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 with, I found
none who could bear to be told that any should come to Adam's
perfection,--into that image of God, that righteousness and holiness,
that Adam was in before he fell; to be clean and pure, without sin,
as he was. Therefore how shall they be able to bear being told that
any shall grow up to the measure of the stature of the fulness of
Christ, when they cannot bear to hear that any shall come, whilst
upon earth, into the same power and Spirit that the prophets and
apostles were in?--though it be 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,[32] 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, if they would know God or
Christ, or the Scriptures aright, must come to that Spirit by which
they that gave them forth were led and taught.
[32] This is the central teaching of George Fox. Everything else
comes out of this elemental truth. It is, as he says, clearly
enough taught in the Scriptures, but he now saw the truth as an
immediate revelation--as a primary fact of experience.
On a certain time, as I was walking in the fields, the Lord said unto
me, "Thy name is written in the Lamb's book of life, which was before
the foundation of the world": and as the Lord spoke it, I believed,
and saw in it the new birth. Some time after the Lord commanded me to
go abroad into the world, which was like a briery, thorny wilderness.
When I came in the Lord's mighty power with the Word of life into
the world, the world swelled, and made a noise like the great raging
waves of the sea. Priests and professors, magistrates and people,
were all like a sea when I came to proclaim the day of the Lord
amongst them, and to preach repentance to them.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account