A
Visit
to the
Spirit
in
Prison;
and
An Invitation to all people to come
to Christ the light of the World, in whom is life,
and doth enlighten every one that cometh
into the World,
and
A Warning to all people to take
heed how they joine any longer with that
which turns them from him.
By Saraah Blackborow
London1,
Printed for Thomas Simmons2, at the Bull and Mouth neer Aldersgate, 1658.
Unto all you, who own3 your selves to be
ministers
And
teachers
OF THE
people
Who preach for hire, and persecute, and throw into
prison if you have it not: this following is;
A Witnesse hath the Lord God in you, which is faithful and true, if ever you know the day the unstoping of your deaf eare4, and the eye which the God of this Elementary5 world hath made blind, again to see; then shall you confess it had been much better for you that you had laboured with your hands, doing the things which is honest, then to have coveted the wages of unrighteousness6, or beene fed with the bread of deceit7; how have you made your selves manifest to be of that generation, amongst whom the horrible thing is found, who Divine for money and preach for reward, and seek for your gain from your quarters8, and prepare war if they put not into your mouthes? What a work is this you are found in, to cast the children of the Lord into prison, because they cannot deny the witnesse of God in their consciences, which testifies against all such cursed practices? Was ever any of the servants of the Lord found in such a work as you are? let the righteous witnesse of God in your consciences Judge you, that you may be ashamed: Oh blush that ever your names should be mentioned, or you found owning such a work as this; either deny your work, or owne your selves to be of that generation, who is doing the work of their father, who abode not in the truth, who was a murderer from the beginning; and remember now you are warned to turn into the light, and own Gods witness which would teach you to deny both your work & your wages, & let you see that you should serve another Master; so go learn what this means; the goods of the wicked is laid up for the just, they that can receive it let them. From one who in the light of the Lord stands witnesse against the Beast and the false Prophet9
And unto all you who own your selves to be Ministers and Teachers of the people, who preach for money, and though yee have it not, yet do forbear10 to cast into prison; yet it is plainly made minifest, you both are guided by one spirit and tis your own, and while you are following on in that to know, you can know nothing, and the woe is pronounced against it; you are all bound up together in one, who is the earthly, and his work you bring forth, and his wisdom you are in, and it appears by your practices, for if any of the children of the Lord, be moved to come into your Steeple-houses to ask you a question, or to declare what they can witnesse of that which leads to Christ, how wrathful are you and impatient, and cry to the people, carry them away,
11 or suffer the people to hail them away without reproveing them? this is far from that spirit which should be ready to give an answer to every one that asketh or that which can bear all things, that spirit which is impatient and wrathful scatters and not gathers any to God; neither can it seek after that which is driven away and lost; the Lord is delivering his people out of your hands, that they may no longer be made a prey to the heathen, for among a poor despised people, who suffers whipings; stockings, imprisonmens, scoffings, hath the Lord appeared in power and great glory, and in them hath raised up a plant of renown, and they shall no more be consumed with hunger, nor beare the shame of the heathen any more; and these are the people who some of you have been heard to call giddy-braind12 people; I say own it your selves, for that in your brain is what you have to boast of; be ashamed and put your mouthes in the dust13, and never open them any more: From a lover of your souls, but a Witnesse against your deceits.
A Love there is which doth not cease, to the seed of God in you all, and therefore doth invite you every one Priest and people to return into it, that into Wisdoms house you may come, where there is a feast provided of all things well refined14, and the living bread of God is known and fed upon, and the fruit of the Vine is drunk of, then the purity in the Spirit witnessed the well beloved of the Father is here, and this is he who is the fairest of ten thousand, there is no spot nor wrinkle in him15; long did my soul thirst after him; between eight and nine years of age, did Gods witnesse strive with me, and chekt16 me, and convinced me of sin, and sometimes gave me power over it, though I knew not what it was, nor knew not that it was given me to lead me to God, neither did I know in the least what nature it stood in; or that it was sufficient of it self without any other help to be my teacher, or to open the mysteries of the everlasting kingdom to me, which I now witnesse to be, living praises to God the Father of mercies; notwithstanding all my profession, I never witnessed a seperation between the light and the darknesse, nor never so much as heard that such a thing was to be, for when it was spoken to me by the Servants of the living God, who declared unto me the way to life, & spake of Gods witnesse and its workings in the Creature, the same in me witnessed to them, and in that I knew that their testimony and declaration was of, in, and by the life and power of God, and none shall witnesse truly to the ministery, while their minds are abroad in the visible; for this I know, that though there be words spoke, yet it is the testimony of Jesus, and himself who is eternal, and therefore hath power in it to turn the mind in, out of the visible, down to the eternall seed, & as it is reached it witnesseth to them, and this I found the first time they spake to me, & my understanding was opened, and then I knew that that was Gods witnesse which had been working in me from my child-hood, and had begotten pure breathings and desires, and thirstings after God.17
Now all you who thirst after your beloved, come into Wisdoms house, though I spake it before, its not greivous to me to speake it again: Oh every one that will come; all people come to my beloved; come freely, you shall part with nothing for him that hath either price or value in it; therefore delay not but come to Christ Jesus who is the light of the world, his breathings are sweet & his shinings are pure: Oh that the Sonns and Daughters of men knew him! then would your hearts pant18 after him, and your souls life breath forth it self to him; righteousnesse is with him, and as a river it flowes forth from him; deare and precious are his counsells: Oh that the nations could hear him and obey him! and willingly give up, all that which hath and yet doth blind the eye, so that they cannot see him, the ever-lasting, counseller Prince of peace19, he is a broad river, his streams makes glad the City of God; his depths none but in eternity can find, his heights who can ascend unto? the bredth and length of his love there's no end of it.
Having known the terrors of the Lord, and the indignation of the Almighty against all ungodlynesse, and that nature from whence it springs; and now being made partaker of his everlasting love, in which my bowels earnes20, and my heart is enlarged exceedingly in love to you all, Neighbors, Kindreds and People; and therefore am moved to salute and to visit the spirit in prison in you all: From a moveing of the same love, and to warn you in plainnesse and in singlenesse to fear the living God, and to mind his witnesse which you have long turned from, and his spirit hath long been, and still is grieved and quenched by your ungodlynesse; Will you take Gods name in your mouthes and hate to be reformed? Why do you talke of the fear of the Lord and depart not from your iniquity? Will words serve you? Or are you a redeemed people? see and consider I beseech you: Oh how my soul is grieved to see and behold your abominations! its high time for you to mind that which calls your minds into that which strives with you, and would give light to you, in which you might see all you have been and are a doing, is in the ungodly nature, even your best works stands there, and that of God in all your consciences shall witnesse to me, in the day when you shall receive condemnation for them; and then you will see that you are to be striped naked, as in the day you were born, your covering of words will be too narrow for you, and your bed of adulteries will be too short, you will then find no ease there; there are who with fear & dread cry often to the Lord for you21, whose souls travels for your Salvation; they that dwell in the silent life whose eye is opened by the power of the Lord and in the light of Jesus dwels and abides, sees even your secret workings, the ground you act in and from, bless not your selves while you are adding sin to sin, and drunkennesse to thirst, living in pride and all manner of ungodlynesse, suffering every spirit which proceeds from that nature which is accursed, to act and bring forth its fruits in you, the pure spirit of the Lord which is light and life by all these lyes covered, and the seed of the kingdom buried, and the begotten of the Father of life eternall, strangled, and the Lamb of God slaying, and in some slain; and there his spirit shall no longer strive: Oh woe is me for your souls! a lamentation there is which cannot cease, what may I do that you may know your Saviour? he is neer you waiteing to be gracious to you; and this is he who under all, lyes in you all, that down all might come to him, and when that eye which the God of this world hath blinded is opened again; then shall you see and be ashamed; he lyes oppressed under that which cries peace to you & in you it is the Hipocrite & the lyer which cries peace to you while you are unsaved from your sins, but are in the liberty in which you are acting wickednesse, of every kind, Scoffers, Mockers, heady, high minded, lovers of pleasures more then God, not subject to the Government of Christs spirit, the eternall God of life bow you hearts and minds by his mighty power: Why will you strive against God? Hath any done so, and prospered? that which strives is that which rebells against his witnesse, which is faithful and true, and will not lye, and as you obey it you will come to see and know it, to be the beginning of the creation of God in you again, that which turns you from it turns you from your Saviour, and drives you from the presence of the Lord, into the earthly nature and carnall mind which is changeable, and there the enemy of your souls keeps you doing, and seeking to know God but cannot, and all its seekings actings and workings are for eternal burnings; are not22 you able to dwell with it? Oh the indignation of the Lord its hot and terrible! I have felt it; and therefore am I in sorrow for all you who are laying up fuell for it, yea verily I could be contented to be accursed again for your sakes; every one while you have time, prise it, and be you warned to wait to feel the Witness which God hath placed in your consciences to let you see what is good, and what is evil; the careless mind shall never witness to it; Gods Witness leads to Christ the Redeemer; but that mind which is above leads you to the destroyer, and layes you under his Power; and here Christ reigns not, but many Lords rules, and a King reigns that's not the Lamb, and the body of Christ lies dead, and death reigns over you, and the all the Works that stands there, you are to know repentance from; the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgement, is yet a mystery to you whose souls are in the Grave, and feet stuck fast in the mire, and no wayes can you be holpen23 out, how24 whilest you flye from that which checks and reproves you in secret, you love it not, because your deeds are evil, you dare not bring them to the light, for that would discover them of what sort they are; and because you love them more then that which judges them, therefore do you turn from the one, and embrace the other: Wisdom hath uttered forth her voice to you, but the eye and ear which is abroad, waiting upon a sound of words without you, is that which keeps you from your Teacher within you; & this is the reason that in all your seekings you have found nothing; such as your seeking is, such is your finding; if in the changeable you find that is so, and that perisheth with the using; if in the eternal you find that which is eternal, and that's everlasting, life and death is set before you; as you love the one, you must hate the other; the resurrection of the life, is the death of the death, and takes away its sting, & gives victorie over the grave; Death, Hell and the Grave must give up their dead when the voice is heard, obeyed, and believed in which gives life; What I have seen and known, heard and felt, that declare I unto you, and my witness is true; if I bore witness of my self, it were not true; but my Witness stands in him, and is of him who is the light of the World25: Therefore dear hearts, you who are in the pantings and thirst, whose hearts are breathing after the living God, in whom desires have been begotten by the eternal spirit, and have been betrayed by entering into visibles, and by a visible Ministrie, which hath been but as sounding brass, and as a tincling Symbele26, which hath never turned to God, nor from the powers of darkness, but hath begotten an imaginary27 in you, likenesses of all sorts and kinds, both of things in heaven, and of things in Earth, and under the Earth; I say, Go not forth after them; that which carries you forth, is that which betraies your life, and leads you into the adultery from it; there's many green Trees in Babel28, worship not under them, nor bow not down to anie likeness, but come to Gods Witness, it will abide with you; and as you abide with it, you will know its power and its leadings; be not afraid, but come to it, there's no other way to life eternal; if it bring you into trouble, it will bring you out again; it will pass through the fire, and through the water; though many Waters may pass over you, and floods seek to devour you, yet shall you be preserved; it will be with you in six troubles, and also in seven29; covet nothing else, you will need no more; there's a sufficiency in it, flie not from it, it will never leave You nor forsake You; it will lay You in the arms of your beloved, it will lead You gently, and lay You in his bosome, where the Well-springs of life30 flows forth continuallie; it will make You inherit durable substance, and cause shadows to flie away; it will lead you out of all that which stands in time, and its begettings: Therefore love it, its of an eternal nature, and leads into it, out of the sorrow, out of the curse: Therefore take heed how you deny it, it sets open the door of the Kingdom, it separates from that which would keep You from entering; your unclean natures offer it up to the death of the cross, for it hath pierced your Saviour; and all that ever you have offered in it, or by it, hath never made You perfect, as pertaining to the conscience; though You should offer Year by Year, and Daie by Daie, your sacrifice will not avail You31; the Lord is wearie of it, his soul loaths it, he is prest under it as a Cart with sheaves32; therefore cease from it, and come out of Your manie things; there's but one thing needful, keep to it, and wander no more as You have done, nor seek not for another, for all the hopes that you shall have in anie other thing but this will prove the hope of the hypocrite, which perisheth, and will set You wandering up and down in the Earthly, & that's in Satans path; the ginne, and the snare, and the pit you will meet with there, it's not the equal Way, you will lose your measure which God hath given to you to measure your selves withall, and then you run further and further from the Lord, and lie liable to be deceived by Babylons Marchants33, who will make a prey of you, and set you a seeking your Saviour upon the Mountains that's covered with darkness it matters not what Name You bear, or what fellowship you are of while you are out of the fellowship of the Father and the Son34, and turned from that which should lead you thither, and out of the cross, which is the power of God, which would crucifie you to the World, and the World unto you: I say, What are you more then they who never bore any of those Names? So be not deceived, for God will not be mocked; the light of Christ will deceive none of you, but if you are out of it, it matters not how high your sights, your notions, your airy imaginations are, they are to little purpose, it may join you to the more refined builders of Babel35 which are talking of the Corner-stone36, but reject it as well as others, and make up a building without it, a Tower which you think must reach up to Heaven, strongly fenced and Walled, but not the Wall nor the Fence which God hath made, or ever appointed; and if ever to the light You return again, it will let you see that in that building lives the swearer, the liar, the thief, and the adulterer. Your Chamber of Imagery is there, in which all your Images are hid; your garments which you have stole in the night is laid up there; Your confused Languages, and all your stuff which proceeds out of the vessels which are dishonorable, that's your store-house, the curse is entered into the midst of it, and will consume the timber thereof, and the stones thereof, the materials; the fire must consume your fenced Wall, and your high Tower is for a throwing down; I have seen it, and therefore in truth can witness it, the very ground it stands on must know a remove; your high things have deceived the simple, and You also; they that live in the day, see You and your building; its Babel, that's not Sion37 whose Walls and Bulwarks are Salvation; and this I affirm and witness, That none shall ever see the glorious City, but as they witness the Walls and Bulwarks.
Now all you who are boasting in other mens lines above the cross, you of all other people like not to stand in it, and so notwithstanding all your high words, you are out of the power, in the alienation, out from the life of God, in the lying Wonders; for what some of you saw when you were waiting in the light, you are now bringing forth in your wills, and the Word of the Lord is betrayed by your subtilty & by your airie minds, which hath carryed you so far above the light, that you see not what it is that betraies you, and you are lying down at ease in a habitation which is not eternal, but are Vagrants, having no habitation in God: What's become of the righteous Seed? the blood of it cryes up in the ear of the Lord; many of you are darker then Cain was when he had slain his Brother38; it were well if you could bow down to that which would bring you to a sence of your condition, and leave teaching of others, and looking out for a high appearance, you are deceived, and deceiving others, your expectations are all in the vanity; it's the little thing that's under all this, must restore you; so wait and watch if you can suffer with it, and wait to know whether your faces be turned toward Sion or no, and to hear the voice of the Lord calling every one in the particular, Where art thou? Alack for you! they that know the just and equal ballance39, find you too light; you are to be singled out one by one to judgement, for thither must you come again if ever that be cast off which is above; you will find it hard to that mind which is so high, to bow down to it; Muses40, and the Prophets, & John41 hath been, & is too low a thing for your eye to look after; but had you been faithful to the least of these, you had not lost your measure; the patient long suffering of God let it lead you to repentance, and so come down to the Witness, that you may see what is good, & what is evil, that you may no more be deceived nor deceive, with a seeming good, that hath a certain evil in it.
So the light of Christ I commend you and all people upon the face of the whole Earth, that in it you may see the devourer and the murtherer, and what it is that talks of life, and yet is slaying of it: Oh! love truth and its Testimony, whether its Witness be to you, or against you, love it, that into my Mothers house you all may come, and into the Chamber of her that conceived me, where you may embrace, and be embraced of my dearly beloved one, Love is his Name, Love is his Nature, Love is his life, surelie he is the dearest and the fairest; the fool hath said in his heart he is not, he can neither see him, nor know him; the wise mans Wisdom is in enmity against him; the rich are too full, there's no room for him; the Foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have Nests, but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head42; the strong man offers violence against him; readie are all sorts of people to receive the fame of him, but few love his reprovings, turn in to him, and believe in him: Oh thou beloved of my Father, that art descended under all, that thou maist gather in all! how art thou become light in darkness, strength in and through weakness43, Wisdom in and through foolishness; life in death, that through death life again may be witnessed among the sons and daughters of men: And I bring in my Testimony, That he is the true light which lighteth every one that cometh into the world:44 Love that Spirit that brings to lye at his feet, that with it you may return into his bosome, which is the desire of my heart to the mighty God of Jacob for you all.
Man looking forth after a beautiful thing which was likely to make him wise, (seemingly good for Food) thus came to lose his innocent state; Man feeding upon the forbidden food, in the day that he eat thereof, died, is now driven from the presence of the Lord, and the Tree of life he may not touch; the flaming Sword stands to cut him down which way soever he turns, and the eye being made blind which should let him see his state, he is become wholly miserable, and death reigns over him;45 and having lost his Guide, he is turned into a path in which he is running further and further from the Lord, into the earthlie, and there he abides captivated, and under strong bonds fettered: Yet doth the Lord so love the World, that he hath given his only begotten, that all men through him might believe: And now every one having received a measure of his life, this stands an everlasting Witness for God in man, and this God hath given him to profit withal, but the sloathful hides it in the Earth, and makes no improvement of it, and so remains ignorant of Gods gift, and of the Waie that should lead him back again to God; and though the light shines in the darkness, the darkness comprehends it not, and the ear remains stopped which should hear the voice that calls to him to return again, and would let him know, that as through death he went forth, so through death to that death he must return again; that which shines in darkness to him, would soon let him see his lost estate if minded; it is one thing to talk of it, and another thing to see it; death may talk of it, but it is the shining light that shows it, through which alone man must come to be convinced; and as it is loved, believed in, and obeyed, man will come to know it to be his Leader, and a Light to him, in which he may see the Seed of the Woman, and the Seed of the Serpent46, and their several natures and workings, and to see what birth each of these bring forth; the Wombs they are conceived in, which it is that bears, and which it is that is barren; which it is that is to be made to bear again, and which is to be made barren again; for though these two Seeds be in man, yet have they their several natures and opperations; the one brings forth to the earthly, and begets into the death, the other into the heavenly, and begets to life.
Now every one minding their measure of light, shall come to know as they are known, and to see as they are seen; and here a separation comes to be witnessed, and man begins to see what stands in death, and what in life eternal; for having a light which makes all manifest, thus man comes to see how all likenesses is come in, and now man being convinced and checked when any thing is wrought or acted in that nature wherein death reigns, then Gods Witness which stands in the divine nature, checks and reproves: And man running from this turns into the other, and so joins with the transgressor, and then will be making promises of being better, and complains that he wants power, and so tempts the Lord, this nature may bring forth a likeness of all Graces, and of all Gifts, and give up the body to be burnt, but it avails him nothing. Now every one who loves Gods Witness, and is joined to it, shall know the power of God which gives dominion over the sinful nature, and leads into a Saviour, and here man shall see Christ Jesus as near him, to save him, as the Devil is near to tempt him, and shall come to know every motion and thought of his heart, from whence it springs and to know certainly where his hope stands, and how he comes by it, and the faith of the Son of God, and when it was delivered, and how to contend for it, and to see all his Works, and where they stand, and be made able to discern of spirits, whether good or evil, and to judge of them, and so grow up in the light, unto that state which once was witnessed, and beyond it: Therefore every one prise that which leads to it.