An
Epistle
For the most Pure
Amity and Unity
in
The SPIRIT and LIFE of GOD;
To all Sincere-Hearted-Souls,
Whether
Called
{PRESBYTERIANS,
INDEPENDENTS,
BAPTISTS,
SEEKERS,
QUAKERS, or Others,}
Under any other Denomination whatsoever, that desire that God's Truth and Righteousness in Power, may be Exalted over all within them and without them (in the whole Earth) for Ever.
By your Friend in the Purest Love,
John Perrot
London, Printed for Robert Wilson.
Keyboarded by Keith F. Saylor 2019
AN
EPISTLE
For
The most pure Amity and Unity in the Spirit and Life of God, to all sincere hearted Soules; whether called Presbiterians, Independents, Baptists, Quakers, &c.
Dear Friends,
Without respect to any of your Persons, but for the Seed's sake of God in all your Souls (in the Father's Love) I Salute and Greet you, as one that is in Spiritual Labour and Travel, often compassed with Pangs, and frequently girded with fore Throwes, in the Exercise of Sighings, with bowels melting and bleeding until Israel be gathered as One, to feed as a heavenly Flock, of the Shepherds Love in the freshest, and greenest Pastures of his own Delights and Pleasures.
Ah! when I consider of the dispersed and scattered condition and state of the People principally professing God and Godliness, not having Unity in their hearts, with the profane of the Land, and how they are divers in Judgements and Points of Opinion, and in this day and hour, like so many poor Sheep (in a stormy season) in Wilderness and Desart; some feeding on the Mountains of {Page 4} the desolate Places, others on the little Hills, others among the thickets, and prickie Bryars and Thornes; others in the Plaines, and others in the Valleyes thereof; and yet but all belonging unto one Sheepheard, being of one heart, and only one desire to God-wards, which God alone hath begotten (in all) of his own free Grace and Mercy; only there stands some certain Hedges of Opinions, which have divided between Sheep and Sheep of the Shepherd, and between true Desirers, and true Desirers after the God of Jacob, and Saviour of Israel: Oh! When I have considered the slender Causes, and yet the vast Severations of such Peoples occasioned thereby, I can say, Mourning hath attended me as an Hand-maid, and Grief hath covered me as a Garment; and then have I said in my Soul, how shall the Uniting of all this holy Seed be, for us all to dwell as in one house, as the Family of one Father, as the Children of one God, yea, as the living pure Members of one Body; as for me, I am a Worme, and one of the weakest of Wormes, and creeping Things before the Lord and one but in whom a Ray of his appearance is risen and sprung up, which hath begotten in me a breathing desire after God, as is the like in the rest of the Souls, which my heavenly Father hath created, who walk under another Denomination in respect of his true Worship; and I knew not this God, nay nor ever could know him, but by and of his own meer Mercy and free Love and Grace, of his Ever lasting Life; and being first unable to bring my Soul where I am Brought, and now being altogether as unable to keep and preserve my Soul where I am kept, am also as unable to bring all the Scattered in my bosom, and bear all the Dispersed in my breast and armes, unto {Page 5} the rest where my God hath brought me, though great is my love; Ah! My Love, my unspeakable Love to you all, in which I can cry Father, how long, how long shall the Day be, until all shall be united in one, even in thy own eternal Spirit of holynesse and blessednesse (for which there is a cry in the Earth, The Beasts travel in pain, and the Wormes and Birds are pained in sorrow, until Redemption cometh, and the Restoration appears in the Land.) Since the Travel is for thy glory, and the end of the Labours for thy praise, that thou mayest be for ever known to be King of Saints to the ends of the Earth, and all Kingdoms become thine alone Empire, that thy renown may be over all for ever?
Well, when I have considered how, which way, by whom, and when shall the Work be wrought (which I travel in hope for, and walk bowed down until it comes to pass, yet often refreshed as with new Wine in the feeling of the faith, that it shall surely come to pass) I could say, Counsel is with the Mighty, and he that is diligent in waiting shall see the glorious Way of his working, which now appears to me is coming to pass, even that which shall perfect his praise: And therefore, among the many Flocks of the one Shephard (which are yet severed by the partition Wall of Opinions) the Lord hath suffered the Dragon to awake and rouse the Lyon, and the Wolf to yell for the Beare, and they have entered the Desarts with Roarings, and their Noises are dreadful and terrible; and their runnings to and fro, and huntings up and down, What are they for? to scatter from the compleat Number, to rend, to tear, and divide Feet from Body, and Bowels fro Belly, Vitals from Breast, and Hands and Armes from Shoulders, yea, {Page 6} the compleat Body from the perfect Head: And seeing, this is the Nature of the Beasts; What then is the nature of the Sheep? As fast as the Beasts of Prey do drive, hunt and pursue, even so swiftly to fly flocking together; not as many, but singly, as one Body in the Unity, Love, Life, Peace, Joy, Protection and Everlasting Power of the one Shepherd, Jesus, the for-ever blessed King of the Israel of the holy God, in whom is our Salvation, safety and certain preservation. Down, Down therefore, with the Walls and Hedges of Division, and draw quickly into the holy Spirit of conjunction; for may I not say? We serve not an Opinion, but the God of Wisdom, of whom our Understandings are given us, and if we see not by anothers Spectacles, yet if we see with the Eye that God hath given us , we do not see well until he makes us see better? XR2097 yea, if we discern men walking like Trees, shall we not all be content, until we see men walking as men? For surely the least that we see of God, is what is given us of God, and not what of our selves, we could acquire to our selves; and therefore let him that hath most, be patient, and wait in watching and praying, until he that hath the least Mite, be possessed of as great a Treasure as himself; and let not him that hath Riches, exclude a beggin Orphant out of his Habitation; for that is not as God (whose Image of Love and Mercie we are to bear) hath done by any of us that have experience of his goodnesse; and let not him that hath but a Penny, murmur against him that is endowed with a 1000 Pounds, for it is God that hath gifted you both of his own Grace and Mercy; wherefore let your Joy be in God, and your Thanks-giving be unto God, for the gift you have received from him; and let the greatest enriched {Page 7} (in his Gift) pray God that the least enriched may be content with his Portion until more be given; and let the least enriched (in his measure of the Treasure) pray and supplicate the Father, that with the Riches and abundance of the precious Things, by no means the greatest endowed may ever be puffed up in heart, but be kept of a humble and low mind in the Grace; to glorifie God in Righteousness to the end; and in this Love, and holy Care and Tenderness, all shall dwell as in the sweetest Harmony of Heaven, a praise to the GOD of Goodness, Mercy and Righteousness*, for evermore, Amen.
Surely, Dear Friends, I cannot but again renewedly say it, This even this is the Day of driving by the Beasts of Prey; and therefore may it well be to us all, the day of flocking in one to the Fold of the Lamb; Oh! Consider, consider, might not the Lord say to us, I called you by the allurements of my Love, but ye would not run at my Voice; I have even dealt by you as with Enchantments of harmonious Sweetnesse, but you would not be one, as I would you should be one in me, the God of all your Mercies; and therefore have I suffered the Rod of the Wicked, to smite the Cheeks of you my Children, that whereto the Word did not make you walk, the Rod may enduce you to run; for I am but one God, and it is but one Zeal of my Name. That is in you all, even that which stands in the meek nature against Unrighteousness, the which I have loved with the same Love towards all, whom I have loved with the same Love that I have loved you; for the love of me, and of my appearance in all (which provokes to holyness) is the favouring Grace which preserves the Zeal of my {Page 8} House in you, in the liveliest Knowledge of me, in which there shall be no Contention, but Content and Peace, and if any one be otherwise minded, not reaching into the deeps of my Counsel, wait ye as one together (in the one Love of my Life) and the same shall be revealed unto him also; and here you shall have no Kingdom to your selves, no selfish End, nor interest of a Name or Fame, of High or Mighty, of Prince or Ruler in my Seat of Dignity; but as one, will I be yours, even from thenceforth everlastingly?
And now, as this is the Day of driving, so will the Day manifest what the driven are; whether from the many Flocks, to the Kennils and Letters of the Beast of Prey; or, the Flocks for their own Intrests and Names, to save and shelter themselves in the thickets of the desarts, where they have been feeding; or, as an unanimous Number and one Flock, to imbody together in the pure Spirit of Life (by which they are called after the name of the Lord's) to be a praise to the Name of the Lord, who hath suffered the Day thus far to come to pass, for the compleating of his Glory and Renown, amidst the Nations of the Earth.
To which three Sorts I have these distinct Words to say, even in the Name and Power of Jehovah, the everlasting true Sheepheard of the true Israel.
To the Revolters in this day of Driving. You may have your time in the Den of the Dragon, and you may dance in the wideness of his Jaws, that are full of Venom, against the Innocent; but your Time is but short, to sport and skip at the sound of his Organs, for the Baggs of {Page 9} the Wind Instruments will be broken with blowing, and your mirth will be driven from you as with a Whirlwind, and the Dragon that imbowles you in his Womb, will spue you forth as a loathsome Excrement, so as that you shall be a hissing to Serpents and Adders, and an abominaion to Saints and Angels
To the other Sort, this is the Spirit's Saying, You that stand in separation, and seeking to have your selves for your selves, and to acquire a Name for your proper Interests; your fleeces shall be torn among the thickets, and as a naked Remnant shall you come forth in shame before all Eyes, stripped of the interests of your Desires, and shall not be of the living Number of my Heritage, but by a perfect Humiliation in Judgement.
To the third, that would have nothing of themselves, but GOD to be all in their Souls, that run and flock together (under the Stroakes of the Rod) as is pointed by the Spirit unto them; as they have waited for the day, so the day shall attend them with blessing, and I will shorten the houres of Calamity, by rending the Renders, by tearing to pieces the Pursuers, by preying on the Beasts of Prey, and devouring the Devourers by the Breath of my Mouth, saith the Lord; For I will make my Flock feed safely, and none shall make them afraid, giving them the longitude and latitude of Sea, and Land to inherit for ever, in the day that Sheep shall not push against Sheep, nor Lamb against Lamb, but all shall live in Love, as I have chosen them to love, and am the God of their Love, in whom they shall be like minded one towards another (as I am Love to them all) in the indissolvible Covenant of my peace, Rest, and {Page 10} Joy, wherein the heavenly and holy Halelujahs of my praise, shall be sounded on the Harpes of my glorious Host, and they live in the Pleasures thereof for ever.
Ah! I am overcome with the bathings of the Oyl of these Bottles, which run over me as the Streams of Rivers; and verily, the Joy of the Lord transports me, that I am even as a leaking Soul with dropings and yearnings, with dissolvings, and meltings, before the Jehovah or Glory, considering his Glory (which in himself is too wonderful for me) and as it shall be cast upon his People, to the astonishment of all the Sons of Men upon the face of the Earth, in the day of compleating all the Mourners in Sion, and Cryers in the Wilderness (with their Faces towards Sion, enquiring the way thitherwards) as one in the pure Everlasting Love of his immortal Life of Glory, for which hour (though the sence of it, is ravishing and transporting in the Life and motion of the Faith, which gives assurance, that it shall undoubtedly come to pas,) yet I travel as the Woman for the Birth, which cannot overcome the throws, till the Birth is brought forth by the Power that hath quickened the Seed in thousands and ten thousands, to this blessed end of Life Eternal, in the Everlasting Kingdom of Peace.
To which purpose I may speak a little, if speaking a little could ease me; For the one Cause that we are hurted and oppressed by the sufferance of God; and for another Cause, that the Seed of God in us all, is but one, of one life and Nature, begetting Breathings in us, of one substance and virtue to satisfie us; and seeing that for the sake of the Seed of God's Love, we are {Page 11} persecuted by the unsatiated Seed of Enmity; Why shall there not be a coherensie in the Spirit of Purity? Seeing it is not an opinion that unites a Soul to the Father or the Son, but the holy spirit which begets the Soul into the sincerity and truth of the Life of the Father and the Son, in which the living Unity consists. XR7758
Now this we know, our end and ayme is the advancement of the Glory of God in the whole Earth, as well as in our own particular Souls, through the revelation of God's Righteousness in our Souls; which in how much we have been short of, by so much the cry was great in our inward parts, and I know every individual can witness and experience the same unto this day, because of the Mountains of Corruption oppressing, and the grindings of transgression exceedingly crushing and squeezing the Souls, as clusters in a Winepress, which therefore cannot have rest in the pure Mansions of peace and satisfaction; yet I say, as the desire is kindled after the holy One, by the breathings of his Life in your Souls; first, as your Souls are the created subjects of God; and secondly, as there is a Seed of Righteousness generated in them, I cannot but love them both for the sake of the Workman that made them, and the Work of his Holiness that is wrought in them; for though the Work is little, and but the least of Works, yet it is a Work of the God that created the glories of the Heavens, and though the Seed be little, yet it is the Seed of Life of the great King, and though the Seed be but in the Wombs of your Mindes as yet not quickened, or if quickened, yet not born, or if born yet but a Babe and poor Infant, yet in its degree, measure, stature, or growth, it is in the least, as really of God, as is the greatest, that is nourished by his Omnipotent strength {Page 12} unto the fortitude of a mighty Giant, and being weak there is a greater need of the help of Love, in the care of Loves bowels; and therefore let him that thinks he is the strongest in his Judgement, Knowledge, or Opinion, shew his strength, and approve it, in every eye to be of God, by exercising it in the strength of the Love of God, to the gathering all into the same power and strength of the Love and Life of God: which I declare unto you all is my Life, which stands in the nature of the Love of God, and not onely in an audible denomination or name; for my Love is to all your persons and souls, and the Seed of God in your souls, and have no enmity in all enemies against our enemies, but against the seed of enmity in all enemies or others, upon the face of the earth. And my unity is with the Seed of God in you all, under what terms or Names, descriptions, or denominations soever, which seek the God of Jacob, in the uprightness and sincerity of your hearts.
I speak as one that seeth the end of all distinctions and separations XR2919 by Names, and such like termes and denominations, knowing, that by the Spirit, the true separation is made from the Unrighteous in his Unrighteousness, and an Unity engaged with the Weak (that are crying to be delivered from all Unrighteousness) in the Pangs of their sincere-heartedness, and the Spirit of Uniting in the holy Nature, and separation from the unrighteousness Nature. I am even constrained for loves sake to assert this, that though I my self (in and under the Profession and Participation of the Power and virtue of God) am characterized forth by a Name or Denomination, distinct from other deciphering Terms or Appellations, known by the Name of Quaker; yet known be it unto you, that there are of the People called Seekers, {Page 13} Baptists, Independents, and others (whose Conversations become the Profession of what they own, and witness (to be of God) in themselves) whom I as truly own, and with whom I have more Unity, than with divers which are called by the Name of Quakers, whose Name have not changed them from the Nature of the Enmity which works against the heavenly Spirit of Unity, and Power of the Love of God. So it is to be understood, that the Love and Unity that I Seek among all (and none other then the upright sincere-hearted to God) stands in none other than the measure of the Spirit and grace of which (as it's improved in our Hearts) will keep our Minds up to God, and stay our Souls in himself, and fashion and frame us into a gratious Life, well-pleasing unto himself; which is the Principle to which I stoop (in all in whom it is truly arisen and spring up) as God hath made me in like maner, to stoop to the same as it hath plainly manifested it self in my own Soul; but to the contrary, in any I dare not bow and bend: And therefore again I say, I seek not Unity with the Spirit of Enmity, but mutual Amity with all in the Spirit of Grace and Innocency; and with all (as being one that is full of Love and tenderness to all) that are labouring and travelling in Cryes and in Weaknesses, to be intirely joyned to God in the Spirit, that in the end, not any thing (of all the Heaps, Hills, and Mountains that this day stand before them) mayinterpose, so as to obstruct their Conjunction and Union with him XR2168.
And therefore, whereas some are conscientious concerning divers Particulars, which by others (in the Spirit) are known to be weaker than the Spirit, which is {Page 14} the perfect everlasting Substance, who notwithstanding, they know that it is more the Shadow than the Substance, and more the Husk than the Bread that the others feed upon; yet in Wisdom would not have a man forsake a Rock or a Husk, whilest something of sweetness is sucked out of the Rock, or whilst the Husk is green, and some little Moisture therein, before the Soul discerns the Rock to be utterly dryed up, and the husk utterly withered and parched, so that no more Substance can be found in them for Nourishment, whilst they know not another Virtue (or rather the Virtue out of the Shadows) that is able to minister Life unto them; seeing Faith is not gained by force, but is the free Gift of God; as on the other hand, a wise Man would not link or tye himself to that which he findeth no virtue in, but is as a feeder of Dryness, and Death with Death, knowing that the Glorious virtue of Everlasting Life (which is able to raise the Soul from Death unto Life) stands near him to be received of him, but slighting it as an uncertain and insufficient thing, regards it not but loseth it. And therefore, though my charity would that all should partake of the more excellent and pretious Virtue, even rather than I would lose my Love towards the Seed in all, which is the stronger part, I could suffer to see the Souls of many which is the weaker part, feeding upon the Husk, until with feeding on (that which cannot give satisfaction to the Invisible and Immortal Soul) their Souls should hunger for the Substance, and in their hunger earnestly seek it, that at last they might find it and be satisfied of it. XR5447
Moreover, to this I also annex the sentence of the {Page 15}Blessing of the Father, to all the pure Children of his Love and Patience, who watch that they themselves may stand to the end, and wait the Lord's time for the coming in of all into the Glory of the Spirit's Power, That is already revealed, or into the glory thereof, which is yet to be revealed.
And also this to all other Peoples I can say, concerning this People that are called Quakers, taking them generally; I believe you all sincere Professors of God (in England, &c.) cannot say otherwise but for Truth, Righteousness, Honesty, plain Heartedness, Sincerity, Boldness, and Courage in the Lamb's spiritual Battles, there is not the like of them in pious heavenly Life, and example in Persecutions, Sufferings, and all Conditions upon the face of the Earth; and therefore, why should they not be Objects of Love in your Eyes and Hearts, seeing also (as unto God, so likewise) their Love abounds to you-wards?
All which Considerations may engage a nearer Unity, and a dearer Amity in this day, than hath in all former dayes been felt and discerned in all our Hearts one towards another; The issue whereof, I leave to the mover of the Work, being perswaded, that if yet we all run not together, he will suffer the Beasts of Prey, the Spirits of Darkness, and Devilishness, to drive us faster than ever.
But be it what it will be, I rest and abide in the love of God, to all that are sincere hearted to God-wards, a true and faithful Friends;
J.P.
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