been short of this work as they were in whom the Child was unborn when he went away in the flesh and they knew not what Spirits they were of until he came again to them in Spirit and was revealed in them then could they preach the Resurrection of the dead and the Souls Redemption and desired to know him no more after the flesh when once they had received him in Spirit but Preached Christ within the Hope of Glory who till then looked for an outward kingdom and glory until they had received his promise He that dwelleth with you shall be in you I will not leave you comfortless I will come unto you the world seeth me no more but ye see me and because I live ye shall live also at that day ye shall know that I am in my Father and you in me and I in you And this was his promise whom they received whom the world seeth no more whose expectations are carnal neither can any see the Kingdom of Heaven but who are born of this Spirit and Heirs of this Life and he that hath the Son hath life and he that hath not the Son hath not life but the wrath of God abides upon him whatever he may say he believes and none hath the Son but as they receive this Spirit and are led by this Spirit and born thereof And this I found also that this Son of God doth not appear in any within or without but as he conforms them to his own Image which he hath alwayes born in this world as saith the Scripture When he shall appear we shall be like him who shall change our vile bodies and make them like his glorious body from glory to glory by the same Spirit And herein we have boldness in the day of Judgement because as he is so are we in this present world and this is not obtained with thoughts of believing without but by a lively working Power which works out the earthly image and nature and conforms to the heavenly in that spiritual birth which is not of flesh and blood nor could flesh and blood ever discern it in whom it was but ever hated it in whom it hath appeared in all ages Which is of a shining nature where it is begotten of the Father and cannot be hid where it is formed but by his fruits gives light to the world contrary to the worlds wayes showing of his coming to Judgement against the deeds of darkness And this heavenly begetting of the Father is to be holden forth in that clear Image of the Father according to every several measure as he grows therein without mixture that all may see that he is not of this world who also takes them out of this world as he grows in any or they in him forth of the world they must go bearing his reproach that the Scriptures may be fulfilled they are not of this world even as I am not of this world and this is the worlds light and condemnation even his coming And so I find that Faith which joyns to the world where it is and doth not overcome the world is not the faith of Christ nor layes hold on the Power of Christ though Faith may believe the History of the Scriptures concerning Christ which faith sets not up the Kingdom of God in the heart and casts out the world there that faith saves not the Soul from the pollution of the world through lust and so is but a conceit of Salvation and not the Power of Salvation as saith the Scriptures Whosoever is born of God overcometh the world and this is the victory that overcometh the world even your Faith and the faith which works not thus is like a body without a spirit which is dead But the living Faith that stands in Christ Jesus that Spirit purifies the heart and Conscience and makes toward God in Christ the example in all good things overcoming what ever would let the appearance of Christ in his temple or hinder the bringing forth his vertues which is believed to be in him to the utmost of what ever he hath received of the Father for such believers who believes not in a lye but in the Truth and Power of God as it is in Christ Jesus and hath been declared in Scriptures not for a discourse but for an inheritance of life of whose fulness we all receive according to our Faith till his coming and we be compleat in him and he in us and so not come short of the Glory of God the end of our Faith and Conversation that to the world he may be manifest in life and power to be the same that ever he hath been though he have appeared in several forms in the flesh yet one in Spirit to make up a compleat body And therefore we find those who were of this Faith witnessed Christ present which the worlds faith could never receive under any form or profession but counted it blasphemy and that spirit the spirit of the Devil And so Isaiah witnessed this Child born to them that so believed in his time who was the mighty God the everlasting Father c. whose Name they knew to be Immanuel and this was before he appeared in that Temple at Jerusalem and Ezekiel was called the Son of man before that time also and Paul said he was revealed in him and spoke in him and wrought in him and in his flesh that which was behind of the afflictions of Christ was to be filled up for his bodies sake which is the Church and to whom he forgave any thing in his time he forgave it in the person of Christ and many more might be noted who confessed the same Christ in them present both before and after his time at Jerusalem which Testimony could never be received by the wisdom of the world in his Temples before nor then nor since to this day for the god of this world being King in the heart and having blinded the eye of the mind that should see his spiritual Glory through the light of the Gospel he perswades the world that he is either past or to come but never present and as many as are brought to confess him before men find it so at this day who are hated of all men for his Names sake that the Scriptures may be fulfilled and his Testimony finished And this Faith which confesseth him present is that which the world cannot bear nor receive who will preach him themselves at a distance what he was and will be but this faith cannot reach his coming at present in any measure to grow to his appearance now nor will this faith ever give an entrance into his Kingdom upon earth nor the holy rest nor is this the Faith of Christ that puts him thus afar off which fills with all the fulness of God And by what I have learned this is clear to me for ever without any more Controversie That the faith that admits of sin is not Christs Faith nor hath
into lacivious liberty And thus have I learned in the light of the world that in my turning towards him at his reproof when I knew him not and believing in his light whom I had not seen I found that Faith given which did declare the righteousness of God in him wherein he perfectly walked upon earth both in doing and suffering which being turned towards I found the propitiation that God had sent forth through faith in his blood to declare his righteousness for the remitting of my sins past that God might be just who could not have past by my sins past had he not accepted his sufferings nor I have had liberty from sin past to have followed him nor could I have been accepted therein but in the faith and hope of the same righteousness so God was full in justifying and his forbearance magnified towards me therein and in turning to this righteousness of his declared in the light of faith and hope my face was set towards Gods righteousness in Christ Jesus to be attained for life and salvation for time to come to walk in and so being turned towards God all my sins past was behind me and Gods righteousness before me and so from henceforth was I to be found in Gods righteousness walking in a measure of it and in the faith and hope of the fulness of Christ and attainment of God for mine inheritance And this great Redemption I found in Christ Jesus at that day was in such things as these following As first his calling of me with his light his holding forth to me his life and suffering which was so holy that I could not but confesse to them his turning me towards the same in hope thereof by believing his begetting a mind in me towards that same life and the increase of his light that way to lead me and the setting of me free from the wrath of God for all my sins of ignorance past which else had laid upon me as a weight or chain binding me that I could not have walked the way of his light c. But I do not say that if I turned to commit sin again that that sin was cast behind my back also I learned otherwise I found that sin then before my face greater then the rest and stood in my way to God and stopt me from following his light or growing in his life that I could no way escape it but by repenting of it and receiving the just sentence of condemnation in my self and bearing his indignation till he that wounded me for it healed me again which I never found but as I turned from the evil with my whole heart and accepted the punishment till the Advocate did arise to interced whose blood I had trampled on and whose precious life I had pierced and his holy Spirit grieved by turning away from his leadings Nor do I say that all my sins which formerly I had committed of which I had been convinced by the light of the world when I was in the world before I believed it to be sufficient that they was wholly taken away as my sins of ignorance was for this I found that God in this was just and merciful merciful in that he did not lay them all at once before me least they should have prest me down that I could not have followed the light nor gotten any strength but must needs have perished under them had he not spared And just I have found him also for as they were not committed all at once against the light of his Spirit so he hath at one time or other visited for them and laid them before me yet not all at once nor no way so heavy as those committed after I believed and gave up my self to follow the light and yet to an account he hath brought me for them And coming to feel the terrours of God I have learned to fear and love and have found the ground and rise and deceits of that Faith that believes Christ to have taken away the sins of believers past present and to come with which many at this day make merry over the witness of God and the just slain in them and that Scripture I have learned without a meaning if we sin wilfully after we have received the knowledge of the Truth there remains no more sacrifice for sin but a certain fearful looking for of judgement and fiery indignation to devour the adversary though none know how but he that comes to it in the fulfilling and then shall be seen he that 's born of God sins not and he that believes is born of God but he that sins turns his back both on the Faith and birth that 's towards Christ and becomes adverse thereunto in his work what ever he sayes he believes and this I have found an everlasting truth what ever men believe or imagine that no longer then a man keeps his face towards the light of God no longer is his sins cast behind his back whether they be sins past present or to come but if he turn from Gods righteousness his own iniquities will rise and meet him both new and old and in vain doth such believe they are then blotted out of Gods sight whose oye shewes him his way in which he then walks and condemns him for it in his own heart Nor was the ground and root of sin-removed so soon as my mind was turned by the light from sin towards God but the motions thereof I found and the lust seeking to go forth to its objects to bring in to conceive sin again afresh That ground was but removed as I grew in Christ and he in me and as I came to learn him that was in the beginning before sin was who was learned in faithful following and serving of his Spirit in watching in Fastings in Prayers and in all spiritual wrestlings as I came to be led into with the light in which Warfare I came to see the hardship of him that will be a souldier of Christ Jesus and the baptisms into his death the slothful servant and the faithful and their reward and the Parables and figures of the Kingdom opened as that Spirit grew in me which interprets the Scriptures in the life and opens the sealed mysteries thereof in their season as they come to be fulfilled and so I came to the gift of the Scriptures by inspiration which onely profits to the perfecting of the man of God which the man of this world not having learned wrests to his own destruction getting the words of them in the earthly part before they be fulfilled in his heart through the Spirit and such receive them not by inspiration nor the gift of the Holy Ghost And in this journey I have seen the slothful servant overtaken with a fault which he had once cast behind him and never intended to joyn to again of which the diligent servant is kept free and I have seen the wages of each servant according to his diligence in that
also in power to suffer for his Name long and hard Tryals with much patience and meekness in all which they became signs to the world and lively witnesses of God to his own in every Conscience whereby the Seed of God in many gathered strength to arise out of darkness and come to Judgement and by their sufferings waxed confident in the Faith that it was the eternal God that they had seen preached and that was in them who thus suffered and did not receive their words as the words of men but of God who was with them and in them in all And this his Way was not onely to receive such as came to him but with danger of life went in to their Assemblies and publick places to bring them out of the claws of the Devil who beat some in their Synagogues hailed some before Rulers cast some into Prison who suffered great afflictions to bring souls from under this dark power and in all this God was afflicted with them and by his own Spirit brought them out and this was his way of ransoming and redeeming and of bringing to Zion as you may read of old and thus by his Spirit and by his working in them did he work wonders and signes and was a witnesse against the whole Body of sin overturning false wayes and worships by a way they knew not nor did the World know it was he until he had brought to pass his work upon them having thus gathered out his Seed from amongst them who then sought to stop his way as you do at this day and what was their end And in this way was the Churches of Christ gathered even by blood and sufferings and tumults and beatings and mockings and whipings and all manner of cruel usage fighting with beasts after the manner of men and by the patient sufferings of Christ in them were many recovered out of the snares of the Devil which had he not sought them in this way they had lived and died in blindnesse and this was the way in which God gathered the Churches which you who oppose this way would imitate and in this way was the mistery of Godlinesse and the mistery of iniquity revealed and the Kingdom of Christ known upon earth and in this way came the Scriptures of the Apostles and Prophets of which you talk and would turn to oppose this way like them who read his coming in the Prophets and would have stopt his coming in Christ and the Apostles so do you ever resist the way of the Holy One and yet in words you pray for his coming but having erred in your hearts from that light which should give the knowledge of him you know not his wayes but have in your imaginations set a new way for his appearance every one in his own form but all think you are doing him service to stop his old way by force Ah foolish people and full of wit will you call on him to come to judgement and stop his way with cruelty is not the day of the Lord darkness to you who deny the light Gods wayes are not yours nor his thoughts yours who are vain therein will you hedge up his way against him will you set Briars and Thorns before him and shall not the light of Israel kindle a fire amongst you shall not he go through and tread you down and with your own tear you as a Lyon from whom none shall deliver Was it not thus with Israel when they builded Temples and increased their Altars and multiplied their Sacrifices and what was the end was it not all to sin for thereby they strengthened themselves against the way of the Lord in his Prophets and blessed themselves in their worships said no evil should come upon them for they made many prayers but their hands were full of blood for the best of them were become as a Bryar in the way of the Innocent and the most upright as a Thron-hedge in the way of his Servants in whom he appeard against their back-sliding evils and false worships but they were not so to their own Teachers for them they fed fat and gave gifts rewards and hire to them so having got Prophets of their own in their way then they joyned together and one cryed peace to another and when God came to break that peace in his way and to tell them it was not his peace then they all joyned to hedge him out and made a wall against him of their own righteousnesse which they daubed up with their increase of Sacrifices and false worships so they said they were innocent people said so and Priest and Prophets and Rulers said so for they had trimed their own wayes so they said they should have peace and he that told them truth then became their troubler So having covered themselves with this garment they could shed Innocent blood boldly which was found in the skirts thereof not by secret search and what became of all this did their own wayes save them in the end did not innocent blood out-cry the multitude of their Altars till there was no remedy so he beame their enemy whom they called their Redeemer So now read your wayes at this day and measure them in Truth and see what it is you are hedging out who it is and what is his message against and what is his manner of coming and your manner of opposing that so if it were possible you might come to see a glimps of the old way and of your own work is it not he that comes to cry out against that which is wicked in your streets and false in your worships that 's become your enemy and breaks your peace whom your hedge cannot stop nor your wall keep out how many bryars and Thorns are set against him at this day to take hold of him if he do but open his mouth in your streets what Law new and old there is to make him an offender for a word in your Temples how is he beat in your Synagogues haled before Rulers and cast into Prisons how is the Scriptures fulfilled upon you and his witnesse doubled against you manifold over above all your forefathers of whom you read and yet you say you are innocent you are no persecutors but for liberty of Conscience they were persecutors that so used him in the Prophets and in the Apostles and in Queen Maries dayes that so used Martyrs c. but cannot see your work of the same nature which Queen Maries Laws are far too short for you to accomplish but with many additions thereto are you in much fury driving on to destruction yet having trimed your own way say you we are Christians and have a Gospel Ministry of godly men c. But what Christians did ever Christians count it a breach of their Peace to reprove sin in the Gate or where ever it is committed did Christians ever cast into prison or count it disorder to dispute in their Synagogues in the time of their
had them and the Lord was at their Table and they fed with him in his sufferings and blood and the rest made a large Profession of him but fed at the table of Devils and these grew great in violence and strong to devour and shed blood and the other excelled in meekness and patient in suffering and here were they separated into life and death never like to meet more And here now may all read the worship in spirit in such as know God in spirit and the worship in Letter in them that have not God know not what they worship and these know not what they do who know not what they worship and the Son of God faith Father forgive them they know not what they do who saith they worship they know not what who worship not in spirit who worship in their thoughts of God but not the Spirit of God in possession and knowledge who think they do God service to kill and destroy the Temple of God because they know not him in themselves that is worshipped therein as Christ hath foretold and must be fulfilled at the coming of the Holy Ghost And when God descends from heaven to walk on Earth in his Temples and to require his worship to himself out of all Sects and traditions this is his entertainment from all that look for him in observations whose coming is within and his Kingdom is within you And now to you he is come of whom you have been long talking and in that way he appears among you of which you are Preaching The Jews had but the prophesies and shadows to know him by reading without them but you read and Preach in words of the lively pattern in spirit and have heard of the same Life and Testimony which now he bears against you in his Temples and when he comes you cannot receive him who suffers the same things among you Oh England how wilt thou stand in judgement what wilt thou plead for thy selfe when he arises to judgement whose Testimony against thee is drawing to an end what will be thy excuse and who wilt thou say thou took him to be who now endures such contradiction against himself such haling beatings scourgings and mockings and banishings imprisonings and death without resistings hast not thou heard of him before he came that thou might have known in this thy day the things of thy peace hast thou not read of him that is sent to seek his lost in Temples Synagogues in Markets and where the greatest of the people be in which manner he now appears being refused of the rich gathers the poor in the high wayes and hedges yet hath no where to lay his own head hast thou not heard of the everlasting way of his walkings in Prophets and Apostles his pilgrimage in their bodies upon earth who was ever a stranger in the world at his coming from heaven what spirit wilt thou say this is which hath conformed so many at this day who was amongst you like wolves to devour others now to suffer the spoiling of their goods and torturings of their bodies and taking away their lives without seeking the least revenge wilt thou at that day say thou had thought it had been the spirit of the Devil as many of you now doth though in your consciences otherwise convinced Alas for thee how art thou wept over at this day And what a lamentable sorrow hath many of the Lords servants for thee whom thou hast cast in holes and prisons for their obedience to God and testimony of their conscience towards God in them whose patient sufferings and unparaleld cruelties are no more valued with thee then if they were dogs and this hath gone throughout thee from the least to the greatest till there be very few left which are not wholly hardned so that to hear of these evil dealings exercised upon the innocent doth no more enter your hearts then the rain enters a rock wherefore our souls are troubled for you and our hopes concerning your healing grows dayly less and our sufferings in the Lord Jesus dayly greater hasting to the full and what will you do in the end thereof Or whom shall we take to witness for you or may you be compared with any that ever hardned themselves in these wayes and escaped destruction that our hopes might revive and our prayers not cease did ever any thus deny the life of what yon Preach in words your selves and which some of you have in measure felt and suffered for and have been answered in by the Lord and your eyes have seen the vengeance of the Almighty and how dreadful it hath been both upon Kings Priests and Rulers for resisting Ah how much better had it been for you never to have known these things which you have seen read and Preached then now that they should be fulfilled upon you to the uttermost how well had it been for you had you been as those you call heathen rather then to Profess Christ and thus act against him at his coming even in the same way your selves Preach him Alas alas what hath the innocent done why he thus is used among you doth he cry against sin against pride against false worships against corrupt Rulers corrupt Teachers corrupt Lawyers c. And with much meekness bears his witness against these evils in you for a testimony of light to your words whom he hath lifted up in wrath and zeal and judgement against the same things in the persons of others and will not this arise against you of which you are witnesses all in one generation But say thou he breaks the peace and breaks our Law and is unmannerly c. But was he not ever so accounted and is he not now in the same way he ever walked what would that peace do for you could you keep it whole which is broken by reproving sin and deceit Is there any peace to the wicked from God will be keep that Law which will not give him liberty to Reign in his Temples and to lead his people by his Spirit or will you plead that Law against him in judgement when he comes to deal with you who should know his Law written in your hearts to limit you and not your Laws to limit him nor your manners must not bind the conscience where he is known to be King and this you know is truth and have pleaded it against others and now cannot own it will not the Laws of Christ and the manners of Christ of which you read in Scripture agree with your Government and peace who calls for his Kingdom to come amongst you and profess to rule according to Scriptures how will this stand at that day when you must not be your own Judges nor by your own Laws And why is he counted your enemy seeing his appearance now is in love to give you light out of this for your Eternal salvation against which he will certainly come in Judgement to
condemnation Have you not heard of the love of the Father to the world who sends his Son to lay down his Life therein for a light to the world that whosoever believeth therein might not be condemned can you read and confess this life laid down in the Prophets in Christ in the Apostles in the Martyrs and in all in whom this righteous blood hath been shed from Abel to your time and can you not say they were blind Priest and People who could not see this innocent sufferer in his several appearances And what will you say of your selves seeing the same testimony is before your eyes but not received was ever his sufferings so increased in so little a time and for such little foolish things as your selves calls them which though they seem little yet much innocent blood hath been shed and this life is laid down dayly in many And why should you count that so little which your brethren count dearer then their precious life Is there any thing makes it so but the tenderness of the one and hardness of the other But say you they are guilty of their own blood to suffer for such foolish things but who is their executioners do not you suffer fools dayly they shall witness against you that there is something in it more then folly have you not read that God chuseth the foolish things of the world to confound the wise and base despised things to bring to nought things that are and weak things to confound the mighty and can you read and Preach this and not see it fulfilled nor understand without a meaning then take heed how you call that foolish which God hath chosen to lay down his life in for a witness against the murtherer in the wise men of the world will you call that foolishness whereby the mysteries of God comes to be manifest and that which he hath chosen to declare himself in openly in his Temples and his worship his service and his suffering long in meekness and the Devil in his Temples with his servants his pride his rashness and cruelty and to lay each open to the simplest heart by their fruits which have been long covered with words but now every one that knowes a Wolfe from a Lamb may see and cannot be deceived will you call this little which discovers so great a depth of deceit so closely hid and opens the painted Sepulchres and searches the heart of the deceitful laying it open to your selves and others which else you could not have known nor believed if you were told it could many of you have believed the prince of pride had ruled in you til you see him act you in cruelty on your brethren because they cannot worship you or could you have believed that the murtherer had been there till you proceed to cast into prisons your brethren keep them there till death for these little things And these things some suffer under you for a witness and the rest are spared though that spirit would have none to live that the Scriptures may be fulfilled Satan shal cast some of you into prison c. And are not these things manifestly laid open to your selves and all that are not willingly blind and also the contrary Spirit of Christ Jesus where these things are patiently endured And will you call this foolishness which thus leaves all the world without excuse and prepares all for righteous Judgement many had little thought these little things should have opened such great secrets or this folly have confounded such wisdom when a subtle spirit hath been some years getting knowledge and words and Religion to make himself fair without that others may believe him to be a suffering Saint and one of these little things arises in his way which discover him to be a devouring Wolfe in a moment may not the wise then truely say the weakness of God is greater then the wisdom of men and God hath chosen foolish things to confound the wise And now the Scripture is fulfilled to your face whether you seeing can perceive or no and the rock of offence is laid and the stone of stumbling though he be refused And he is come whom we have looked for in the thousands of his Saints and the head over his Church and his body he is preparing dayly that the Fathers will may be done in Earth and that he may take vengeance of them that know him not nor will receive his testimony who will not believe his light that now shineth but take pleasure in unrighteousness though he be come after their own Preaching and many are his witnesses at his day glory to his brightness and let the Son arise and Reign for ever in whom alone the Scriptures are now fulfilling and the builders reject him and the wicked make prey upon him where he turns from iniquity and the spoiling of goods is suffered joyfully and the havock is made of the Church and he is taken from prison and from Judgement and the reproach of many he bears and the back is given to the smiter and he that sues at the Law for the coat may take the Cloak also he that would have the Hat take the head and body also without resisting and prayers and tears is shed for them that hate and despitefully use him and goods are taken away and not asked again this is our beloved and this is his voice and his sheep knows it and follows him and thus it is written of him and thus it is now read and glory to him that liveth and Reigneth for ever who was and is and is come TO THE RANTERS WO unto you Ranters of all sorts the day of your torment approacheth your cup is almost full your time draws near an end you are fed you are grown full for the slaughter your swelling is reached up to Heaven and the burthen of the Innocent Just one in you cries on high above all people you have dealth evil with the Lord and treacherously betrayed the tender proffer of his Spirit you have murthered the babe in the womb and he hath not resisted but intreated How many gentle reproofs hath he visited you with And with what Love and Faithfulnesse hath he followed you from one of your evils to another calling to you in secret in season and out of season before the act of your wickednesse in the act of it and after you have done it If by any means he might have overtaken you and prevented your ruine and won you again that he might have done you good and saved you from the paths of the Destroyer all wch is written where it cannot be rooted out against the day of vengeance although you have done what you can to stop the mouth of Gods witnesse in you and to stifle the Just least he should reprove you or give you light in your dark by-paths wherein you have walked towards the Lord as wilde Colts and fed Horses refusing his teachings or corrections