his feet be troden down for unto him alone belongs the issue from death the same that was and is and is to come Everlasting Powerful God over all for ever and ever Hear ye wise and consider ye prudent of the world Is not this your Way and Is not this the fruit of your doings Do you not walk in darkness and are you not building in your Imaginations and setting up your own inventions and brings forth likenesses and Are you not from that which was in the beginning and from the Saints life and Do you not want rest and peace to your souls Be stayed and feel Gods witness in your own selves which will return a true answer in your own bosomes And now a few words of â—ender Counsel from the Lord God unto you all that you may see the form of the Image and how uncomely every part of it is that you may not love nor delight in it any longer for the Lord will destroy it together and the little Stone cut out of the Mountains without hands will dash it all in peeces and there will not be a man upon the earth found to save or uphold any part of it So all watch to the Morning that the day may break upon you and the Light shine out of darkness in you that your eye may look into the Glass of Righteousness the pure Light of Christ in your own consciences and there you may behold both the Ill-favoured and Well-favoured Harlot and what Image you all bear and what Cup you all drink of and what Mark is in your foreheads and if you be diligent and incline to the Lords Counsel and hearken to his witnes in you your understandings wil open and you will see to the beginning and know that which was before imaginations or any inventions was found out and you will come into unity with the Saints life and know every word you utter forth to be spoken in the life and all flesh silent before God and so will your gatherings be unto Christ who is set up for an Ensign that all may come unto him and be saved and you will feel his life in you revealed and in his face behold the express Image of the Faâ—hers glory and his Power he will make known in you and baptize in the death and every formed fleshly birth that exalts it self against him and he will save you as you in him beleeve and redeem you from your vain conversations which you have in the world and give you life and peace for ever A few Words of tender Counsel unto the POPE with all that walk in that way who are called PAPISTS HEar and consider you that set your selves on high and boast in the Works of your own hands you are weighed and tried and your Way and Work is proved and you are found to be out of the Saints Life and from the Scriptures of Truth for the Lord spake by Moses saying Thou shalt have no other Gods but me thou shalt not make to thy self any Graven Image nor the Lâ—keness of any thing in Heaven above or Earth beneath or Water under the Earth thou shalt not bow down to them nor worship them For I the Lord thy God am a Jealous God Exod. 20. Are you not found Transgressors of the Holy and just Law of God making to your selves Likenesses and bow down to them and Worship them and forget the Lord who saith Thou shalt have no other Gods but me And are not these your Gods which you make to your selves and sets them up to Worship And do you not adore them and bow and cringe to them and doth not this practise erre from the
Earthly corruptibâ—e Wisdom you have formed and brought forth and as you obey and believe in it it will lead you to God where Life and Eternal Salvation is obtained and Peace and Unity is enjoyed and possessed for ever Depart from Vanity and live A few Words of tender Counsel to the PRELATES with all that wâ—lk in that way generally called PROTESTANTS BEhold your WAY ye People and consider what is brought forth by you Look into the GLASS of Righteousness and see whose Image it bears Are you come to that which was in the beginning And doth the Light shine out of Darkness in you Your VVayes and Doings must come to tryal and your VVork must be seen of what sort it is for the Light maketh all things manifest You deny the POPE and those with him in words and you have got the Name of PROTESTANTS to be your Covering but when your Works are brought to trial they savour of the Popes Root and your fruit hath both one taste and your Births are Simeâ—n and Levi you are in the Apostacy and in Darkness you abide and there you wander form the Way of Truth and then you make a Way in your Inventions and seâ— up a Worship in your Wils and drinks of the Whores Cup and the Beast's Mark is in your FOREHEAD You have an Observation which you make to your selves and you set up the Kingdom there and the Customs and Traditions you walk in which by the Popes Power was first instituted and you uphold and maintain his Birth which was nourished and brought up by him in this Nation of England when his Power extended over it and his Skirts covered it and you strive to preserve it and to give more life unto it and to set it up as a lawful Child and so in your COUNCELS makes Laws to establish it and to compel all to worship it and do not consider from what Root it springs or whether it be according to the Scriptures of Truth or the Saints life but you run in haste in your own Wills sets up what seems right in your own Eyes and then make Laws to uphold it and to compel all to be conformable to it under penalties and punishment And what have you more to say for your PRACTISE and WORSHIP then the POPE hath for his Or is your Birth more like the Truth or the Saints Practice then his whom you seem to deny What Scripture have you for your made-Church of Wood and Stone And who first ordained it to be a Church and consecrated it to be holy And what Scripture have you for your formed PRAYERS and your LETTANY and to make them up together in a Book and call them COMMON PRAYER Who first instituted COLLEDGES And who gave them their Names And who first ordained that men should be made Ministers at Colledges And who first appointed TYTHES to be paid to that Ministry And who first made a LAW to compel such a Maintenance Who first made and ordained LORD-BISHOPS and ARCH-BISHOPS Vicars and Curates And who first divided their BISHOPRICKS and Diocesses And how came they to rule over other people to make Vicars and Curates under them How came up HOODS and TIPPETS and SURPLICES And who first ordained that Ministers should be clothed with them in the time of their Worship And who first set up ALTARS and ORGANS and made Singing-men and Singing-boyes Have you not found out many Inventions and observe the Customs and Traditions which hath been brought in when Darkness over-spread And so you are found to be out of the Saints life and errs from the Scripture of Truth and your Root is the corrupted heart of the old man and your Likeness bears his IMAGE Behold your Birth Is it not after the Flesh and a Child of Whoredom It is not like the Form of that which was brought forth by the Saints that lived in the Truth and worshipped God in Spirit and Truth Oh! Arise ye people here is not your REST it is polluted and God will destroy it with a sore destruction Therefore come out of BABYLON partake no longer of her sins lest ye be destroyed with her Plagues And be not violent towards others that God hath separated from amongst you neither force or compel any people by a Law to conform to such a VVorship or bow to such a Likeness or uphold such a Church or maintain such a Ministery least you draw Judgement speedily upon your selves For BABYLON must be destroyed and the Inhabitants thereof scattered therefore doth the Lord visit in his Love that his Seed might be gathered before his Wrath take hold in Judgement For God hath a Seed amongst you which groans and is pressed under your Corruptions and Abominations and his Bowels yearns towards it And in tender Love is this declared concerning you that you may turn to the Lord in this day of his Visitation wherein his Arm is gathering from off the Mountains and Hills and bringing into the Fold of his Reâ—â— for he is making haste and cutting the Work short in Righteousness Therefore all fear before him who is mighty to save and mighty to cut down and destroy and all encline to his Counsel whose VVord is near you and secretly reproves you in your own Conscience for the evil of your doings turn unto it for that was in the beginning and made and created all things and saw that they were good Hearken when the Word near you reproves you and obey believe and follow it for it teaches right things and your understandings it will open and bring you to consider the fruit of your doings and let you see your practise and Worship to be vain and it will lead you out of Confusion Warring and Fighting and destroying one another about your Religion and it wil bring you to know the pure Religion and undefiled before God which no carnal Weapon can either set up or pull down And so will you come into unity with God and one another and know the Rest and everlasting Peace that endures for ever Be not high-minded but fear A few Words of tender Counsel unto those called PRESBYTERIANS with all that are walking in that WAY HEar ye zealous PROFESSORS who are mounted up on high and in your Imaginations stand exalted What taste have your Fruit And what is the form of your Birth For you must come to the proof and the Tryal must pass upon you the Light hath found you out and makes you manifest and you are seen to be of the old Root though your Branch put out something higher the savour of your Fruit is bitter and the Form of your Birth is uncomely your Work doth not answer what you seem to profess you are run into observations and are setting up the Kingdom in words and make to your selves a Likeness and would compel subjection to it You have forgot the day of your Distresse when many of you suffered under Compelling Laws because you could not bow nor
in the Temple as God for you sought out an easier Way then that which God hath prepared and drew aside for self-safety and denyed the Cross which the Light leads all unto that obeys it So you never entered in at the strait Gate to know the enmity slain which would not have the Life to reign but you got up in the Knowledge and grew wise in the Comprehension and branched forth in a shew of Godliness and in your own Wisdom brought forth what you conceived might be the nearest to the Saints Practise So a Birth you formed in the deceitful heart that is corrupted and lyes degenerated from God and though you be in some things seperated and more particularly gathered in appearance yet do you lye mixed and confused with the rest of Babylons Inhabitants you can go to their named Churches and hear their Colledge-Ministers which are made by man contrary to the Scriptures of Truth so you are in the luke-warm state neither hot nor cold and your Garment is party-coloured and it is neither Night nor Day amongst you for you are run into the many inventions and drinking of the Cup of Fornication and are joined to the Harlot and commits VVhoredom with her and brings forth a Birth that is after the Flesh which cannot please God so hath the old Enemy deceived you and betrayed the innocent Life which once breathed in you and you are seated and centered in your Form and there have your dependance for satisfaction and you flye to the Scriptures to prove your Birth to be lawful and you have got Saints Words and in something appear as they did in Practise and you can say That so you find it written and so did the Saints practise and so do you but you want the life which they were born into thorough the working of God's Mighty Power and in which they declared the Scriptures and if you could perform all that ever you read concerning their practise and be not come into their life it will not be owned of God to be a true Worship and Service though they in what they did were accepted and rewarded And none upon the Earth can understand the Scripture without a measure of that life from which it was ministred And so have you erred for want of knowledge because that darkness hath blinded your minds and though much you profess and boast of high things yet your Deeds testifies against you even as others do from amongst whom you are gathered in your Worship you are vain and light minded foolish jesting and idle talking abounds amongst you you are high-minded and lifted up with a perfect Tincture of Pride many of your hearts are after Covetousness which doth not become a people professing the Knowledge of God These things are not charged upon you to upbraid you or to boast over you but that you may come into stayedness and soberness and humblenesse of mind that when God's Witnesse smites upon you and reproves you for those things that be evil you may be sensible of its reproof for the Light of Christ which is pure it doth not consent to or allow of any such things but reproves them without respect of persons but you are so lifted up in your vain minds that you are not sensible of it neither have any regard unto it so you delight in the thing as if it were a Priviledge purchased for you by Christ whose Name you profess and you can plead for your Lightness and say it is your Liberty to rejoice and be merry and your Covetousnesse you can call it Carefulness and Providence and your Pride you can put it upon your Quality and Ability So hath the Enemy vailed you and drawn you from the Spirit of Life which doth certainly reprove you in your own Consciences for these things and thus the Enemy doth lead you out of God's fear and into vanity and then seeks a fair excuse to cover it but you are found to walk after the flesh and satisfies that part with all the affections and lusts of it and the Witness of God is not regarded by you though it be alwayes near you and in your secret Chambers with you and often smiting you and reproving you yet you are so high over it that you do not heed it nor when it calls you hearken not to it but run in your own Way and follow your own Wills and the imaginations of your own hearts and slights the Day of your Visitation and the sweet tenders of God's Love unto you in the Light for he waits to be Gracious though you be Careless and his hands are stretched forth still that he might gather you and do you good You are a People whom the Lord strives with though you have rejected and slighted and grieved his Spirit yet is his tender Mercy open towards you and the Arm of Salvation he reaches to you that into his own House he may bring you and there deal forth Daily-Bread and give you Water of Life freely I travel in Spirit for you and the Love of the Father reaches to you and I know from the Lord that there is an unsatisfied Cry in many of you who want the Bread of Life and Water of Life to refresh your Souls And when you have received that which you call your Ordinance and have eaten and drunken of the Temporals you want that Meat which endures to everlasting life and something in you that hungers and thirsts after the enjoyment of that Oh! there is a Seed amongst you that must not dye in Aegypt nor alwayes groan under Pharoah's Power but must be redeemed by the out stretched Arm of the Almighty His Love draws near you the Morning springs fast upon you AWAKE and behold what God is tendering to you hasten to it and lay hold upon it look not abroad but come within and feel it near you that you may know the Power to save you and the Arm that is stretched forth to redeem you and the Manifestation of God's Spirit within you will be strength and safety for you and as you turn unto it obey and believ in it it wil not leave you nor forsake you but will be a present help unto you in the needful time and in the patience waiting the DAY will break and the SUN of RIGHTEOUSNESS will Arise and the thick Clouds and Foggy Mysts that darkens your understandings will vanish away like the Morning-Dew and the brightness of his Rising will destroy ANTICHRIST which so long hath been exalted in you and all the loftiness and haughtiness will fall before him whose appearance is glorious And thus doth he manifest himself and makes known his Eternal Power in the hearts of all that wait upon him in the Measure of his Light and carries on his Work prosperously in his own hand cutting down and sparing not whatsoever stands in the heart contrary to him and would not have him to Reign and his Works declares that it is he for he works Faith
his out-stretched arm he appears for his Chosen this day and of his manifold Mercies we have largely tasted And when BABYLON hath made her Cup Ready and begins to hand it forth unto the Lambs and to compel them to receive it and drink it then will the Lord Appear and strike with astonishment the hearts of the furious and make them confess to his Everlasting power and to his People for whose sake he will Arise to save Therefore unto him look from whence help comes and feel his power to compass you all about and his strength to gird you up that none of you may be surprized with fear or doubting but in the Immortal stand over all and be Bold and of a good Courage that BABYLON may know we cannot fall down and Worship their IMAGE what ever they can do unto us and GOD even the God of our fathers he will remember his holy Covenant and Israel his Chosen and though he may try us yet will he never forsake us but will stand by us to deliver us that all may know we are a people saved by the Lord Oh! feel the purpose of your hearts drawn in the Light to cleave unto the Lord and do not depart from his Counsel so will he make you able to stand unto the end and will plentifully reward you in the Riches of his Love and Life which is without End And the God of Jacob keep you all and the holy One of Israel be Strength and Wisdome to you all that he may have the glory over all who alone is Worthy Infinite Endless Powerfull Father of life Blessed for evermore Be not Fearful but Beleeving A few Words concerning true Discerning and Judgement NOw is Salvation come from the most High and the God of Israel is over all he is confounding the Wise men in their Wisdome and destroying the strong men in their strength he is breaking the Idols of silver and the Idols of gold and every carved work he is throwing down and his eye beholds the way of every man and he sees their work of what sort it is he is the searcher of the heart and he passeth by beholds the Intents thereof hidden things he brings to light and by the gift of his own Spirit he shews to every man his thoughts this is his perfect gift to every man a manifestation thereof all men have that they thereby might profit and though a measure of this Spirit have a being in all and makes it self manifest in all and is the true Light that doth enlighten all that comes into the world yet all do not receive it nor come to be guided by it so walk in the flesh and cannot please God neither can perceive the things of God and what is performed by such as a Service or VVorship to God he doth not require it at their hands and though they make many prayers he will not hear for they have no union with his Spirit and this tryes all people and their works in a true Discerning and gives true Judgement upon all according to their doings and who have not this Spirit of Christ they are none of his but all that receive it and have union with it they walk not in the flesh but in the Spirit in which they see the Shapes and Forms of every Image and Likeness and the ground from whence they do arise and no false birth can have a hiding place but from the least to the greatest they are discovered and the fairest â—overing that any have cloathed themselves withall is seen through and all the â—ormed likenesses which appears this day amongst the Sons of men in what they do profess of God they are all seen to be of the flesh and their Root and Principle is of that part and nature that is earâ—hly from which no good thing can arise and it brings forth a Birth in its own likeness and of its own nature which by the Spirit is truly discerned and every work of the flesh is manifest to the Spirit for the Spirit searcheth alâ— things and truly judges all things for the Spirit is truth And though this may seem in many of your eyes to be rash judgement and you may call it so yet it will stand a witness against all that are satifying the flesh For there is not any thing so hardly received as that Testimony that strikes at the life of another and That which deals plainly and simply with all and desires the good of all That meets with the least entertainment in the hearts of people but that which flatters and cryes peace when the bonds of iniquity stands that is a pleasing thing unto the mindes of all who walk in the flesh and that which comes to rip them up and discover their nakedness to their shame that they kick against and will not own nor receive it for truth for there is not any people would come to shame for what they do and that which opens secrets and brings any thing to light by which shame may come upon them they turn against that and reject it though the thing be really true which is witnessed against and so there is no work of the flesh that would come under the Spirit's Judgement though it be truly discerned and judged as it is and the Discerning and Judgement stand in the truth but those concerned in it will not own it but cry out Who made you a Judge and why are you so rash to judge as if all were to be condemned but your selves how do you know the hearts oâ— people and why may not others be as râ—gâ—t as you for what you know So every Form and Likeness would save its own life by putting off the Judgement as if none could Dâ—scern it and no false Birth that would have its nakedneâ—s to appear lest it should come to shame thereby And thus people harden themselves against the Spirit's Testimony which in it self is the searcher and trier of hearts and Reins and none can hide their counsel from it Mark Is not this the Judge that stands at the door and knocks Doth not he discern when evil rises in your hearts And doth he not there Reprove you What is it that you can hide that he findes not out what can you do in your secret chambers that he doth not know And what thought can you think amongst all your thoughts that he doth not discern And doth he not judge you in your own consciences if you have thought any evil or uttered vain words or done any thing wickedly Will you deny this to be a true Discerneâ— and a Righteous Judge Be sober and there is a witness which you may feel in your own selves to answer to the Truth declared and all that have received the Spirit and are born of the Spirit they have an understanding given them by which they are able to Discern the flesh and all the works of it and give true Judgement upon it without respect of persons not