Something formerly writ, foreseen and foretold, of what should come to pass; much of it now being fulfilled and fulfilling, is thus collected, and presented to the view and consideration of the People called QUAKERS.
Let him that readeth understand, but the uncircumcised in Heart and Ears cannot.
FRiends, These things following were writ to Others, but being clearly seen how deeply they now concern You, they are thus directed; that you may be instructed thereby, that you may hear, and fear, and truly desire to have all Flesh abased, and the Lord alone magnified, sought after, and joyn'd unto, by every one that takes his Name into their Mouths: what he hath determined must stand, and the Word which he spake by his Prophet of old must be fulfilled, viz. I will bring a Plague upon this People, even the fruits of their own Imaginations. Jer. 6.19.
Did not some in days past, cause the very Offering of the Lord to be abhorred? and is it not so now? yet, who laments or lays it to heart? where's the Man that's truly wise? that loves Reproof, hates Hypocrisie, and desires to have all things appear just as they are? delights not in the praise of Men, neither can glory in multitudes, but in Him only, who justifies in secret; that cannot feed upon, or be satisfied with any thing that must come to an end, tho it appear with ever so sair an outside?
From what is writ some good may be gain'd to the upright and honest mind, tho it seem like putting to open shame. If it might have been forborn, it had not come forth, having lain by several Months, not daring to publish it, till its appointed Season: There seems to be little of Mans wisdom in it, but a mind that loved Righteousness, hated Deceit, and esteemed of no People for their outward Profession: Let the answer to it (of every upright heart) be, Search me, O Lord, and try me; shew me what is amiss in thy sight: for whom have I in Heaven or Earth besides thee? or what do I desire in comparison of thee?
Something formerly writ, &c.
A Testimony of W. E. &c. Pag. 96.MY rejoycing is, to behold darkness and ruine upon all fleshly Gloryings, and former Excellencies, wherein so many vain boastings have appeared.
Now God is pouring Vials of Wrath on that which once was lovely. p. 74.
p. 77.All the Churches indeed shall fall, but the Saints therein shall rise: This the Lord would have them know this day, p. 78. altho they will not, that they are all in Babylon, dead dry bones and divided sticks, dead in their Forms, divided in their Fellowships, and defiled in both.
p. 82.Of old the People of God were in Babylon, but now Babylon is in them, especially in the Churches.
p. 69.Their Church- Fellowships and Forms is that they glory in: God spoils them, and stains the pride of all their glory, —who because they would not wait for the Spirit to build them up, as the Primitive Saints did, the Spirit shall come to burn and consume them at last.
p. 35.God who will not abide for ever in any Form, — is at last weary with forbearing.
p. 133.The purest Forms of Religion this day, are but the old Religion in a new dress.
p. 17.Never shall the Saints unite and come to one in love, till wrath be poured forth on all their Forms.
p. 55.The Spirits presence was more waited on, and the Saints far more spiritual before their Church-Fellowship; more simple-hearted, sincere, self-denying and dying to the World.
p. 178.As the Mystery of Iniquity did first begin to work in the Primitive purest Churches: So in the purest Churches, the Mystery of Iniquity and Man of sin shall be last revealed.
p. 179.We have lookt upon Antichrist once at Rome, but of late we have seen him in Reformed Churches,— God may shew them the Mystery of Iniquity among themselves very shortly. —They shall find such an Apostacy and falling away in themselves,—that they shall not need to go far to find the Man of sin.
p. 163.Our first scattering was by coming into gathered Churches; by looking on Forms, we lost the Spirit and Power of Godliness; here we are scattered again, less Godliness appearing then was in us before. Well! God will yet gather us again up to Himself; which appearing in us with power and glory, will manifest to the World, who our Pastor is, even he who keeps us as a Shepherd doth his flock.
p. 269.The Apostate-Church which seems to be the Spouse of Christ, and one flesh with God in her, her Head and Husband, but joyning with Man, and with Forms invented by Man, cleaving to the Traditions and Teachings of Man, to the Wisdom and Power of Man; the Spouse becomes an Harlot.
p. 245.Your Church-Fellowship is at an end with God; tho some men see somewhat in it, yet 'tis but a dead Carcass they look upon;—but the Spirit, Life, and Power from on high appears not at all to me (therein) nor to many.
p. 91.Truly in all that I have said, I do not condemn the generation of the Righteous, but the generation of Vipers, who under Forms of Religion, eat up their Mothers bowels, even the power of Righteousness.
p. 154.God will gather a remnant out of the Churches, tho most of them perish with their Pastors; — God, I say, will bring them again to their folds, to their spiritual communion with the Father and the Son, and they shall be fruitful and increase in all the fruits of the Spirit.
p. 199.The Promise of the Father and Power from on high, or Baptism of the Spirit, being only that which constituted a Gospel-Church, and made Ministers of the Gospel; to go forth without this, is not only to deceive Men, but to deny God, to crucifie Christ, to stifle the Spirit, and to strangle the Babe, even the new-born Glory beginning to rise in the Saints of the most High.
p. 262.It is an usual Artifice of Satan in all Ages, to set up the Letter of a thing, against the Truth and Power of it; yea, no opposition so fierce, as that which is manag'd by the Man of Form, against the true spiritual worshipper.
p. 129.The People of God (so call'd) were as Children, they are now Men; they were simple, now subtile; they were self-denying, now scrape up all to themselves; they were dying to the world, now living wholly to the world and worldly honours; they were content to be poor, now all must be rich.
p. 125. I will not now speak of their Oppression, Pride, Cruelty, Covetousness, their cunning designs, and cover'd desires of preferment, profit, pleasure, their eartlhy-mindedness all the day long.
p. 62.This they will not see, but God does, and men shall, when he shall turn their inside out, their hidden Hypocrisie shall appear to all; for they shall openly practise Hypocrisie, as men do gross profaneness.
p. 171.Let their (own) consciences speak, if they are not more departed from God, and from the Power of Godliness, which formerly appeared in them, and from that dependance on God alone, then when all men and Magistrates were against them.
p. 237.There's no building of Temples in Babylon, nor joyning there in Church-Fellowship, for that will fall and we with it, till we retire alone into our selves, or the Spirit rather in us, and this must be every Man apart by himself, every Family apart,—when the Spirit of Grace and Supplication begins to appear to take us up into Glory.
p. 45.The Spirit of Prayer in Gospel-times, was more in Spirit, less in Form.
C p. 195.hrist and his Apostles went forth in their publick Speakings or Preachings, without any Forms of prayer, before or after. —Prayer is a more spiritual and secret thing, in the spirits of the Saints, then is commonly understood by Men, or Ministers.
p. 144.The coming of Christ, and his second appearance in us, will not be in any particular Form of Religion, or private Opinion of Man, but in the Power of Righteousness.
p. 249.As the first shall be last; so He who is the last and the first is now beginning to appear, not only in the scattered Saints and against the gather'd Churches, but to gather up into Himself: this is my hope and joy.
p. 253.Many Nations shall be saved or joyned to the Lord; not to a Church, but to the Lord; not in any particular Form of Religion, but in the Power of Righteousness.
p. 167.As the spirit of Antichrist has been most discover'd in this Nation, above all Nations; so the wickedness of (those called) the People of God, will appear here to all the World.
p. 57.'Tis far from my temper to reproach any (of them;) but if God shall give them to the reproach and the curse, what man can help it.
p. 201.Ah blessed God! how are Men discover'd this day? sure 'tis the day of God, because it is the discovery of Man, to make all Flesh bare before Him, and the goodliness thereof to wither also.
p. 130.'Tis the way of God to settle Men, then to shake them; to set them up on high, then to cast them down, as he did Pharaoh and his Host.
p. 233.The greatest work that God hath to do with You this day, is to make you see, you are dead, that's the end why He doth dash, and divide you; — I know you are shaking already, and 'tis a mercy to you that God will disquiet the Inhabitants of Babylon, that You shall have no rest till you return.
p. 233.The living God knows that all I have written, or shall, is not intended by me to trouble your walkings, but to give you rest in the Lord alone at last; not meerly to throw down your Churches, or for your Fall, but to raise you up, that we may live together with God in Christ.
p. 247.Seeing the Spirit shall again be poured forth from on High, let us wait for this together: tho our Palaces be forsaken, tho our Church-Fellowships fall, for so it will be before the Spirit come.
p. 145.The everlasting Gospel at last, shall not be in words, or speakings, p. 88. but in the righteous actings of men, the righteousness of Saints.— Which will sooner convince, quiet, and call the World, then all their Religious Forms, or shews of Holiness.
p. 73.We shall be all silent, and God himself shall speak at last, and manifest Himself unto men; Oh that men could watch and wait together in love, till that day.
p. 292.The discoveries of God in the Saints, in the latter days, shall take off the yoke from off their necks, and the burden from off their shoulders; that Saints shall be no more embondaged to fleshly Forms, nor burdened with carnal Ordinances, nor yoked to Church-fellowships any more.
p. 115.The Beasts of the Field, even Dragons, and Owls, shall honour Him, when Jacob shall be given to the Curse, and Israel to Reproaches.
p. 74.The Man of sin, the Mystery of Iniquity, is now more revealed in the Temple of God than ever. p. 173. I will not say much on this, because all men will shortly see, more then I say.
p. 315.This—is not out of bitterness against any mans person, (for I am one with all the Saints in love) but out of Conscience, and real conviction of the error of their ways and worships; hoping that the Fire of the Lord will burn up their Hay and Stubble, will both purifie their Gold, and save their Persons; that so they may arise more glorious in the Truth and Power of Religion, then ever they seem'd to be in the outward appearance.
p. 97.Oh the Dead! it's they only that shall live, the Blind only shall see, the Deaf they shall hear, and the Dumb men they shall sing the Lords Song, in the inward World with the holy Ones.
p. 336.The Lord God is coming forth in Judgment, to turn the Earth upside down, and to turn mans inside out, that the close Hypocrisie of their hearts may appear, and Hypocrites pointed at as they go along the Streets, and mens spirits made visible with their bodies, their secret sins stare out, as open profaneness; and tho men may think it much to have their names and notorious evils published, let these know that better Saints than themselves, their sins, and slips, are read every day in the Week, and upon record to all Ages. The days are at hand when every mans wickedness shall be written in his Forehead as with a Beam of the Sun, and they that forsake the Lord shall be written in the Earth.
p. 316.A thousand reproaches I take up as a Crown on my head, and go on in the name of the Lord with love to Truth and Peace. And I trust it will appear in time, that I am no Apostate; — tho I am not so much in the observation of some outward Forms of Religion, as formerly I have been, and as some now apprehend it their duty to be; yet I desire to be more in the Truth and Power of Godliness, &c. and in works of Righteousness, Judgment, and Mercy among men; and if this be Apostacy, I shall be content to be accounted so, and to be yet more vile then thus.
WHat sorrow and lamentation can sufficiently be taken up for the people of this Nation, because of the sins that abound in them! PROFANENESS on the one hand, and HYPOCRISIE on the other, causeth some to suffer this day.
Here follows something of the Account which every good Steward ought to give to his Maker; taken out of a Book lately printed, Entituled, Contemplations, &c. Let all examine themselves thereby.
Pag. 422. &c.I Have been very diligent to keep my Conscience clean, to encourage it in the Vicegerency that Thou hast given it over my soul and actions. I have kept it in the Throne, and greatest Reverence and Authority in my heart.
In actions to be done or omitted I have always advised with it, and taken its advice: I have neither stifled, nor forced, nor bribed it; but gave it free liberty to advise and speak out, and a free subjection of my will, purposes, and actions to it.
If through inadvertency of mind, or importunity of temptations, &c. I have at any time done amiss, I have not taken her up short, or stopped her mouth, or my own attention to her chiding and reproof; but I have with much submission of mind born her chastisement, and improved it to an humbling of my self before Thee for my failings; for I looked upon her as acting by Thy Authority, for Thy Service, and to Thy Glory; and I durst not discourage, discountenance, or disobey her.
When she was pleased and gave me good words, I was glad, for I esteemed her as a glass that represented to my soul the favour or displeasure of God himself; and how He stood affected towards me.
I have more trembled under the fear of a sear'd or discourag'd Conscience, then under the fear of a sharp or scupulous Conscience; because I always counted the latter, tho more troublesome, yet more safe.
I have been very jealous, either of wounding, or grieving, or discouraging, or deading my Conscience: I have therefore chosen rather to forbear that which seemed but indifferent, lest there should be somewhat in it that might be unlawful; I would rather gratifie my Conscience with being too scrupulous, then displease, disquiet, or flat it, by being too venturous: I have still chosen rather to forbear what might be probably lawful, then to do that which might be possibly unlawful; because I could not err in the former, I might in the latter. [Page 7]If things were disputable whether they might be done, I rather chose to forbear, because the lawfulness of my forbearance was unquestionable.
As I have been careful to advise impartially with my Conscience before my actions; so lest through Inadvertency, Incogitancy, or sudden Immergencies I had committed any thing amiss, in the nature or manner of the action, I commonly every night brought my actions of the day past before the Judicatory of my Conscience, and left her to a free and impartial censure of them; and what she sentenced well done, I with humility returned the praise thereof to Thy Name; what she sentenced done amiss, I did humbly sue to Thee for pardon, and for Grace to prevent me from the like miscarriages. By this means I kept my Conscience active, renewed and preserved my peace with Thee, and learned vigilance and caution for the time to come.
It's time for every one who sees a blasting come upon all Flesh, to return to that wherein Substance (instead of Shadows) may be enjoyed, and therefore is this following set down.
Christians Pattern. Pag. 130.I Will hear what the Lord God will speak in me: Blessed is that soul that heareth the Lord speaking in her, and receiveth from His Mouth the Word of Comfort. Blessed are those Ears that hearken only to the Divine Voice, and listen not to the whisperings of the World. Blessed indeed are those Ears that hearken not to the Voice that soundeth outwardly, but unto the Truth which teacheth inwardly.
p. 89.He that can live inwardly, and make small reckoning of outward things, neither requireth Places, nor attendeth Times, for performing of Religious Exercises.
p. 101.To walk inwardly with God—is the state of a Spiritual man.
p. 50.He therefore that intends to attain to the more inward and Spiritual things of Religion, must with Jesus depart from the multitude and press of people.
p. 5.Many words do not satisfy the Soul; but a good life comforteth the mind, and a pure Conscience giveth great assurance in the sight of God.