A1r

The
Widow Whiterows
Humble
Thanksgiving
for the
Kings
Safe Return.

With an Account of John Hall’s Vision upon the 1693-11-01first day
of the Eleventh Month, 16923
. And also a Letter to a
Friend concerning John Hall’s Message with a Letter from Jamaica
concerning the Earthquake that happen’d there; a Warning
to the Inhabitants of the Earth, to fear God and give
Glory to Him, for the hour of His Judgments are come

“Say unto the King and to the Queen humble
your Selves, sit down,”
Jeremiah 13. 18. “The People of Neniveh believed God, and proclaimed
a Fast, and put on Sackcloth from the greatest of them
to the least of them. For word came unto the King of
Nineveh, and he rose from his Throne, and he laid his
Robe from him, and covered him with Sackcloth, and
sate in Ashes.”
Jonah 3. 5, 6.
Licensed, D. P. 1694-04-18April 18.

London: Printed by D Edwards in Nevel’s Alley in Fetter-lane, for J. B. 16941694

A1v A2r 3

The
Widow Whiterows
Humble
Thanksgiving
for the
King’s
Safe Return.

Once more I am highly honoured with Mercy and Truth
to return Thanks to the Most High for the Kings safe
Return.

Oh what shall I say to the Lord for all his Mercies
and boundless Favours, for I am as one astonish’d at his Goodness;
How wonderful are his Works and his Ways past finding out; therefore
who shall not admire Thee: Thou King of Righteousness, who
hath all Power in Heaven and Earth in thy Hands, to bind the Kings
of the Earth in Chains, and their Nobles with fetters of Iron, who rulest
in the Heavens, and makes bare the Arm of thy Glorious Power in A2 the A2v 4
the Earth to dash the Nations asunder, and break in pieces the Potsherds
of the Earth as a Potter’s Vessel.

Oh Great Lord, glorious in Power, fearful in Praises, doing wonders.
Thou Lord Jehovah art come, and thy Power goes before Thee,
that shall rend the Rocks, and cleave the Mountains in sunder: The Everlasting
God is come to throw down Mountains and Hills, and to exalt
the low Valleys; he’ll awaken the Earth by his thundring Power, and
the sleepy Inhabitant thereof by his loud sounding Judgments: For this
know, Oh King:

There’s neither Strength nor Policy shall stand,

Against what God’s a bringing on this Land.

The Youth shall howl, the Aged shall weep sore,

Yet there’s glad tidings for the Meek and Poor.

The Poor in Spirit, I mean, Matth. 5. 3. who are Heirs of the Kingdom
of Glory, whom God will hide in the hollow of his Hand whilst his
fierce Indignation passes over the Rebellious; wherefore, Oh that my
Counsel might be acceptable to the King, and that his ways might so
please the Lord, as that his days may be prolonged in this Land,
which the Lord for a time hath given him to do the will of God in all
things with all his Might, and with all his Strength, that these heavy
Judgments which the Lord hath pronounced may not be executed in the
King’s days; For thus said the Lord to me in my deep humiliation before
him, viz.

My Controversie is not with Man or Woman farther than they are
found in the Transgression, take away the Transgression; and where’s
my Controversie.

Is it so, O Righteous Lord, that thy Controversie is not with Man
or Woman farther than they are found in the transgression of thy Righteous
Law, and pure Commandments? Oh then for thy Mercy sake, and
the advancement of thy Glorious Power, and the praise of thy ever Blessed
Name in these Nations, and throughout all the Earth, turn the King
and Queens Hearts with all their Powers and Strengths to Thee, as the
Rivers of Waters are turned, that with a powerful force of Thy
Love and ardent Affection to thy Glory, they may joyn unanimously
together in Heart and Soul to humble themselves in the dust before
Thee the Almighty God, repenting with Nineveh’s Repentance.
Jonah 3. 7, 8. For no less Repentance will put a stop to the
hot and fiery Indignation of the Lord which is kindled against
this Land, but to turn every one from his Evil Way, and from the wickedness A3r 5
wickedness that is in their hands; therefore, Oh noble Prince and
Princess, for the Lord’s sake, who is the King of Eternal Glory, the God
of the Spirits of all Flesh, the Everlasting Counsellor, the Prince of
Peace, the God that made the Heavens and Earth, the Sea, and all that
therein is, who hath delivered the King from all his Enemies, and gave
him his Life for a Prey, and for the Lord Jesus Christ’s sake, his Suffering,
Life, and Bloody Passion, who was nail’d to the Cross, and gave up
his Life there for all Mankind, and rose again for the Salvation and
Redemption of the Faithful. I pray again and again for His sake who
hath been with the King in six troubles, and in the seventh by his outstretch’d
Arm hath deliver’d him: Oh for His sake come down from your
Thrones, and humble your selves in the dust by Fastings and Prayers, and
deep Humiliation, crying mightily to God the Father of all your
Mercies that He would be with you in Counsel, and direct your way in
truth before Him, to do His most acceptable will in all things, that in
his infinite compassions for his great and terrible name sake shew you
what to do, and which way to take for the suppressing, and total destruction
of this boundless flood of Ungodliness that overflows these Nations.

And dearest Prince and Princess, I humbly beg and beseech you for the
Lord, and his Glory sake, and for your own Lives and Liberty sake be
not negligent in this great Work, prostrating your selves night and
day before the Throne of his Grace, crying mightily to him for his assisting
Power, Heavenly Wisdom, and Holy Zeal; which his Valiants
had of Old. Phinehas, Numbers 25, 7, 8, 11.
Jehoshaphat, Hezakiah, and
Josias, these were clad with Zeal as with a Garment, these were the Valiants
of Israel, that knew how to handle weapons of War being
girt with the Sword of the Spirit, and Helmet of Salvation. Phinehas
was honourable, who by his holy Zeal stop’d the Plague from the
Children of Israel; then said the Lord unto Moses, “Phinehas the Son of
Eleazar hath turned mine Anger away from the Children of Israel while he was
zealous for my sake among them, therefore I have not consumed the Children of
Israel in my Jelousie, wherefore say unto him, Behold I give unto him my Covenant
of Peace, and he shall have it, and his Seed after him for Ever, because
he was zealous for his God, and hath made him an attonement for the Children
of Israel.”
Oh what an influence had this upon the Lord, and how
this act of Holy Zeal pleas’d his Divine Majesty; here we may see the difference
between a holy Zeal for God and his Glory, and a blind Zeal
that hath any Interest in it to Self-honour, either in Name, or Fame,
or any other thing of this perishing World: The first hath power to
prevail with God, to stop the Judgment; the latter suffers it to go on A 2A3 to A3v 6
to their own destruction: But wo and alass, where are these holy Zealots
now in our age, that lies prostrating themselves before the Lord
night and day? And though they see the Sword of the Lord drawn
over these Nations; as David and the Elders of Israel. I Chron. 21. 16, 17.
which were cloathed in Sackcloth, falling upon their Faces, crying out
most bitterly before the Lord with rended hearts, saying, “Is it not I
that have sinned, and have committed Evil in thy Sight?”
Is it not I
That have loved Covetousness, which is Idolatry? Is it not I that have
gone a whoring from thee after my Lusts and Pleasures, my Silver and
Gold, Pride and Profits of a perishing World, so long till I have provoked
the Eyes of thy Glory to say as thou didst to Israel of old, “For
three Transgressions, and for four, I will not pass by the Iniquities thereof?”

And now Oh Lord God let thy hand be upon me, and my Fathers
House, to bring me to a true and unfeigned Repentance, offering unto
Thee Body, Soul, and Spirit a Sacrifice of Righteousness, to love and
serve Thee all the days of my appointed time, until my Change com: And
thus in judging and condemning your selves, and bearing the Indignation
of the Lord, the Altar is set up in the Threshing-Floor of Orman
the Jebusite, where true Penitents sacrifice their Lusts, vile Affections,
and their own wills, ways, and works; this is the Valley of Jehoshaphat,
where Mohab shall be threshed to pieces, Isa 5. 10. as Straw is thrashed
in Madmenah; therefore saith God, “Let the Heathen be awakened, and
come up to the Valley of Jehoshaphat for there will I sit to Judge all the Heathen
round about.”
Therefore Oh Multitude, Multitude, come into the
Valley of Threshing, for the day of the Lord is near in the valley
of Threshing; here will God plead with all Flesh, here will he Judge
between the Precious and the Vile, and when you have born the indignation
of the Lord for Sin and Iniquity so long till Judgment turns to
Victory, then will he arise and plead your Cause: The word “Jehoshaphat”
signifies Pleading, or Judgment, and that which is call’d the valley of
Jehoshaphat, was before called the valley of, Berachah, ( 2 Chron. 20. 26.)
which signifies Blessing or Thanksgiving; and from hence proceeds the
true and acceptable Praise from the valley of Judgment, where God destroys
the Iniquity, and so it comes to pass that whatsoever is done in the
History must be done again in the Mystery; therefore, whosoever
will have Life and Salvation must come into the Valley of Judgment.
Judge your selves, hate and abhor your selves, believe your selves from
the bottom of your Souls to be the vilest, and unworthiest of all the
Creatures of God, in respect to your disobedience, and rebellion against
Him and his Holy Laws, and this must be your Work in the best state you A4r 7
you have yet attained to, yea, if you were come to such a State
as Paul was come to when he said, 1 Cor. 4. 4. “Though I know nothing
by my self, yet herein am I not justified; but he that justifies me is the
Lord”
. Therefore how much more ought it to be the daily and hourly
work of those that call themselves Christians of this Generation, who
are so loaded with Sin, that the Spirit of God, both within and without
them is oppressed, as a Cart is oppressed under the Sheaves; but lest any
should think I mean a bare Historical Judging, or Pharasaical crying out
“Lord have Mercy upon us miserable Sinners”: Here you may cry out long
and loud as Jezebels Prophets did, and never be heard or answered; no,
no, I mean a going down into the valley of Judgment; the valley of Jehoshaphat
where God himself will sit to Judge the Heathen, that knows not
him nor his Righteous Judgments, and yet are crying out, “Lord have
Mercy upon them miserable Sinners”
, who never knew this River of Jordan,
2 Kings 5. 14. or Judgment to cleanse them of their Leprosie, their going
down into the deep, where they behold his Wonders, this valley
of Tears, where Luke 10. 39. Mary sate to hear the precious words that
came from his gracious Lips, which are not to be heard but by leaving
all the hurryings, and turmoiling Incumbrances of a perishing World to
sit attentively at his Feet; seeking, loving, admiring nothing but Him,
no, not its own life but for his sake, that it may serve him therewith;
and this was the pleasure and treasure of all the regenerated Christians
that were born again both under the Law and Gospel; and this way in
which they attain’d this Resurrection, and holy life, was through Judgment.

“I will” (saith David) sing of Mercy and Judgment to thee Oh my Strength,
will I sing. Blessed are they that keep Judgment, and do Righteousness at all times, I
will praise thee with an upright heart. When I have learned thy Righteous Judgment,
my Flesh trembleth for fear of Thee, and I am afraid of Thy Judgments.
The Fear of the Lord is clean”
, saith he, “and endures for ever.
The Judgments of the Lord are Truth and Righteous altogether,
more to be desired than Gold, yea, than much fine Gold, sweeter than the
Honey, and the Honey-Comb: Moreover by them is thy Servant warned, or made
Circumspect, and in keeping of them there is great Reward.”

And in the Law, Exod. 28. 13. the Urim and the Thummim, which signifies
light and perfection, or Knowledge and Holiness: God commanded it
to be put into the Breast-plate of Judgment, which was to be upon
Aaron’s Heart continually when he went in before the Lord.

And now Christ our Pattern, and High-Priest for ever after the Order
of Melchisadeck, fulfilled that Heavenly Institution in his Earthly Body
who bore the Judgment of God upon his Heart in his suffering life which A4v 8
which he hath in his merciful loving Kindness, as it were, left us a legacy
or Portion to be like unto him in all things, to fill up that which is
behind of his Sufferings in our Flesh; for it is not only given us to believe,
but to suffer for his sake; but I would not have you mistaken; I do
not confine all true Christians to those external Sufferings of Christ, as
Mockings, Scourgings, and nailing to the Cross, for it may be, some may
not be called to suffer on that wise, but the Sufferings I now treat of,
are the Internal sufferings of the Soul, which the Apostle Paul spake of
when he said, “I bear in my Body the Dyings of the Lord Jesus”,
and said our Blessed Saviour, “If ye suffer with me, ye shall Reign with me”;
mark that, with Him: That is a Heart-breaking Suffering, an inward
Suffering, to be grieved in the very bottom of your Souls if you do the
least thing that grieves the Spirit of God in you, keeping so intent to
your Watch, that you may see the Tempter before he comes, and then
your Weapons are to be the Sword of Gods Spirit, your Prayers and
Supplications, with strong Cries, even as a Woman in 2 charactersflawed-reproductionavail, to the Father
of Power to give you his Heavenly Strength, so to make War with
the Enemy of your Souls as to overcome all his temptations, to fight
manfully, and couragiously with your selves, with your own desires, affections,
self-love, any corrupted Reason, and your own Wills: These
are the potent Enemies of Christ, that keeps him from his Right to
Reign in your Souls; here you are to help the Lord against the mighty,
which is Sin, Flesh, and the Devil, which you are to engage War
withal, old Adam, the Dragon, and Lucifer, which you are to adventure
your Lives, Liberties, and Estates to overcome; and they that looses
their lives here shall find them; and they that holds out to the End here
shall be Saved; and they that forsakes these shall receive a thousand fold,
both in this Life, and that which is to come. These are the sufferings
you are to join with Christ in; here you must be equal workers together
with him, mark that, not without him, for without him we can do nothing,
poor miserable nothings, from the Greatest to the Least; but
if we wait upon him in the contempt of our selves, in self-abhorrence,
poor Impotent Creatures, waiting at the Pool of Bethesda, John 5. 45.
6, 7, 8.
for the Angels, moving the Waters; here’s the place where Jesus
comes with his Mercy, and healing Power, and Vertue, which makes
the Lame leap as an Hart, the Blind to see, the Deaf to hear, the Dumb
to speak, the Dead to live, and heals all your putrified Sores; but have
a care your Eve is not to man for help, you must not seek to the Creatures,
for that was Asa King of Juda’s Sin, who rested on the King
of Aram, and not on the Lord; therefore, said the Prophet Hanani to B1r 9
to King Asa, “The Host of Aram is escaped out of thy Hand”, and
when he was afflicted with an extream Disease in his Feet, he sought to
the Physicians, and not to the Lord, and so died, 2 Chron. 16. and
not to the Lord to take away the Sin, which was the cause of God’s
afflicting hand upon him; yet, a King that did many noble acts to pull down
Idolatry, and made a Covenant to seek the Lord with his whole Heart
and Soul, and made a Law, that whosoever would not seek the Lord
God
of Israel, should be Slain, whether small or great, Man or Woman,
yet in this thing he greatly transgressed himself. See what a dangerous
thing it is to rely upon Man for help, either for Soul or Body,
either in spiritual or temporal Affairs, ’tis no less than a dis regarding
the Lord, and believing his Omnipotency to be insufficient, and how
this can be answered, let the wise in Heart judge; but the remedy for this
raging, pestilential Disease, is the foregoing Instructions, to be emptied
of our selves, to be made nothing, to forsake our own Wills; these
are Sufferings indeed, all other outward Sufferings, of what sort soever,
are but shadows to these; though you give up your Bodies to be burnt,
that doth but reach the Flesh, but these reach the Soul, those takes away
the Life, but these the Sin, for example; How many hundreds, or thousands
suffers outwardly variety of ways, as Poverty, Sickness, and Death,
&c. and as wicked as ever, but the internal Sufferings reaches the Heart,
and changes it from evil to good: Therefore these are the Sufferings
that brings Christ to reign in the Soul here, whilst it is in the Body, in
this Life, and then hereafter for ever; wherefore here we are to imitate
Christ our Pattern in his Suffering Life. Phil. 2. 6, 7, 8. “Let this Mind
be in you”
, said the Apostle, “which was in Christ Jesus. who being in the form
of God, thought it no Robbery to be equal with God, yet made himself of no
Reputation, and took upon him the form of a Servant, and was made in the
likeness of Men, and being found in fashion as a Man, he humbled himself,
and became obedient unto Death, even the death of the Cross”
: Here’s our
Pattern, he that was the Lord of all, became least of all, although he
was God, equal with the Father, yet he emptied himself of all his
Glory, and humbled himself to an Ignominious Death; which signifies
a death to all your Honours and Glories, you must empty your selves,
not only of all Sin and Iniquity, as Pride, Arrogancy, Deceit, Malice,
Hatred, Covetousness, and the like; but of all your best Endowments, excellencies
of Graces, Parts, and Wisdom, your good Works, that are
really good in themselves, works of Mercy to your Neighbours, and
fellow-Creatures; or whatsoever Excellency doth atttend a Heavenly
Life, that thou thinkest thou oughtest to think well of it, or thy B self B1v 10
self for doing it; away with those Thoughts, hate and abhor such
Thoughts, thou oughtest to run away from them Thoughts, as Christ
did from the Jews when they would have made Him King: For what
hast thou done that was not commanded thee, therefore the good that
thou dost is none of thine; thou hast nothing, thou art nothing, nothing
is thine, but Sin; thou never didst a good action, nor never
thought a good thought; shall I therefore ascribe to my self the glory
of doing any good, to rob God of his Honour, God forbid, all good is
God’s, but Sin, Evil, and Wickedness is thine; therefore down proud
Worm, down Dust and Ashes, down with your Crowns before the
Lamb, and Him that sits upon the Throne, and confess and ascribe in
the deepest humility, and profoundest adoration from the bottom of
your Souls; all Praise, Power, Might, and Dominion, Honour and Glory
to the Lord God Omnipotent, from Everlasting to Everlasting.
Amen. Wherefore, if you will find God, it must be by lesning your
selves, making self of no Reputation; by emptying your selves
of all your Glories and Excellencies, whether external or internal, and
take nothing to your selves but shame and confusion of Face, Dan. 9. and that
in a broken and contrite Heart, judging and condemning your selves
to be unworhy of the least of all his Goodness, and this is the Breast-
plate of Judgment, that must be upon Aaron’s Heart continually before
the Lord; then you learn of Christ, who emptied and humbled himself
in all things to be tempted as we are, yet without Sin, and thus
Man comes to be restored to God out of the Fall; for, as in Adam all
died, so in Christ all are made alive to Righteousness and true Holiness:
If we put him on, as tis written, “Put ye on the Lord Jesus, and
make no provision for the Flesh, to fulfil the Lust thereof”
: This is that that
recovers Mankind out of the Fall, to put on His Righteousness, His
Humility, to put on His Obedience to the Fahter, His Self-denial, His
Justice, His Mercy, and to be cloathed with all His Heavenly Vertues:
This is better than an adherent, or an imputed Righteousness, which
without this we are never the better for, but here we eat His Flesh,
and drink His Blood, that nourishes and gives life to our Souls, and causes
us to grow from Grace to Grace, till we come to the perfect
stature of the fulness of God in Christ, Ephesians 4. 13. 14, 15. “That we
henceforth be no more Children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with
every wind of Doctrine, by the slight of Men, and cunning craftiness
whereby they lye in wait to deceive. But speaking the Truth in Love,
may grow up into him in all things which is the Head; even Christ.”

Oh Praises to God for ever, for this means, this is the means, if you make B2r 11
make use thereof, that shall make you wise unto Salvation, not the
wisdom of this World, nor the Princes thereof, that comes to nought
which is humane and diabolical, the wisdom of the Serpent, the forbidden
Tree, of which God said, “In the day thou eatest thereof thou
shalt surely die”
; die to the life of Innocency, but live to Man’s own
Will, Wisdom, and Skill, which the Apostle Paul calls Death it self,
and the Apostle, James 3. 15. 13. calls it Earthly, humane, and devilish
Wisdom, and it may well be called so, for it doth the Devils work, it
lifts Men up above all that is called God, to admire themselves, to kiss
their own hand, Idolizing their own Gifts, Wisdom, and Parts, Reason,
Honesty, Knowledge and Art. And wheres the Man that adores not
himself here? And can there be greater Idolatry than this, for a Man to
pride himself, Pharisee-like, in his own attainments? This was Nebuchadnezzar’s
Sin, which provoked the Highest to throw him to the Beasts
of the Field. Dan 4. 20 28, 29. till he knew that the Most High rul’d in the
Kingdoms of Men; and this is the crying Sin of Mankind, now to think well
of themselves, their own Righteousness, and Holiness, and to follow
their own wills, conceits, and opinion of good; which indeed is false,
as to know much, learn much, to discern many Sciences, and in some to
aim to become Gods, as might be spoke more fully to, had I time; yet
at the same time, all their humane Wisdom and Knowledge doth not
shew them that this was Adam’s Fall, the biting of the Apple, and his
bitter death: Therefore, said God, I think, to Tyrus, “Thy Wisdom hath
blinded thine Eyes”
. Therefore, Oh Man, that wherein thou judgest Adam,
thou condemnest thy self; thou art the Man that eats of this forbidden
Tree, while thou art following thy own Will and Wisdom, which
is the head of the Serpent, that must be bruised by the Power of
Christ before thou canst come to that Estate which Christ spake of,
by which we must enter. Matth. 18. 3. the Kingdom of God; to
wit, “As a little Child”.

Oh my God, Is this the station we must all come to, to be
Converted, and become “as a little Child”, before we can enter thy Eternal
Kingdom of Everlasting Joy, Peace, and Rest? Then, how far
Lord, must the Wise and Prudent of this World travel back to undo
all that ever they have done by the Serpents cunning Wit, and sensual
Wisdom? To be stript of all their Glories in natural Parts , Gifts, and
Arts, both of Flesh and Spirit, To stand as naked in themselves before
Thee, the pure God, as Adam, when he transgressed, before they can
be cloathed with thy Innocency and Humility; for if we consider the
state of a young Infant, it knows nothing but to lye at the Breast B2and B2v 12
and suck the Milk that nourishes and causes it to grow, it hath no cunning
contrivance of will or wit to preserve it self from danger, you may
do what you will with it, it cannot help it self: but if any thing ails it that
it suffers, it cries for the Breast: Just so it is with the Regenerated Man,
the New-born Man, that Christ our Saviour spake to Nicodemus of: But
did this wise Man, tho’ a Ruler in Israel, understand what Christ meant?
No; no more than the Teachers and Rulers of this Generation. But,
as Bishop Usher said, “As Parrots by rote”: Nor would these give themselves
the trouble of that, but for their Self-Interest in one kind or
other; some for yearly maintenance, others for Name and Fame, or to
be highly esteem’d of for their Gifts and Parts; therefore all of this sort
comes short of the Life of Inocency; therefore what can be expected
when the Priests and Rulers of Nations or Kingdoms are so corrupted
with By-ends and Self-respects, But that the People should be
infected with the same pestilential Disease of Poyson and Sedition, both
against God and Man; and corrupted with all manner of gross Impieties,
both publick and private Sins, which calls aloud for Vengeance, when
the Iniquity thereof is fully ripe.

But to the aforesaid “Rabbies”, “Doctors”, and great “Scholars”; these were
the Men that crucified Christ in the Days of his Flesh; and are not these
the Men in our days that crucify the Lord of Life afresh, and puts him to
an open shame by their wicked and impious Lives, by which the whole
World is fill’d with Atheistical Spirits, that denies God and Christ? Are
not these the Anti-christs, that preaches Christ in words, but in works
denies both the Father and the Son, yet these are the Men that carries the
World before them, that pretends to know all things as to resolve any
point in Divinity, and give the Interpretation of any place of Scripture;
and so fill the World with their Expositions; But what fruit to God hath
all this Blustring brought forth? “For the Tree is known by its Fruit”, saith
Christ: Have they set up their Lights, that the World may see their
Holy and Righteous Lives? Are their Conversations in Heaven, and so
transformed and made new Creatures? Do they live the inward and
spiritual Life of the Word they preach? Are they dead to the World,
and the World to them? Doth the Life of Christ shine in them, and
by them, so that they live no longer to themselves, but to Christ; and so
fetch’d off their own Bottoms, that they are ingrafted into Christ the
Lord of Life and Glory?

But wo and alas, is it not quite contrary to all this? Are not these
the Men that follows the World most, wallowing in the Pleasures,
Profits, Honours, and Humour thereof, having Mens Persons in admiration,tion B3r 13
because of their advantage, seeking, greeting in publick Places,
causing Men to fall upon their Knees, adoring them as Gods, and
loving the uppermost Seats at Feasts, making long Prayers to get the
praise of Men, being mightily desirous of Vain-glory, and the Wealth
of the World, but if these fail, they are dead and heartless; therefore
all these things discovers where thy are below in the World,
and not above with God; but if you be the true Ministers of Christ, and
Christians indeed, shew your Humility and Self-denial; let the life of
Christ appear in the fruits thereof; for you know Christ in all his Doctrine
calls for fruits, and what he called upon others, for he shewed
forth himself in Life and Practice: For, said he, “A good Tree cannot
bring forth evil Fruit”
; and you know, the Tree that did not bring forth
Fruit was Curs’d. Therefore, the true Ministers of Christ trod in the
steps of their Lord; they lived in the offering up of their Souls continually
in the flames of Love, as a whole Burnt-offering to Christ,
which is the practical part, and kept their Bodies under, that while they
were Preachers to others, they might not be cast aways themselves, 1 Cor.
9. 26.
they went on conquering, and to conquer, and so doth every true
Christian; they are still conquering, and overcoming all their Enemies,
getting their Sins and Lusts under their Feet, and can never rest whilst
there is any to overcome, till they have brought all in Subjection, and
this they are able to do, through the Power of Christ in them; although
the false Prophets, and Ministers of Antichrst, who are Ministers of
the Flesh, and not of the Spirit, that tells them to the contrary, for
their sinister ends, to keep up their Trade of Diana. Acts 19. 24. But
alas, who do I give this aforesaid Doctrine to? For it must be a Caleb
that must do this work, a Caleb, which signifies a good Heart, not a
Heart that seeks Liberty to the flesh, to make the knowledge of Christ
a more easie way to sinning, to encourage them in their Luxury, and
Fleshly Pleasures, not an Heart of unbelief, that brings an evil report
upon the good l and, to make the death of Christ of no effect, saying,
We shall never overcome our Sins and Lusts, being so many, potent, and
strong, while we are on this side the Grave. No, no, this is not the
Heart that shall overcome but a couragious, valiant heart, that’s fill’d
with Faith and Love, that stands armed upon its Watch-Tower against
every high and wandring thought, strong hold, and vain Imagination,
that exalts it self against the Power, Kingdom, and Soveraignty of
Christ, that so it may kill Sin in the Conception, before it be brought
to the Birth; and this is the way that Christ and his Apostles ascribed
to work out your Salvation with Fear and Trembling, that we be equal workers B3v 14
workers together with him, and then Co-heirs, for he places our Salvation
conditionally, if we suffer with him, we shall also Reign with him,
so then this suffering life is the door all must come in at; for, saith
Christ, “He that comes another way is a Thief, and a Robber”; so here’s no
Salvation, but by being partakers of his Internal. Sufferings, which
Hermes Trismigestes doth excellently treat of in his first Book. For this
only, Oh Son, saith he, is the way to the Truth, which our Progenitors
travelled in, and by which making their Journey, they at length attained
to the good; it is a venerable way and plain, but hard and difficult
for the Soul to go in, that is, in the Body: For first must it war
against its own self, and after much strife and dissention, it must be overcome
of one part, for the contention is of one against two, whilst
it flies away, and they strive to hold and detain it; but the Victory of
both is not like, for the one hasteth to that which is good, but the other
is a Neighbour to the things that are Evil, and that which is good
desireth to be set at Liberty, but the things that are evil love Bondage
and Slavery: And if the two parts be overcome, they become quiet
and are content to accept of it as their Ruler; but if the one be overcome
of the two, it is by them led and carried to be punish’d by its
Being and continuance here. This is Oh Son, the guide in the way
that leads thither; for thou must first forsake the Body before thy End,
and get the Victory in this contention, and strifeful Life, and when
thou hast overcome, then return, and avoid all conversation with the
Multitude, or common People, for I would not have thee subject to
Envy, for they do rather sharpen and whet evil Men to their Maliciousness,
therefore it behoveth to avoid the Multitude, and take
heed of them, as not understanding the Virtue and Power of the things
that are said: And in the second Book, where he began to Preach unto
Men the Beauty and fairness of Piety and Knowledge; saying, Oh ye
People, Men born and made of the Earth, which have given your selves
over to drunkenness, and sleep, and to the ignorance of God. Be sober,
and cease your surfeit, whereto you are allured and invited by brutish,
and unreasonable sleep: Why, Oh Men of the off-spring of the
Earth, why have you delivered your selves over unto death, having
power to partake of Immortality; repent and change your Minds you
that have together walked in Error, and have been darkned in Ignorance,
depart from that dark Light, be partakers of Immortality, and leave,
or forsake Corruption.

“And some of them that heard me”, said he, “Mocking, and Scorning,
went away, and delivered themselves up to the way of Death.”

But B4r 15

“But others casting themselves down before my Feet”, said he, “Besought
me, that they might be taught, but I caused them to rise up, I became a
guide to Mankind, teaching them the reasons how, and by what means
they may be saved, and I sowed in them the words of Wisdom, and
nourished them with Ambrosian water of Immortality”
. I shall speak something
of his great Vision, which in order should have gone first; How
God appeared to him, calling him by his Name, saying, “What wouldst
thou hear and see, or what wouldst thou understand to learn and know”
:
Then said Hermes, “Who art thou?” “I am” quoth he, “Poemanders, the
Mind of the Great Lord, the most Mighty and absolute Emperour,
I know what thou wouldst have, and I am always present with thee.”

Then said I, “I would learn the things that are, and understand the nature
of them, and know God”
. “How”, said Poemander, “know God?” I answered,
that I would gladly hear. “Then”, said he, “have me again in thy
Mind, and whatsoever thou wouldest learn, I will teach it thee”
.

When he had thus said, he was changed, his Idea or Form, and
straightway in the twinkling of an Eye, all things were opened unto
me, and I saw an infinite sight, all things were become light, both
sweet and exceedingly pleasant, and I was wonderfully delighted in the
beholding it: But after this, there was a darkness fearful and hideous,
insomuch that Hermes trembled at his Idea, or Form, which I
cannot now insist further upon: How God revealed himself to him,
making known the mystery of his outward and inward Creation,
which is wonderful and excellent, and is committed to Posterity,
though in an obscure, or hidden Stile.

But having not room here for the Vision, being much, I shall
only touch at something as I go along, that may be serviceable to my
matter in hand.

Poemander: “God said, ‘Let the Man endued with a Mind, mark, consider,
and know himself well’”
:

Hermes; “Have not all Men a Mind Poemander?”
“Take heed what thou sayest: I the Mind come unto Men that
are holy, and good, pure, and merciful, and live piously, and religiously,
and my Presence is a help to them, and forthwith they know
all things, and lovingly they supplicate and propitiate the Father, and
blessing him, they give him thanks, and sing Hymns unto him,
being ordered, and directed by filial affection, and natural love, and
before they give up their Bodies to the Death of them, they hate their
Senses, knowing their Works and Operations.”

“Or rather, I that am the Mind it self, will not suffer the Operations,
or Works, being the Porter and Door-keeper. I will shut up the B4v 16
the entrances of Evil, and cut off the Thoughtful Desires of filthy
Works.”

“But to the foolish, and evil, wicked, envious, and covetous, murderous,
prophane. I am far off giving place to the revenging Demon, which applying
unto him the Sharpness of Fire tormenteth such a Man sensible,
and armeth him the more to all wickedness, that he may obtain the greater
Punishment: and such a one never ceaseth having unfulfillable Desires,
and unsatiable Concupiscences, and always fighting in Darkness. For
the Demon afflicts, and tormenteth him continually, and increaseth the
Fire upon him more and more. For the Soul entring into the Body of
Men if it continue evil, shall neither taste of Immortality, nor is partaker
of the Good.”

“But the Soul of Man which is pious and religious is Angellical and Divine;
and such a Soul after it is departed from the Body, having striven
the strife of Piety, becomes either mind or divine; and the strife of Piety
is to know God, and to injure no Man, and this way it becomes Mind.
But into a pious Soul the Mind entring, leads it into the Light of Knowledge:
and such a Soul is never satisfied with singing Praise to God, and
doing good to all Men, both in Words and Deeds; always doing good
in imitation of her Father. And this Mind in Men is God; and therefore
are some Men Divine, and their Humanity is near Divinity. For
the good Demon called the Gods Immortal men, and Men Mortal
Gods.”

“Man had more than all living Creatures, and the World, because of
his Speech and Mind; also Man became the Spectator of the Works
of God, and wondred, and acknowledged the Maker; for he divided
Speech among all Men, but not Mind, and yet he envied not any, for
Envy comes not thither, but is of abode here below in the Souls of Men
that have not the Mind.”

“But wherefore, Father, did not God distribute the Mind to all
Men?”

Hermes. “Because it plesed him, Oh Son, to set that in the middle among
all Souls as a Reward to strive for.”
“And where hath he set it?”

Hermes. “Filling a large Cup, or Bowl, he sent it down, giving also a
Cryer, or Proclaimer, and he commanded him to proclaim these things
to the Souls of Men. Dip, and wash thy self thou that art able, in
this Cup, or Bowl, thou that believest that thou shalt return to him
that sent this Cup, thou that acknowledgest whereunto thou wert
made: As many therefore as understood the Proclamation, and were
Baptized, or dowsed into the Mind, these were made partakers of knowledge,ledge, C1r 17
and became perfect Men, receiving the Mind; but as many as
missed of the Proclamation, they received Speech, but not Mind, being
ignorant whereunto they were made, or by whom. But their Senses
are just like to bruit Beasts, and having their temper in Anger and
Wrath, they do not admire things worthy, but wholly addicted to the
Pleasures and Desires of the Bodies; they believe that Man was made
for them. But as many as partaked of the gift of God; these, Oh
Son, in comparison of their Works, are rather immortal than mortal
Men, comprehending all things which are upon Earth, and which
are in Heaven, and lifting up themselves so high, they see the good, and
seeing it, they accounted it a miserable Calamity to make their abode
here, and despising all things bodily, and unbodily, they make haste to
the one and only. Thus, Oh Son, is the knowledge of the Mind, the
beholding of divine things, and the understanding of God, the Cup
itself being divine.”
“And I, Oh Father, would be baptized and drench’d
hearin”

Hermes. “Except thou first hate thy Body, Oh Son, thou canst
not love thy self, meaning the Soul; but loving thy self, thou shalt
have the Mind, and having the Mind, thou shalt also partake of the
Knowledge or Science”
. “How meanest thou that, Oh Father Hermes?” “Because
it is impossible, Oh Son, to be conversant about things Mortal
and Divine; for the things that are, being two Bodies, and things
Incorporeal, where is the Mortal, and the Divine, the Election or choice
of either is left to him that will chuse, for no Man can chuse both;
and of which soever the choice is made, the other being diminished or
overcome, magnifieth the act: The choice of the better therefore is
not only best for him that chuseth it by defying a Man, but it also
sheweth Piety and Religion towards God, but the choice of the worst
destroys a Man; for God is innocent or guiltless; but we are the causes
of Evil, preferring them before the good.”

Therefore, whether are you carried, O Men, drunken with drinking
up the strong Wine of Ignorance, which seeing you cannot bear, why
do you not vomit it up again? Stand, and be sober, Look up again with
the eyes of your Heart, for the malice of Ignorance surroundeth the
Earth, and corrupteth the Soul, shut up in the Body, not suffering it
to arise at the Haven of Salvation: Suffer not your selves to be carried
with the great stream, but stem the Tide, you that can lay hold of the Haven
of Saftey, and make your full course towards it; seek one that
may lead you by the hand, and conduct you to the door of Truth, and
Knowledge, where the clear Light is, that which is pure from Darkness,
where there is not one drunken, but all are sober, and in their C C1v 18
Heart look up to him, whose Pleasure is to be seen; for he cannot be
heard with Ears, nor seen with Eyes, nor expressed in words, but only
in Mind and Heart.

But first, thou must tear in pieces, and break through the Garment
thou wearest, the web of Ignorance, the foundation of all mischief, the
bond of Corruption, the dark Coverture, the living Death, the sensible
Carkass, the Sepulchre carried about with us, the domestical Thief,
which in what he loves us, hates us, envies us. Such is the hurtful
Apparel wherewith thou art cloathed, which draws and pulls thee downward,
left looking up, and seeing the Beauty of Truth, and the good
that is reposed therein, thou shouldest hate the wickedness of this Garment,
and understand the traps and ambushes which it hath laid for thee,
filling what it presents unto thee with hateful Pleasures, that thou
canst neither hear what thou shouldest hear, nor see what thou shouldest
to understand so great a God.

Here you may see, what I have delivered to you is no Fancy or Imagination
of my own Brain; no new Doctrine, but what came from
the old Aged; for so he is called in the old Translation, but in the new,
the Aushout of days. Dan. 7. 9. From God the substance of all Goodness,
which this excellent spirited Man bears Record to, who if we may
believe the ancient Writers, this Holy Man lived some hundreds of Years
before Moses’s time, as is made out in the Epistle to the Reader; the description
of this great Treasure is said to be found engravened upon a
Smaragdine Table, in the Valley Ebron, after the Flood: If God ever
appeared in any Man, saith the Epistle to the Reader, he appeared in
him; that a Man, who had not benefit of his Ancestors knowledge,
being the first Inventer of the Art of communicating knowledge to Posterity,
by Writing or Engraving, should be so deep a Philosopher, and
high a Divine, seems to be a thing more of God than of Men; therefore
it was the opinion of some; that he came from Heaven not born
upon Earth: The Original, saith the Epistle, so far as is known to us,
is Arabec, and several Translations thereof have been published, as
Greek, Latin, French, and Dutch, but never English before, by the famous
Doctor Everard; so far the Epistle to the Reader. Behold, how
the Lord visited the Children of Men before the Flood, and by this
blessed Man’s Writing, how the Spirit of God wrestled and strove, sending
his Messengers, as it were, from Heaven, to reform, and reclaim
them from their evil ways; but they grieved his holy Spirit, and scorned
his Messengers, till they had provoked him to say, Gen. 6. 3. 12.
“My Spirit shall not always strive with Man, but the Breath shall cease from before C2r 19
before me, which I have made”
: And then their destruction came as a
Whirl-wind: And hath it not been the same in all Ages? But now
the beginning hath near found an end of all iniquity; for the Day
of the Lord is come, wherein he will do his Wonders of Old, and
the Mighty God is risen in the Power of his Might, to plead with all
Flesh, and to destroy those from off the Earth that will not be gathered
to him in this the day of his Patience and long Suffering; and for this
end hath he sent Messenger upon Messenger, Embassador after Embassador
to declare His Mind and Will; and not only so, but his Judgments
are now begun in the Earth, yet the Inhabitants thereof doth
not learn Righteousness therefore the destroying Angel hath received
his Commission, and of this you have been often warned; I am a witness
for the Lord, he is clear of your Blood; Also a few Months ago by
a Servant of the Lord’s, who came two hundred Miles to deliver
this Message, and the thing is come and coming to pass which he Prophesied
of; therefore, Oh King and Queen, for the Lord’s sake, and
for His endless mercy sake, “Take the Censer,” Numb. 16. 46. “and put
Fire of the Altar, and Incense therein, and hasten with all your Might to make
an Attonement for the People, for there is Wrath gone out from the Lord,
the Plague is begun both in City and Country.”
I am a Witness of what my
Eyes have seen, and Ears heard; therefore, Oh let not the King, who is the
Magistrate of the Highest, bear the Sword of the Lord in vain, but let him
be Valiant for the Truth upon Earth, and take the courage of Joshua,
the zeal of Phinehas, and the humility of Jehoshaphat, to go forth in
the Strength of the Lord to make War with the Enemies of God,
that keeps his Divine Majesty from His Right, to rule in the Souls
of the Children of Men, and this shall be your present and future
Happiness, to stop the prophane, and boundless flood of Ungodliness,
that overflows these Kingdoms of the King and Queens Dominions;
together with that accursed Idolatrous thing, Covetousness, Hatred,
Malice, Deceit, Double-dealing, Lying, Slandring, Cheating,
Treachery, betraying Trusts, and Innocence into the hands of Murderers;
besides all the Sins of Sodom, and Jerusalem, when it was destroyed;
these things brought the Wrath and Vengeance of God
upon them, and these Sins cries aloud, yea, louder and louder in
the Ears of the Lord God, for Plagues, Woes, and Vengeance, upon
this Land, and good reason for it. “For you have I known,” saith
the Lord, “above all the Families of the Earth, therefore will I punish
you; you have I loaded with my Mercies and Benefits; you have I opened
the Windows of Heaven to, and showred down Blessings upon, that C2 hath C2v 20
there hath not been room enough to receive them, you have I brought to
a Land that flows with Milk and Honey, and yet this hath been a small
thing with me”
, saith the Lord: “But I have given you the Gifts and
Graces of my Holy Spirit, by which you have been made rich with the
Knowledge of my Will; but you have deck’d your selves with my Jewels.”
Ezek. 16. and bestowed my Gifts upon your Lovers, and
gone a whoring from me, saith the Lord, after your own
Inventions; therefore thus saith the Lord, “Because you have rewarded
me Evils for all my Goodness, therefore will I visit you, and take away my Corn,
my Oil, my Wine, my Milk, and my Honey; because you would not serve me in
the injoyments of all these Mercies you shall serve your Enemies in the want of
all these, except you speedily repent.”
O England! England! What lamentable
lamentation shall I take up for Thee, if ever there was a Day to call for
the Mourning Women. Now it’s come, therefore you that are well skill’d
in Mourning. Jeremiah 9. 17, 20. Come away, and do not stay, let nothing
hinder you to join with me in this Work with rended Hearts, and
bowed down Souls, teach your Daughters to mourn, and every one your
Neighbour to lament, that our Eyes cast out Teers, and Eye-lids gush
out Water; let us cloath our selves in Sackcloth, and roul our selves
in the Dust in Fasting and Prayers night and day, crying vehemently and
incessantly to the Lord, that we may be ready to enter into the Ark, before
the Flood comes to drown all Earthly Habitations, with their Foundations.
“For all Flesh hath corrupted its way, therefore the End of all flesh is come
up before the Lord, and by Fire and Sword will God plead with all Flesh, and
the Carkesses of men shall be as Dung upon the face of the Earth, They shall die
of Sickness and Diseases. I will spend mine Arrows on them, and my Sword
shall devour; yea, Flesh of Kings Captives, and Potentates of the Earth”
: Thus will
the Maker of all Things ease Himself of his Enemies, and avenge Him of
His Adversaries; for, because His Mercy and long Suffering will not
humble Sinners, his Righteous Judgements will.

Therefore, Oh England! England! Repent, repent, repent, otherwise
what lamentation shall be taken up for thee: Oh that my Head were
full of water, and my Eyes a Fountain of Teers, that I might weep day
and night for the Destruction that comes as a Whirlwind upon Thee, O
Land, where the Sins of Sodom are found, where the Sins of Jerusalem
are found, where the Sins of Jamaica and Cicilia are found; In Thee Oh
Land, is found the Blood of Innocents, in Thee is found the Cries of
the Poor for Justice, thou hast wrong’d the Widow and Fatherless, and robbed
them of their Right, thou hatest him that reproves Sin in the Gate,
and abhors any that speaketh uprightly, thou hast crucified the Lord of Life C3r 21
Life afresh, and in Thee He is put to an open Shame by Professors and Prophane,
by Thy lewd Abominations, which Thou secretly and openly
without Shame before the Eyes of His Glory doth commit daily, even
one glorying in their Abominations. The Prophane, without Shame
glories in their Swearing, Damning, Drunkenness, Whoring, Lascivious
Talking, counting him the best Man, that is most strong and acute
to do all these Abominations.

And on the other hand, the Professors of Religion, there’s so much to
be said that Time would fail to rehearse: Their Pride, Excess in Apparel,
following in all things the Fashions and Customs of the Heathen1 characterflawed-reproduction
striving to exceed one another in all manner of Rich and costly Atire
and Fantastical Dresses, some of them pleading without Shame for them
others that are ashamed, which are but few; say, they should be rediculous,
and not like other People: Surely this is as shameless as the
other.

For if Christ, His Prophets and Apostles, had done as you say, and
do, where had been their Testimony among the Multitude against the
unfruitful works of Darkness, which they were to have no fellowship
withal, but commanded to reprove them? And where is the Cross of
Christ you are to take up, and your Self-denying Life, you are to follow
Christ your Pattern in? But your self-ended covering, Oh ye Professor,
will be too short in the Day of account, which is swiftly coming, to
make you bring forth your Talent, which you slothfully and maliciously
have hid in the Earth, and then receive your Portion among the Hipocrites.

The next to your Habit is your Houses, which are deck’d with all manner
of Curiosity, Richness and Delicacy, as your sinful Persons are: Your
great spacious Lordly Houses, furnished with all manner of costly, rich
and sumptuous Furniture, which would be too tedious, and fill up much
Paper to insist upon; but your voluptuous Feeding, and excessive Feasting
one another, in so much that you run out great Estates, both of
your own and other Men’s; but in your own Families, that is, among
your servants, many of you are very pinching and sparing, and to the
Poor little or nothing; but what you are compell’d to in your Parish
Duties; and your poor Neighbours, many hundreds in City and Country,
sits in their Houses with hungry Bellies, both of Weavers and
others, that knows not which way to shift for Bread for their Children
some eating Bread sparingly, and drink Water, Others getting Garden
stuff, a Cabbage, and such like for their Children to feed on; while
you feed, Dives like, lying at your Ease, stretching your selves upon your C3v 22
your rich Sattin Beds and Couches, wallowing in all your sinful Pleasures,
not knowing what to Eat, Drink, or put on for Richness, and
dainties; and others of you Hoards up Treasure as Sand, and are never
satisfied, compassing Sea and Land to get Riches, adding House to
House, and Land to Land, and all for Portions for our Children, say
they; and thus the Fathers eat sowre Grapes, and the Childrens Teeth
are set aon edge. Thus the Parents makes the Children to fould more:
the Children of Hell than themselves, by giving them that that proves
1-2 lettersflawed-reproductionares, to fulfil their Lusts in Pride and Avarice; and so your Childrens
1 letterflawed-reproductionood must lie at your doors: But sometimes it falls out, that neither
you nor your Children are Possessors of what you have pawn’d your Souls,
and made your Bodies and Minds Drudges and Slaves to the unrighteous
Mammon; for on a sudden the Hand of the Lord sweeps it all
away: This I have seen in my time, and just is the Lord to take
away your Idols, your Gods of Silver and Gold, and then your Honours
must fall in the Dust. But what think you that calls your selves “Christians?”
Was this the End of your Creation? Did God create you for this
End to serve your Lusts? And you that pretends to be called out of the
World, that is, to separate your selves from the Church of England,
what think you? Is this the End of your Calling, to bury your selves
in the Earth, to run a whoring from the Lord after your Idols,
your Gods of Silver and Gold, your Earthly Minds? Are not you of the
Earth Earthly? Was this the End of your Calling, to take up your Rest
in great Houses, great Trades, great Gain? That you may consume it up-
1-2 charflawed-reproduction your Lust, your Pride, fashioning your selves after the Modes of
the Heathen, some in Rich and Gorgious Atire, others in plainer, but
rich and costly, and both you strive to exceed one another in Princely
Houses, stately Furniture, your Brass and Irons must glitter in your
Eyes, like the furbished Gold and Silver; your Cabinets shines, that if
you wanted Looking-Glasses you might view your Pride in them, the
boards of your Rooms so exceeding white or shining brown, that a clean
Mind knows not how to tread on them. Now you that are Dissenters
from the Church of all Sorts and Sects, from the Presbiter to the Independant,
from the Independant to the Baptist, from the Baptist to the
Quaker; View your selves here, and see how far you differ from the
Church of England in the Practical Part; and because you are all one in
your Lives and Conversations, therefore you must have your Portions
together: For what though you are all crying low here, and low there,
one saith in this Form, and another saith in that Form God is to be
worshipped in, and they that will not sit down with you in your Forms, you C4r 23
you persecute them, so far as your Power goes, to Death if possible
with your Tongues, where the Poyson of Asps are under, and sharper
than a two edged Sword to slay the Innocent. All be it, the Lord
hath said, “The Innocent and Righteous, thou shalt not slay”, and those that are
not what you would have them to be, to my knowledge some of
you will not suffer them to buy nor sell; And is not this the mark
of the Beast? But wherein do you differ from the Church of England1 letterflawed-reproduction
Except that formerly they were more liberal to the Poor, than you
in building Alms-houses, and allowing a constant maintenance for
them, which indeed, hath been much more formerly than now; for it
is with them as it is with you, because Iniquity doth abound, therefore
the love of many grow cold. But you Covetous, Earthly minded
Professors of all sorts, your niggardly pinching the Poor, your giving
five, ten, twenty or Forty Shillings, nay, five, ten, twenty Pounds1 letterflawed-reproduction
(though who is so liberal) will not excuse you that have Hundreds, and
Thousands, and many Thousands lying by a year will not excuse you before
the Lord of the whole Earth, when His Majesty calls you to an account
what you have done with his Treasure he committted to your
Trust, to serve him, and his Creation: Will you say, “we hoarded it
up by us”
; or will you say, “We gave it our Children for their Portions,
to live in Pride and Luxury”
; Then will the Lord of the Creation
say, “You Rennogades, durst you presume to run a Whoring after
your Idols, spending your precious time in hunting after the treasures
of my Earth, though to the hazzarding my utter displeasure? Because
you went not in my Counsel, nor waited in my Fear, to know my
Mind and Will in your gettings, and when you should cease from the
incumbrance of the World, that when you had got sufficient for Food
and Raiment, you should therewithal have been contented: For I have
said, ‘I will never leave, nor forsake them that walks in my Fear.’ But
if I had blessed you with over-plus, then to have waited upon me for
Counsel how to order the rest to serve me in my Members, making
plentiful Provision, not only for them of your own Judgment, but
for all sorts, that the Widow, Fatherless, and Strangers may have no
want, that they may be the fitter to serve me their Creator, in all Humility,
and Holy Reverence”
. But I may say to you, as the Apostle said,
“You bastardly Generation of Christians, who are Strangers to his Sonship”; How
comes it that you must enjoy all the good things of Gods Creation?
Did the wise Disposer of all things give you the precious things of his
Creation for to spend them upon your Lusts? Was it so in the Beginning?
O no. Yet God saw in the Beginning what would ensue, C4v 24
if Man, that was without the Knowledge of God, was left to himself,
he would be like the Beast that perisheth; therefore, the wise
Creator, in his Eternal Wisdom made a Law for a limit to his unbridled
Lust, by several Precepts and Injunctions in the Law, where he expressly
tied them by several distinct Precepts to the very large Contributions,
and Communications of their Estates, mounting in all, it may be, to
more than a sixth part of their Yearly Incomes; And was there such
Care taken then by that which was imperfect? How much more now
ought there to be by them that are come to the Law of Christ, that
fulfils all Righteousness which saith, “Thou shalt love thy Neighbour as
thy self”
; for Christ is the end of the Law, in Him the Law is fulfilled;
likewise, those that are come to Christ, and put Him on, who
are regenerated, and born again, they are become new; old things are
past away, and all things are becomes new; the old Covetous, Earthly
Spirit is taken away, and a noble, generous, free Spirit in the room,
like their Lord and Master, who gives liberally, and upbraids
none but feeds and cloaths his Enemies richly and bountifully, and
who are Christians indeed, are like him; as witness, when his Spirit
was poured out from on high, how they sold their Possessions, and distributed
to every one as they had need but the Covetous died the Death;
as Saphira and his Wife, Acts 5. 2. who dealt deceitfully with God
and his People, in keeping back the Lord’s due, when he required it.
Consider this, you that forgets God, lest he tear you in pieces, and
there be none to deliver you: But you Worldlings of all sorts, you
have had a long time to consider these things, from one Generation to
another, and though you have heard and seen your Brother Worldlings
taken away before your Eyes suddenly, without Repentance, yet this
will not stop you from your eagerly grasping up together with the
Expence of your most precious Time, which is worth a World upon
a dying Bed, when Conscience is awakened, and instead of giving
up your Strength and Might to wait upon the Lord, with all
diligence, crying mightily to Him for His Power and Strength, to
resist all the Temptations of Sinful Flesh; you give up your Strength,
Might and Care, to grasp and heap up Riches, as if all your happiness wholly
consisted in the abundance of the things you enjoy in this Life; so
that here you deny Christ, his Doctrine and Practice, who said “No Man
can serve two Masters”
. Ye cannot serve said he, God and Riches; therefore I
say unto you, “Be not careful for your Life what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink,
nor yet for your Body what ye shall put on”
; and then send you to the
Fowls of Heaven, and the Flowers of the Field to learn of them your D1r 25
your Duty to him. Oh! ye Worldlings of all sorts, How far short are
you of being obedient to these Heavenly Precepts, and the fulfilling this
precious Doctrine? You Wealth-mongers who hurry you selves almost
out of your Wits to get Money, the love of which is the Root of all
Evil, laying Bag to Bag, till it comes to Hundreds and Thousands: But
how much have you laid by to serve the Lord, and your Fellow-Creatures,
Necessity, it may be, five, ten, twenty Shillings, and in this you
would be counted Liberal, and by some poor Creatures that are in great
Necessity you are so; but in the Eyes of the Lord you are counted Vile
and Churlish: But, Oh! ye Hard-hearted Professors and Cruel of all
sorts, that suffers your Fellow-Creatures that are made of the same Flesh,
Blood and Bones that you are made of, some to Starve, and others to
want Food and Raiment, and you have your Hundreds and Thousands.
But what is the Reason of these things? Why the same Reason may be
given, that was to the Israel of old. This People hath an unfaithful
and rebellious Heart, they are departed and gone, for they say not in
their Hearts, “Let us now fear the Lord our God that gives Rain both early and
late, in due Season, he that reserveth to us the appointed Weeks of the Harvest”
.
“Yet”, saith God, “your Iniquities have turned away these things, and your
Sins hath with-held good things from you”
.

For amongst my People are found wicked Persons, that lay wait as he
that setteth Snares, they have made a Pit to catch Men, as a Cage is full
of Birds, so are their Houses full of Deceit: Thereby they are become
Great, and waxen Rich, they are waxen fat and shining; they do overpass
the Deeds of the Wicked, they execute no Judgment, no not the
Judgment of the Widow and Fatherless, yet they prosper, though they
Execute no Judgment for the Poor. “Shall I not visit for these things”, saith
the Lord, “or shall not my Soul be avenged on such a Nation as this”. Oh London,
London, how often hath this Scripture been brought to me for thee,
and for thy Inhabitance, Oh! Land. Jerem. chap. 5.

Shall not my Soul be avenged on such a Nation as this: And upon
the like occasion in another place, saith he, “Ye I will feed this People with
Wormwood, and give them the Waters of Gaul to drink”
, Jerem. 9. 15. And did
he not avenge his righteous Cause upon Sicily and Jamaica, and did he
not give them Waters of Gaul to drink when he did destroyed them, and
their Pride, Lusts, Cruelty, Hard-heartedness, Covetous, Earthly-mindedness,
and altogether; and do you think to escape the righteous Judgments
of God, that knows all these things and yet live in the same Sins to
provoke the Eyes of his Glory: No, you shall surely drink of the same
Cup except you speedily repent, the Mouth of the Lord hath spoken it, D and D1v 26
and your outward Services, your outside Profession of God and Godliness,
your Religious Duties, your Holy Orders. From the Throne to
the Dunghill in Profession out of the Life of Jesus, shall not be able to
deliver you from the Plagues and Judgments that is to come, and coming
speedily upon this Land, without a sincere Repentence, for the Earth
groans to be deliver’d of such Hipocrites, such useless Branches that
brings forth no Fruit neither to God nor Man. But again, to the former
Christ said, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy
Soul with all thy Strength, withall thy Might, and thy Neighbour as thy self”
, for
upon these two hang the Law and the Prophets: So then here is the very
stint of Religion, now how far this goes must be examined into. And
God said “Thou shalt have no other Gods but me”; now if it had not been for
this Command, the Flesh might have said, These are thy Gods Oh Israel
that brought thee out of Egypt, thy Silver, Gold and precious Stones
hath wrought all thy wonderful and unheard-of Deliverances; for you
know they made a Calf of their Treasures, and danc’d about it, whilst
Moses was with God in the Mount receiving a Law against all such Abominations:
And now the Lord of the whole Earth is come again to
search out the Iniquity of our Times, and are not you found in the same
Steps of your Fore-fathers, serving your Gods of Silver and Gold, and
all worshiping the Works of our own hands, admiring your selves, ways
and works, Adoring them as Gods, although the Lord hath commanded,
saying, “Thou shalt have no other Gods but me”: So here is the Breach of
this Command, and also of the other two; for Christ said we cannot serve
God and Mamon, therefore if you give your Love to any of these, God
cannot have All: Then how much less hath he when all your hearts, all
your Souls, all your Strengths, all your Mights, all your Loves and Delights
is given up to serve your Idols of Silver and Gold, your Pride, Self-Interrsts,
Glories and Honours; these have your Hearts, these have your Loves
and Delights, and whilst these your perishing Gods have all, the Everlasting
God your Creator and Maker must have none. And thus you rob
God of his Right, and turns his Glory into shame; and again, “Thou shalt
love thy Neighbour as thy self”
: Pray consider how far this Command extends,
for Christ brings it into an equal Competition; do you suffer your
selves to want any Food or Raiment, or other Necessaries that is fitting
for your outward Body to serve its Necessities, the same care you should
take for your Neighbour, that their Bodies and Minds might be the fitter
to serve their Maker with all humble Thanks-giving; and Christ
said, “Whatsoever ye would that Men should do unto you, do ye that unto them”.

I D2r 27

I humbly gave the Queen in writing how the aforesaid might be accomplish’d,
but if your are wanting in this your Duty to your Neighbour,
how will you perform the weighty Matters of the Law, for this
is, as it were, but the External Service, the outside Duty of Christianity,
yet no Christians, nor no Exceptance with Christ without it, which Christ
calls the Unrighteous Mamon, “Wherein”, saith he, “if you are unfaithful, who
shall commit to you the true Riches”
; so that when you have performed all
the Will of God in this point, and made your Neighbour equal, so far
as I have treated of: Nay, if you shall give all your Goods to the Poor,
as some have done, that have not had that knowledge of God, that
you have which shames you, and will be a swift Witness against you
in the Day of Account: yet hear as I said before, you must not rest,
for this is but one part of your Duty of Christianity: the neglect of
which hath been the cause of so many Thieves and Robbers in the
Land: This is the outward Service that is not to be left undone. But
there is further Service, an inward Service, wherein you must give your
selves all up to God for him to work in you all his good pleasure,
whereby he may transform thee into himself, to be made like unto
him in all things. But, for the carrying on of this Great Work,
thou must wait upon God in silence, in the silence of all flesh, and
suffer him to speak: pray work and do all in thee, for hear the Lord
will disrobe thee of all thy Gifts and Parts, and strip thee stark naked
as ever thou was born; “For naked thou cam’st into the World, and naked
must thou return”
. Stript not only of thy filthy Garments spotted by the
Flesh; but all the Riches of thy Spirit, before thou art clothed with
change of Raiment, the rich Robes of Eternal Life; for it is the poor
in Spirit that receives the Kingdom.

Hear the Soul stands naked, having nothing of its own, neither
Words nor Works to present it self before the Lord: nothing but
its Poverty, its Nothingness, its Insufficiency, bringing all its little
Ones before the Eyes of his Glory, to move His Excellency, to cast
His Eye of Mercy and tender Compassion, and spread the Skirt of His
Eternal Love over it. Here’s the place where God will work
Wonders: hear he will arise in the Power of His Might, and make
bare His Glorious Arm for the Soul’s deliverance. Hear the highest
makes a Covenant with His Jehoshuas, His chosen Ones, saying, “If
you will walk in my ways and keep my watch, then thou shalt Judge mine
House, and shalt also keep my Courts, and I will give thee a place among
them that stand”
. Zacharia chap. 3.

D2 Here’s D2v 28

Here’s the Reward of all your Travels, of all your Warfare, of all
Wrestlings, of all your Holy Violence to take the Kingdom of Heaven
by force: Here’s the Reward of self-denial and self-abhorrence, for
the Soul that would be united to Christ, must be conformable to Him,
following him in the ways of His internal Sufferings, that purifies the
Soul from the pollutions both of Flesh and Spirit, and hear it arrives at
the Mystical silence, where he speaks to it alone in the most secret and
hidden parts of the Heart, where He teaches it the most perfect and exhalted
Wisdom; therefore thou art to keep thy self in this Mystical
silence, if thou wilt hear this secret and heavenly Voice: for the perfection
of the Soul consists not in speaking much of God, but in
Obedience and in loving Him, so much as belongs to Him, and you
know how much Christ saith that is: But your silent sublime Meditation
is that Elias was in, when he heard the still soft Voice in Horeb,
the Mount of God: which signifies the Mount of Regeneration, where
the Soul is retired and shut up in God from all the hurrings and
bussles of the World, and the deeper its gets into the innermost Center,
the more dead it is, not only to the World and the Concerns
thereof, but to it self in all things whether External or Internal, it
serves the very necessity of Nature with Grief, thinking all time to
much that is spent in any thing, but in waiting upon God alone;
and this is its continual Exercise to enter into it self, there to abide with
God in perfect Unity and Resignation, and being so disinterested and
taken-off from self, that though it should fulfill all the Commands of
Christ that concerns God and its Neighbour, and should leave
nothing undone of the Duty of a true Christian; yet, it makes no account
of all this before His Divine Majesty; nay, tho’ they being in
such an Estate as to receive many wonderful Gifts and supernatural
Graces; yet they are not lifted up with vain conceit, nor prides themselves
in these rich Robes, but are just as if they had received nothing,
being always humbled in the depth of their own unworthiness,
and ever kept in a holy Fear and inflaimed Love to God; which shews
that the Creature exhalted in Gifts, is Lucifer: But the Soul thus adorned
with Heavenly Graces in the Humility, is Christ Jesus come again in
the Flesh; therefore this is the Spirt that is to be uppermost, whether in
Prosperity or Adversity if you would have God to be your Teacher; for
the humble God will teach: I mean the Humility of Christ who emptied
Himself of all His Glory both Heavenly and Earthly, and humbled
himself to the death both in Body and Mind, John 30. Luke 22. and 44.
both in Soul and Body were his sufferings: And if we are his Disciples, we must D3r 29
must tread in His steps, we must first die to self, before we can live to
God: the true Figure is a Corn of Wheat, saith Christ, John 12. 24.
and the more dead the Creature is in it self, and to it self, the more it
shall know and please God: but if it doth not mind this continual
denying of self and internal Mortification, it will never arrive at this
state of perfection; but through this Baptism of Fire and the Holy
Ghost, this inward Hearts-breaking, Soul-suffering, these Faithful Ones
comes to wash there long-suffering Robes; and makes them white in
the Blood of the Lamb, for these are redeemed from the Earth and
all perishing and transitory Things; and therefore have the Harps of
God in their hands to sing the Song of Moses and the Lamb: for
from these internal Soul-sufferings, comes the Eternal Heavenly Triumphant
Joys; therefore lift up your Heads ye tribulated Ones, that are
surrounded with Sorrows both within and without: look up to the
Rock whence ye are hewn; but look not to Man for help, whose
Breath is in his Nostrils, for then it will be just with the Highest to say
to you, as he did to them of Old, Jer. 2. 28. “call upon your Gods,
let them deliver you; but look unto me”
, saith the Everlasting, “all ye
ends of the Earth and be saved”
: but look not at the Creature howsoever
they may be suffered to try and prove you; but keep your Eye
to your Saviour’s Beauty, which is Patience, Meekness, and Long-
suffering, let these be ever in your Eye; but cast not your Eye upon
the Instrument, who, or whatsoever they may be, for that will beget
anger and wrath in your minds, and then you will loose the end of
your Sufferings; for all these things are suffered to be to wean you off
the Creatures, to let you see the emptiness and nothingness of all things
that hath a begining even to your selves, and this is the way to make
God all, and the poor empty Creature nothing.

But whatsoever your Tryal is, or with whomsoever, be shure you
keep in the Love that thinks no Evil, no, not to the greatest of all your
Enemies, and then you will be ready upon all Occasions to do them
any Office of Love, as the Power is in your hands, and their Necessity
requires, and thus you will fulfill the Royal Law of Christ your
Lord, who said love your Enemies, do Good for Evil, overcome Evil
with Good, that you may be the Children of your Heavenly Father,
who causes His Glorious Sun to shine upon the Just and the Unjust,
and so your Prayer shall be heard, when you say, “Lord forgive us our
trespasses against thee, as we forgive them there trespasses against us”
; and thus
will the Righteous Judge of the whole Earth, take the Cause of the Innocent
in His Hands and plead it with their Enemies, for vengeance is mine, D3v 30
mine, saith the Lord, and I will repay, for it is as Dindimus said to
Alexander the Great, “He is a Judge of all injuries, and the Sighs of those
that are injuriously treated, become the pain of those that injure them”
. But
as was said before to you Servants of the Lord, whom he hath counted
worthy to be partakers with Him of His Internal and External Sufferings
to be rejected of all, denied, condemned, and tempted within
and without, in Fears and Dreads, in Weakness, in Watchings and Fastings,
with Tears of sorrow Night and Day; led into the Wilderness
and there tempted, tried in the Night with great Temptations, led in a
Way you know not, nor see no way out; but as it were passing by the
Gates of Hell, and none pitty nor take your part: Hear your Love to
God will be prov’d to the uttermost, whether you will follow your
beloved Lord and holy Jesus in His suffering Life, who trod the
Wine-press alone, and of the People there was none with him; who
was compassed with Sorrows on every side: He that was in such a Labyrinth
of sorrows as never Man was, he saw no comfort neither in Life
nor Death, above him nor below him from God or Men; were our
Condition as bad as his, if it were possible that we were in the very
midst of the heat and fire of Affliction, when the flood of Temptation
arises an hundred fold above your strongest hold, yet here you may be
at rest in your beloved Lord, in an assured confidence that all things
shall work together for your good that loves the Lord, although you
may cry out and say, as I know a Soul that did, “Was ever any Sorrows like
unto mine? Did ever any go this Way before me?”
The immediate Answer
was, “Yes, Moses, and all the Prophets, and Jesus the author and finisher
thereof”
: Therefore thou art compassed about with a cloud of Witnesses,
when upon an invisible sight, I said, “O my God, must there be yet more fire?”
then He said unto me, “In the Fire and in the Water I will be with thee, and
make thy way thorow all”
. I believed the Lord, and was strengthened,
and his powerful Word was my Salvation: Therefore you that are
brought into these fiery Trials, have a care you murmur not, neither desire
his hand to be removed till all is consumed, that is, for the Fire in
this fiery Baptism, and if you continue faithful to the end of your Purification
in Patience and Long-suffering, diligently attending upon His
Hand alone, for His redeeming Power to redeem you from the Earth,
and all perishing things, “whose Fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly
purge his Floor, and gather his Wheat into his Gardner, but the Chaff he will
burn up in this unquenchable fire”
, and then you shall come forth as the Gold
seven times refined: And farther, take this from one that hath upon
Tryal proved it, for your comfort and encouragement in your Journy, that D4r 31
that the more diligently you wait upon him in all Conditions you pass
through, even so much the more shall you receive of his virtuous Life,
and heavenly Power, for by this your continual secreet converse and invisible
Union with the Everlasting God; you will come to be so filled with
his divine Love, that your Mortal will be swallowed up of the Immortal,
so that it will become your whole Life, and all your Thoughts,
Words and Works will have their Rice and settled Habitation therein,
but then you must be sure let nothing come out of the fire unconsumed;
for hear lies the stress of all, your giving up all, that which is for the
Sword to be cut off, and that that is for the Fire to be burnt up; for if
you keep any thing back that God requires to be offered up, of any
Darling-sin, or beloved Dalalie; whether Love to the World, Name
or Fame, together with the whole Catalogue that belongs to Self, for if
Self be in any case whatsoever, you must lay the Ax to the Root of
that Tree, and with all your Strength and Power cut it down, for if the
Root remains, the fruitless Tree will grow, therefore Self the accursed
Thing must be found out and destroyed. Joshua 7. 11. 22. “Before you
can prosper in this Holy War, to get the Victory over all your Enemies, for you know
a faithful Souldier intangles not himself with the Affairs of this Life, but gives
up all to follow him that hath chosen him, counting nothing dear to them, nor any
thing hard to endure for the hope of obtaining the Victory”
, and I entreat you
consider how intent he is in the Fight, Doth he mind any thing but striking
at the Enemy? No, for if he did, he could not overcome, it is so in
the spiritual Warfare of the Soul: It counts nothing dear that it may win
him Christ Jesus, thinking no time long, nor any thing hard to endure,
for the Joy and Beauty that is set before it; of its beloved Lord,
who went before through the bitter Agony of Soul, and bloody Passion,
with Mockings, Slanders, Reproaches, Hatred and Malice of his
cruel Enemies, and ignominious Death for thee, and the Redemption of
thy Soul from all Iniquity, if thou follow Him the Captain of thy Salvation,
through his self-denial in Faith and Obedience; for it is not only
given you to believe, but also to suffer for his sake, “Because Faith
without Works is dead”
, and thus the Lord will be found in his own way,
“For I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and none can come to the Father but
by me”
, saith he: Here you see Christ is the Way, his suffering Life is
the Way he hath appointed, and also saith, “He that comes this Way to me,
I will in no wise cast him off, but will pray to the Father that whatsoever you
ask the Father in my Name he will give it you, even the Spirit of Truth that
shall lead you into all Truth, and out of all Errour, and will be your Strength in
all Weakness, for this is that your Souls travels for, and hath such bitter Pangs as D4v 32
as a Woman in Travail, to bring forth my Will, my most exceptable Will, therefore
will I deliver you, and though you sowe in Tears you shall reap in Joy, and tho’
you go out weeping and carrying precious Seed, you shall return with Joy, and
bring your Sheaves”
, 126 Psalm. 5, 6.

As one speaking his own Experience with Christ’s words, said, “For
though Sin the evil Seed be sown when Men sleep, and take root with Pleasure,
and springs up with Delight, yet the End thereof is Bitterness, Lamentation,
and unconceivable Wooes”
: But my precious Seed, saith Christ, is sown
with Tears, conceived with Sorrow, and brought forth with Sighings,
Nights of Watchings, Days of Mourning, and with much labour of
Spirit, and travail of Soul must you see your desire Brought forth; and
its not beating the Air that will fight your battels, for its a gainst such airy
Notions you are to make War, and all Spirits of what sorts soever that
would possess you with Words and Forms without the power of Righteousness
regard them not, for nothing less than Victory over Sin will
satisfie your immortal Souls: Therefore yours is Work, and not vain
Words, and for my part all’s a like to me, whether in Forms, or out
of Forms, if they deny the power of Godliness in the Practical-part. I
say, as the Apostle said “From such turn away”, and do as Christ, my
Lord and Master did, turn from the proud Pharisees to the poor Publicans
and Sinners, that wants a Physician, and tender his loving kindness
to them, for the whole needs no Physician but the Sick, and what tho’ many
may say we have Eat and Drank in thy presence; nay farther, cast out
Devils, and in thy Name done many wonderful Works, but what said Christ
to all this, “Depart from me ye workers of Iniquity, I know you not”: This is plain
and evident for you to see, if you are not wilfully blind; its not all the
outward Services of the outward Temple, nor the outward Water,
nor the Holy Duties, nor the holy and comly Orders, for the worker
iniquity hath spoiled all these, and made them unholy and uncomly,
But the latter of these might uhave claim’d more right to the aforesaid
wonderfull works: had they kept to their first works; and in the humility
of Christ. But what they had committed to them when they
were in poverty of spirit, they have decked themselves therewith, and
now it serves to make a discourse of, though they are gone from the Life
of Innocency into the spirit of Craft and subtilty, and so are got above
the Cross of Christ, which is the power of God, into the Liberty of
of the Flesh, by which they are become Great and waxen Rich and so
bless themselves in the Earth instead of the God of Trueth. This is
Adultery, Treachery and Whordom, therefore their Portion is with the
rest, “Depart from me ye workers of Iniquity, I know you not”: Others there are E1r 33
are who have a Sight beyond Forms, but the same Ground remains in
them, as in the rest, very few excepted that I know of; yet a more
universsal Spirit of Love to all remains in them than the rest.

Friends to you this is my Advice, Take not up your rest in your
sights, tho they should reach to the Third-heaven, without this life of
Christ, I have been a treating of; and this I can assure you it will be
more for your profit when you come together to sit in Dumb-silence,
than to spend your precious time in Discourses of your Attainments;
for what are all your Attainments but airy Notions if you come not
to the life of Christ, for how many have seen the good Land that never
entred it; and this know, That Visions and Revelatiouns may cease, for
how many have I heard of, and knew some that have had all these, and
yet lives evil Lives, witness Balam, who from his sight desired to die
the “Death of the rightous, and that his last End might be as his”: yet through
Coveteousness, which is Idolatry, by his Counsel caused Israel to commit
Sin against the Lord: tho’ to his and their own Destruction.

Therefore this is a sandy Foundation to build on, but if you build
on Christ, the Corner-stone, the tried precious and Elected-stone,
chosen for that use whom the Master Babel-builders have rejected,
which is the cause of all their Confusion, these have conceived a Faith
in the air, and therefore bring forth nothing but Storms, and pestious
Winds, striving without Foundations, and so are driven to and
frow, but brings nothing to perfection, and therefore must be all
thrown down, and not one stone left upon another before the Holy City,
the New Jerusalem, which cometh down from God, can be; but
therefore as was said Sights, Visiouns and Revelation are little worth,
but to condemn those that have them, if they do not answer the End
for which they were given them, to wit, a holy, pure, and undefiled
life, which is the end of all gifts.

And farther, I know a soul could write a Volume of Sights, Visions
and Revelations which she hath had above for these thirty Years, and
some that were given highly to justifie her Ways and Works when she
was little in her own Eyes, and nothing in her own sight, it may be
Judging and condemning her self for that which he in his Exalted Power
hath justified her, and for confirmation hath taken her upin into the bosom
of his love where she injoyed close and amorous Embraces, His sealing to
her the precious promises of His Glorious Life and Eternal Love.

And now among the many Sights, Visions, and Revelations, she
may instant one in three Years abstainency, somtimes fasting two
Days and two Nights together, sometimes three Days and three E Nights, E1v 34
Nights, and at the time of this sight, three Days and three or four
Nights together, she being at this time in great Travail of Soul, and suffering
in Body, with conflicts of Spirit, she poured out her Complaint
before the Lord, and said: “Oh! my Lord, If I have found favour in
thy sight, and what I have done be pleasing unto thee, shew a Token of Good to
thy Hand-maid, that may be as an Anchor to my poor troubled Soul”
: And that
very Night she had a Vision of an invisible Glory, which is too long to
insert here, but how it was with her is as followeth.

Her Sences were all shut up in God, she was, in closs Communion
with the Lord, she was as she thought, wholly desolved out of the
Earthly into the heavenly, she thought she was as an innocent Child
new born, and though she had fasted so long together, yet she was filled,
as with new Wine, and the heavenly Manna, by the strength of which
she declared the great things of God’s holy Law, of his Royal Acts,
and of his heavenly Power, and she was filled with his Praise, and then
no Tongue can tell nor Pen write how it was with her, for she was as
if she had had a new Body given her in Innocency, Joy and Content, as
it were, quite translated out of the Old into the New, all over in ravishing
Joy, filled with unutterable, harmonious Praises, so lying for many
hours in this heavenly Transportation; a heavenly Silence came over
all, and in this Silence these Words were spoken aloud to her. “This is the
Rest wherein I will cause the Weary to rest; this is the Life of the Innocent Swain.”

And this was the Token of Good she required, which the Lord in
his endless Love Answered; This, and above a hundred times more
which she never took up her Rest in, though her Sights were attended
with his ravishing Life, for these heavenly Mansions are given as a Loadstone
to draw the Soul of the down-ward Earth up-ward, to fix it self
in God the Fountain of all these ravishing Streams and Beams
that comes from his glorious Son of Rightousness, lifting up himself in
the Soul to draw it after him, as Himself said, “When the Son of Man is
lifted up, He will draw all Men after Him”
. But the time is not yet come
that He will draw all Men after him, therefore we must wait for the
Day of his Power, we must wait at Jerusalem for the Promise of the
Father, which is, that He will pour out His Spirit upon all Flesh, Jah,
for hetherto the highest Attainment that hath attended the Life of
Christ, hath been but a glimps of that Glory that is ready to break
forth were we but ready for it: But is this the way for the Bride to
make her self ready to meet the Bridegroom, for her to pride her self
with the Bridegroom’s gifts, and that her rich Attier should be the
cause to take her Love and Affections off her Bridegroom, who should be clean, E2r 35
clean, humble and chast to meet her Lord: Thus the Harlot having on
this Attire is taking for the chast Spouse and virtuous Bride; but the
Day of her Discovery is at hand, wherein she shall be stript naked and
bare, and then her shame will appear to all.

But to the aforesaid Attainments, the greatest of which hath been
but as the Voice of one crying in the Wilderness prepare the Way of the
Lord, and make straight ways in the Desert, for all that hath been hetherto
must lay their Mouths in the Dust, and say, as Iohn Baptis, “I am
not he, nor worthy to unloose his Shooe-latchet because I must Decrease, but He
must Increase”
; Therefore this is the Work of our Day, to know the increase
of his Grace, of which there shall be no End; to know in our Souls
and Bodies the fellowship of his Sufferings, and to be Baptized into his
Death, and then we shall know the Resurrection of his Glorious Life,
the “Lamb of God, that taketh away the Sins of the World; who shall change
our vile Bodies, and make them like his glorious Body, to praise Him Evermore,
World without End”
.

Once more I have discharged my service to God, and Duty to you,
not of my one Mind, or Will, for had it stood with my Will I had never
been concern’d more with this Generation, after I had delivered
the three first books to the King and Queen, but having delivered the
last of the three, Titled to Queen Mary, going in Fleetstreet the precious
presence of the Lord accompaning Me, being filled with Joy, and
returning thanks to the Lord for his great goodness, and manifold
Mercies in given me power and strength to do his exceptable Will, and
finding my self clear, as I thought, of the Blood of all; I communed
thus with the Lord in deep humility, That if I had found favour in
his sight, and that I had finished the Work he had given me to do: then
I might return to him in peace, “for my Eyes had seen his Salvation”; Upon
these Words a mighty Power fell upon me, that operated in all parts of
my Body, and a strong powerful Voice Said, “Arise and thrash, Oh
Daughter of Sion, for I will make thy Horn, Iorron, and thy Hoof, Brass”
: Upon
these Words, I was greatly bowed down in deep humility, weeping
before the Lord, and humbly beging his assisting Power and heavenly
Wisdom to fulfil His holy devine Will in all things, that His pleasure
was to require of me: Then after this I wrote another Printed-book to
the King and Queen, and four Papers in writing at several times, which
I delivered into their one hands; and then after I had delivered those
Writings, I wrote another Book, which I had almost finished; but this
coming so forceable upon me, I laid that by, and this hath been longer
in hand than I expected when I begun it, for indeed all things looking so E2 dark E2v 36
dark and dismal, I rather expected some dreadful Judgment would break
forth before this Book would be finished, and seeing so little notice taken
in the general, of all the Patience and Long-suffering Judgments and boundless
Mercies of the Lord: But all manner of Wickedness and open Prophainess,
appearing openly with an impudent face saying, “Who is the Lord
that we should fear him”
: and seeing Wickedness rage as a pestilential Fever,
and the Angels of darkness let loose out of the Bottomless-pit, and Hell
reign on Earth, I thought in my self these are the Evil-days wherein the
Prudent are to keep silence, and the Days of Vengance are at hand: I threw
the writing out of my hand, as Moses threw the Tables of Stone, out of his
hand, and concluded all in vaine that was spent in labour of Love upon
this Generation, which is passing away like the Smoak of a Furnace; for
thought I, the time is come, That he that is wicked must be wicked
still, and he that is righteous shall be righteous.

But in this Exercise of Mind, the power of his Love broke in upon
me, who was never weary in Well-doing, and charged me with Neglect
of my Duty that would a-mount to his Glory, and the Good of
Souls: Upon this I hastned again to the Work I had laid a-side, and
since I have grudg’d the time that hath been spent from it; and now
I have given you an Account why it was not committed to the Press
before now.

The next is the Salutation of the Love of God to all, of what Perswasion
soever, whether in Forms, or out of Forms, through out the whole
Universe that loves no Iniquity; but the Truth as it is in Jesus, my Soul
hath fellowship with you herein, and if you presevere to the end of all
Iniquity, to destroy the Root and Ground of all Evil, that the Righteous
Seed which is Heir of the Kingdom of Glory may be sown in the good
Ground, which will bring forth Fruit to God an Hundred Fold.

Friends of all Perswasions that are in this Work, all the Promises are
yours, the Blessing of the everlasting Hills is upon your heads, the Eternal
God is your Refuge, and under his Arms you shall be preserved for
ever, he shall cast out the Enemy before you, and by the Power of his
Word destroy them; then Israel, the Fountain of Jacob shall dwell alone
in safety, in a Land of Wheat and Wine; his Heavens shall drop the
Dew. Blessed art thou Oh People saved by the Lord, the Sheild of
thy help, which is the Sword of thy Glory, therefore thine Enemies
shall be in subjection unto thee, and thou shall tread upon their high
Places. Deut. 33. 27, 28, 29. But the Hipocrite, the Proud, the Covetous,
the Malicious, the Back-biter, Lier and Slanderer shall have their
Portion in the Lake; the Self-ended shall wither, the Luke-warm, God will E3r 37
will spew out; the Wicked of the World and Sinners in Sion God will
thrust a-way, as Thorns that cannot be touched with hands, therefore
must be burnt up in the place where they stand. But unto those that
fears my Name, shall the Sun of Righteousness a-rise with Healings lift
his Wings, and they shall be mine in the Day that I make up my Jewels,
and I will spare you, as a Man spareth his only Son that serves him,
saith the Lord.

As I lay on my Bed waiting upon the Lord, having my self and all
worldly things in a low esteem and value, humbling my self to the dust,
and making Self of no Reputation, but having a wonderful great and
high esteem of God beyond what my Tongue is able to express, to love,
adore, and follow him, without the least interest of my own, let it be
ever so holy, so it be according to his divine Will: And as I was thus
giving my self all up to God, a powerful Voice said, “Write down thy Poverty,”
which I immediately did, and said “‘My Lord, and my God, that I may use no vain Repetitions to Thee, but
that which comes from me to Thee, may be the Begettings of thy own Life. Father,
I beseech Thee be Thou the Begetter of every Thought that rises in me to thee
for then shall my Prayer be exceptable to Thee when Thou art the Father of it:
Then may the Lord of Life and Glory say, “This is my Beloved in whom I
am well pleased”
: For Lord what am I but as the Dust before Thee, who am
nothing, nor can do nothing, not so much as keep out a wandring Thought, or
keep my Mind fixt upon Thee one moment; therefore ’I lie in my own vileness,
in my own Corruption, who am nothing, nor can do nothing. No, righteous
Lord, without Thee I can do nothing, but in thee holy Father, and by thy Eternal
Power I can do all things, Glory be to Thee. All weakness is mine, but all Power,
and everlasting Strength is thine: Thou Omnipotent God, unto whom my Heart
and Soul, Strength and Might, Poverty and Nothingness, ye, all that is within
me doth ascribe unto Thee the Everlasting Majesty, all Honour and Glory, all
Love and humble Obedience, with everlasting Praises and Thanksgiving be returned
unto Thee, the Holy One,
Amen, saith my Soul, World without
End, Amen. J. W.’”

And whereas it is thought by some that are strangers to me and my
Writings, that a Woman did not write these Books which I have put
forth, but, at least say, that I have the help of some Man; give God the
glory, Jone Whitrow writ every Word, I, poor nothing unworthy Creature
wrote it, I cannot say whether a Word might be mispelt and mended
but otherways my Hands writ them (and can produce many Witnesse
that saw me write them) and I had no help, but the help of the Lord
neither hath there been any hand with me, but the hand of the Lord which E3v 38
which was strong upon me till I had finished them: And why should
it be thought incredible for a Woman to write truth, any more than a
Man? Is the Spirit of the Lord straightned, that it cannot operate in a
Woman as well as in a Man? Is not he able to open the Mouth of an
Ass? Yes, to reprove the madness of the Prophets, that trains the People
up in such blindness, and gross Ignorance: Dare you presume to limmit
the Maker of all things, to any thing that had a beginning? Was not his
first appearance to Women-after his Resurrection, who sent Mary Magdalen,
and the other Mary, with the glad Tidings thereof to his Disciples?
And did he not open the heart of Lidia? And did not the Apostle Paul
say, “Help those, Women that are Fellow-labourers with me in the Gospel of Christ”,
Philippians 4. 3. And Deborah the Prophetess judged Israel, and they came
to her for Judgment, and she bid Barak go to War with Jabin the
King of Hasor, but Barak, though a Man, was timerous and fearful, and
would not go without Deborah went with him, and she sung Praise for
the great Deliverance. But the Honour of the Battel was given Jael,
the Wife of Hebor, Judges 4. And did not King Josiah, after he had
heard the Law read, rent his Cloths and wept; therefore the King commanded
Hilkiah, the Priest, and Ahikam, the Son of Shaphan, and Achbor,
the Son of Michaiah, and Shaphan the Chancellor, and Asaiah, the King’s
servant, saying, “Go ye and enquire of the Lord for me, and for the People, &c.”
So Helkia the Priest, and Shaphan the Chancellor, with the rest of the Nobles,
went unto Huldah, the Prophetess, the Wife of Shallum, who dwelt
in Jerusalem in the College, and they communed with her. 2 Kings
chap. 22.
Hear you may see the Lord made use of Women, as well as
Men, and will make use of them yet more; now he is coming to pour
out his Spirit upon all Flesh. Joel.

From one that is in Unity and Fellowship with all that fears God,
and keeps his Commandements throughout the Universe,

Jone Whitrow.

John Hall’s Vision upon the 1693-11-01first Day of the Eleventh Month, 169⅔.

As I went to accompany a publick Friend John Cooper to a Meeting,
I was, me-thoughts as it were spiritually in a Glorious place, where
I stood before the Lord, where was also William Warin, who had there
received an Errand, and, as it were, vanished out of my sight on a sudden,
and was gone to deliver it, but I was left behind: And me-thought
I saw him that sent William, bring forth a very great golden Trumpet of
a large size, and deliver’d it unto me, and bid me Proclaim: And immediately
after to an Angel that stood by, he deliver’d a Sword, and bid
him smite; and me-thoughts the sound of the Trumpet caused such an Allarm, E4r 39
Allarm, that it awakened the very-Dead, and as the Sound waxed louder
and louder, and the Cry great. I thought I saw Hipocrites and
Back-sliders, the sinners in Sion, hang down their Heads, nay, and after
sometime quit the room, as not being able to abide it, the Power of the
Lord did wonderfully break in: And this, by the Command of the
Lord, I commit to Writing, as a Testimony for him, which the Lord
in his own due time will bring to pass. Written at my Habitation at
Monkhelsden, by a Servant of the Lord, whose outward Name is
John Hall.

Upon the --12-2222d. of the last Month, being the 12th. Month, my Sister
Grace Hall being at a Meeting at Raly with Jane Vickers, the Word of the
Lord came unto her saying, “Write”, and continued as an Exercise upon
her: On the Night her Sleep went from her, after she arose she withdrew
into a Chamber, and the following Words, word by word were
given her, she not knowing the next Word as she writ, whereof she innocently
gave me an Account.

Thus saith the Lord,
“Ihave a great Work to do in the Earth, and terrible shall it be to the Wicked; but say unto
mine Elect on this wise: Ye shall be kept in safety if ye obey my Word, I will be with the Righteous
wheresoever they are, if they will but separate the Wicked from among them; but if they will
not put away the Wicked from among them, then shall my Hand be heavier upon the Righteous for
the Wicked’s sake: And say unto the Wicked on this manner, There is yet a little space for you, if ye
will repent of your Wickedness, and Turn unto me, saith the Lord: You may read how it was in the
Days of Old, it shall be no less in this the Day of my Wrath, saith the Lord; for though Noah, Daniel
and Job were righteous, and although there be some such non-a-days, yet they shall save neither
Son nor Daughter; they shall save only their own Souls.”
Written by Grace Hall, being 16
Years, 3 Months, and 8 Days old.

A Letter to a Friend from
Jamaca, Spanish-Town the 1692-06-1919th of June. 1692.

Loving Brother

,

This is to give thee a true and satisfactory Account of our Misfortune: There hapned
on the 7th Instant, about half an hour after 11 at Noon, a terrible Earth-quake
thoughout the whole Island of Jamaca, it hath not left a House standing in the whole
place, that was built of either Stone, or Brick, nor any thing that was built with the
same Meterials, but what it hath made insufficient, for tho’ some of these stand, they
are not fit to live in, neither dare we hardly come near them, because of the frequent
shakes we still have: All those that it hath pleased the Almighty to save in giving them
their Lives for a Prey, do now think a Negro’s house that is walled and daubed with
Morter, and Thatched, the Eves hanging down almost to the ground, a pleasant House.
Hear you may see Colonels, and great Men, bowing their Bodies to creep into this
little Hutch; who before had Honuses fit not only to receive, but to feast in an extraordinary
manner, a Prince or King, as great as England’s Monarch upon ocasion, and now
by this sad Disaster have hardly Bread to eat, and never a House to be in.

The Ground opened at Port Royal, where I dwell, with a shake, and swallowed whole
Houses, nay, the Street I dwell in, was in less than 3 Hours after, 4 Fathom under
Water, and nothing of my House to be seen, nor any other, only one Timber-house which E4v 40
which George Philips lived in. The shake opened the Earth, the Water flew up, and
carried the People in quick: I lost my Wife, my Son, a Prentice, a white Maid, and
6 Slaves, and all that ever I had in the World; my Land where I was ready to raise five
Houses, and had room to raise ten more, is all sunk, a good Sloop may sail over it, as
well as over the Point: I have not saved a Rag, nor any Money, but I find people kind
where I never thought they would; all that it pleased God to save was my own life, my
Daughter Mary, and 8 good Slaves, but I have nothing to give them to eat. Captain
Comings
and Captain Martin are both swallowed up, and George Philips perished; his Wife
comes over in the Richard and Sarah.

Ah Brother! If thou didst see those great Persons that are now dead upon the Water,
thou couldst never forget it: Great Men, who were so swallowed up with Pride, that
a Man could not be admitted to speak with them, and Women whose Top-knots seemed
to reach the Clouds, now lie stinking upon the Water, and are made Meat for Fish,
and Fowls of the Air: My heart is full, yet I cannot forget the Mercy of God to me,
and many others.

I rest thy Loving Brother

John Pike.

Part of a Letter to a Friend.

And concerning John Hall ’s Message, I think it may be of as great Service, as any thing
I know, for let it be so as you say, and believe that it was a Mystery, and concerns
that People he was sent to deliver it to, which, for ought I know, may very well be.
My reason is, because he was sent to them, and to none else besides them, yet that will
not quit the general, for it was revealed to me in a Vision in King Jame’s Reign, when
his Camp was preparing for Hounslow-heath; the Destruction of London, but the time was
never yet shew’d me, therefore who knows, it may be the City of London, as well as the
City of Profession, whose fair Fabrick shall be laid low; and tho’ his Message was to that
particular People, of Ruin and Destruction, my Message is to all thro’ the Universe,
where the Iniquity is found; and for certain I say again and again, in the Word of the
Lord, That the Lord God Omnipotent is risen, the Everlasting God is risen to
plead with all Flesh: For this was the Word of the Lord to me, “I will sift the Nations
as in Ceive, and winow them as Wheat is winowed for the Mill”
. And again, said the Lord,
“Children shall lose their Fundamental Laws”. Again, “Though Moses and Samuel stood before me,
yet shall they not Disannul what I have Decreed”
. But why do you think that London should
scape the Judgments of God any more than Sicily and Jamaca? Your Answer may be,
Because of the Righteous that are in it: Do you think there was not one Malinus in Sicilia,
nor one Righteous-soul in all Jamaica, where the Earth open’d and swallowed up
their Bodies, but their Heads left above-ground, which the Dogs eat? Yes, I am sure
there was; and there was one in the old World, and yet it was destroyed, but the Lord
knows how to deliver his Noah’s, by getting them into the Ark of his Power, and to save
his just Lots, by flying out of Sodom; his chosen Ones that cries Day and Night unto him,
that no Iniquity may be found in them, but that they may be sanctified throughout in
Body, Soul and Spirit, that they may be wise Virgins that hath Oil in their Lamps, and
their Lights burning, that when the Mid-night-cry comes, they may be ready to go in
with their Lord into the Marriage-Chamber. But what think you of those high-
flown Professors of our Times, that makes such a blustring-noise about Religion, some
in Forms, and some out? That have their Hundreds and Thousands, and yet let their
Fellow-creatures want Bread, in and about the City of London: Do you think such do not
highly provoke the Lord to take away their Hundreds and Thousands from them, or
them from their Treasures, or both perish together, by some signal and amazing Judgments?
As he did in Jamaca, and other places, who, Judas like, grudges what is spent
upon the Lord in any kind whatsoever.

J.W.