after God in Righteousness and true Holiness And so here walking every one in your own measures in Faithfulness to the Lord you will feel the Lord administring unto you of his rich Vertue to the filling of your Hearts and to the making of your Cups to overflow for this I testifie unto you and that by the Spirit of the Lord That the Lord's Love and Mercies and the Riches of his Grace did never more abound in the Hearts of his People in any Age or Generation than it doth in this our Day in the Hearts of all who obey and follow him and give up freely unto him in all his Leadings and Requirings And therefore once more I say unto you my Beloved Ones give up in singleness to follow the Lord in whatsoever he leads you unto And walk with him in the Power of his own Spirit of Life and let the Righteousness of God go before you and his Everlasting Glory shall be your Reward And so Dear Hearts Feel your selves covered with the Spirit of Life for that shall and will remain when all false Coverings shall be ript off and all empty Professions and out-side Shews will wither and have an end and come to nothing Therefore ye as Wise Virgins have Oyle in your Lamps and see that your Lamps be kept trimmed and burning that so you may be kept ready at all times to enter in with the Bridegroom into his Marriage Chamber so will you have Joy and Felicity and Gladness of Heart and no cause of Sorrow will there be while you enjoy the Bridegroom of your Souls present with you who will be an everlasting Comforter unto you with whom you will know an Everlasting REST And that Peace you will be Heirs of and possess which passeth the Understanding of the World and in this you will have strong Consolation and Comfort even that which can never be blasted but whatsoever flourisheth and may seem prosperous for a time if it be not in and by the Power of the Lord that will the Lord blast and cause to wither as the Flower of the Grass and this your Eyes shall see if you keep in the eternal Power of the Lord which keeps the invisible Eye open which alone perceives the things of God So in the pure Power of the Lord dwell and keep that you may be kept in a clear Discerning and sensible of your own particular Conditions and how it stands with you in the Presence of the Lord that you may know your Peace and Unity with him and one with another that so all being kept in the Power and Unity of the one Spirit in that you may exhort one another and so much the more as you see the Day approaching that so you may be strengthened one by another and may build up one another in the Precious Living Truth and therein edifie one another in Love that so you may stand over the World and over that part in which the Enmity stands which is against God so will it appear unto all men That you are the People which God hath Blessed And now my dearly beloved Friends These few Lines have I written unto you from the aboundings of the Love of my heavenly Father which he hath shed abroad in my heart towards you all and by this Love only was I constrain'd thereunto wherein in some measure is manifested that real and unfeigned Love which dwells in me and daily extends it self unto the whole Houshold of Faith wheresoever they are with whom I am at this time even wrapt up with the Garment of Praise And in the pure Unity of the Spirit of Life and Endless Unspotted Love do I purely salute you all leaving you to the Protection of the Almighty whose tender Care is over all his and watcheth over his own Inheritance Night and Day so that the Devourer cannot prevail to lay it waste nor desolate Wherefore let your Confidence and Trust be in him alwayes and continue you in the Grace of God which hath appeared and the Sufficiency thereof you will more and more see and witness daily And Blessed in the Name of the Lord God Almighty are all they whose Trust and Confidence is in him alone for they shall never be ashamed nor confounded but shall be as Mount Sion which cannot be moved So the Lord God Almighty of Heaven and Earth keep you all and preserve you all in the enjoyment of the Fulness of the Blessing of the Gospel of Peace where you all may know the Rest to remain that neither Stormes can disturb you nor Tempests make you afraid in which I am with you all who are of the Family of God Written in the Island of Barbadoes the 27th of the 7th Moneth 1661. Your Truly Loving and Faithful Brother JOSIAH COALE A Collection OF THE Several Books Given forth from the Movings of the Spirit of the LORD in his Faithfull Servant and Minister Josiah Coale The Memorial of the Just is Blessed the Righteous shall be had in Everlasting Remembrance but the Name of the Wicked shall Rot. Printed in the Year MDCLXXI AN INVITATION OF LOVE TO THE HUNGRY THIRSTY Who truly hunger after the Food of Life and a Call to such to come from off the Barren Mountains and from feeding upon vanity into the Everlasting Kingdom and House of my Father where the least of his Servants have Bread enough With some Information of the Way which leads thereunto EVery one that hungers and every one that thirsts and every one that breaths after Righteousness Come the Fountain of Life is opened and the Everlasting God of Jacob is arisen in this day of his Power to gather unto himself the dispersed of Israel into his Everlasting Fold of Rest and into his Everlasting Covenant of Light Life and Peace with him to dwell And for this very end hath he caused the Eternal Light of his Son to shine forth and hath set up his Standard and displayed his Ensign to the Nations to which the gathering is and the Call is gone forth and the Spirit bids Come and every one that hears let him Come and drink of the water of Life freely For the Fountain is now opened and the true Shepherd now Calls and his voyce is heard and all who are wandering upon the barren Mountains and in desolate places and are weary and heavy laden with sin may Come and follow him who leads to the Everlasting Fold of Rest which is Jesus Christ the true Shepherd and the Light of the World and Way to the Father who is now arisen in this his Day for his Seeds sake to gather his Sheep from off the Barren Mountains where they have been scattered and driven away in the dark and in the cloudy day And to make manifest the way of Life freely to all who hearken to his Counsel and obey his voyce who declares unto man what is his thoughts And by his Light makes manifest the Secrets of the heart and reproves the deeds
and fore-warned thy Rulers also oft-times of the evil to come and that they should set free the Oppressed and break the heavy Yoak of Persecution from off the Necks of God's People that with freedom and cheerfulness they might serve him but they have not hearkned thereunto nor regarded at all therefore is thy Plagues come and thy Judgment have not lingered as is seen at this day But well much of this kind have ofttimes been presented to thy view and consideration so that I could even almost despair of hopes that thou wilt hear or lend an Ear unto what I say at this time because I experimentally know that thou art a Rebellious Nation against the Lord yet my Bowels so yearns towards those of thine Inhabitants who have not quite sinn'd out their Day that I cannot but strive with them a little in representing these things to their consideration that such who have any tenderness left in them may Repent with speed and turn to the Lord with all their hearts not feignedly but in sincerity that so they may find a hiding place in him from the Wrath to come and that they may understand the Cause wherefore the Lords Hand is stretched out against thee in Judgment Oh Nation surely all who are prudent in spirit cannot but confess and acknowledge that these things before mentioned is the very cause of the present Visitation that is upon thee and also of the future Judgments which are threatned for these are but the beginning of thy sorrows which it to come upon thee because thou Repented not of thy Evil Deeds Well But some it may be will say what and where hath been the cause that all these Abominations hath thus abounded and been continued in thee seeing thou hast had such a large Profession of a reformed Christian Religion to whom I say Search and examine whether or no the main ground and cause is not found in thy Teachers and Leaders for have they not caused thee to Err and have they not strengthned the hand of the worker of Iniquity so that none can turn from the Evil of his Way by promising of him life and may not I say of thy Teachers Oh England as the Prophet of the Lord said of the false Prophets in his day viz. from the Prophets of Israel is Prophaneness gone forth into all the Earth for hath not they Leaders been evil examples unto thee of prophaneness of drunkenness and whoredoms many of them and universally of covetousness which is Idolatry for most or all must needs see that their hearts are gone after covetous practises and by their Lyes against the people of God and by their lightness they have caused the People to err from the right way and have led them into rebellion against the Light of the Son of God wherewith they are enlightned which would have led them out of the dark pathes of ignorance and works of Iniquity under pretence that it was a dangerous principle to be adhered unto and that it was not sufficient to lead out of sin nor to save from sin when indeed there is none other name given under Heaven whereby Men can be saved from sin but the name of Jesus who preached himself the Light of the World and who lighteth every Man that cometh into the World and whose free grace that bringeth salvation hath appeared unto all men so that all who turn from this Grace of God which teacheth us to live soberly and righteously and godly in this present evil World such turn from the right way and all who rebell against this Light wherewith they are enlightned they know not the way thereof as Job said and so they are strangers to the good and right way which is Christ who lighteth every Man that cometh into the World and is not this Light or Spirit of Grace in the inward parts the very thing that thy Leaders hath long perswaded thee against that thou shouldest not encline or adhere thereunto under pretence as aforesaid and so are like unto them whom Christ said did shut the Kingdom of Heaven against Men who would neither enter in themselves and them that would enter they hindered and although they have in pretence made large Prayers against sin and iniquity and seemed to preach against it likewise yet they have indeed told thee thou couldst not be washed or freed from sin while here on Earth and so have denyed the very work of the Ministry which was for the perfecting of the Saints for the Apostle laboured that he might present every Man perfect in Christ and have they not hereby strengthened the hands of the Workers of iniquity even by begetting a belief in them that they cannot turn from the evil of their wayes so as to be set free from their evil deeds and yet they promise them life hereafter but be not deceived with good words and fair speeches for God will not be mocked with an out-side profession for if you live after the flesh you shall dye for the wages of sin is death but the Gift of the Spirit of God is eternal Life through Christ our Lord unto all them that receive and obey it Again have not thy Leaders been the great Stirrers up of thy Rulers to persecute the harmless People of the Lord whom he hath raised up by his power to trust in his Name and to bear witness for him and to testifie against thy abominations have they not moved thy Rulers and Majestrates to make Laws and to put them in execution as aforesaid against us Consider this Oh Nation what a blood-thirsty Generation of covetous Hirelings thou hast nourished within thy bowels may I not say of them as Hosea said of the Priests in his dayes viz. As Troopes of Robers wait for a Man so the Company of Priests murder in the way by consent for have they not been even unanimous in this work of Persecution how many have they murdered in the way of Cain which they are in by consent in casting of them into Prisons for their filthy lukers sake and how have they provoked and stirred up thy Rulers and people to the same work and even made them their vassals to fulfill their envious wills So that all these things being considered with many more which might be mentioned have we not just cause to attribute the main ground of thy continuing in these so gross abominations unto these covetous Hirelings and filthy Dreamers that defile the flesh I confess I cannot but believe that there are multitudes of thousands within thy Borders Oh England that see their folly and madness and their unstableness and how they toss up and down and are driven about with every tempest that ariseth even as Clouds without rain as their Predecessors were whom the Apostle spoke of and saw come in his day who went in Cain's way of Persecution and Murder and were wandring Stars for whom was reserved the blackness of Darkness for ever For have not the unstabillity of these
Performances without the Inward Leadings of the Spirit of the Lord and in this Antichristian-spirit by which they have been exercised in the aforesaid Idolatrous Abominations they have been Killing Destroying and Devouring one another about those things which are their own Inventions set up in their own Wills which they would have all to conform to and have long imposed it one upon another by Penal Laws and thereby have enforced many who fear'd Man more then God to conform contrary to what they were perswaded in their own Consciences to worship the Image set up by them yet a Remnant there was alwayes whom God preserved and rais'd up by his Power to stand faithful Witnesses against their Idolatrous Worships and Traditions whose Blood this Antichristian-spirit in the Beast and false Prophet that carries the Whore hath always drunk and many Faithful Martyrs of Jesus in times past have seal'd their Testimony against this false Church of Apostate Christians in which this Antichristian spirit rules even with their very Lives though they did not see nor understand the things that are now seen and understood by many yet blessed be the Lord they were by his Power and Spirit so furnished and sustained and so filled with Love to God and his Cause and with Zeal against the false Church and her Antichristian Impositions and Idolatries that they loved not their Lives unto death but laid down their Lives with Chearfulness as a Testimony against them and so through Faith have obtained a Good Report amongst us who are now following the Lamb in the same Foot-steps of the Flock And so my Beloved Friends Seeing that now in fulness of time God hath rais'd us up by his Power according to his Purpose and Determination and Fore-knowledge to be faithful Witnesses for his Name and Truth and to the Power of his Appearance in our Hearts and to bear Testimony against the aforesaid Superstitions and and Idolatrous Impositions which are practis'd at this day amongst them that know not the only true and living God nor Jesus Christ whom he hath sent a Light into the World I say my Friends These things are sufficient to engage our Hearts unto the Lord follow him unto the end through all Trials and Exercises of what nature or kind soever that for the future may come upon us for our Testimonies sake For my Friends We know right well that God hath not been wanting unto us in any Tryal or State whatsoever if we have not been wanting in or Obedience unto him but hath been alwayes present with us and hath oft caus'd his Love to abound unto us and in us being shed abroad in our hearts by his good Spirit so that for joy of Heart we could even sing Praises to the Name of the Lord in the midst of our Sufferings and Afflictions so that we have no Cause to be discourag'd at the Sufferings which attend us nor at the Threats and Frowns of Wicked Men who hate and persecute us without a just Cause but we have rather great Cause of encouragement to persevere and go on bearing forth our Testimony for the Lord through all Sufferings if it be Death it self knowing the Reward thereof to be so exceeding great and having this Confidence in our selves That none of these things shall be able to move us nor to seperate us from the Love of God which we have in Christ Jesus Nay but rather shall confirm us for as the Apostle said It is an evident Token to us of Salvation but to our Adversaries of Perdition and that of God And so my Beloved Friends You who are already Exil'd and sent into forreign Parts of the World for your Testimony 's sake I doubt not but you experimentally know in an especial manner the Largeness of the Extent of God's Love unto his People in a Suffering Condition you having been in measure exercis'd therein beyond many others though I doubt not but have the Testimony of God's Holy Spirit that many are as freely given up in the same Faith for the same Testimony to partake with you outwardly of the same Sufferings as they do inwardly sympathize with you therein if the Lord see it meet for the Honour of his Name so to suffer them to be exercised Yet nevertheless All who have been and are faithful to God in their Places have and do enjoy so much of the Peace and Presence of God as is fully satisfactory unto them so that in the Unity of the Spirit of Life which from God we have receiv'd and by which we are seperated from the World and its Wayes and Works of Darkness and by which we are rais'd up to be faithful and true Witnesses for God and against the Traditions of men by which they have made void God's Commandments I say in this Spirit we do sympathize and partake with you both in Suffering and in Rejoycing and have a real Sence upon our hearts and spirits of your Estate and we are not unmindful of you but do heartily pray That Grace Health Mercy and Peace together with all Spiritual Blessings in Christ our Lord may be continually multiplied and encreased amongst you that the Aboundings thereof you may know unto your great Consolation that so being thereby watered and refreshed you may grow in the Grace of God and in the Knowledge of our Lord Jesus and may feel his Life to encrease in you and so to strengthen you that you thereby may be able to teach others also and to instruct them in the Way of Life and Salvation that so your Sufferings and Exilement may make for the Furtherance of the Gospel of God and for the spreading of his Blessed Glorious Truth through the Nations and for the gathering into it them who are yet afar off from God and Strangers unto him that so the Witness of God in all Consciences being answer'd by you both in Life Conversation and Doctrine you may be a good savour unto God both in them that believe and also in them that perish that the Justification of Life in the Spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ you may all feel and witness and that will be your alone Satisfaction in all Conditions and therein my Love doth dearly salute you all And in this my Dear Friends pray one for another and walk together in Love and be of one Mind and Practice in all things that appertain to the Worship of God and to your Testimony for Him and against the World and its Wayes and Worships and live in Peace one with another and build up one another in your most precious Faith and watch over one another in the Spirit of Love and Meekness and let there be no Straightness nor Strangeness one towards another but be Open-hearted and Tender one to another And if any thing appear amongst any of you which tends to the Hurt of any Particular or to the Truth in general in the Spirit of Meekness let it be spoken to them and in the same Spirit let
of his Kingdom and for the publishing and spreading of his Everlasting Truth and for the sake of this our Lives nor Liberties were not dear unto us wherefore be ye every one like-minded with us in the same thing And in your places where the Lord hath set you therein adorn the Truth so will you be a good savour unto God and he will take Pleasure and Delight in you and will do you good by multiplying his Mercies and Blessings in your Hearts and so you will witness a growth and encrease in the Encreases of God And so all Friends Wait upon the Lord in the Gift of his Spirit that you may feel him to administer unto you of his Heavenly Riches and Consolation that no one may have cause to complain of Poverty or Weariness but every one know him in you in whom the Fulness dwells that you may by him be upheld in all times of Tryal and be administred unto in all times of want that so you may be carried on with Chearfulness to run the Way of his Commandments And God Almighty keep you by his own Power that therein you may be firmly joyn'd and united together a Family of Love and a strong Body and a spiritual House fitly framed and compacted that there may be no Rent nor Division but that you may be one in him who is the Head and in this I can promise you the Blessings of God and that by his Spirit And so bear one with another in Love and let the Strong help the Weak and by so doing you will preserve Peace And the Blessing of the Lord be with you and rest upon you forever Amen London the 1st Moneth of the Year 1667. This is a Salutation of Pure Perfect and Never-dying Love from your Dear and Truely Loving Brother Josiah Coale An EPISTLE to FRIENDS IN New-England The Second Epistle DEAR and Everlastingly Beloved Friends Brethren and Sisters whom my Heavenly Father hath visited with the Day-spring from on High which he hath caused to dawn unto you and by his Out-stretched Arm of Power hath gather'd you out of the Egyptian Darkness into the marvellous Light of the Son of his Love that therein you may come to have an Inheritance amongst them that are sanctified and become Heirs of Eternal and Everlasting Salvation in and through Christ Jesus the First-born from the Dead who is now brought forth into the World and reveal'd in us whom all the Angels must worship I say my dear Friends Seeing the Lord hath thus visited you with his Love and thus reached unto you see that you walk worthy of his Love And every one in your holy Callings wherewith you are called of God therein abide with him and feel the Gift of his good Spirit of Grace which from him you have receiv'd at all times to exercise your minds that so out of all the Snares and Temptations of the Wicked One you may thereby be led kept and preserved that the Enemy may not prevail to hurt you or to deprive you of your precious Treasure or to make a Spoile of you or in the least to diminish that Precious Life which God hath raised and manifested in you and given you a feeling of But all and every one wait that you may grow therein and become daily more and more a good savour unto God that you may know him to take delight in you and to dwell amongst you and in the midst of you and to administer unto you according to your Necessities that there may be no want unto you in the Day of Tryal but that you may be throughly furnished unto every good Word and Work that in all Tryals and Temptations whatsoever that may come upon you you may feel your Strength Hope and Confidence to remain that so you may be supported and carried through with Chearfulness unto the End for its such only that shall be saved And above all things my Friends and Brethren have perfect Charity amongst your selves and let the Love of God dwell in your Hearts and rule there and in that watch over one another and in the Spirit of Love and Meekness exhort and beseech one another as the Lord moves and let no one go beyond the Word of the Lord nor yet without it for that will burden the Seed in others but watch in the Light for the Movings of the Life it self and as that is felt to stir or move in you or any of you wait to know the Mind and Intent of the Spirit 's Motion whether it be for your selves to treasure up or whether it be to give forth unto others and this Discerning and Understanding you will all come to know and receive as you wait in Stilness out of the Reasoning Part for if the Reasoning Part enter that will darken the Understanding and then you will not know what to chose and what to refuse nor what to do or what to leave undone Therefore dwell in the Simplicity and single Subjection unto God's Holy Spirit of Life the Meek Lamb's Spirit and there is the Gate of true Wisdom and the Door of Understanding and in that you will edifie one another in Love and the Bond of Peace will be known amongst you And for this End have we travell'd and labour'd amongst you whom the Lord sent forth in his own Name and Power for the turning of you from the darkness of Ignorance unto the Light and Knowledge of God's Everlasting Power and for the building of you up in your most pretious holy Faith that therein and thereby you might come to have victory over all that 's contrary And to this day I am oft travelling in Spirit amongst you and in my Prayers to God I daily make mention of you and my spirit breathes unto God and is pour'd forth unto him for your preservation growth and prosperity in the pretious living Truth and that you may be crown'd with Victory Life and Dominion over all which would hinder you from running this good Race that is set before you that so none amongst you who have tasted of the Love of God and have known the Way of Life may fall short of the Mark or of the Inheritance incorruptible which fades not away So the Lord God Almighty be with you and keep you and place his Fear in your Hearts yet more and more that you may no more depart from him or from the feeling of his Life and Presence but that you may always live in him who is God blessed forever and may be found of him in everlasting Peace Amen London 21 1st Moneth 1665. This from your dear Brother who truly loves you and the whole Flock of God in all Places JOSIAH COALE To the Flock of God Gather'd out of the World in the Province of MARYLAND The First EPISTLE MY Dearly Beloved Friends with whom and amongst whom I have travell'd in times past for the Redemption of the Suffering Seed which lay groaning in Bondage and was held in Captivity
under the Chains of Death and Darkness in you and for the bringing forth of that Birth which is Heir of all things and must Rule all Nations with a Rod of Iron and unto whom we who have been Labourers amongst you have reached with the Word of Immortal Life and with the Power of the Almighty to the raising of Life and bringing Immortality to Light in you by which you were then quicken'd unto Life who were sometimes dead in Sin and Trespasses And you know right well that by this Word of God and Power of an Endless Life you were more and more enlighten'd as you came into Obedience thereunto and your Understandings were open'd by which you came to see how you had been in times past captivated with Sin and Iniquity and had been led away with the Error of the Wicked into Envy Strife and Maliciousness and indeed into every Evil Work and then true Judgment and Condemnation took hold on that part in you by which you had been led into those things and the Way of Truth Peace Love Sanctification and Salvation open'd unto you by the Light and Spirit of the Lord by which your Understandings were quickned And the Invisible Eye was open'd in you by which you came to see your Teacher and as you enclin'd your Ear unto this Teacher and walked in this Light of God's Salvation O then how was the Appearance of Evil eschewed by you And how contrary to your Desires it was to see or hear of Strife and Debate and Contention amongst Brethren And how Love Peace and Good-will did then abound one towards another and towards all men desiring that all might come to know and be made Partakers with you of the same plentious Redemption And how gloriously and plentifully the Lord did then appear amongst you And how freely he did then shed abroad his Love in your Hearts and issue forth of the Vertue of his Life unto you by which your Hearts were enlarged and your souls refreshed and comforted so that you did run well without Weariness or Fainting Who hath hindred you or any of you that you should not continue in this Race in which Peace Love and Good-will did abound one unto another And what is the cause of the Strife and Divisions and Contentions that of late hath been amongst you Hath not the Evil One stepped in and drawn you into Reasonings and Consultations about Differences which hath been occasion'd by Dissenting-spirits and thereby vail'd the Understandings of some of you and so brought Night upon them and in the Night season sown the seed of Sedition amongst them Well My Heart is griev'd within me for your sakes and I am oft-times afflicted in spirit because of these things which have happen'd amongst you for indeed some there be that have made the Hearts of others sad whom God never made sad because of their unsoundness and unstedfastness in the Truth which in much simplicity fear and reverence was made known unto you by us who labour'd amongst you in the Word and Doctrine And truly Friends I cannot but Lament the lost estate of some amongst you which I am fully sensible is great and sad Oh that ever it should be said of such a People for whom the Lord had done such great things and unto whom he had so plentifully manifested himself and appeared that they should not retain their first Love and Integrity and Fervency and Zeal to the Lord and one towards another It s indeed sad to consider For have not I seen the Lilly blossom amongst you and the Vine flourish and the tender Grapes appear yes verily And this I further testifie That while you kept your first Simplicity and your first Faith and Love you were Beautiful and Comely and Lovely in the Eyes of the Lord and he took great Delight in you and exercis'd Judgment Mercy and Loving-kindness amongst you in which many did greatly Rejoyce and your Faith was every where spoken of amongst the Churches of Christ and many did greatly Rejoyce because of you for you were Honourable and lovely in the Hearts of the People of God every where and you were even a Crown of Rejoycing unto us who had laboured amongst you and travell'd for your sakes But alas A contrary spirit hath since entred amongst some of you with which we have not Unity nor Fellowship the Report of which hath brought Sadness upon the Hearts of many But those who have given place to the Envious-One must bear their own Burden for their Judgment and Condemnation slumbreth not but will swiftly come upon them Wherefore my dear Ftiends all Be you retir'd in your minds unto the Light by which you were first convinced of the Truth and which gave you then to see the Error of your Wayes and which led you into Love Peace and Good-will one towards another and towards all men and to eschew the appearance of Evil And as you all in this Light come singly to wait upon the Lord in your first Love Simplicity and Integrity you will plainly and clearly see what it is that hath entred and how it entred that hath been the cause of all those Tumults and Contentions and Divisions which of late hath happen'd and been amongst you and as it s seen with the Light and discover'd thereby unto you or any of you let it by the Life be judged from amongst you and therein wait that you may be purged from all Filthiness both of Flesh and Spirit And be tenderly affectionated one towards another in the Truth not with a feigned Love or a feigned Affection for that God hates But let Love be without Dissimulation abhorring that which is Evil in all and cleaving to that which is Good And be Open-Hearted one towards another not Strange and Staightned and Simply and Honestly confess your Faults to each other and pray for one another and the Lord will have Mercy upon the Transgressors and will heal their Backslidings and blot out their Iniquities and will again love them freely and so you will re-gain the Favour Love and Good-will of God unto you and we shall again be comforted in you after these our Sorrows and Grief of Heart because of the Divisions and Spoilings that have been amongst you for our Joy is in your Prosperity and Well-being and our Rejoying is in your Comfort and Refreshment and Preservation and Safety Wherefore my Friends Keep your Eye alwayes upon that Mark which first you pressed after when you receiv'd the Truth and obey'd the Gospel and in that straight and narrow Way of Holiness which was then made known unto you every one still press towards this Mark and have perfect Charity amongst your selves as in the time of your first Simplicity And then you will feel the Lords wonted Goodness and Loving-kindness shed abroad in your Hearts and he will water you with the Dew of Heaven and will bless you with all Spiritual Blessings from above and he will then own you for his own
spirit which would exercise Lordship over another for that is not the serving Spirit that is to be submitted unto which begetteth into Love Meekness and Gentleness but that spirit will rather beget a Root of Bitterness which may defile many and therefore not to be heeded But the Love being dwelt in which vaunteth not it self nor seeketh its own but anothers good that begets its own likeness and in this you will stir up and provoke one another to Love and to good and charitable Works and then by you the Gospel of God will be adorn'd and you will have his Blessing and Peace in your hearts which is of more Value and greater Price with the Upright in Heart then all the Pleasure of sin or Gain of Oppression And so by your Stedfastness Faithfulness Sincerity and Simplicity in the Truth you will even engage and provoke the Lord to appear on your behalfs and to plead your Cause with your Adversaries and to shorten the dayes of the Wicked for your sakes And so the Almighty God of Love and Peace be with you all and multiply the Riches of his Grace Mercy and Peace unto you all that the Poor in Spirit may be enriched the Weak and Feeble strengthen'd and the Sincere in Heart established and confirmed And unto him alone I do commit and commend you all by whose Power and Love unfeigned I was at this time constrain'd to send this Epistle unto you to stir you up to Faithfulness Diligence and Zeal towards God and for his Cause in which my love towards you and my care for you is manifested in which I also kindly salute you in the Bowels of Christ Jesus whose Life is my Life and whose Love hath filled my heart in which I take my Solace and Rest From the Common Goal in Kendal the place of my Confinement for the Testimony of Jesus and for the Word of God this 18th of the 7th Moneth 1665. Your Dear Brother in the Tribulation Kingdom and Patience of Jesus Josiah Coale An EPISTLE To Friends The First general EPISTLE DEar and Everlastingly beloved Friends Brethren and Sisters whom in God s Holy Covenant and Power of an Endless Life my soul dearly loveth and to whom I am firmly joyned and united with the Spirit of the Living God which he hath sent into our hearts and by which we have been separated from the Wayes and Worships and vain Tradition of the World amongst whom in times past we had our Conversation and walked according to the Lust of Ignorance as other Gentiles did But now being separated from these things by the Power of an Endless Life and being redeem'd therefrom by the precious Blood of the Lamb without Spot And being made choice of to be a peculiar People unto God to serve him in our Generation and to be a Praise unto him therefore now my beloved Friends have Valour and Boldness and Courage every one in your Hearts and have the Loins of your minds girt about with Truth that you may be armed to fight the Lord's Battels and be able to stand in the Evil Day when you shall be tryed And be you found watching every one in the Light and Gift of the Spirit of the Lord God so will not that Day come upon any of you at unawares but you will be found fitted and prepared to with-stand or resist the Evil One in all his Wiles and Appearances so that he shall not touch or harm your precious Life for the Lord Almighty in whom you have believed and in whom our Trust and Confidence is he will renew your Strength and will be a Buckler unto you in the Day of Battel and there will be no Faintness of Heart nor Fear in your Way but the Mighty POWER of God you will feel by which you will be able to tread upon the Necks of your Enemies both within and without and tread Satan under Foot And so my Friends These things in short were in my Heart to write unto you in the full enjoyment of that Love with which you know right well we have oft been refreshed together assuring you all that the same Blessed Presence and Power and Love of God in which I have been amongst you and by which I have been called from amongst you to bear Testimony to the Blessed Name of the Lord by which we are called even to the Nations afar off is still continued with me in which Love this is farther in my Heart to say unto you although you may very well know it already yet that none may grow forgetful that God hath many Wayes to try the Faith of his People both inwardly and outwardly and oft-times suffereth the Enemy to work and exercise his power for that End and the Enemy will work very subtilly if possible to deprive you of your Peace with God But my Friends You keeping in the Power of an Endless Life with which God hath certainly visited you thereby your Understandings will be kept clear and your Hearts open towards God and there all the Wiles and Subtilties of the Enemy will be seen and discovered and he defy'd and rejected and trampled upon in the Eternal Power of God And herein you will be Victorious and Conquerers over all Temptations and over all Assaults of the Wicked one And herein you will have free Access to God and Boldness towards God and you will all meet at the Throne of Grace in the Unity of the Faith in which you will have Acceptance with the Lord. And here will be no Rent nor Division nor Striving of Spirits Nay that must not enter which would have the preheminence over others for that will cause Divisions but that must live in all and over all which will be Servant to all and therein are the Blessings of the Lord enjoyed and his Peace witnessed and he will fill your Hearts with his Love and cause his Heritage to flourish and will make you as a watered Garden whose Springs do not fail And now my Friends Consider what the Lord hath done for you Hath he done so for any other People upon the Earth or did he more for his People in any Age or Generation since the beginning then he hath done for us Or Are any able to speak more of the Wonders of the Lord and of the Greatness of his Work and of the Strangeness of his Act at this Day then we are who are accounted by the Uncircumcised but as the Off-scouring of all things Nay verily And therefore may it be said That us hath he known above all the Families of the Earth And this my Friends may engage all and constrain all to walk worthy of this matchless Love that the same with which he hath reached unto you and visited you may be continued unto you and may abound in you all one towards another that you may all know you are the Children of your Father which is in Heaven and in this you will be as Lights unto the World and as a
are of the Election of Grace and of the true Shepherds Fold whom it hath pleased my heavenly Father in his Love Life and Spirit to gather out of the World and to sepatate from amongst men to be the first fruits unto Him and to the LAMB in this Day of his Power and glorious Appearance and hath manifested his Power and reveal'd his glorious Arm of Strength in and amongst you and hath made known his blessed sweet refreshing Presence in the midst of you whereby you have been refreshed comforted and strengthened in the midst of many Trials Tribulations and Temptations which have been suffered to come upon you for the trial of your Faith since you were a People unto him and you know right well that he hath not been wanting unto you in any state or condition that you have been brought into as you abode faithful unto him And the mighty things which he hath done for you and the great delieverances which he hath brought unto you in the time when you were in great distress surely cannot be forgotten by you but is worthy to be had in everlasting remembrance And the things which you have seen of this kind and the endless loving-kindness of God unto you therein manifested is and I hope will be for ever sufficient to engage you to walk with the Lord in singleness and uprightness of heart that in all tryals of what nature or kind soever that you meet withal for the future time you may hold fast your testimony for him and your Faith and Confidence in him and be nothing daunted in your minds hearts nor spirits but in all things give up unto the Lord and resign up your Cause unto him alone and he will certainly plead for you in the hearts of your Enemies and they shall assuredly know that his controversie is very great with them for your sakes For he hath regard unto your sufferings and the Cryes and deep Groans of his Oppressed suffering Seed is continually before him and he is near to bring deliverance unto all who in patience and contentedness wait upon him and that trust in him with an upright and with a perfect heart Wherefore I say unto you all my beloved Friends Lambs and Babes of God be patient and therein wait upon God for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh and the day of a great deliverance is at hand wherein he will do and bring to pass such things which cannot be believed by many though they should be told unto them Therefore murmur not against the Lord in any wise because of these things which are come to pass and happened unto us nor because of the greatness of the rage of the Adversary for it is because he hath but a very short time and though you have born long and suffered much in divers kinds and the oppressive yoke of Antichrist is not yet removed nor taken away yet I say my Friends Fear not nor faint not in your minds but endure to the end in the Faith and Patience of Jesus and when the things determined shall be accomplished and the measure of iniquity shall be filled up then shall the day of a great deliverance come unto you and your eyes shall see Jerusalem a quiet habitation the praise of the whole Earth And then shall the Lord God Almighty be known to reign in the Kingdoms of Men and his Glory shall spread forth its self to the ends of the World and be declared of throughout all the Nations of the Earth and the Knowledge of God shall cover the Earth as the waters cover the Sea These sayings are faithful and true and things that must shortly come to pass and be fulfilled the Lord hath spoken it and blessed are all they who believe and obey the Word of the Gospel and wait for the fulfilling of these things Wherefore my dear Friends dwell low in God's Fear and in his Covenant of Light into which you are gathered and wait to receive his pure Divine Heavenly wisdom to order you and be you ordered thereby and that will keep you out of all extreams so that none will be lifted up above what is meet because of the Promises of God nor yet be cast down because of the threatnings of the Enemy that so you may neither turn aside to the right hand nor to the left but that you may walk on in the even way which is the path of peace and feel the Eternal Life which is of God to remain and abide in you so will you be kept fresh and lively in the beauty of Truth and Holiness and shine as Lights to the World For you are the Salt with which the Earth must be seasoned and with which all things must be salted to make it savory unto God and acceptable unto him For as the state of the World is in which they now lie they are unsavoury unto God and not at all a pleasant smell neither hath he any delight in their Sacrifices for even their prayers are abominable unto him and their solemn Assemblies he hath no pleasure in but his soul even loaths and abhors them and he will certainly work a Reformation is the Earth and he will beat down Babylon with a mighty blow and will bring a great desolation upon her and amongst her Merchants shall the noise of a great howling be heard and all her delicacies shall come to nought and all her costly attire the works of cunning Workmen shall be consumed for she is come into remembrance before the Lord and as she hath loved blood so must she have blood to drink for the Cup of God's Fury is already filled into the hands of the Saints of the Most High to pour out unto her And as she hath lived deliciously and glorified her self so much torment and sorrow must she have given unto her yea she shall have doubled unto her according to all her works and then shall the Saints Prophets and holy Apostles rejoyce over when God shall have avenged us on her And now my beloved Friends this I say unto you in and by the Spirit of the Lord That the time hastens and draweth nigh in which these things must be brought to pass yet nevertheless the things decreed and determined of the Lord must first be accomplished So that although the power of darkness hath been long working and doth still work as it were in a prevalent manner by which sufferings and tribulations are brought upon us yet I say it is by the permission of the hand of the Lord that these things are so and he hath an end in suffering it so to be and that for his own glory and who shall say him nay for so doing or reason with him about matters of so deep concernment seeing his way is hid from man and is not known unto any but only them unto whom he reveals it But this my Friends I know from the Lord That he hath an intent and purpose of good unto us thereby and
was puting himself upon nevertheless the King would not hearken unto Micaiah but commanded that he should be put in Prison and fed with the Bread of affliction and with the Water of affliction c. and hearkned unto the lying spirit that was in the mouthes of his many Prophets who prophesied smooth things unto him and by them this lying spirit prevailed and caused him to fall before the Host of the King of Assyria Well I say I could heartily wish that it may not be so with thy Rulers and Magistrates Oh Nation as it was with Ahab and that they have not so far provoked the Lord by Persecuting and sheding the Blood of the Innocent as to cause him to seal his Decree against them or any of them as he did against Ahab and I could wish that it might not prove so which I have cause to believe it will that he hath given permission to the lying spirit to go in the mouthes of thy Priests and Prophets to perswade thy Rulers to go on in this Antichristian Work of Persecuting the Innocent and harmless People of the Lord thereby to fill up the measure of their Fathers Iniquities that so he may be avenged on them But Oh that thy Rulers had hearkned unto the Counsel of those whom God sent unto them who came not for filthy Lucre nor with flattering Speeches but in the Name of the Lord declaring his Counsel in plainness and faithfulness for thy good but Alas instead of hearing their Counsel they have done unto them as Ahab did unto Micaiah even put them in Prison and fed them with the Bread and Water of affliction and thereby they have provoked the Lord of Hosts So that without all controversie as I said before if thy Rulers persist and go on following the Counsel of those false Prophets into whose mouthes the lying spirit is entred to perswade them that the way to remove or stop the present Visitation of Gods Judgments which is Revealed in the midst of thee is to be severe in Persecuting and Banishing his despised and harmless People out of thy Borders I say if their counsel be hearkned unto and obeyed therein that lying spirit will certainly thereby prevail and will cause them to fall and none shall help them and they shall be broken with a perpetual breath and none shall bind them up Wherefore hearken unto this ye Heads and Rulers of the Nation of England the Land of my Nativity be not Proud nor stout hearted against the Lord but fear and dread the Almighty God of Heaven and Earth for he hath certainly a Controversie with you and he will not at all regard the lofty looks nor your proud Carriage for he will be reverenced wherefore humble your selves in Dust and Ashes in his presence you who have not quite sinn'd out your Day and put on Sack-cloth before him if so be there may be hope lest he break you in pieces as a Potters Vessel of Clay and there be none to save you And thus Oh England I have briefly and faithfully declared unto thee thy state and condition according as God shewed it unto me and the cause of thy present Calamities and of the future Judgments that threatens themselves and also the way in which they may in a great measure be prevented and the hot displeasure and indignation of the Lord be appeased in which thy Rulers may likewise see the state and danger they are in But yet I know many will not hear nor regard at all untill their desolation come upon 〈◊〉 yet nevertheless I shall be clear in that I have discharged my Conscience unto them from time to time according as God required me 〈…〉 if they perish in their gain sayings and 〈◊〉 neckedness their blood will be upon themselves and upon them who caused them to err Postscript WHen the good will and loving kindness of God who wills not the death nor destruction of any hath been largely manifested unto a rebellious and stiff-necked Generation of people in striving with them by his good Spirit and when he hath oft reach'd unto them with the visitation of his Love and called unto them by the mouthes of his Servants Prophets and Messengers to repent and turn every one from his evil way that they might be healed and find mercy with the Lord and yet they will have no regard thereunto but refuse to be reformed and continue still in their rebellion against the Light of his good Spirit in their hearts and despise hate persecute and despitefully use the Servants and Messengers of God whom in tender mercy love and good will he sent unto them I say after the long suffering and loving kindness of God hath been so largely and on this wise manifested unto a rebellious and stiff-necked people who so evilly requite his love to them is it not then justice in the Lord to cease striving with them and to give them up to hardness of heart and to seal his Decree against them in his wisdom to find out a way that their eyes may be closed and their hearts hardned least they should see and understand and be converted and healed that so it may come upon them according to that Prophetical saying of Solomon viz. He that oft-times is reproved and stiffneth his neck shall suddenly be cut off and that without remedy Wherefore now consider Oh Nation of England is not this the very state of many of thy Inhabitants at this day hath not the love and good will of God been largely manifested to them in that he hath long strove with them by his good Spirit in their hearts and hath not his immortal Word of Life been plentifully declared amongst them even to the uttermost of thy borders every way hath it not been line upon line and precept upon precept unto them even by the mouthes of his faithful Servants and Prophets whose cry in thy Streets hath oft and long been Turn ye turn ye from your evil wayes why will die c And did they not declare that Gods dreadful Judgments were nigh to be revealed upon them that would not repent and turn from the Abominations against which they testified But alas few at all had regard thereunto but many lookt upon it as an idle Tale or as a whimsical Imagination and refused to hear and fear even as Jerusalem did in the day when Christ would have gathered her and therefore now in the Justice of God is his Decree gone forth and sealed against many of them as it was against Jerusalem and his righteous Judgments which was threatned and prophesied of by his Servants and Hand-maids is begun to be revealed amongst them and in the midst thereof he hath in his wisdom found out a way to blind their Eyes and to stop their Ears and to harden their Hearts least they should see and hear and understand and be converted and healed for as Job said He taketh away the perfect and the wicked and because it is so
therefore she is infallible I answer He hath not at all confirmed that by any proof neither hath he any farther proof than his own affirmation except he would produee that saying of the Mother of Harlots viz. I sit as a Queen and am no Widdow and shall see no sorrow Rev. 18.7 And indeed that would be a very pittiful Argument to prove the Church of Rome infallible but none other can he produce except he could first prove her to be the true Church which he is never able to do his best Argument by which he hath undertaken it being already confuted Therefore we have no more cause to believe his Affirmation than we have to believe the sayings of the forementioned Mother of Harlots for they are both alike to us and though she said she should see no sorrow yet John who was in the Spirit of the Lord said that in one day her Desolation should come Rev. 18.8 And although A. S. saith That the Church of Rome shall alwayes remain to the end of the World yet I say in the Name of the Lord and by the same Spirit that John was in That the one day of which John spake is already dawned in which the Desolation of that Great Whore the Church of Rome shall come and as surely as when Sodom was overthrown the Cities round about it were overthrown also 2 Pet. 2.9 Jude ver 7. so certainly when this great City Babylon is overthrown and made desolate the Suburbs thereof shall be overthrown and made desolate also The Mouth of the Lord hath spoken it and therefore she must fail in her Prophesies and cease in her Beeing which as A. S. saith the true Church cannot Fourthly And farther the Church of Rome is variable in her Judgments as the diversities of Councels that she hath held concerning matters of Faith beareth witness for the following General Counsel hath oft-times excluded that which was concluded on by the former and surely both cannot be infallible they being quite contradictory one to the other Read the 15th chapter of F. H. his Book entituled THE GLORY OF THE TRUE CHURCH DISCOVERED c. wherein the contradictions of the General Counsels which the Church of Rome hath held are sufficiently made manifest so that I need not trouble my self to insert them here and thereby its evident enough that the Church of Rome is not infallible Fifthly Again if A. S. or any other could prove that the Church of Rome had alwayes remained since Christs time yet as aforesaid that is not a sufficient Argument to prove her infallible or that she cannot fail nor cease For consider the Dragon that old Serpent called the Devil who was a Murtherer from the beginning who gave power to the Beast that carries the Whore that drinks the Saints blood that said she should see no sorrow was before the dayes of Christ's appearance in the flesh yet the Dragon is not infallible But the Church of Rome is upheld by the Murtherer or carried by the Dragons power in the Beast as the Murthers acted by her beareth witness therefore she is no more infallible than the Dragon is Seventhly And as to the 7th part of A. S. his Argument wherein he saith The True Church is inerrable and then saith that the Church of Rome is this inerrable True Church for all the Sectaries Schismaticks and Hereticks in the World saith he could never yet shew wherein she erred nor ever shall Therefore she is inerrable Answ 1. I answer although the Hereticks could not prove that the Church of Rome hath erred yet there are many who are members of the true Church of which Christ is Head and supreme Governour alone that can prove wherein she hath erred and doth still grosly err from the Doctrine Practice and Discipline of the true Church as it stood in the Apostles dayes for the Apostle in his dayes said Let every man be fully perswaded in his own Conscience Rom. 14.5 and did not go about to force People to conform to such things that they were not perswaded of in their consciences nor to compel them by outward Laws to conform thereunto but the Church of Rome doth not admit that every one should walk or act according as they are perswaded in their own Consciences but goes about by outward Laws to compel them to conform to that which she calls her holy Ordinances and Institutions which many for conscience sake towards Gods dare not conform to because they know them to be invented Idolatries and they who cannot for Conscience sake submit to her Impositions or drink of her Cup of Abominations then to be sure she will drink their Blood Witness the Blood she hath drunk for above this thousand years past of them that could not for Conscience sake towards God conform to her Ordinances And therefore she hath erred from that Spirit which was in the true Church and from the Apostles Doctrine and is still in the Error Secondly In the true Church in the Apostles dayes every one as he had received the Gift of the Spirit of God so he might Administer 1 Pet. 4.10 and the Prophets might speak two or three and if any thing was revealed to him that stood by he might speak and the first should be silent 1 Cor. 14.29 30 31. But this is not the order of the Church of Rome as is sufficiently manifested to all Christendom therefore she hath erred from the Apostles Spirit and Order and is still in the Error And thus I might produce many more Arguments to shew wherein the Church of Rome hath erred and doth err only my desire is to be as brief as may be so that satisfaction may be given for which I doubt not but this is sufficient as to that particular 8. And as concerning Miracles in the true Church I do confess and bear witness that there are Miracles wrought in her daily but that all Miracles are an Argument sufficient to prove a people to be the true Church that I do not acknowledge but deny For First the Magicians of Egypt could by their Sorceries or Inchantments imitate those things in the sight of the Egyptians that Moses and Aaron did by the Power of God Exod. 8.7 and the false Prophet he wrought lying Miracles before the Beast that carries the Whore insomuch that he caused fire to come down out of Heaven in the sight of men Rev. 13.13 14. and chap. 19. ver 20. And this the Whore might have said was done in confirmation of her faith doctrines as A. S. doth yet nevertheless it was done by the Dragons power who was a Murderer from the beginning For he gave power to the Beast that carries the Whore to do such things Rev. 13.2 and therefore the Miracles in the Church of Rome if now there be any is no infallible evidence to prove her to be the true Church Well 2. But then it may be some will say that this is harsh judgment and how can you tell but
shall they believe in him whom not of whom as their Bible saith of purpose to excuse themselves See above they have not heard or how shall they hear without a Preacher or how shall they Preach unless they are sent 4. Note this well gentle Reader and consider seriously with your self how deplorable a thing it is to see such Hypocritical Intruders to stand in a Pulpit or Tub with such a brazenfac'd Book as is their unjust corrupt and perverse Bible in their hand lulling the Poor Ignorant people to the sleep of death with these words Thus saith the Lord when the Lord saith no such thing Are not these they of whom the Lord himself saith Jer. 14.14 They prophesie falsly in my Name I sent them not and I did not bid them neither did I speak unto them a lying vision and divination and fraudulence and sedition of their own hearts they prophesie unto you See more Dent. 13.5 Item 18.20 c. And when they have done with their Thus saith the Lord and can say no more then they rowse up their slumbering spirits by singing unto them one of Tho. Sternholds Jack Hopkins or Rob. Wisdoms Psalms suppose From Turk and Pope c. which Sacrilegious Psalm or Diabolical Song passeth with these Deluders and their deluded Auditors and Chorists for holy Scripture and the Word of God as well as Dixit Dominus Domino meo c. Oh times Oh manner Oh God amend them Amen See Erastus senior and jun. who copiously prove this Subject The Last Testimony OF That Faithful Servant of the Lord and Minister of Jesus Christ RICHARD FARNSWORTH Whereunto is prefixed a brief Testimony concerning his Life Death and Travels c. To which is added a few words of Exhortation unto those that believe in the Light of the Lamb. Published for the Consolation of the Houshold of Faith and for the stopping of that Mouth which is open'd in Blasphemy against God his Tabernacle and them that dwell in Heaven FOrasmuch as it hath pleased God Almighty after the long Night of woful gross Darkness Apostacy and Ignorance which hath been over the Nations amongst those who have had a Profession of Christianity again to make known and manifest the true new and living way which leads unto Life Eternal even by and through the Revelation and Operation of his Eternal Power and Word of Life in the hearts of a Remnant whom in this our day he first reached unto and visited and raised up to be Witnesses thereof that by them it might be born Testimony unto amongst those who were strangers to it and that thirsted after it that so thereby they also might receive the manifestation and knowledge thereof for want of which many perish and are strangers to the way of Life having only at best a Form of godlyness without the Power In which dead Forms or outside empty Professions some are at ease and rest as though they were in the true Heaven that should never pass away and some are at rest and at ease without any profession living in all uncleanness unrighteousness and abomination and some cannot find rest in either The faithful and true Witness of God being awakened in their Hearts and Consciences which takes the false peace from them and lets them see the emptiness of all outside professions which are without Life and Power and also the Abominations and vanities of the World and makes sin exceeding sinful to them And by this true and faithful Witness are desires and breathings and pantings begotten in their hearts after the Knowledge of God and Christ after fellowship and acquaintance with the Father and the Son which desire cannot be satisfied without the Knowledge and enjoyment of the Presence of the Lord and of the Light of his Countenance And for this cause many run to and fro and wander like Sheep gone astray from the true Shepherds Fold and are wearying themselves upon the barren Mountains in vain looking thereunto for Salvation and seeking the Living amongst the Dead and so spend their labour for that which doth not satisfie And in these several states and conditions aforesaid the whole Christian World lieth who are not turned to the Light and Spirit of Jesus in themselves and true rest and salvation cannot be found by them until they return to the Light and Power of the Spirit of God in their own hearts which is that whereby a dislike of sin is begotten in them and also desires after Life and Salvation and Freedom from sin is thereby begotten and that is it alone which can answer every desire which is begotten by its self Well But when it pleased the Lord to reveal the Son of his Love and to make known his eternal Power in these latter dayes for the rending of the Vail of Darkness that had long been over the heart by which he caused the Light to shine out of Darkness which gives the Knowledge of his own Glory he did not then give the knowledge and manifestation thereof unto all People but he chose certain Witnesses whom he raised up to declare of the manifestation of this Power and to preach the Word of Life nigh in the Heart and in Mouth and he furnished them with Armour of Righteousness and with all spiritual Weapons which were mighty through him to break down the strong holds of Iniquity and the spiritual wickednesses that were in the high places and impowred them as Instruments in his hand to turn many from Darkness to the Light that the Salvation of God they might come to see and the Work of God greatly prospered in their hands and multitudes were brought to the acknowledgment of the Truth to the saving of their Souls and though they met with great opposition and persecutions by the Emissaries of Sathan even in all Quarters where they came yet that was not prevalent to hinder the prosperity of that Work whereunto they were called of God but it still prospered and doth still prosper to the spreading of the unchangeable Truth abroad even as is seen at this day And of this number whom God Almighty at the first raised up by his Power for this Work aforesaid the late deceased Richard Farnsworth was one concerning whom the chief occasion of this my present writing is that so a Testimony concerning him and of what the Lord did by and through him may remain upon Record for Generations to come and that this present Generation of the Just may see and hear his last Testimony which proceeded from his own mouth a little before his departure out of the body and I doubt not but thereby the Consolation and spiritual Comfort of the Houshold of Faith will be added unto And for these Causes I could not well rest satisfied in my spirit without taking in hand to publish these things though I well know that there are many living Witnesses that knew the Life Labours and Travels of the said R. F. who are the Seal of his Ministry And also
to undo the heavy burthens and let the oppressed go free and turn the sword against the Evil-doers and suppress vice and profaneness and do not tollerate licenciousness and those wicked practises as rioting and drunkenness stage playes and the like which day by day even greatly abounds in your Streets while the Servants of the Lord lie in noisom Holes and Prisons And give liberty of Conscience unto the People of God to Worship him which is the main thing that I contend with you for that the Servants of the Lord may have free liberty to labour for the reducing of People from those afore-mentioned and all other vices which tends to the destruction of youth and to the destroying both of Soul and Body and this is the way for you if there be any to purchase the good will and favour of God and to be established in safety and security in your Government and if any who are self-seekers and time-servers shall for self-ends counsel you otherwayes such you shall know in the day of the Lord are evil counsellors and ought not to be received by you but denied And Friends one thing more I would present to your consideration which hath been oft laid before you in times past and as oft forgotten by you that is this What hath been the ground and original cause of all the late over-turnings which hath been in this Nation if it be rightly weighed and considered will it not appear that cruelty and oppression of mens Consciences in matters relating to the Service of God was the main original cause thereof I confess I cannot but marvel you should be so blinded with your present prosperity that you cannot see and consider these things and labour to avoid that which was the cause of their overthrow and ruine that are gone before you but to run on so head-long and inconsiderate as though you were hasting with desire to bring the wrath of God upon you For mark Friends When did any escape the hand of God in any Age or Generation or Where were any established in safety that took in hand this work of oppression and persecuting the Seed of God and his People consider from Pharaoh that great oppressor unto this day and you will find that in all Ages this work of persecuting and oppressing the People of God was the very cause of the overthrow and ruine of the Persecutors as for instance The great persecution and cruelty that was exercised by the then Powers of the Nation in Queen Maries dayes What was the issue thereof was it not the very overthrow and rooting out of that persecuting Power and Religion and Faith c And do not their names who exercised that cruelty remain as an ill savour unto all sober People truly fearing God unto this day And could they by all their tyranny then exercised root out or extinguish that Faith and Religion that they then struck at Nay they could not though it was but as I may say the beginning of Reformation and coming out of the Apostacy but its true indeed they killed destroyed and murthered many but blessed be the Lord that did not shake the rest so as to make them fall but rather establish them And certainly Friends although you should be permitted as they were to destroy many of us by your Laws and Decrees made or to be made yet you cannot thereby destroy the faith of others neither can you possibly accomplish your desire nor root out the holy Seed which is now sprung and risen and must replenish Nations and cause the desolate places to be inhabited though indeed you may thereby root out and destroy your selves which is sad to consider So Friends much more might be said unto you and many sound reasons and arguments might be produced to convince you how unsafe it is for you to persevere in this Work of persecution and cruelty but I know you will many of you if not most of you kick against it and harden your hearts and will not believe wherefore I have chosen rather to be as brief as may be only to discharge my conscience unto you in the sight of the Lord that I may be clear of your blood and so shall conclude even with a few words telling you That this work which you have begun and put your hands unto will be too hard for you for when did ever any yet rise up against the Lord and prosper or do you think to prevail against the Ancient of dayes although your Predecessors could not Oh nay it cannot be But then you will say that it is not the Work of God that you oppose but Heresie and Sedition c. I answer so said your Predecessors the Persecutors in all Generations when they slew the Prophets and Crucified the Son of God and persecuted the Apostles they charged them with Blasphemy and Sedition and Turners of the World up-side down and said The Earth was not able to bear them c. Yet that would not be a sufficient excuse for them in the day when God took vengance neither will it be a sufficient excuse for you in the day when you must all without respect of persons give an account unto God for all your deeds done in the body wherefore beware least that come upon you which was spoken by the Prophet of old saying Behold ye Despisers and wonder and perish for I work a work in your dayes which you can in no wise believe though a man declare it unto you I am a Friend to the whole Creation of God and have the mind of the Spirit of the Lord who wills not the Deather Destruction of any but rather that all should return and live J. C. Written at Kingston upon Thames the 5th of the 9th Moneth 1664. ENGLANDS SAD ESTATE LAMENTED AND HER Abominations DISCOVERED Which are the Cause of the present Visitation of God's Judgments upon her Inhabitants In which also is declared the True Only and Alone Way by which the future Judgments threatned may be escaped Wherein also the Rulers of the Nation may see their State and perceive the Danger they are in OH England England the Land of my Nativity who art full of Abominations and whose sin hath reached Heaven how art thou filled with pride and oppression persecutions and cruelty and all kinds of Abomination aboundeth in thee How hath the cry of the oppressed been heard in thy streets and still is and yet those who are in power to relieve them have turned away their ears and have had no regard thereunto but have feignedly made many fair Promises in times past of freedom and liberty from those oppressive Antichristian yoaks and burdens that have long been laid upon the tender Consciences of Gods people But alas they have had little regard to their engagements but have hitherto dealt deceitfully and treacherously with the Lord and his People and the bonds of iniquity are still standing and instead of breaking of them according to the requirings of
men their wandering and tossings to and fro with every Wind or Tempest that hath arised in this Nation been evidently enough seen in this our Generation yea surely all who are not wilfully blind cannot but perceive how not long since they preached up the Common-Prayer-Book seemingly with a great zeal as though Salvation was not to be attained without Conformity thereunto but no sooner did the windy tempest arise which blew that away and the then Powers of the Nation by whom it was upheld and which these men swore for and prayed for c came to be subdued and the Church Faith and Directory come to be set up in its stead but presently they were turned or driven about with the tempest and wandered from the Comnon-Prayer-Book and swore against the King and House of Lords by whom it was upheld and whom before they prayed and swore for and began to swear for the Common-Wealth and to preach up the Church Faith and Directory with as much seeming zeal as before they had done the other And now again since the tempest hath risen and the wind hath blown another way and their Church Faith of which Christ was not the Author and Directory hath faln thereby and the Common-Prayer-Book again set up in its old place they are persently wandered back again to that and driven about thither preaching of it up and praying and swearing for King and house of Lords whom they formerly preached and prayed and swore against and these things they do with as impudent faces many of them as though they had never varied from it Oh hypocritical treacherous deceitful hearted Generation who shall believe them to be Messengers or Ministers of God that have no more stability with them truly their very actions in turning and tossing and wandering to and fro hath sufficiently declared them to be without any true foundation and who shall conside in them for the time to come that are so variable have we not ground to believe that they will turn to the old Mass or to the Turk's Alcharon or any thing that the Powers of the Nation shall countenance surely they who believe better then so of them will be deceived by many or most of them as many have been already in times past for although they feignedly appear as such who should take care and watch for the Soul yet we experimentally see that they seek for their own gain and indeed they serve not the Lord Jesus Christ but their own bellies for their fruits declare that they will Murder as they have done many for their Bellies And although they flatter with the King and thy Rulers Oh England as though they sought and study'd their Well-fare and Safety and would counsel them for their Establishment and Security yet they are a treacherous Generation and it is not safe for the King to trust then for they have an End unto themselves in most or all that they do and their own Interest is concern'd in most of their Enterprizes for they are Lovers of their own selves and of Pleasures more then of God as the King and his Council may easily see if they consider it and take an inspection into it And let me tell the King and his Council this by the way together with the rest of thy Rulers Oh England That if they hearken to the Counsel of these Self-seeking and Time serving-men who are Wandring Stars and Clouds driven with Tempests as afore is declar'd I say if they follow these Blind Guides and hearken to their Counsel so as to be sway'd by them and become their Vassels to fulfil their Blood-thirsty Desires in Prosecuting Banishing and making Havock of the People of God then in the end they will certainly fall into the Ditch of Everlasting Destruction and Perpetual Shame and Contempt out of which there is no recovery and then shall they know that God hath spoken by me and that a Prophet of the Lord hath been amongst them Wherefore Oh Nation and you Inhabitants thereof let my Counsel be acceptable unto you at this time that if possible so many of you who have not quite sinn'd out your Day and have yet any Tenderness of Heart left in you towards God may come to find a Hiding-place from the Wrath to come For if the aforesaid crying Sins and Abominations which your Teachers are a great Cause of as afore-shew'd are continu'd in then utter Destruction and Desolation must and will unavoidably come upon you Wherefore hearken not to them who tell you that you cannot be made free from Sin while you remain in this Body but hearken to the Voice of God who is Light and who searcheth your Hearts and declareth the Secrets thereof unto you by his Faithful and True Witness which he hath placed in your Consciences and which calls out of Sin and Transgression for if you are in the Light and walk in the Light wherewith you are enlightened the Blood of Jesus Christ will clense you from all Sin and Wash you from all Iniquity as the Apostle testified Neither lend an Ear to them who stir you up to Persecute the Innocent for the exercise of their Consciences towards God in his Worship for they cause you to Err and to Transgress the Royal Law of God which saith Whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you even so do ye unto them and thereby you will purchase the displeasure of the Lord against your selves as many have already done which will not easily be appeased Wherefore save your selves from this untoward Generation of false Prophets who cause you to Err and who make a prey upon you and Come out from amongst them and be seperate from them and Touch not the unclean thing or any thing whatsoever that will defile the Conscience but break off your Sins and all kind of Iniquities by speedy Repentance and by true submission to Gods faithfull Witness his Spirit of Grace in your inward parts which will Teach you as it did the Saints of Old and as it doth us that denying Ungodliness and Worldly Lusts you should live Soberly Righteously and Godly in this present World for there is not another way to escape the Righteous and Dreadful Judgments of the Lord which are already begun to be Revealed upon thy Inhabitants Oh England but only by turning to the Lord with their whole hearts and by truly humbling themselves before him and by learning obedience to the Gift of his Spirit which hath long strived with them for it is not an out-side Profession that will serve turn the Lord hath been long grieved therewith already and many have soared aloft above the Measure of the Gift of the Spirit of God into an airy Profession of high things but have not had the Life of what they have Professed only have made their Profession a Cloak for their Wickedness many of them and thereby the Spirit of the Lord is and hath been grieved and he is now arisen to lay open their Madness
that their Shame may appear of which he sent them a Sign before-hand and now all false Foundations shall be discovered and all false coverings shall be ript of and all outside Professions shall wither for God is Risen to Fan the Nations and to Winnow them and he will separate betwixt the Wheat and the Chaff and he will gather the Wheat into his Gardner and the Chaff shall be burnt with unquenchable fire and wo be unto them that are covered and not with the covering of the Spirit of the Lord. Therefore let every one humble themselves under the hand of God which is now stretched out in Judgment and mind the simplicity that was in Christ Jesus who made himself of no reputation but humbled himself and then will the lofty aspiring mind be kept down which otherwise will be aspiring after and intrudeing into things above its reach and will neglect to be obedient to those small things which are made known and this hath been and still is the state of the greatest part of people professing Christianity But as I said before that will not serve their turn nor give people acceptance with the Lord for then had God been highly pleased with this Generation but contrary wise it hath provoked him to wrath and to visit them with his judgment that thereby they may be humbled whereby they may perceive that humiliation in life and godliness of Conversation and a righteous upright walking with the Lord is of greater acceptation with the Lord then all outside shews and empty professions whatsoever Therefore at last amendment of life is the matter and a close walking with the Lord in his Covenant of Light according to the appearance thereof is the thing that must bring people into favour and peace and acceptance with the Lord for this I perceive that God is no respecter of persons neither will he regard them because of their profession nor yet because of their greatness for of him are all things but in every Nation he that feareth God and worketh Righteousness is accepted of him Neither is it your many Prayers that he hath regard unto while rebellion against his Spirit with envy and murder against his people lodgeth in your hearts and those acts of violence towards them are in your hand for saith he When you make many Prayers I will not hear for your hands are full of Blood No more will your fastings at all remove the present Visitation of his Judgments from amongst you nor cause Health to spring unto you while you Fast as you do at this day that is as your Fruits declare for Strife and Debate and to Smite the People of God with the Fist of Wickedness which is the Fast that was forbidden of God Isai 58 4. in which you do according to your confession the things that you ought not to do and you likewise leave undone as you say the things that you ought to do that is to keep the Fast which the Lord hath chosen which is to loose the Bonds of Wickedness and to undo the heavy Burdens that is laid upon Gods People and upon the Seed of God in your selves and to let the Oppressed go free from those Sufferings that you inflict upon them and that you break every Unrighteous Yoak for this is the Fast that you ought to keep and these are things that you ought to do in order to the staying of the present hand of Judgment which is stretched forth which indeed you leave undone and therefore as you say you have no health in you but if you would keep the Commands of God that is not to Fast as you do this day which is to Smite with the Fist of Wickedness but if you would study to be quiet and as much as in you lies to have Peace with all Men and would keep the Fast which the Lord hath chosen that is to loose the Bonds of Wickedness and to undo the heavy Burdens and set the Oppressed free and wouldst deal thy Bread to the hungry and bring the Poor that are cast out into thy House and when thou seest the Naked that thou cloath them and that thou hide not thy self from thine own flesh then would the Promise of God which he is not slack concerning be soon fulfilled unto thee Oh Nation for then should thy light break forth as the Morning and thine health should spring forth speedily thy Righteousness should go before thee and the Glory of the Lord should be thy Rereward then thou shouldest call and the Lord would answer thou should'st cry and he would say here am I for he is faithful that Promised and these are his faithful and true Promises which is not fulfilled unto thee Oh Nation because thou doest those things as aforesaid which thou ought not to do and leaves undone those things which thou ought to do and this is the cause that thine health doth not spring forth and that thine Inhabitants have no health in them Oh England England How incurable is thy Wound must many of thy mighty Men perish or fall before thy breach can be made up through hearkning to the voice of an Adulteress whose feet abides not in her house Prov. 7.11 and through taking counsel of a whorish Woman who hath corrupted the Earth with the abundance of her Fornications and Enchanted and Bewitched the Inhabitants thereof with her Sorceries and by whom many mighty Men have already fallen as Solomon said Prov. 7.26 Well but must she be the cause of the fall of many in this our day also Oh my heart is even broken within and I am even very sorely afflicted because of the consideration of these things What will not thy great Men and Rulers hearken to the Counsel of the Lord that they may be healed but hearken to the voice of a Harlot whose wayes are so moveable that they cannot be known Prov. 5.6 and who causeth all to Perish that she compasseth within her Habitation Prov. 2.19 Well I could wish that if it were the Will of the Lord it might not happen unto them as it did unto Ahab of Old who had provoked the Lord and by the false Accusation of the sons of Belial caused the Blood of Innocent Naboth to be shed until his Decree was sealed against him which caused him to say Who shall perswade Ahab that he may go up and fall at Ramoth Gilead 1 Kings 22.20 and there came forth a spirit and stood before the Lord and said I will perswade him and the Lord said unto him Wherewith and he said I will go forth and be a Lying spirit in the mouthes of all his Prophets and the Lord said Thou shalt perswade him and prevail also go forth and do so So the lying spirit went in the mouthes of his Prophets and perswaded him by them to go on in the thing that he desired But Micaiah the true Prophet of the Lord told the King in faithfulness what would be the issue of that Interprize that he
the Name of the Lord and for God that the Spirit of Christ doth not nor never did admit or allow of persecution or of destroying mens lives about Worship and Faith towards God neither are any of them true Christians whatsoever they profess that are found so doing For it is not a bare profession of Christ and of zeal for his cause and crying up Ordinances c. that makes people true Christians or that gives them acceptance with God or will make them well-pleasing unto God But that which makes a man a true Christian is his obedience unto that Spirit which baptizeth into the true Faith by which Righteousness is wrought Heb. 11.33 and into Christ who is the Author of faith and will bring him to have the mind of Christ as the true Christians had and will make him partaker of his divine nature and will teach him to live soberly righteously and godly in this present World and to do to all men as he would they should do unto him which is according to the Law and Prophets that Christ came to fulfil And indeed there is nothing that can bring a man into this true Christian state but only the working and operation of the Spirit of Christ in his inward parts which all ought to obey and submit unto For the persecuting Jews who were uncircumcised in heart and ears and did alwaies resist the holy Ghost they professed as great Zeal for God and his Cause as the Apostate Christians now do and they look'd for the coming of the Messiah of whom all the Prophets prophesied and professed they would Adore him and Reverence him c. and said That if they had been in the dayes of their Fathers they would not have slain the Prophets Mat. 23.31 who prophesied of the coming of Christ and so they had seemingly a great Zeal for God and his Truth But alas a Murdering spirit was found in them for notwithstanding they professed That they would not have kill'd the Prophets yet they kill'd the Son who was the end of the Prophets And although the Prophets signified the Time when Dan. 9.24 and the Place where the Messiah should be born Mic. 5.2 yet when he was come according to the Prophets which they profest these Professing Jews would not own him nor receive him John 1.11 because he reprov'd their Hypocrisie and their Murdering spirit John 8.40 but they Crucified and Slew Him And this is the very State of the Apostate Christians this day For who is there now amongst them but will profess as great Love to Christ as the Jews in Christ's dayes did to the Prophets who prophesied of him and who is there now among'st them but will say Had we been in Pilate's dayes 〈◊〉 would not have crucified Christ nor delivered him up to be crucified as the Jews said of the Prophets yet notwithstanding their so saying they do as the Jews did for now in this day of his spiritual appearance which they profess they look for and expect they are found persecuting of him in his Members under the sam̄e pretence that the Jews persecuted him in their day viz. as a Blasphemer c. And so the Persecutors were in all ages blinded by the godd of the World who was a murtherer from the beginning and though they could see the iniquities of their fathers and predecessors in persecuting and killing the Prophets yet the envy of their hearts was such that they could not see their own iniquities in persecuting and slaying the Son who was greater than the Servants whom their fathers slew so as I said before it is not a profession of Christ and his Ordinances or zeal for his cause that makes people true Christians neither is God Worshipped upon any of those mountains where the persecuting and destroying one another is but the Worship of God consisteth in obedience to that Spirit of Truth which condemns all those works of darkness and cruelty and in his own Mountain of Holiness where nothing hurts nor destroys Isa 11.9 And such is the Father now seeking to worship him that will worship him there and is now gathering his Sheep from off the barren Mountains upon which the Whore sits where they have been scattered in the dark and cloudy day of Anchrist's reign and where the Wars and Fightings are even to his own Holy Mountain where they shall learn war no more Isa 2.4 And this is the work that the Envious and Murtherous one opposeth and bestirs himself with all his force and might in his Instruments of Cruelty and Men of War arming of them with all kind 〈◊〉 weapons that possibly he can form to fight against this Appearance and Work of God for so it hath been that since we who are reproachfully called Quakers were raised up to be a people to bear Testimony for the Name of the Lord and of the working of his Spirit and Power we have alwayes been even as a Butt for all the Archers of Babylon even from every Mountain to shoot at and our sufferings have not been only in our persons and estates as the spoyling of our goods and scourgings and cruel mockings and imprisonments many unto death as this Nation to her anguish must be made to know but even all sorts of Babylons Merchants or they that trades in every part of her or within her Subburbs have oft made it their business to write and print against us endeavouring thereby as much as in them lay to render us odious to our own Nation and to Nations about us under pretence that we were Papists and Jesuits and that we propagated Jesuitical Principles c. but they being almost if not altogether weary of that work finding it to be to no purpose for the truth which we profess hath still got ground and flourisheth through all these things now at last the Papists or Jesuits themselves who I perceive have a secret hope of a day once more in this Nation they begin to put out their heads and to print against us and so both Protestants and Papists even every head and horn of the Beast after whom the whole World wonders are found pushing against the Lamb and the Saints Rev. 17.14 For of late a certain Pamphlet accidentally came to my hands written by a perfect Roman Catholick who subscribed his name A. S. in which he seems to shew himself sensible of the great distractions that are throughout the whole Christendom about the true way of worship and concerning the true Church and first states a Question viz. which is this Church c. and afterwards makes it his business to prove the Church of Rome to be this true Church and that by divers Arguments by him stated in a Syllogistical manner And I also finding the Author of the aforesaid Pamphlet therein smiting at the People of God called Quakers and endeavouring to render them odious by affirming they are led by a deluding spirit c. I found my self somewhat concerned to return a brief reply