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minds of too many; and that there are not a few that defire (fo that it be an eafy rate) to be informed about this people, that have been fo much, everywhere, fpoken against: but, bleffed be the God and Father of our Lord Jefus Chrift, it is upon no worse grounds, than it was faid of old time of the primitive Chriftians; as I hope will appear to every fober and confiderate reader. Our business, after all the ill ufage we have met with, being the realities of religion, an effectual change, before our laft and great change: that all may come to an inward, fenfible, and experimental knowledge of God, through the convictions and operations of the light and Spirit of Christ in themselves; the fufficient and bleffed means given to all, and that thereby all may come favingly to know the only true God, and Jefus Chrift, whom he hath fent to enlighten and redeem the world; which knowledge is, indeed, eternal life. And that thou, reader, mayeft obtain it, is the earnest defire of him that is

ever

Thine in fo good a work,

W. PEN N.

A BRIEF

A BRIEF

ACCOUNT,

&c.

СНАР. І.

Containing a brief account of divers difpenfations of God in the world, to the time he was pleased to raise this despised people, called Quakers.

D

IVERS have been the difpenfations of God, fince the creation of the world, unto the fons of men but the great end of all of them has been, the renown of his own excellent name, in the creation and restoration of man: man, the emblem of himself, as a god on earth, and the glory of all his works,

The world began, with innocency: all was then good that the good God had made: and as he blessed the works of his hands, fo their natures and harmony magnified him, their Creator. Then the morning stars fang together for joy, and all parts of his works faid amen to his law. Not a jar in the whole frame; but man in paradise, the beafts in the field, the fowl in the air, the fish in the fea, the lights in the heavens, the fruits of the earth, yea, the air, the earth, the water and fire, worshipped, praised, and exalted his power, wifdom, and goodness. O holy fabbath, O holy day to the Lord!

But this happy ftate lafted not long: for man, the crown and glory of the whole, being tempted to afpire above his place, unhappily yielded against command and duty, as well as intereft and felicity, and

fo

fo fell below it; loft the divine image, the wisdom, power, and purity he was made in. By which, being no longer fit for paradife, he was expelled that garden of God, his proper dwelling and refidence, and was driven out, as a poor vagabond, from the prefence of the Lord, to wander in the earth, the habitation of beafts.

Yet God, that made him, had pity on him: for he, feeing man was deceived, and that it was not of malice, or an original prefumption in him, but through the fubtlety of the ferpent (who had firft fallen from his own ftate, and by the mediation of the woman, man's own nature and companion, whom the ferpent had first deluded) in his infinite goodness and wisdom, found out a way to repair the breach, recover the lofs, and restore fallen man again, by a nobler and more excellent Adam, promised to be born of a woman; that as, by means of a woman, the evil one had prevailed upon man, by a woman alfo He fhould come into the world, who would prevail against him and bruife his head, and deliver man from his power: and which, in a fignal manner, by the difpenfation of the Son of God in the flesh, in the fulness of time, was perfonally and fully accomplished by him, and in him, as man's Saviour and Redeemer.

But his power was not limited, in the manifeftation of it, to that time; for both before, and fince, his bleffed manifeftation in the flesh, he has been the light and life, the rock and strength, of all that ever feared God: was prefent with them in their temptations, followed them in their travels and afflictions, and fupported and carried them through and over the difficulties that have attended them in their earthly pilgrimage. By this Abel's heart excelled Cain's, and Seth obtained the preheminence, and Enoch walked with God. It was this that ftrove with the old world, and which they rebelled against, and which fanctified and inftructed Noah to falvation.

But the outward difpenfation that followed the benighted ftate of man, after his fall, especially among

the

the patriarchs, was generally that of angels; as the fcriptures of the Old Teftament do in many places exprefs, as to Abraham, Jacob, &c. The next was that of the law by Mofes, which was alfo delivered by angels, as the apoftle tells us. This difpenfation was

much outward, and fuited to a low and servile state called therefore, by the apostle Paul, that of a schoolmafter, which was to point out, and prepare that people to look and long for, the Meffiah, who would deliver them from the fervitude of a ceremonious and imperfect difpenfation, by knowing the realities of thofe myfterious reprefentations in themselves. In this time, the law was written on ftone, the temple built with hands, attended with an outward priesthood and external rites and ceremonies, that were shadows of the good things that were to come, and were only to ferve till the Seed came, (or the more excellent and general manifeftation of Chrift) to whom was the promife, and to all men only in him, in whom it was yea and amen, even life from death, immortality, and eternal life.

This the prophets forefaw; and comforted the believing Jews in the certainty of it; which was the top of the Mofaical difpenfation, and which ended in John's miniftry, the fore-runner of the Meffiab, as John's was finished in bim, the fulness of all. And then God, that at fundry times, and in divers manners, had fpoken to the fathers by his fervants the prophets, spoke to men by his Son, Chrift Jefus, who is Heir of all things; being the gospel-day, which is the difpenfation of Sonship; bringing in thereby a nearer teftament and a better hope; even the beginning of the glory of the latter days, and of the reftitution of all things; yea, the restoration of the kingdom unto Ifrael.

Now the Spirit, that was more sparingly communicated in former difpenfations, began to be poured forth upon all flesh, according to the prophet Joel, and the light, that thined in darkness, or but dimly, before, the moft gracious God caufed to fhine out of darkness, and the day-ftar began to arife in the hearts of be

lievers,

lievers, giving unto them the knowledge of God in the face (or appearance) of his Son Chrift Jefus.

Now the poor in fpirit, the meek, the true mourners, the hungry and thirsty after righteousness, the peace-makers, the pure in heart, the merciful and perfecuted, came more especially in remembrance before the Lord, and were fought out and blessed by Ifrael's true Shepherd. Old Jerufalem with her children grew out of date, and the New Jerufalem into request, the mother of the fons of the gofpel-day. Wherefore no more at Old Jerufalem, 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 fuch, and worshipped in the fpirit 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 promife. Then figns, types, and fhadows flew away, the day having difcovered their infufficiency in not reaching to the infide of the cup, to the cleansing of the confcience; and all elementary fervices were ended in and by Him that is the fubftance of all.

And to this great and bleffed end of the dispensation of the Son of God, did the apostles teftify, whom he had chofen and anointed by his Spirit, to turn the Jews from their prejudice and fuperftition, and the Gentiles from their vanity and idolatry, to Christ's light and Spirit that fhined in them; that they might be quickened from the fins and trefpaffes in which they were dead, to ferve the living God, in the newnefs of the Spirit of life, and walk as children of the light, and of the day, even the day of holiness: for fuch" put on Chrift," the light of the world, and "make no more provifion for the flesh, to fulfil the "lufts thereof." So that the light, fpirit, and grace, that come by Chrift, and appear in man, were that divine principle the apostles miniftered from, and turned people's minds unto, and in which they gathered and built up the churches of Chrift in their day. For

which

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