Part 1 (2/2)
They would not communicate at large, or in common with others; but formed churches among themselves of such as could give some account of their conversion, at least of very promising experiences of the work of G.o.d's grace upon their hearts, and under mutual agreements and covenants of fellows.h.i.+p, they kept together. These people were somewhat of a softer temper, and seemed to recommend religion by the charms of its love, mercy, and goodness, rather than by the terrors of its judgments and punishments; by which the former party would have awed people into religion.
They also allowed greater liberty to prophesy than those before them; for they admitted any member to speak or pray, as well as their pastor, whom they always chose, and not the civil magistrate. If such found anything pressing upon them to either duty, even without the distinction of clergy or laity, persons of any trade had their liberty, be it never so low and mechanical. But alas! even these people suffered great loss: for tasting of worldly empire, and the favour of princes, and the gain that ensued, they degenerated but too much. For though they had cried down national churches and ministry, and maintenance too, some of them, when it was their own turn to be tried, fell under the weight of worldly honour and advantage, got into profitable parsonages too much, and outlived and contradicted their own principles; and, which was yet worse, turned, some of them, absolute persecutors of other men for G.o.d's sake, that but so lately came themselves out of the furnace; which drove many a step further, and that was into the water: another baptism, as believing they were not scripturally baptized: and hoping to find that presence and power of G.o.d, in submitting to this watery ordinance, which they desired and wanted.
These people also made profession of neglecting, if not renouncing and censuring not only the necessity, but use, of all human learning, as to the ministry; and all other qualifications to it, besides the helps and gifts of the spirit of G.o.d, and those natural and common to men. And for a time they seemed, like John of old, a burning and a s.h.i.+ning light to other societies.
They were very diligent, plain, and serious; strong in scripture, and bold in profession; bearing much reproach and contradiction. But that which others fell by, proved their snare. For worldly power spoiled them too; who had enough of it to try them what they would do if they had more: and they rested also too much upon their watery dispensation, instead of pa.s.sing on more fully to that of the fire and Holy Ghost, which was his baptism, who came with a fan in his hand, that he might thoroughly, and not in part only, purge his floor, and take away the dross and the tin of his people, and make a man finer than gold. Withal, they grew high, rough, and self-righteous; opposing further attainment; too much forgetting the day of their infancy and littleness, which gave them something of a real beauty; insomuch that many left them, and all visible churches and societies, and wandered up and down as sheep without a shepherd, and as doves without their mates; seeking their beloved, but could not find him, as their souls desired to know him, whom their souls loved above their chiefest joy.
These people were called Seekers by some, and the Family of Love by others; because, as they came to the knowledge of one another, they sometimes met together, not formally to pray or preach at appointed times or places, in their own wills, as in times past they were accustomed to do, but waited together in silence; and as anything rose in any one of their minds, that they thought savoured of a divine spring, they sometimes spoke. But so it was, that some of them not keeping in humility, and in the fear of G.o.d, after the abundance of revelation, were exalted above measure; and for want of staying their minds in an humble dependance upon him that opened their understandings, to see great things in his law, they ran out in their own imaginations, and mixing them with those divine openings, brought forth a monstrous birth, to the scandal of those that feared G.o.d, and waited daily in the temple not made with hands, for the consolation of Israel; the Jew inward, and circ.u.mcision in spirit.
This people obtained the name of Ranters, from their extravagant discourses and practices. For they interpreted Christ's fulfilling of the law for us, to be a discharging of us from any obligation and duty the law required of us, instead of the condemnation of the law for sins past, upon faith and repentance: and that now it was no sin to do that which before it was a sin to commit; the slavish fear of the law being taken off by Christ, and all things good that man did, if he did but do them with the mind and persuasion that it was so. Insomuch that divers fell into gross and enormous practices; pretending in excuse thereof, that they could, without evil, commit the same act which was sin in another to do: thereby distinguis.h.i.+ng between the action and the evil of it, by the direction of the mind, and intention in the doing of it.
Which was to make sin super-abound by the aboundings of grace, and to turn from the grace of G.o.d into wantonness; a securer way of sinning than before: as if Christ came not to save us from our sins, but in our sins; not to take away sin, but that we might sin more freely at his cost, and with less danger to ourselves. I say, this ensnared divers, and brought them to an utter and lamentable loss as to their eternal state; and they grew very troublesome to the better sort of people, and furnished the looser with an occasion to profane.
CHAP. II.
_Of the rise of this People_, _their fundamental principle_, _and doctrine_, _and practice_, _in twelve points resulting from it_: _their progress and sufferings_: _an expostulation with England thereupon_.
At was about that very time, as you may see in George Fox's annals, that the eternal, wise, and good G.o.d, was pleased, in his infinite love, to honour and visit this benighted and bewildered nation, with his glorious day-spring from on high; yea, with a more sure and certain sound of the word of light and life, through the testimony of a chosen vessel, to an effectual and blessed purpose, can many thousands say, glory be to the name of the Lord for ever!
For as it reached the conscience, and broke the heart, and brought many to a sense and search, so that which people had been vainly seeking without, with much pains and cost, they, by this ministry, found within, where it was they wanted what they sought for, viz. the right way to peace with G.o.d. For they were directed to the light of Jesus Christ within them, as the seed and leaven of the kingdom of G.o.d; near all, because in all, and G.o.d's talent to all: a faithful and true witness, and just monitor in every bosom. The gift and grace of G.o.d to life and salvation, that appears to all, though few regard it. This the traditional Christian, conceited of himself, and strong in his own will and righteousness, overcome with blind zeal and pa.s.sion, either despised as a low and common thing, or opposed as a novelty, under many hard names and opprobrious terms; denying, in his ignorant and angry mind, any fresh manifestations of G.o.d's power and spirit in man, in these days, though never more needed to make true Christians. Not unlike those Jews of old, that rejected the Son of G.o.d, at the very same time that they blindly professed to wait for the Messiah to come; because, alas! he appeared not among them according to their carnal mind and expectation.
This brought forth many abusive books, which filled the greater sort with envy, and lesser with rage; and made the way and progress of this blessed testimony strait and narrow, indeed, to those that received it. However, G.o.d owned his own work, and this testimony did effectually reach, gather, comfort, and establish the weary and heavy-laden, the hungry and thirsty, the poor and needy, the mournful and sick of many maladies, that had spent all upon physicians of no value, and waited for relief from heaven, help only from above; seeing, upon a serious trial of all things, nothing else would do but Christ himself; the light of his countenance, a touch of his garment, and help from his hand, who cured the poor woman's issue, raised the centurion's servant, the widow's son, the ruler's daughter, and Peter's mother: and like her they no sooner felt his power and efficacy upon their souls, but they gave up to obey him in a testimony to his power: and that with resigned wills and faithful hearts, through all mockings, contradictions, confiscations, beatings, prisons, and many other jeopardies that attended them for his blessed name's sake.
And, truly, they were very many, and very great; so that in all human probability they must have been swallowed up quick of the proud and boisterous waves that swelled and beat against them, but that the G.o.d of all their tender mercies was with them in his glorious authority; so that the hills often fled, and the mountains melted before the power that filled them; working mightily for them, as well as in them; one ever following the other. By which they saw plainly, to their exceeding great confirmation and comfort, that all things were possible with him with whom they had to do. And that the more that which G.o.d required seemed to cross man's wisdom, and expose them to man's wrath, the more G.o.d appeared to help and carry them through all to his glory.
Insomuch, that if ever any people could say in truth, Thou art our sun and our s.h.i.+eld, our rock and sanctuary; and by thee we have leaped over a wall, and by thee we have run through a troop, and by thee we have put the armies of the aliens to flight; these people had a right to say it.
And as G.o.d had delivered their souls of the wearisome burdens of sin and vanity, and enriched their poverty of spirit, and satisfied their great hunger and thirst after eternal righteousness, and filled them with the good things of his own house, and made them stewards of his manifold gifts; so they went forth to all quarters of these nations, to declare to the inhabitants thereof, what G.o.d had done for them; what they had found, and where and how they had found it, viz.--The way to peace with G.o.d: inviting all to come and see, and taste for themselves, the truth of what they declared unto them.
And as their testimony was to the principle of G.o.d in man, the precious pearl and leaven of the kingdom, as the only blessed means appointed of G.o.d to quicken, convince, and sanctify man; so they opened to them what it was in itself, and what it was given to them for; how they might know it from their own spirit, and that of the subtle appearance of the evil one: and what it would do for all those whose minds should be turned off from the vanity of the world, and its lifeless ways and teachers, and adhere to his blessed light in themselves, which discovers and condemns sin in all its appearances, and shows how to overcome it, if minded and obeyed in its holy manifestations and convictions: giving power to such, to avoid and resist those things that do not please G.o.d, and to grow strong in love, faith, and good works. That so man, whom sin hath made as a wilderness, over-run with briers and thorns, might become as the garden of G.o.d, cultivated by his divine power, and replenished with the most virtuous and beautiful plants of G.o.d's own right-hand planting, to his eternal praise.
But these experimental preachers of glad tidings of G.o.d's truth and kingdom could not run when they list, or pray or preach when they pleased, but as Christ their Redeemer prepared and moved them by his own blessed Spirit, for which they waited in their services and meetings, and spoke as that gave them utterance; and which was as those having authority, and not like the dry, and formal Pharisees. And so it plainly appeared to the serious-minded, whose spiritual eye the Lord Jesus had in any measure opened: so that to one was given the word of exhortation, to another the word of reproof, to another the word of consolation, and all by the same Spirit, and in the good order thereof, to the convincing and edifying of many.
And, truly, they waxed strong and bold through faithfulness; and by the power and Spirit of the Lord Jesus became very fruitful; thousands, in a short time, being turned to the truth in the inward parts, through their testimony in ministry and sufferings: insomuch as, in most counties, and many of the considerable towns of England, meetings were settled; and daily there were added such as should be saved. For they were diligent to plant and to water, and the Lord blessed their labours with an exceeding great increase; notwithstanding all the opposition made to their blessed progress, by false rumours, calumnies, and bitter persecutions; not only from the powers of the earth, but from every one that listed to injure and abuse them: so that they seemed, indeed, to be as poor sheep appointed to the slaughter, and as a people killed all the day long.
It were fitter for a volume than a preface, but so much as to repeat the contents of their cruel sufferings; from professors as well as from profane, and from magistrates as well as the rabble: that it may be said of this abused and despised people, they went forth weeping, and sowed in tears, bearing testimony to the precious seed, even the seed of the kingdom, which stands not in words, the finest, the highest that man's wit can use; but in power, the power of Christ Jesus, to whom G.o.d the Father hath given all power in heaven and in earth, that he might rule angels above, and men below. Who empowered them, as their work witnesseth, by the many that were turned through their ministry, from darkness to light, and out of the broad into the narrow way of life and peace: bringing people to a weighty, serious, and G.o.d-like conversation; the practice of that doctrine which they taught.
And as without this secret divine power, there is no quickening and regenerating of dead souls, so the want of this generating and begetting power and life, is the cause of the little fruit that the many ministries, that have been and are in the world, bring forth. O that both ministers and people were sensible of this! My soul is often troubled for them, and sorrow and mourning compa.s.s me about for their sakes. O that they were wise! O that they would consider, and lay to heart the things that truly and substantially make for their lasting peace!
Two things are to be considered; the doctrine they taught, and the example they led among all people. I have already touched upon their fundamental principle, which is as the corner-stone of their fabric: and, indeed, to speak eminently and properly, their characteristic, or main distinguis.h.i.+ng point or principle, viz. the light of Christ within, as G.o.d's gift for man's salvation. This, I say, is as the root of the goodly tree of doctrines that grew and branched out from it, which I shall now mention in their natural and experimental order.
First, repentance from dead works to serve the living G.o.d. Which comprehends three operations. First, a sight of sin. Secondly, a sense and G.o.dly sorrow for sin. Thirdly, an amendment for the time to come.
This was the repentance they preached and pressed, and a natural result from the principle they turned all people unto. For of light came sight; and of sight came sense and sorrow; and of sense and sorrow came amendment of life. Which doctrine of repentance leads to justification; that is, forgiveness of the sins that are past, through Christ the alone propitiation, and the sanctification or purgation, of the soul from the defiling nature and habits of sin present, by the Spirit of Christ in the soul; which is justification in the complete sense of that word: comprehending both justification from the guilt of the sins that are past, as if they had never been committed, through the love and mercy of G.o.d in Christ Jesus; and the creature's being made inwardly just, through the cleansing and sanctifying power and Spirit of Christ revealed in the soul; which is commonly called sanctification. But none can come to know Christ to be their sacrifice, that reject him as their sanctifier: the end of his coming being to save his people from the nature and defilement, as well as guilt of sin; and, therefore, those that resist his light and Spirit, make his coming and offering of none effect to them.
From hence sprang a second doctrine they were led to declare, as the mark of the prize of the high calling to all true Christians, viz. Perfection from sin, according to the scriptures of truth; which testify it to be the end of Christ's coming, and the nature of his kingdom, and for which his Spirit was and is given, viz. to be perfect as our Heavenly Father is perfect, and holy, because G.o.d is holy. And this the apostles laboured for, that the Christians should be sanctified throughout in body, soul, and spirit; but they never held a perfection in wisdom and glory in this life, or from natural infirmities, or death, as some have, with a weak or ill mind, imagined and insinuated against them.
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