have declared of them then examine and try your selves whether you be in the Faith in which they were made partakers of the Divine Nature for the words which from the Life are Ministred will not give unto any a Possession of the Life neither are they the WAY unto Life but they are a true DECLARATION of Him who is the WAY TRUTH and LIFE and the Light being believed in which from the Life is made manifest it leads to the enjoyment of the Life from whence it comes and then is the knowledge of the Lâ—ght of the Glory of God revealed and known in the face of Christ and the Understanding is then opened and the Scriptures known and set in their right place so that you have neglected the needful thing which is but ONE and have chosen the wrong part and cumber your selves with many things having got the Saints words and want their Life You are dayly cumbred in your minds about their Meanings and know not what they meant when the Truth is spoken by them in plainness So being from the WORD you are from the Saints Life the WORD that was in the Beginning was their LIFE and they witnessed that LIFE to be the Light of men and in the measure of that Life received they gave forth the Scriptures which none upon the earth can understand without Union with a measure of the Word of Life from which the words were Ministred forth So that you are found to be amiss and wandering in a way that doth not lead to life and all that you have formed and brought forth is but the Work of your own hands conceived and generated in the Earthly Corruptible part which fled the Hour of his Judgement and could not abide his coming in Judgement So you never came to the Judgment-Seat where the MIGHTY falls and the LOFTY bows where the EARTH trembles and the HILLS melt and all Flesh is put to silence You did not wait in the Way that in the Victory over the Corruptible you might have come to life in the Incorruptible but you started aside when Judgement came to be laid to the line and could not abide such a Tryal so you fled it and retained the Corruptible and saved your life in it and the Birth after the Flesh is seated over God's Witness and that is the Birth you set up and strive to make it fair and beautiful and to enrich it with the choicest things that it may appear beautiful unto men and if you have but Scripture to speak you are perswaded the thing is right and so you carry on your practise in words and set up your Kingdom in words but you want the Power and the Flesh never came into subjection to learn silence but speak though it be not permitted And thus do you run in the many things and cumber your selves with them and labours to set them where they ought not to be you would set the Words above the WORD and give them the Name of the WORD and call them the Word of God and in this you erre and knows not the Scripture nor the Power of God for CHRIST is the WORD of God and his Name is called so Rev. 19. And the Words are nor CHRIST but a true Testimony of him So amongst the Words you find how the Saints in some things walked and what they practised and then you strive to make that thing to your selves and to observe it and do it as near as you can And here you are found transgressors of the just Law of God who saith Thou shalt not make to thy self any Graven Image nor the likeness of any thing Now what difference is there in the Ground betwixt You the Pope though in the appearance there seem to be such a great space And though you read of such things which the Saints performed and in which they were accepted if you want their Life and make the thing to your selves you are found Transgressors of the Law and comes under Reproof for doing that in your Corruptible Wills which they had peace in as they performed it in the Incorruptible Life and yet in the appearance no difference found in what is done So you read that after they received the Word and believed they went into the Water and were baptized and you come to observe and do the same because you read that some of them walked in such a practise and you say you believe in Christ and you receive his Word and you go into the water and are washed and call it Baptism And here is no difference found in the Likeness of the thing but yours appears the same as theirs did in the outward practise But come up to tryal the Light makes all things manifest as they are and doth not judge according to the appearance but judges righteous Judgemment they did receive the Word and they did believe and some of them went into the water and were baptized unto John's Baptism and after that were baptized in the Name of the Lord Jesus Acts 19. And then the Holy Ghost came on them and they spake and prophesied Can you read this Scripture not see your selves where you are Who would be alwayes swimming in the Water would not come to the Holy Ghost and Fire that his Name you may know in which Salvation is and his Fan you may feel which in his own hand is placed which purgeth the Floore from all filthinesse and prepares the Temple to exalt his own Name in This is the Baptism which they witnessed who in his Life believed and in which they were baptized into his Death and there were buried with him and so came to the Resurrection through the operation of his Eternal Power you are not come to know this Practise but are satisfied with your going into the Water and coming out again when neither filthinesse of Flesh nor Spirit is cleansed from you but the pollution still abides and the Old Man lives And so you are short of the Saints Condition whose practise you pretend to follow and that Spirit by which they were baptized into one Body you are not found subject to and this was not water that baptized them into one Body neither was it water that baptized them into Christ and by which they put him on but it was the Eternal Power of Life in which they were baptized and in which Baptism Self was buryed and all the Affections and Lusts of the Flesh were destroyed and here was not Self standing in them neither did they make any likeness for that part to glory in but judged it down in the Power and in the Power were truly baptized into the death of the Corruptible Earthly part and could no longer live to themselves and then was the entrance Ministred into the Fathers House where Daily-Bread they received which did refresh the Immortal Soul Now because they were made Witnesses of such a state who believed followed the Light and denyed themselvs took
quickning Spirit and the faith that they have made is not held in a pure conscience but is conceived in the heart that is degenerated and corrupted So people being from that of God in them which he makes manifest unto them 〈◊〉 god of this world rules over them and blindes their mindes that those things which are eternal they cannot perceive then doth he lead forth their mindes into the temporals and they make haste thither and opens their eyes to look at the things which are seen and this is pleasing to the carnal minde which is willing to turn any way that it may escape judgement And what was by the Saints given forth and appears in writings without them that their life is in and that they contend about and all strives to set up their own Conceivings and teach for Doctrine mens traditions and minde not the measure of God in themselves but stretch beyond it in the comprehension and run into other mens lines and labours and are all upon the earthly root and in darkness and confusion in their practise and worship that from the crown of the head to the sole of the feet the Image hath no whole part in it but is full of putrifaction and corruption and every branch rotten and deceitful and no good fruit is found for the bringing forth of all is from the heart that is deceitful and corrupted which lyes fallen and degenerated from God and cannot bring forth any thing that is pleasing to him or accepted by him for as is the root so is every branch in its nature from high to low and through all these appearances there is not a sound part found but some of them abominable filthy others have healed the sore sleightily and are all out of the life power of God and are all found wanderers in the night of Apostasie and in the darkness have taken the Whores Cup and do drink it and received the mark of the beastâ— and do bear it and this is Babylon the Mother of Harlots and the abomination of all uncleanness who hath held forth a Golden Cup in the night of Apostasie and hath through her Sorceries and Inchantments bewitched many to receive it and drink it untill they have been drunk with the Wine of her Fornication and have committed Whoredome with her that many children have been begotten and many Bastards brought forth of flesh and blood and of the will of man which is the birth that persecutes the Son and Heir And unto all those is the Cup of Gods indignation poured forth and they must all come under the severity of his Judgement because they are Bastards and not Sons for these adulterous births have provoked the Lord and grieved his Spirit and he hath long forborn and spared But on Babylon he will be avenged and all her Brats and Children he will dash in peeces in the fierceness of his anger and not one of them must stand though never so seemingly glorious for the day is come and the true Birth is born whose right it is to Reign and his glory he will not give to another nor his praise to graven Images he is the Son and in him is life and his life is the light of men all must bow before him and all that is contrary to him must under his feet be troden down for unto him alone belongs the issue from death the same that was and is and is to come Everlasting Powerful God over all for ever and ever Hear ye wise and consider ye prudent of the world Is not this your Way and Is not this the fruit of your doings Do you not walk in darkness and are you not building in your Imaginations and setting up your own inventions and brings forth likenesses and Are you not from that which was in the beginning and from the Saints life and Do you not want rest and peace to your souls Be stayed and feel Gods witness in your own selves which will return a true answer in your own bosomes And now a few words of â—ender Counsel from the Lord God unto you all that you may see the form of the Image and how uncomely every part of it is that you may not love nor delight in it any longer for the Lord will destroy it together and the little Stone cut out of the Mountains without hands will dash it all in peeces and there will not be a man upon the earth found to save or uphold any part of it So all watch to the Morning that the day may break upon you and the Light shine out of darkness in you that your eye may look into the Glass of Righteousness the pure Light of Christ in your own consciences and there you may behold both the Ill-favoured and Well-favoured Harlot and what Image you all bear and what Cup you all drink of and what Mark is in your foreheads and if you be diligent and incline to the Lords Counsel and hearken to his witnes in you your understandings wil open and you will see to the beginning and know that which was before imaginations or any inventions was found out and you will come into unity with the Saints life and know every word you utter forth to be spoken in the life and all flesh silent before God and so will your gatherings be unto Christ who is set up for an Ensign that all may come unto him and be saved and you will feel his life in you revealed and in his face behold the express Image of the Faâ—hers glory and his Power he will make known in you and baptize in the death and every formed fleshly birth that exalts it self against him and he will save you as you in him beleeve and redeem you from your vain conversations which you have in the world and give you life and peace for ever A few Words of tender Counsel unto the POPE with all that walk in that way who are called PAPISTS HEar and consider you that set your selves on high and boast in the Works of your own hands you are weighed and tried and your Way and Work is proved and you are found to be out of the Saints Life and from the Scriptures of Truth for the Lord spake by Moses saying Thou shalt have no other Gods but me thou shalt not make to thy self any Graven Image nor the Lâ—keness of any thing in Heaven above or Earth beneath or Water under the Earth thou shalt not bow down to them nor worship them For I the Lord thy God am a Jealous God Exod. 20. Are you not found Transgressors of the Holy and just Law of God making to your selves Likenesses and bow down to them and Worship them and forget the Lord who saith Thou shalt have no other Gods but me And are not these your Gods which you make to your selves and sets them up to Worship And do you not adore them and bow and cringe to them and doth not this practise erre from the
away How did you Reform that which you call Baptising Infants you layed by the sign of the Cross which was made by a man called Minister in the Childes Fore-head and you layed by those called GOD-FATHERS and GOD-MOTHERS and yet you continued sprinkling water in the Childrens Faces and call it Baptisme and say You baptize them into the Name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost What Scripture have you for this practice Did not the Sign of the Cross and sprinkling water in the Childes face both spring from one Root and neither of them can be proved Warrantable from the Scriptures of Truth and you have layed by the One as unlawful and continues the Other as lawful and this you call REFORMATâ—ON Are you not in the Midnight of Apostacy who upholds such things in your Profession of God which the Saints never practised nor any Scriptures declare of such things being used by them Who taught you to sing Davids Words in Meeter and to call upon your Congregations to sing to the Praâ—se and Glory of God and to have a Clerk to publish them and give them forth Is this to sing with the Spirit and Understanding and to make melody in your hearts to the Lord who have not a Psalm before the Clerk give it forth and then for all people of all Conditions to sing the Words though they know nothing of the state of David who Published the words from the sensibleness of his Condition as then he was in when he did declare them so they were true in him but such as cannot witness David's state you make them to sing Lyes in Hypocrisie And who taught you to take a portion of Scripture and call it a TEXT and tell people It is the Word of the Lord and that they may finde it written in in such a Book Chapter and Verse and then raise Doctrines from it Uses Motives Helps Arguments and make Applications Is not this the Colledge Work And have you not learned it there And is not this the Philosophy and vain Deceit which peopâ—e is to beware of Do you know the Scriptures and the Power of God you that are so wise in your own Eyes Where is you Scripture for these things Or did ever the LORD of LIFE and GLORY teach his Ministers so to Do as you are Doing at this day You are from the Saints life and in the old Root and your Birth is begotten in Whoredome and formed in the Inventions and Imaginations of the Old Man and brought forth in the strength of that Nature and the Lord's Controversie is sore against You because you do in Words profess him but in your Works deny him Therefore Repent speedily and turn to the Light of Christ in your own Consciences and be not so wise in your own Eyes but become Fools to you own wisdome that you may be wise in the Wisdome of God that your understandings may be opened to know the Scriptures and the Power of God For the Lord is visiting the Nations in this day of his Mercy and his love reaches unto you and with a measure of his Spirit he doth Reprove you and secretly discovers unto you the intents and thoughts of your hearts Turn when Reproof comes and hate it not for the Lords Love is tendred to you in that which doth Reprove you Hearken to it that you may be Converted and Healed before the Door of Mercy be shut and no place of Repentance can be found for the Lord hath a Seed to gather from amongst you that cannot live long with you such is the earnest desire after life in many this day whilest it is called to day let none behard but all wait to Receive from the Lord in tenderness that his Spirit may guide and lead you which is manifest in you and that the fruits thereof may be brought forth by you that LOVE and PEACE and GENTLENES may abound amongst you that WARRING and FIGHTING and DESTROYING one another may all cease that the Sound of the TRUMPET and the Al-arm of WAR may not be heard in the Land but that you may be gathered and united in the Spirit of Life where no Confusion nor Distraction is but perfect love and peace for ever Turn to the Lord and walk in the way of Understanding A few Words of tender Counsel unto those called INDEPENDENTS with all that walk in that way HEar ye Wandring ones who upon the Mountains are scattered You are tossed up and down and driven to and fro in the Cloudy and dark day something of the Morning did once appear unto you though you knew it not and in the Dawnings of the light which in you did begin to shine your understandings were opened and you beheld the Formes and Practises and abominable Idolatries which were come up in the Darkness and a true tenderness was raised in you towards the Lord and a breathing there was in you to enjoy his presence and you departed out of the Idolatrous wayes and worship could not joyn with them nor own their Customs and Tradâ—tions which were set up but seperated from them and gathered into a more particular and private Fellowship to wait upon the Lord and in this tenderness abiding and you kept in the fear to wait and the Visitations of God did break upon you and his Love did open to that which breathed in you and this was a good Day unto you and you were sweetly refreshed in it But behold how you have erred and from the Lord are gone astray and betrayed the Innocent Life you were not faithful unto God nor did not sink into his Counsel that his Arm of Power might have wounded the Head of the Transgressor smitten him down into the Death buryed him under the Judgement for ever you fled from Him when you should have joined unto Him and so never came through the Gaâ—e of Death to obtain Life in the Resurrection But you reached forth with that Mind which should have come to Judgement and with that Mind comprehended those things which in the Day of Tenderness were opened to you in the Light then did you enrich your selves and grew Wise and Mighty in Skill and Knowledge and you decked the false Birth with that which God opened to you in the Day when you breathed after him in the unsatisfiedness of your Minds were in the true hunger and in the sensibleness that you wanted Bread so you betrayed the simplicity delivered it up into the hands of the subtilty under which it lyes in Captivity and sorely oppressed and afflicted and so you erred from the LIFE which was near to be revealed in many of you and lost the WORD and drew back again and ran into the words and have got the words and with them stands filled in the earthly mind that fled the Judgement and there you are lifted up and exalted above the Witness of God and the false Birth hath beautified it self with the Saints words and sits
in the Temple as God for you sought out an easier Way then that which God hath prepared and drew aside for self-safety and denyed the Cross which the Light leads all unto that obeys it So you never entered in at the strait Gate to know the enmity slain which would not have the Life to reign but you got up in the Knowledge and grew wise in the Comprehension and branched forth in a shew of Godliness and in your own Wisdom brought forth what you conceived might be the nearest to the Saints Practise So a Birth you formed in the deceitful heart that is corrupted and lyes degenerated from God and though you be in some things seperated and more particularly gathered in appearance yet do you lye mixed and confused with the rest of Babylons Inhabitants you can go to their named Churches and hear their Colledge-Ministers which are made by man contrary to the Scriptures of Truth so you are in the luke-warm state neither hot nor cold and your Garment is party-coloured and it is neither Night nor Day amongst you for you are run into the many inventions and drinking of the Cup of Fornication and are joined to the Harlot and commits VVhoredom with her and brings forth a Birth that is after the Flesh which cannot please God so hath the old Enemy deceived you and betrayed the innocent Life which once breathed in you and you are seated and centered in your Form and there have your dependance for satisfaction and you flye to the Scriptures to prove your Birth to be lawful and you have got Saints Words and in something appear as they did in Practise and you can say That so you find it written and so did the Saints practise and so do you but you want the life which they were born into thorough the working of God's Mighty Power and in which they declared the Scriptures and if you could perform all that ever you read concerning their practise and be not come into their life it will not be owned of God to be a true Worship and Service though they in what they did were accepted and rewarded And none upon the Earth can understand the Scripture without a measure of that life from which it was ministred And so have you erred for want of knowledge because that darkness hath blinded your minds and though much you profess and boast of high things yet your Deeds testifies against you even as others do from amongst whom you are gathered in your Worship you are vain and light minded foolish jesting and idle talking abounds amongst you you are high-minded and lifted up with a perfect Tincture of Pride many of your hearts are after Covetousness which doth not become a people professing the Knowledge of God These things are not charged upon you to upbraid you or to boast over you but that you may come into stayedness and soberness and humblenesse of mind that when God's Witnesse smites upon you and reproves you for those things that be evil you may be sensible of its reproof for the Light of Christ which is pure it doth not consent to or allow of any such things but reproves them without respect of persons but you are so lifted up in your vain minds that you are not sensible of it neither have any regard unto it so you delight in the thing as if it were a Priviledge purchased for you by Christ whose Name you profess and you can plead for your Lightness and say it is your Liberty to rejoice and be merry and your Covetousnesse you can call it Carefulness and Providence and your Pride you can put it upon your Quality and Ability So hath the Enemy vailed you and drawn you from the Spirit of Life which doth certainly reprove you in your own Consciences for these things and thus the Enemy doth lead you out of God's fear and into vanity and then seeks a fair excuse to cover it but you are found to walk after the flesh and satisfies that part with all the affections and lusts of it and the Witness of God is not regarded by you though it be alwayes near you and in your secret Chambers with you and often smiting you and reproving you yet you are so high over it that you do not heed it nor when it calls you hearken not to it but run in your own Way and follow your own Wills and the imaginations of your own hearts and slights the Day of your Visitation and the sweet tenders of God's Love unto you in the Light for he waits to be Gracious though you be Careless and his hands are stretched forth still that he might gather you and do you good You are a People whom the Lord strives with though you have rejected and slighted and grieved his Spirit yet is his tender Mercy open towards you and the Arm of Salvation he reaches to you that into his own House he may bring you and there deal forth Daily-Bread and give you Water of Life freely I travel in Spirit for you and the Love of the Father reaches to you and I know from the Lord that there is an unsatisfied Cry in many of you who want the Bread of Life and Water of Life to refresh your Souls And when you have received that which you call your Ordinance and have eaten and drunken of the Temporals you want that Meat which endures to everlasting life and something in you that hungers and thirsts after the enjoyment of that Oh! there is a Seed amongst you that must not dye in Aegypt nor alwayes groan under Pharoah's Power but must be redeemed by the out stretched Arm of the Almighty His Love draws near you the Morning springs fast upon you AWAKE and behold what God is tendering to you hasten to it and lay hold upon it look not abroad but come within and feel it near you that you may know the Power to save you and the Arm that is stretched forth to redeem you and the Manifestation of God's Spirit within you will be strength and safety for you and as you turn unto it obey and believ in it it wil not leave you nor forsake you but will be a present help unto you in the needful time and in the patience waiting the DAY will break and the SUN of RIGHTEOUSNESS will Arise and the thick Clouds and Foggy Mysts that darkens your understandings will vanish away like the Morning-Dew and the brightness of his Rising will destroy ANTICHRIST which so long hath been exalted in you and all the loftiness and haughtiness will fall before him whose appearance is glorious And thus doth he manifest himself and makes known his Eternal Power in the hearts of all that wait upon him in the Measure of his Light and carries on his Work prosperously in his own hand cutting down and sparing not whatsoever stands in the heart contrary to him and would not have him to Reign and his Works declares that it is he for he works Faith
in the heart and reveals Truth in the inward parts and so becomes the Author of Faith and of eâ—ernal Salvation and the Mysterie of this Faith is held in a pure Conscience where his Arm hath been working and purging and purâ—fying And as you give up to that Measure of LIGHT in your own Conscienceâ— and wait to be guided and led by it and exercised in it you will know CHRIST revealed within you whom you are looking for without you and puts his Day far off from you And so you live in want of him and know not how to come to him nor the place where to find him but live in the Dreamings and the Nâ—ght-Visions and have a talke of him and what he hath done for you and so spend your precious time in slumbering and dreaming but do not behold the Light of his Countenance noâ— feel not the Joy of his Salvation nor drink not at the Wells thereof Now wait to feel him in the Light which makes all things manifest within you and when he draws near unto you reâ—ect hâ—m not if you feel an evil thought discovered that is his appearance that makes the â—â—iscovery then do thou sink down to that which makes manifest and be still and quiet in thy mâ—â—d and in the stayedness wait to receive him and though it 〈◊〉 but a little thing in its first appearance do not thou despise the Day of small things nor cast behind thee the Grain of Mustard-Seed because it is a little one but wait to know the glory of the Day and the branching forth of the Graâ—n of Mustard-Seed until it be grown up and spread it self over all The Lords Love freely opens unto all you that in tenderness and simplicity thirsts for his lâ—ving presence and for your sakes plainness of speech is used and God's pure Truth opened in the Life of his own Spirit that you may come and partake of the Riches of that GRACE and MERCY which from the FATHER is revealed and appears in you all that you may truly know the benefit that is in the Lord of Life and Power and feel his Eternal operation your Consciences to purge and your Hearts to purâ—fie that you may have fellowship with him in the everlasting Covenant of Peace and know the Blood of the Covenant to take away your sin and to pardon your Iniquity and so the Redemption through his blood you wil feel and the forgiveness of your sins according to the Riches of his Grace And this is unto you from the Lord God Eternally moved who breaths after Life that you may Arise and follow the Leadings of God into his own House and from his Hand receive your Daily-bread and drink of the Water of Life freely and this will satisfie and refresh you and daily renew strength unto you to follow the Lord God in the Light in all obedience and faithfulness without any weariness or faintness so will the Lord God receive you and be a Father unto you and make you Sons and Daughters and give you an Inheritance amongst the Saints in Light who are justified by Faith in Christ Jesus Be swift to hear and slow to speak A few Words of tender Counsel unto the BAPTISTS with all that walk in that WAY HEar you seperated ones who have set your selves in the Highest Seat and whose Branch puts out over all the Branches of the Tree you are beheld though you be climbed high and your Work is seen of what sort it is you must come to Tryal for your Work is not right before the Lord Once did the Morning open unto you and a Measure of Light out of Darkness shined and a sight you had of something which was out of the Truth and beheld Babylon without you in Practice and Worship and saw her Merchants that traded in her and could not for Conscience-sake Trade with them any longer nor buy their Merchandize any more but you separated from them in Practise and Worship And that which made these things manifest to your Understandings was Light and it was near unto you though you were but little acquainted with it you had Clearness in sight through Forms and Traditions then in practice amongst men and something opened before you that appeared more excellent and you did not onely depart out of that which was manifest to be out of the Truth but there was also a true waiting amongst you that you might come to enjoy living Bread that something in you hungred for and in that day a tender people you were whilest the true fear was in your hearts placed and in the fear you diligently waited and were kept low and little in your own eyes and you had fresh Visitations of God's Love and felt that which truly judged the Abomination and Vanity which you beheld in the World and you were convinced of the evil thereof and could have no fellowship with them and you cannot say in truth but in that Day the Lord was near you to have wrought his Work in you had you enclined to his Counsel and as you were kept in lowliness to wait and met and assembled in God's fear he was not straitned towards you but did relieve you and succour you in your wants and had compassion upon you in all your needs What Hungerings and Thirstings Breathings and Pantings were raised in the earnest for Life and Salvation And what a tender love was raised in many of you after the best things And how did you delight to walk in that Way which then was made manifest to you Was it noâ— better with many of you in that Day then it is now Consider soberly in the fear of God and judge down the rash wrathful Spirit which hath a Seat in many of you Are you not gone from that in which the Lord did first visit you and in which his tender Love was made manifest in you Was it any thing without you that first let you see your Way to be corrupted and that brought you into a sensibleness of your want and of your miserable and undone state without the Salvation of Christ Was this made manifest unto you by Reading or Hearing or by the Gift of God's Spirit manifest in your own hearts How hath the old Enemy deceived you and drawn your minds into the Visibles to look after and behold the things that are seen and there tenders you Satisfaction and so draws your minds from the weightier matter and that which is of absolute necessity for all to know a part in And so you are cumbred about many things and are got into the many Words and there you are sucking your nourishment and labouring to receive strength and there have taken up your rest What have you to live upon besides the Letter And what do you know of GOD and CHRIST more then what they declared who enjoyed his Life And if you say that it is sufficient for you to mind the Declaration and to know GOD and CHRIST as the Saints
up the Cross in obedience to the leadings of the Light and because in the movings of the Power they declared it and it is written doth this Minister satisfaction unto you to read it or to hear it if you come not to partake of a Measure of the same life which ministred pure refreshment unto them and in the strength of which they were constrained to minister forth again I tell you nay for no satisfaction or refreshment can any find but in that life which the holy men of God were inspired with and declared the Scriptures from so all that you make to your selves profits you not how like soever you may make it in the appearance to that which the Saints practised in the Power And is not this your present state reading what the Saints did and you make to your selvs the same as near as you can and in your wills perform it and can make it to be near in the likeness of that which they in the appearance practised So you read some of them went into the water and you go into the water because you read it and you read that they brake bread together and you do so because they did it Will you not be found setting up the highest part of the Image and drinking of the Cup of Fornication and committing VVhoredome and bringing forth a Childe of VVhoredom and a Birth after the Flesh For you lye in the Degeneration and walk in the Night of Apostacy and are not come to the Regeneration nor have no Knowledge of that VVater So the Old man you Retain and live his life and bear his Image and you never came to the Power which Crucifies the Old man and puts him off and brings forth a new Birth which after God is created in Righteousness and true Holiness that so you have not put on CHRIST the heavenly Image but are at enmity with him and the Old man is standing and you joyn to that which would not that Christ should Reign And thus you profess him in Words but in Works deny him And your practising that in your wills which the Saints performed in the life will not make you stand approved before God nor justifie you in his sight Therefore depart from your Imaginations come to Gods wâ—tness in you wait the power of it to feel to break down your Images and all the Carved VVorks which your own hands have made out of Gods Councel and which you have in your earthly wisdome set up to worship and set not your Post by the Lords Post nor mix your Work with his Work but cease from your own doings and be still that the Lord may bring forth his own Work in his own time according to his own pleasure that you may come through the gate of Death For verily there is not another Way for you to obtain eternal life And this is his Work whose Arm is Powerful to cut down and destroy the Earthly and Corruptible part and to Raise up the pure Immortal Seed which breathes after Life so will you come to know the New-creature-state and the new-Birth born which is not of flesh nor of blood nor of the will of man but of God and his appearance in you will testifie of him that he is the Son of God and this is the true Birth whose Right it is to Reign and under whose feet all the Harlots Children must be trodden down let your Eye be towards him that his Appearance you may behold and of his fulness receive that you may feel union with his life and be translated into his Likeness So all you that have any tenderness and groan under your heavy Tasks minde the Lords Counsel and obey his Teaching Start not aside when Reproof comes and hate not to be Reformed for the day of your Visitation is upon you and God is tender over his Seed that abides yet amongst you and is scattered upon the Mountains with you who breathes unto him and can feed no longer in your Pasture Oh the Bowels of Gods love that opens in this day to every Nation Kindred Tongue and People that he may Redeem his Chosen that cry unto him and give Ease to all the Afflicted ones who mourn for want of him For this is the Day of his Everlasting loving kindness held forth unto all people in the Light of his Son that who will come unto him believ in him may not perish but have everlasting life Therefore all stoop down and encline your ear to hear Do not continue climbing nor build so high in your Inventions for that is Babylon and the ground of all Confussion and from that lust of pride in the self-conceitedness arises WARS and CONTENTIONS and there is no service of God nor any thing brought forth in which he taketh pleasure so all mind that which makes for peace and that which leads into love and unity for that is the Light of Christ which is given of the Father to be a Leader unto you and it is true and will not deceive you it is the DOOR that gives entrance unto life which you have not found with all your climbing but have been heightned far off from it Therefore stand not exalted but come down and there feel the true Baptizer which will not suffer an evil thought to arise in you but baptize it down into the death if you encline to his Counsel and the Fan you will feel in his hand and his Power to purge the floor and to gather the VVheaâ— into the Garner and burn the Chaff with unquenchable fire and as you keep in the Patience and wait in the Judgement he will bring Judgement forth unto Victory and bring you into the Courts of his own House and there minister to your want and supply your need for the bread is in his own hand and unto the hungry he deals it and at his pleasure he gives it and if you wait in patience to receive it he will not let you want for his compassion is tender and freely doth he give good things to those that walk uprightly So let not the feeble faint nor the weak be discouraged but turn to the Light and walk in the Light and it will lead you to the Cross and bring you to the Judgement-Seat and through the Gate of Death and will open the Door into the Fathers House where there is bread enough it is sure water that never fails So will the Lord feed you with the fatness of his House give you to drink of the River of his pleasure and this is Meat and Drink indeed which if you wait to receiv you wil not be in such want suffer hunger as many of you now do who are from the leadings of God and upon the Mountains scattered and there famished for want of Bread And this in tender love is unto you who have been in the Water and hath been dipped and yet feel that you are not Cleansed but your Consciences