This
Was Given To
Major
Generall Harrison
And The
Rest.
Read this in
the Fear of the
Lord, and in the moderation of Your
spirits,
without prejudice.
Friends,
This is the day
of your visitation, while ye
have time prize it; God hath long holden
forth a hand of love
unto you, though you
have for several years past
slighted and rejected
his council, and would have
none of his
wayes, “Who is the eternal Light, the
way,
the truth, and the Life”, and there is no other way
nor name
under Heaven by which any shall be saved, or
come to the
knowledge of the eternal Truth as it is in
Jesus, but by the
Light of
Christ
Jesus in whom is
Life, and this Life is the
Light of men, and though
you have slighted this, and looked
upon it as too
mean and low, yet this ye must stoop unto,
and come
to, if ever you find peace and reconciliation
with
the Lord God, ye must have it
in the Light which bears
A
testi-
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testimony against
all the works and deeds of darknesse;
and if ever ye come to
know or witnesse Life and immortality
to be
brought to Light thorow the Gospel of Jesus,
which is glad tydings to the
poor, and liberty to the captive,
then must you
come to the Light of Jesus that shines
in your
Consciences, for his Immortality dwells in the
Light,
and the knowledg of him, and the witnesse
that every one
can bear of him in the real truth, is in the
Light that shines
in their Consciences, and in this
knowledge is “Life eternal
to know the only true
God, and Jesus Christ whom he hath
sent
a” Light into the world, who hath said, “He that
knows
me, knows him that sent me; I am come a Light,
that he
that believes on me should not perish, but have
everlasting life”;
and this is the record that he hath given us
of his Son, even
eternal life, and this life is in his
Son, which is now risen
in his brightnesse, and shining
in the Consciences of men,
and he is purging the
Conscience from dead works to serve
the living God, which all the types and the figures could
not
make any thing perfect as pertaining to the
conscience, No
not the Tabernacle, nor the Golden
Pot in which was the
Manna, they were but a shaddow of
the good things to come,
the body and
substance is Christ, which makes clean
the inside
who is King of the Jews, not outward but inward,
and
the Minister of that Circumcision which is of the
heart, which
worships him in the Spirit and in the
Truth, having not
confidence in the flesh; and this
is that you must all stoop
to, if ever ye know or be
partakers of the precious faith,
which was once delivered
to the Saints, which we are contending
for, and are
to contend for, even to the giving up
our lives, and our
desire is that ye might partake with us,
and tast of
that love which is in Christ
Jesus, which neithetr
heigth nor depth, tribulation, nor
anguish, Principalityes nor
powers, life nor death can
sepatrate from, and that you might
partake of our
life which is hid with Christ in God, is the desire
of
our soules, though you have long slighted the day
of
your visitation, and often rejected the council of
the Lord,
and counted the Light a mean and a
contemptible thing,
by
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3
by which the Lord God doth and ever will teach
his people;
and this testimony I bear unto you
in the presence of
the Lord
God, though you may esteem high of your
selves,
and of your knowledge, “the living and
the eternal God ye
doe
not know as he is, but as ye know him in the
light, for his immortality
dwells in the
light”, and if ye know him where he
dwells, ye
must know him in the Light, and if ye be
the
Children of the Lord, and taught of the Lord, ye
must be
taught by the Light of him in your
Consciences, and if ye be
established in
righteousnesse you must be established in
the
Light, and if ye be far from oppression,
ye must be found in
the Light, and if you will
be where your peace will be great
ye must dwell in
the Light, and if while ye have the Light
ye beleeve
in the Light, ye may may be the children of the
Light, and this is Christs own words and
exhortations whom
ye highly profess, & yet slight
his own words & exhorration;
Oh! Friends, what wil
profession of him in words outwardly do
for you now
in the time of your distresse and sad
affliction,
when that faith is wanting which stands in
the power, and
works by love, and is held in the mistery of a
pure Conscience,
which I know eternally never a
one of you can witnesse
who denyes the Light of
Jesus that cleanseth the
Conscience,
which every one must walk in; which
brings into the fellowship
one with another,
where “the blood of Jesus Christ
cleanses
from all sin”; and what will your
justification, in that one
act which you speak of,
which was offered up at
Jerusalem,
now do for you when
you want your seal and your testimony
of your
being justified by it in your Consciences? if
ye
have not your particular assurance, by being purged
purifyed,
and sanctified, and so justified in your own conscience?
what will
that Act doe for a defiled Conscience?
what
will that
act do for an unclean and an unsanctified heart
being
that he which was offered up at
Jerusalem once for all,
thorow
the eternall Spirit, is now risen in his Spirit
and
Light, in the hearts and Consciences of
men, there to cleanse
and to purge, and to wash by his
own blood, and so to justifie
and give assurance,
“that whosoever believes on him should
A2
be
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be saved and
have everlasting life”, now what will your
professing
and talking of this act doe for
you, while you are
slighting and disobeying, and
transgressing against the Light
(which should
give you testimony and true assurance) to
your
justification, and should purifie your hearts
by faith,
for it is by the faith of the Son of
God, which is
Light and
Life that the just
lives, its not profession, or high notions
by
which the Just lives, its not brain wisdom nor
comprehension
in the understanding that raises
the dead, it was that that
crucified the Just;
but it is the voyce of the Son of God that
raises the
dead, and there’s nothing that will avail in this
day
of the Lord but this new-creature, the image of
the invisible
God, the
first begotten from the dead, and he that doth
not
witnesse this state will suffer losse,
for when his work is
tryed by the fire it will be
burned; and though men may speak
with the tongues
of men and Angels, and want that love
that
passeth knowledge, it is but as the
“sounding brasse, and tinckling
cymball”, and so it will passe away and be no
more seen;
Nay further then that, though there may
be prophesies and
faith that could remove
Mountains, and want this love that
gives obedience, and keeps the Commandements of the
Lord it is nothing; though they may give their goods to the
poor, and their bodies to be burned, it is nothing while
they
doe not keep the Commandements of the Lord but
slights
his tenders of love, and his gracious mercies, and is
exalted
in a notion, in a conceiving or
apprehension of a thing, and
wants the sound and
sure testimony of the thing it self; in
this
they are utterly betrayd; though they may say
or apprehend
that their name is written in Heaven, yet if this
Heaven
be farre off them they may misse of their
Name, “For Satan
falls from
Heaven like lightning”; He that can receive it let
him;
There’s none that enters into the Holy City, but
whose
name is written in the “Lambs book of Life, slain
from the
foundation of the world”, and this
Name is written in Heaven,
and here is Joy
witnessed and the Song of Moses and
the
Lamb, but this state is redeemed from the
earth,
and so the offering up of the naturall
life in this state is
little.
Now the
desire of my heart is that you had faith in God,
and might see your
selves in the condemnation, and feele
the hand of his
Justice and Judgement, and that you are not
come to this
condition without the power and providence,
and
permission of the Lord, that so you may be received
into
his bosome and mercy; for undoubtedly the same
God as
brought you to the
seat of Justice, formerly has also brought
you now to
the Judgment, therefore now fall down under the
hand of his
Justice; whose hand of mercy is holden forth
unto
you; and consider what great mercy you have
abused,
and opportunities of doing him service; and
how you
have betrayed him and his cause into the hands
of sinners;
and how you have incurred his Just hand of
recompence
upon your heads; oh consider what yee have
done against
the Lord, what a great power you have
abused, “and turned
the sword against the
Innocent”, that should have
been for the evill doer,
and slighted and contemned
his living
truth, and held up a rotten deceitfull
profession
which now will faile you in the day
of your troubles
and tryalls; one houre of worshipping the
Lord God
in his Eternall light
and Spirit of Eternall life, were of more
value to
you then all your dayes and nights,
that you have
spent in prayers, and teares, and
cryes, whilest your hearts
are corrupted, and your
Consciences defiled, and your
minds carnall, where
the Enmity stands against God
and
his Truth, which is not sbject to the Law of
God,
neither
indeed can be, but weepes Esaus
teares, and so must have
Esaus portion;
you’l thinke this is hard, but truely you
will finde it
truth, and you will finde that all your goodnesse
will passe away as the Early due, and your
righteousnesse
as the filthy raggs. But I feele
something objecting
in your minds, as if this might
be a discouragement
to you in your Condition; I answer, no;
It’s the hand of
his love is reached out unto you, and
his bosome of love
stands open unto you, to receive you
into his mercy, if
you would turne in your minds to the
living witnesse of the
living God in your Consciences, to
which you must stand
or
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or fall; This is the word which
must Judge every one
of you in the last day, and
this is the word that reconciles
unto God,
and this is his name (who had his vesture dipt
in blood)
to which every knee must bow, and every tongue
confesse; and
if yee stand committed to this immortall
and Eternall
ingrafted word, this is able to save your
soules;
therefore to this word of faith which is
nigh in the heart,
which faith, Neither ascend nor
descend, but preaches righteousnesse
very nigh; to this come though it were the
last
day that yee had to live; the call of this
is not in vaine, you
will find more comfort in turning in
your minds unto this,
and joyning your hearts and minds to this
living Immortall
word in your hearts; I say, you will
finde more comfort being
with this if it were but
one houre, then yee have done
with roving and
rambling after things without you, and ascending
and descending in your Immaginations,
apprehensions,
and comprehensions all the dayes of
your life; and whether
yee can believe or no, this you
shall finde to be Eternall
truth, “and it’s Gods love unto you, and Gods motion” that is
the cause of writing this, whether you can can receive it or
no, whose mercy and
long suffering continues unto you;
and truely you cannot
plead ignorance, nor deny but you
have had many gracious
invitations and tenders of his love.
Oh that you would
consider in this your day the things that
belongs to
your everlasting peace, and that you would turne
unto
him that hath smitten you, who has brought
salvation
neere, and is bringing forth righteousnesse
as a light, and
thither must you come if ever you finde
peace with the
Lord, yee must come to his swift
witnesse that testifies against
all your wayes,
and all your worships, and your best
actions, that have
not been acted from the light, is for condemnation
with the light; for he is neere that
condemnes,
and he is neere that justifies, and then who
can condemne,
for God
is greater who is one with him that justifies every
one;
“and if the heart condemne, God is also greater”, and
so to
this Master must you either stand or fall; if
this righteous
Judge condemne yee are condemned, and if
this justifie,
then
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7
then are you justified before the Lord;
and if this righteous,
just and faithfull
witnesse in you plead your Cause,
and you come to be
tryed and proved, searched and examined
by this
witnesse, and you freely submit to the Judgement
of this, and what this condemns condemne, and what
this
Justifies Justifie no more, and owne no more to be
truth
but what this righteous witnesse of God in you presents to
be
truth; here you will come to a cleare conviction,
and
this will also worke your conversion, and change
your minds,
and redeeme you up to God, and there you will see
when
you are with God, and with his true and
faithfull witnesse in
you, and that there all things
is possible, and so your minds
will be changed, out
of the visible perishing beggerly rudiments
of
outward worships, which perishes in the using
of
them, while they are performed by an unsanctified
and an
uncircumcised heart; and you will come into the
invisible
life. And so here I have set before you “life
and death, light
and darknesse, good and evill”,
the righteous God is separating
betwixt the precious and the vile, betwixt him that
serveth
God
and him that serveth him not, by his quicke
and
living powerfull word, “which is sharper then
any two edged
sword, to the discerning of the
secret intents of the heart”;
and unto this word
which will give life unto your soules,
which he
that believes on, “though he were dead, yet
shall he
live”, unto him that is the
resurrection, and the life, I commit
you and commend you; and
consider that this spirit will not
alwayes strive with man.
your Eternall peace and comfort of the Lord,
who feeles the weight of your sufferings and travells,
with the seed of the Covenant, who am
knowne by outward name;
Margret Fell.
London;
Printed for Thomas
Simmons, at the Bull
and
Mouth neare Aldersgate.
16601660.