HEar, O Israel! This short Message and Testimony is to you, who have long made Profession of the holy Truth, yet have not known or witnessed the pure purging Power of it, throughly to cleanse, wash and sanctifie, and to set you free from sin, and the power and servitude of it, but have taken up a false Rest, and are sate down at ease in Zion, in a Profession of Truth, with a Name to live, whilst dead, dead as to Holiness, dead as to the Life, Power of Truth, and di­vine Knowledge of the Mystery of Christ, Enemies to the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, that should throughly crucifie you to the World, and the World to you, which raiseth up the Soul into the Life of Holiness; this you are Enemies unto in your Minds, by reason of wicked Works, so hold the Truth in Unrigh­teousness, and are crucifying that afresh to your selves, which should slay and crucifie you to the World and the Evils of it; but what will ye do in the end thereof? Though now [Page 4] for a Time you may live over & trample upon this innocent Life, yet in the end it will be too heavy for you, if ye will not bow and bend to it, and be willing to fall upon it, and be broken by it, it will at last fall heavy upon you, and will grind you to Powder; and this I have long seen and fore-seen in the Light of the Lord, to be your state, many of you; therefore hear and fear, all ye Disobedient & Rebellious Ones, who have long professed me in words, saith the Lord, yet in works have denyed me, who honour me not, nor is my Name feared & sanctified in the midst of you, but my holy Spirit is & hath been long grieved by you, for you are a Rebellious House, saith the Lord, therefore I delight not in you, nor are your Offerings pleasant or acceptable in my sight, as in days and years past, when they were as a sweet smell unto me, whilst you re­tained your love and sincerity to my Name & Truth, and held fast your Integrity, and my holy fear was before you, and whilst yet kept and abode in it, it kept and preserved you out of many of the Evils of the World, which you are since again run unto, and into this must you come again, even to your first Love, and to Repent, and do your first Works, if ever ye come into my favour again, and be owned and received of me, and that I again receive an Offering at your hands, with Ac­ceptance.

[Page 5]Hear therefore, O Israel! what the Lord by his Spirit may signifie unto you, Though very long hath the Lord born with a People in this day, even as he bore long with Israel of Old, forty Years was he grieved & temp­ted with that Generation, who after that, He by a mighty hand, and an out stretch­ed Arm had saved them out of the Land of Aegypt, and had led them through the Red Sea, and brought them safe upon the Banks of Deliverance, where they sang his Praise, yet he afterwards destroyed them that believed not; which things are written for our Admo­nition, that we grieve not the Lord in repel­ling against his good Spirit, as they did, of which we had need to take heed, least we also come to fall in this Wilderness, through the same Example of Unbelief; for the Lord hath born long with a People and Generation in this our Day, and for whom he hath also done much, who have long professed him in words, some of them forty or near fifty years, but what fruit is there brought forth by too to many of them, though he hath waited long, year after year, seeking and expecting Fruit, of whom he now grows weary, and the Day of his long-suffering and forbearance is come near unto an end, and that he will say, Cut it down, why cumbereth it the Ground? And this will be the lot & portion of many, unless they speedily Repent: Its Fruit that he [Page 6] expects and looks for, and he will not be longer put off or satisfied without Fruits that may honour him; for barely, a Profession of the holy Truth, without a holy Life, will stand no Soul of us in any stead at all, in the great Day of Account, but he will have an Improvement made by us of his own and what he hath committed to our Trust, and he that hath not improved his Gift, but hath been idle, sloathful and negligent in his Lords business in his Day and Time, this Gift or Talent will at last be call'd for by the Giver of it, and taken from him, and the Portion of that Servant will be in utter Darkness for­ever. He that hath an Ear to hear, let him hear this Word, The Lord is taking away thy Diadem, the Crown is falling from thy head, thy flourishing Beauty is passing away quickly, the heavenly Sun which thou rejoyced in for a time, now with-draws its shining, the Darkness is now thickening upon thee; in stead of spiritual Mirth and Gladness, a Day of Sorrow, Mourning and Lamentation; in stead of a Girdle, a Rent, instead of well set Hair, Baldness, and instead of a sweet Smell, behold a stink; and thy Name shall be for a perpetual Shame and Reproach amongst the Heathen, because ye have not sanctified the Name of the holy One, but have greatly pol­luted it in this Land; therefore I will make ye a Scorn, a By-word & a Hissing to Nations, [Page 7] and Women shall rule over thee, & strangers shall come up and eat your Bread, and shall possess your Habitations, and the Lord will call in others to the heavenly Banquet, the Supper of the Lamb, and who are more worthy than ye, & they shall enter into the Marriage Chamber, & pertake of the heavenly Dainties, and they shall come from the East and from the West, and shall enter in, & shall sit down with Abraham, Isaac & Jacob in the Kingdom of God, and Ye who have accounted your selves the Children of it, shall be thrust out for your Disobedience; for there are first that shall be last, and last that shall be first; and as ye were in times past, when little in your own Eyes, and in a bowed sence before the Lord, you were then reproached, scorned, mocked and derided of the World, and such as knew not God, for your Plainness, your Christian Modesty, your Seriousness, Sobriety, Gravity and Moderation, your Self denyal, holy and harmless Conversations, and serious Deport­ment, and good Behaviour and Testimony against the World, and the Evils and Fashions of it, which your Minds were far drawn out of in that Day; and because ye could not fashion your selves after the former Lusts, whilst in your Ignorance, nor walk as other Gentiles, that knew not God, in the vanity of their Minds; for that cause, how were ye hated, reproached and reviled, for the Truths [Page 8] sake, while ye thus stood the Cross; but now on the contrary, since the Offence of the Cross is ceased with many, to my grief, and many more, I now speak even with sorrow of heart, and not to upbraid you, may it not now be said, and that truely, That ye are now become a Scorn to Fools, and a Reproach justly among the Heathen, for your evil doing, and for your disagreeable Practices to what the innocent harmless Quakers use to be found in, witness your Persecution, by Imprisoning, Fining, and taking away Goods from your innocent Neighbours & Brethren, who for Conscience sake could not conform to you.

And now, that your Evil, Ʋn-Christian and Ʋn-Quaker-like Deeds and Corruptions, both in Principle & Practice, are brought to light, and which cannot now longer be hid, but they must come forth to publick view, and their Covering, who have not the Truth purely for their Covering, is stripping off them, and their Nakedness, and the Shame of it must and will appear to the view of all. And now in­stead of looking at the hand of the Lord in it, and humbling of themselves under it, and owning it to be just upon them, for their Hy­pocrisie and great Unfaithfulness, instead of this lay all the blame upon others, excusing themselves, & blaming and accusing of others with it, and say, Its this Man or the other hath done it, and brought this Dishonour and Reproach [Page 9] to Truth; and its not we, but G. K. and those in the Seperation, who have broken Ʋnity with their Brethren, but will not own that they have done any thing that hath justly brought the Dis­honour, but wipe their Mouthes, and say, They have done no Evil. Yet this I must tell, as I am certainly perswaded of it, That had you but continued faithful, and retained your first purity and love to God and his Truth, as ye were once in, this then had not happened, nor should G. Keith, or any other, then suffered thus to lay open & exposed you to the world, which you have all along much endeavoured to hide your Evils and Filthyness from, but now, that which hath been long hid and kept secret is made manifest, and brought to light, for as Christ said, There is nothing hid, that shall not be revealed, nor covered, that shall not be un­covered, and that which hath been spoken in secret shall be proclaimed upon the House top; and since you have lost that which once made you a good favour in your Neighbour­hoods and Families, and that reached the Witness of Truth in many hearts, having lost this, you will be left as destitute, as naked, and as bear as ever People was left, without timely and sincere Repentance.

Friends, as touching my last Paper which I sent, with the other of B. D's to your Monthly Meeting, in which was some things hard to [Page 01] be rightly understood by you, especially since I am again with drawn from you, being warn­ed of God so to do, and that I may keep Truth clear, and my Testimony thereunto, however censured and looked upon by you, the great thing with me, is, and hath been, to approve my heart to God, and to speak the Truth uprightly, without partiality of re­spect to any Mans Person, and whilst I am kept there, I heed it little who commends, or who discommends me; for not he who commendeth himself, or whom another com­mends, but whom the Lord commends, that is approved; I say, that I may be the more Intelligible, and prevent and take off, what in me lies, those evil and hard Constructions which very aptly and readily you may put upon what I there writ, as concerning Printing and Exposing, as hath been of late, both by one sde and the other, which I shall explain, and give you my sence, thus, That I have and can honestly and safely testifie against such manner of Exposing as hath been of late by both, as that which ought not to be amongst brethren, who are to dwell together in Unity; yet if the Lord will make use of, or permit an Instrument to lay open & expose a People for their Unfaithfulness, and for their trea­cherous dealing with him, who shall then with­stand the Lord in what he doth, who doth whatsoever he will? and though men cannot [Page 11] see it so, yet whatsoever the Lord doth, is well, and he is and will be glorified over all; and if he be not glorified in mens Salvation, he will be glorified in their Destruction, as he was upon hard hearted Pharoah and his people when he wrought that mighty deliverance for Israel; for the Scripture saith concerning Pharoah, For this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I may show my Power in thee, and that my Name might be declared throughout all the Earth. Thus you may see, in one sence we may safely condemn such manner of exposing, dividing, tending and tearing Member from Member, as that which ought not to be among Brethren, as the Apostle mentions in one of his Epistles, These things, my Brethren, ought not so to be; so say I, Brethren ought not to differ, fall out, and be at strife, but all rather dwell together in Love and Amity, being all of the same Mind, and of the same Judgment; and this is very aimable, and a comely thing for Brethren thus to dwell together in Unity; but if that a People who have professed them­selves to be in the greatest Unity of any People besides, and all to believe the same things, professing the one Faith, one Lord Jesus Christ, and one Hope of their Calling, if this People, or a part of them shall be found in Error, & certain men from among themselves shall arise, and shall teach and assert things contrary to sound Doctrine, and shall continue [Page 12] and persist to maintain such corrupt and erro­neous Principles and Doctrines, to the infect­ing and corrupting of one another, so far as to the Denying of our only Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, and if for this their great Dege­neracy, and contemning of the Word and Testimony of Jesus, God shall immediately concern & raise up some from amongst them­selves, to correct, reprove, reprehend, and sharply to testifie against the same, in the zeal and fervency of their Spirits, and also to with-draw from their Fellowship and Com­munion; and whether it be not right and justifiable in the sight of God so to do, I leave to the Wise in heart to judge.

Thus you may plainly see I have and can freely condemn the Printing, Exposing, Se­perating & Dividing one from another in the Church of Christ, and amongst Brethren, that it ought not to be, but in that other sence, as I have told you, if the Lord doth it for a good end and purpose, to make manifest Hypocrites and evil Workers, who live in Error, and to search out the hidden Workers of Darkness, and the Hypocrites in Zion, and who profess themselves to be Jews, and are not, but do lye, and for the laying open Heresie and Error, that hath long lain undis­covered, that so those that are approved of him may be made manifest; and if he will raise up some from amongst our selves to do this [Page 13] Work, which you account so ill a Work, yet in this sence, as the Lord doth it, in order to effect and bring to pass his own Purpose, I may not condemn it, it being the Day that I have much wished for, that those that are approved might be manifest, and no place found where the Worker of Iniquity might hide his head; and the Day is come and com­ing▪ that will find them out of all the dark Places and lurking Holes.

So, with little more, I shall conclude, de­siring the Lord, if it be his Will, to turn your hearts to him, and to work a true Reforma­tion and change in your Minds, that so the thick Vail of Darkness and Error, that is over many of your hearts, may be effectually rent off and taken away, and that you may come to know the holy Covering of God, and to put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and to be cover­ed with his Righteous Power and Spirit, and then I know you will not be found naked, but might be able to stand before the Son of Man.

Now as to any amongst you who may be conscientiously concerned, as to me, if any such there be, I am able to give a further or more full and satisfactory Account of my lea­ving you again, if desired; and as to my go­ing to and fro for my own satisfaction, which ye render so ill, and as being now worse than before, and that it bespeaks me and us of an unstable Mind, and wavering too and again, [Page 14] for my late condescention in coming so near you (as I was willing to come as near to you as the Truth would possibly admit) and that in love, for the Bodies sake, the Church; but how I am the worse for so doing, I may tell you, and what my Experience hath been since I came last amongst you, or rather that you came to us in your appointed time, for I never did see my way clear to come to you; indeed I can own, in one sence, I am not the better for my being last with you; and though it was not long that I was with you, yet I now think it was long enough, and shall truly and honestly declare my experience, and how I found it in that time, which thing I kept secret to my self, but I minded it well, and how the Lord was to me in that time, and whether I enjoyed him now amongst you, so as I did before, when in the Seperation, as knowing what he had been unto me then; and this Experience I have, and am now free to tell it, That the nearer I came to you, the Lord he with-drew himself the further from me, and I wanted those Soul refreshing Com­forts that I had from him before; and as I with-drew my self again from you, the Lord immediately drew near to me again, and then my Love and Zeal began to freshen & increase more to him, which (while near to you) began to [...]ten and decline, because I was not to sit down with you in an evil secure state, nor [Page 15] [...]ould I sit down with you in the state I saw you in, nor was it ever in my heart so to do, as knowing certainly, if I did, the Lord would wholly with-draw himself from me, and shut up, and with-hold his wonted goodness from me, and whom my Soul was still concerned for, that I might not loose him, nor do that which might give him cause again to hide his face. These things I made Observation of betwixt the Lord and my own Soul. Also, a a little before I left you, the Lord set it clearly before me, your unprofitable state, and where you are, and what your lot and portion will be, and mine also, if I continued with you, so as to sit down and have fellowship with you in that dark evil corrupt state, which the Lord knows, and my Soul knows, you are now sitten down in, and he hastened me much be­fore I left you, as Lot out of Sodom, To haste, and flee as for my Life, and to save my self from such a Generation as are out of the Faith of the Lord Jesus Christ, which I can now with greater boldness affirm, than I could before, having had the advantage to hear and see the second time again for my self, and which was the main & great cause of my being amongst you the second time, that so I might have a more perfect knowledge of these things, and like the Noble Boraeam, desired to find and search out, whether these thing were alto­gether so, as the Cry and Report hath been: [Page 16] And why should any blame me for this, or re­sent so ill, my coming and going to and fro, as being under a Soul concern? I wish that many amongst you, that are settled on their Lees, were in like manner so concerned, and that I could see many going to and fro; for its said, In the latter days they shall run to and fro, and Knowledge shall increase. And seeing I came to seek the good amongst you, (had it been to be found) and not to spy out your liberty in Christ, and bring you into Bondage, yet was willing to spy out whether ye have indeed the Faith of our Lord Jesus Christ; and finding that you have it not, am warned to with-draw, and have no fellowship with such as cannot bear to have the Lord Jesus Christ preached amongst you, the which ad­vantage I have had by my being last with you, seeing plainly, that its not as you have en­deavoured to make People believe, viz. That its not for the Testimonies sake, that ye deny these in the Seperation, but for this dividing Spirit, and for reviling and exposing; But this cover is now stripping off, and will not longer hide you, but you must now appear as yeare, and that ye are of those that love not the Lord Jesus Christ, as your doings have and do ma­nifestly declare.