Part 3 (2/2)

And you, young convinced ones, be you entreated and exhorted to a diligent and chaste waiting upon G.o.d, in the way of his blessed manifestation and appearance of himself to you. Look not out, but within: let not another's liberty be your snare: neither act by imitation, but by sense and feeling of G.o.d's power in yourselves: crush not the tender buddings of it in your souls, nor over-run, in your desires and warmness of affections, the holy and gentle motions of it.

Remember it is a still voice that speaks to us in this day, and that it is not to be heard in the noises and hurries of the mind; but is distinctly understood in a retired frame. Jesus loved and chose solitudes, often going to mountains, gardens, and sea sides, to avoid crowds and hurries: to show his disciples it was good to be solitary, and sit loose to the world. Two enemies lie near your states, imagination and liberty; but the plain, practical, living, holy truth, that has convinced you, will preserve you, if you mind it in yourselves, and bring all thoughts, inclinations, and affections, to the test of it, to see if they are wrought in G.o.d, or of the enemy, or of your ownselves: so will a true taste, discerning, and judgment, be preserved to you, of what you should do and leave undone. And in your diligence and faithfulness in this way, you will come to inherit substance; and Christ, the eternal wisdom, will fill your treasury. And when you are converted, as well as convinced, then confirm your brethren; and be ready to every good word and work, that the Lord shall call you to: that you may be to his praise, who has chosen you to be partakers, with the saints in light, of a kingdom that cannot be shaken, an inheritance incorruptible in eternal habitations.

And now, as for you that are the children of G.o.d's people, a great concern is upon my spirit for your good and often are my knees bowed to the G.o.d of your fathers for you, that you may come to be partakers of the same divine life and power, that have been the glory of this day: that a generation you may be to G.o.d, a holy nation, and a peculiar people, zealous of good works, when all our heads are laid in the dust. O! you young men and women, let it not suffice you, that you are the children of the people of the Lord; you must also be born again, if you will inherit the kingdom of G.o.d. Your fathers are but such after the flesh, and could but beget you into the likeness of the first Adam; but you must be begotten into the likeness of the second Adam, by a spiritual generation, or you will not, you cannot, be of his children or offspring. And therefore look carefully about you, O ye children of the children of G.o.d; consider your standing, and see what you are in relation to this divine kindred, family, and birth. Have you obeyed the light, and received and walked in the Spirit, which is the incorruptible seed of the word and kingdom of G.o.d, of which you must be born again? G.o.d is no respecter of persons. The father cannot save or answer for the child, or the child for the father; but in the sin thou sinnest thou shalt die; and in the righteousness thou doest, through Christ Jesus, thou shalt live: for it is the willing and obedient that shall eat the good of the land. Be not deceived, G.o.d is mocked. Such as all nations and people sow, such they shall reap at the hand of the just G.o.d. And then your many and great privileges, above the children of other people, will add weight in the scale against you, if you choose not the way of the Lord. For you have had line upon line, and precept upon precept, and not only good doctrine but good example; and which is more, you have been turned to, and acquainted with, a principle in yourselves, which others too generally have been ignorant of: and you know you may be as good as you please, without the fear of frowns and blows, or being turned out of doors, and forsaken of father and mother, for G.o.d's sake and his holy religion; as has been the case of some of your fathers in the day they first entered into this holy path. And if you, after hearing and seeing the wonders that G.o.d has wrought in the deliverance and preservation of them, through a sea of troubles, and the manifold temporal, as well as spiritual, blessings that he has filled them with, in the sight of their enemies, should neglect and turn your backs upon so great and near a salvation, you would not only be most ungrateful children to G.o.d and them, but must expect that G.o.d will call the children of those that knew him not, to take the crown out of your hands, and that your lot will be a dreadful judgment at the hand of the Lord: but, O that it may never be so with any of you! The Lord forbid, saith my soul.

Wherefore, O ye young men and women! look to the rock of your fathers: there is no other G.o.d but him, no other light but his, no other grace but his, nor spirit but his, to convince you, quicken, and comfort you; to lead, guide, and preserve you to G.o.d's everlasting kingdom. So will you be possessors as well as professors of the truth, embracing it, not only by education, but judgment and conviction; from a sense begotten in your souls, through the operation of the eternal Spirit and power of G.o.d; by which you may come to be the seed of Abraham, through faith, and the circ.u.mcision not made with hands; and so heirs of the promise made to the fathers, of an incorruptible crown. That, as I said before, a generation you may be to G.o.d, holding up the profession of the blessed truth in the life and power of it. For formality in religion is nauseous to G.o.d and good men; and the more so, where any form or appearance has been new and peculiar, and begun and practised, upon a principle, with an uncommon zeal and strictness. Therefore I say, for you to fall flat and formal, and continue the profession, without that salt and savour by which it is come to obtain a good report among men, is not to answer G.o.d's love, or your parents' care, or the mind of truth in yourselves, or in those that are without: who, though they will not obey the truth, have sight and sense enough to see if they do that make a profession of it. For where the divine virtue of it is not felt in the soul, and waited for and lived in, imperfections will quickly break out, and show themselves, and detect the unfaithfulness of such persons; and that their insides are not seasoned with the nature of that holy principle which they profess.

Wherefore, dear children, let me entreat you to shut your eyes at the temptations and allurements of this low and peris.h.i.+ng world, and not suffer your affections to be captivated by those l.u.s.ts and vanities that your fathers, for the truth's sake, long since turned their backs upon: but as you believe it to be the truth, receive it into your hearts, that you may become the children of G.o.d: so that it may never be said of you, as the evangelist writes of the Jews in his time, that Christ, the true light, ”came to his own, but his own received him not; but to as many as received him, to them he gave power to become the children of G.o.d; which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of G.o.d;” a most close and comprehensive pa.s.sage to this occasion. You exactly and peculiarly answer to those professing Jews, in that you bear the name of G.o.d's people, by being the children, and wearing of the form of G.o.d's people: and he, by his light in you, may be very well said to come to his own, and if you obey it not, but turn your backs upon it, and walk after the vanities of your minds, you will be of those that received him not; which I pray G.o.d may never be your case and judgment. But that you may be thoroughly sensible of the many and great obligations you lie under to the Lord for his love, and to your parents for their care: and with all your heart, and all your soul, and all your strength, turn to the Lord, to his gift and Spirit in you; and hear his voice, and obey it, that you may seal to the testimony of your fathers, by the truth and evidence of your own experience: that your children's children may bless you, and the Lord for you, as those that delivered a faithful example, as well as record of the truth of G.o.d unto them. So will the grey hairs of your dear parents, yet alive, go down to the grave with joy, to see you the posterity of truth, as well as theirs: and that not only their nature, but spirit, shall live in you when they are gone.

I shall conclude this account with a few words to those who are not of our communion, into whose hands this may come; especially those of our own nation.

Friends, as you are the sons and daughters of Adam, and my brethren after the flesh, often and earnest have been my desires and prayers to G.o.d on your behalf, that you may come to know your Creator to be your Redeemer, and Restorer to the holy image that through sin you have lost, by the power and Spirit of his Son Jesus Christ, whom he hath given for the light and life of the world. And O that you, who are called Christians, would receive him into your hearts! for there it is you want him, and at that door he stands knocking, that you might let him in; but you do not open to him; you are full of other guests, so that a manger is his lot among you now as well as of old. Yet you are full of profession, as were the Jews when he came among them, who knew him not, but rejected and evily entreated him. So that if you come not to the possession and experience of what you profess, all your formality and religion will stand you in no stead in the day of G.o.d's judgment.

I beseech you ponder with yourselves your eternal condition, and see what t.i.tle, what ground and foundation you have for your Christianity: if more than a profession, and an historical belief of the gospel. Have you known the baptism of fire, and the Holy Ghost, and the fan of Christ that winnows away the chaff in your minds, the carnal l.u.s.ts, and affections; that divine leaven of the kingdom, that, being received, leavens the whole lump of man, sanctifying him throughout in body, soul, and spirit?

If this be not the ground of your confidence, you are in a miserable state.

You will say, perhaps, that though you are sinners, and live in daily commission of sin, and are not sanctified, as I have been speaking, yet you have faith in Christ, who has borne the curse for you, and in him you are complete by faith, his righteousness being imputed to you.

But, my friends, let me entreat you not to deceive yourselves, in so important a point, as is that of your immortal souls. If you have true faith in Christ, your faith will make you clean; it will sanctify you: for the saints' faith was their victory of old: by this they overcame sin within, and sinful man without. And if thou art in Christ, thou walkest not after the flesh, but after the Spirit, whose fruits are manifest.

Yea, thou art a new creature: new made, new fas.h.i.+oned, after G.o.d's will and mould. Old things are done away, and, behold, all things are become new: new love, desires, will, affections, and practices. It is not any longer thou that livest; (thou disobedient, carnal, worldly one;) but it is Christ that liveth in thee; and to live is Christ, and to die is thy eternal gain: because thou art a.s.sured, that thy corruptible shall put on incorruption, and thy mortal, immortality, and that thou hast a glorious house, eternal in the heavens, that will never wax old or pa.s.s away. All this follows being in Christ, as heat follows fire, and light the sun.

Therefore have a care how you presume to rely upon such a notion, as that you are in Christ, whilst in your old fallen nature. For what communion hath light with darkness, or Christ with Belial? Hear what the beloved disciple tells you: ”If we say we have fellows.h.i.+p with G.o.d, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth.” That is, if we go on in a sinful way, are captivated by our carnal affections, and are not converted to G.o.d, we walk in darkness, and cannot possibly in that state have any fellows.h.i.+p with G.o.d. Christ clothes them with his righteousness, that receive his grace in their hearts, and deny themselves, and take up his cross daily, and follow him. Christ's righteousness makes men inwardly holy; of holy minds, wills, and practices. It is not the less Christ's, because we have it; for it is ours, not by nature, but by faith and adoption: it is the gift of G.o.d.

But, still, though not ours, as of or from ourselves, (for in that sense it is Christ's, for it is of and from him,) yet it is ours, and must be ours, in possession, efficacy, and enjoyment, to do us any good; or Christ's righteousness will profit us nothing. It was after this manner that he was made to the primitive Christians, righteousness, sanctification, justification, and redemption; and if ever you will have the comfort, kernel, and marrow of the Christian religion, thus you must come to learn and obtain it.

Now, my friends, by what you have read, you may perceive that G.o.d has visited a poor people among you, with this saving knowledge and testimony, whom he has upheld and increased to this day, notwithstanding the fierce opposition they have met withal. Despise not the meanness of this appearance: it was, and yet is, we know, a day of small things and of small account with too many; and many hard and ill names are given to it; but it is of G.o.d, it came from him, because it leads to him. This we know, but we cannot make another to know it, unless he will take the same way to know it that we took. The world talks of G.o.d, but what do they do? They pray for power, but reject the principle in which it is. If you would know G.o.d, and wors.h.i.+p and serve G.o.d as you should do, you must come to the means he has ordained and given for that purpose. Some seek it in books, some in learned men; but what they look for is in themselves, (though not of themselves,) but they overlook it. The voice is too still, the seed too small, and the light s.h.i.+neth in darkness; they are abroad, and so cannot divide the spoil: but the woman that lost her silver, found it at home, after she had lighted her candle, and swept her house. Do you so too, and you shall find what Pilate wanted to know, viz. Truth. Truth in the inward parts, so valuable in the sight of G.o.d.

The light of Christ within, who is the light of the world, and so a light to you, that tells you the truth of your condition, leads all, that take heed unto it, out of darkness into G.o.d's marvellous light. For light grows upon the obedient; it is sown for the righteous, and their way is a s.h.i.+ning light, that s.h.i.+nes forth more and more to the perfect day.

Wherefore, O friends, turn in, turn in, I beseech you: where is the poison, there is the antidote. There you want Christ, and there you must find him; and blessed be G.o.d, there you may find him. Seek and you shall find, I testify for G.o.d. But then you must seek aright, with your whole heart, as men that seek for their lives, yea for their eternal lives: diligently, humbly, patiently, as those that can taste no pleasure, comfort, or satisfaction in any thing else, unless you find him whom your souls want to know and love above all. O it is a travail, a spiritual travail! let the carnal, profane world, think and say as it will. And through this path you must walk to the city of G.o.d, that has eternal foundations, if ever you will come there.

Well! and what doth this blessed light do for you? Why, first, it sets all your sins in order before you: it detects the spirit of this world in all its baits and allurements, and shows how man came to fall from G.o.d, and the fallen state he is in. Secondly, it begets a sense and sorrow, in such as believe in it, for this fearful lapse. You will then see him distinctly whom you have pierced, and all the blows and wounds you have given him by your disobedience, and how you have made him to serve with your sins; and you will weep and mourn for it, and your sorrow will be a G.o.dly sorrow. Thirdly, after this it will bring you to the holy watch, to take care that you do so no more, and that the enemy surprise you not again. Then thoughts, as well as words and works, will come to judgment, which is the way of holiness, in which the redeemed of the Lord do walk.

Here you will come to love G.o.d above all, and your neighbours as yourselves. Nothing hurts, nothing harms, nothing makes afraid on this holy mountain. Now you come to be Christ's indeed; for you are his in nature and spirit, and not your own. And when you are thus Christ's, then Christ is yours, and not before. And here you will know communion with the Father and with the Son, and the efficacy of the blood of cleansing, even the blood of Jesus Christ, that immaculate Lamb, which speaks better things than the blood of Abel; and which cleanseth from all sin, the consciences of those that, through the living faith, come to be sprinkled with it, from dead works to serve the living G.o.d.

To conclude; behold the testimony and doctrine of the people called Quakers; behold their practice and discipline; and behold the blessed man and men, at least many of them, that were sent of G.o.d in this excellent work and service; all which is more particularly expressed in the annals of that man of G.o.d, which I do heartily recommend to my reader's most serious perusal; and beseech Almighty G.o.d, that his blessing may go along with both, to the convincement of many, as yet strangers to this holy dispensation, and also to the edification of G.o.d's church in general: who for his manifold and repeated mercies and blessings to his people, in this day of his great love, is worthy ever to have the glory, honour, thanksgiving, and renown; and be it rendered and ascribed, with fear and reverence, through him in whom he is well pleased, his beloved Son and Lamb, our light and life, that sits with him upon the throne, world without end. Amen.

Says one that G.o.d has long since mercifully favoured with his fatherly visitation, and who was not disobedient to the heavenly vision and call; to whom the way of truth is more lovely and precious than ever, and that knowing the beauty and benefit of it above all worldly treasures, has chosen it for his chiefest joy, and therefore recommends it to thy love and choice, because he is with great sincerity and affection,

Thy soul's friend, WILLIAM PENN.

FINIS.

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