God having experience of the saving work of his right hand on their hearts who speak because they believe and are indued with power from on high and filled with the holy Ghost whereby they are made able Ministers of the new Testament having received gifts by the ascending of Christ on high even for the rebellious that he may dwell among them for the work of the Ministry to the perfecting of the Saints and edifying of the body and such Minister from the Light and from the Life and from the power and Spirit and Word of God whereby those to whom they Minister may come into the fellowship of the mystery with themselves and be made partakers with them of the Unction or anointing from the holy one which may be with them for ever and a teacher unto them of all things good necessary and expedient for them to know even to bring them unto the Spirit of truth which may lead them into all truth and instruct them in the will councel and commandement of God at all times whatever it be and to espouse them unto Jesus Christ the great King and Lawgiver in and to his People the great high Priest from whose mouth the Law is to be received the great Prophet by whom God speaketh now to his People wherof Moses writes who is the head in all things and who so will not hear that Prophet shall be put to death and this Prophet Jesus Christ is nigh unto us yea more nigh then all the men or books upon the face of the earth he is both our Maker and our Husband the anointed of the Lord the breath of our nostrils so that our fellowship and communion with him is most intimate and immediate and nothing else does satisfie our souls but the immediate imbraces of his dear and sweet love the seeing of his Countenance which is comely and the hearing of his voice which is pleasant and powerful and glorious and full of Majesty and the Bride rejoyceth greatly because of the voice of the Bridegroom himself and now we need not say who will go down into the grave and bring up Christ to us or who will ascend to Heaven to bring him down to us or who will go over the Seas and bring us tidings of him from Ierusalem where he suffered in the flesh him whose name is the Word of God Rev. 19. we of a truth witness nigh us even in our hearts so that we need not either ascend or descend or go forth the word of life the word of power the word of faith which Paul preached and Moses before him and all the true Ministers and pointed people to this which was able to save them as they turned their minds thereto and gave up to be taught and led thereby And this the Ministers and Servants of the Lord among the People called Quakers do preach without money or price being the free gift of God and many have believed and received it not as the Word of Men but as it is indeed the Word of God and found it after diligent attendance turning their minds inward thereto to spring up in themselves and to be living and powerful and sharp as a two edged Sword to the dividing of soul and spirit and discerning every thought and intention of the heart and though one evil and unbelieving Generation will not give credit thereto no nor yet those of the National Ministry who give themselves forth for the Ministers of Christ but are found lyars they call it a fancy and delusion and turn People from it which is the only Rock that can save them yet we know it to be the Word of God and we have tasted the Heavenly sweetness of it yea and our very hands have handled that Word of Life and we have hid it in our hearts as an only Treasure and we do daily and hourly witness the pretiousness and worth thereof for it is the food of our souls the food of Angels the living bread which came down from Heaven to give life unto the World the Manna incorruptible which feedeth us unto life everlasting and when we are an hungred it refresheth us and satisfieth our souls with good things it 's milk to the babes and flesh to the strong it 's health to our navil and marrow to our bones it 's the bread which strengthneth mans heart and the wine which maketh it glad and oyle which maketh his face to shine and when we thirst living water springeth forth from this word of life in our hearts and ministreth drink unto us out of the living fountain and we witness the promise fulfilled he that believeth in me Christ the Word out of his belly shall flow a well spring of liveing water and when we are weak and our hands hang down and our knees wax feeble the Word maketh us strong and lifteth us up as an Eagles wings so that we run and are not weary and walk and are not faint and when we are heavy through sorrow the Word springeth forth in streams of pure joy and consolation from the presence of the Lord which causeth us to forget all our former troubles and we are comforted in our God in all our straits and difficulties and when temptations from the Devil and his Instruments assault us and the powers of darkness environe and surround us as if they would swallow us up the Word sendeth forth sweet and comfortable beams of Light and openeth the eye-lids of the morning upon us and breaketh through the thick Egiptian darkness as a fiery flaming sword and divideth asunder and giveth us victory and deliverance And when we are hated of the World the Word saith peace in us and causeth it to flow into our souls like the waves of the Sea and when Sathan transformes himself with his Messengers into an Angel of Light that he may deceive us coming up out of the deep with Samuels Mantle the Word of truth which searcheth into all the depths of Satan and to the bottom of the mystery of iniquity discovereth to us the foulers snare and the voice of the inchanter so that our souls escape as a bird out of the net and the Word defends us by night and by day so that we need not fear the terror by night nor the arrow that flyeth by day nor the pestilence that walketh in darkness being girded with the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God and the Word is a light to our feet and a Lanthorn to our pathes the Vâ—im and the Thummim by which the Lord answers us and giveth us counsel in all things pertaining either to the temporal or eternal life and herein we meditate day and night and by it are we made wiser then our Teachers and it 's sweeter to us then the honey and the honey comb and more precious then thousands of gold or silver and in the Word our fellowship stands with God and one to another whereby we know and enjoy and have communion one
there succeeded a people who saw over these who compiled or rather Englished the Service-book and they disowned it as they did also all other set forms of Prayer and cryed them down as dead lifeless things and they were for a worship in Spirit thus is was but even of very late dayes in Queen Elizabeth and King Iames the sixth and such were nick-named by their enemies Puritans and they affirmed that the Spirit of the Lord was only to teach them to pray and worship and not any Book or Man whatsoever and were not set forms of Prayer cryed down also in Scotland as lifeless barren things and the service-Book denyed and now have ye not again licked up that vomit and through your Cities men set up mostly also scandalous in their conversations at such hours of the day or night to read a set form of Prayer and is there any material difference betwixt this and the Service-book And have not your brethren in England taken it up again and when it 's offered to you to read will ye not also do the like there is no question of it but most of you will and worse also when ye are put to the tryal and oh what a mysterie is it to you praying and singing in the Spirit are ye not become so impudent as to mock this also as I have oft witnessed my self when your Church-members hath been so shameless as to cry in the very streets at us when passing by When came the Spirit last upon you give us a Prayer from the Spirit And do ye not flatly deny praying and worshipping in Spirit who deny Enthusiasm which is to say being interpreted for it 's a Greek word the inspiration of the Spirit of God which is the only flame that kindles up holy 〈◊〉 in the soul after God and you who can prate and talk unto God without a Book in your Pulpits and chief places of the Synagogues and elsewhere in your own wills and times and in the wills and times of others from a rhetorical strain as if ye were complementing some great Prince your prayers are as life ' ess and spiritless as those said of the Mass-book and were ye come truly to the spirit of prayer ye would know a bridle to your tongues without which your Religion is but vain and that the Spirit of God which bloweth as well when and where it listeth is also as far from being limitted to set times as to set forms and we read not in the whole Scripture that the Lord hath appointed any set times of prayer under the Gospel to his people at all whose great and most important work is to wait the movings of the Spirit of Life from God at all times whether to pray or give thanks or to any other spiritual exercise and blessed are they who come hither for they shall know that it is not in vain to wait upon the Lord for we have waited patiently upon him and have witnessed and do witness the pourings forth of the spirit of Prayer and praise supplications and thanksgivings filling our hearts and souls night and day to the God of our life and true prayer is the gift of God which cometh not at all in mans will or time and therefore the season is to be waited for which God hath kept in his own hand and hath the key of the heart to open it when he pleaseth and the key into the house of prayer where is the throne of grace without access to which in the drawings of the Spirit-of life man hath no acceptation with God nor his service or worship all is but idolatry and abomination only such who come to God through the Mediator and Intercessor Christ the Life feeling the living drawings thereof in the particular are accepted of him and made joyful in the house of prayer and hath it not been the regret of some among you and may be yet when ye are in a sober mood that the spirit of prayer is much lost and a dry complementing of God come in the room thereof 3. Were not your fore-fathers the primitive Protestants and Reformers a separated people did not they disown the Popish Assemblies and their preaching and worship as idolatry and forsake it and did not those called Puritans both in England and Scotland separate themselves from the other party who stuck to the Service-book and other superstitions and did not the sober people in Scotland in the former times of Prelacy separate from the Prelatical Assemblies and their Conformists did they not meet apart and talked together of the work of God on their own hearts and worshipped God in Spirit and his blessing and presence was among them while they kept chaâ—t to him and mixed not with Idolaters Now have ye not apostatized herein also and mixed your selves in with the profane rabble of the world as bad and worse then Papists Turks Pagans which hath provoked the Lord to withdraw from among you and ye can pray and sing and communicate with such Is not this Babylon indeed which is to say Confusion and is not our separation from you also as justifiable as the separation of your fathers from Papists being we have found you to be of the same spirit and mostly of the same principles and practices with them and generally as wicked loose scandalous prophane and covetous and abounding with all manner of iniquity as they and are not all such Idolaters is not thee vetous man an Idolater whereas covetousness is idolatry as saith the Scripture and are not all Idolaters to be denyed as to any fellowship with them in worship and your fathers did not plead such dirty stâ—ff as you the Professors have learned now to do to shun the Cross for keeping the Popish and Prelatical party their Assemblies Service-book worship alledging That they sit in Moses chair and therefore are to be heard and we may like their good and leave their evil Such reasons prevailed not with your fathers nor ought they for the Christians come not at all to the Scribes and Pharisees who sit in Moses chair but meet apart unless to bear a testimony against them and bad men with all their good words can never edifie a soul in faith or true knowledge which is life eternal all they can do is to edifie in the notion and feed the wrong part and spirit which delights in the notion of truth and is satisfied in the notional knowledge out of the life and the finest truest words out of a bad mans mouth can never reach the seed of God either to the raising of it up or refreshing it but on the contrary burdens and kills as said the Apostle of the false Apostles who had the letter and were Ministers of it out of the Spirit and Power and the letter sayes he kills and so we have found it in our experience but these above-mentioned arguments have prevailed with you so that ye are herein also apostatized from them 4. Your
were not to regard they abusing it and when Oliver Cromwel wincked at you both I well remember your carriage and was an eye-witness of much of it with many hundreds how many Protestations were made in your Synods south and north and when the one party or faction would depose such a man or men from the so called Ministerial function the other party would bid him or them preach and maintain uphold and defend him and now the Churches authority not being backed with the Magistrates sword ye could break through it as Cobweb and some of you whom your Parishes would not receive yet yee urged your selves upon them whither they would hear or forbear All this and much more is fresh in the memory of thousands and this day hath abundantly discovered you And oh that yee could take shame and confusion of face to your selves and read the language of the Lords work in this day which would be answered with his witness in your Consciences saying with these Ier. 8.14 let us be silent for the Lord hath put us to silence for a more excellent Ministry the Lord hath brought forth in this day even that of his own spirit whereto yee have been and are great strangers and yee have need to learn the first principle of the Oracles of God which is the light of Christ shining in the dark heart although yee have been so long teachers of others and the Christ whom yee have preached so many years yee have him yet to learn and if ever yee receive a part of the true Ministry yee must come to know him revealed within you which for the time is a parable to you and yee call it delusion And now oh yee people of Scotland know that the Lord in his great mercy to your souls hath brought this day over your Teachers to let you see they were but broken â—â—sterns and their fair profession and many good words whereby they made merchandize of you hath much opposed and withstood the appearance of Jesus Christ and that which letted is much removed out of the way now and the Lord is come to teach his people himself and to gather them into his unchangable truth which is not subject to the windings and turnings of your teachers and the pure fountain of the water of life hath been opened unto us and we drunk thereof to our unspeakable refreshment and satisfaction and we cannot any more come at your pudled waters 14. And your fathers the Primitive Protestants acknowledge no head in the Church but Christ Jesus and they maintained the power and authority of the Church to be altogether independent from and not subordinate to the Magistrates power and Iohn Welshe and others of his brethren bore a testimony to this in his day for which together with their testimony against Prelacy they were imprisoned at Blaknes as appears by a letter of his with several that 's extant at this day and now how far have ye shrunk from this testimony of your predecessor judge ye your selves who call him in your Church-prayers supream Judge in all cases and over all causes Civil and Ecclesiastical There is also two other weighty particulars which is well known to have been maintained by many primitive Protestants both denyed by you viz. That Christians ought neither to swear nor fight with any carnal weapon both which were asserted by those called the Lollards of Kyle as ye may read in the book of the Reformation of the Church in Scotland but the setter forth of the aforesaid book hath added to their words to the first Article which is according to their assertion as it was found in the Records of Glasgow That in no case it is lawful to swear he hath added to wit Idely rashly or in vain and to the other That Christians should not fight for the Faith is added if not driven thereto by necessity which two additions manifestly appears to be put to by the publisher of the book and that they are not these mens words for that they are printed in another character and he alleadges their enemies to have depraved them for he sayes These Articles together with several others were found in their Records but his alleadgance is not so fair being he had no sufficient ground therefore and the Articles are true and sound without his additions and it 's a perfect contradiction which neither the Lollards of Kyle or any rational man could affirm to say we must not swear at all or in no case it is lawful to swear which is universal and exclusive and then to put a limitation thereto but in such cases viz. idely rashly and in vain I say these two propositions It is lawful in no case to swear It is lawful in some case to swear are a perfect contradiction and no rational man can affirm both for either the one or the other must be false and so the Lollards saying in no case it is lawful to swear it is clear that they were not only against swearing idely rashly or in vain which neither their adversaries denyed so that it needed not be a point of Dittay against them but against swearing in any case or at all So by these 14. or 16. Articles let all in whom there is any measure of ingenuity or simplicity try your present Church constitution and with the Light wherewith Christ hath enlightned you examine and ye will find that though ye call your selves the reformed Church ye are far from the first Reformers and that the whole Protestant Church in Europe hath much degenerated from the primitive Christians and Protestants both in principles and practices and is become quite another thing retaining the name like an old rotten Ship that hath been so often clamped and clouted that all the former timbers are worn out and others put in their place yet keeping the name and somewhat of the form and shape and ye have sailed long up and down in this old rotten Ship which is just upon the splitting and suffering shipwrack and it were happy for you if ye would swim forth out of her for your lives and the greatest loss of all is of the Spirit and Life of your first Reformers as appears by your fruits and conversations at this day Is not that fidelity honesty and simplicity much lost and quite decayed that some yet living remember was in the Land and treachery falshood guile and deceit come in the room thereof and one brother cannot trust another and love is waxen cold and much selfishness crept in and the profession or Religion made a meer cloak of maliciousness and that temperance and sobriety in words diet and apparel that was among many is quite gone and wantonness gluttony and drunkenness whoredom cursing and swearing and prophaning of the name of God and fearful oaths come in stead thereof and tyranny and oppression more then among savages and yet people given to such wickedness are accounted your Church-members and partake of all the Church-priviledges
nearer the letter of the Scriptures then that other cast down by you yet it was as far from being the Temple or House of God being not of his Spirit for this ye had gone from in your own particulars and at length became so impudent as to deny such a thing could be expected to wit the leadings of the infallible Spirit of Christ to teach you and guide you infallibly in your proceedings and ye set the letter of the Scriptures above it and in it's room together with your own imaginations for ye being gone from the Spirit of Truth the eye which read the Scriptures aright came to be put out and the false eye opened which read them backward and the Scriptures were perverted by you to a wrong sence or meaning and ye drew them to the square and rule of your opinions which the erring mind through Satans suggestion had begot in you and now ye fathered your opinions upon the Scripture and they were but the brats of your own imagination And oh what were the materials of your building were they living stones polished and smoothed by the power of God or rather were they not the most rude profane rabble and multitude of the world the same whereof the Prelatical and popish frame was composed of and who were the builders were they men taught of God standing in his wisdom was your Ministry a spiritual Ministry were they able Ministers of the new Testament not of the letter but of the Spirit such as the Scriptures speak of were they called from heaven by the Revelation of Christ or rather was not your Ministry even such as the former of mens making which stood in man's wisdom and taught of men as among the very Papists yea it was even so Oh how little hath the teaching of God's Spirit been regarded were they not accounted able Ministers who could talk upon the letter and give many good and fine words to the people and speak the Saints experiences recorded in Scripture which generally they never knew themselves or if any knew somewhat of that nature as some did it was not principally regarded and men were let pass for Ministers who were gifted with humane learning and gifts under which the best induments of knowledge or utterance which come not immediately from the Revelation of the infallible Spirit of Truth may be comprehended and after ye had quit the Service-book and that way of worship in set forms and denyed them as dead life-less things your humane learning and abilities together with the customary way ye had inured your selves to prompted you to talk and utter many words before God which yet was as far from spiritual worship as the other and if at any time somewhat of the Lord's Spirit moved and breathed among you as it did for the Lord much pittied for his seeds sake yet it was much suffocated and choaked by your running forth after the imaginations of your own hearts ye not knowing the Cross which stayes the mind and gives a check to the forward proposterous spirit which is rejected of the Lord with all its services and because your minding more the words and form and visible things then the living power whereby the Lord was provoked more and more to withdraw from among you and leave your house desolate as at this day it is And your Presbyterian form of Church-discipline Order and Government it was nothing upon the matter better then the Episcopal there being no material difference in the sight of God to render it more acceptable to him beâ—wixt the one and the other neither of you knowing Christ the head in you teaching you by the Revelation of his Spirit to determine of things coming before you so that ye could not say with that Synod Act. 15.28 It seemed good to the holy Ghost and to us but ye went on in the same manner with them of determining of particulars in mans wisdom and by plurality of voices or consents which is but a very fallible way and hath done more evil then ever it did good and it is all one before the Lord whether one or a few should determine particulars as it is among the Bishops or whether many by an equality should do it as among the Presbyterians you being both out of God's wisdom and asking counsel and not out of his mouth and ye called Presbyterian Ministers did step into many things ye 〈…〉 the Bishops out of or things much what alike and of the same nature ye denyed their Lordships and took to your selves selves Masterships both being equally forbidden by Christ ye would not suffer them to Lord it over you but ye would Lord it over the People yea and did as tyrannically as ever the Bishops had done and ye were offended at the Surplices and the Canonical Coats and Belts of their Clergy and yet ye were equally superstitious and vain in your black cloaths and Gowns with Pasments and Ribbons upon them and other superfluity of naughtiness and ye were angry at their Revenues being so great and yet ye stept in also to many of them and some of you had as much by the year as some of them and into their pride covetousness lightness vanity ambition carelessness concerning the work of Jesus Christ and the salvation of poor people whereof ye took up the charge and many other iniquities they were found in for which the Lord was provoked against them ye have taken as it were a succession of and ye thought the Lord should have winked at you and indeed he boâ—e much with you and had respect unto that poor honest tender simple zealous thing that was once among you in a day but he could no longer forbear for the cry of your sins was great and his oppressed seed in your hearts as a Cart pressed with sheaves under your wickedness cryed likewise against you and he heard and brought desolation upon you also and laid all your stately building in the dust and now great is the lamentation and sorrow of your hearts because of the fall of your building and ye are crying in the anguish of your souls for a day again wherein ye may have an opportunity to repair the breaches and build up the old ruinous heaps and ye are saying in your hearts the tyles are fallen but we will build with hewn stones the Sycomers are cut down but we will build with Cedars and make the frame more able and firm then before to stand out the storm But I say unto you in the name and authority of the living God should ye attempt such a thing till ye come to his Light and the leadings of the infallible Spirit of Truth in your particulars it shall not prosper it shall be as with them who attempted the rebuilding the walls of Ierico and have no better success and ye shall but labour as in the very fire and weary your selves for very vanity I have determined saith the Lord God Almighty to race all to the
hearts for they are not come to the Light and Word of Truth whereby to discern the true upright genuine desire from the false and hypocritical and this thing hath proved also a great share unto the people who hath heaped up to themselves Teachers after their own hearts lusts who might speak false peace unto them and that whereon there is so much stress laid to wit the calling of the people or Patrons is not of God but of Babylon for in the state they are in they will be loth ever to call a good man unto them supposing he could be found but such who will wink at their faults and run with them thereinto and when at any time they let a reproof fall it stinks out of their mouths being guilty of the same things themselves and away with the education of youth at Universities and Colledges of Philosophy so called I may say of them which Luther stuck not to call them in his day That they are the stews of Antichrist for out of them comes this ignorant profane scandalous Ministry wherein they learn to talk of things they understand not and to prate in mans wisdom which is carnal earthly and devillish And the Philosophy so called which is taught them is but meer deceit and pedantry which even I came to see when among them and many of themselves see it and confess it to be but vanity and none can teach either the knowledge of God or of the creation but such who come to be indued with a measure of the wisdom of God which made the creation in number weight and measure according to it 's pure holy Law and neither God nor the work of his hands can be truly known but in the light which makes all manifest which the Doctors and disputers of this world are strangers unto and it's follishness to them and many among themselves have attempted the reformation of their so called Philosophy and squeezed their brains to find out a new one but all in vain it shall never be found out till they come to the Cross of Christ and under his cross denying their own wisdom become the disciples of Christ and learn of him in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom knowledge the true Science of the creation as well as the of the Creator for the world was made by him and he can best teach it and in him manifest in man the invisible things of God from the creation of the world are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made which carry upon them indeed the characters of infinite wisdom goodness and power but are a sealed book no less then the Scriptures to such who are not come to the teachings of him who made them and can only give an eye to read them with a true understanding and to advantage And this I testifie who have had a tryal and experience both of the one and the other the wisdom of man wherein I laboured much and long and profited above many of my nighbours and the wisdom of God in which now I see and for which I truly account that other loss and dung even for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ the Wisdom which was vvith the Father before the World began and I certainly know the humane Wisdom or learning is one of the main Bulwarks of Antichrist against the Revelation and setting up the Kingdom of Christ in the Earth and because this is arising and shall rise down must the other go and all who seek to uphold it shall fall therewith And away with the many Doctrins and opinions yee have drunken from your teachers who have abused the Scriptures and you both giving you to believe they were grounded on Scripture and are nothing but their own imaginations which the erring mind through Sathans suggestions hath begot both in them and you and rid your selves of all whatsoever yee have taken upon trust and what yee have not seen and learned in the openings and manifestation of the Word and Spirit of truth in each particular and make the revelation of the Spirit of truth in all things the rule and analogy of your faith believing nothing less or more then what is revealed to you therefrom and where that opens not keep wholy back from passing any determination for or against And away with that manner of interpreting Scripture and searching truth by drawing and knitting consequences by the fallible erring mind and natural understanding keep close in all things to the judgment and determination of the Spirit of God and where that leads you as it did lead Christ to infer upon the Saduces the Resurrection from the dead from that Scripture I am the God of Abraham and God is not the God of the dead but of the Living to draw a consequence or frame an argument do it else forbear And away with determining of things as yee have hitherto done by Plurality of Votes it 's not the way of God and will never further the Lords work or truth their votes or consents not being in the unity of the Spirit of truth And away with thinking general Assemblies Counsils or Parliaments in the state they stand in will do you any good in order to a perfect and through Reformation they will certainly marre it but never help it forward being out of Gods wisdom and its foolishness unto them And your looking too much to these things in former times hath been a great snare unto you And thus now I have showed you good advice and councel concerning your becoming a perfect and thoroughly reformed people and the witness of God in all your Consciences as yee heed it will not fail to answer me to the truth and expedience of these things I have laid before you And principally every one mind the through reformation and change of your own hearts and lifes by turning in your minds to the Light of Christ in all your consciences which must do the work else it never will be done and as the reformatiâ— of particulars grows so will the same do in the general And now what I have declared unto you and the manifestation of the Spirit of truth will shew you much more even the perfect patern of the house of God in the Mount concerning these things which are necessary and expedient in order to a thorough cleanly and perfect reformation we the people of the Lord called Quakers have fallen upon them being taught and directed thereto by the wisdom of God which buildeth the house else the building is in vain and we have found and do find the blessed usefulness of them as ye shall also find if ye be followers of us as we are of Christ And now ye who say or shall say Tush all this is but vanity and folly we will not daine to take councel from you we are wiser then your selves we will not learn at you and yee but boast of things yee know not and we expect a glorious comfortable breaking up of the day of God in order to a more perfect and thorough reformation then as yet hath been among us but it shall never come to us through your airth we can never expect good of you for yee are but a pack of poor silly deluded brainsick fools therefore get yee from us we will none of your councel the day shall never dawn upon us if it rise not in another airth then yee tell us of To such I say Oh yee foolish and unwise how like are yee to the former generations who ever were enemies to the wisdom of God through their carnal earthly and devilish wisdom and to the Iewes of old who despised the son of God and crucified him the Lord of Glory whom at that very time they were expecting to come the promised Messiah and when he came they mistook him and received him not because of his weak lowly contemptible appearance to the carnal eye but such who had the eye of Faith saw the glory of the only begotten of God upon him thorough the vaile which covered him from the sight of others and he disappointed them in all their carnal expectations and they are yet looking for him and have looked these sixteen hundred years but have never seen him nor shall see him in the way they look for him as neither shall yee and your judgment shall be one with theirs you being shut forth into utter darkness and plagued with hardness of heart if yee do not speedily repent And now whether ye will hear or forbear this I do declare unto you in the name and power and authority of the living God the day of the Lord is of a truth broken up among us and ye shall look till your eyes fail you and rote within your eye-holes e're ever yee see another day or appearance of Jesus Christ to your comfort then what we the people of the Lord called Quakers do witness come and yet more abundantly coming and if yee will not hear my soul shall mourn for you in secret places and weep before the Lord on your behalf And yee who in the perverseness and obstinacy of your hearts gain-stand and oppose with all your might and power the appearance of Jesus Christ in this day and yet are calling for the day of the Lord To what purpose do yee call for it that I may use the Prophets words in the like case Wo unto you that desire the day of the Lord to what end is it for you the day of the Lord is darkness and not light as if a man did flee from a Lyon and a Bear met him or went unto the house and leaned his hand on the wall and a Serpent bit him shall not the day of Lord be darkness and not light even very dark and no brightness in it Writ about the beginning of the 11 Month in the year 1664. THE END ERRATA IN Page 5. line 38. for and read an p. 16. l. 39. f. live r. alive p. 17. l. 39. f. these r. those p. 20. l. 30. r. in the world p. 22. l. 37. f. this r. his p. 30. l. 4. f. Laâ—ely r. Layety p. 44. l. 35. f. ease r. case p. 60. l. 8. r. did arise p. 63. l. 38. f. one r. an p. 64. l. 21. f. an r. one p. 66. l. 4. f. hear r. heart p. 68. l. 29. f. their r. her
all your Idols of silver and gold all the wares and pleasant things of Babylon and the Jewels and ear-rings ye have of the Egiptians to wit the many Inventions that hath crept in in the night of Apostacy to the ensnaring and bewitching of your people and father nothing upon the Scriptures nor upon God but that which is purely of him and revealed unto you from the Spirit of truth opening and interpreting the Scriptures unto you which holy men of God did write from the Inspiration of his Spirit and can only be understood in and from a measure of the same and put not the name of the Ordinances of Jesus Christ upon Babylons brats which whoso taketh them and dasheth to pieces against the stones blessed shall they be And away with all the Wisdom of this World which God is a confounding and all consultings and reasonings with flesh and blood and judging or determining of things but in the wisdom and councel of God in the Revelation of the Spirit of truth in each particular let that be your rule in all things and ye shall walk surely and put away this dead life-less ignorant prophane scandalous Ministry own no Ministery but such who is taught of God speaks because he believes and ministers from the power and spirit of life and away with makeing any humane gifts or indowments of Learning which is but flesh and must die and wither the qualifications of a Minister and do not limit the Spirit of the Lord in chusing or refusing any for the work of the Ministry they are well fitted whom he enables though foolish and contemptible to the carnal eye and by these foolish weak and despicable things the Lord hath brought and is bringing great things to pass and away with your dead life-less worship praying and singing which comes not from the breathings and movings of the spirit of life from God and away with your mungrel Church patch'd up of the prophance rable of the World let such who fear God separate and come out from among them and disown them for fellow members of the body whereof Christ is the head and have no communion with them in their worship which is Idolatry and away with your sprinklings of Infants it s but of Babylon with many other things the Light of Christ as ye heed it will discover unto you which in the night of darkness hath passed for Gods ordinance but the day hath discovered them to have the Beasts mark and superscription and away with setting Bread and Wine before a prophane wicked multiude who hath nothing but the bare name of a Christian telling them its the Communion of the Body and Blood of Christ it 's abomination to God and away with the carnal false licentious unbounded liberty ye take to your selves in words diet apparel and worldly conversation mind the cross diligently and it will teach you the golden path of Mediocrity or Moderation in all things and away with all respecting of persons and the honour which comes not from God whose service is only to feed the lust of the eye the lust of the flesh and the pride of life and be willing and desirous to see the glory of the pride of all flesh stained and the Lord alone exalted honoured and glorified in and among the Children of men And away with all Uniformity which is not of the Lords Spirit and away with all force and constraint in the matter of Conscience and Religion and away with all carnal weapons either to defend or propagate the truth away with your Lording and mastering and monopolizing ministry who would limit the Spirit of the Lord and make a monopoly of the gifts of God away with your distinctions of Clergy and Laicks and superstitious Habits and attires for discriminating them and away with your set and alloted hires and maintenance for a Ministry and forcing of people to pay them which hath been a great snare unto many and hath lyen nigh all who from a principle of covetousness seeing thereby means of a livelihood hath intruded themselves into the ministerial Function and given poor people to believe they were called of God thereto whereas generally it is a thing well known they get into Parishes by worldly means they setting their friends and relations on work to sollicite and move the Patrons of the Parishes or such most concerned therein to give them entrance and when the thing is granted then he called the Minister steps up into a Pulpit and sayes thus to the people Beloved by the providence of God I am called to be your Pastor and a watch-man over you as one who must give an account for your souls in the day of judgement and the Lord knows it 's not any other principle but a vehement desire thorough love to your souls to teach and instruct you in the knowledge of God and to edifie you in the Faith that hath moved me to come among you and I have received a talent and I must improve it and the ability God hath given me to instruct you together with the great desire I have to use it for your edification I take for a sufficient call from God and I have also the Patrons and the most considerable in the Parish their call Whereas they make it manifestly appear that covetousness hath set them thereon for how soon any of their brethren dies so that another Parish becomes vacant which hath a greater stipend or maintenance they fall upon their first trade of solliciting for an entrance thereto and they stick not to quit the charge of their first Flock and to give their Wife to wit the Kirk which they say they are married to a Bill of divorce though oft-times there be no occasion on her part and it 's not the Patrons or people who hath called them but they first called them and when the people refuses to pay them their allotted hire they pursue them with horning and poinding which shews them to be far from the affection of husbands to their wives or parents to their children or Pastors to the Flock all which they pretend to be and were they good Pastors their Flock would afford them milk and wool not of constraint but willingly so that they needed not either squeeze the pap to the causing it bleed or tear the fleece off before the time of casting it to the pulling the skin in pieces many times and the ability they talk of is not of God but of men and it 's not God's free gift for it hath cost them both much money and time at Schools to purchase it and were it the talent of the Lord it would prove more effectual to the bettering of the people which it does not for at ten twenty thirty forty years end and upwards they are as bad as at the first coming among them and in many places much worse and the vehement desire to do the people good they tell of is but a suggestion of their deceitful