A General Epistle TO ALL FRIENDS Who are Convinced of the TRUTH With a Word of Exhortation to Friends To be diligent in keeping their Mens Womens Meetings for the Service of Truth With a Testimony to the same Also an Invitation to all that come to our Meetings to hear the Truth declared not to rest in hearing but to come into Obedience thereunto that so their Souls may be saved By Samuel Cater LONDON Printed by Andrew Sowle and are sold at his Shop in Devonshire New-buildings near Bishops-Gate 1680. A General Epistle TO ALL FRIENDS WHO ARE Convinced of the Truth MY Dear and Well-beloved Friends every where who are the Called and Chosen of the Lord to confess his Truth amongst men and to bear his Name in Righteousness in the midst of this Crooked and Perverse Generation amongst whom the Lord hath planted us who know not the Lord neither are they acquainted with the Operation of his Hand neither can they perceive what the Lord is now a doing who hath begun a great Work in the Earth which none can know whilst they hate the Light and live in Darkness and rebel against God's good Spirit from such the Vision is shut and unto them the Book is sealed and the Sun is set and Night and Darkness is upon them But unto you that fear the Name of the Lord on you the Son of Righteousness is arisen according to the Promise blessed be the Name of the Lord our God by which you come to see the Way of the Lord which the Wayfaring man Travels to the Kingdom of God by which Light and holy Spirit of Truth the Lord is revealing his secrets to them that fear him and making known the great Mystery of Life and Salvation to all them that are turned unto him and in their Hearts and Souls more desire the encrease of the Knowledge of the Lord than any thing this World can or doth afford And to obtain this their Desire they are made freely willing to forsake Father and Mother Wife and Children House and Land and all that is near and dear to them in this World that they may obtain Peace with God through Jesus Christ while in this World and in the World to come Life Everlasting Oh! blessed of the Lord are you and shall you be forever who continue in this Mind who see a shortness and an Emptiness in all things without the Enjoyment of his Fulness who feeds the Hungry Soul with Bread from Heaven and gives of the Water of Life to them that thirst for it through which the Lord refreshes the weary Soul and strengthens the weak in their Journey who are Travelling Heaven-wards Oh! my dear Friends and Fellow-Travellers in this holy Way of the Lord which God through the Riches of his abundant Grace and Goodness hath made known unto our Hearts and Souls unto you it is upon me in the Name of the Lord to write to you all in the tender Love of my God and your God whose powerful and pure Springs of divine Virtue at this time overcomes my Heart and refreshes my Soul by which my Heart is tendred before the Lord and my Soul refreshed in my Bonds in him and in his pure Life which even at this time moves upon my Heart to write unto you in the tender Life and Love of our God in which I have cause to believe it will be received by all that are in the same in which I dearly salute you all from the least stirrings of this pure Life to the greatest Growth therein for in this Life and Love of God is our Unity forever which was before Death was and shall be the Fortion of a Remnant when Death and Darkness shall be no more And now unto you my Dear and Elder Brethren who have kept your Habitations in this pure Life and grow up in it as Trees of Righteousness whose Fruits are holy and Leaves healing and whose Life is in the pure Love of God in which you have been made serviceable unto the Nations and a Blessing in the Hand of the Lord unto the People for by you many have been turned unto the Lord and into the Right Way that were travelling in a Wrong Way and the Weak and Feeble by you have been strengthened in the Way of God who hath made you as Pillars in his House and Overseers over his Flock who do it Freely of a Willing Mind for which you are worthy of double Honour for your Work 's sake which is not the Honour of Men by any Flattery or outward Applause but the Honour which cometh from God alone in the pure Order of Life in Honour preferring you before who are so in the Truth who have been as Ensamples to the rest and your Admonitions and Counsels have been Grave Sound and Weighty unto the Younger in the Truth and are of a good Savour and blessed Service to all that keep their Habitations in the Truth and retain the Savour of Life and bow to the Law of God which is pure and Spiritual But as for them that have cast off their first Love and have lost Charity which is the Bond of Peace it is not to be heeded what they say who are gone from the Simplicity of the Gospel of Christ Jesus into Craft and Subtilty they are gone from the Root and although they may make a flourish for a time yet a Withering will come upon them and they shall be made to know that Gods Love is unto you that have and do keep your Habitation in the Truth and also must acknowledge it if ever they return unto him from whom they have fallen And now all dear Friends Brethren and Sisters every where who are turned to the true Light of Jesus Christ and believe therein in it wait upon the Lord continually that by it you may always see your way in which you ought to walk and feel God's Power to preserve you inoffensively before the Lord and that you may be Harmless towards all men for in this pure Light Wisdom's Posts come to be known whereby all are to wait for Counsel and Instruction that attend daily upon God and come to receive the Wisdom that is above the Wisdom of the World which is needful for every one to know which Wisdom causeth the Face to shine and the Hearts of them that receive it to rejoyce in the Lord who is the Fountain from whence it comes for by it the Lord directs and guides in his own Way that is Well-pleasing unto him and in which our Hearts and Souls receive and enjoy true Peace with God which none can take away from us blessed be his holy Name Also in this the Lord prepares and enables all that receive it and depend thereupon and are guided thereby to bear a faithful Testimony for the Lord in Times of Tryals Exercises and Sufferings for although the Lord suffers his Children to be tryed through manifold Tryals and Exercises which attend us for his Name and
Truth 's sake yet his Loving-kindness he will never with-hold from those that truly trust in him And this dear Friends the Lord hath made us living Witnesses of whereby a Remnant can say through a good and comfortable Experience of the Lords Mercy and Goodness unto our Souls and Hearts even as in dayes past In all our Afflictions he is Afflicted And the Angel of his Presence saveth us And therefore have we cause to love the Lord who hath heard our Cryes for by his Arm he hath gathered us and by his Power he hath and doth preserve us and in his holy Light which is the Way of Life and Salvation the Lord is leading and guiding of us unto his holy Hill and everlasting Rest which is the Lot and Portion that the Righteous in all all Ages desired and sought after whom God visited with the Day of his Mercy in which their Souls rejoyced as Christ said of Abraham He saw my Day and was Glad And how greatly did Zacharias Elizabeth and Mary rejoyce and praise God when he visited them and Simeon and Hannah with many more when the Lord visited them with the Day spring from on high they rejoyced in it and spoke of it unto all that looked for Salvation which Day was Christ coming and appearing unto them for in him and by him are all things received that the Honest and Upright-hearted that fear God can desire for he is the Seed of the Promise that bruises the Serpents Head and overcomes Death and brings Life and Immortality to Light in the Soul that waits for it for on him the Help is laid who saves to the uttermost all that believe and obey him for in him all Fulness dwells And now all Tender-hearted Friends whom the Lord hath visited your Souls as he did his Servants and Hand-maids in days past with the Day-pring from on High this is the word of Exhortation that lives upon my Heart unto you Oh! wait upon the Lord to see the Work of God by Jesus Christ wrought and made known in all your Hearts that what is not of him you may see overcome by him and brought down by his Power into the Death that so you may all that are convinced by the Truth witness a dying unto Sin and come to live unto Righteousness through him and having put off as concerning your former Conversations the old Man with his Deeds and having parted with your own Righteousness which is the Pharisees Clothing and put on the Righteousness of Christ Jesus which is the Saints Clothing you are thereby prepared to shew forth the Praise of God whilst you are here and also shall thereby be prepared to enter into his Glory where your Souls shall rest with the Lord and pertake of that Feast that he hath prepared for all that deny themselves and follow Christ and forsake their own Wills and obey the Will of God for you are they that have the Wedding-Garments and having Oyl in your Lamps by which your Light shines before men whereby God is glorified for his Light doth not only shine in your Hearts whereby it becomes your Guide but it also shines through you unto others that are yet in Darkness whereby Christs words come to be fulfilled who said to them that believed in him Ye are the Light of the World and the Salt of the Earth for all that receive his Light and Grace into their Hearts they are to Season the Earth by their Savoury Lives and Upright Conversations by which we do reach to the good in all and judge them that live in the Evil Conversation whereby they shall be made in the Day of Visitation to confess That the Lord is with us of a Truth who hath called us to bear witness thereunto and to confess his Name before men although for it we do suffer as the Servants of God did in days past who have said That it is not given to us only to believe but also to suffer And the Apostle saith Yea and all that will live Godly in Christ Jesus must suffer Persecution which we see is now fulfilled in a Remnant who love the Lord withal their Hearts for there is many that profess Christ Jesus that suffer nothing for him but those that leave the Glory of the World and the Sin-pleasing Pleasures of the Flesh and follow Christ they must and do suffer under them that live in it and them that leave the Teachings of Corrupt and Carnal men and wait to be taught of God they must suffer and they that bear a faithful Testimony against Idolatry and the Superstitious Wayes and Inventions that the Priests and People have invented in their dark Imaginations who make void the Command of Christ through their Traditions as their fore-Fathers the Pharisees did the Law of God so do they now the Worship of God in Spirit and in Truth and they that Worship God therein they must and do suffer by this Generation as the People of God did under the Scribes Pharisees and Persecutors in dayes past who persecuted Christ and called him A Deceiver and A Blasphemer and who persecuted the Apostles calling them Vain Babblers and such as turned the World Vpside down and drew People from their Temples and were not subject to their Law Which is the Cry of the Priests now against those whom God hath brought forth in a Testimony against them as the Upholders of Diana's Temple did with all their Crafts-men who were in a Rage against the Apostles and cryed one unto another Sirs You know that by this Craft we have our Living and if we let these men alone all men will follow them and then our Craft will come to nothing much like the way of the Proud Covetous and Envious Priests Now concerning the Servants and Messengers of the Lord unto whom God hath made known his Light and his Truth which was before they were and shall be when they shall be no more for God is arisen and is going on in his mighty Power and by the strength of his own Arm he will overturn all that stand in the Way of his Truth and that oppress his Seed and offend his little Ones that believe in his Name for whose sake the Lord is arisen to plead the Cause of his afflicted Ones for by strength shall no man prevail For because of Oppression of the Poor and the Sighing of the Needy the Lord will arise for Deliverance and bring down the lofty City Babylon and lay her Honour in the Dust and her Merchants shall mourn and her Lovers shall lament and bewail her for the Misery that shall come upon her in the Day of the Lord determined Which Day is dawned in the Light of which a Remnant see the Vision is near to be fulfilled that was seen of Babylon's Torments and her Merchants Misery that shall come upon her and them that Trade with her in which Day the Righteous shall rejoyce in the Lord who hath saved and redeemed them out of
her And now dear Friends that are come out of Babylon Sodom and Aegypt where the Righteous suffer all be mindful of that Arm that hath brought you out and by which the Lord is leading you unto Everlasting Rest There is great cause to be watchful and always to wait to feel the Lord's Power to preserve and keep you For all that came out of Aegypt did not enter into the Land of Promise some fell short through Unbelief and there was but four came out of Sodom and one of them looked back and twelve followed Christ and one of them betrayed him and how many hath the Enemy betrayed in our Day some in one thing and some in another for want of Watchfulness unto the Truth in which there is Preservation for all that love it and are led and guided by it For all Miscarriages and Dishonour that have been brought upon the worthy Name of the Lord that is concerned amongst us and wrong done to any Man by any that has and do profess the Truth and come amongst us Truth is clear of it all and is not to be blamed but they in that they have not stood in the Counsel of it but have hearkned to the Serpent as Eve did and as Cain did and Judas did and as all that forsake the Lord do and that they know who have in any measure known the Work of God upon their Hearts by the Truth they know that in that there is no Unrighteousness but the Truth judges it all and leads People out of all Unrighteousness that obey it And therefore blessed of the Lord are they that obey the same for they only do and shall enjoy the Comfort of it and have true Peace in it as Christ sayes He that doth well cometh to the Light and bringeth his Deeds to it Whereby it appears that they are wrought in God in whom the true Peace is that Man cannot take away and in which holy Light the true Teacher comes to be seen and known that cannot be removed into a Corner but our Eyes that God hath opened see him near to teach and guide us in the Way that is well-pleasing in his sight and great is the Peace of all that obey him And all dear Brethren and Sisters whom the Lord hath Called and Chosen in your several places to be a kind of first Fruits unto him to bear forth his Name in Righteousness and shew forth his Praise and to be Instruments in his Hand to strengthen the Weak and to support the Feeble and to refresh the Bowels of the Poor and to clothe the Naked and to supply them that are in want according to their Necessity and your Ability which is a Service acceptable to God and is truly profitable unto Men and is a Duty that Truth requires for all to be diligent in that have of the Things of this World and the Apostles commend them that were diligent in it and laid it as a Charge upon them that were Rich in this World not to be unmindful of their Duty in that good Work and which the Love of God constrains all the faithful to be mindful of now in this our day and time for says Christ The Poor you have alwayes with you And now that you may faithfully perform all those good Services which the Lord requires of you according to your Ability he hath and doth give unto you all be diligent to keep your Mens and Womens Meetings that are set up in the Power and Wisdom of God and is accompanied with the same as there are many living Witnesses can and do testifie the same even all that go to these Meetings and keep them in the Simplicity of their Hearts and Souls as hoping and believing they shall meet with that their Hearts and Souls desire which is the Presence of the Lord and them he doth not send empty away as is well known to you that according to the Integrity of your Hearts he gives Wisdom and Counsel whereby he fits both Men and Women and prepares them to perform what Service he hath for them to do in the Meetings in which Meetings they have a good opportunity to clear their Consciences And case your minds one to another when you have any thing lies upon you and to stir up one another to the Performance of your Duties in your several Places and Callings and to take notice of any that come amongst us and do not answer Truth in their Conversations that they in the tender Life and Love of God may be dealt withal and all other things which concern our Testimony may in the savour of Life be performed and carryed on and the Poor may be relieved and thus meeting in the Love of God and being refreshed with the same in the performance of your Duties and Services return to your Father again in Peace And why any should be against either Men or Women for this I know not which love the Prosperity of Sion and desire the Peace of Jerusalem but on the contrary there is true cause to Rejoyce in that the Lord hath brought both Man and Woman into a true Capacity to serve him and to be 〈…〉 one unto another in his holy Truth by which he hath brought and is bringing both Man and Woman out of the Fall into Christ that never fell in whom Male and Female are all one in whom is the Blessing and by whom all come to be restored again into their Services both Men and Women and made helpful one unto another not only in the outward Creation and Concerns but also in the labour of the Gospel and management of Truth 's concerns in which Work and Service let all be diligent in the performance of it as well Women as Men all Eying your Head Christ Jesus from whom your Supply comes And all be diligent in keeping your Meetings and let none be discouraged because of any opposition you may meet withal from those that set themselves against Womens Meetings because they say they see no Service in them that is no Rule for you to walk by and to neglect your Duties because they see no Service in them neither is it a sufficient ground for them that say so to oppose them for such ought to be quiet and wait upon God in the Simplicity of their Hearts out of all prejudice and wilfulness to know the Mind of the Lord in this matter seeing viz. that by the same Power of God by which the Gospel hath been preached Womens Meetings were gathered and settled and whosoever slights them or the Service thereof do and will come to loss thereby for the Lord is with them who hath made them a Blessing in his Hand For the Testimony of the Lord 's requiring and owning of them plainly appears in that his Power and Presence hath been and is from time to time manifest amongst his Servants and Hand-maids when so met as hath been largely testified unto by many antient and faithful Servants of