A CALL TO Back-sliding Israel, And may be as a Necessary Word of Caution and Admonition to the Inhabitants of East and West-Jarsey, Pennsilvania, etc. as a Remembrancer to them to call to mind their former state, and whence they are fallen. With some short Account of my leaving a second time that Party of them called Quakers, which have Condemned G. Keith, and all that own him, or his Testimony for the crucified Jesus, our alone Advocate in Heaven. By Elias Burling.  
Printed and Sold by William Bradford at the Sign of the Bible in New-York, 1694.   

A Call to Back-sliding Israel, and may be as a necessary Word of Caution to many of the Inhabitants of Burlington, etc.  
HEar, O Israel! This short Message and Testimony is to you, who have long made Profession of the holy Truth, yet have not known or witnessed the pure purging Power of it, throughly to cleanse, wash and sanctify, and to set you free from sin, and the power and servitude of it, but have taken up a false Rest, and are sat down at ease in Zion, in a Profession of Truth, with a Name to live, whilst dead, dead as ●o Holiness, dead as to the Life, Power of Truth, and divine Knowledge of the Mystery of Christ, Enemies to the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, that should throughly crucify you to the World, and the World to you, which raiseth up the Soul into the Life of Holiness; this you are Enemies unto in your Minds, by reason of wicked Works, so hold the Truth in Unrighteousness, and are crucifying that afresh to yourselves, which should slay and crucify you to the World and the Evils of it; but what will ye do in the end thereof? Though now for a Time you may live over & trample upon th●● innocent Life, yet in the end it will be too heavy for you, if ye will not bow and bend to it, and be willing to fall upon it, and be broken by it, it will at last fall heavy upon you, and will grind you to Powder; and this I have long seen and fore-seen in the Light of the Lord, to be your state, many of you; the efore hear and fear, all ye Disobedient & Rebellious Ones, who have long professed me in words, saith the Lord, yet in wo●ks have denied me, who honour me not, nor is my N●m● feared & sanctified in the midst of you, but my holy Spirit is & hath been long grieved by you; for you are a Rebellious House, says the Lo●d, therefore I delight not in you, nor are your Offerings pleasant or acceptable in my sight, as in days and years past, when they were as a sweet smell unto me, whilst you retained your love and sincerity to my Name & Truth, and held fast your Integrity, and my holy fear was before you, and whilst yet kept and abode in it, it kept and preserved you out of many of the Evils of the World, which you a●e since again run unto, and into this must you c●me again, even to your first Love, and ●o Repent, and do your first Works, if ever ye come into my favour again, and be owned and received of me, and that I again receive an Offering at your hands, with Acceptance.  
Hear therefore, O Israel! what the Lord by his Spirit may signify unto you, Though very long hath the Lord bo●n with a people in this day, even as he bore long with Israel of Old, forty Years was he grieved & tempted with that Generation, who after that, He by a mighty hand, and an out stretched Arm had saved them out of the Land of Egypt, and had led them through the Red Sea, and brought them safe upon the Banks of Deliverance, where they sang his Praise, yet he afterwards destroyed them that believed not; whi●h things are written for our Admonition, that we grieve not the Lord in rebelling against his good Spirit, as they did, of which we had need to take heed, lest we also come to fall in this Wilderness, through the same Example of Unbelief; for the Lord hath born long with a People and Generation in this our Day, and for whom he hath also done much, who have long professed him in words, some of them forty or near fifty years, but what Fruit is there brought forth by too to many of them, though he hath waited long, year after year, seeking and expecting Fruit, of whom he now grows weary, and the Day of his long-suffering and forbearance is come near unto an end, and that he will say, Cut it down, why cumbereth it the Ground? And this will be the lot & portion of many, unless they speedily Repent: Its Fruit that he expects and looks for, and he will not be longer put off or satisfied without Fruits that may honour him; for barely, a Profession of t●e holy Truth, without a holy Life, will stand no Soul of us in any stead at all, in the great Day of Account, but he will have an Improvement made by us of his own and what he hath committed to our Trust, and he that hath not improved his Gift, but hath been idle, slothful and negligent in his Lord's business in his Day and Time, this Gift or Talent will at last be called for by the Give● of it, and taken from him, and the Portion of that Servant will be in utter Darkness forever. He that hath an Ear to hear, let him hear this Word, The Lord is taking away thy Diadem, the Crown is falling from thy head, thy flourishing Beauty is passing away quickl, the heavenly Sun which thou rejoiced in for a time, now withdraws its shining, the Da●kness is now thickening upon thee; in stead of spiritual Mirth and Gladness, a Day of Sorrow, Mourning and Lamentation; in st●ad of a Girdle, a Rent, instead of well set Hair, Baldness, and instead of a sweet Smell, behold a stink; and thy Name shall be for a perpetual Shame and Reproach amongst the H athen, because ye have not sanctified the N●me of the holy One, but have greatly polluted it in this Land; therefore I will make ye a Scorn, a Byword & a Hissing to Nations, and Women shall rule over thee, & strangers shall come up and eat your Bread, and shall possess your Habitations, and the Lord will call in others to the heavenly Banquet, the Supper of the Lamb, and who are more worthy than ye, & they shall enter into the Marriage Chamber, & partake of the heavenly Dainties, and they shall come from the East and from the West, and shall enter in, & shall sit down with Abraham, Isaac & Jacob in the Kingdom of God, and Ye who have accounted yourselves the Children of it, shall be thrust out for your Disobedience; for there are fl●st at shall be last, and last that shall be first; and as ye were in times past, when little in your own Eyes, and in a bowed sense before the Lo●d, you were th●n reproach d, scorned, mocked and derided of the World, and such as knew not God, for your Plainness, your Christian Modesty, your Seriousness, Sobriety, Gravity and Moderation, yourself denial, holy and harmless Conversations, and serious Deportment, and good Behaviour and Testimony a●●i●st the World, and the Evi●s and Fashions of it, which your Mind● wer● fa● drawn out of in that Day; and because ye could not fashion yourselves after the former Lusts, whilst in your Ignorance, nor walk as other Gentiles, that knew not God, in the vanity of ●heir Minds; for th●t c●●s●, how wer● ye hated, reproached and re●iled, fo● the Truth's sake, while ye thus stood the Cross; but now on the contrary, since the Offence of the C●oss is ceased with many, to my grief, and many mo●e, I now speak even with sorrow of heart, and not to upbraid you, may it not now be said, and that truly, That ye are now become a Scorn to Fools, and a Reproach justly among the Heathen, for your evil doing, and for your disagreeable Practices to what the innocent harmless Quakers use to be found in, witness your Persecution, by Imprisoning, Fining, and taking away Goods from your innocent Neighbours & Brethren, who for Conscience sake could not conform to you.  
And now, that your Evil, Vn-C●ristian and Vn-Quaker-like Deeds and Corruptions, both in Principle & Practice, are brought to light, and which cannot now longer be hid, but they must come forth to public view, and their Covering, who have not the Truth purely for their Covering, is stripping of● them, and their Nakedness, and the Shame of it must and will appear to the view of all. And now instead of looking at the hand of the Lo d in it, and humbling of themselves under it, and owning it to be just upon them, for their Hypocrisy and great Unfaithfulness, instead of this lay all the blame upon others, excusing themselves, & blaming and accusing of others wi●h it, and say, It's this Man or the other hath done it, and brought this Dishonour and Reproach to Truth; and it's not w●, but G. K. and those in the Separation, who ●ave b●ok●●Vnity with their Brothers, ●ut will not ●w● that they h●ve done any thing that hath ju●●l● b●ought the Disl● our, but wipe their Mouths, and say, T●●y have do●e no Evil. Yet this I must tell, a 〈◊〉 am certainly persuaded of it, That had y●u bu● continued faithful, and retained your fi●●t purity and love to God and his Truth, as ye we●e once in, this ●hen had not happened, nor should G. Keith, or any other, ●●en suffered thus to lay open & exposed you to the world, which you have all along much endeavoured to ●ide your Evils and Filthiness from, but now, that which hath been long hid and kept secret is made manifest, and brought to light, for as Christ said, There is nothing hid, that shall not be revealed, nor covered, that shall not be uncovered, and that which hath been spoken in secret shall be proclaimed upon the House top; and since you have lost that which once made you a good savour in your Neighbourhoods and Families, a●d that reached the Witness of Truth in many hearts, having lost this, you will be le●t as destitute, as naked, and as bear as ever People was left, without timely and sincere Repentance.  
Friends, as touching my last Paper which I fent, with the other of B. D's to your Monthly Meeting, in which was some things hard to he rightly understood by you, especially since I am ag●in with drawn from you, being warned of God so to do, and that I may keep Truth clea●, and my Testimony thereunto, however censured and looked upon by you, the great thing with me, is, and hath been, ●o approve my heart to God, and to speak the Truth uprightly, without partiality o● respect to any Man's Person, and whilst I am kept there, I heed it little who comm●nds, o● who discommends me; for not he who commendeth himself, or whom another comm●nds, but whom the Lord commends, that is approved; I say, that I may be the more Intelligible, and prevent and take off, what in me lies, those evil and hard Constructions which very aptly and readily you may put upon wh●● I there writ, as concerning P●●●●ng and Exposing, as hath been of late, both by on● side and the other, which I shall explain, and give you my sense, thus, That I have and c●n honestly and safely testify against such m●●●●r of Exposing as hath been of late by b th', as that which ought not to be amongst ●●●●hren, who are to dwell together in Unity; y●● if the Lord will make use of, or permit an ●●●●ument to lay open & expose a People for their Unfaithfulness, and f●r their trea●●●ous d●●ling with him, who shall then with●●●d the Lor● in what he doth, who doth whatsoever he will? and though men cannot see it so, yet whatsoever the Lord doth, is well, and he is and will be glorified o●er all; and if he be not glorified in men's Salvation, he will be glorified in their Destr●ction, as he was upon hard hearted P●aroa● and his people when he w●●ught that mighty deliverance for Israel; for the Scripture saith co●●●ning Pharaoh, For ●●s s●me purpose have I raised thee up, that I may show my Power in thee, and that my Name might be declared throughout all the Earth. Thus you may see, in one sense we m●y safely condemn such manner of exposing, dividing, ●ending and tearing Member from Member, as that which ought not to be among Brethren, as the Apostle mentions in one of his Epistles, T●ese things, my Brethren, ought not so to be; so say I, Brothers ought not to differ, f●ll out, and be at strife, but all ra her dwell together in Love and Amity, being all of the same Mind, and ●f the same Judgement; and this is very aimable, and a comely thing for Brethren thus to dwell together in Unity; but if that a People who have professed themselves to be in the greatest Unity of any People besides, and all to believe the same things, professing the one Faith, one Lord Jesus Christ, and one Hope of their Calling, if this People, or a part of them shall be found in Error, & certain men from among themselves shall arise, and sha' l teach and assert things contrary to sound Doctrine, and shall continue and persist to maintain such corrupt and erroneous Principles and Doctrines, o the infecting and corrupting of one another, so far as to the Denying of our only Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, and if for this their great Degeneracy, and contemning of the Word and Testimony of Jesus, God shall immediately concern & raise up some from amongst themselves, to correct, reprove, reprehend, and sharply to testify against the same, in the zeal an● fervency of their Spirits, and also to with draw from their Fellowship and Communion; and whether it be not right and justifiable in the sight of God so to do, I leave to the Wise in heart to judge.  
Thus you may plainly see I have and can freely condemn the Printing, Exposing, Separating & Dividing one from another in the Church of Christ, and amongst Brethren, that it ought not to be, but in that other sense, as I have told you, if the Lord doth it for 〈◊〉 good end and purpose, to make manifest Hypocrites and evil Workers, who live in Error, and to search out the hidden Workers of Darkness, and the Hypocrites in Zion, and who pro ess themselves to be Jew's, and are not, but do lie, and for the laying open Heresy and Error, that hath long lain undiscovered, that so those that are approved of him may be made manifest; and if he will raise up some from amongst ourselves to do this Work, which you account so ill a Work, yet in this sense, as the Lord doth it, in order to effect and bring to pass his own Purpose, I may not condemn it, it being the Day that I have much wished for, that those that are approved might be manifest, and no place found where the Worker of Iniquity might hid his head; and the Day is come a●d coming that wi●● find them out of all the dark Places and lurking Holes.  
So, with little more, I shall conclude, desiring the Lord, if it be his Will, to turn your hearts to him, and to work a true Reformation and change in your Minds, that so the thick Veil of Darkness and Error, that is over many of your heart's, may be effectually rend off a●d taken away, and that you may come to know the holy Covering of God, and to put on the Lord Jesus ●hrist, and to be covered with his Righteous Power and Spirit, and then I know you will not be found naked, but might be able to stand before the Son of Man.  
Now as to any amongst you who m●y be conscientiously concurred, as to me, if any such there be, I am able to give a further or more full and satisfactory Account of my leaving you again, if desired; and as to my going to and f●o for my own satisfaction, which ye ●ender so ill, and as being now worse than before, and that it bespeaks me and us of an unstable Mind, and wavering too and again, for my late condescension in coming so near you (as I was willing to come as ne● to you as the Truth would possibly admit) and that in love, for the Bodies s●ke, the church; but how I am the worse for so doing, I m●y t●ll you, and what my Experience hath been since I c●me last amongst you, or rather that you came to us in your appointed time, for I n●ver did ●●e my way clear to come to you; indeed I can own, in one sense, I am not the better for my being last with you; and though it was not long that I was with you, yet I now think it was long enough, and shall truly and honestly declare my experience, and how I found it in that tim●, which thing I kept secret to myself, but I minded it well, and how the Lord was to me in that time, and whether I enjoyed him ●●w amongst you, so as I did before, when in the Separation, as knowing what he h●d been unto me then; and this Experience I have, and am now free to tell it, That the nearer I came to you, the Lord he withdrew himself th● further from me, and I wanted those Soul refreshing Comforts that I had from him before; and as I withdrew myself ag●in from ●ou, the Lord immediately drew near to me ag●in, and then my Love and Zeal began to s e ● en & increase more to him, which (while near to ●●u) began to ●●●tten and decls ne, because I w●s not to sit down with you in an evil secu●e state, nor could I sit down with you in the state I saw you in, nor was it ever in my heart so to do, as knowing certainly, if I did, the Lord would wholly withdraw himself from me, and shut up, and withhold his wont goodness from me, and whom my Soul was still concerned for, that I might not lose him, ●or do that which might give him cause ag●in to hid his face. These things I made Observation of betwixt the Lord and my own Soul. Also, a a little before I left you, the Lord set it clearly before me, your unprofitable state, and where you are, and what your lot and portion will be, and mine also, if I continued with you, so as to sit down and have fellowship with you in that dark evil corrupt state, which the Lord knows, and my Soul knows, you are now sitten down in, and he hastened me much before I left you, as Lot out of Sodom, To haste, and flee as for my Life, and to save my sell from such a Generation as are out of the Faith of the L●rd Jesus Christ, which I can now with greater boldness affirm, than I could before, having had the advantage to hear and se● the second time again for myself, and which was the main & great cause of my being amongst you the second time, that so I might have a more perfect knowledge of these things, and like the Noble B●raeans, desired to find and search out, whether th●se things were altogether so, as the Cry and Report hath been; And why should any blame me for this, or resent so ill, my coming and going to and fro, as being under a Soul concern? I wish that many amongst you, that are settled on their Lees, were in like manner so concerned, and that I could see many going to and fro; for it said, In the latter days they shall ran to and fro, and Knowledge shall increase. A●d seeing I came to seek th● good amongst you, (had it been to be found) and not to spy out your liberty in Christ, and bring you into Bondage, yet was willing to spy out whether ye h●ve indeed the Faith of our Lord Jesus Christ; and finding that you have it not, am wa●ned to withdraw, and have no fellowship with such as cannot bear to have the Lord Jesus Christ preached amongst you, the which advantage I have had by my being last with you, seeing plainly, that it's not as you have endeavoured to make People believe, viz. ●hat it's not for the Testimonies sake, that ye deny these in the Separation, but for this dividing Spirit, and for reviling and exposing; But this ●over is now stripping off, and will not longer hid you, but you must now appear as year, and that ye are of those that love not the Lord Jesus Christ, as your do have and do manifestly declare.  
Elias Burling.   

Postscript.  
AN● whereas it was questioned by some in the time of my being last amongst you, Whether I did really intent and desire to come into Unity with you again? To which I can say, I did innocently and truly desire it, could I have so done, and not have joined with men of evil and corrupt Principles and Practices, who I see, had and have free liberty to preach and pray in your Meetings without let or interruption, but such as bring the Doctrine of Christ, and set him before you as the Object of your Faith, cannot have the like liberty, but their Doctrine and Testimony opposed and contradicted time after time.  
Also, whereas it may look strange that I lay so deep a Charge upon some, as their Denying our only Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ; I say, I know none that have done it in express words, for in pretence they own him largely, but by necessary and undeniable Consequences they have done it, as can well be made appear, not only by what mine Ears have heard, but by many more Ear Witnesses with me, which these Instances following are Evidences, viz. 1st, Their Preaching publicly, That the Jews did not see the World's Saviour; which naturally is to deny Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of Mary, Abraham and David, to be he, and contrary to his own words, John 6. and this received by the said public Meeting, and at th' same time ●he contrary plain Scripture Doctrine and Testimony, denied and opposed, as also at the next Monthly Meeting. 2dly, The Testimony of G. Hutcheson, That Christ is now in Heaven glorified in the true Nature o● Man, was opposed by several Persons in the public Meeting, and said Meeting owned them therein. 3dly, In that G. H. hath been publicly opposed, in testifying, T●at the great Mystery of Godliness, (1 Tim. 3.16.) was God manifest in the Flesh of Christ, (f●e one had applied it wholly to God being manifest in our Flesh to destroy sin) and by one called a Novelty, and said, G. H's Interpretation of said Scripture, was a Perversion, and gi●ing his own, and a wrong Construction upon it, and an adding thereunto; and with hands stretched out, Threatened him with the Plagues in Rev. 22.18. and this in a public Meeting, and no one that I heard reproved him for it, but rather justified him therein. These, with divers other Instances that might be given, a●● Proof sufficient, that you are greatly ignorant of Jesus Christ, whom God raised ●●ain from the Dead, and hath set him at his own Right Hand of Power, having also appointed a Day in which he will judge the Wo●ld, even by the Man Christ Jesus, of which he hath given assurance to all men, in that he raised him from the Dead; and whomsoever have the true Faith, believe, that God raised from the dead, and that he was received up into Glory, That he that was dead is still in being, and th●t he ever lives, and shall come again in the Day appointed to judge all Mankind; but this is denied by them whom we are separated from, witness H. W. lately, wh●● G H. was saying, That it was his Belief, Th●● that same Jesus that ascended out of the ●●ght of his Disciples into Heaven, should outwardly appear again, and that he should se● him with the Eyes of his Resurrect●o Body, which H. Willis wondered at, a with Hands lifted up, said, He never expected any such thing.  
Now I have this advantage by my being last with you, That whereas you have endeavoured to make me and others believe, That it's not for the Doctrine or Testimony's sake that you have denied us, but for Reviling, Printing and Exposing the Faults and Weaknesses of Brethren, which I also am against as well as you, and ●ave and can condemn it, so far, That it ought not to be done against the true Brothers and Israel of God; but Anti-christs, and all Anti-christian Practices and Principles are and aught to be born witness and testified against in the Zeal of the Lord; so that this false Cover and Pretence will not longer do, it being already seen through by many of the honest hearted, whose Eyes are so far opened, that they begin now to see you, and there is no hiding of your Iniquities and Hypocrisy, with this or the other pretence, for the Lord is about thoroughly to search his Camp, and to rip off every false Cover, till he ha●h said all open, naked and bare; and there shall be nothing able to hid any from the face of the Lamb but the pure Power, and heavenly divine Covering of the holy Spirit of the Lord; therefore it concerns us all and every particular to see to it, whether we have got this Covering on, yea or nay.  
E. B.  
THE END