an Oration before the People who gave a shout and said it was the Voice of a God and not of a man and that the worms should eat him because he gave not the Glory to God By Faith it 's seen that it was great faithfulness and obedience unto the Lord in the Apostles that they gave up themselves to do the Work of God and laboured in the Truth to turn both Jews and Gentiles to Christ the true Light which enlightneth every one that cometh into the World and to the Grace which hath appeared to all men which taught the Saints that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts they might live Soberly Righteously and Godly in this present World and come to know the saving of their Souls by the Grace through Faith and when the People did once believe they came to receive Grace for Grace and had Faith revealed in them from Faith to Faith which gave them Victory over the whole World and over the Transgression of it to be cleansed from all filthiness of Flesh and Spirit perfecting Holiness in the Fear of God and unto such the Apostles wrote Epistles exhorting them to continue in the Faith and to persevere in the Hope Watching and being Sober having the loynes of their minds girt about with the Truth unto these Salvation was come nearer than when they first Believed therefore they were to awake from sleep and rise from dead Works and to put off the deeds of the Night for the Darkness was past and the true Light shined and they were to put on the whole Armour of God to Arm themselves with the Armour of Light that they might withstand the evil Day and might be able to quench the fiery Darts of the Devil that they might offer their Bodies unto God a Living Holy Sacrifice acceptable unto God which was but their reasonable Service not fashioning themselves according to the Fashions of the World but to be renewed in their Mindes to prove what is that good and acceptable and perfed Will of God And they were not to adorn themselves with Gold or Silver or Pearls or Plaiting of Hair nor costly Array but with modest Apparel to adorn the Doctrine of the Gospel of Christ Let not your adorning be with the putting on of Apparel nor wearing of Gold or Pearls ar broidered Hair but let it be in the hidden man of the Heart with a meek and quiet Spirit which with the Lord is of great price and their words were to be few and seasoned with salt that they might administer Grace to the Hearers that all things might be done in Order and decently for the setting forth the Glory of God and the Praise of his Grace by which they were called to be Saints By Faith it 's likewise seen that after the Apostles had once turned the People to the true Light and to know God shining in their Hearts to cause the Light to shine out of Darkness to give them the Light of the Knowledge of his Glory in the face of Jesus Christ in which they received the Anointing which gave them an understanding to know all things so that they needed no man to teach them then they committed them to the Word of his Grace which was able to keep them from falling and left them to assemble themselves together in the Spirit to worship God in the Spirit and in the Truth and not to forsake the assembling themselves together as the manner of some was but to wait for the Promises and persevere in the Hope unto the end waiting for the appearing of the great God and his Christ then they left them committing them to the Grace which was able to keep them from falling and to the Spirit of Jesus which was able to build them up and â—o keep them from the world unspotted â—nd to hate even the garment spotted with the Flesh and to present them Holy unto God without spot or blemish or any such like thing which brought them 〈…〉 one another and to have Union one wâ—â—h another and not with the world for a Believer and an Infidel cannot concord then I say they left them and did not continue with them as the manner of Hirelings ever was to stay as long as they lived for great sums of Money with one People except they could get a greater Benefice with another whose day is as the cutting off Life from the Earth and going down to the Grave but the Apostles day was to do the joyful Work of God and to call many into the Light the way of everlasting Rest and Peace and Joy who when they had turned one People to the Light left them and wrote to them from another People unto whom they were gone to turn them to the same Truth and out of other Lands So they saluted the Saints and their Assemblies which they had gathered with the saluâ—ations of Peace and Love exhorting all to press forward to the Mark of the price of the High Calling in Christ Jesus namely to the full attainment of the fulness of an Holy and perfect Life that they might all be presented perfect in Christ and sanctified throughout in Soul Body and Spirit and being partakers of the Divine Nature and escaping the Corruption which is in the world through lust and being partakers of the Faith they might give all diligence to make their Calling and Election sure adding unto Faith Vertue and unto Vertue Knowledge and to Knowledge Temperance and to Temperance Patience and to Patience Godliness and to Godliness brotherly Love and to brotherly Love Charity which is the band that keepeth perfect for if these things be in you and abound they make you that you shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the Knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ but he that lacketh these things is blind and cannot see afar off and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins Wherefore the rather Brethren give all diligence to make your Calling and Election sure for if ye do these things ye shall never fall and so an entrance shall be ministred unto you abundantly into the everlasting Kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ This I have given forth from the Innocency and uprightness of my Heart as moved of the Lord which I send abroad as a Testimony of the true Work of the true Faith and of its Effect it being a few of those excellent Truths which through Faith in the Light is given me to see and to believe and to witness forth the true Testimony of the Saints which justly and truly they through Faith witnessed forth to the Glory of God and it is to be Printed and sent abroad unto all People but most especially to all the English in America and the West-Indies and the Islands thereunto belonging which if in this I should finish my Testimony of Writing or Declaring the Truth of God yet this shall stand unto Generations to come and to this present Generation as a Testimony
daughters of men after which his eye looks and his heart savours and would take pleasure in He that is not zealous for God he cannot be an Elder he cannot watch over Souls but suffers the lusts in his own flesh to lead him captive be that is not zealous for God is no Evangelist no setter forth of the Mystery of the Kingdom he that is not zealous for God and against all the World he cannot be a true Minister of God nor become worthy to receive the hidden Wisdom and the Riches of the Power which opens the eye and seals the Instructions in the heart He that is not zealous for God and for his Truth and his Righteousness he cannot get the Victory over the World and over the Transgression and the Error of his Life to crucifie his earthly nature and mind but his mind will be earthly and corrupted with the delighting in and loving that in which the seed of evil doers delights he will be taken in the captivity of the Enemy and in the Snare and in the Cloud of Errors and fall into Adversity which he cannot escape He that is not zealous for God cannot love God with all 〈◊〉 heart but will reason with flesh and â—â—â—d about earthly things and the sufferings of this life and will love something better than Christ and so be unworthy to do his Will and to enter into his Kingdom and cannot give up all things suffer all things endure all things for Christ's sake He that is not zealous for God cannot work the Works of Eternal Life nor do the Work of God uprightly only for the Lord's sake and in love to Him looking for no other reward but the Lord which work the Prophets Apostles and Ministers of God and Christ did through Faith though contrary to the World and its Teachers and Ways though for it they suffered many things yet by Faith in the Light they were upheld By Faith it 's seen how just and righteous Joseph was who though he was sold into Adversity and to be a Slave yet stood faithful unto the Lord even in the Land of his Captivity and would not hearken to the Entisememts of a Whorish woman though never so secretly but rather chose to give up his Life and his Body unto Sufferings and Prisons than to transgress the Law of his God who through Faith gave up to suffer rather than to enter into defilements and his Faith brought him through the Sufferings and to be faithful in Ten Temptations so that by his Faith he subdued the whole Land of Egypt under himself and became Lord of it all who was as a fruitful Vine upon the Wall and his Branches reached unto Heaven who for his faithfulness was greatly beloved of God and made a Ruler over the sons of men By Faith it 's seen how zealous Moses the Servant of the Lord was who as a Servant was faithful in all his House who did the work of God uprightly who when through Faith he had forsaken Pharoah's Court and refused to be called the son of Pharoah's daughter sought to set up Judgment and Justice in the Earth and to establish Truth and Righteousness amongst men who though he was rejected by wicked men yet God made him a Judge and a Leader of his People and to appear before Pharoah to bring his People out of bondage who refused to lead them out on Pharoah's terms but would have them go freely with all they had and he bowed not to the will of Phareah though Pharoah oppressed the People the more By Faith it 's seen when Pharoah and his Task-masters oppressed the Seed of Israel most they to wit Pharoah and his People were nearest Destruction for the Lord heard their Cry of Oppression and delivered them and overthrew King Pharoah and all his Host By Faith it 's seen and believed that it was just in Moses to sanctifie the People in the Wilderness after he had brought them to stand still to see their deliverance out of Egpt though wicked men withstood him and said he took too much upon him and Corah Dathan and Abiram gathered a Company against Moses and Aaron the Servants of the Lord who with their Company perished in their Gain-sayings for the Earth opened her mouth and swallowed them up quick and many feared because of their Cry This is a true Figure to all Earthly minds whose Cry will be great who are swallowing up in the mouth of the Earth and so goes down to their home quick because they withstand the Sanctification and do not believe they shall be cleansed and perfected in this life By Faith it 's seen that it was just with God to plague Israel in the Wilderness because they followed not the Lord fully though He was unto them a Cloud by day and a Pillar of Fire by nighty to preserve them from the Heat and the Cold and to guide them in the way wherein they should walk You may understand something by this if you read in the Light but went into Fornication and lusted after things that were not convenient and looked back into Egypt to lust after the Flesh-Pots of Egypt who ate and drank and rose up to Play every one neighing after his Neighbors Wife whose Carkasses fell in the Wilderness By Faith it is seen how just it was with God to destroy the Kings of the Amorites and to give to the Children of Israel the Amorites with their Country because they would not let them pass thorow their Dominions into the promised Land of Rest therefore was Og King of Bashan and Sihon King of Heshbon destroyed with their People and the Dominion of God came over them and their Dominion and their Earth which was taken from them though they would not let the Righteous Nation passe thorow it who were innocent and harmless and would have paid them for all And though Balak sought Inchantment and hired Balaam to curse the People yet God blessed them altogether and rejected Balaam who would have cursed for Promotion and Wages whom God reproved by the voice of the Asse for he was earthly and though the Lord blessed his People yet Balaam taught Balak to cast a stumbling-block before the Children of Israel namely To Allure them with the Daughters of his Land to commit Fornication with the People of the Land for which the Anger of God was against His People and by Faith Phineas stood on the Lord's part and thrust through Zimry and Cosby in their Fornication though they were Princes Children and turned away the Anger of God and received the Promise of an Everlasting Priesthood he was zealous for God and took away the evil-doers from the Land By Faith it is seen how just it was with God to have Achan destroyed because he disobeyed the Commandment of the Lord when by Faith the Walls of Jericho fell down and his mind run into the Earth he coveted the two hundred sheckles of Silver and the Wedge of Gold and the
before him and assuredly every one that hath tasted of the day and hath not kept the Faith nor walked unspotted of the World even hating the Garment spotted with the flesh they shall bear their own burdens and the Truth is clear and in it there is no insufficiency though some have forsaken their first Faith and not kept to their first Love But unto all ye precious Sons and Daughters who have kept the Faith and grown up since the begining of your first Love in the abundance of the Power and Vertue of the Lord unto you doth the Salutation of my Love reach and my Life springs forth and streams towards you which nothing can hinder for the Lord hath enlarged me in his Life and Power so that my Soul flows forth in the abundance of his Love towards you to be felt and known of all the Faithful for my life and strength is given up for the Service of the Lord and cannot be separated from you but must be known and felt though to the outward separated to the Work of the Lord yet in that which is alwayes near wherein the Lord doth bless his Work and prosper his Truth wherein I lye down in the Faith and Love giving up and being given up in all things to the Work of the Lord having the earnest desire of my Soul that we may all give up with one consent in Faith and Love to do the Will of the Lord and not to stagger or be dismayed at any thing whatsoever shall come to pass in the Earth we may witness forth the Truth boldly as we have already done bearing all things suffering all things and enduring all things joyfully for the Lord is merciful and will suffer nothing to come upon any but what will make for good and to fit them unto glory as all abide-faithful unto him and in this I bid you all farewel for my Love is with you and my life reaches you in the Salutation of Peace and Love having you often in my Remembrance And all ye who have tasted of the beginnings of the Work of the Lord unto whom the Light in some measure hath appeared yet the coming forward hath been but slowly unto you I say let the Light search that you may see wherein your hinderance stands and what it is that lets for in the true Light and Love and Faith of it there is no insufficiency no weakness no straitness for the straitness is in your selves and of your selves and stands in that which opens the eye to look into the pleasure of the delights of the Sons and Daughters of men and of earthly things which when they are looked into something likes them takes delight and seeks to advantage it self in them and this is the snare and hinderance which being given place unto then the Just suffers and so that which should strengthen and build up in the Power that ministers Judgment yea through Judgment must the Just be raised therefore arise be awakened shake your selves of the Encumbrances and of the Earth that the Virgin-Seed may be raised which will keep your minds staid on God and bring ye into the one Life where ye may feel true satisfaction in the enjoyment of the Lord and the Temptations ye may be redeemed out of and may see the Ground from whence they do arise namely the mind nature which hath not God to be its full delight but would delight it self in something else and when this mind is up then it 's easie for the Enemy to come and enter in with his Enticements and Allurements to entangle the mind and lead the Creature into the Cloud of Error and in that thing to which the Creature hath been most addicted will the Enemy most appear to bring it into remembrance which when it rises if it be savoured or liked the Enemy hath his advantage to ensnare But the Virgin-Seed delights in God alone and is throughly satisfied in the enjoyment of the presence of God the Lord and this is that in which the Judgment stands and the Power which wil keep out of the snare of the wicked unto which all must come before ye can grow into the plenteous Redemption be made Heirs of Eternal Salvation the Blessings of his Peace which establishes man in his growth and liveliness to grow up as the Corn in the night season and to be like the Trees bringing forth their pleasant fruits which who brings them forth becomes encouraged and receives confidence in God but such as bring not forth the pleasant fruits that which should be their encouragement becomes their Judge and rejects them in their purposes and so the growth in the Life they fall short of And all ye sons and daughters ye young men and women in whom the Virgin-Seed is arisen which delighteth in God and hath its full delight in God in which the Power Life stands to keep unspotted of the world it 's safe for us to keep in Union with the Virgin for she is the Lambs Wife and maketh her self ready for the appearing of the Lamb unto whom we have joyned in our youth and she is become the Wife of our youth therefore let none deal treacherously with the Wife of his youth but let the Virgin-Seed have the flower of her dayes in delighting her self in God and in doing his Will I say let none do violence to his Virgin but dwell in Unity with her and to be delighted in God with her and to make ready with her that all may be prepared against the Lamb comes for he that rejecteth