It is not to the Rich nor the full, but to those that are asking the way to Sion with their Faces thitherward, to whom I thus write.
THE Lord having given to Man a Measure of his Spirit to profit withal, hath by his Son the Light of the World knocked at the Door of our Hearts, to whom we opened, and let him in, and he is become our Salvation; and all those that fight against this his Blessed Appearance, and will not that he should rule over them, he will come in an hour that they look not for him, and give them their portion with Hypocrites and Unbelievers.
Having beheld many good Men casting their gift into the Treasury, I of my little cast in my Mite, which I would not through negligence omit any thing wherein I might serve the Lord, his Truth and People; believing it my Duty, having found that satisfaction and rest to my travelling Soul, that I could not find by all my undertakings, though I sought them sincerely in visible things; until I turned into the Word of God in the Heart, and by the light thereof saw to sweep my own House, wherein I found the lost Piece, Luke 15.9. the Pearl of great Price, the little Leaven hid in three measures of Meal, and the Parable therein truly opened, and thereby have learned to know the true God, and Jesus Christ whom he [Page]hath sent; which to know is Life Eternal, which leads into the Kingdom of Rest and Peace; and am so well satisfied with the truth thereof, that I may say with Paul, if an Angel from Heaven should Preach any other Doctrin, I could not receive it: Though I have met with many Tryals and Temptations in the way, yet none so great as to cause me to question the truth thereof, when I have beheld many to fall on the Right Hand, and on the left, and many go back again, I was preserved, and firmly fixed, and grounded on the Rock, which Rock is Christ, and he is my King, Priest, and Pro [...] and hath led me through dispensations, and administrations, and hath brought me to praise his Name in the Land of the Living, and in this we rejoyce, notwithstanding the fury of Men, well knowing from what Spirit it comes, even the same that called the Son of God a Devil, a Blasphemer, a Friend to Publicans, and Sinners, a breaker of the Law, and his Apostles, turners of the World upside down, Acts 17.6. and as he was then, so are we, accounted by some as deceivers, yet true, though called Hereticks, Worshiping the God of our Fathers, Believing the Law and the Prophets, and in Jesus Christ the Son of God, and in the Anointing, which he promised to send, and he hath sent, and we have received it, and the sufficiency whereof we have experienced, and is become our Teacher sufficient to guide into all Truth: This is the Day he Promised, which many desired to see, but saw it not; and many might have seen, but have rejected the Lord of Life; and like the [Page]Dog returned to the Vomit, and as the Sow once washed, to the wallowing in the Mire; and think to cover themselves by laying open what they judge the weakness, or infirmities of others, and make Men offenders for words, and make their own perverse Constructions thereof, and not what they intended that writ or spake them; but if some were so weak as they have Represented them, sh [...] not every one Answer for himself? But the Innocent, and many who were not then Born, must be Charged therewith. O ye workers of Iniquity, your strength in the Arm of Flesh shall not secure you; for he against whom you are risen is too mighty for you, to whom all must bow; though he is great in Mercy, yet just in Judgment, and will judge the Secrets of all Hearts, by Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour, who with his Spiritual Eyes sees through all carnal imaginations of Mens Traditions and Imitations, and will get himself a Name above all, Lord of Lords, who in the time of Ignorance winked at these things; but now he looks that all should come to the knowledge of his Son, who gives unto his Children to know the God of Abraham and his Seed; that he will bring them to the Land of Promise; who raised up his Servant Moses to go before Israel, and delivered them (out of the Hand of Pharaoh and his Task-Masters) who passed through the Sea, and came into the Wilderness, and there wandred, and murmured, as some have done in our day, and have gon round until they came near the Place where they came in, some went forward toward the good Land, and brought an evil [Page]Report thereof, but praised be God who hath raised up a Spirit of Courage, as was in Josuah and Caleb, and they press forwards toward the good Land, and have entred the Borders thereof, and found it as God Promised, a Land following with all good things; of which, whoever have tasted, it is beyond all carnal apprehensions or Imaginations, which if the Heart be filed therewith, it must be emptied. All that would know the True God, in the Heavenly still Voice, and the Prophet, of which Moses said the Lord your God shall raise up, him shall you hear, and him we do hear, and have Learned subjection to his Will thereby, as well knowing, all things work together for good: And have this to say to all true Christian Friends, be of good Courage, fear not the Reproach of Men, there is nothing come to pass but what was for a Tryal for us, and what I said once I may say again, it is a Cloud God suffereth to rise, and the Wind shall blow away the Chaff, but he will gather the Wheat thereby nearer together; this I know to be a certain truth, by which my Heart hath been strengthned, and so I have by this Prophetical Dream, which I had many years ago, when I had no thought or suspicion of what is since come to pass. Which was as followeth,
I with some of my Christian Friends, was fallen into their Hands who had been of the same Profession, but they were changed into so cruel a Nature, as I thought I never saw the like; for, for my Friends I was grieved more than for my self, but they were taken out of my sight, and I [...]