do I told you also that we could give unto Caesar the thing that was Caesars and give unto God also the thing that was Gods And this is a witness for the Lord in this day that he pleads that you were not ignorant I also writ to thee to beware how thou ruled in this Nation for the people of this Nation was a britle people generally besides them the Lord had a people here that was dear unto him And I desiâ—ed thee not to touch them nor hurt them I also desiâ—ed thee to beware of the Councel of the Bishops for if thou hearkned to their Councel they would be thy ruine for it was their Councel was the ruine of thy Father for their counsel is the same that Reboboams young Men was read what the Lord did with that King in the 1. of Kings and 12. Thou knowest this is true their counsel is to make the burthen heavier as theirs was All this with much more I wrote to thee and warned thee of I can truly say in the fear of the Lord In much love and tenderness to thee and now I may say unto thee for which of these things hast thou kept me in Prison three long Winters in a place not fit for people to lye in sometime for wind and storm and rain and sometime for smoak so that it is much that I am alive but that the power and goodness of God hath been with me I was kept a year and seven Months in this Prison before I was suffered to fee the House that was mine or Children or Family except they came to me over two dangerous Sands in the cold Winter when they came with much danger of their lives but since the last Assizes I have had a little more respect from this Sheriff then formerly from others And in all this I am very well satisfied and praises the Lord who counts me worthy to suffer for his sake For I never did thee nor any other man in the Nation any wrong and so I may say for many more of our Friends that have suffered even untill death and all that we could write or speak we were not believed and all the warnings that we gave of Judgments and told you plainly we had done so with other Governours before you and how the Lord had overthrown them and desired you many times to beware least the Lords Judgments came over you also but all was to no purpose for as long as there was peace in the Land the maine business of the Parliament was to invent Lawes to punish and persecute Quakers but to make Lawes to punish vice sin and wickedness and lasciviousness we had but a little of such Lawes And now after all my sufferings in the same love that I visited thee in the beginning I desire thee once more to fear the Lord God by whom Kings rule and Princes decree justice who sets up one and pulls down another at his pleasure And let not the gâ—ilt or the burden of that word that passed from thee at Breda lie upon thy conscience but as thou promised when thou wast in distress and also renewed it many times since that thou would give liberty to tender Consciences in the fear of the Lord performe it and purge thy Conscience of it and hearken not to wicked Councellors that hath stopped it in thee all this time for they will bear none of thy burden for thee when the Lord pleads for breach of Covenant with him and his people I know it hath been often in thy heart to performe it and thou hast seen what fruit the want of it hath brought forth So if thou lovest thy eternal peace and comfort with the Lord try what the performance of it will bring forth who wilt thereby see thou hast hearkened to wrong Councellors And every mortal Man hath but a moment in this life either to serve fear and honour the Lord and therein to receive mercy from him or else to transgress sin disobey and dishonour him and so receive the judgment of eternal misery So never a one of you knows how long or how short your day may be therefore fear not man that can kill the body but fear the Lord who when he hath killed the body can cast the soul into hell yea I say unto you fear him From a true lover of all your souls though a sufferer by you and the desire of my heart is that you may take these things into consideration betime before it be too late and set open the Prison doors and let the innocent go free and that will take part of the burden and guilt off you lest the door of mercy be shut to you From my Prison at Lancaster Castle the 6. d. 6. Mon. 1666. Margaret Fell. To the Magistrates and People of England where this may come WHat is the matter with the Christians of our age and of our English Nation that hath been looked upon to be a Garden and a Nurcery in Christianity and Religion beyond all other Nations that have made so great profession of God and Christ and of the Scriptures and are they turned persecuters and Law makers against Christianity and against those that are in the same spirit of God power and fellowship as they were in that gave forth the Scriptures which the people of England professes and are these now become the greatest enemies that England have and for no other cause but because they worship God and obey Christ's command and abides in his Doctrine and bears the same Testimony of truth and Resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ as the Apostles did And all that they do and act and speak and suffer for is according to Scripture and nothing that they suffer for is contrary to the Scriptures is these things become a crime in England and is this thegreatest offence that England hath taken with the People of God even because they believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and obeys his Doctrine Oh take up a Lamentation for England surely there is some heavy sad and grievous Judgment waiting upon her and is not hardness of heart and a reprobate mind and a seared Conscience one of the greatest Judgments that can befall a people and is not this already seized upon the Law makers of England that have hardned their hearts against the Lord and his people as if they had no other enemies but they who never did them wrong nor hurt nor never desired or intended any hurt against them but hath ever desired their good peace welfare and that they might come to the true knowledge of the Lord and to the true knowledge of his truth as it is in Jesus Which they clearly manifest they are ignorant of by their making of Lawes against those amongst them that fears God and worships him and gives glory to his name though they be free-born Englishmen and women nor have they transgressed any just Law of England untill they were forced to make one to
A LETTER Sent to the KING From M. F. Here is also thereunto Annexed a Paper written unto the Magistrates in 1664. which was then Printed and should have been dispersed but was prevented by wicked hands By M. F. They judge not the cause of the Fatherless and the right of the needy they do not judge Shall not I visit for these things saith the Lord shall not my soul be avenged on such a Nation as this Jer. 5.29 and Isa 1.24 There is no King saved by the multitude of an Host a mighty Man is not delivered by much strength but blessed is the Nation whose God is the Lord and the People whom he hath chosen for his Inheritance Ps 33. Many are the devises of Man but the counsel of the Lord will stand Prov. 19.21 This was delivered to the King the 29th of the 6. Month 1666 by Elizabeth Stubbs A Letter sent to the King from M. F. c. KING CHARLES I desire thee to read this over which may be for thy satisfaction and profit IN the fear of the Lord God stand still and consider what thou and you have been doing these six years since the Lord brought you peaceably into this Realm and made you Rulers over this People The righteous eye of the Almighty hath been over you and hath seen all your doings and actions What Lawes have you made or changed save such as have laid oppression and bondage on the Consciences of Gods People and that of no less penalty then Banishment cut of their Native Country The greatest crime that you could find with the People of God was that they obeyed and worshiped Christ Jesus so that the greatest stroke that hath appeared of your Jâ—stice hath been upon such as you counted Offenders for worshiping of God In so much that several of your Judges of the Land have several times said in open Court to any that did confess that they met to worship the Lord God That that was crime enough whereby they could proceed to Banishment and when it was asked in open Court whether it was nâ—w becâ—me a transgrâ—ssiâ—n or a crime in England to worship God He that was then the Chief Justice of England answered Yes yes Oh wonderful let this be Chronicled in England for after Ages that all Magâ—stâ—ates may dread and fear so to affront the Almighty except they daâ—e say they are stronger then he And all this hath been without any just cause given at any time by that People which was the object of this Law so that Men that had but the least measure of righteousness and equity could never have proceeded on to have inflicted such a height of punishment without some just ground And all that ever was pretended was but suspition which never can be paâ—alleld to be prosecuted to such a height of suffering without a just ground given although occasion hath been continually sought and watched for but never found but the Lord hath preserved his People innocent and harmless and therefore is he engaged to plead their Cause into whose hand it is wholly given and commited I desire you also to consider seriously in the fear of the Lord what effects and fruits these things hath brought forth First I believe it hath brought hundreds of Gods People to their Graves it hath also rendered this Realm and the Governours of it cruel in the eyes of all People both within its own body and in other Nations besides the guilt of innocent blood lies upon this Kingdome Since which time the Lord in his judgment hath taken many thousands of its People away by his two Judgments Pestilence and Sword And before any of this was when you first entered into this Kingdome I was sent of the Lord to you to informe you truly of the state and condition of our People And when I came before thee oh King I told thee I was come to thee in the behalf of an innocent harmless peaceable People which words I would then and ever since and should at this day seale with my blood if I were put to it and thy answer was to me If they be peaceable they shall be protected I also wrote to thee several times concerning our saith and principles how that we could not swear for Conscience sake neither could we take up Armes nor Plot nor contrive to do any Man wrong nor injury much less the King I also told you that we must worship God for God required it of us We did likewise give you many of our Books which contained our faith and principles and doctrine that thereby we might be tryed by the Scriptures of truth which all of you do profess whether our Principles were erroneous or no and to that purpose we gave our Books to the King and Parliament and to the Bishops and Ministers both Ecclesiastical and Civil Our Books were sold openly amongst all people and our Principles declared in a Declaration and freely holden forth to the whole World We also desired that we might have a Meeting of the Bishops or Ministers of the Land and that our friends would freely and willingly give them a Meeting that thereby they and we might be tryed by the Scriptures which of us was in the error whereupon thou wast pleased to grant us our requests and promised us that we should have a Meeting which was but reasonable but the Bishops and those that was concerned feared that their cause would not hold stitch with the rule of the Scriptures and so they turned it off when our friends were ready and would not give us a Meeting this action of theirs did clearly manifest them to be out of the life and power of the Scriptures for Christ Jesus said to those that he sent forth that they should not be afraid for he would give them a mouth and wisdome that all their adversaries should not be able to gain-say nor resist and likewise the Apostle when he wrote to his Son Timothy in the 2 Timothy 2.24 25 26. and the Servant of the Lord saith he must not strive but be gentle unto all Men apt to teach patient in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves if God peradventure will give them repentance and come to the acknowledging of the truth c. If they had been the Ministers of Christ and in the Apostles Doctrine they would have taken this way with us they would have endeavoured to have convinced us by sound Doctrine or at least have tryed us this way before they had put the civil Magistrates upon it to make Laws against us but this manifested their spirits and principle for they rather choosed to deliver us up to you that had the Whip and the Scourge in your hands and that which they could not do by sound Doctrine they put it upon others to do it for them by compulsion But the all-seeing God hath seen all this And all this we did that you should not be ignorant what we could do and what we could not
make them transgressors with though they be of the same Religion that they themselves profess they profess Christ and the â—criptures in words but those that come to the works of Righteousness and to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ which is the work of God such they persecute and make Lawes agaâ—â—st so that England appears now as if it would shut Christianity out of its dominion and what will they bring in and set up next seeing they banish out Christ and his Members and sâ—â—vants and saints and so makes them slaves that be freeborn English men which hath been a blessing unto them and to the Land wherein they lived and no hurt to them and if they had given them the liberty of their Conscience to have served the Lord God they might have been partakers of the blessing with them but being that they have turned their hand against the Lord and turned their sword backwards against the Righteous surely the Lord will plead for this and surely there will a recompence come for its hard to strive against the Lord and to touch his Anointed and to do his Prophets any harm when they were but few in number be reproved Kings for their sake and he is the same now he changes not and his arme and power is the same and his Righteousness is the same which is to be revealed upon the head of the wicked and he is engaged to plead the cause of the innocent who hath no pleader in the Earth and his eye sees and beholds all the Actions of the Children of Men and those that acts against him and his servants he takes special notice of and be saw the affliction of his people formerly when they were afflicted in Egypt and heard their cries and knew their sufferings and surely he is the same now as he was then and as he hath said himself in as much as you do it unto my little ones you do it unto me this he said when he knew that his next appearance should be in his Saints and certainly those that persecuted his Saints even without a Law when they had none and contrary to several Lawes of England as several of the servants of the Lord hath suffered hath Christs servants been persecuted by those that were in power formerly and they that did this and they that make new Lawes certainly if Christ and the Apostles had been and were upon the Earth they would have done the same unto them but all these things the Lord hath taken notice of and they are written where they cannot be bloted out and all the righteous blood that hath been shed since Abel and all the Saints sufferings in all ages the Lord hath taken notice of and all those Christians in these latter times where several have been imprisoned to death for the Christian faith all this the Lord hath in everlasting remembrance and when he comes to make inquisition for the blood of his saints and servants it will be a hard and a sad day for the acters and fighters against God so all ye Christian Magistrates beware what ye dâ— and keep your hands out of blood and persecution of the innocent and let that which is past suffice for â—e will find it heavy enough and for the time to come dread and fear the Lord God of Heaven and Earth that hath all your lives and breath in his hand to give and take away at his pleasure and do not that which may incur the Lords displeasure against you by making Children fatherless and wives widows as there are already several in England at this day it 's better for you to offend Man then God and so endanger your mortal souls so mind that which concerns your eternal peace and the eternal welfare of your souls and this I am moved of the Lord to forwarn you of least you bring wee and misery on your souls and a general judgment on the whole Land and this is true love unto you and the desire of the general peace and good And remember that you were warned from a prisoner of the Lord in Lancaster Castle 7th day â—th Mon. 1664. Margaret Fell. THE END