A Brief Account of the Rise and Progress of the People Called Quakers | Page 3

the hearts of believers, giving unto them the knowledge
of God in the face, or appearance, of his Son Christ Jesus.
Now the poor in spirit, the meek, the true mourners, the hungry and
thirsty after righteousness, the peacemakers, the pure in heart, the
merciful and persecuted, came more especially in remembrance before
the Lord, and were sought out and blessed by Israel's true Shepherd.
Old Jerusalem with her children grew out of date, and the new
Jerusalem into request, the mother of the sons of the gospel-day.
Wherefore, no more at old Jerusalem, nor at the mountain of Samaria,
will God be worshipped above other places; for, behold, he is, by his
own Son, declared and preached a Spirit, and that he will be known as
such, and worshipped in the spirit and in the truth. He will now come
nearer than of old time, and he will write his law in the heart, and put
his fear and spirit in the inward parts, according to his promise. Then
signs, types, and shadows flew away, the day having discovered their
insufficiency in not reaching to the inside of the cup, to the cleansing of
the conscience; and all elementary services expired in and by him, that
is the substance of all.
And to this great and blessed end of the dispensation of the Son of God,
did the apostles testify, whom he had chosen and anointed by his spirit,
to turn the Jews from their prejudice and superstition, and the Gentiles
from their vanity and idolatry, to Christ's light and spirit that shined in
them; that they might be quickened from the sins and trespasses in
which they were dead, to serve the living God, in the newness of the

spirit of life, and walk as children of the light, and of the day, even the
day of holiness: for such put on Christ, the light of the world, and make
no more provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof. So that the
light, spirit, and grace, that come by Christ, and appear in man, were
that divine principle the apostles ministered from, and turned people's
minds unto, and in which they gathered and built up the church of
Christ in their day. For which cause they advise them not to quench the
spirit, but to wait for the spirit, and speak by the spirit, and pray by the
spirit, and walk in the spirit too, as that which approved them the truly
begotten children of God, born not of flesh and blood, or of the will of
man, but of the will of God; by doing his will, and denying their own;
by drinking of Christ's cup, and being baptized with his baptism of
self-denial; the way and path that all the heirs of life have ever trod to
blessedness.
But alas! even in the apostles' days, those bright stars of the first
magnitude of the gospel light, some clouds, foretelling an eclipse of
this primitive glory, began to appear; and several of them gave early
caution of it to the Christians of their time, that even then there was,
and yet would be more and more, a falling away from the power of
godliness, and the purity of that spiritual dispensation, by such as
sought to make a fair show in the flesh, but with whom the offence of
the cross ceased. Yet with this comfortable conclusion, that they saw
beyond it a more glorious time than ever to the true church. Their sight
was true; and what they foretold to the churches, gathered by them in
the name and power of Jesus, came to pass: for Christians degenerated
apace into outsides, as days, and meats, and divers other ceremonies.
And, which was worse, they fell into strife and contention about them;
separating one from another, then envying, and, as they had power,
persecuting one another, to the shame and scandal of their common
Christianity, and grievous stumbling and offence of the heathen; among
whom the Lord had so long and so marvellously preserved them. And
having got at last the worldly power into their hands, by kings and
emperors embracing the Christian profession, they changed, what they
could, the kingdom of Christ, which is not of this world, into a worldly
kingdom; or, at least, styled the worldly kingdom that was in their
hands, the kingdom of Christ, and so they became worldly and not true

Christians. Then human inventions and novelties, both in doctrine and
worship, crowded fast into the church; a door opened thereunto, by the
grossness and carnality that appeared then among the generality of
Christians, who had long since left the guidance of God's meek and
heavenly spirit, and given themselves up to superstition, will-worship,
and voluntary humility. And as superstition is