CHAPTER II (2)

Thus I travelled on in the Lord’s service, as the Lord led me. And when I came to Nottingham, the mighty power of God was there among Friends. From thence I went to Clawson in Leicestershire, in the Vale of Beavor, and the mighty power of God was there also, in several towns and villages where Friends were gathered. While I was there, the Lord opened to me three things, relating to those three great professions in the world, physic, divinity (so called), and law. He showed me that the physicians were out of the wisdom of God, by which the creatures were made; and so knew not their virtues, because they were out of the Word of Wisdom; by which they were made. He showed me that the priests were out of the true faith, which Christ is the author of; the faith which purifies and gives victory, and brings people to have access to God, by which they please God; which mystery of faith is held in a pure conscience. He showed me also, that the lawyers were out of the equity, and out of the true justice, and out of the law of God, which went over the first transgression, and over all sin, and answered the Spirit of God, that was grieved and transgressed in man. And that these three, the physicians, the priests, and the lawyers, ruled the world out of the wisdom, out of the faith, and out of the equity and law of God; the one pretending the cure of the body, the other the cure of the soul, and the third the property of the people. But I saw they were all out of wisdom, out of the faith, out of the equity and perfect law of God. And as the Lord opened these things unto me, I felt his power went forth over all, by which all might be reformed, if they would receive and bow unto it. The priests might be reformed, and brought into the true faith, which was the gift of God. The lawyers might be reformed, and brought into the law of God, which answers that of God, which is transgressed, in every one, and brings to love one’s neighbour as himself. This lets man see, if he wrongs his neighbour he wrongs himself; and this teaches him to do unto others as he would they should do unto him. The physicians might be reformed, and brought into the wisdom of God, by which all things were made and created; that they might receive a right knowledge of them, and understand their virtues, which the Word of Wisdom, by which they were made and are upheld, hath given them. Abundance was opened concerning these things; how all lay out of the wisdom of God, and out of the righteousness and holiness that man at the first was made in. But as all believe in the light, and walk in the light, which Christ hath enlightened every man that cometh into the world withal, and so become children of the light, and of the day of Christ; in his day all things are seen, visible and invisible, by the divine light of Christ, the spiritual, heavenly man, by whom all things were made and created.

Then I saw concerning the priests, that although they stood in deceit, and acted by the dark power, which both they and their people were kept under; yet they were not the greatest deceivers spoken of in the Scriptures; for these were not come so far as many of them had come. But the Lord opened to me who the greatest deceivers were, and how far they might come; even such as came as far as Cain, to hear the voice of God; and such as came out of Egypt, and through the Red Sea, and to praise God on the banks of the sea-shore; such as could speak by experience of God’s miracles and wonders; such as were come as far as Korah and Dathan, and their company; such as were come as far as Balaam, who could speak the word of the Lord, who heard his voice and knew it, and knew his Spirit, and could see the star of Jacob, and the goodliness of Israel’s tent; the second birth, which no enchantment could prevail against: these that could speak so much of their experiences of God, and yet turned from the Spirit and the Word, and went into the gainsaying; these were, and would be, the great deceivers, far beyond the priests. Likewise among the Christians, such as should preach in Christ’s name, and should work miracles, cast out devils, and go as far as a Cain, a Korah, and a Balaam, in the gospel times, these were and would be the great deceivers. They that could speak some experiences of Christ and God, but lived not in the life: these were they that led the world after them, who got the form of godliness, but denied the power; who inwardly ravened from the Spirit, and brought people into the form, but persecuted them that were in the power, as Cain did; and ran greedily after the error of Balaam, through covetousness, loving the wages of unrighteousness, as Balaam did. These followers of Cain, Korah, and Balaam have brought the world, since the apostles’ days, to be like a sea. And such as these, I saw, might deceive now, as they had in former ages: but it is impossible for them to deceive the elect, who are chosen in Christ, who was before the world began, and before the deceiver was; though others may be deceived in their openings and prophecies, not keeping their minds to the Lord Jesus Christ, who doth open and reveal to his.

I saw the state of those, both priests and people, who, in reading the Scriptures, cry out much against Cain, Esau, and Judas, and other wicked men of former times, mentioned in the Holy Scriptures; but do not see the nature of Cain, of Esau, of Judas, and those others, in themselves. These said, it was they, they, they, that were the bad people; putting it off from themselves: but when some of these came, with the light and Spirit of truth, to see into themselves, then they came to say, I, I, I, it is I myself that have been the Ishmael, and the Esau, &c. For then they came to see the nature of wild Ishmael in themselves; the nature of Cain, of Esau, of Korah, of Balaam, and of the son of perdition in themselves, sitting above all that is called God in them. Thus I saw it was the fallen man that was got up into the Scriptures, and was finding fault with those before mentioned; and, with the backsliding Jews, calling them the sturdy oaks, and tall cedars, and fat bulls of Bashan, wild heifers, vipers, serpents, &c.; and charging them that it was they that closed their eyes, and stopped their ears, and hardened their hearts, and were dull of hearing: that it was they that hated the light and rebelled against it; that quenched the Spirit, and vexed, and grieved it; that walked despitefully against the Spirit of grace, and turned the grace of God into wantonness; and that it was they that resisted the Holy Ghost, that got the form of godliness, and turned against the power: and they were the inwardly ravening wolves, that had got the sheep’s clothing; they were the wells without water, and clouds without rain, and trees without fruit, &c. But when these, who were so much taken up with finding fault with others, and thought themselves clear from these things, came to look into themselves, and with the light of Christ thoroughly to search themselves, they might see enough of this in themselves; and then the cry could not be, it is he, or they, as before; but I and we are found in these conditions.

I saw also, how people read the Scriptures without a right sense of them, and without duly applying them to their own states. For, when they read that death reigned from Adam to Moses; that the law and the prophets were until John; and that the least in the kingdom is greater than John; they read these things and applied them to others, but they did not turn in to find the truth of these things in themselves. As these things came to be opened in me, I saw death reigned over them from Adam to Moses; from the entrance into transgression, till they came to the ministration of condemnation, which restrains people from sin that brings death. Then, when the ministration of Moses is passed through, the ministry of the prophets comes to be read and understood, which reaches through the figures, types, and shadows unto John, the greatest prophet born of a woman; whose ministration prepares the way of the Lord, by bringing down the exalted mountains, and making straight paths. And as this ministration is passed through, an entrance comes to be known into the everlasting kingdom. Thus I saw plainly that none could read Moses aright, without Moses’ spirit, by which Moses saw how man was in the image of God in Paradise, and how he fell, how death came over him, and how all men have been under this death. I saw how Moses received the pure law, that went over all transgressors; and how the clean beasts, which were figures and types, were offered up, when the people were come into the righteous law that went over the first transgression. Both Moses and the prophets saw through the types and figures and beyond them, and saw Christ, the great prophet, that was to come to fulfil them. I saw that none could read John’s words aright, and with a true understanding of them, but in and with the same divine Spirit by which John spoke them; and by his burning, shining light, which is sent from God. For by that Spirit their crooked natures might be made straight, and their rough natures smooth, and the exacter and violent doer in them might be cast out; and they that had been hypocrites might come to bring forth fruits meet for repentance, and their mountain of sin and earthliness might be laid low, and their valley exalted in them, that there might be a way prepared for the Lord in them: then the least of the kingdom is greater than John. But all must first know the voice crying in the wilderness, in their hearts, which through transgression, were become a wilderness. Thus I saw it was an easy matter to say death reigned from Adam to Moses; and that the law and the prophets were until John; and that the least in the kingdom is greater than John; but none could know how death reigned from Adam to Moses, &c., but by the same Holy Spirit that Moses, the prophets, and John were in. They could not know the spiritual meaning of Moses’, the prophets’, and John’s words, nor see their path and travels, much less see through them, and to the end of them into the kingdom, unless they had the Spirit and light of Jesus; nor could they know the words of Christ, and of his apostles, without his Spirit. But as man comes through by the Spirit and power of God, to Christ, who fulfils the types, figures, shadows, promises, and prophecies that were of him, and is led by the Holy Ghost into the truth and substance of the Scriptures, sitting down in him who is the author and end of them; then are they read, and understood with profit and great delight.

Moreover, when I was brought up into his image in righteousness and holiness, and into the paradise of God, He let me see how Adam was made a living soul: and also the stature of Christ, the mystery that had been hid from ages and generations; which things are hard to be uttered and cannot be borne by many. For, of all the sects in Christendom (so called) that I discoursed withal, I found none that could bear to be told that any should come to Adam’s perfection, into the image of God, that righteousness and holiness that Adam was in before he fell; to be clear and pure without sin, as he was. Therefore how should they be able to bear being told that any should grow up to the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ, when they cannot bear to hear that any should come, whilst upon earth, into the same power and Spirit that the prophets and apostles were in? Though it is a certain truth, that none can understand their writings aright, without the same Spirit by which they were written.

Now the Lord God opened to me by his invisible power, “that every man was enlightened by the divine light of Christ;” and I saw it shine through all; and that they that believed in it came out of condemnation to the light of life, and became the children of it; but they that hated it, and did not believe in it, were condemned by it, though they made a profession of Christ. This I saw in the pure openings of the light, without the help of any man; neither did I then know where to find it in the Scriptures, though afterwards, searching the Scriptures, I found it. For I saw in that Light and Spirit which was before the Scriptures were given forth, and which led the holy men of God to give them forth, that all must come to that Spirit, if they would know God, or Christ, or the Scriptures aright, which they that gave them forth were led and taught by.