the Light and dwell in the Light with thy mind and heart stablished and fixed in it which shews thy own transgression within to have feeling of the Judgment of GOD upon the transgressor in thee And come to the love of the Light and follow the Light by it to be led out of sin and transgression and then with the Light by which all things are made manifest in all matters of Judgment thou wilt reach that of GOD in all which in all will justifie thee in the sight of GOD and so thou wilt stand girded with Justice in the seat of Equity and Truth a terror to evil-doers and a praise to them that do well GOD is coming to search the whole Earth who looketh for the fruit of Judgement from all that sit in the seat thereof Mercy to the Poor Relief of the Oppressed The Poor hath cryed and the Oppressed hath groaned and GOD hath heard it and he who heareth will answer Answer thou alwayes in thy place for the LORD lest the LORD GOD make thee to answer for thy self before Him Though I am but as a suckling of the Lords Flock nevertheless in the simplicity and tenderness of my life as one that hath received Mercy at the Judgment seat of God according to the lowliness of my measure I counsel thee in his pure fear That thou dost look over the Books of the Registers of the Law of thy Nation and see if any one Statute be there written which may stand as a Law to condemn the Just David complained of that in his day for he saw the issue of what came to passe though it was afar off from his dayes We have a Law said the Jews and by our Law he ought to dye by which they in their wilfulness put the LORD CHRIST to death And so it was in all Ages that transgressors for whom saith Paul the Law was made did make such to suffer under the Law and put them to death by a Law in whose mouth guile was not found which was the unrighteous Judgment Friend Draw thou thy hand from that And though the people do cry even as it was complained of in Judah concerning the Prophet The Land is not able to bear all his words yet of a truth the Word of the LORD will come to passe and be fulfilled And truly I say unto thee as Jeremy said unto the Elders of Israel with the life of that Prophet Do with me as seemeth good in thy sight but assuredly know I am of God And I also desire that the LORD GOD in Mercy may not lay this thing to your charge in the day of his Judgments forasmuch as you do you know not what I sit not in the seat of the unrighteous in any measure apt to judge any thing before the true time wherefore unless the fruit in this matter did shew the Tree I shall not at the present accuse the Romans with our detainment under their Yoak of Captivity to provoke words from us whereby the Prophet's words might become fulfilled upon your heads in this your Age in making a man an offender for a word but I am rather in expectation of the Appearance of the Nobility of that which hath been reported and written concerning the Romans If we have transgressed the Law of GOD Try us by the Law and give us our punishment according to the Law For the LORD GOD knows I delight in Righteous Judgment If we are not found transgressors why are we innocent strangers and pilgrims stopped of our Voyage if our Bonds hold us by you onely upon the account of suspition we blame you not but prove us and satisfie your selves concerning us only if we have found the favour of Justice before you which the living God requires of you shew us the Cause in truth why we are detained that according to Law and Equity before your seat 〈◊〉 Judgment we may make our open Defence I am a Friend of thy soul J. P. From the Inquisition-Prison in Rome To all in the Colledges of Rome that have any zeal or desire to answer Truth for the Lord and Truths sake MEn fearing GOD are not rash nor heady neither will they judge a matter before the time Wherefore for the better information of your selves concerning the Truth and Life the Way of GOD and Church of CHRIST I have in plain-heartedness queried for you in the honesty of sober minds to give me your Answer in writing plainly and pertinently to each of them without renting any part of my words For which in expectation I shall wait in Rome whilst these Bonds hold me until it come to my hands which you ought to answer as you profess the name of Christianity among the sons of men for the sake of souls Query 1. What is that one thing needful unto Salvation which with the possession thereof a man possesseth all things And whether can a man possess it and not know it yea or nay Que. 2. What is that by which Paul exhorted the Brethren to to try the spirits whether they were of God yea or nay Que. 3. Whether are any of you now called by CHRIST to a further estate of Knowledge than the Disciples were then when Christ said unto them You know not of what spirits you are yea or nay Que. 4. If by Christ you are called further shew me how And whether you have really heard the Voice of Christ but if not called unto or beyond that estate which they were then in not knowing your own spirits by what spirit would you truly judge of my Spirit who am of God Concerning the Way of God Que. 5. Whether are you in the way of God which is but one and How was that one unto Enoch and now but one and the same unto you Que. 6. Whether is not CHRIST the Light of the World that one way yea or nay Que. 7. Whether are sinners in CHRIST who is the narrow way or are they under the power of Satan in the broad way yea or nay Que. 8. Whether are you in that way which was prophefied of and is now manifest which the way-faring men though fools cannot erre therein yea or nay Que. 9. Whether are you in any other way but in that in which an Hypocrite can walk and whether can an Hypocrite walk in CHRIST yea or nay Que. 10. Whether are not all that are in the Church of Christ in the true way of God where the way-faring men though fools cannot erre therein Que. 11. Whether is the Spirit of Truth come unto you which leadeth the Members of Christ's Church into all Truth But if you have not a Member that in life is led out of all Error into all Truth How can you say that you have the Spirit of Truth Que. 12. If all be in Sin and Error in the Life How shall I conclude any one to be of the true Faith seeing the Apostle saith Shew me thy Faith by thy Works Can the Faith be perfect
may say that my Writings were against then as aforesaid could not I have written the things which I have written in your Inquisition-Prison Fifthly Because that all Righteous Laws of GOD in Nations touching Facts Criminal and Crimes Capital are no more to one person particular than unto all men in general And therefore my adhibition at last to write things of the same nature and purpose in Prison which at first I did in the fruition of Liberty demonstrates that your said self-nulled Law Under which contrary to the tenure of GOD's righteous Law I am yet irrationally and compulsively held in your house of Captivity was not at first so much a stable Law as an aiery variable nicity for that which in such cases adhibits to one and prohibits the same to another is rather like a wind of vanity than a body or pillar of solidity seeing that it will admit of the respect of persons in Judgement and consequently what equality there is in restraining of persons more than two years upon the account of a changeable curiosity and aiery nicity judge thee O thou righteous Iudge in the high seat of superiority Sixthly Because the Eternal Spirit of Righteousness my Maker which searcheth all hearts and tryeth all reins which is the greatest Witness of all Witnesses beareth testimony in my spirit that in all which I have written have stood and do stand in my Conscience clear naked and void of all and every part of a prejudicial mind or conception of Envy Wrath Malice Scorn or despightful Contempt of any man's person neither have I thereby wronged any man whatsoever for all that is therein inserted is none other but wholsom Admonitions exciting to a more peculiar holy and blessed life towards GOD and a man's Neighbour with certain solid sober Interrogations which tend not to the custom of heathenish strifes and contests in the envious and malicious spirit of bitterness but purely sincerely and reverently in the humble spirit of fear of the LORD GOD to the proper and sole end of the Glory of GOD through the Salvation of Souls by his heavenly enlightning of Understandings with the Glory of his holy Spirit And savoury reprehensions of that spirit which sinneth and testimony against the Evils of the Land and the insertion of sundry spiritual Mysteries of the heavenly Kingdom with the spiritual Witness of the Father Son and holy Ghost and nothing therein contrary to the New Testament of GOD the Blood of the Covenant and immaculate Life of the Lamb nor any thing in opposition to that chast Spirit of Sanctity which was in Mary or any which was or is as that blessed Virgin was which upon further and due tryal I am able in the grace and power of GOD and the Life of our Lord Jesus to make appear unto that of God in you and all men whatsoever which my Language can understand upon the face of the Earth In which thing being justified First by GOD which sent me Secondly By example of the holy Prophets of old Thirdly By the practice of CHRIST and his Apostles which at large through the Mercy of the Lord God Almighty I am also able to hold forth unto you in the day of due tryal according to the undeniable Record and Witness of the holy Scriptures of Truth And therfore Righteousness saith Because that the nature of the matter was of a pure purpose should rationally have been recompenced by you with none other than a pure and Christian-like practice Seventhly Because the sweet savour and good report of our Innocency came to your City before us which God made divers of your Ecclesiastical Members to confess in plainness of speech to my face Eighthly Because the Witness of GOD which is greater than the Witness of Man testified in my spirit That all my honest Queries sweet and holy Admonitions pure Advertisments godly Reprehensions proceeded from no other but as Crystal streams from the fountain of the Father's Love which he hath made as a Well of Waters in my bowels And principally because that Reprehension is an infallible token of the Father's Love to his Seed in all Nations and Lands testified by the Spirit to John the Apostle saying Whom I love I rebuke and chasten be zealous therefore and repent Ninthly Because it is the undeniable Duty of all men upon the face of the Earth to love the Rebukes of the LORD as it is purely the LORD's Mercy and of his infinite Love to send them as Visitations of his Love unto all Nations Tenthly Because the resisting of the Rebuke is the resisting of the token of the Favour and Love of GOD which renders men unworthy of the Love and Mercies of GOD their Maker And because it vails the heart from the life of the true Zeal in spirit and hardens the heart in the Wrath of Cain towards Abel of Esau to Jacob and of the Jews to Jesus 11. Because the Righteous Law of God is of the same nature full of Judgment and Reprehension of every Evil not respecting the Person of any man and is at unity with every such spirit of its own nature in so good a work for the which cause it was righteously added of GOD for if there were no bridle how should the Beast be tamed if no Helm how should the Ship be sailed And without Correction there is no perfect Instruction 12. Because the Rebuke of Life is as a Steel which smiteth at the Flint of man's heart and kindleth in his Internals the fire of the fear of his Creator which is the beginning of Wisdom which reveals the knowledge of the countenance of the Father whom to know is Life eternal and because of Solomon's proverbial commendation of the work of Reprehension saying The Reproof of the Righteous is like Apples of Gold in Pictures of Silver 13. Because as the matter of my said Writings is manifestly composed of Righteousness and covered with the Countenance of the Word of GOD so the manner thereof stands in unity with the Scriptures of the Prophets and Apostles which were in the nature of Divinity which covereth not Iniquity with daubing Iniquity 14. Because Moses the Messenger of GOD justified him which prophesied in the Camp whom the People complained against thus answering and saying Would God all the Lords People were Prophets And because GOD Almighty is unchangeably the same as yesterday so this day and for ever of these stones able to raise a Seed unto Abraham 15. Because of the amiable Example of the gesture of David the King under the sharp Reprehension of Nathan the Prophet who persecuted not the Prophet but with a contrite spirit repented of his own sin And the like of the King and People of Niniveh who persecuted not Jonah though he cryed their Destruction in the Streets 16. Because the Prophet Isaiah prophesied it as the great Evil of such a People which would make a man an Offender for a Word 17. Because that for the same things like
the manifest Salvation of GOD unto the ends of the Earth as was spoken by the Word unto Isaiah his Prophet in whose face expresly we have the Revelation of the Father in whom we behold the Glory of the Son as the Glory of the only begotton of GOD full of Power and Wisdom hereby knowing what we Worship whom the whole world alienated from the Power Life Wisdom and Holiness of GOD do ignorantly Worship in the imaginations of their own hearts which before the Lord are only evil continually Him therefore declare I unto you GOD the Eternal and unto every mortal Invisible and Incomprehensible Spirit who is not likened unto the Creation which by the Power of his Eternal Word was made to glorifie hiâ—… Name by the Spirit sheweth That he dwelleth not in Temples made with hands neither is he worshipped by the Works of mens hands as if he needed any thing who from the beginning determined the times appointed and made all mankind of one mould and gave unto them Life and Breath and added thereunto of the Grace of his Mercy a measure of the Divine Nature if haply that thereby they might seek and feel after him the LORD their Creator But Man whom the LORD made little lower than the Angels and gave him the fulness of the Earth to possess rebelled at all times against his GOD he departed from the beginning from the living Way and made Invention the joy of his Heart and made his Inventions a fence against God and his Imaginations a Bullwark of defence and in all Ages and Generations though the LORD visited with Judgements Destruction Mercies and wonderful Deliverances and sent his Servants the Prophets arising up early and lying down late with Precept upon Precept and Line upon Line speaking as afar off by Signes and Figures and Parables and as at hand by Iudgement and Mercy And always shewed how that he is GOD and altogether unlimited neither bound unto Words nor Wonders nor limited in Sea or in Land but still Man made marks for GOD and set bounds for the Arm of his Power who in no wise is measured as the waters in the Wells nor contained as the Rivers with the banks who was not conceived as the Seed of Man nor born as the Babe of the Womb who is not comprehended as the grass with the ground nor as the wide swelling Seas with the sands of the shores who is not known as he knoweth all fowls and calleth the Stars by name who is not measured as the Earth with the Moon nor as the Heavens with the course of the Sun and therefore Man alwayes lost the knowledge of the eternal Power of the God-head and still settled in his own will which at first rebelled against GOD and in the same Will made Laws and Statutes and Ordinances for Government for Worship and for punishment though even from the dayes of the first man Adam unto this day the hand of the LORD GOD was turned against that work as witness the preaching of the Spirit of Abel Enoch and Noah he who hath an ear let him hear witness also Abraham Isaac and Jacob among the Heathen and Moses among the Egyptians yea witness the Spirit of Moses among Israel by Preaching by Power by Judgement and Deliverance What may I more say They would build a Tower to reach unto Heaven and Arks and Cities and Tabernacles and Temple And all for GOD to be constrained in their Works and when they had Commandments and Sacrifices as appointed by the Word of the LORD the Spirit sheweth when in all these things they would have forced the Rest of GOD the LORD arose alwayes against them and sent his Servants the Prophets to cry against those things with the same Word which commanded them whom they did beat imprison wound and torture yea and put to death And thus it alwayes was He that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit even as it is now and in like manner it hath been from the dayes of Abel until the Heir came and him they shamefully slew to possess the Vineyard Moreover of his dayes I may also speak even in the dayes of the LORD CHRIST when he was transfigured before his Disciples at the glorious appearance of Moses Eliah and the LORD the Disciples would build them Tabernacles but mercy appeared unto them in a Rebuke and they were instructed in the Way of GOD but yet and notwithstanding also that Paul the Apostle taught a pressing on from one degree of Faith unto another until all should be perfected unto the fulness of the measure of a compleat stature shewing also in the Resurrection who himself was risen with Christ the diversities of the measures of the Glories which were revealed and every measure as gathered into God in his fulness were respectively full shewing it by the figure of the Glories of the Lights of the Sun Moon and Stars and wrote to the Church how that he was caught up into the third Heaven and saw things which were unlawful to be uttered And John in the LORD'S Day in the Revelation of the Lord from Heaven saw the great things of GOD yet said the Angel unto him Come up hither I say notwithstanding all this the doctrine of GOD that he might be known to be GOD and not in any wise to be limited Man in his wilfulness and presumption unto this day hath set marks against him and made measures of words in their Wills as Cords of restraint to bind him yea the Heavens and the Earth and the depth of the Seas and all the increase of the Plant of the field and her seeding Seed the Sun Moon and Stars the Clouds the Winds the Hail and the Rain-bow of GOD shall witness against the Nations of the world in this matter They limit not God in their pleasure but do bow in subjection to his Will but the Nations of the Earth in the crookedness of their hearts have made walls against the passage of GOD. O Man lift up thine head and look and behold how the People and Inhabitants of the Earth do limit the LORD to their lusts O open thine Eye and see how they make GOD as a Transgressor in the Earth even as the Cattle of a Stranger which have fed in the fields of their Pasture and as the hand of a Thief and Robber which hath stolen the labour of another Look thorow the Earth among the Nations thereof and thou mayest read all their Professions as Prisons for the Reign of of GOD in the Conscience is limited by the forms of their Words and one cryeth Here and another saith There and another saith these are the Laws and the Precepts and he that will not Rest in this he is out of the Way of GOD and he that speaks against our Law and the Manners of our Worship he must bear the punishment thereof Concerning all which if the Conscience of GOD should demand Are your Words GOD
that City who sometime before that sent me up Prisoner to Dublin prosecuting my Life because I had written about three sheets of Paper that represented the sore Grievances and heavy Oppressions of all thy Children in that Land which none of them instigated me unto but was only carried forth thereunto in the Mercies Pities and Compassions that God had put into my soul beholding them a bleeding People With the said Governour I pleaded for the said persons first in his private house and next with him and all the Commissioners in the open Court of Justice and obtained a Warrant for the delivery of the said Prisoners which I went personally to see executed but the Marshal hoping to gain Moneys disobeyed it which made me go a second time to the Court and open the Cause afresh whereby I obtained my Desire as full as I could possibly expect for with a second Order I returned to the Prison not giving trust to any humane eye besides my own and saw them all delivered at which time many fell down upon their knees to me in the open street worshiping me as if I were a God and not a man which I then denied remembring the words of Christ and of the Angel that said thou shalt worship GOD and Him only shalt thou worship Besides other times I have appeared for some poor Widows being formerly of eminency and repute in the World and thy Children and many other Roman Catholicks in their distresses and GOD Almighty knows that the Pitties of my soul were such to them all that I was so far from expecting a Gift for all that I did for them that besides my Expences in several Journies to serve their needs my hand was open to all and not one of thy Children can say that he came to my Door for an Alms and went away empty-handed Besides all this the GOD of Knowledge remembers that I have stript off the Apparrel immediatly from my body to cloath thy Children that I saw in need and want Therefore consider thee this Case as thou wilt appear to be a natural Father And because I have not found Mercy in this City answerable to the least part of my Bowels to thy Children in their woful distresses yet shew me Justice but to plead my own Cause in a publick Court of Judicature as I have openly pleaded the Cause of thy Children in a publick Court of Judicature in time of their misery when they could not plead it themselves nor durst others do it for them and it shal satisfie my soul which spirituality nay nor humanity it self will deny me the which I seek in the Spirit of meekness as one that is delighted in the Order of Truth loving and praying for Enemies and watching to recompence good for evil that the Light of the Lamb in me may appear as a City set on a Hill Who am thy Prisoner in the Prison of Madmen called the English Quaker JOHN And though something was a long while before desired and earnestly besought by divers of the Pope's Priests and other Officers for me to write unto the Pope even in this wise yet after I had sent and heard of its delivery to the Pope at his Palace the Answer which I received was this viz. That I should have no hearing and withal I was stript of all my Writings which could be found together with Pen Ink and Paper and threatned to have my Door walled up and half or more of the Window also walled up and scarcely Water to be brought unto me for my necessary use Whereby the very worst of men may discern that the spirit which ruleth in Rome is not of Christ but of Antichrist A POST-SCRIPT to all the zealous Roman Catholicks which have sought God in their Imaginations but yet have not found him to possess him in the Substance that they may all come to find and enjoy Him in his Everlasting Life of Pleasure AFter all the former fruits of Righteousness shewn forth by Epistle Exhortation Admonition Reproof Questions and Righteous Reason none of which being at any time answered by any person or persons in ROME or elsewhere Now I am come to shew the weakness of all the Pope's Adherents in that City who when they saw that they could not answer the fore-going Queries unless it should be to their own Condemnation took occasion to censure me under the Judgment of being in the state of a Mad-man thinking that the Cruelties which were determined in their Council to be inflicted upon my Body might prove to be the means of turning my soul from the work of GOD's Righteousness effected in my heart to which end I was sent as precited from the Inquisition unto the Prison of Mad-people In which place I was first chained by the Neck to the wall in which Chain I had the exact liberty of standing upstreight of sitting or of lying down but after three nights had passed it was ordered that the Chain was to be taken from off my Neck and another Chain lock'd on my Leg which was about six foot long which gave me liberty to walk the length of three steps from the Wall whereunto it was fastened which abode upon me for the full time of fourteen weeks in which space of time it proving then to be Winter season and the Winter also proving very cold shrank up the Sinews of my Leg on which the chain was lock'd so that when at the expiration of the aforesaid fourteen weeks it was taken off I found my self a lame man but through sore suffering in twelve dayes following the Lord in whom I believed made me again a sound lim'd person whose Name my soul magnifieth praiseth blesseth and thanketh for his goodness and loving-kindness whose mercies endure for ever Moreover in the said time of my being chained I was divers times beaten tortured and sorely bruised and wounded in my body by persons appointed thereunto using for the most part a dryed Bulls Pizzle as the Instrument for punishing of me bruising and breaking my body with the same yea and after that I had the freedom of the Room in which I was kept which I judge could not exceed in latitude 9 and longitude 14 feet I was also several times beaten and exceedingly wronged in my body once especially my Torturers came into the Room by whom I was stript of all my Cloathes from top to toe and with the aforesaid Instrument fell upon me and did in such manner beat me with the same as I was stark naked that they left me from the very crown of the head unto the soals of my feet black and bloody having broken their Instrument about me I might speak and write that which would fill many Volumns of my Sufferings both in body and spirit which are well known unto God but in brief may sum up all in a short saying not mentioning the many Particulars which were day after day and night after night exercised upon me as revilings mockings infamous names
may ye also say we have sought in the way of Light but our Creator cannot be found there But truly this is my Testimony of my heavenly Father unto whom there is none like in Goodness Mercy and Deliverance That if any one seeketh Him in his Way of Holiness in which sin cannot be committed he will satisfie the desires of that soul in due time and overspread it with his abundant Fulness And therefore to that of GOD in your selves I cannot but commend you which is more safe for you to mind obey and follow than the invented customs wayes and statutes ordained of men which never came to live in that Grace of GOD which was the Light in all their Consciences which could have led them out of all their sins into the true knowledge of the washing by the Blood of CHRIST which cleanseth from all sin which being taken away puts an end to the supposed Purgatory for if any thing purgeth from sin it is the Everlasting Blood of the Lamb of GOD which was slain since the foundations of the World was which washeth away all sin And this also puts an end to the vain thoughts of the Popes remission of sins which stands in opposition to his professed Purgatory after this life for if he forgives all sins excepting one sin how is it that after his forgiveness generally all souls of his Sect must enter into Purgatory to be cleansed from that which he hath formerly forgiven them so that you may see either his profession of forgiveness is deceit and vanity or else that his professed Purgatory is a deceit and vanity because to the one work of forgiveness and cleansing from sin there is not a need of any but one thing to effect it and because I know that the Blood of CHRIST and only the Blood of CHRIST which is his powerful Life doth it I am assured in the Spirit of the holy GOD and therefore do assert it That both the Pope and his Purgatory which stand crossing one the others virtue and authority are both but a deceit and witchery This therefore may awaken you from all slumber of supposed security concerning your way and induce to take heed unto the LIGHT of GOD in your selves that it may lead you out of your own thoughts words and wayes to walk with God in Righteousness all your dayes that of Him you may be made Partakers of his Endlesse Everlasting Kingdom of Life Peace and Joy which will swallow you up in his high Praises who is worthy of the Glory of his Works in the whole Earth even for ever and ever Amen A Concluding Word to those that falsly accuse me and my Brethren of being Papists FInally Whereas there are divers that have accused me and my Brethren as being persons which in the bottom of our hearts are Papists This may plainly serve as a Testimony very substantial that we are so judged upon none other than a wrong and false account as hath been demonstrated by Doctrine Life Example and large Suffering among such persons and in such places as are counted the most reputed Papists upon the face of the Earth Which is more than ever Luther Calvin or any Protestant or other Sect testified or witnessed viz. against the persons in the same place yea than any would be willing to do amongst all the Sects in England that cry against Pope and Popery here at home in their own Liberties or upon soft Cushions on Pulpits yea I can say that I have found many that have falsly accused me of Popery that would not for a King's Ransom go to Rome and cry against it as I have done and therefore their own Consciences may rather accuse themselves of Deceipt or at least-wise as Backbiters whilst they speak that against the Pope in England which they would not speak to the Pope himself at Rome as I sought to clear my Conscience to the Pope's face and therefore are but like the Papists that backbite and speak evil of English Sects in the Countries where their own is tolerated and approved of which is but of one unrighteous nature in them all of all Parties From all which the Accusations of my Accusers do turn upon their own heads as an undeniable Covering of shame who henceforth in prudence may rather choose the keeping of silence than utterance of slanders c. Yet after all the precited Passages I do hereby intimate a few of the Papists Principles which I together with the rest of the People of God called Quakers do utterly deny as not being of GOD'S holy Spirit of Truth but consequently of the spirit which produced all their other invented Traditions which suite not with the holy Nature of the holy Eternal GOD. 1. We deny the Pope and his Cardinals to be of the Election of GOD Angels or Saints and therefore in their Places and Offices not of GOD nor the Truth but contrary to God and the Truth 2. We deny the supposed place of Purgatory which the Papists professe to be after death we owning no Purgatory for the Soul after the Body is departed this life 3. We utterly deny all Images which the Papists worship and bow down before 4. We deny the Masse both matter and manner thereof 5. We deny Prayers to be made unto Saints or Angels which the Papists use seeing Christ saith Ye shall henceforth ask nothing of me but of the Father in my Name Many other things I could insert but at present forbear But whereas lastly that I have denyed the abovesaid five Particulars to be any thing of Truth it lyes upon the Papists to prove them according to the Spirit of Truth if they are able and not according to their own nor their father's inventions else all men may see that they live in Deceit Errour and Falshood of which let all men take heed lest they should be wilfully destroyed John Perrot THE END
the waves of temptations passing over your weary minds you shal not always mourn like doves for a mate nor grieve like Widows for the losse of their Beloveds neither shall your dayes be alwayes Tribulations nor the continuance of your time as surpassing pangs of pains But surely you shall draw into a good time wherein Beauty shall be given into your souls for Ashes the Oyl of Joy for Mourning and the Garments of Praise for the spirit of heaviness in which time the strength of the LORD your Maker shall be the Pavillion of you Peace and you shall rest in his Joys for ever Well therefore O ye tender Friends whom my soul is seeking in the Love of my Father to be united unto Him in his Holiness Come and experience this Doctrine and prove this new and living Way of the LORD though not another than that which from the beginning was but only new unto the old nature of all flesh which corrupteth its way in the sight of the Lord God which is the Way wherein the holy Apostles and suffering Servants of JESUS lived and walked and being but one as the Apostle saith There is one Way one Truth and one Life as ye believe and confess there is but one True GOD and therefore as ye find in your way coruption abounding ye have cause also to confess that the Way of God being but one cannot be the Way in which you walk Forasmuch as GOD hath said by the mouth of his holy Prophet speaking of the Messiah I will give him for a Way and for an high way which the wayfaring-men though fools shall not erre therein Who also spake by the same Prophet saying I will give Him for a Covenant to the People for a Light to the Gentiles that He may be my Salvation unto the ends of the Earth of whom also in the fulness of the dispensation of time John the Baptist bore Witness testifying Him to be the True LIGHT that lighteth all mankind coming into the World as Christ himself said I am the LIGHT of the World he thot believeth in me shall not abide in Darkness but shall have the Light of Life This is the Way even the true Way of the LORD GOD which I desire through proof your souls may experience And to the end that you may have the true Witness within you of the Power of Holiness which leads into perfect Unity with the Perfect GOD in the Innocent Life of the Lamb of GOD that taketh away the sin of the World I tenderly exhort counsel and advise you to turn your minds unto that Light of the Lamb of GOD which shineth into all your Souls convincing you in all your Consciences of all your sins and joyning your minds unto it in perfect Love of it because it is of the pure Nature of your pure Creator you shal come in due time to find and see assuredly that as that same Light which shineth in all your Consciences is of such a powerful and virtuous Nature as that it not onely searcheth your hearts and tryeth your reins and finds out your most secret sins but also convinceth you as well of the least as of the greatest of your sins so it will likewise free deliver and ease you from the burden of your sins which is the cause of your dissatisfaction and many sorrows because that as it is of GOD pure perfect and altogether virtuous in its nature cannot change from its property nature and vertue but as it convinceth of the least sin being loved and lived in must also deliver from the least sin and being still of the same vertue and nature of GOD convincing your souls of your greatest sins being loved and lived in must also free and deliver you from your greatest sins and being found of so pure and powerful a nature and vertue to free and deliver your souls from your least and from your greatest sins must also of necessity in the same love deliver you from all your sins The which all must confess excepting some in Atheism might say That the perfect Grace and Light of the Alsufficient GOD is an Insufficient Medicine to heal the soul perfectly of all its maladies and infirmities But I am better perswaded of all you that desire the true Knowledge of the true and living God having a sensible Understanding in you that there is such a Light shining into your souls that sheweth you all your sins the which ye may remember you have had from your Childhood because you cannot otherwise say but that from your Childhood it accused you of all your sins in the secrets of your Consciences which no one else could accuse you of but yet ye were not then directed unto it as you are now counselled and therefore could not know the power and virtue because you never proved its force strength and virtue through a perfect love yeelding in obedience unto its motions and often checks of your minds Wherefore this is the happy day of your Visitation wherein it is told you that if you love that LIGHT which shews you the nature of all Temptation unto Evil and joyn unto the LIGHT so as to be guided by the LIGHT which is contrary to all Evil it will deliver you from the end of the Tempter which presents the Temptation by saving you from the Evil which Light you will then know in the invisible power of the holy God which is given you for the perfecting of his Praise in your hearts through the forming and new-creating your hearts into the mind of his own Righteous Spirit which thing you cannot know but through the experience and tryal which in the tryal I am sure as God is holy and that measure of Light in your Consciences is of GOD which is holy vertuous and powerful will purifie you from sin and perfectly save and deliver you from all evil And therefore I must needs conclude that he is most extreamly sinful and desperatly evil that saith he desireth to be delivered from all sin and evil which will not try to experience such a power and virtue of the Grace of GOD given into his soul which is able to save and deliver him from all evil Be ye therefore wise O People unto your own Salvation having had experience of the vanity of your own way and wayes try ye now the Righteous Way of GOD in which you cannot transgress and that because in your wayes you have not found rest to your desirous and thirsty souls which of all things would choose rather to be cloathed with the Righteousness of the living GOD and after tryal by pure obedience in pure and undefiled love if ye find not deliverance from your sins which is the cause of your pressures and burdens and afterwards the peace of your poor souls and satisfaction of your simple tender minds even in fulness of Content and Joy in the Pleasures of Immortal Life which is the end of all your Desires Requests and earnest seekings Then