it was unexpected by me onely the Lord would have it so and therfore all your care must serve the Lords designes to bring it to my hand when my husband was not in town doe not therefore look upon me but look to the Lord use me as kindly as Job did his servant reject not my cause for surely it is not mine I leave you to the Lord whom I desire rightly to guide you in this thing and am Your sincere loving Sister and servant from the greatest to the meanest of you T. P. Abington 26. March 1649. 26. Letter Deare Friend ENgagements from a true principle are not easily dislolved and while we hold the head we cannot let goe the members I have considered you in the union of life and truth from whence flow my unfeigned respects to you and wherein consists the true enjoyment of your self Vanity of vanity interposeth between God and us while we are below and vexeth our unquiet spirits seeking contentment in earthly relations we wander too and fro and return empty but when we close with the divine will our distractions are composed the commotions of our distempred hearts are all sweetly silenced Friend when you have in the spirit ascended farre above all heavens when you are above all even that God hath made and for a time also ordained you to use then may you and then will you be able to descend into the lowest parts of the earth and from thence again rise to the highest glory Then will you have a true sweet and comfortable use of the meanest condition in the world out of which you shall mount to the clearest enjoyment of the greatest happinesse and by a continuall intercourse between heaven and earth you will at last come to inherit the utmost large and full extent of the Lords dominions If you were confined to that heaven onely as it hath been received in the generall notion you would be streightned in your borders and be deprived of part of your portion and possession for the earth as well as the heaven is filled with the glory of God from which if you were excluded you must necessarily want that peice of your right whereof you were made an heiresse When the ladder of our eternall union is set between Heaven and Earth between the divine and humane nature then may we both ascend and descend one as freely as the other our heavenly state will not disdain our earthly nor our earthly hinder our heavenly the true Angelicall life hath sweet communion with God in both Trouble afflictions and crosses in the world will administer consolation and be all your servants helpers of your joy God will be all Union unto him cannot be divided the wings of the morning are not swift enough to outflie him the utmost parts of the earth the farthest distance of sense the broad Sea the greatest confusion of minde the wide wildernesse the most solitary sadnesse of heart cannot hide from his presence Nay if you goe downe into the Hell of horrour your Ioule shall not be left there his right hand of power and spirit of holinesse will raise you up againe I have endeavoured to discharge my respects to you in these short and sudden lines being now hindred from enlarging by the courtesie and visites of my friends My respects of love presented I am Your servant in Truth Aug. 20. 1649. Copiâ— haec mut at â—â— mutandis typis mandetur 27. Letter To I. I. DEARE and loving Friend whom I desire to own and to be one with in the fellowship of the Father and the Son in one eternall invisible and ever-ruling Spirit in and with which Spirit we are to walk live abide in after we are made one with it which is and must bee an inward true and invisible walking and according to an inward true and invisible rule and not after an outward and worldly manner as the worldlings doe For my Kingdome is not of this world saith Christ my Kingdome is not of observation and worldly rudiments for it is within you that consists not in any outward rule or practise all the true rules and directions of the Spirit is within it is visible the truth of all things is within the outward is not the truth but an Image of the truth therefore to walke in outward forms or ordinances is but to walke in an Image and not in the truth it selfe but to walke in the truth is to walke in the spirit and if in the spirit then in God for God is a spirit and hee is the truth of the spirit and he that will be one with God must bee one with him in the spirit and in truth as it is essentiall in God or else there can be no perfection and then no true walking with God to be one with God is to be nothing ones selfe and to walk with God is to walke out of ones selfe Enoch walked with God and was not for God tooke him he was not that is hee was not himselfe No man can walke with God while he is himselfe a man as man cannot be said to walke with God he may walke with man but not with God nothing can be said to walke with God but what is one in and with God and therefore must bee as God for none can walke with God but God No man hath seen the Father but the Sonne hee that ascended is the same that descended no man hath nor never shall see the Father but the Sonne Then none can be said to walke with God but Jesus Christ who is God And this walking is invisible that is a communion of spirit in man one man may have communion with another as man but none can have communion with God but God light cannot have communion with darknesse nor darknesse with light but light hath communion with it selfe Therefore that we are in the light let us walk as Children of the light and not as the Children of darknesse But you will say Doe wee not walke with God in Ordinances I answer that ordinances are not light truth nor spirit and therefore wee cannot walke with God in them wee cannot walke with God in any thing but in the light in the truth and in the spirit nor none can walke with God in these things but the divine spirit or inward man which is of God and one with God to walke with and in God is to walke in the truth and ordinances you cannot say are the truth no more then you can say the scripture is the truth but if you will make it truth you must make it God for there is but one truth and that is God One God and Father of all one Lord one Faith and one Baptisme and all but one God and one truth God as he is in the word Christ Jesus is the truth and if we have heard of him and been taught by him as the truth is in Jesus then shall wee say that the scripture is not truth but
therewith Mrs. M. kind token which before my opening I had thought had beene some Book Her remembrance of me doth much refresh me and she is made therein an instrument of making me partaker of much of the love and goodnesse of God I had beene in some sad but yet withall sweet thoughts but just before they came o me when they came I said these are to wipe away teares from mine eyes and that love that sent them assuredly will Sir I pray you remember me to her and thanke her and if I may come with good company to her I shall be glad to give her a visit when I come to London that is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ for there is our fellowship without whom 't is a dry feast and a fruitlesse visit neverthelesse I shall I trust be willing to be seen of her barren or as I am bee it however for wee neither stand nor fall to our present abillities or actings Sir For your desire of something to bee written touching the first and second appearance of Christ I wish I were but fresh to give you my thoughts I had thereof this morning but after twice preaching this day and now after supper I am more disposed to sleep then write Your inquiry is after two things the difference between them and the trasition or passing over of Christians from the one to the other For the first It shall only acquaint you with some places of scripture which to me doe seeme to hold forth the difference between these two and they are 1 Pet. 1. 5 11 13. Rom. 6. 5. Heb. 9. 28. by which scriptures it may appeare that the first appearance of Christ is unto Faith The second is unto Salvation In the first he is made our sinne his second is without sin our fellowship with him in the first is called Planting in the likenesse of his death our fellowship with him in the latter is called Planting in the likenesse of his resurrection The first is called sufferings the sufferings of Christ ver 11. of that place in Peter as if it conteined and were made up of nothing else The other is called the glory that should follow And in that chapter it may appeare at least it doth so to me at present that the Christians then were cheifly acquainted with the promise and expectation of it to come when Peter wrote this and indeed the glory of the first appearance of Christ was yet very bright for it was to have its time and season as it hath through all ages since and in this present age even with those on whom his second appearance is dawned But if you say All these are but externall carracters and distinctions of those two appearrnces but what is the formall and intrinsecall difference between them I shall give you my apprehension thereof in brief thus The first appearance of Christ is his appearance in flesh without us bearing our sinne and fulfilling all legall righteousnesse and thereby becomming the object and meanes of faith to us whereby to draw neere to God unto reconciliation And faith acting upon this discovery of God in Christ apprehending his love through that ministration was I conceive that that brought in the supplies of all our hope and comfort from time to time and nourished all grace and holinesse in our hearts till the arising of this day Starre in us becomming our spirituall righteousnesse and sufficiencie for all things the end of our faith and our salvation it selfe in the spirit That which makes this the lesse knowne and the more hard to be knowne is because there are degrees in it and that which is affirmed of one degree of it suppose a higher degree is not found in a lower degree and so we know it not when it is in us and among us because we find it not in such an eminent degree As for example we see not yet all enemies put under us and that glorious redemption of the body we yet understand not c. for all these things are but parts and appendices to the second appearance of Christ but all these waite onely for the acknowledgement of this day this second appearance Christ in us the day Starre risen in our hearts for as the power and priviledge of becomming sonnes followed upon the receiving and acknowledging of his first appearance so shall all the priviledges annexed to his second appearance bee made good to us upon the acknowledgement thereof when it shall bee proclaimed within us and when it shall discover it selfe upon us and as Christ sayes to the woman of Samaria If thou knewest the gift of God and who it is that saith unto thee give me water to drink thou wouldest have asked of him and he would have given thee living water So when wee shall bee acquainted what a mighty one dwels in us we shall finde our selves to be at the end of our faith and in the possession of all salvation For He is the resurrection and the life Hee is redemption and the Kingdome of God lyes not in nor is brought on by any outward circumstances The kingdom of God is within you It comes not with observation so that from the premises I am bold to pronounce that Christ being revealed in spirit in many The second appearance of Christ is dawned upon the world and 't is amongst us though we know it not or scarcely know it The redemption of the body is amongst us and all things beginne to bee new and to have a new face and appearance to us so far forth as we are changed and spirituallized Nor need this be strange That the second appearance should lurke and bee a stranger in the world a while any more then his first appearance which was concealed for thirty yeares and scarce taken notice off save by Herod when he murdered the Infants Only you may say that this is more in glory but consider the glory is inward and so is the appearance and therefore the lesse subject to the notice of others and yet it is proclaimed through the world under the voyce of Heresie Blasphemy Antichrist the great Antichrist c. Doth not the spirit say The day of the Lord shall so come as a Theifi in the night and is it not so come on most Professors insomuch that they on whom it is come scarce know it or receive it And shall that which is prophesied of as a signe of it become a siumbling block in its way Behol a I come as a Theife sayes Christ Christ is come as a theife and we say 't is not He He would be known of his comming if it were Yee fooles and blind yee know not the Scriptures c. This comming of his the primitive times had it and especially some among them as Paul who was called extraordinarily by Christ revealed in him and John that was ravisht in spirit and saw the Lords day as Abraham Isaack and Jacob had the promised land they were
sojourners in but there was a long bondage in Aegypt to be undergone by their seed ere they came to it whereunto answers our long captivity under Antichrist but the time draws near wee shall shortly heare that voyce Arise shine for thy light is come the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee and this second appearance this day starre will make the stars of the night to disappeare or the glory of the first appearance to goe down which is all that I shall say now to the second part of your inquiry As this increases the other will decrease no other period of it doe I know for we are all brought forth first under the law and so come to know Christ after the flesh and reape the fruit and comfort of his first appearance ere we know him in us as salvation and glory but whether the Lord will alwayes observe this method I cannot say rather I think he will not for 't is said we shall not all dye but shall be changed wee shall not all passe under forms be trained up under the law but shall immediately be changed Christs appearance to us is the rule of all walking and conversation His appearance being known to us onely in the flesh as a Reconciler a Minister of circumcision is the reason of our walking in forms when hee appeares to us nakedly in spirit as being all to us and in us himselfe immediately and alone then he delivers us into a glorious liberty above all outward forms In that place in Peter that speakes of the fuflerings of Christ and that glory that should follow I may seeme strange to you to understand that following glory of the body as I doe but beare with me therein I doe so understand it of the glorious appearances of Christ in his in spirit nor can I give you my reasons for it now What you write of the difficulty of getting out of the flesh of Christ and the letter of Scripture I wonder not at seeing we never have gotten in without a divine power and life and therefore to get through unto the holiest without the same Almighty power is impossible It is no little advance after we are brought in to look out further and higher till which time the witnesses lie dead in us in the streets and then that voyce hath been heard Come up hither and we are ascending or ascended whilest we are making up in the Lord There is the Lord in us ascending who came down and none else can ascend but hee As for that I wrote concerning the appearance of Christ and his comming spoken off in Scripture that I know no other comming of Christ to judgement but his spirituall appearance or appearance in spirit for as for the flesh that hath done its work and therefore is he said to come in the glory of his Father and of his holy Angels also in flaming fire with his mighty Angels which is spirituall That his comming is nothing but his appearing and that all flesh is a vaile upon him from under which he is comming and casting it off making his arme bare That the bodyes of all raised shall be spirituall like unto his which is also held forth in that expression of the Apostle 2 Thessâ—â— The Spirit of his mouth and the brightnesse of his comming which amounts to a spirituall appearance and manifestation That this comming and judgement is graduall and hath beenon foot from the beginning of the world and still goes on and will be compleated in due time That the judgement Day which we expect is nothing else but the perfect and universall Declaration of his righteousnes his generall and full manifestation unto all by his rising up in all who is the head and root of all and making all spirituall for the Kingdom of God is within you there riseth up this judgement suddenly upon the world by which you might understand how I take that place in the Corinths Till he come namely in spirit when as said I know no other appearance of his to be but in spirit That hee is entred into spirit and therefore we cannot think he will be perfected in the flesh for his Kingdome commeth not by observation So I think and speak and write still Though I have known Christ after the flesh yet hence forth know I him no more God hath manifested his love and power in that man Christ and in that flesh which he took and shewed what he will doe in all the Elect by a spirit of power and love Redeem Save Kill Quicken Raise Glorifie and this spirit and power of God appearing in the Elect is the appearing of Jesus Christ in them both in his weaknes and in his power in his Cradle Crosse Grave and in heavenly places at the right hand of the Father in his full glory This is the Kingdom of God that comes not by observation This is Christ is us the hops of glory who shall come by degrees appear to be the glory He is our life hid and he is dead in us and we in him who shall appear and bring us forth with him in glory being our Head Root the quickning Spirit and which doth not deny a personall appearance of Jesus Christ the Son of man consisting of soule and body to and with the Saints when he is perfectly formed in them and what can this appearance be but spirituall in the glory of the Father and of the holy Angels according as the hodyes the vile bodies of all the Saints shall be in the resurrection where it riseth a spirituall body though sown a naturall body and then an end of flesh and blood and corruption so farre the Scripture leads us and wee must not be intruders into these things whilest God openeth not the doore unto us Wee are the Sonnes of God but it doth not yet appear what we shall be In that appearance shall be seen the sutablenesse of the Saints unto him Loe I and the children whom God hath given me and then shall be eternall union betwixt God and Christ and Christ and the Saints yet with distinction and subordination The head the body the root and the branches the husband and the wife Christ in God and the Saints in Christ and so in the Father one in another and perfect in one Thus I have given you the brief yet full coppy of what is written in mee so farre as I can read in way of answer to your queries and if you shall put me to read it over again and shew me any mistakes you shall doe mee no displeasure As God openeth himself in us so we discover these things and I shall be ready to discover what is discovered though I discover my mistakes with all for we are very unlearned in reading what the spirit hath written in us till it come in a large letter as it will doe that we may read it running This is all I have liberty to say at prefent Salute from me all our
friends with you 2. Letter My dear friend IN whom I have rejoyced I hold my selfe bound to acquaint you with the wonderfull dealings of my God with me It is so that I am called into judgement and the Books are opened and the booke of life is opened and I am judged according to all things which are written in the books Yet neither of these books is that Bible-book which we have hug'd so long as our onely happinesse I would not hore now be mistaken for I doe not say this judgement is not spoken off in the Bible neither those boâ—ks out of which I am judged for that they are both of them and yet I say that the Bible in the letter of it as it is bound up there is not the book I would not for a world take away any thing from the Bible or any of the excellency of that which is therein written but I would have it set in the right place I would not have it taken for God himselfe and yet God is in it and the letter of it is a very sweet manifestation of God but it is not God though God I say be manifested in this flesh But though wee have knowne things after the flesh yet henceforth we will know them so no more for indeed except wee come through the flesh which is the vail we cannot enter into the holiest for the outward Court is given to the Gentiles and it shall not bee measured wee all desire and strive to enter into rest the Lord give us hearts therefore that we faile not because of unbeliefe But indeed our lives and also our spirits are so full of prejudicate opinions that wee are apt to think the worst of every thing whereas if we were the children of God and like our Father we then should live in God which is love yea we should then be made one with this love Certainly we may feare that those Children are basely begotten that doe not in any way resemble their Father Deare friend such a like generation have we begotten amongst us for if we were like our Father we then should hope all things beleeve all things think no evill not be lifted up in our selves but thinke of every one better then of our selves But though the seed of the Serpent be sowen amongst us yet I say againe I would not bee mistaken by you for I am not against the use of the Bible for I see a true sweet lovely spirit in the writings of it though yet I would have you know that I dare not justifie all things as they lye in the letter of it not because the truth is not in it but because of the abuse of that truth by the fals translation of it for every one when he translates a Coppy writes it as he thinks fit and so puts in and leaves out according to his conceptions and we all are not ignorant what hands these coppies have come thorow I beseech you therefore to wait upon that one spirit which is in you he it is that shall lead you into all truth and I am sure that when God hath written his own truth within you then you will be able as well as the Apostles to write a Bible or any book else without you I am very confident did the Apostles live in our dayes they would be exceedingly grieved to see us appropriate the spirit onely to them when indeed the spirit cannot be confined for it is God himself and this God is in you and with you though you know it not so well as I could wish you did Let us therefore leave off all our appropriations and distinctions and then doe you tell me what you finde but God we have been apt indeed to say Lo hear he is and there he is but this is a lye for he is every where and he is not any where as confin'd or distinct from himself I beseech you therefore in the bowels of mercy that you be carefull what you doe I have one thing to acquaint you with which indeed was the cause of my present writing and its this That seeing as I have told you the great day of the Lord is come upon me and every thing is brought into judgement I cannot but minde you of one thing which past betwixt us and it was this you told me once of your visiting a maid which said that she lived in heaven and above the Bible even in God and by the Revelations of his own spirit which much stumbled both you and me Now I am come to tell you that this maid is risen in me and that I know now what she meant being by the wonderful goodnes of my God taken in to the same life my self and it is but lately accomplished upon my soule Shee meant therefore above the letter of that word in the Bible that indeed was dead too her but she lived in the spirit and life of it which was and is in God himself and this is the life which we all have groaned after and yet when God comes to take us out of those graves of sin and self apropriations and to loose those Chains and Bonds which we have in our darknesse and ignorance been brought into by distinctions we are afraid of him and not onely like Mary take him for the Gardner but wee are even afraid that it is Satan himself transformed as we call it into an Angel of light when indeed that is the very Satan that tels us so though he sets before us a seeming good but we are not ignorant of his wiles This was the Apple which he deceived our Mother Eve withall even this seeming good and hath ever since caused us to surfeit with it even to take things that are not for what they are in truth therefore take notice by the way that those things are not that seem to be or visibly doe appear to our sight but the things that are invisible and cannot appear to our fleshly sight those are the things in truth and therefore take notice of this that all this outward frame of things which doth appeare to our fleshly sight is but a resemblance or a figure of him which is invisible and cannot be seen but with a pure spirituall sight I speak all this for your and others sakes which yet stick in the flesh of Christ For I blesse my God I am got through it even within the vaile and I see him who is invisible with the eyes of my spirit and certainly I had these visible eys given me as a signe or a shadow of the substance Blessed therefore be the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ which hath not suffered me to stick in any thing below himself but hath brought me through all the wiles and cunning deceits of Satan and hath at length centured me in himself and hath caused me to sit down and rest in his own bosome Let therefore our heavenly Father bee glorified for this his great goodnes towards the Sonnes of
men But I have here digressed I come againe therefore to tell you concerning this thing that when the great day of judgement was upon me this was one thing and a very great thing for which I was judged of by the Lord even that I had judged or past sentence upon this pretious soule before the time for the Lord of all men was at hand and I should have left all judgment unto him but I was base and unworthy and I judged those things which I knew not Blessed bee the Lord which hath not everlastingly cut me off for it but hath accepted a ransome in his beloved Jesus in Emanuel God with us that is in himselfe even in the bowels of his owne love manifested through flesh Now because it hath been as I have told you so heavy a thing upon me I could not but acquaint you as a forewarning least you also should come into the same condition of torment by the like occasion and also that I might take shame to my selfe for my basenesse and envy at Gods people Now that which I say is the same with what I have already said that this Saint with many others are risen and come into my soule accompanying my Saviour and therefore if you see her I should desire you to acquaint her with it and shew her this paper that shee may see how I have suffered for my persecuting of her but let her know that now I am one in the body with her though I confesse I have beene exceeding vile and base and when any have been speaking of move light or move spirituall injoyments then I had I would bid them be carefull and consider what they did and I would bring that mayd for an example to them that they might see whereto shee was come even said I to destroy all when indeed and in truth as farre as I can see now shee was come to the injoyment of all this was the persecuting spirit I was then of nay deare friend I have not wondered since at her expressions which I heard you say shee used that was why are you saith she come to persecute mee you know that wee both laughed at her and said was this the spirit that was upon her but since I have considered it and it was true enough for flesh must needs persecute the spirit and wee being flesh came indeed to persecure her therefore it was a true spirit of revelation that was upon her though she could not but beleeve our words when we professe to the contrary but I confesse I did not see you so apt to judge her as my selfe and therefore it is just that I should suffer in it and you bee forewarned from it for I did as much as in me lay strive to behead her and lay her dead in the affections of my freinds and all this was even for the testimony that shee bare of her Saviour and therefore I cannot thinke that the sword must depart from my house but that I must bee slaine in others affectiors even as others have beene slaine in mine I cannot passe by one thing considerable in it and that was this I doe well remember that even whilst I spake against her I was warned from within that I should take heed what I did and I could never speake of her but I should be smitten for it and yet I hearkened not but rushed into sinne as the Horse into the battell therefore I am willing now to take shame to my selfe and have thus largely written this to you that you might communicate it to whom you please for indeed the goodnesse of the Lord hath so overcome me and the glory of my God is so risen upon mee that I care not if all the world know my miscarriages I did not thinke to write so large to you but my God so fils me as I cannot tell how to leave if you understand not my language I pray let Mr. G. C. helpe you I question not but hee may give you a sight in it to whom present my deare respects also to all the rest of my dear friends tell them I am one in the spirit with them and that I would have them carefull of judging the good Lord reward you spirituall consolations for all your labour of love to me in 〈◊〉 I am your exceeding loving and as God shall make me your faithfull friend to serve you 3. Letter Christian friend OUr loving Father hath comforted me by your Letter I exceedingly rejoyce in your condition I see his very great power magnified in you to make you thus willing to be at his dispose It s no smal matter for a soule to deny it selfe We have been a long time talking of self-deniall because the letter of the Scriture hath sweetly spoken of it but truly we have not known what it is from the indwelling of truth in us I am sure thus much I finde that it must be the death of the whol first man that so the second man may be established in righteousnes and truly 't is the mighty power of God must passe upon us to raise us up to live thus in himself I could willingly open to you how I was brought in that measure that I am into this life It was by the sight or vision of God himself For as I was one day carried forth by him to speake some thing to another as he spake in me I had this wonderfull Vision that confounded me and threw me to the ground before it for it was no lesse then infinitenesse it self that beheld me and at last made mee to behold it but this sight of God did so astonish me it destroyed and wrought such an utter death to my selfe and to every thing below or besides him I mean things that appear to be that truly I may say I had no spirit of a man left in me but I sat before him as a meer passive appearance Then I felt the spirit of life from above enter into me again and carried me forth to act where when and how it pleased Now came I to be what he would have me and never before It was not long since that I should have been much troubled to be called hither and thither and to act the part of such or such a one No the reasonable man indeed was not dead yet in me but now the Lord so slew it that I cryed out Here am I Lord send me for I am no more my self now nor to act for my self but for the Lord And I wondred still why the flesh in the ordinary appearnce of it did remain I mean this outward form or vessel that held the treasure for indeed I thought when the Apostle spake of a change that it had been the changing of the outward forme but this day came upon me unawars However I doe not say the outward form shal not be changed let it be as it pleaseth him my glory lies within the Vaile I am not called so much to talk
saith It s sown a naturall but raised a spirituall body and men not knowing what to make of this spirituall body conceive it to be so many distinct personall appearances as have deceased since the world first began but the Lord in his time will shew them what this spirituall body is and then they will better judge of it but I am sure we without them or they without us are not perfect for though I have seen all these things accomplished upon me in this particular body yet I see that it is but as in a figure which hath reference to the whole therefore am I weak with them that are weak and stong with those that are strong and my glory lyes still in the body Never do I look for perfection more in one particular appearance but to be perfect in the whole I am no more my own but every ones and every one is mine Dear Soul the Lord of all our mercy supply and keep you safe under all those storms which are now breaking in upon us I humbly and heartily thank you for your sweet counsell in looking for tryall it is that which my heavenly father hath warned me to look for I leave you to his bowels and bosome in whom I rest I am Your endeared friend to serve God in you 4. Letter Dear Soule MY heart salutes thee and every budding forth of God in the divine mystery Oh my spirit sits inthron'd and glories in the top of every being and though all the buildings in the world shake I shal not come down to save any of the furniture of this darke Fabrick All images are with me my dearest though set in a frame of weaknesse c. The eye of eternity hath enclos'd them all and though its twinklings fold them up in night and though the back-parts of God obscures this earth and is a veile between it and the high-noone of the God-head yet this is but a shadow wherein Divinity hides it selfe which shall fly away and disappeare with the outward dresse of this Creation When all deformed Shapes Vizards and Pictures shall suffer losse then the present blacknesse which is the habitation of Dogs and Devils shall bee chas'd into outward darknesse but the comlinesse which all this while hath lyen disguised under that beggerly appearance and loathsome outwardnesse shall spring forth in a glorious ray of that bright morning Starre which shall visit us from on high bringing glad tydings upon its Angel-wing of life and immortal lity That the sweet Emmanuel born in the village of our own natures I am commanded to speake thus much unto thee my Dear breathing though my spirit rejoyceth to finde-thee already reeling with new wine bathing in that brimfull unction which yet cannot runne over its boundlesse circle and shall overflow all the world besides They shall all know God and all be cloathed with the divine person of Christ The water of life shall spring up in you all and every Creature heald of its disease when righteousnesse shall spring forth of the earth and the heavens shall hear the voyce of the earth and drop down fatnesse upon them The Tree of Life shall have its root within us sprouting forth through its quiet Sap into its glorious figure and life a Branch a Leafe thereof reducing every parcell of Corruption and cloathing that upon with spirit and immortallity which before was muffled up in sinne and wrath in paine and darknesse My dearest I am taken off in haste and have onely leysure to blesse thee for thy last which administred so much glory to my spirit live still happily my dear selfe in the ripe Navell of Divinity and let me see thee every moment in the divine Principle of glory whither the Lord Jesus is risen before and hath call'd up himselfe out of the flesh of F. M. Salvation-Bulwarks in the eternall Sabbath with out the number of a man 5. Letter Mine in the Lord THE present disposings of God towards me are very sweet and precious my soule being subdued daily to the Lords will in all things I see daily that the Fathers designes is to sweeten all conditions to me by the beames of his owne presence Truly in the Lord their 's nothing comes amisse to me but I am able to welcome every dispose of providence death sorrow and misery in the Lord are so familiar to me that I know not how to bee without them my soule longs after affliction because now the sting of misery is gone and it is my delight to play with it I thinke I should starve with hunger but that my own wants daily supply me sweet soule God is teaching me to see light in darknesse good in evill to eat upon the eater and receive sweetnesse from the strong to behold a happy harmony in all contrarieties I shall shortly bee with you now I am not from you but rest in thy bosome The Lord that spirit in the flesh 6. Letter Sweet and pure Spirit IN divine progresse I continually meet thee with a heart drawn out I alwayes salute thee I can be no where doe nothing but thou art still with mee In thy life I live in thy light I see by thy power I stand I am nothing but in thee and thou the same without mee my fulnesse is thy treasure and thy treasure is my fulnesse all that I have I receive from thee and yet what thou givest me is nothing but my own and so was from eternity I was with thee from the beginning and thy beginning was in my eternity I was with thee when thou didst inhabite darknesse thy darknesse was my secret place my secret place was thy darknes when the curs enmity of the old creation lay upon me thy power upheld me this power was mine own for it was no robbery for me to be equall with thee my form vailed thy glory yet it was my glory and thy form Thus thou for me and I in thee have borne the sinne and curse of of the old world born it I say into a land of forgetfulnesse which have forgotten and forgiven all transgression and thus in a reconciled and sweet union thou remainest my fulnesse and I rest thy happinesse Though in the flesh I subscribe my selfe distant by the name of From the Head-quarters of Divine Majesty this last Lords-day in the year of Jubile 7. Letter Dear Friend SOme glimmerings presented to the children of love clothed with darknesse bewildernessed in their spirits passing through the fiery tryall or crucifyings of flesh or things of the first Creation unto the the Canaan of rest or to a more higher fuller and excellent glory First considering the severall dispensations of the eternall God how hee hath severall wayes and in divers manners made out himselfe to a creature as Genesis Chap. I. and 2. the law or righteousnesse of the first creation in which God had communion with man and man with God yet rather with a Creator then with a Father and
more Aâ—ust I alwayes be tormented among shadows longing and wandring after the substance and never meet with it All this while it is pretty well in comparison of what it is when fury 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 my spirit boils within me and rages 〈◊〉 is that maketh my spirit so violent and 〈◊〉 ous I can in no wise imagine nor vent 〈◊〉 cannot it is too big to come forth therâ— no object without capacious enough to râ—ceive it but within it lyes and feeds and 〈◊〉 presses so vehemently that my spirit is 〈◊〉 forced to cry out day and night there is 〈◊〉 subsisting no there is no subsisting undâ—â— it June 10. NOw to return if it may be to the thoughts and workings of my minde concerning your letter To what end should he write to me in this manner unless he could withall have sent me light to read by I understand not one line not one tittle of all his letter This day whilest my father and I was together this letter became yours What 〈◊〉 the meaning of this which way shall I go 〈◊〉 bout to finde out the meaning of this 〈◊〉 he present how many questions might I 〈◊〉 him before I could receive in any imagination 〈◊〉 concerning the sense of these words 〈◊〉 I must ask him who is his father what 〈◊〉 father I cannot so much as fancy what 〈◊〉 should be A father is he that begets his 〈◊〉 is he that begat him But who is that 〈◊〉 begat him what is he I am at a losse at 〈◊〉 dash But what meanes this Whilest my 〈◊〉 and I was together what is it to bee 〈◊〉 the father to have the father with one here is a puzling phrase indeed here my fancy is quite puzled I know not how to frame any imagination about this what it is to be with the father And whilest I was with the father what is the meaning of this whilest is hee sometimes with the father and sometimes not with the father Whilest I know not what to make of this whilest Whilest I was with the father this letter became yours how mine I know not how it is mine how became it mine Did his father while he was with him bid him write this to me Here may be more in this then I am aware of I remember my mind did much muse on this and my desire was great to have satisfied my spirit concerning the sence of it but it was and still is too hard for mee Then I thought on the next passage That there is but one to remain on the earth that is the Lord. But one What is one For my paâ—â— I know neither unity nor distinction and thaâ— is the Lord. The Lord Oh what is the Lord â— who is the Lord I am forced to speake likâ— Pharaoh I know not the Lord. I cannot say know any thing nay certainly if any thing bâ— certaine to mee I doe not know any thing But of all things I have no knowledge at all oâ— the Lord that is the thing indeed that is hiâ— from mee with perfect darknesse The vaile â— so thicke and my eye so weake if I have anâ— eye that I have no manner of discerning â—â— him But one to remaine on the earth Whâ—â— is this remaining when all things passe awaâ— shall the earth it selfe abide any otherwiâ—â— then other things abide also how shall thâ—â— Lord remaine on the earth Then I thought on that passage Be not troâ—bled What voyce is this whence came this Did his father bid him wâ—ite thus to mee Who is it troubles me To this let me sâ— two things I cannot resist alas what a vaiâ— thing is it for a poore weake creature to thiâ— to withstand such mighty powerfull troublâ— as comes rushing in upon mee I have â— strength to resist any thing there is nothiâ—â— so weake as I the strongest Engine is weaâ— in my hand but trouble hath growne strength as fast as I have decayed How should I now resist it how should I now avoid beâ—ng troubled Besides when at at any time â— thinke to keepe trouble of it presently over-beares me I never finde any mitigation of â—rouble so farre as I have observed but when â— lye downe at its feet opening my bosome â—nd letting it enter as deepe as it will What means this phrase whence came this speech Be not troubled Then that passage came into my minde If â—ou will but stand still you shall see the salvaâ—ion of the Lord breaking forth upon the whole earth I did not finde my spirit so enquiring into the particular sence of this Phrase â—s working thus How spake hee this Upon â— generall notion that the Lord will appeare â—re long and so I among others shall see him â—ea perhaps he may meane though the body be laid in the dust first yet I shall see him or by a particular present light from the father concerning me whom he said was now with him and that while he was with him this Letâ—er became mine Afterwards I remembred another passage Shall I come to you or will you come to mee What was his intent in this that the body â—hould move to him to Westminster or send to him to move to the place where my body then was Alas that were a poore comming on either hand or to what end were any such comming and for any other comming either of mee to any or of any to mee I am not acquainted with it At last I remembred that When he appeared unto mee my flesh died and was crucified Oh then I felt my spirit burne within mee to know this appearing of him and the rather that it might kill me that I might once enteâ— into this crucified state oh this is a sweet way of dying to dye by the appearing of the Lord this is the very way I have desired to dye alâ— this while My torments have been partly welcome through hope of death from them and I reasoned within my selfe though thâ— Lord might slay me by his appearing yet if â—â— were his pleasure to kill me by his absence anâ— severall kindes of tormenting fires which hâ— should pick out to that purpose yet at lengâ—â— death would bee sweet and an entrance intâ— my desired life But this was it still perplexâ—â— me I could not dye the flames wereliving fed mee with life as well as with tormenâ— Then my Spirit would Sigh Surely this wiâ— never do it after this rate may I be tormentâ— for ever and yet still live unto that to whiâ—â— I have still desired to dye But to be killed by the appearing of the Lord oh how sweet would this way be and this would be a certaine way too mee thinkes I could easily bee perswaded to beleeve that the creature cannot live any longer when God once appeares To these let me add one more which came into my minde this morning Come let us be gone why stay we here our bed is greene Oh how faine would I be gone How doe I loath staying here
that end withdrew to my Bed where I thought I might in my more singular addresses expend my desires upon my received glory I lay down in my Bed with unexpressible comfort being overcome with the beauty of holy delights I endeavoured to cover this fire with silence but it grew so hot within me that no longer I could retain it but was forced to declare to my Bed-fellow a friend of mine how it was with me I told him I was over-come with love I was so replenished with divine rest and consolation that I could not contain my self I began to sing and rejoyce being every minute apt to be carried out of my Bed to daunce and leap about the room but this noise soonvanished away by the power of that voice which commanded silence saying Rest and be still in thine own Love Hereat a deep silence possessed me yet not a jot of my glory diminished but onely brought under the power of a heavenly silence yea there was silence in heaven My friend lying by me was suddenly surprized with a miraculous power from above his body did shake and tremble in such a manner as I never saw who declared the comming of the day of God in a language divine and powerfull sometimes singing and rejoycing in so much that the people of the house being thereat awakened wondred what the matter should be All this while my lovely silence constrained me yet under unspeakable enjoyments my breath was by fits taken from me and the divine life did so overpower the naturall as that I expected a daily motion out of this form or body nay how willing was I to commit my body to the power of an eternall sleepe and to enter into that immensity which was able to comprehend me We spent almost the whole night under the power of these raptures while at last towards morning I felt a timely withdrawing of the rigour and vehemency of this power which I was made freely willing to part with at the Fathers pleasure for I have learned both how to want and how to abound Yet notwithstanding to this day there remaines a virulent and powerfull impression of the same upon my heart which I hope shall never be raced out I then saw and doe still behold a perfect reconciliation brought forth in me to all that heretofore I have beene at enmity with Hell Sinne Death Divell are all in a league with mee I have fellowship with God in all these I care not who knowes it Sinne hath lost its strength Hell its torment Death its victory the Divell his enmity we are all friends Hallelujah God omnipotent reignes in all these Good Lord What a poor low life is that which subsists onely in those things that bring forth our advantage I have now learned to live upon the highest disadvantages that may be I can fetch life out of death good out of evill yea enjoy light in darknesse peace in torment Heaven in Hell I know nothing can hurt nothing can destroy in this Mountain where I live Shall Sinne alas that 's to weake the Law which was its strength is departed it shall no more have dominion over me for I am not under the Law I can passe through all imaginable evill in the light of divine righteousnesse and receive not the least dammage Shall Hell O it s a lake of comfortable torment I live in it joyfully I love it dearly I know the breath of God as rivers of brimstone kindles hell in me it burnes it scorches and so let it till the will of God be fulfilled I can passe through these flames yea lye down amongst them and not one haire of my head shall perish by them I glorifie and rejoyce in the very fires I shall now desire you to acquaint my Freâ—nds with these dealings of God towards me if happily any thing may be given in upon their spirits about it All that I have at present is this I looke upon it as an evident signe of some dreadfull appearance of the Sonne of man for these two things were given in with much power upon my heart First That the God of peace shall tread Satan under feet shortly Secondly Lift up your head your redemption drawes nigh Read Vnderstand Rejoyce 24. Letter A Letter written by a young man about 19. yeares of age the Evening before he dyed being Saturday-night hee was well as was supposed about 11. of the clock and about 2. the next morning dyed and left a Letter of which this is a Coppy with this Superscription To his dear Sisters Mrs. Hester Langham Mrs. Sarah Brewer Mrs. Thomason Fison and others the Saints of God when deceased YEE Saints and Spouse of the King of loves the Lord Jesus the delight of delights himselfe the Lord Jesus from everlasting with the Sonnes of men Love our fountaine with those lovely streames of divine and supernaâ—urall glory who now dwels in us and we in him Our Saviour saith Yet a little and the world seeth me no more but ye see me pretious for a small season a little while hath this world seene mee but low they see me no more but ye shall see me for I am gone to our fathers house to lye in the everlasting armos of eternall love in the infinite embraces of eternall sweetnesse to bee there where yee shall bee all together with mee and all Saints to all eternity Rejoyce now together for me and if you love mee you will rejoyce because I goe to the Father for me indeed to live is Christ but to dye is gaine And sure I am that Saint Pauls desire for a long time by a flame of love hath beene kindled in my soule even to be dissolved and to be with Christ which is best of all I now live yet not I but Christ lives in me Loe the the time comes when I dye yet not I but this old man which I carry about with me Oh pretious Saints How sweet how pleasant are the thoughts of death to mee Surely sorrow may be for a night but joy comes in the morning Love is that bond of union betweene mee and my beloved union is that perfection of love love throughly desirâ—s perfect communion What now hinders this but death surely this must needs be pleasing unto me being the meanes to so lovely an end I am here but as a wayfaring man which tarries but for a night and surely what are the pleasures of this night at the best They are but darknesse in themselves and in their greatest light but resemblances of another which is farre greater But behold the night is past the day appeares and I am gone to my beloved he that should come is come and hath not tarried and oh blessed yea thrice blessed is his comming to me where I can see him face to face whom my soule so much longed for The vaile is rent and I now no longer see him as in a glasse but in his owne native beauty and supernaturall glory Blessed
and that not onely repeating the letter but in truth that those things which I have received have not beene from man nor woman nor any other thing but by the meere revelation of Jesus Christ in mee God manifesting himselfe in my owne flesh and therefore they much wrong both her and me that affirme it but especially they wrong or speake a lye of that God that did it for me and because I heare it so reported amongst you I thought good to write one word to cleare it that so whether you will heare or whether you will forbeare the word of truth might judge you give not eare therefore to all you heare though from brethren least you be brought into a snare for since the defection of the Churches men yea good men have been such lovers of themselves and their own opinions that they will speake largely upon little ground to keepe up their owne glory God having not yet undone them for were they once undone men they would willingly be what God would have them however the world accounts of them There is another thing which came to my care that it should be given into the Counsell by your two witnesses that the said Mrs P. should say that you cast her out for difference in judgement and when Collonell Rich and Collonell Harison asked to whom shee spake it they said to some of Abington Now indeed my husband said to you that he thought such a thing but when hee came home and saw so little ground for his thoughts I thinke he had but little comfort in telling you so and then brethren if you upon such slender grounds should act in this strange manner against her affirming this thing so publikely I thinke you have cause to bee humbled for it and justly to repent of your evill I desire you to beare a little with mee for truly it appeares to mee rather to bee your rage of spirit then your true love either to her or truth for mee thinkes it would savour more of a true Christian spirit if you had first spoken with her and have seene what change the Lord hath wrought in her as knowing that Mary out of whom seuen Divels had beene formerly cast was made the first messenger of Christs Resurrection yea and she must bring it to the Apostles and not the Apostles to her You say in your letter that you left her to the judgement of the great day and I beseech you brethren doe you not againe take her into your owne daie for truly I beleeve that daie in a measure hath come upon her and the Lord himselfe is at worke with her therefore doe not feare but the worke will be well done onely we as well as shee must have patience in it and surely this is the confidence that I have concerning her that she hath seen evill in that estate she walked in with you and certainly God is good to her in this shewing her what an abominable spirit of wickednesse may bee hid under the greatest practises and professions of externals not that these are the cause of it no the gold and the silver is mine saith the Lord but wee bestowing it upon our lovers and making our selves great with his ornaments he is fain in love to us to take us from them or they from us and so finde out a more sprirituall administration to perfect us in Oh the infinite riches of our God! where doth his bounty â—nd sure his waies of love are unsearchable eâ—d his paths of mercy in which he followes anore fallen man and poor backsliding soules are past finding out how narrow are our capacities we judge as men We may think as some did of David that there is no help for such things in God but all things in truth will be found possible with him even where they are altogether past our thoughts and conceptions and become to us impossible I beseech you therefore be perswaded to bow down to him I know you are conscious that all judgement is not committed unto you and therefore it is possible you may not judge right in this thing for truly brethren we may conceive many things even by the letter it self yet not living in that spirit that writ the letter we may erre I pray do not mistake me as if I would any way speak slightly of the letter farther than it speaks of it self no I blesse the Father for it and by sweet experience can say that I was never so confirmed in it now the Lord hath drawn me to him out of it even in that spirit that wrote it I am for the conscionable use of it but I would not abuse it I am sure those men that would set it above the spirit can hardly free themselves from that thing I hope therefore you will not count it your excellency to walk in the letter but rather desire the Lord to perfect you in that spirit that writes the letter for then and never till then shall we be able to walk by it aright and speak of the letter truly I have not yet acquainted my husband with your letter I shall wait upon God what answer to receive from you for truly dear brethren upon serious deliberation I know not how to approve my self faithfull in the eyes of God to my brethren here if I should deliver it for God having put it into my hand I must also see clearnes from him before I part with it for though blessed be the father we have a sweet hopefull people amongst us that wait upon God and have fellowship one with another yet whether they may digest such things as you write of I really question therefore it would be unfaithfulnes in me if I apprehending an evill to them or any other should not as much as in me lies prevent it and this I shall doe by detaining the Letter till further manifestation from God what to do with it Doe not judge me in this thing I beseech you I have one Judge even the Lord and he that put it into my hand will aâ— length clear my integrity in it I have nothing to doe for my self in it the Lord knows only to find out if it may be how I may approve my self â—aithfull to men in the Lord and for the Lords â—ake Your desire I exceedingly like that we may be kept from errours and the Lord keep us all from errours but who must shew us what errour is but the God of truth himself we have lived in errour and have suckt them in from our cradles and yet who will speak so much against error as we stating our selves still in the truth My sweet friends the day of truth is but now dawning upon us and how is it opposed even by those that are children of truth in their measure yet wee have all looked for it and prayed together for it a long time but truly now we will not own our prayers but turn away our face from our Saviour because he comes