thy Inhabitants O Scotland from the Lord who yet remembers the kindness of thy youth and the love of thy espousals in former dayes and the tenderness and simplicity and uprightness of heart that was among many of you then with a pure zeal for his Name And oh what meltings and breathings of soul was after the living God! and nothing could satisfie but his living presence which also no doubt hath been in a measure by some enjoyed but oh how have ye forsaken your first love and turned down-right enemies against that which was once your very life and is the life of those ye are persecuting at this day and blaspheming to wit the revelation of the Light Life Power Love and Spirit of God in our souls which filleth us with heavenly comfort joy unspeakable and full of Glory Oh how have ye forsaken the fountain of living waters and digged to your selves broken Cesterns that can hold no water Return O back-sliding Scotland for this I do declare unto thee in the name of the Lord he hath yet thoughts of loving kindness unto thee and a seed there is in thee which is very dear and precious unto him and he cannot forget it more then the tender-hearted mother the fruit of her womb and though she should forget yet the Lord will not forget thee for thou art set as a seal upon his heart and writ upon the palms of his hands O thou beloved seed and he will give redemption unto thee and raise thee up out of the holes and caves of the earth where thou hast lain so long buried as in the grave and the Lord hath raised and is raising up his seed in some already who are a kind of first fruits unto him and he hath brought us to walk in the light of his countenance and rent the vails and given us to behold his lovely amiable face with joy and made us an entrance into the blessed Land of Promise and we have eat abundantly of the good of the Land and the finest of the wheat and honey out of the Rock hath been given unto us and we have drunk of the wine and tasted the Vine-grapes thereof and the Land is a good Land and though there be Giants and the sons of Amaleck in the way yet it is conquerable and we cannot but report well of it and God hath blessed our testimony and shall bless it to hundreds and thousands who yet are not able to hear us nor will they because of the anguish of soul under the hard yoak of Pharoah in the Land of Egypt and house of bondage but God will break and is breaking the yoak of oppression from off the neck of his seed and will give it victory and dominion over all And now blessed are they who know and hearken unto the joyfull sound of the everlasting Gospel which publisheth peace and bringeth good tydings of salvation and proclaimeth the acceptable year of the Lord and the day of vengeance of our God to comfort all that mourn to appoint unto them that mourn in Sion to give them beauty for ashes the oyle of joy for mourning the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness that they might be called trees of righteousness the planting of the Lord that he might be glorified And now O Scotland prize the day of thy visitation and know the things that belong to thy peace before they be hid from thine eyes and the day of grace sett upon thee and put away thy abominations out of the fight of the holy pure God which are matter of provocation unto him against thee And whereas thou hast often assayed a Reformation unto the Lord but it hath never come to be perfect and thorow and ye have been so far from going forward that ye have shrunk back and turned again with the dog to the vomit wherefore now at last return to the Lord with whom there is yet mercy and plenteous redemption and reform thoroughly unto him who will not receive halfes off your hands And now I will shew you councel from the Lord which I do declare in bowels of dear and tender love unto you what ye shall do in order to a cleanly perfect and through Reformation Above all mind the Light of Christ in your Consciences and heed it diligently in its motion and shinings forth thorough the darkness and as ye give obedience to it in what it reveals unto you for duty and shun what it discovers to be evil it will more and more arise and shine forth in pure transparent brightness from one degree of glory to another and lay hold upon the darkness to the dispelling of it and swallowing it up wholly in the womb of its brightness and the Light will shew you the foundation on which ye shall build Jesus Christ the Wisdom and Power of God and the Word of eternal Life the chief corner stone from which the Light comes and it leads to him and will bring you into acquaintance with him and the leadings and teachings of his Holy Spirit to which yee shall do well to keep Chast else the Serpent by his subtlety will again ensnare you and Mystery Babylon will bewitch you with the cup of her Fornications And oh your not keeping chast to the Lord hath often marred the work in your hands and if ye come not in the future to keep closely and chastly to him ye shall never prosper in any of your attempts and all shall be but lost labour And take up the cross to every thought desire imagination motion and affection of your own hearts and this will steer your course aright and guide your feet in every step and stay and ballance your minds and hold down every thing which would arise out of the wrong ground and the pure Light will shine forth in your minds thus stayed under the cross with glorious beams of brightness and sweetly manifest unto you all whatsoever the Lord requires of you and as ye must not be forward in running on without the leadings of Christ the head in you so be not backward nor slow in following after him nor sit down by the way saying in your selves thus far will we go and no further Oh this hath also been a snare unto you and mind the pure holy living power more then the form and wherever the power and Spirit of life doth not move or appear in the forme disown it and stand against it and whatever form or appearance the living power leads into or moves in be for it and own it and as ye come to live and walk in Gods fear it will beget more and more a discerning in you to know and feel the power and distinguish manifestly the dead dry and life-less form and appearance from the living and be willing to be searched as with Candles thoroughly and hide nothing which the Lord requires to be given up nor keep up any thing whatsoever that his controversie and indignation is against and rid you of
which is of the Lord's Spirit perswading the hearts of people to be one with us in principle and practice and to stand up with us living witnesses for the name and truth of the living God which he is revealing and we assuredly know all the weapons that are formed either against the truth or the witnesses of it shall not prosper and the Lord shall make to himself a glorious name in the earth and we the people of the Lord whom he hath formed for himself shall shew forth his praise and the Lord will make it manifest that we are his and that he hath raised us up and put his Spirit in us and that he dwells in and among us to all the Kindreds and Nations of the Earth and they who will not see shall see and be ashamed and confounded for their envy at the people whom God hath blessed and will bless for ever and ever and no deceit nor violence shall prevail against them And therefore now O ye people of Scotland know ye that the day of God is broke up among us the people of the Lord called by you in derision Quakers but who indeed tremble at the Word of his power when it is sounded forth from the Throne of Majesty yea and the mighty dreadful terrible God of strength power and Majesty Victory and Dominion hath determined to shake the Heavens and the Earth and all the powers thereof to the utter confusion and fall of whatsoever standeth up in opposition against the seting up of his eternal Kingdom of Righteousness in the hearts of the Children of Men and the little stone cut out of the Mountain without hands shall grow and fill the earth and become a Mountain and it shall dash to pieces the Image of Clay and Iron Brass Silver and Gold and the Land of graven Images shall be smitten and all the Gods of the Heathen famished and all the Idols shall be broken and cast into the holes of the rock and Dagon shall not be able to stand before the Ark nor Babylon before the spouse of Christ which is coming forth to face all their enemies fair as the Sun and terrible as an Army with banners yea cloathed with the Sun and the Moon under her feet And the Lord is making a work in this day which shall make all ears to tingle and every heart to faint and fail that will not bow at the arm of his power stretched forth The day of the Lord is come and he is preparing himself to battle as a strong man as one awakned of out sleep who hath long suffered the reign and Kingdom of darkness and as one that cryeth out in the dread of his strength by reason of Wine and he is making bare his arme and covering himself with zeal as with a cloak now will I arise now will I lift up my self saith the Lord and who is able to stand up and make war with him whereof prepare to meet thy God O Scotland in the way of his judgments and repent repent repent of your iniquities from the highest to the lowest for the controversie of the dreadful God of power the zealous angry God who will not acquit the guilty is against the one and the other of you without respect of persons because of your abominations whereby his pure holy Spirit hath been grieved and provoked against you Oh Scotland Scotland the cry of thine iniquities hath come up before God into his throne and he is weary with forbearing to execute the fierceness of his wrath upon you though ye be not weary with sining but are drawing iniquity as with Cart-ropes and filling up the measure even to the brime Wherefore a Cup of trembling trembling saith the Lord God shall be put into thy hands if thou speedily repent not thou shall drink shall not escape and it shall be more tollerable for Sodom and Gomorab in the day of judgment then for you forasmuch as you have sinned against more Light and have had more warnings from the Lord one way and another and he hath borne with you long and strived much with you by his Spirit to reclaim you and would have healed you but ye will not be healed and oh how have your hearts turned back as a deceitful bow and shrunk from that measure of simplicity tenderness and zeal for the Lord that was once among you and because yee took up a profession of God above all the Nations of the Earth and have so treacherously backslidden therefrom in the day of tryal therefore is your sin exceedingly aggravated before the Lord and he will punish you above all the Nations of the earth if ye break not off from your sins by speedy and unfeigned repentance And now ye who mock at the quakings and tremblings of the people of God who feel the load of wrath ready to break out upon you and sink you down to the bottome of Hell and would faine stand in the gapes and hold off the wrath and are in great travel because of the dreadful day they see coming upon you and many times are crying unto God for mercy unto you when ye are adding drunkness to thirst and persecuting them and saying tush tush no evil shall befall us where is the promise of his coming ye shall be made to tremble and your loyns to shake and the joynts of your knees with Belshazar reading the hand writing against you to smite one against another and paleness shall come up upon your faces and pangs as of a woman in travel take hold of you and the Lord will roar out of Zion against you and tear in pieces as a Lyon and who will then be able to deliver you out of his hand and that comfort and peace will be far from you which we the Lords people do witness after all our fears and tremblings for the cup we have drunk at his hands is sweetly tempered with mercy and judgment and in measure he debateth with us and stayeth his rough wind in the day of his East and our hearts which once trembled for fear and dread and sorrow are now made to rejoyce with trembling at the powerful and glorious appearance of him in our souls so that we have been made to sing unto him that song we will praise thee O Lord for though thou wast angry with us thy anger is turned away and we are comforted And yet now O Scotland the Lord hath bowels of tender pitty and compassion towards thee which many times I have felt and do feel with many others and he is much put to it so to speak concerning thee what to do with thee and his mercy and judgement are at a kind of holy contest and wrestling about thee How shall I give thee up how shall I deliver thee O people of Scotland how shall I make thee as Admah and set thee as Zeboim my heart is turned within me my repentings are kindled together which word hath often sounded through me towards
all your Idols of silver and gold all the wares and pleasant things of Babylon and the Jewels and ear-rings ye have of the Egiptians to wit the many Inventions that hath crept in in the night of Apostacy to the ensnaring and bewitching of your people and father nothing upon the Scriptures nor upon God but that which is purely of him and revealed unto you from the Spirit of truth opening and interpreting the Scriptures unto you which holy men of God did write from the Inspiration of his Spirit and can only be understood in and from a measure of the same and put not the name of the Ordinances of Jesus Christ upon Babylons brats which whoso taketh them and dasheth to pieces against the stones blessed shall they be And away with all the Wisdom of this World which God is a confounding and all consultings and reasonings with flesh and blood and judging or determining of things but in the wisdom and councel of God in the Revelation of the Spirit of truth in each particular let that be your rule in all things and ye shall walk surely and put away this dead life-less ignorant prophane scandalous Ministry own no Ministery but such who is taught of God speaks because he believes and ministers from the power and spirit of life and away with makeing any humane gifts or indowments of Learning which is but flesh and must die and wither the qualifications of a Minister and do not limit the Spirit of the Lord in chusing or refusing any for the work of the Ministry they are well fitted whom he enables though foolish and contemptible to the carnal eye and by these foolish weak and despicable things the Lord hath brought and is bringing great things to pass and away with your dead life-less worship praying and singing which comes not from the breathings and movings of the spirit of life from God and away with your mungrel Church patch'd up of the prophance rable of the World let such who fear God separate and come out from among them and disown them for fellow members of the body whereof Christ is the head and have no communion with them in their worship which is Idolatry and away with your sprinklings of Infants it s but of Babylon with many other things the Light of Christ as ye heed it will discover unto you which in the night of darkness hath passed for Gods ordinance but the day hath discovered them to have the Beasts mark and superscription and away with setting Bread and Wine before a prophane wicked multiude who hath nothing but the bare name of a Christian telling them its the Communion of the Body and Blood of Christ it 's abomination to God and away with the carnal false licentious unbounded liberty ye take to your selves in words diet apparel and worldly conversation mind the cross diligently and it will teach you the golden path of Mediocrity or Moderation in all things and away with all respecting of persons and the honour which comes not from God whose service is only to feed the lust of the eye the lust of the flesh and the pride of life and be willing and desirous to see the glory of the pride of all flesh stained and the Lord alone exalted honoured and glorified in and among the Children of men And away with all Uniformity which is not of the Lords Spirit and away with all force and constraint in the matter of Conscience and Religion and away with all carnal weapons either to defend or propagate the truth away with your Lording and mastering and monopolizing ministry who would limit the Spirit of the Lord and make a monopoly of the gifts of God away with your distinctions of Clergy and Laicks and superstitious Habits and attires for discriminating them and away with your set and alloted hires and maintenance for a Ministry and forcing of people to pay them which hath been a great snare unto many and hath lyen nigh all who from a principle of covetousness seeing thereby means of a livelihood hath intruded themselves into the ministerial Function and given poor people to believe they were called of God thereto whereas generally it is a thing well known they get into Parishes by worldly means they setting their friends and relations on work to sollicite and move the Patrons of the Parishes or such most concerned therein to give them entrance and when the thing is granted then he called the Minister steps up into a Pulpit and sayes thus to the people Beloved by the providence of God I am called to be your Pastor and a watch-man over you as one who must give an account for your souls in the day of judgement and the Lord knows it 's not any other principle but a vehement desire thorough love to your souls to teach and instruct you in the knowledge of God and to edifie you in the Faith that hath moved me to come among you and I have received a talent and I must improve it and the ability God hath given me to instruct you together with the great desire I have to use it for your edification I take for a sufficient call from God and I have also the Patrons and the most considerable in the Parish their call Whereas they make it manifestly appear that covetousness hath set them thereon for how soon any of their brethren dies so that another Parish becomes vacant which hath a greater stipend or maintenance they fall upon their first trade of solliciting for an entrance thereto and they stick not to quit the charge of their first Flock and to give their Wife to wit the Kirk which they say they are married to a Bill of divorce though oft-times there be no occasion on her part and it 's not the Patrons or people who hath called them but they first called them and when the people refuses to pay them their allotted hire they pursue them with horning and poinding which shews them to be far from the affection of husbands to their wives or parents to their children or Pastors to the Flock all which they pretend to be and were they good Pastors their Flock would afford them milk and wool not of constraint but willingly so that they needed not either squeeze the pap to the causing it bleed or tear the fleece off before the time of casting it to the pulling the skin in pieces many times and the ability they talk of is not of God but of men and it 's not God's free gift for it hath cost them both much money and time at Schools to purchase it and were it the talent of the Lord it would prove more effectual to the bettering of the people which it does not for at ten twenty thirty forty years end and upwards they are as bad as at the first coming among them and in many places much worse and the vehement desire to do the people good they tell of is but a suggestion of their deceitful
getting many of the outward forms and words of the Saints the sheeps cloathing but inwardly adulterated from the life and Spirit of Jesus Christ the only foundation of the true Church and was not the ground of the Dragons Whores Beasts false Prophets quarrel against the Martyrs and witnesses of Christ principally this that they held the testimony of Jesus which is the spirit of Prophecie Rev. 19.10 and bear witness against the Whore who had the form retained without the power yea denyed the power of godliness denyed the teachings and leadings of the Spirit of Christ and the Revelation of him in the hearts of the children of men this is the Antichrist who denies Christ the Son come thus in the revelation of himself in the heart for that coming of Christ in his bodily appearance at Ierusalem Antichrist will not does not deny it being he knows it will never harm his Kingdom so to confess him come providing Christ his Kingdom be not set up in the heart now was there not such a dispensation in the earth were there not a people in the Apostles dayes who witnessed Christ come again in spirit according to his promise who said If any keep my commands I and my Father will come and dwell with him And again I go away but I will not leave you comfortless I will come again unto you Iohn 17. And after the Resurrection and Ascension of Christ were they not indued with the Spirit from on high and filled with the holy Ghost did they not live in the Spirit walk after the Spirit did it not give the knowledge of the mysteries of God's Kingdom unto them did not the Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation open the eyes of their understanding to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge and while they kept here did they not remain a pure chast Church unto Christ and while the eye was kept open and single by the revelation of the Spirit of Truth could the Dragon or Whore or Antichrist prevail over them could the many traditions or inventions get place as the Ordinances of Christ had they kept to the evidence and demonstration of the Spirit of God Now was not the principal Defection and Apostacy from this even the pure chast Light Life and Spirit of Christ revealing God and the things of this Kingdom unto them and when people wandred from this there the inventions took place and Babylons cup was drunk for the vail came over whereby the true discerning was lost and a wrong eye opened which could not but judge amiss of the things of God and of his People and wrest and abuse the Scriptures Now ye who say That there was indeed such a dispensation but now it hath ceased and is never any more to take footing in the eaâ—th do ye not hereby demonstrate your selves to be of the whorish Church for hath not this been her plea all along this dark night of Apostacy that the Revelation Teachings and leadings of the Spirit of Chirst is ceased therefore another Head was set up in the Church then Christ Jesus and the Pope and his Council was made Judge to determine all controversies of Religion and no man was to look at an infallible Judge the spirit of Truth within him and are ye not become as bad who openly affirm that ye are not led by the infallible Spirit and consequently not by the Spirit of God and your Church Confession of Faith saith The former way of God's revealing himself by Prophecy and immediate Revelation is ceased and God hath committed his counsel wholly into writing or to the Scriptures and nothing is to be added thereto by any new revelation of the Spirit And oh how faâ— are ye in this point degenerated and apostatized from the primitive Protestants and Reformers who not only affirmed that there was immediate Revelations from God and that the Spirit of Prophecie was not ceased but witnessed the same in themselves and foretold many things of consequence by the spirit of Prophecie which came to pass did not Iohn Knox and George Wishard prophecie exceeding clearly of whom it was said That from the day he entred upon his Ministry tâ— his death there never came a storm upon the Church but he foresaw the end of it as may be seen in the Book of the Reformation of the Church of Scotland and many others did prophecie as ye may read in Fox's Book of Martyrs and was not this the main and only pillar of the Protestant cause against the Papists who should be the Judge of Controversies and the interpreter of Scriptures The Pope and his Council with the Fathers said The Papists no said the Protestants but the Spirit of God And I read in the fore-cited Book of Martyrs how when some who were burnt for their testimony to the Truth in Queen Maries dayes were called before the Popish Clergy and Bishops who disputed with them and when the controversie arose concerning such points or Scriptures the Popish party alleadged the determination of the Church but the Martyrs pleaded for the determination of the Spirit of God and when it was queried if such had the Spirit of God and it was answered Yea and one brought that Scripture for his assertion who is Antichrist but he that denyeth that Christ is come in the flesh the people partly flouted thereat and laughed them to scorn as yee do us at this day because we affirm that we have the Spirit of God and that Christ is come and his life made manifest in our mortal flesh as saith the Apostle Paul And that which sounds very harsh in your ears at this day and is mocked at by you yea accounted delusion and blasphemy viz. Enthusiasm or the Inspiration of God and the motion of his Spirit was a thing usually known professed and possessed also by them as may be read at large in the aforesaid books and they said faith was the Inspiration of Gods Spirit and so it is and I deny that there is any true faith but that which comes as really and immediately from the inspiration of the Spirit as ever Paul or Peter or any of the Apostles and Prophets witnessed the same whom yee your selves acknowledge to have been inspired and were they now living yee would hiss at them as yee do at us calling them Inthusiasts and Oh what a time are we fallen in that the inspiration of the Spirit of God which is the very breath of life into the souls of the Lords people should be scorned and such as witness such a blessed and glorious dispensation nick-named Fanaticks and mad men even by them who have pretended so highly to be the reformed Church and at such a time wherein the day of God is broke up in such clearness in the midst of them yet they know it not 2. Your fore-fathers the primitive Protestants and Reformers who saw a little further into mysterie Babylon then others that went before them for the day brake up gradually and
fore-fathers denyed the Church of Rome to be a true Church and her Priests and Teachers and Bishops and Popes to be the true Ministers of Christ but called them Antichristian and her the Whore of Babylon and the Pope Antichrist from which testimony you their posterity generally have shrunk saying that the Popish Roman Church is a true Church though corrupt which doctrine is generally maintained by you and I have heard it asserted by those of no small profession and it hath been preached in publick and that their Ministers are true Ministers though corrupt And you say if a Popish Priest should baptize a child it holds good and is a true Baptism and this ye are driven to maintain by the hairs of the head so to speak when ye are arraigned both by the Papists on the one hand and by us on the other concerning the rise of your Ministry and the call of your first Reformers to preach the Gospel for ye are drawn to a pittiful Dilemma or Alternative which is to confess that either your first Protestant Reformers and Preachers were lawfully called by the Popish Priests and Bishops to their Ministry and consequently that these Popish men were true Ministers of Christ or else to grant they were called immediately of God and ye find it most safe to uphold your Kingdom to yield to the former though against the hair rather then to confess the latter and a third shift cannot be invented and ye should be constrained to give away the main pillar of your cause against us and howgh your selves suffer the root upon which the National Ministry grows to be struck at by your own consent for your main plea against our ministry and Ministers is Who sent you have ye the call of the Church how can ye preach unless ye be called Our answer is we are called of God immediately by his Spirit as was Isaiah Amos Paul and many other servants of the Lord who never had a call from man and all that men can do in this point is to approve consent to have union with such as are called of God to the work of the Ministry which we dearly own and refuse not to be tryed by such as have a spirit of discerning and the approbation of such is accepted by us Now ye reply to us after this manner Immediate calls are now ceased 5. And this is another weighty point wherein ye have apostatized from your fathers the primitive Protestants whose answer was the self-same with ours to the Papists who asked them concerning their call to the Ministry that they were called and moved thereto by God and it was one of the points of Dittay against that faithful Martyr of Jesus Christ George Wishard one of your fathers whom the Papists burnt for his testimony that he had taken up the Ministry in his own head and at his own hand and was not called to it which may be seen in the fore-cited Book called the History of the reformation in Scotland which Book ye generally own and it shall be a witness against you and your fore-fathers were far from that poor shift you their posterity run your selves upon that they were called of the popish Priests and Bishops for neither were the most part of them called by such nor any other creature and such as were called by them disown'd their call and denyed them to be the true Ministers or their Church though corrupt a true Church as ye now generally maintain And in the by I would ask you one question if the popish Church be a true Church though corrupt as ye affirm why have ye separated from it and how can ye justifie your separation there-from for it 's another principle of yours That a Church holding the fundamentals which make it say ye a true Church though there be many corruptions therein is not to be separated from And this principle ye have taken up to justifie your compliance with Prelacy and this late Church-model and frame which ye formerly vomited up and not only quit it and the poor Bishops could not be permitted to live among you for after you pulled them out of their places ye banisht them but vowed to God against the same And now it stood somewhat against your stomacks to receive it among you again and honour such men as ye accounted unworthy of a foot of ground in the Nation and excommunicated then till ye fell upon this pill whereby ye got it digested viz. The Episcopal party is a true Church and therefore we ought not to separate from them because of their corruptions and shuning one inconvenience have ye not fallen upon another far greater and quite given away your cause into the hands of the Papists for what can you answer them who query you why ye separated from them being a true Church though corrupt as ye call it and I believe if Popery were urged upon you even the blackest of it all and ye have too much of it else this pill of yours would help the most part of you to digest it also 6. And your fathers the primitive Protestants denyed that a wicked man could be a true Minister of the Gospel as may be read at large in Fox's Book of Martyrs No man living in mortal sin could be a Minister of the Gospel was their common assertion and it was one of the points of Dittay against Iohn Husse for which he was burned because he affirmed a wicked man no Minister and have ye not shamefully shrunk from them herein who maintain it that grace is not absolutely necessary for the being of a Minister and that wicked men may be Ministers and ye would prove it from Iudas being an Apostle Now Iudas fell from his Ministry as saith the Scripture in selling his Master Christ which generally your Ministers have done and have they not thereby fallen from their Ministry supposing but not granting they had once been true Ministers and is it not exceeding ignorance and stupidity to affirm that a wicked man who knows not Christ nor the things of his Kingdom as saith the Apostle the natural man understands not the things of God can be a preacher of Christ and his Kingdom is it not as great a riddle as who would say a blind man can give a true description of light or colours or Pilot a Ship shew the right way to a passenger yea and much more how can they preach unless they believe We believe therefore have we spoken saith Paul 7. Your fathers the primitive Protestants and Reformers affirmed That any good man might be yea was a Priest and Minister which also was the assertion particularly of George Wishard and it was one point of his Dittay and I read it in the History of the Reformation of the Church of Scotland a petition put up to the Queen by the first Reformers That when in the so called Parish Kirk obscure places of Scripture were read any qualified man might have liberty to speak and
open the Scripture for the edification of the people and it was appointed so to be afterwards as is evident by the Books of Policy and Discipline framed and presented to the Council Anno 1560. which thing by you is called disorder and confusion and it was an usual practice among them without distinction of Clergy-man or Layely when they met together to speak of the things of God and of his work on their hearts every one according to his gift and these who spake were not distinguished from these who heard by the name of Master and stepping up into a Pulpit and by getting the hands of so many laid upon them or by a black Gown or Canonical coat And Iohn Husse an eminent Instrument of the Reformation and Preacher in Germany did wear a gray coat which he gave to his friend some dayes before his death as Fox's Book of Martyrs relates And ye that are so much against Women-preachers some of you may remember upon a day when ye met together apart men and women and spoke of the operation of God on your hearts without the distinction of Sex and women allowed dearly to exhort pray or speak of God's dealings with their souls and now ye would bring Paul's words against womens speaking in the Church or rather against Christ the man his speaking in them being ignorant what women Paul meant when he wrote that he permitted not the women to speak in the Church now are not two or three or half a dozen of men and women fearing God gathered in his Name a true Church or are not two or three godly women met together a Church though a man be not among them and may they not exhort one another and pray and give thanks together and is not that speaking in the Church and the Scripture speaks of a Church in one family and if a woman or rather the man Christ speaking in the woman may speak in the audience of six or twelve why not in the audience of six or twelve hundred and the woman having experience of God's work on her heart and who hath felt the love of God shed abroad in her soul is she not fitter to speak of those things then a hundred men who are ignorant thereof So foolish are ye become in your reasonings and there are many living yet in the Nation who remember of women who have spoke so feelingly so lively and experimentally of the Lord's work upon their hearts that many eminent Preachers and Ministers so accounted have thought shame to open their mouth in their presence 8. Your Fathers the primitive Protestants and Reformers made not Latine Greek and Hebrew and Aristotle's Logick and Philosophy with other humane Learning and the passing of so many years course at the Colledge and that you call School-divinity the qualifications of a Minister of Christ many yea the most of them never was at Colledge nor had the opportunity of any to go unto unless to a Popish nor had they any of these Languages or curious Arts but were honest plain simple men such as ye now call Rusticks and Tradesmen many of them and yet they passed among your Fathers for Ministers but if these men were alive now ye would cry Away with them non-sensical fellows what can they say they are not learned should ignorant men preach should Wives Shoo-makers Plow-men Herds-men be Ministers of Christ should they incroach upon our sacred Function should not they hold them with their Callings So say ye against many of us who are not Book-learned and are Tradesmen and this same was the very plea of the Papists against your fore-fathers being Ministers See how ye have borrowed their weapons whereby they fought against them whose successors ye boast your selves to be but as these Popish arguments were too weak against them so are they against us for our answer to you is though we be not taught with humane Learning nor have the Languages many of us wherein the Scriptures were writ yet we are taught of God and that is better we have been with Jesus and have been made eye-witnesses of his Majesty and yee are worse then the Iews who crucified Christ for when they admired that Peter being an unlearned man did preach yet this caused their admiration to cease they took notice that he had been with Jesus as we have been and some of us can truly say whereof I am one we have learned more in one hours company with Jesus then we did in seven years from the Gamaliels and Rabbies among you at whose feet we have so long sitten and we are come to the Spirit of God that gave forth the Scriptures and gives us their meaning and sence though we have not the Languages and which all the Languages of the world cannot afford to us and though many of us know not to preach in the excellency of mans wisdom and some of us who could yet have renounced it and dare not use such a way lest the Cross of Christ should be of none effect yet we can speak and have spoken in the evidence and demonstration of the Spirit the words which the holy Ghost teacheth us and he hath made us able Ministers of the new Testament not of the letter which kills but of the Spirit which gives life and God hath blessed our Ministry so that many unto whom we have ministred have been quickned and brought into the fellowship of the Gospel with us and such a Ministry had Paul which he learned not of man and yet had Book-learning enough and such a Ministry God hath raised up in this day which is the free gift of God to which I bear my testimony and a part of which I have received and now is that Promise fulfilled and fulfilling in many hundreds I will make a new Covenant with them and they shall be all taught of me from the least to the greatest and I will write my Law in their hearts in a Language which is neither Hebrew nor Greek but such as he that is born of the Spirit can only understand and I will put my fear in their inward parts And now our hearts are come to delight in the fear of God which teacheth us the hidden mysterious wisdom which none of the Princes or Rabbies of this world knows and by the Word and Law of God writ in our hearts we are made wiser then our Teachers and when this dispensation shall fill the earth as it is doing what shall then become of the Scribe what shall become of the Senator what shall become of the Doctor and Rabby and Disputer of this World who spoke to us in a Language that neither they themselves nor we could understand but now saith the Lord as Isa. 33.19 Thou shalt not see a fierce people a people of deep speech that thou cannot perceive of a stammering tongue that thou canst not understand Glory to God the pure Language is known which was before Babylon was wherein the many Languages
with you and when any such die the cry goes through your streets there is a faithful brother departed c. or when any of them hath a child to be sprinkled the Priest will cause him to rehearse the Articles of his Faith and he hath no more faith nor so much as the devil for the true faith purifies the heart and lodges in a good conscience Oh horrid abomination and is not the zeal among Professors quite withered and deadness laziness stupidity security neutrality carelessness and sottishness generally overgrown them and all manner of iniquity abounds POSTSCRIPT ANd now ye who accuse us in derision called Quakers by you as Apostates and that we have denyed our fore-fathers Faith try your selves and parallel your fathers principles and practices with your own and also with ours and ye shall find ye are degenerated from them exceedingly as we were while with you but through the grace of God are we recovered and brought to witness the Spirit and Life of the primitive Protestants and Christians and in all 16. above-mentioned Articles we agree with them and ye disagree with them and ye cannot instance to us one particular wherein we dissent from them warranted from the very letter of Scripture for these things wherein we have forsaken them we have discovered by the Light which hath opened the Scriptures to us to have been but the inventions of men and Babylons more subtile cup of fornications which because that the day was not so broken up among them as among us now they did not discern but now the Light hath shined forth in such clearness that we have seen to the bottom of all Babylons treasures and were they living in this day they would concur with us in disowning these things and I am satisfied in it they have been accepted of the Lord according to their faithfulness but supposing ye were not shrunk from any of their principles it 's in vain for you to think that God will take that off your hands he received from them winking at their weaknesses in the day of ignorance for that which makes a people acceptable with God is their faithfulness to the dispensation of knowledge in their day and their answering his requirings therein and following him whithersoever he leads of which ye are very short and this is your condemnation Written in the 10th Month from the Tolbouth of Aberdeen G. K. True and righteous Iudgement from the God of judgement separating the precious from the vile concerning the late proceedings of the people of Scotland in the matter of their Reformation from and their covenanting against Prelacy with the corruptions and popish Superstitions accompanying it as also concerning their Church constitution Ministry Worship and Government set up by them after the pulling down of the former and discrying it as Antichristian wherein likewise the Lords controversie with them in laying them by and suffering this day to come over them is shewed in which their building is also laid in the dust and its the will of the Lord that it never be again rebuilt GIve ear unto me O ye people of Scotland of what quality or degree whatsoever and I will shew you the true and righteous judgement of God from whom I have received it and by whom I am moved to declare it unto you for your good concerning your late proceedings in the matter of your reformation from and your covenanting against Prelacy and the corruptions and popish Superstitions accompanying it and other particulars above-mentioned A zeal there was in many of you Rulers Teachers and People in that day for the Lord and his name and truth which he did tenderly regard and it was marked before him though the most of you all along minded more your selves and how to compass your selfish covetous and ambitious designs then his honour and ye made the name of truth and Religion a meer clock to cover and mask your hypocrisie with yet a true simplicity and uprightness of heart was among others of you and ye did well in disowning and departing from such men who gave themselves forth to be the Lord's Ministers and servants but they ran and he sent them not and their covetousness and ambition and seeking how to please men for their own ends and not his honour nor any true zeal for him set them on such a work to Lord it over the people which he had forbidden and it is abomination to him together with the many things accompanying them which they gave forth for his ordinances good order decency and comliness in the Church but were the meer inventions of men and Babylons golden Cup of Fornications and that ye vomitted up and refused any more to drink of this cup or to admit of such things as his Ordinances or belonging to his worship or as if he allowed it whereby your iniquity is exceedingly agravated before God and his indignation and jealosie burns as fire against you for your returning thereto and because of the iniquity of such men their pride pomp covetousness tirany and ambition his wrath kindled against them and he poured contempt and desolation upon them for the cry of their wickedness together with the Prayers and â—upplications which came from many in that day because of them ascended up into his Throne in the time of their great affliction of Spirit to see his Truth and Name so much dishonoured and the Lord heard and regarded and delivered them from that which was their trouble and grief of heart and he removed that out of the way which was a great let unto his work and glorious appearance in the Land and after the removal thereof the Lord put a fair oppertunity in your hands to have been blessed instruments in his work whereby had ye improved it ye should have been at this day a glory in the Earth a Praise a Renowne and a Blessing and your memory should have endured as a sweet savor unto all succeeding Generations But he had many things against you whereby he was provoked to lay you by also so that ye should not be honoured nor ever shall be in the state ye are in and way of your proceedings as instruments in his glorious work which he hath purposed to bring and is bringing forth in the earth even a work of wonders and admiration whereby he will make to himself a name everlasting therein and give matter to all the simple-hearted of thanksgiving and praise for ever and ever and this work he is bringing forth this day in the midst of you and yee are so far from joyning issue with him therein that ye are all opposing it but it shall go on and prosper over the heads and bellyes of all gainsayers on the face of the whole Earth and if yee repent not and give way unto his determination he will bring this word to passe against you Behold ye dispisers wonder and Perish And now hear the righteous judgment of God concerning these things he hath to
charge you with and have been snares unto you and matter of provocation unto him against you for although a true and tender Zeal in a measure there was in many of your hearts in that day for the Lord and his Name and Truth yet much of a fiery headstrong furious false Zeal not according to knowledge and which was not begot of the Lords Spirit nor kindled at his Alter did company the same and much prevailled over that which was pure and tender and of his begetting and yet he regarded this and because of it he loved and pittyed you and suffered you long till he could bear no longer for ye were become as those yea and worse whom he spued out before you against whom his controversie was and you went forwards in the counsels of of your own hearts and advised with flesh and blood and not with the Lords spirit what yee should do and yee relyed upon the arme of flesh and thought to have reformed the Land with your carnal weapons and power and force and might not considering his determination which he spoke by the word of his mouth to his Prophet of old not by might nor by power but by my Spirit saith the Lord. And yee dealt cruelly and roughly with such as had not freedom nor clearness to go on with you in the manner and way of your proceedings and so yee became guilty of the same iniquity yee cryed unto him against in those men who dealt cruelly and tyranically with your selves and yee constrained many hundreds of poor people in the Land to vow unto God and make a Covenant with you who knew not what they were doing no nor knew him at all and because yee mixed your selves in with a company of ignorant vile prophane and abominable persons without all fear of God and drew them along to concur with you thereby thinking to make your selves stronge and mighty by reason of number and unformity therefore was the Lord provoked against you for he regarded none of these things the vows of the wicked are an abomination to him with all their services and he accepteth no uniformity but that which is of his spirit which knits the members of the body together and admits nothing unto union with the body but that which is of his begeting and but two or three fearing the Lord joyning together in a perpetual Covenant to stand up witnesses for his name and truth are dearly regarded by him but many thousands associating together out of his fear he regards not at all And forasmuch as by your vowing and covenanting yee proceeded to put a stop and limit to the Lords spirit in any further discovery of his name and truth his wrath waxed exceeding hot against you and he loathed both you and your Covenant and suffered it as it is at this day to be trampled under foot and permitted your enemies which were buried in the very dust and their memory almost perished to rise up against you to wit the Prelats and bring you in greater slavery and subjection then ever and now they are doing their work and when it is done they most return to the place whence they came and the time is near and many other circumstances in your proceedings the Lord never own'd nor shall own in which as yee mind his witness in all your Consciences it shall instruct you and also show unto you the hypocritical treacherous deceitful ambitious forward spirit that moved in you and set you on work many times whereby his Spirit was grieved and that of his begetting over topped and oppressed And above all the great controversie of the Lord with and against you was and is that yee got up above the cross of Christ and turned from it the cross which is the power of God which would have kept your feet in a straight even stedy course so that yee should not have declined out of the right path either to the right or left hand and it would have proved a righteous ballance unto you whereby ye might have weighed every motion that arose in your hearts and thereby known what was of the Lords spirit and what was of your selves and of the suggestiâ—â— of the Devil which laid his snares before you and catched you in them and for that ye kept not chast to his Light in your Consciences nor to the leadings of his spirit this was it that which discovered to you the Popish and Prelatical abominations and begat a loathing in you against them so that yee could have no rest till yee came to forsake them and had yee kept chast to this it would have carried you on all along in his work and steered your course from first to last in the streight even righteous path of judgment Oh ye did run well who did hinder you but yeare become so foolish who began in the spirit to end in the flesh and now when yee got up upon the walls and bulwarks of your enemies building and leveled it to the ground when yee had rooted out Prelacy and the many corruptions and superstitions accompanying the same and digged down a good part of Babylons upsetting then yee betook your selves to build and yee thought it should have been a a house for God and it was but another Babylon for yee had gone from the true foundation the light life power and spirit of Christ in your particulars and yee gathered hay and stuble and cast upon it and suffered the earth in you to come over and ye hid the talent the Lord had given you therein even the noble and precious and blessed gift of his Light and the manifestation of his Spirit given to every man to profit withal as saith the Apostle which would have been a sure foundation unto you and would have taught you in the infallible wisdom how to have reared up the building and frame even to the setting of the least stone or pining thereof and it would have cemented and knit every part together and given it a comely proportion and all its due and proper dimensions in height bredth and length and made every stone living and it should have been a glorious building indeed a spiritual house to offer up a spiritual service and sacrifice to God continually and though the winds had blown and the rains descended and the floods had come and assaulted it yet it should have stood which it hath not but hath fallen and the fall of it is great and it hath filled you with amazement confusion and astonishment and darkness hath so overtaken you and the vail is grown so thick over your hearts that you see not as yet cannot see your own folly and that your building was but on the sand and the work of your own imagination out of the wisdom of God and this I am moved of the Lord to declare unto you that it hath been so and though your frame was somewhat more spacious and taking to the eye of man being somewhat in appearance
Elements to melt with fervent heat and the drying up of the Sea and the making all old things to vanish and the creating the new Heavens and the new Earth wherein dwelleth Righteousness and the making all things new It 's the relieving the Creation of God which hath long travelled under the bondage of Corruption It 's the coming forth of the Woman cloathed with the Sun and a Crown of twelve Starrs upon her head and the Moon under her feet out of the Wilderness And her getting victory and Dominion with her seed which hold the testimony of Jesus the spirit of Prophecy Rev. 19.10 the great quarel of the adversary against her Rev. 12. over the Dragon Beast and false Prophet It 's the discovery fall and utter overthrow of mystery Babylon the mother of Fornications who hath bewitched the whole earth with the Golden Cup her Merchants hath handed forth into them who dwell thereupon whereby they have adulterated and gone a whoring from God and the pure holy life of Jesus Christ and the chast leadings of his spirit and the true spiritual glory hath been lost from among them who drunk of the cup of her sorceries and a false imaginary glory set up in its room which is the Image of the Beast over which the Saints get victory which false glory stands in some of the words and formes of truth patched together with the inventions of men by the cunning and art of the whorish spirit which is very taking and specious to the eye of man whereby it comes to pass that this whorish woman hath been taken for the spouse of Christ and her Merchants for his Ministers The day of God is the pulling up by the roots every plant which is not of the Lords planting and the fire of the fierce wrath and indignation of God passing thorough the bryars and thorns for the consuming of them and the plowing up the fallow ground and preparing and digging and dunging of it whereby it may become good and fruitful that the pure and tender plant and seed of truth sown therein may grow up and become a tree filled with the fruits of righteousness and holiness this seed hath long lyen as it were barren in the earth which hath been as a Wilderness and brought forth the Vines of Sodom and Grapes of Gomorah but now the Lord hath looked upon the earth and pittied it for the seeds sake and hath sent forth and is sending his servants to till and dress it that it may be for the Lord and master of it a garden of pleasure and now the truth which hath been long holden down in and under unrighteousness is arising and shall arise throughout the whole earth in victory and dominion over all And we the Lords People called in derision Quakers and mocked and persecuted by the World as all the Children of God before us have been because we are not of them and they know us not do witness this day of God come and broke up among us in pure perfect brightness to the fulfilling all these things aforesaid every one in their measure and yet more abundantly to be fulfilled and his Kingdom revealed with power and great glory in our hearts and the Lord hath brought back our Captivity as the streams of the south whereat we are as those that dream for joy and we who sat by the Rivers of Babylon hanging our harps upon the Willow Trees are now returned to Zion having our hearts and our mouths filled with the Songs thereof and our Harps harping the sweet Praises of our God in the Land of our Nativity And the Lord hath redeemed us out of Kindreds Nations Tongues and People to be a peculiar people unto himself a choice Generation a royal Priesthood and holy Nation zealous of good works to shew forth the Praises of him who hath called us out of darkness into his marvelous Light which hath shined forth in beams of Glory through the darkness in us to the dispelling and swallowing up thereof by its brightness and the Light is very dear and precious unto us and we cannot deny it notwithstanding all the opposition we meet with from a wicked perverse World shut up in darkness and because they in the state they are in cannot comprehend it therefore they mock persecute and blasphem both it and the vessels thereof and they would have us to disown the Light and cease to bear our testimony unto it because they hate the Light themselves being it reproves their evil deeds and makes manifest the hidden things of dishonesty which they are loath should be known therefore they would have the Light quenched stopt and buried least their wickedness be seen hence it is that people of all Professions ranks orders qualities and degrees Rulers Teachers Priests and People Scribes Lawyers Doctors and Disputers of this World have and do oppose the Light and such who testifie of it least their pride pomp ambition lust tyranny deceit covetousness and other evil deeds which are rife among them should be made manifest and men of all callings hate the Light for deceit treachery unrighteousness hath seated and spread it self over all and taken a dominion in the Earth and is loath to quit it and therefore it puts into the hearts of all its subjects to oppose the Light which if it get footing in the earth will put a period to its raign and finish transgression and bring in everlasting Righteousness And the Devil sets men upon the opposing the Light least it bind him and cast him out of his place and spoile his house and break his Kingdom dashing it as a potters vessel into pieces and the Whore mystery Babylon the mother of Fornications hates the Light and puts into the hearts of the Kings and powers of the earth to make war with the Lamb the Light and the Children of it for that is it which discovers the cup of her Fornications and sorceries unto men and makes manifest her whorish mire whereby she may be discerned and when she is known the same Kings and Princes and great ones on the earth who upheld her shall come to loath and hate her and burn her flesh with fire and now glory to the Lord who hath shewed us Light and placed it in our hearts and hath raised and is raising it up over all opposition whatsoever in us and by this Light we have discovered the Whore the Antichrist the Beast the Dragon the subtle Serpent the false Prophet with all their subtle workings and deceivableness of unrighteousness we have seen the Land of graven Images and the wilderness where there is no way we have so long walked in hungry and thirsty and our souls fainting in us and our tongue failing with thirst and the light hath given us an out-gate shewed us an entrance into the way of life and path of righteousness holiness which the Vultures eye can never reach this path at the beginning appeared to us very strait
God having experience of the saving work of his right hand on their hearts who speak because they believe and are indued with power from on high and filled with the holy Ghost whereby they are made able Ministers of the new Testament having received gifts by the ascending of Christ on high even for the rebellious that he may dwell among them for the work of the Ministry to the perfecting of the Saints and edifying of the body and such Minister from the Light and from the Life and from the power and Spirit and Word of God whereby those to whom they Minister may come into the fellowship of the mystery with themselves and be made partakers with them of the Unction or anointing from the holy one which may be with them for ever and a teacher unto them of all things good necessary and expedient for them to know even to bring them unto the Spirit of truth which may lead them into all truth and instruct them in the will councel and commandement of God at all times whatever it be and to espouse them unto Jesus Christ the great King and Lawgiver in and to his People the great high Priest from whose mouth the Law is to be received the great Prophet by whom God speaketh now to his People wherof Moses writes who is the head in all things and who so will not hear that Prophet shall be put to death and this Prophet Jesus Christ is nigh unto us yea more nigh then all the men or books upon the face of the earth he is both our Maker and our Husband the anointed of the Lord the breath of our nostrils so that our fellowship and communion with him is most intimate and immediate and nothing else does satisfie our souls but the immediate imbraces of his dear and sweet love the seeing of his Countenance which is comely and the hearing of his voice which is pleasant and powerful and glorious and full of Majesty and the Bride rejoyceth greatly because of the voice of the Bridegroom himself and now we need not say who will go down into the grave and bring up Christ to us or who will ascend to Heaven to bring him down to us or who will go over the Seas and bring us tidings of him from Ierusalem where he suffered in the flesh him whose name is the Word of God Rev. 19. we of a truth witness nigh us even in our hearts so that we need not either ascend or descend or go forth the word of life the word of power the word of faith which Paul preached and Moses before him and all the true Ministers and pointed people to this which was able to save them as they turned their minds thereto and gave up to be taught and led thereby And this the Ministers and Servants of the Lord among the People called Quakers do preach without money or price being the free gift of God and many have believed and received it not as the Word of Men but as it is indeed the Word of God and found it after diligent attendance turning their minds inward thereto to spring up in themselves and to be living and powerful and sharp as a two edged Sword to the dividing of soul and spirit and discerning every thought and intention of the heart and though one evil and unbelieving Generation will not give credit thereto no nor yet those of the National Ministry who give themselves forth for the Ministers of Christ but are found lyars they call it a fancy and delusion and turn People from it which is the only Rock that can save them yet we know it to be the Word of God and we have tasted the Heavenly sweetness of it yea and our very hands have handled that Word of Life and we have hid it in our hearts as an only Treasure and we do daily and hourly witness the pretiousness and worth thereof for it is the food of our souls the food of Angels the living bread which came down from Heaven to give life unto the World the Manna incorruptible which feedeth us unto life everlasting and when we are an hungred it refresheth us and satisfieth our souls with good things it 's milk to the babes and flesh to the strong it 's health to our navil and marrow to our bones it 's the bread which strengthneth mans heart and the wine which maketh it glad and oyle which maketh his face to shine and when we thirst living water springeth forth from this word of life in our hearts and ministreth drink unto us out of the living fountain and we witness the promise fulfilled he that believeth in me Christ the Word out of his belly shall flow a well spring of liveing water and when we are weak and our hands hang down and our knees wax feeble the Word maketh us strong and lifteth us up as an Eagles wings so that we run and are not weary and walk and are not faint and when we are heavy through sorrow the Word springeth forth in streams of pure joy and consolation from the presence of the Lord which causeth us to forget all our former troubles and we are comforted in our God in all our straits and difficulties and when temptations from the Devil and his Instruments assault us and the powers of darkness environe and surround us as if they would swallow us up the Word sendeth forth sweet and comfortable beams of Light and openeth the eye-lids of the morning upon us and breaketh through the thick Egiptian darkness as a fiery flaming sword and divideth asunder and giveth us victory and deliverance And when we are hated of the World the Word saith peace in us and causeth it to flow into our souls like the waves of the Sea and when Sathan transformes himself with his Messengers into an Angel of Light that he may deceive us coming up out of the deep with Samuels Mantle the Word of truth which searcheth into all the depths of Satan and to the bottom of the mystery of iniquity discovereth to us the foulers snare and the voice of the inchanter so that our souls escape as a bird out of the net and the Word defends us by night and by day so that we need not fear the terror by night nor the arrow that flyeth by day nor the pestilence that walketh in darkness being girded with the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God and the Word is a light to our feet and a Lanthorn to our pathes the Vâ—im and the Thummim by which the Lord answers us and giveth us counsel in all things pertaining either to the temporal or eternal life and herein we meditate day and night and by it are we made wiser then our Teachers and it 's sweeter to us then the honey and the honey comb and more precious then thousands of gold or silver and in the Word our fellowship stands with God and one to another whereby we know and enjoy and have communion one
concernes you near consider of it in soberness and yee shall truly find it your very case at this day as then it was theirs that same spirit for the outward in opposition to the inward Ministration acting now as then and heightned in its actings now more then ever O who◠shall that be dead to you or yee to it wherein yee have been 〈◊〉 long held from beholding the Glory of the Lord as it comes forth in the work of this day And how contrary to and inconsistant with it that work was which by might and power yee were leading on though yee had attained what yee so proposed in the furthest and highest extent of that uniformity which yee so endeavoured to have imposed upon all are yee not yet sensible of your mistakes and snares in these matters so as to be made willing to glorifie God as some of you have it may be ingeniously gratified men with a humble confession of your over-reachings and other guiltiness brought upon your selves and the people of these Nations Truly Friends however this may relish with you yet yee will find yee are called to it even to own your shame for so setting up your posts and thresholds by his that so yee may come to have the true forme of the house and fashion thereof shewn unto you Are yee not sensible that as unwise Sons yee have stayed too too long in the place of the breaking forth of Children do yee not yet perceive how that the Bridegroom is really departed and the Children the Children of the Bridechamber called to mourning So will it be before the enjoyments of Christ as the Bridegroom or first Husband be parted with yet this must yee come to know and condescend unto that so yee may be marryed to another even to him raised from the dead Thy dead men shall live sayes the Prophet together with my dead body shall they arise the Dead and the Living body consider for there 's much in it and very much that concerns you nearly to look to for as their mistake who crucified him was their not discerning his living body for if they had but so known him they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory so a mistake in the other persisted in brings under no less hazard then being given up to crucifie him over again eating and drinking of the damnation spoken of 1 Cor. 11. is where this discerning of the Lords body is not rightly made the dead and crucified body from the living body the living soul as its first from the quickning Spirit which follows after the letter and out ward teachings so much cryed up with all the fruits and effects of the one though a very blessed and comfortable enjoyment in its place and kind yet being but that which made nothing perfect it s now no less necessary to be parted with then at that time it was else the comforter as the blessed effect of the other cannot come nor can he be supposed so to become where his immediate teachings are so slighted and cryed out against Many times hath it been in my heart thus to have spoken some few words unto you as these who I dearly love in the Lord and to whom I stand by many bonds obliged if in any service I could be useful but being somewhat sensible what I had to do in my own particular case and not altogether unacquainted with the deceipt of the busie enemy who in this day lies so near ready to draw out the mind to vent its own imaginations and to speak of the things of God without his warrant I have hitherto withholden in expectation of a more fit opportunity and a clearer warrant to go about it which upon the perusal of these ensuing Papers was very clearly given to me And indeed the subject spoken to and the truths asserted in them had been some years ago much on my heart and seriously enquired after and that this search and enquiry was of the Lord attended with a blessing to me I can very clearly testifie and finding the same things for the most part so sweetly and with such a spirit of meekness offered unto you I find it only my duty at present to be concuring in my Testimony as agreeing fully with what in them is said as most fit and necessary to be seriously minded by you Dear Friends it is high time for you to awake and consider what yee are doing there is another thing to be brought forth in this day then yee have yet conceived of And your guiltiness for opposing it is greater then yee are yet aware of nor will your apparent zeal for God and his ordinances which hath with some of you hitherto layen very near your hearts this I do think it hath been and that yet it may be in a measure with some of you where singleness of heart in any measure yet remains serve the turn if yee so persist in the way of provocation Consider if something of the same snare and tentation be not on you as was on them who so zealously contended for Moses and the Prophets the same was their plea and upon the same grounds did they go on to the rejecting and crucifying of Christ as yee some of you ignorantly and others more perversly are in the way to do at this day bear with my freedom for truly I can say it there is no bitterness nor passion at my heart while thus I use it but the deep sence of the dreadful hazard yee are runing hath drawn it from me that if so in the will of the Lord yee may return to your first love and so imbrace the guide of your youth again the missing and departing from whom hath alwayes been the cause of our Fathers the first Protestants their short comings and mistakes of the work of God as well as of ours that they were not in every thing come to own their true guide though in some things they did it and according to the simplicity that was in them they were sweetly ordered by him and accepted of him And thus was it with them and so hath it been with many who succeeded them and was it not so of late among us also yea eminently so it was both in Scotland England and Ireland mainly in this our great sin and guiltiness as the foundation of all our mistakes and failings it s aggravated exceedingly beyond and above what was theirs that the discovery of this duty of waiting to find the immediate direction of our guide in every thing as absolutely necessary and at the very time when more fully and universally then ever formerly it was bestowed being more clearly come and coming forth then to them in that day it was yet now more then ever which is dreadful to think of is it both disowned and persecuted even by them whom I well knew to have sometimes sweetly enjoyed the blessed effects of the spirits immediate teachings in themselves and so to have been instrumental to the
great advantage of others such wonderful and astonishing effects does the deep and fiery tryals of this day bring forth when every work of man is to be consumed the Gold and precious stones not built on the true foundation as well as the Wood Hay and stuble that which is born of the flesh is but flesh even that which is begotten but through the knowledge of Christ after the flesh must be left behind and parted with else the Comforter cannot come that the fruitful field may become a wilderness and the wilderness and solitary place a fruitful field that so the Lord alone may be exalted in this day and all flesh lie low as grass before him Let therefore the dread and terror of the Lord seize upon all especially the professing people of this Generation that they may no more transgress in this thing of despising or neglecting the immediate teachings of his Spirit This key of knowledge which the Lawyers have taken away this little stone which must fill the whole earth dreadful is the judgment that is to be met with by such whatever they be who shall be found any more refusing to receive Jesus Christ thus coming to his Kingdome in their hearts and what then shall become of such who shall be found rebelling against the true Light so as to mock and persecute it Dear Friends as yee love your peace and safety beware of this for it borders too near upon that guiltiness that will not be forgiven What needs you so to be afraid at the coming of Christ to his Kingdom that so his will may be done in Earth as it is in Heaven hath it not been the matter of your Prayers many a day and do yee well to be angry when it s so gloriously coming to pass O! how ill does this become you how ill does he take it at your hands were it not more becoming you with him who so long since wished for it and rejoyced thereat to desire that all the Lords people were Prophets this would not have wronged nor deminished any thing from his Ministry then who was so eminent nor will it now do from the true Ministers of Christ those who make but a trade of preaching thereby to win their living as other tradesmen do it is no marvel to see them very angry at the approaching glory of this day if every one is to have the Spirit and be permitted to speak publickly what shall become then of our Ministry say they and how shall we live And though there be some yea I conceive it may be granted there be many among you who upon this account do not own these men nor this their plea for their pretended Ministry but it may be really think in your hearts that if there were no other thing in it yee could with Moses wish for and rejoyce thereat even that all the Lords people were Prophets and that it is a Gospel Ministry and maintenance that yee stand for and no other and this being an institution of Christ which now you perceive so to be struck at by the Quakers yee may not so part with it But Friends consider seriously of this matter and it will not be found so either on your part or on theirs whom with the world in scorn yee call Quakers for we do really own both a Gospel Ministry and a suitable maintenance according to the Scriptures and yee do neither own the one nor the other but in words only for though yee seem to disown those men who seek after the Ministry and the standing of it mainly upon the account of their hyre yet consider it seriously if upon the matter yee do not the very same thing with them and harden them in their guiltiness and the people in their prejudice against us while yee so both by your profession and practice justifie and imposed and forced maintenance which is so well known to be contrary to the Gospel and condemned also by your Predecessors and many others of the Martyrs and servants of God among our selves and elsewhere And again consider however yee pretend to be for a Gospel Ministry it is not so no yee are downright opposers and persecuters of it and alass that I should have such cause so to speak it Can yee produce any institution of Christ for justifying such a Ministry which other wayes ye cannot maintain but as through a line of succession from the greâ—â— enemy of Christ descended upon you and for keeping up of which a door must be set open even for the ungodly to enter for its plainly so affirmed by many of greatest note amongst you that Grace belongs only to the well being and not to the being of such a Ministry and ministerial qualifications as are by you required see Durhame on the Revelation concerning Ministerial qualifications page 199. and where it is thus A door set open for an ungodly man to enter if he be furnished with gifts of humane Learning and closely shut upon another however he may be known to be eminently pious well furnished with spiritual knowledge gifts of the Holy Ghost is this your Gospel Ministry and yet thus it is according to the acts and appointments of your supposed most pure and incorrupt Assemblies that hath been of late so far are yee in this also become contrary to your Predecessors who both by their practice and profession affirmed that every faithful man and woman was a Priest this is fully testified too both by Knox his Chronicle and Spotswood in his History of the so called Kirk of Scotland second book page 60. and 61. are yee not ashamed therefore any longer to own such a Ministry O Friends come come down and lye in the dust for greatly hath the Lord been thus provoked by you and lamentable is the case of the people of these Nations who are perishing in their sins because of such a Ministry such leaders of the people so causing them to err And if it be here required what is that Ministry and what are the qualifications thereof which the Quakers require To this I need say but little the Author of the ensuing Papers having fully and faithfully spoken to it and divers other particulars whose Testimony if not made use of will one day bear witness against you as well against the multitude of time servers who go along with every thing making no question for conscience sake as the Apostle speaks in another case as of others who are under some sort of suffering at present though in part for a true Testimony given in some particulars yet even in this no wayes answerable nor suitable to what is required in this day and all of you in your several interests and capacities as yee stand related to the so called Kirk of Scotland and pretended work of Reformation are very much called seriously to mind what is therein said unto you and if in soberness yee well consider of it the thing intended may very clearly appear