of the Indignation of the Lords Judgment If Iudgment first begin at the house of God what will become of them that obey not the Gospel of God for if the Righteous scarcely be saved where shall the Wicked and Ungodly appear Now for some help and light for the understanding of them that do not know the Mystery of Iniquity and that spirit that doth generate it here as aforesaid the spirit of Antichrist is that spirit in every one that doth profess Christ Jesus in words but doth not possess him in life and power and such are they that are making Images and forms and likenesses without and call it by Christ's Name and say it doth represent Christ when none can make his Likeness nor bear his Image but those that are created anew in Christ Jesus and born of the same Spirit The righteous Image or Form of Christ is the perfect Life of Innocency and the pure Spirit of Meekness and an upright heart of true Humility as it is written Upon whomsoever you shall see the Spirit of the Lord descend like a Dove and abide upon him this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased You all know a Dove is an innocent harmless creature and so are all God's Children which are sanctified in the undefiled womb of God's second creation where the first Heaven and the first Earth is passed away and new Heavens and a new Earth are witnessed wherein dwelleth Righteousness for evermore and he that is called the Son of Perdition is the Man of Sin in every particular that steals away the heart and draws out the mind from the true invisible God and sets it upon earthly objects and visible appearances The glory of the world that doth fade and vanish away as the smoak in the eye and the painted harlot is the fallen wisdom that is comprehended in the earthly mind carnal understanding and airy spirit inventing and devising how to deck and beautifie her self with the glory of this world and outside shews to get her self a name over all the Earth and calls her self holy pure and spiritual that all people may fall down and worship her painted image and so the wind of her spirit goeth forth and overchargeth the hearts of the people and corrupts them and when the heart is corrupted it conceiveth lust and when lust is conceived it bringeth forth sin and when sin is finished it bringeth forth death The wages of sin is death and the Scarlet-coloured Beast that doth uphold the adulterous woman with all her allurements upon whom she sits is that beast-like will of or in man that is not subject to the Will of God but hath received power to exalt his horn even to the Host of Heaven for the cleansing of the Sanctuary and purifying of the Temple and for the tryal of the Faith of God's Elect that the power of God may rest upon them and so they come to be approved in the sight of all and herein our God is glorified honoured and renowned over all in purchasing to himself a holy Kingdom through the blood of the everlasting Covenant in the faithful-hearted that do follow the Lamb through great tribulations according to the Scriptures Every man out of the Covenant of God is bruitish and that spirit which doth exalt it self over the consciences of any people to compel them by a tymnnous Law to worship according to his will and in his way without any Commandment or Precept from the Lord that is Lucifer which the Lord God will cast down to the bottom of Infamy and will do unto him as he did to proud and lofty Haman as the Spirit of the Lord hath manifested for God and his Word are one and his way to the Kingdom is but one and he never compelled any with camal weapons or any visible thing to worship him And whereas it is said he sent forth his servants to compel them that were in the streets and in the high-wayes to come in by the powerful preaching of his Word of Life and Truth that did limit and bind that in them that did rebel against him and so he drawed them after him in love and so he doth at this day Praises praises to his holy and blessed Name for evermore Amen And the false Prophet is he that cryeth Lo here is Christ and Lo there but Christ foretold of them saying Many false Christs would come saying Lo here and Lo there but believe them not go not forth by their fruits you shall know them And these are they that for advantage will cry Peace peace while ye are unsaved from your sins and so with good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple and smoothly draws them after him in the broad way that leads to the chambers of death and destruction and in their high places they will tell you you must not be drunk nor lust nor envy nor covet nor live in pride nor any such evil things when they themselves are wholly guided and led by that same spirit which is the very rise author yea as I may safely say the father of all manner of uncleanness and evil concupiscence and so though they do speak good words it is but in imitation because it was the practice of the Servants of the living God so to do yet being out of their Life they can never convert any into the Truth but their spirit doth beget the same form in the Hearers as is in the Teachers for such Seed as they sow such Fruits they do reap of all manner of unrighteousness and these be they that will go about to limit the Spirit of God and make the people believe none ought to speak in the Name of Christ but the Wise and the Learned and them that have received Gifts of Men to Preach but Christ doth ordain his Ministers and gives them Gifts both Male and Female yet they say Paul would not permit of a Woman to speak in the Church it is true Paul would not permit of a woman to speak in the Church no more do not the Quakers neither do they permit a Woman to speak in the Church nor a Man that is born of a woman but he that is born of God whether in Male or in Female let him speak freely as his Father giveth him Utterance Let him that doth not understand come into Christ's School and learn Paul said That if a Woman did pray or prophesie with her Head uncovered she did dishonour her Head if a woman might pray or prophesie with her head covered it 's very like she might do it in the Church assoon as in another place But Paul nor John neither would not permit that Jezabel that painted Harlot should speak in the Church who hath painted her self with the Saints Words but out of their life she must keep silence in the Church yea verily the Power is made manifest in this the Lord 's present day that will shortly stop her mouth and all her
A BRIEF DISCOVERY OF God's Eternal Truth AND A Way opened to the simple hearted whereby they may come to know CHRIST and his Ministers from ANTICHRIST and his Ministers With a WARNING from the Lord to all people that do name the Name of Christ to depart from Iniquity Written in the Inquisition of Malta by a Servant of the Most High called KATHERINE EVANS London Printed for R. Wilson 1663. A brief DISCOVERY of Gods Eternal Truth THus saith the Lord Let every one that nameth the Name of Christ depart from Iniquity for the day cometh and now is that the Name of Christ will be dreadful and terrible to all workers of iniquity and God the Father hath committed all Power in Heaven and in Earth and Seas also to his Son Jesus Christ and hath raised him in Power and great Glory in thousands of his Saints to convince the world of Sin of Righteousness and of Judgment that the Prince of this World may be judged and cast out for he shall never have any part or portion with the Heir of Eternal Life and Salvation who hath Power to judge and to justifie and to condemn or to save to scatter and to gather to break to pieces and to bind up that which is broken to pieces and he will establish his own Spiritual Government Righteous Rule and Pure Holy Worship to the ends of the Earth and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it for whatsoever he hath purposed shall surely come to pass and his Decree shal stand and Wo wo wo to every one that doth lift up a hand against any of those that the Lord God doth send forth in his Name in this the Day of his Power to preach Glad-tydings to the meek or do form any carnal weapon against him in his Anointed thinking to disinherite him who is possessed Heir of all But the time doth hasten that the Lord God of Power will exalt his Princely Scepter over all Scepters Thrones and Dominions Kingdoms and Countries and none shall be able to prevent him or resist his mighty Power Hear ye this O all ye People upon the face of the Earth who are called Christians or do call your selves by Christ's Name both Kings and Princes Emperors Nobles and mighty men of the Earth by what name or title soever ye are called high or low rich or poor for our God is no respecter of persons but every one that feareth his Name and worketh Righteousness is accepted of him Wherefore it chiefly behoveth every one of you to turn your minds within to the Light in your Consciences that convinceth of all Sin and makes manifest every evil deed be it done never so secret the Light will discover it It is a measure of God's free Grace given to every one to profit themselves withal and search examine and duely consider how you come to have right or title to Christ's Name or what it is that maketh a Christian for every true Christian is an Heir of God and Joynt-heir with Christ For as in Adam all die so in Christ shall all be made alive Now you know that God created Adam at the first in a pure perfect state of Innocency his mind and soul in his own Image and likeness which was Light and Life and placed him in the Garden of Paradise a place of eternal blessedness to all that do obey the Light and God gave Adam dominion over all the creatures that God created for the use of man and blessed them unto him in that state of Innocency and bid him eat of the fruit of every tree of the Garden but the tree of knowledge of good and evil that was good too but not for food And the Lord said unto Adam Thou shalt not eat of the fruit of that tree for in the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely dye Adam did not stand in the Counsel of the Lord but turned from the Light and hearkened to the Woman whom the Serpent beguiled and did eat of the forbidden Fruit and so disobeyed the Commandment of the Lord God and fell from that state of Blessedness into that state wherein all things are an utter curse unto him and unto all in that state of disobedience eternally but the just and wise and holy Lord God whose mercies are above all his works did promise that the Seed of the Woman should bruise the Serpents head There are but two seeds the Seed of the Woman and the seed of the Serpent Now this was the way which the pure and wise and perfect Lord God did find out in himself to recover Man out of the Fall again through the everlasting Covenant of the promised Seed of all blessedness The Promise of God was not unto seeds as to many but unto the Seed as unto one In Isaac shall all the Kindreds of the Earth be blessed The Promise of God which cannot fail was only to the Seed of faithful Abraham And Paul saith If ye are Christs then are ye Abrahams seed and heirs to the Promise Wherefore every one of you in Christendom may do well to turn in your minds to the Light of God in your own Consciences and try your selves and see whether you have received the true righteous Seed or are born of the pure and perfect Spirit of Christ Iesus yea or nay the Light will not deceive you but deal plainly with you and make manifest unto you all that ever was or is within you And he that is in Christ hath the witness in himself so that he need not go forth to seek after him or to ask the way to Sion for I am the Way the Truth and the Light saith Christ and he that followeth me shall not abide in darkness but have the Light of Life and He that hath not the Witness in himself is in darkness and hath not received the Light of Life the Spirit of Christ and He that hath not the Spirit of Christ is none of his Then what profit hath anyone to have the Name of Christ and out of his Nature The Nature of Christ is altogether pure perfect holy and upright meek humble sober loving merciful tender-hearted liberal in all good long-suffering and ready to forgive and willing to bear the contradictions of sinners and the rebukes of the vile sons of men and did lay down his Life for to save them that hated him and were and are Enemies to his Cross And all that are in Christ ought themselves to walk as he walked or else how should they be known to be born of the true Seed of God for where the Seed of the Kingdom is sown and received into good ground in an honest heart it taketh deep root and bringeth forth fruit answerable to the Seed in some thirty in some sixty and in some an hundred fold that God may be glorified for herein is my Father glorified that ye bring forth much fruit saith Christ speaking to them that were called by his Name and were his
many of his equals but he did not know him and so he persecuted him in his Saints as thousands do at this day and yet they will be called Christians When Paul had received Christ Jesus the Spirit of Truth he denyed himself and became a true Christian through the Sanctification of the Spirit of Christ and belief of the Truth and took up the Cross to his own will daily and followed Christ the Light through great tribulations in newness of life for as he did partake of the fellowship of his Death and Sufferings so likewise he did partake of the fellowship of his powerful Resurrection and his Glory I am the Resurrection and the Life saith Christ. And not only Paul but every one also in whom Christ is risen do partake of the same Sufferings and the same Joy according to the measure and proportion of Faith of God's free Grace dispensed to each one by his own Eternal Spirit And this is the way and the alone way which God hath ordained and appointed to make Christians or as I may safely say to recover lost men out of the fall and to redeem their souls and minds from all inward pollution and defilement and wholly to ransom them out of the inward invisible transgression and corruption and so to raise up the blessed Seed of his own tender bowels and restore his pure Image that hath been so long defaced through the subtilty of the Serpent and regain his Glory Honour and Renown among the sons and daughters of men and will have the preheminency over all people upon the face of the Earth in the measure of himself in the Consciences of all either in their eternal Salvation or their just and everlasting Condemnation for God hath not left himself without a Witness in every ones Conscience and a measure of the free Grace of him who is the Fulness For the natural man cannot receive the gift of the Spirit but as the Apostle said And we saw his Glory as the Glory of the only begotten of the Father full of Grace and Might And of his Fulness have we all received and Grace for Grace Hence it is that the True and Living God who respecteth no mans person hath given to every one a Talent to improve and a measure of Light and also hath commanded that this Everlasting Gospel of Peace and Reconciliation should be preached to every Creature that they may receive grace for grace that do believe in his Name And they that do not beleive nor receive him who doth tender salvation to them the Light of God which God gave them coming into the world will eternally condemn them and leave them without any excuse in the presence of the Lord God because of their disobedience and resisting the gift of the holy Ghost There is something of God in every one that would receive Gods truth if it should but all that is not of God in every one doth strive and fight against it and doth persecute and imprison till death Gods Messengers which he hath endued with power from on high and hath given them gifts and graces and spiritual mercies of divine vertue to preach to the Poor and to the captives to the exiled and banished and to sow the seed of Righteousness that God might receive the fruits of holiness among his People They that sow to the flesh do of the flesh reap corruption but they that sow to the Spirit do of the Spirit reap Life everlasting They that have not received the Spirit they cannot sow to the Spirit but they that have rceived they sow to the Spirit and do profit the people where they come to be received and they do bring forth fruits of God-like lives and righteous conversations and heavenly behaviour and their fruits do manifest what ministry they are under as St. Paul said You are our Epistles written in our hearts seen and read of all men A pure life and a holy conversation is a sure evidence of a true Christian and a perfect witness that they have received the Spirit of Christ which maketh a Christian and generateth into his body Christ the Head and Christians the Members and he will not have any deformed member in his body but they must be all compleat in Christ Pure as he is Pure Holy as he is Holy Undefiled as he is Undefiled even so as he is so must his be in this present world He that sanctifieth and they that are sanctified are all one as saith the Scriptures But I say in the Name and Power of the pure and perfect Lord God That whosoever or whatsoever he is in this world that taketh upon himself or goeth about to make Christians or convert Souls any other way than by preaching the immediate Word of God as he doth receive it by the Inspiration of the eternal Spirit of Life and Power he is in the highest degree of Presumption and guilty of the great Transgression and shall assuredly receive the greatest Condemnation from the Lord God of Power if they or he do not speedily repent and forsake those great Abominations Me thinks that every rational and sober-minded Man must needs rightly understand that God Almighty who created all them at the beginning in Heaven Earth and Sea without the help or advice of any and doth uphold the Works of his own Creation by the Word of his Power and as he created the Souls and Minds of men in a pure State of Innocency from whence man fell through Disobedience So he it is alone that can and will and doth quicken the Souls of men and women again and create them anew in Christ Jesus the Lord from heaven the second Adam a quickening Spirit the Immanuel of Eternal Life of the Word of his Power and need not the Assistance or Counsel of any besides himself to raise up Souls to life and immortality for our God is an invisible eternal and immortal Spirit perfect holy wise and powerful and every reasonable man must needs know and believe That there is not any thing but only a Spirit that can so much as touch a Soul as to cleanse it or to defile it so it is the unrighteous spirit of Darkness the Prince of the Power of the Air that doth rule in the Children of Disobedience and polluteth the Souls and defileth the whole Minds and causeth them to yield up the fleshly Members to commit sins of all kinds in Thought Word and Action and so the Springs of Life and Salvation are dammed up and the pure Spirit of the Lord is covered and the Eye of Innocency blinded so that man cannot behold his Maker because Sin hath made a separation as saith the Prophet Behold the Lord's hand is not shortned that it cannot save neither is his eare heavy that he cannot hear but it is your iniquities that have separated between you and your God and your sins have caused his face to be hid from you And as it is the unclean Spirit that doth
is taken away then there is no Condemnation but man is at unity with his Maker all Fear of Death and Torment is taken away for the Sting of Death is Sin and the Strength of Sin is the Law but thanks be to God who hath given us the victory through our Lord Iesus Christ over Sin Death Hell and the Grave together with all the dark Powers of the Earth That as we who are called Quakers do continue in the Light none can overcome us for Truth is stronger than all and the Lord our God will exalt his Truth over all Falshood and deceivable Shews Everlasting Praises eternal Glory and heavenly Renown to his pure holy and perfect Name for ever world without end Amen Amen There is none can forgive Sins but God only neither will he give his Honour to another though Christ said to his Apostles Whose Sins ye remit on Earth shall be remitted in Heaven he spake to them that were filled with his own eternal Spirit and were able to discern an innocent penitent Heart from a Hypocrite in the Light and Life of Righteousness and they did not say they could forgive any their Sins but they were sent to direct their Minds to God who was and is ready to forgive every one that cometh to him by Faith and throughly purged and cleansed from all Iniquity But as for those that have taken upon them to pardon Creatures for their Money or if they will receive their Correction and so deceive the poor People and so he or they that doth pardon and they that are pardoned of them do and will perish together eternally unless they repent of their Blasphemies and Sorceries Divinations Inchantments whereby the poor People are blinded and kept in ignorance and in all manner of Uncleanness and are corrupted for want of Knowledge My People perish for want of Knowledge saith God and the Kingdom is shut up from the Simple-hearted and the Key of Knowledge is hid away by them that will not enter in themselves nor suffer any to enter that would neither will they permit that any of the Lord 's Anointed that have received the Key of Knowledge should speak among the People but they say None ought to speak in the Name of Jesus but the divine Doctors that have received their Ordinations from them The People are blind indeed that do think the Spirit of the Lord can be limitted tyed confined or dispenced by any mortal Man No they that do make the people believe any such thing are absolutely the Messengers of Satan and not the Ministers of Christ they are out of his Doctrine such are Doctors of Divinity that dwell in the Divine Light of God and grow into his Divine Nature and do receive their Ministry by the Inspiration of his divine Spirit of Life and Power and do speak as they are moved and as the Spirit giveth them utterance in the Will of God they are no Men-pleasers nor Time-servers nor Will-worshippers for such cannot please God that seek to please man and they are Hypocrites that walk in the Imitations and Likenesses without the Life and Power observing this thing and observing the other Christ saith The Kingdom of Heaven cometh not with Observations but the Kingdom of God is within you speaking to the unbelieving Jews the Scribes and Pharisees Wise and Learned that were gone out from the Kingdom the Measure of God in them in which is Power to destroy the Works of the Devil in the Observations and Christ reproved them and said to them The Kingdom of Heaven consists in Righteousness Peace and Ioy in the holy Ghost Now that is the kingdom of Antichrist in which kingdom is the City that Cain built that is in the Observations and Babel that Nimrod the Heretick begun to build which is full of confused Noises and Bloodshed and all manner of Cruelty It is Babel that is built with blood but Sion is redeemed through judgment and her converts with righteousness O! blessed be the pure holy and powerful Lord God the Day of his Power according to his determinate Counsel is come that Antichrists Kingdom shall be destroyed and Babels Building must fall for the Mystery of Babylon the Great the Mother of Harlots and Abominations of the Earth is made manifest by the bright Appearing of the Lord Jesus and the Children of Light are able to fathom and comprehend her and all her Lovers and to see the Foundation they stand on and the Ground they act from which is but as Water as John saith in his Revelations he saw Nations Waters Peoples Waters and Tongues Waters yea Men Waters Peoples and Nations all unstabled like the Waves of the Sea tossed to and fro with every Wind of Doctrine in the changable gone out from that which changeth not into the many Ways and have heaped to themselves Teachers having itching eares and cannot endure sound Doctrine but saith Preach unto us smooth things so they do preach Peace where the Lord proclaimeth War and bless themselves in that nature that is everlastingly shut out of the Kingdom of God and excluded from his living Presence But the Lord God of Life and Power will hath discovered the Spirit of the Barren woman that hath made all Nations drunken with the Wine of her Fornication and the Inhabitants of the Earth were surfeited and overcome with her Abomination She shall soon be cast into a Bed of Torment with all her Lovers where she shall have Torment without Ease Judgment without Mercy a full Cup without Mixture and the Dregs wrung out unto her and she shall be rewarded double for all her Iniqiuties the Lord will mar her beauty and stain her glory and strip off her costly robes and lay her honour in the dust and turn her songs into howling and her mirth into mourning and her musick into lamentation and she shall receive a Cup of trembling at the Lord's hand and all her glory pomp and pride shall perish as the untimely figs and fade as the flower of the field and wither as the grass upon the house top and the Smoak of her torment shall ascend in the sight of all people and it shall go forth in the audience of all Nations and she shall be a by-word and a scorn a taunt hissing and derision and off-scouring to as many as have heard of her Name and a day of lamentation shall be heard in the midst of her great Tribulation Wrath and Anguish upon every Soul that doth Evil because she repented not of her Uncleanness Fornication Cruelty Hardheartedness and Mercilesness and all her Uncharitableness and Blasphemy and Sorceries and the like Wickedness And this I give in my Testimony for the Lord in the living Word of Truth against Her and all her Lovers and every one that uphold Her as I have received it by the Revelation of the Son of God and not from or of any Flesh or Blood but have seen handled and tasted deeply of the Cup