The Child is born who is not of this world; and many are called to bear His testimony against the world, who are no more of this world, nor the spirit thereof will they receive, nor be in bondage thereto, who have received the Spirit of freedom, even of the Father and the Son, in which they are begotten out of the world, and the love thereof.
Now what are you about to do, who have been called, and once enlightened to see the vanities of the world, and the evils of its customs and fashions, ways and worships, and have been touched with judgment for your consenting thereto, and now are turning back to settle and build therein, and there to take up your rest, seeking to get a peace to yourselves in that which judgment has once entered upon you, shall this your building stand? Shall not your peace be broken? Ask your own hearts, if they condemn you not herein, and of unfaithfulness to His faithful Witness in you; I know God has not left Himself without a Witness in you for judgment, which sometimes does arise, and cause fear in you, and lets you plainly see that you take not counsel of His Spirit, but of your pleasures and profits in the world, and by them are you led, and not by that Spirit which calls you to bear His testimony against them.
And do you see this deceitful dealing in your own spirits towards Christ, and that your hearts are not upright in His testimony against the evil of this world. And will you cover all this deceit with conceits, words and notions, and seek to build you a place of peace above all this? Will you thus heal your hurt deceitfully and know it? And shall this stand before God? Shall not judgment arise in due time, and your hurt appear again? Is not this worse than all your former sins of ignorance, which you now add knowingly? Ask your own hearts, if they fear not the end of this dealing towards God and your own souls.
You are seeking rest, but not in the Sabbath of God, but in the world, you deny the first days work, (to wit) That which separates light from darkness. So you are far from the Sabbath of pure rest; so your rest shall spew you out: it's unclean, and your building shall fall upon your own heads. The foundation is polluted and mixed with the world, your garment shall rot; it's defiled with the flesh, and all your notions and conceits as hay and stubble and chaff, shall burn in the day when He shall arise to judgment, whom you now betray for the world, and to get yourselves ease and pleasure, your ease shall slay you, and your pleasures pass away with bitterness of soul, when your own work shall set you on fire, and all your airy notions and high words, and all your knowledge you have gotten in that disobedient nature, shall become fuel, and all your fears shall fall upon you to the utmost, because you have willfully made a path for yourselves to err, and sought to hid your way from the light, thereby to stop judgment in your hearts, and that equity should not enter, who have denied Him that called you, and have withheld your body from Him that made it, lest He should have purged you, and have drawn away your shoulder from His burden, lest you should have born His testimony against the world's lusts and your own, who have cast off His yoke, and proclaimed liberty to yourselves in that which grieves the Holy Spirit.
Therefore, as you are joined with the world against the judgment of the Just, who comes to restore all things, so with the world will be your portion, when the Just comes to judge the world, and when all comes to be restored in the covenant, you who have not kept covenant will be cast out: then shall you know, that whoever denies the light is a child of darkness, notwithstanding now your conceits cover you.
Against whom do you strengthen yourselves, when you say, We shall have peace, notwithstanding the Witness in our conscience speaks not peace? And when you call that the spirit of bondage, that would have you free from the evil of the world and service of sin, do not you speak this against the Lord and your life? Do not you herein rise up against the Just and innocent, and to stop the mouth of Him that is faithful, that the wicked may escape unreproved and live? Have you anything else that will show you your hearts deceits? And is He become your enemy, because He will not flatter you therein? Does not He speak peace freely to the obedient, though He never prophesies good of the world, in its corrupted ways? Shall you prosper who seek deep to hide you sin from His reproof? and will you be found children of the day, who seek to hide your ways from the light?
Whose image do you bear, who are like the world, except in opinion and notion? And who can so far conform to it, as to procure its love, and escape the cross which should crucify it to you? Are you like Christ, because you profess Him, when you crucify every appearance of Him to yourselves afresh? Will you boast in the Saints lines to make you a cover, while that lies crucified in you which should lead to their lives? Will not you be found the sepulchers that appear well without, but death and dry bones within? The Babe slain, that is not of this world, and His Life buried in earthly minds, and the grave garnished with His Words? Shall he who steals his neighbors ass be condemned fourfold; and shall he that slays the innocent, and steals his garments go free?
The holy men of God travailed in sorrow, to bring forth that which God begot in them, and not their own conceiving; and when they brought it forth it was contrary to the world, and could not bow to it, nor join with its ways, but held forth another image. So their covering was with the Spirit of God, and with the reproach of the world. And in obedience to that Spirit they spoke as it moved; in which words you take liberty, and resist the Holy Spirit, and call their lives bondage. Now ask your own consciences, if you be not they who glory in words, without the life, in appearance but not in heart; But this is seen among you, that the blood of the slain cries so loud, that few dare look within his own house: So you make ado without, to stop it for a time; but by what is done within must you be judged in the end.
Are you the restorers of pure paths for the simple to walk in, as in the beginning, e're the god of this world caused error by his inventions? Or, are you the makers up of the breach, wherewith he had broken in upon our forefathers, in the days of darkness, error and superstition? When will your practice preach redemption from all those vanities, and your lives declare a liberty from his bondage of corruption, and to things that perish with using? Does not the creation groan because of pride, and the oppression that is used to uphold it, in its becking and bowing, and false worships and customs? And are not men and women wholly in bondage to things that God never set up, nor commanded; because they please the spirit of this world, with whom you are turning back to worship, and call it your liberty? So your liberty is in that which lies in corruption, and your glory in that which is unrestored, the end whereof is death; But the sons of God are they that are led by the Spirit of God, who glory in His likeness, and their substance is eternal life.
