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A36213
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An epistle of love and good advice to my old friends & fellow-sufferers in the late times, the old royalists and their posterity and to all others that have any sincere desires towards God.
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Docwra, Anne, 1624-1710.
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1683
(1683)
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Wing D1778; ESTC R17010
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7,092
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14
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AN Epistle of Love AND Good Advice To my Old Friends Fellow-Sufferers in the Late TIMES The Old Royalists And their Posterity And to all others that have any sincere Desires towards GOD. There was a Man sent from God whose Name was John the same came to be a witness to hear witness of the Light John 1. 6 7 8 9. My Friends ALL you that lay under the Lash of the late Times I cannot forget our Sufferings nor the Mercies of God to us but must needs put you in mind to be weighty and serious in improving your Deliverance to better ends than many of you have done hitherto that ye may come to know the things belonging to your Peace before they be hidden from your Eyes that whatsoever happen ye may be fitted and prepared for it so that ye may escape the Snares of the old Enemy of Mankind who is profound in Subtilty and hath his Agents about in all places to promote his Kingdom of Darkness and Delusions which are discovered only by the true Light that enlightneth every man that cometh into the World which shineth into the Heart of man to give him the Knowledge of God for as the outward Sun in the Firmament is not to be seen but by its own Light that shines from it so God that is a supernatural inward Light is not to be seen or known but by his own Light that shines into the dark Heart of Man that is gone out from him into the fallen state and as you do watch and wait for this Light you will see your Redemption and will be fenced from the Power of this crooked Serpent and his jealous Whisperings and detracting Insinuations that have made all the Broyls in this Nation from time to time to this very day and mostly upon the account of Religion Happy had it been for this Nation if Religion so often pretended to had been real without any mixture of mans Invention but God that saw that Men were not fitted and prepared for it through their own neglect and carelesness in not being faithful to what they knew was their Duty towards him and their Neighbours upon this account hath the Lord with-held this great Blessing from many of the great Pretenders and Sticklers in matters of Religion as well as others so as they have missed of the real and Spiritual Knowledge of this Ministration of the glorious Gospel of our Lord Saviour Iesus Christ which is Peace on Earth Good Will towards men this is truly preached by some both in their Doctrine Lives and Conversations in this day spring of divine Light and Love which hath appeared in a large measure to all those that have been faithful to what they knew of God in their own Hearts and Consciences whose Hearts are tender and brought low before him and have given up all their Concerns to him and can part with all for him These I say are the Plants of Renown and no others neither can any come to be grafted into this Stock by any outward Rule or Observation of mans contrivance the divine Vertue must be in our selves it is not in the Power of Man to put it into us it is the Gift of God in our own Hearts that inward Principle that leads to the divine Life which is the blessed Grace of God that bringeth Salvation which hath appeared to all men as saith the Scriptures and those that are taught by it they do deny all Ungodliness and worldly Lusts and do live Soberly Godlily and Righteously in this present World these are they that are brought out of the Vanities and Deceits thereof and have received the Anointing that teacheth them of all things so as they need no man to teach them But how this will relish with those that keep People alwayes in teaching that they may alwayes be paying them I know not neither am I concerned for that the Gift of God in our own Hearts is not to be denyed nor concealed this Gift is given to all mankind even to the Rebellious that the Lord may dwell amongst them as saith the Psalmist it shows to man his Rebellion against God and exhorts him to come out of it it teacheth Humility of Mind and all other Moral Heroick and Divine Vertues This Light Power and Spirit of the Lord God is tendred to all mankind as well Women as Men if they do wait in Faith and Patience to receive it this may be easily proved first by the believing Woman of Samaria that carried the Tidings of the Messiah to the Samaritans whereby many of them were converted And also after the Resurrection of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ he appeared first to two Women and sent them to carry the Glad-tidings of his Resurrection to his Disciples The Apostle Peter in the Acts preached out of the Prophet Ioel to those People that said the Apostles were drunk with new Wine and shewed them their mistake that they were not drunk as they supposed but it was that which was spoken of by the Prophet That should come to pass in the latter dayes saith God that I will pour out of my Spirit upon all Flesh your Sons and your Daughters shall prophesie and on my Servants and on my Hand-maids will I pour out of my Spirit and they shall prophesie This hath confirmed that saying of the Apostle Paul That there is neither Jew nor Greek Bond nor Free Male nor Female but are all one in Christ And the same Apostle in one of his Epistles to the Corinthians speaks concerning Womens Service in the Church both of Praying and Prophecying and in some other places in the Scripture he forbids some Womens teaching and usurping Authority over the Man all which do no ways obstruct nor contradict what is formerly declared concerning such Women as have received Power from God to Pray Prophecy or declare the Glad-tidings of the Light of the Glorious Gospel of Christ Jesus Much more might be said in this case which I do forbear this being sufficient The Protestant Religion forbids expounding one place of Scripture to make it repugnant to another see that remarkable Article of the Church of England called the Twentieth Article It is the Subtilty of the Serpent to expound one place of Scripture to make it repugnant to another to uphold such Formalities as he can creep into although the Scriptures of Truth be all an equal Truth yet they are not all of an equal weight the Substance declared therein is of more weight than the Forms and Circumstances thereof Our Lord Jesus Christ the God of glory hath visited People under several Forms and hath left them again desolate and empty of his presence when their Forms come once to be admired or adored then they are no better than an Idol and a cover for Hypocrites Also this I have seen in my time of understanding things of this nature which is above forty Years although the Lord Christ hath
appeared to People in several Forms yet he dyed to end Shadows and Typical Forms our great concerns are to be conformable to his Death that we may be partakers of his Resurrection It is usual with the Serpent to creep into Forms but he cannot creep into this true Conformity there is no Harbour for him in the Cross he is not willing that any should take up the Cross and become a true Disciple of Christ Jesus It is the Seed of the Woman that bruises the Serpents Head I pray mark that for wheresoever this Seed is sown either in Man or Woman that is sown upon the good Ground it will bring forth its Increase according as is declared in the Scriptures of Truth and is there called the least of Seeds and is the Day of small things which many have despised for that which they have accounted to be greater Injoyments which are but as the glory of the World which the Devil the God of the World hath shown them who tempts Man and Woman at this day as he did our Saviour in the dayes of his Flesh when he shewed him all the Kingdoms of the World and the glory of them and as these pretended Gifts of the god of the World are received they blind the mind of Man and Woman lest they should believe in the Light of the glorious Gospel of Christ who is the Image of God or that it should shine into them this is that inward Principle of the divine Light and Life which is given of God to man and woman to be their Guide to bring them out of their fallen state that the Work of the Devil may be destroyed in them which is Pride Vain Glory Covetous Minds and Corrupt Manners feigned and contrived Religion which is Hypocrisie all which this Nation is much poysoned withal And further I shall add this that the Lord is opening the Store-house of his divine Treasures of Wisdom and Knowledge to all those that do sincerely wait in silence that their Minds may be made empty of all Imagination whereby they may be fitted and prepared to receive that inward Principle of Gods love to mankind in all Humility and Resignation to him that his divine Power and precious Grace may be their Teacher to lead them out of their outward Observations into that inward Principle of the divine Life whereby all Gods Children do govern their Actions O that ye may all come to this to dwell with God and he with you as it is written by that Evangelical Prophet Isaiah Thus saith the high and holy One that inhabits Eternity whose Name is Holy I dwell in that High and Holy Place with him also that is of a Contrite and Humble Spirit To revive the Spirit of the Humble and to revive the Heart of the Concrite One this is that that all will desire at one time or other and That they may dye the Death of the Righteous also Ay! but this will not serve your turns you must come to live the life of the Righteous first which is To order your Conversations aright and then you will see the Salvation of God and ye will then see the destruction of the Lusts of the Flesh the Lusts of the Eyes and the Pride of Life and whatsoever is contrary to God By the work of God in your own Hearts and by his inward and spiritual Grace Sin will be mortified in you and ye will be brought into a serious Consideration and heavenly Contemplation of the Beauty and Glory of a Coelestial Life that ye may be fixed Stars in the Kingdom of God forever All you that are like the Noble Bereans that are diligent Inquirers of this Age I shall leave you to search the Scriptures and see if these things be not true for this is written in true Love to all but more especially to awaken those that are asleep in their mistaken Judgment and led away by the dreaming Conceits of Imagination These are they that have taken up a Religion upon Trust upon the Credit and Relation of the Sons of Tradition whose Faith Doctrine and Discipline are the Commandments of Men making a Money-Trade of Religion and Persecuting such as do not conform to it Some of these have publickly declared themselves to be neither Papists nor Protestants but true Sons of the Church of England I desire you in all love to examine how far she is degenerate from her first Principle it may be easily discovered if you understand Bishop Iewel 's Apology for the Church of England and also the Principle and Practices of both these and the late Times which differ not much in the ground I have no Enmity in my Heart against any Person or People but desire the good of all men and that ye may be truly informed and also to remember this Saying of the Wise Man Faithful are the Wounds of a Friend but the Kisses of an Enemy are deceitful My aim is that ye may understand me as I am and not otherwise not accounting me Worldly Wise but honest in dealing so plainly with you at this day when the Ruin of the Dissenters from the Church of England is threatned I my self being one of them and also that the Projectors of Self-Interest amongst you have gotten more Power to destroy than Honesty to preserve our Protestant-Interest But to return to my purpose which only concerns the ground of True Religion The Faith unfeigned which is the Gift of God only and not at mans disposing this was confessed by the Apostle Paul when he said Not for that we have Dominion over your Faith but as Helpers of your Ioy for by Faith you stand True Faith being the substnce of things hoped for the Evidence of things not seen it comes from God and leads up to God again and hath nothing of mans contrivance in it Therefore let all cease from imposing Faith and Worship towards God upon his People and let God alone to be King and Law-giver in mens Consciences in matters of Faith and Worship towards him unto whom alone it belongeth whose right it is to reign there in the heavenly Dominion which gives Victory over Death Hell and the Grave they that do otherways do but lead men out from God into Man's Contrivances from that inward Principle of the divine Life that God hath put in their Hearts and Consciences to be the Guide of all Mankind and is the only Infallible Way for them to trust to for this brings them out of the Pride Vanity and Deceits of the World the other keeps them in them so that few of them come to the true Knowledge of God but continue in following the Devices and Desires of their own hearts offending Gods holy Laws until they lay down their heads in everlasting Sorrow And thus is the Creation of God destroyed by the craft and subtilty of those blind Guides that see not beyond their own worldly Interest and profit but if men would