An Epistle to several Friends about
Wakefield. (1653)
James Nayler, a prisoner of Jesus
Christ, to all that love the appearance of our Lord Jesus Christ
everywhere, grace and peace be multiplied from God the Father, and from
our Lord Jesus Christ.
My dear Hearts, you whom the Lord has
manifested so much love to, as to call you out of sin and death, and the
world, all the delights and pleasures of the world which fade away, up
to Himself; where is joy unspeakable, pleasures and riches that endure
forevermore.
Dear Friends, watch and be sober, that
you may hear the voice of your Beloved when He calls, and let not the
precious proffers of the love of God be tendered in vain. While you have
an ear opened to the world, you cannot hear the voice of God; so that
you have been made to groan under it. How long have you been deceived by
it? All your time promising peace, fullness, and satisfaction: but have
been brought to cry out of oppression and deceit. And your cries are
come before the Lord of Sabbaths, who is your rest; and He is now
appeared to deliver you, and set you free from bondage, that you may
serve Him alone.
And now take heed of consulting with
your old master: has the Lord been so merciful to you, as that He has
set your faces out of Sodom and Egypt, towards the promised land? Oh!
take heed of looking back, lest you be taken captive, and led back
again; and so you come short of redemption, and your faith fail you, and
so you come short of the promise; for unbelief cannot enter into the
rest. But you, dear Friends, put on resolution, put on strength, be
valiant for your freedom, cast off every weight, follow your Captain,
the Lord Jesus Christ, who, for the joy set before Him, endured the
cross, despised the shame, and so entered into rest and glory.
Take heed of halting between God and the
world: What agreement can there be, or what peace while you are married
to the world? Your thoughts turn in there, and you are adulterated from
God, who gives you all good things, and so many tokens of His love.
Hereby is the broken language brought forth, and you cannot speak the
pure language of the land of rest. And while you give way to that in
you, which leads you to look back to what is behind you, you keep
yourselves in the wilderness and darkness; and lose your way, and know
not where you are; grieving the Holy Spirit of the Lord, which has
appeared to you to guide you.
But, (O Friends!) mind your Guide and
follow Him; Arise, shine, your light is come, and the glory of the Lord
is risen upon you; the night is far spent, the day is at hand, even the
day of Sion's deliverance: Arise, come away, all you that love her, come
off from the world and worldly things, come into the life, lie no longer
in death and dead things. Awake, you that sleep, and stand up from the
dead, that Christ may give you light: Come forth, come forth of all
created things, witness your redemption from the world, that you are
redeemed from the earth up to God, out of all kindreds, tongues, people
and nations, to reign as kings and priests forever, above the world, sin
and death, triumphing and treading upon all that would take you captive.
This is the day of your deliverance, own it with the loss of all fading
pleasures, make it appear to all the world, this is the day you waited
for: even this day of your joy, but of the world's sorrow: a day of
blackness and gloominess; a day of fear and trouble to them that oppress
you; a day wherein the kingdom of Jesus Christ shall be exalted, and all
the kingdoms and powers of the earth shaken; a day wherein the Lord will
avenge the power of him that is too strong for you. Rejoice, rejoice,
you meek of the earth, shout for joy, you poor despised ones, whom your
brethren have trodden upon, and have cast you out, and you have been
made their mocking stock for the truth's sake; sing and rejoice, the
voice of a King is among you, and He will marry you to Himself in
righteousness, purity and holiness, and will rejoice over you, as a
bridegroom over the bride, and you shall be for a crown of glory in the
hand of the Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand of your God.
O my dear Hearts! My desire to God for
you all is, that you might come to see what unspeakable riches is laid
up for you in Jesus Christ, which is hid from all flesh, neither can
they see it who live after the flesh: And while they continue their love
to the world and worldly things, they keep out the manifestation of the
Father's love, for their hearts cannot receive both.
Now show yourselves wise men, choose
that which is eternal: here is light and life tendered to you in Jesus
Christ, freely out of the Father's love, and show forth life and love to
God again, by giving up to Him all you have, and all you are for
Christ's sake; that so you may come to receive all again with Christ,
who is the fullness of the Father's love, and in Him are all good things
needful for this life, and that which is to come, even the earnest of
your inheritance, which none can take from you; which being received,
you shall never hunger more, having a well-spring within, even the
witness of eternal life and love. And as Christ appears, who is our life
and love; so shall life and love appear, spring, blossom, and bring
forth fruit towards God and man: That so, being raised by Him from death
and dead works, you may henceforth live to God: And being brought into
oneness with Him, and purity, and holiness, you may be one among
yourselves, of one heart and of one mind, speaking one and the self-same
thing; and having the same care one for another, as for yourselves. And
take heed that there be not in any of you a principle of self-love,
which will lead to separation and division, casting a stumbling-block in
the way of the simple; and so they that are weak, may be defiled and
turned back into the world.
And I beseech you, brethren, that you
mark them that once set their faces towards Sion, but not being willing
to deny the world, and take up the cross, have consulted with flesh and
blood, and turned back into Egypt again: of such take heed, knowing,
that the same spirit that has wrought in them deceitfully, will not
cease to work by them to deceive others, to maintain its own kingdom.
But you, standing fast in the pure light of Christ, shall see where
those return, and the cause of their returnings, and that the end of
such is worse than the beginning: but there will be such, that they who
are approved may be manifest. But you, my brethren, be you so far from
following such, that their falling away, may cause you to watch, and
search by what power you stand; and so a pure fear may be preserved in
you, by which you may be kept in the way that leads to the crown which
is immortal; for it is he that overcomes that must wear the crown:
Wherefore faint not, nor think anything too hard the Lord calls you to;
nothing must suffer, but that which is to die, that your souls may live.
Oh! your light affliction works for you a far more exceeding weight of
glory, while you keep your eye to that which is invisible. Wherefore
give up yourselves to His will in all things.
Stand in the will of God in your present
condition, you are my joy in the Lord, let my bowels be refreshed to
hear of your steadfastness and growth in truth. Take heed of propounding
ends to yourselves in anything, for that leads out of the way of God,
and gives way to your own wisdom; and so you seek to preserve that alive
which is appointed for death, and so you maintain war against God, and
know it not. And in this condition you can have no peace, while the
enemies are in arms against your peace. Oh! dear Friends, you are in my
heart, my prayer to God for you is, that you may be kept blameless to
the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, blessed forever.
My fellow prisoner, and dear companion
in the Lord, salutes you all. Cease not to pray for us, that we may be
kept to His praise, who has counted us worthy to suffer for His name. We
are well, and in great peace, kept in our Father's love above all. We
are often brought to stand, and wonder how we are kept in the midst of
the fire, and not consumed; and the more that the enemy rages, the more
are we kept in peace within. Here are strange devices used to ensnare
us, to get ought against us (true or false) but all is ordered by a
Power the world knows not. God is our strength, rejoice with us, all
dear Friends, and praise His name forevermore, for He is worthy, for His
mercy endures forever.
(James Nayler, A prisoner at Appleby in
Westmorland for the truth's sake, 1653)
*******
To All Dear Brethren and Friends in Holderness, and in the East
Parts of Yorkshire. (1653)
Dear Friends,
I rejoice in you, as you are entered
into the love of the truth, and have owned the voice that calls out of
darkness that is over all the earth, to set your faces towards Sion, the
City of everlasting light. And now mind your way, and the light that is
given to guide you in the way, to keep your eye to the light, that it
may lead you through all the visible things of the world: And as you
pass through, you may stand single in the mind to God, not turning to
the right or left hand, where lies the temptation: nor looking back,
which lays you open to be assaulted afresh by those evils you had once
escaped from: but keeping the eye towards the mark, pass on, leaving and
forgetting what is behind, and treading and trampling under your feet,
what the enemy shall lay as stumbling-blocks in your way, which your
carnal eyes, or ears, or hearts would be closing with, for the
temptation lies in the carnal things, and there is the bondage of the
creature to things that are corrupt: from which bondage from sin and
corruption the Lord is now appeared, that in the light He may redeem and
lead out of it all that will own and follow Him.
And this light and redemption is in His
Son, whom He is about to exalt, in which exaltation a strange and mighty
work is to be brought to pass, whereat all that stand not in His counsel
and fear, and to whom He will not reveal His secrets, shall be offended:
for all that is exalted, shall be laid low and debased; the wisdom of
the wise shall come to naught, and the understanding of the prudent ones
shall be hid: Riches and honors shall fall to the dust, from whence they
came, and the worship of the world shall become filthiness, the gods of
the heathen shall be famished with looking for worship but shall get
none; and the strongest of them shall not be able to deliver himself:
For the Lord will bring down all heights and mountains into the valleys;
for in the valley of Jehosophat He will plead with all flesh, which have
scattered the Seed of the covenant.
And now, dear Friends, here is your
peace and blessedness, That you silence all flesh, and cease from your
own wisdom, and give over your imaginations about the things of God;
come out of the love of the world, and arise out of all visible things,
and prepare to meet the Lord: Cast off all your idols that have had your
hearts, and put off the stumbling-blocks of your iniquities from before
your faces, and give up all that will not that He should reign over
them, that His enemies may be your enemies; for in judgment and
righteousness is He come out, to be avenged upon the unrighteous seed.
And now stand in the light, that a separation may be made in you, the
precious from the vile, that a true Savior may arise, that you may know
your calling and election, what is called, and what you are to come out
of, lest you stay in any of that to which the plagues are: for this is
the cause of your suffering, not discerning, in the pure wisdom, what
that antichrist or exalted spirit is, that is got into the seat of God,
and shows himself to be as God, whose kingdom stands in the wisdom,
glory and riches of the world, whereat all that know not the true God in
spirit ask counsel.
Therefore, dear Friends, look not out
into visible things, for there he is ready to present to you false
voices and visions, lying wonders, to lead out the vain mind into the
liberty and boasting of high things, in words without power: but while
such speak of liberty, they are in bondage in mind, to corrupt and
fading things. And while these are head in the creature, there is not
redemption: for the bonds of iniquity are unloosed, and the pure Seed is
oppressed, and the plagues must pass upon that nature. Therefore sink
down into the sufferings and death, that you may find the door whereat
to enter; for there is a vale of tears to pass through. You shall find
your wellsprings in Him, where you shall drink of the water of life, and
find refreshment, and grow from strength to strength, till you come up
to Sion. Stand fast, take heed of words without life, spoken from the
comprehensions, for that feeds not the pure Seed, but feeds the wisdom
which is below, and the itching ears, and so the Pure is covered with
earth, and the fowls of the air are fed, and no fruit is brought forth
to perfection. And take heed of that nature that would know more than
God is willing to reveal: for you shall find that unwilling to obey what
it knows: And take heed of that which desires to appear before men to be
commended, for that seldom deserves praise of God. And let a godly
conversation declare what is within; and know one another in spirit, and
not in word, and meet often together, and wait upon God, (for His
teaching alone) in a cross to your own wills, for therein is the secrets
of God revealed. Let love abound in you one towards another, without
being partial.
And I beseech you by the love of God,
that you halt not between God and the world, but as you profess that you
are not of the world, so let your conversation be out of its fashions,
customs, traditions and covetous practices, that it may appear that you
are marked out for the Lord's, and that you are not ashamed to own that
which differs, and so walk, as not to cast an offence on the Gospel,
that you become not a scorn to fools; but let wisdom be justified of her
children. And take heed of that which would be exalted above others,
teaching and talking of things without life. And you that would be
counted as somebody, let such first learn to wash the feet of them that
they would be above; and he that would be greatest, let him be servant
to all, for it is the humble, and not the high spirits that are taught
of God, and such so walk, as their lives and practices teach and judge
all vain, light and haughty spirits. And mind how you grow out of the
earth, and out of that which is in the enmity: and until you be brought
out of the love of all visible things, and wholly enfolded into the love
of God, you cannot witness redemption, nor receive the true joy that
arises in the manifestation of the love; for it is only he that is
brought up out of the unrighteous mammon, who is entered into the
kingdom of righteousness, joy and peace. And as you arise out of the
earthly bondage, you shall witness the glorious liberty, and so come to
know your own measures, everyone in particular to improve it and not to
boast above it in another man's line: And so you will come to see by
what power you stand in your warfare, how far you are conquerors, and
who is your enemy at present; and so be able to give an account in
yourselves of your faith, and how you grow from faith to faith.
And, dear Friends, watch over one
another, exhort, reprove, admonish in pure love and meekness of spirit,
lest you also be tempted; and all know, that you are set as a city on a
hill, as signs to this generation: therefore lift up your light to all
the world, that all mouths may be stopped, and hearts convinced; so that
all that see you, may see you to be children of light, and being judged
by you, may be ashamed of their deeds of darkness: For great is the work
of the Lord, and blessed are they that are found faithful in it, in what
is committed to them.
Farewell, dear Hearts, and the Lord God
Almighty bless, prosper, and preserve you pure and clear unto His
kingdom, Amen.
My love in the Lord salutes you all, and
if my Father please, I shall be glad to see your faces in the flesh, but
His will is my peace, who is blessed forevermore. A lover to your souls,
James Nayler V(Written from Nuby, the last day of the Seventh month,
1653)
The work of the Lord is great in these
Parts, and He carries it on with a high hand, having got Himself the
victory.
Praise the Lord with us, all that know
Him, who is worthy, even Him alone forever.
*******
Concerning Love And Judgment
Friends,
He that loves not, knows not God, for
God is love, and he that dwells in love, dwells in God, and God in him.
Herein is love made perfect, who are as He is in this world; here is
boldness in judgment; there is no fear in this love, no torment in
judgment. But if any man love the world, or the things that are in the
world, the love of the Father is not in him, but the love of the world:
which judgment torments; for all that is in the world, the lust of the
flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life, is not of the Father.
These are in the world, and lie in wickedness, which cannot stand in
judgment, who have fear in judgment, who are tormented in judgment,
whose life is in the world, in the lust, in the pleasure, in the pride,
in the excess, in the ease and in the world's nature: These are not of
God; whose love to these is greater in them than the Spirit which calls
them out of the world; for such cannot endure judgment, cannot stand in
it without torment, fear arises, torment arises within, which makes them
flee judgment, and cry out against it; which God loves, which the sons
of God love, who are redeemed therewith, who have denied the spirit of
the world, which is to be tormented, and have received the Spirit of
adoption, through the Spirit of judgment, and the Spirit of burning, and
are purified, and sanctified, and baptized into Christ Jesus, and have
put off the world in great tribulation: Such love judgment, and are able
to stand therein, and to dwell with everlasting burning, that
which condemns the wicked, the world and the spirit thereof; such love,
who love God, who love His appearance in Jesus Christ, who is a consuming fire,
which is love everlasting to His own Seed, not of the world, nor the
lust thereof; but that which strikes at the world's life, vanity and
glory, which cannot stand His appearance, whose day burns as an oven,
before whom the world's glory and the fashion of it passes away, that He
may bring forth His sons and daughters in another image and life which
the world loves not, but has torment in judgment, but the redeemed
rejoice therein.
And who is it now that cries, Away with judgment, and
who has turned it into wormwood? Such as have their life in the world,
whose delight is in that which will be burned, who are for condemnation,
who are disobedient to Him that calls them out of the world, who deny
the Light of the world, sent to convince the world of sin, and lead into
all truth; Such cannot stand in judgment; what boldness can such have
therein, who are condemned already, for unbelief in the light and
disobedience thereto, fear and torment must needs arise and drive them
away, and as chaff must they be, that the Scripture may be fulfilled.
And these cry out for love, who cannot
stand in judgment, who stand in the enmity; those who love the things of
the world, are in the enmity against God, and those whose life is
therein, what have you to do with love? You must first deny the enmity,
and give up that life that stands therein, through obedience to the
Light, which is God's love to the world, that through the cross of
Christ, and by the Spirit of judgment and baptism of fire, all the bonds
of iniquity, which keep you in the world, in the enmity and out of God,
may be broken, and you brought out free, born of that Spirit which the
world hates and condemns, which condemns the world. And so through death
of that life which holds you in the world, in the enmity, under the law,
under the wrath, you may come to enjoy God, who is love, whom without
holiness none can see to their comfort.
God's love stands not in man's will, nor
can any who stand in the will of man either give or receive it, only to
those who have no other lovers in the world, He gives Himself: whoever
loves Christ's life, as to hate their own, whose hearts can join to
nothing but what is of God. And this is that true chastity and true
charity, which all must learn with the loss of the world's gain, e're
God be enjoyed as a Husband. And he who has obtained this treasure in
his vessel, must possess it in holiness, or lose it; he cannot let the
harlot in and be undefiled, nor give it out to the nature which he has
denied to obtain it, and not betray it and lose it, which is only
retained in holiness alone. So He that dwells in love calls to all in
love; Come to Me, says Christ, and drink and eat freely:
this is love, but do all hear? Do all obey? Do all come? Do all inherit?
Do all own correction? Are all of God? Do not many cast off judgment,
and despise reproof? will not hear the rod, and yet would have the love? Whom I love, I rebuke,
says the Spirit, and chasten every son that I receive. This is
God's Way; so you who reject it, reject love, and not it you.
Ah! Silly people, how are you deceived!
Does he that sees you fast in the world and in the curse, where you have
not power to do well, as yourselves confess, but to do evil, and comes
and cries peace to you there, and sits down with you in that form or
fellowship, does he bring you love, or has he the love that is of God in
him, who flatters you here? And does he who has the sword of judgment,
and faithfully uses it to part you and the world in which the enmity
stands against God, to bring you out into the Son's freedom, does he
hate you, or is he your enemy? Is not this to put enmity for love, and
love for enmity, as it is at this day with all that love the things of
the world, and are kept captive therein, when truth comes to pass upon
them where you are?
And you say you are come to the Son and
to freedom &c. and you are all in love, as you say: But when
judgment from God is sent among you, and falls upon that which is of the
world where it finds you; then a fire kindles among you, and you have
torment, and your love leaves you; which shows your love is not of God,
which loves judgment, where mercy rejoices, whose love has not torment
nor fear.
Now the day tries your sonship, your
freedom and your love; For
judgment I am come into the world, says the Son: And are you come
to Him and cannot stand therein? Are you free-born who are in that
nature whereon the fires kindle? Is your love that which bears all
things, who are tormented in judgment, and driven into heaps of
confusion and fear, speaking you no not what? Is this the voice of sons,
which cries, Away
with judgment? Is this to receive correction? Is this the Son's
freedom, or of His nature? Nay, this is to kick against that which
pricks you, wherein you plainly show you have not learned your sonship
of the Father, after Christ Jesus; nor know Him formed in you, who bears
the chastisement of peace, but have got your knowledge another way, than
in learning of Christ, and your love is not obtained through the fire,
with the loss of all that is to be consumed, which God hates, nor are
you born of that Spirit of Christ, to whom all judgment is committed in
heaven and earth, nor do you know the key of David.
Now honestly search your house with the
candle which God has lighted, and when you find the truth in your inward
parts, then shall you say, There
is no love but in it; and that the world's love stands in that which
God hates, and is a lie, and pierces the soul of all that serve it, or
let it into their bosom. And for this we may not join in your love,
though we love you, in that which is beloved of the Father, wherein
alone we can have boldness in the day of judgment, and in that life
alone, in which love is made perfect, which none can inherit further
than they become as He is in this world, walking as He walked, dwelling
in God who is love without end.
*******
To some that were Backslidden
The Child is born who is not of this
world; and many are called to bear His testimony against the world, who
are no more of this world, nor the spirit thereof will they receive, nor
be in bondage thereto, who have received the Spirit of freedom, even of
the Father and the Son, in which they are begotten out of the world, and
the love thereof.
Now what are you about to do, who have
been called, and once enlightened to see the vanities of the world, and
the evils of its customs and fashions, ways and worships, and have been
touched with judgment for your consenting thereto, and now are turning
back to settle and build therein, and there to take up your rest,
seeking to get a peace to yourselves in that which judgment has once
entered upon you, shall this your building stand? Shall not your peace
be broken? Ask your own hearts, if they condemn you not herein, and of
unfaithfulness to His faithful Witness in you; I know God has not left
Himself without a Witness in you for judgment, which sometimes does
arise, and cause fear in you, and lets you plainly see that you take not
counsel of His Spirit, but of your pleasures and profits in the world,
and by them are you led, and not by that Spirit which calls you to bear
His testimony against them.
And do you see this deceitful dealing in
your own spirits towards Christ, and that your hearts are not upright in
His testimony against the evil of this world. And will you cover all
this deceit with conceits, words and notions, and seek to build you a
place of peace above all this? Will you thus heal your hurt deceitfully
and know it? And shall this stand before God? Shall not judgment arise
in due time, and your hurt appear again? Is not this worse than all your
former sins of ignorance, which you now add knowingly? Ask your own
hearts, if they fear not the end of this dealing towards God and your
own souls.
You are seeking rest, but not in the
Sabbath of God, but in the world, you deny the first days work, (to wit) That which separates
light from darkness. So you are far from the Sabbath of pure rest;
so your rest shall spew you out: it's unclean, and your building shall
fall upon your own heads. The foundation is polluted and mixed with the
world, your garment shall rot; it's defiled with the flesh, and all your
notions and conceits as hay and stubble and chaff, shall burn in the day
when He shall arise to judgment, whom you now betray for the world, and
to get yourselves ease and pleasure, your ease shall slay you, and your
pleasures pass away with bitterness of soul, when your own work shall
set you on fire, and all your airy notions and high words, and all your
knowledge you have gotten in that disobedient nature, shall become fuel,
and all your fears shall fall upon you to the utmost, because you have
willfully made a path for yourselves to err, and sought to hid your way
from the light, thereby to stop judgment in your hearts, and that equity
should not enter, who have denied Him that called you, and have withheld
your body from Him that made it, lest He should have purged you, and
have drawn away your shoulder from His burden, lest you should have born
His testimony against the world's lusts and your own, who have cast off
His yoke, and proclaimed liberty to yourselves in that which grieves the
Holy Spirit.
Therefore, as you are joined with the
world against the judgment of the Just, who comes to restore all things,
so with the world will be your portion, when the Just comes to judge the
world, and when all comes to be restored in the covenant, you who have
not kept covenant will be cast out: then shall you know, that whoever
denies the light is a child of darkness, notwithstanding now your
conceits cover you.
Against whom do you strengthen
yourselves, when you say, We shall
have peace, notwithstanding the Witness in our conscience speaks not
peace? And when you call that the spirit of bondage, that would
have you free from the evil of the world and service of sin, do not you
speak this against the Lord and your life? Do not you herein rise up
against the Just and innocent, and to stop the mouth of Him that is
faithful, that the wicked may escape unreproved and live? Have you
anything else that will show you your hearts deceits? And is He become
your enemy, because He will not flatter you therein? Does not He speak
peace freely to the obedient, though He never prophesies good of the
world, in its corrupted ways? Shall you prosper who seek deep to hide
you sin from His reproof? and will you be found children of the day, who
seek to hide your ways from the light?
Whose image do you bear, who are like
the world, except in opinion and notion? And who can so far conform to
it, as to procure its love, and escape the cross which should crucify it
to you? Are you like Christ, because you profess Him, when you crucify
every appearance of Him to yourselves afresh? Will you boast in the
Saints lines to make you a cover, while that lies crucified in you which
should lead to their lives? Will not you be found the sepulchers that
appear well without, but death and dry bones within? The Babe slain,
that is not of this world, and His Life buried in earthly minds, and the
grave garnished with His Words? Shall he who steals his neighbors ass be
condemned fourfold; and shall he that slays the innocent, and steals his
garments go free?
The holy men of God travailed in sorrow,
to bring forth that which God begot in them, and not their own
conceiving; and when they brought it forth it was contrary to the world,
and could not bow to it, nor join with its ways, but held forth another
image. So their covering was with the Spirit of God, and with the
reproach of the world. And in obedience to that Spirit they spoke as it
moved; in which words you take liberty, and resist the Holy Spirit, and
call their lives bondage. Now ask your own consciences, if you be not
they who glory in words, without the life, in appearance but not in
heart; But this is seen among you, that the blood of the slain cries so
loud, that few dare look within his own house: So you make ado without,
to stop it for a time; but by what is done within must you be judged in
the end.
Are you the restorers of pure paths for
the simple to walk in, as in the beginning, e're the god of this world
caused error by his inventions? Or, are you the makers up of the breach,
wherewith he had broken in upon our forefathers, in the days of
darkness, error and superstition? When will your practice preach
redemption from all those vanities, and your lives declare a liberty
from his bondage of corruption, and to things that perish with using?
Does not the creation groan because of pride, and the oppression that is
used to uphold it, in its becking and bowing, and false worships and
customs? And are not men and women wholly in bondage to things that God
never set up, nor commanded; because they please the spirit of this
world, with whom you are turning back to worship, and call it your
liberty? So your liberty is in that which lies in corruption, and your
glory in that which is unrestored, the end whereof is death; But the
sons of God are they that are led by the Spirit of God, who glory in His
likeness, and their substance is eternal life.
*******
For Friends to be Tender and
Compassionate One towards Another
Dear Friends,
Be tenderly affected towards one
another, as brethren in the Lord, and often remember whose Spirit it is
you profess to have upon you, and whose image you are to bear before all
men; but especially towards all that love Christ Jesus, and bear His
testimony this day, and His reproach; And that you seek to support the
weak, and recover such as are tempted, shaken or fallen: seeking all
occasions to restore and forgive one another, and to blot the
remembrances of offences out of your hearts, and remember the bonds,
with which the Lord Jesus has bound us to all this, who laid down His
precious life for His enemies, whom we were, and are if we receive not
this Spirit in the life of it, therein to walk towards one another; He
cannot live in us else, but suffers in us as in the world. And remember
how the Father accepted His Son's atonement for us, and forgave us much
at the beginning, which we had done against Him when His life we knew
not, but oppressed it in us. And this should bind us to do the like for
all souls; for they are His, as we were His when we knew Him not; but
especially to every brother or sister, for this is pleasant in His
sight, and in His house it is His honor and anointing, wherewith His
children are anointed into tenderness, from the highest to the lowest.
And that Spirit where He lives seeks not self, but seeks the lost, and
to bring again to God.
So prove your own selves, if Christ be
in you, and the anointing makes soft and gentle, and melting the
hardness makes peace and oneness. And this is His glory and work above
every spirit, and His name above every name; that as He is just and
pure, and separate from sinners, yet is He tender to seek, and to save,
and ready to forgive above all other, thereby turning away wrath. And
for this He is loved of God and men who are reconciled thereby; and
pleasing it is to God that He walk in you, and you in Him, in whom wrath
is quenched, and forgiveness received.
And dear Friends, this is our peace, and
His glory is upon us if with this Spirit we be covered, and armed
against the adversary who waits for evil, and to divide and keep in
division, and to keep the evil in mind, that it should not be blotted
out; and there wrath abides as a spark in secret, and the fire is ready
to kindle, more than to forgive. And where this is so, it cannot be long
till it will break out, where peace is denied, and there satan gets his
daily advantage: And, says Christ, it is impossible but that offences will come;
wherefore He says, Take heed to yourselves; and if your brother trespass
against you, rebuke him, and if he repent forgive him; and if he
trespass against you seven times in a day, and seven times in a day turn
again to you, saying, I repent, you shall forgive him. And if you
forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your heavenly Father
forgive you your trespasses. So look at God in what you do to men
herein, for to Him you owe it, and much more: If you know God and
yourselves know this, and for want of this satan has got advantage at
this day, and the enmity eats as a canker, and pride gets up, and wrath
is heavy and devours, though many see it not; yet it is seen and felt by
some, and lamented and feared, who see it spread over the tenderness in
many, where love did abound at first; and how little a thing will now
give occasion of wrath to work high; yea, many times when no just
occasion is given.
And this is the advantage that satan has
got in this time of trial, which has tried many, and shaken many. Oh!
that it might once be truly said, that we had all taken warning, and
gotten strength by it in the best things and most pleasing to God, and
which might most honor Him before all men, and double the bonds of pure
truth, and live in all His called people, who bear His name openly; and
that we might all be found in His nature, and no appearance else seen,
that so the adversary might be wholly without his hope within and
without. And some breath after this more than any outward glory, and
many lament the want of it; which if we all seek it, our rest will then
be truly glorious, yet again, in one heart and mind, as at the
beginning. And this is longed and believed for, with desire of heart,
that none may come short of seeking and obtaining the same.
And you that have the word of God, which
is the sword of the Spirit, take heed how you use it, and be not rash in
your words, nor unadvised; but take counsel at that which leads to do to
another, as you would be done to, that you may use your power for
edification, rather than for destruction; you may bind or loose here on
earth who have the word. This power is given from above, abuse it not,
to bite or devour with, lest you be devoured thereof, and wrath kindle
against you, who reject mercy, and choose it not rather than judging one
another, in things where mercy might take place among brethren. And you
may bind a brother or a sister under a trespass, who has trespassed
against you, and cause them to suffer much, and give satan advantage
against them above their strength; but this I am sure God delights not
in, on your behalf; though you may say it is just, and an eye for an eye;
yet surely if God had so dealt with you, your debt had remained upon
you; and the time will come, that he that has showed no mercy must have
judgment without mercy. And for that end has God showed us mercy and
forgiveness, that we should walk in it towards the brethren, and be like
Him. And some are tried that all may fear, and know by what you stand;
and if God does but leave you to your own spirits, you will appear as
other men, and high-mindedness, and hard-heartedness against your
brethren, is the way to provoke Him to do it, that as you have done, so
you receive.
And this will certainly come upon all,
who in the forgiveness of God abide not, though some mens sins go before
to judgment, and some follow after; and happy is that man whose iniquity
is covered, and puts on that Spirit towards the brethren and
fellow-servants, which has power to keep it so.
I speak not this to hide the
transgressor, or keep the evil one from judgment, wherever he is seen;
for that will defile you. But to preserve the brotherhood from him that
now seeks occasion, that no place be given to him, but that all may be
done in that Spirit that has the power and effectual working together,
and heal and save through judgment, making an end of sin, and the
remembrance of it, and in peace sowing the fruit of righteousness in
Him, alone that makes peace, not kindling the fire; but with fear to be
defiled pulling out of the fire, putting a difference in this case,
which none can do but who have received the power of forgiveness from
above, and walk in it. And such indeed have put on the Lord, who would
have none defiled, nor any lost for want of compassion; and in whom sin
is covered, wrath is put away, and mercy has taken its place, and such
love mercy and salvation; but they in whom wrath and strife is above,
take heed and glory not over another, which will bring yourselves under
greater condemnation.
*******
Exhorting to Mercy and Forgiveness
Dear Friends,
Mind whereon you feed, and in what you
grow, and keep all low in your minds, that the virtue of meekness you
may feel, and know the strength of it with God; take heed of the
knowledge above the life, and of getting words of wisdom, and therewith
set yourselves above the meek, and despise the weak, and so become
strong trees without fruit, which God will overturn by the roots: But
everyone feed in a clean Spirit, and therein know the power of the word
of life in yourselves, which as it passes breaks the rocks, and melts
the hardness in every heart, and melts you all into one heart, as one
man, all into one mind in Christ Jesus, that you may be knit in one
body, and one Spirit, and one Head, the Lamb over all, glorified over
all; having come through the world, and through the law, now know the
power of love in yourselves, as it is in Christ, and the mercy seat and
forgiveness of God; even as you have received of the Lord freely, that
you may be sealed therein; that there be no evil in any heart unblotted
out before God, that He may walk in you all in pure peace and mercy, and
that all may know into whom you are begotten; and with the saving health
of God you may be all covered, and the weak strengthened and comforted,
that none be driven away for want of compassion, but that such be
visited with the same you have received, or would receive from God for
yourselves: and this is brotherly-kindness, as God is kind: And all know
the virtue of a healing tongue, and how to use it; and often remember,
you were enemies to God, and ignorantly did that which you should not;
and in that state God sought you with much patience and long-suffering
towards you, and with great forgiveness were you gathered into His love
and mercy, that He might lead you an example towards your brethren, for
all souls are His: How much more should you be tender to such as are
already called, and serve them as brethren who have but received the
truth in belief thereof, and are turned towards God, bearing their
testimony in that faith against the world, though in much weakness? Yet
of such be tender, and feed them with milk, as the Lord has fed you; so
do with much fear and gentleness, lest the same be driven out of the
way, and give no advantage to the enemy; and set not yourselves above
them with that which you have received from God: But seek the life of
God in all; and let that be the chief thing you aim at in all, for the
Lord's sake, leading them the way of meekness and fear which is in God,
and in the pure wisdom, putting a difference between weakness and
willfulness, and between the brethren and the world; and as your hearts
are found perfect to the Seed (of the word of God) herein, God will make
you wise to salvation, nurses and fathers shall you be called, and a
blessing will be in your hand on whomever you lay it; and you will grow
in grace and mercy as you come to feel this rise in you, and in the
knowledge of salvation, and the power of God's arm you will feel you
have to gather with to God, and He will write His name of peace upon
your assemblies, and build you as a city without breaches.
Not to Strive, but Overcome by
Suffering
Children of God, seek a kingdom in you,
that flesh and blood strive not for, nor cannot enter therein, a kingdom
undefiled, and that fades not away, hid from that which feeds on earthly
things, a heavenly kingdom, bearing heavenly fruits, and where heavenly
things abound; wherein the heavenly Spirit rules, guides, and brings
forth fruits of itself, heavenly fruits, the fruits of grace and
meekness, and of a lowly mind, the fruits of peace and gentleness, and
forbearance among yourselves. These are heavenly fruits and the virtues
of the tree of life, and that which the loftiness of flesh and blood
looks not for, nor does esteem, which loves the praise of men, and to be
known in that which this world can see into with the outward
understanding: But wait with patience to feel that quickened, which is
sown in tears, and springs up with joy, out of the sight of the natural
understanding, that that alone may bear you, and therein all your fruit
may be found, and so come to the knowledge of the tree by its fruits;
and let the life open the understanding (and not the notion, or the
sight) that is the heavenly learning of Christ Jesus the Righteous, full
of grace and truth; but striving to get up to the knowledge of heavenly
things in notion and form, before the thing itself be born and brought
forth, this is the wrong way to learn Christ, and the way of the world,
that vails the life; for this knowledge stands in the sensual part, to
exalt and puff up the mind above the meekness and lowliness that is in
the Spirit of Christ Jesus, and beguiles the soul of the simplicity in
which it should feed; and so a tree may grow high, and hard, and strong,
yet fruitless and out of the power, got above the Poor, above the
Innocent, out of the feeling of the Sufferer and Man of sorrows where He
is; and the end of this growth is not in the pure rest, for the higher
anyone grows here, the more does that wither and die in them, which is
soft, and tender and melting, which makes one, and is the true Fold for
lambs, where the lions must lie down in the end, if they come to rest,
and that eye put out which looks to be great among men, that comes not
into the rest, but has strife in the mind, strife in words and secret
smitings, which defile the rest, and lead into the division and
separation; but the little Child leads into the rest, and that which is
lowly gives the entrance.
So feel that which is lowly and meek to
arise above self, that which stills all strife at home in your minds,
and gives peace in temptation and tribulation; that's a soft and tender
thing in you, that is the Peace-maker, that's blessed of God. And this
is first felt under the world, under the strife, suffering by the strife
in patience, to bring to the end of the strife and the world, and in the
end of it, and all exaltation, He comes to arise over the world and the
enmity, who is not of a striving nature, but lives by hope, and believes
to see to the end of all things under which He suffers, and to out-live
every temptation by suffering. And so by an everlasting life comes over
the world, and to reign over all things that are not of that eternal
nature; but not to join with the evil.
And he that in the particular is born of
this, has overcome the world in himself, and knows how to walk towards
his brother in that which has power over the world and out-lives all,
whereby he can suffer therein, and brings forth its own undefiled into
one to rest, ever aiming in the ministrations at the kingdom of truth,
peace and holiness, which is the end of all gifts and callings among the
brethren, and is only obtained as that arises in all which suffers by
the world, but is not of the world, which he that is Christ's minister
comes to turn men to.
And this Seed all should know, which is
beloved of the Father and Heir of the everlasting kingdom, who strives
not by violence, but entreats; who seeks not revenge, but endures all
contradictions from all against Himself, to the end He may obtain mercy
for all from the Father. And this is the Seed of eternal peace, and the
eternal Peace-maker, which was fore-ordained of the Father, and has
power to endure all things, and subdue all things by overcoming.
So this seek in yourselves and all men,
and in it seek one another as brethren. This is that which is perfect,
and is never to be done away, neither can it be overcome of the world;
wrath cannot enter it; it strives for nothing but to live its own life,
which the world strives not for; nor can any that are of it strive with
it; the worldly spirit seeks not that crown, whose life is to suffer all
things, to be meek, and low, and poor, and rejected; reviled, contemned
of the world, bearing the reproach of all that's above God in all. And
little striving in the will of man is there for this kingdom, or the
cross that belongs thereto, which no exalted mind can bear nor glory in.
And this is the righteousness that
exceeds the Scribes and Pharisees, and Professors, and that wherein they
cannot enter; nor can any reign in this kingdom, but who can bear the
cross which leads to the crown, and has a habitation in that which
cannot be moved with change nor kindled with wrath.
This the heritage of the meek, and the
kingdom which only belongs to the poor in spirit and pure in heart,
where the hardness of heart is broken, and melted, and self dead, many
spirits desire to look into it; but few to live the life of it; It's
only for the Heirs who are born through sorrow, and slain with ease; to
whom flesh and blood is an enemy, and with the eye that looks out
lightly esteemed among men.
*******
Exhorting to Watchfulness
Blessed forever be the Father of light,
who has called you out of the world, and has given you a testimony to
finish in behalf of Christ Jesus; that through you He may manifestly
declare Him to the world, in the true Savior of God, wherein you are the
first-fruits of His glory, as you die and arise in Him: And so the Son
is the light of the world. I beseech you, let your shining be in the
right nature, and your rising be as you are born of God, and covered
with the same Spirit and life by which you have been begotten towards
Him: That none of you may be found false witnesses of His coming, when
you are proved with fire, when nothing will abide with you but what you
are in His nature: That's all you have of the treasure of God, even what
you are in Him, who works in you against the flesh and the world; as
many as abide in the feeling of His measure, and therein receive Him as
Head over all. But if you receive anything above Him, in your minds,
which is not of this nature, then you oppress Him who is meek and
tender, which hinders His arising to walk and dwell in you.
Wherefore dear Friends, watch against
all fleshly, selfish, hasty motions; take heed what you receive into His
temple, lest you defile it, and He leave you desolate and in darkness.
Because of evil thoughts, covetousness,
and pride of heart, is His Spirit grieved; every self-end, in whatever
you do and suffer, is an enemy to His life, He suffers by whatever is
done deceitfully towards God or man; and if you give way to wrath you
deny His kingdom; yea, you that have tasted of Him, you know in measure
how pure His way is in all things; and I pray you may all grow therein,
being so much the more diligent, as you see your adversary seeking by
all means to darken that glory of your holiness in Christ Jesus, that
Spirit; to whom I commit you all, that in the holy bowels of His tender
love you may know one another, in whatsoever any of you shall meet with
from the world, in this way of your pilgrimage; that your unity in Him
nothing may be able to break.
*******
