this Gospel-day of Christ but Christ will consume them with the Spirit of his Mouth and destroy them with the Brightness of his Coming But God's People whom he hath chosen unto Salvation in Christ from the beginning through the Sanctification of the Spirit and the belief of the Truth stand stedfast in Christ Jesus and are thankful to God by and through his Son their Rock and Salvation who is their Happiness and eternal Inheritance The Apostle saith Ye were as Sheep going astray but are now returned to the Shepherd and Bishop of your Souls So when People are returned to Christ their Shepherd they do know his Voice and follow him and are returned to the Bishop of their Souls and then they do believe in him 1686. Kingston and receive Wisdom and Vnderstanding from him who is from above heavenly and spiritual Then they do Act like spiritual and holy Men and Women and come to be Members of the Church of Christ and then a spiritual Care cometh upon the Elders in Christ that all the Members do walk in Christ and in his Light Grace Spirit and Truth that they may adorn their Confession and Profession of Christ and see that all do walk in the Order of the holy Spirit and the everlasting Gospel of Peace Life and Salvation And this Order keeps out of Confusion for the Gospel of Peace the Power of God was before Confusion was And all the Heirs of the Gospel are Heirs of its Order and are in this Gospel which brings Life and Immortality to Light in them by which all Men and Women may see their Work and Services in it to look after the Poor Widows and Fatherless and to see that nothing be lacking and that all do honour the Lord in their Lives and Conversations When the whole House of Israel were in their Graves and Sepulchres and were called The scattered dry Bones yet they could speak and say Their Bones were dry their Hope was lost or they were without Hope and they were cut off so that they were Alive outwardly and could speak outwardly So that which is called Christendom may very well be called The scattered dry Bones and they be said to be in their Graves and Sepulchres dead from the heavenly Breath of Life and from the Spirit and Word of Life that gathereth to God Though they can speak and are Alive outwardly yet they remain in the Congregations or Churches of the Dead that want the vertue of Life For the Jews whom God poured his Spirit upon and gave them his Law when they rebelled against the Spirit of God and turned from God and his Law then they came to be dry scattered Bones and were turned into their Graves and Sepulchres And so Christendom that is turned from the Grace and Truth and Light of Christ and the Spirit that God poureth upon all flesh they are become the scattered dry Bones and are in their Graves and Sepulchres and are the Congregations or Churches of the Dead though they can speak and are Alive outwardly Christ saith I am come that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly And he gave his flâ—sh for the life of the World And he saith I am the Resurrection and the Life and I am the Way the Truth and the Life No man cometh unto the Father but by me And Christ is the quickening Spirit All being dead in Adam they are to be quickened and made alive by Christ the second Adam And when they are quickned and made alive by him then they do Meet together in the Name of Jesus Christ their Saviour who died for their Sins and is risen for their Justification and so was dead and is alive again and liveth for evermore And all whom he hath quickened and made alive even all the living do Meet in the Name of Jesus who is alive and he their living Prophet Shepherd and Bishop is in the midst of them and is their living Rock and Foundation and a living Mediator between them and the living God And so the Living do praise the living God through Jesus Christ through whom they have Peace with God And so all the Living have Rest in Christ their Life and he is their Sanctification and their Righteousness and their Treasure of Wisdom Knowledge and Vnderstanding which is spiritual and heavenly And he is the spiritual Tree and Root which all the Believers in the Light the Life in Christ that do pass from the death in Adam to the Life in Christ and overcome the World and are born of God are grafted into even Christ the heavenly Tree which beareth all the spiritual Branches or Grafts So these do Meet in his Name and are gathered in him and do sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus their Life who hath quickened and made them alive And so all the Living do worship the living God in his holy Spirit and Truth in which they Live and Walk And into this Worship the foul unclean Spirit the Devil cannot get for the holy Spirit and Truth is over him and he is out of it This is the standing Worship which Christ set up in his New Covenant And they that are quickened and made alive by Christ are the living Stones and living Members and spiritual Houshold and Church or Congregation of Christ who is the living Head and Husband And they that are quickened and made alive by Christ are a living Church and have a living Head and are come from the Congregations or Churches of the Dead in Adam where Death and Destruction talks of God and of his Prophets and Apostles in their Wisdom that is below and earthly and devilish and in the knowledge that is bruitish and in the understanding that comes to naught For what they know is natural by their natural Tongues and Arts and Sciences in which they corrupt themselves This is the state of the Dead in Adam But the Quickened and they that are made alive by Christ do discern between the Living and the Dead Kingston upon Thames the 12th Month 1686 7. G. F. While I was at Kingston I writ also another Paper shewing That the Lord in all Ages called the Righteous out from amongst the Wicked before he destroyed them Which Paper here follows NOah and his Family were called into the Ark before the Old World was destroyed with the Flood of Water And all the Faithful Generation that lived before were taken away and died in the Faith before that Flood of Destruction came upon the wicked Old World The Lord did call Lot out of Sodom before he did destroy and consume it and the Wicked there Christ said It cannot be that a Prophet perish out of Jerusalem and he said O Jerusalem Jerusalem which killest the Prophets and stonest them that are sent unto thee how often would I have gathered thy Children together as a Hen gathereth her Brood under her Wings but ye would not Luke 13.33 34. And Christ said unto
the Eternal life in Jesus Christ Who is also a quickening Spirit for as in Adam all died even so in Christ shall all be made alive So Christ that Died and Rose again is Lord both of the Living and of the Dead for the Living live to the Lord and die in him and are blessed All Christendom say that they do believe in God and in Christ and that they do believe Moses and the Prophets and preach Christ Moses and the Prophets So their Words and Writings are preached and printed and ye say ye do believe them But now what Life do ye live Are ye through the Law dead to the Law that ye may live unto God And are ye Crucified with Christ and doth Christ live in you And is the Life that ye now live in the flesh by the faith of the Son of God and ye do not live but Christ liveth in you who gave himself for you Is this your present Life for the Just live by the faith which Christ is the Author and Finisher of by which holy divine and precious Faith they have Victory over that which is vile and unholy and is not divine and in this Faith they do please God and have Access to God and his Son who fulfilleth the Law and the Prophets For the Law and the Prophets were until John and since that the Kingdom of God hath been preached and Men do press into it And the Least in the Kingdom of God is Greater than John though he was the greatest Prophet born of a Woman So see whether ye are in the Kingdom that stands in Peace and Righteousness and Joy in the Holy Ghost or not Christ who is the Image of the Invisible God the First-born of every Creature was before any Creature for by him were all things created that are in Heaven and that are in the Earth visible or invisible whether they be Thrones or Dominions or Principalities or Powers all things were created by him and for him and he was before all things and by him all things consist And he is the Head of the Body the Church and is the beginning the First-born from the dead So here ye may see that all things were made by Christ Jesus and all things were created for Christ Jesus and by him all things consist and have their being who is the First-born from the dead and dieth no more And it pleased the Father that in him all Fulness should dwell and by Christ to reconcile all things unto himself whether they be things in Heaven or things in the Earth And in him are hid all the Treasures of Wisdom and Knowledge who is the Head of all Principality and Power for all Power in Heaven and in Earth is given to him the First-born of every Creature and the First-born from the dead who liveth for evermore in his power over all the Lamb slain from the Foundation of the World and while the World's Spirit rules in mens hearts they do not know Christ nor the beginning nor ending of the Work of God Christ was outwardly crucified and slain without the Gates of Jerusalem by the disobedient Jews And they that hate the Light of Christ and disobey his Gospel and quench his Spirit and are erred from his Faith do crucifie to themselves Christ afresh So Adam and Eve and their Children that disobeyed God did slay the Lamb and the blind Jews that disobeyed God crucified Christ Jesus and the outward Christians that live and walk not in Christ but in Sin and Evil though they do make an outward Profession of Christ yet they do Crucifie to themselves Christ afresh But as to Christ himself he is Ascended far above all Principalities Thrones Powers and Dominions so that they cannot put him to death or Crucifie him any more as to himself But what the Killers and Crucifiers and Persecutors do now upon the Earth it is against Christ as in themselves and in his Members as Christ said to Saul Why Persecutest thou me Acts 9.4 For what is done to his Members Christ takes as done to himself Matth. 25.40 and 45. And they that did not visit Christ but persecuted him in his Members they persecuted Christ in themselves first The Serpent that Enemy to Man and Woman and Satan that Adversary to Man's prosperity and the Devil the destroyer the God of the World and Prince of the Air that ruleth in the hearts of the Disobedient he got in by disobedience But Christ bruises his head breaketh his power to pieces and destroys the Devil and his Works and through death destroys death and the Devil the power of death And so Christ the Light and Life hath all power in Heaven and Earth and openeth the Prison-doors and the Eyes of the blind and takes Captive him that hath led into Captivity and gives Gifts unto Men. And so Christ bindeth the strong man of sin and spoils his goods for Christ is stronger than the Devil and casts him out Hallelujah For the strong man of sin is the God of the World and his House is the whole World that lieth in Wickedness And the God of the World hath kept his house and his goods have been in peace until a stronger than he comes and binds the Devil and casts him out and then destroys him and his goods And so Christ the Son of God who is stronger than the Devil having destroyed the Devil and his Works setteth up his House and all the Believers in the Light are the Children of Light and are of the Son of God's spiritual House and the Son of God is over his House for evermore Glory to God in the Highest through Jesus Christ Amen God spake by the mouth of all his holy Prophets concerning Christ Jesus his Son the holy One so they were holy men and not unholy that God spake by And therefore all that name the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ are to depart from Iniquity Kingston upon Thames the 11th Month 1687. G. F. I returned to London towards the latter end of the Eleventh Month 1687. Chiswick Hammersmith visiting Friends in the way at Chiswick and at Hammersmith where I had Two Meetings one upon a First-day and the other upon the Occasion of a Marriage there at which were many of the World's People amongst whom I had a very seasonable Opportunity of opening the Way of Truth London Being come to London I visited Friends Meetings in and about the City as the Lord led me in whose Service I continued labouring in the City until the middle of the First Month 1687 8. Enfield Barnet Waltham-Abbey At which time I went down towards Enfield and visited Friends there and thereabouts and at Barnet and Waltham-Abbey and other places where I had many Meetings and very good Service amongst Friends in which I spent several Weeks And then returned to London London Yearly-Meeting where I continued labouring in the work of the Gospel of our Lord until after the
abroad through the Island Whereupon I with some other Friends drew up a Paper to go forth in the Name of the People called Quakers for the clearing Truth and Friends from those false Reports It was directed thus For the Governour of Barbados with his Council and Assembly and all others in Power both Civil and Military in this Island from the People called Quakers WHereas many scandalous Lies and Slanders have been cast upon us to render us odious as that We do deny God and Christ Jesus and the Scriptures of Truth c. This is to Inform you that all our Books and Declarations which for these many Years have been published to the World do clearly testifie the contrary Yet notwithstanding for your Satisfaction we do now plainly and sincerely declare That we do Own and Believe in God the only-Wise Omnipotent and Everlasting God who is the Creator of all things both in Heaven and in the Earth and the Preserver of all that he hath made who is God over all blessed for ever To whom be all Honour and Glory Dominion Praise and Thanksgiving both now and for evermore And we do Own and Believe in Jesus Christ his beloved and only begotten Son in whom he is well-pleased Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost and born of the Virgin Mary in whom we have Redemption through his Blood even the Forgiveness of Sins Who is the Express Image of the Invisible God the First-born of every Creature by whom were all things created that are in Heaven and that are in Earth visible and invisible whether they be Thrones or Dominions or Principalities or Powers All things were created by him And we do Own and Believe that he was made a Sacrifice for Sin who knew no Sin neither was Guile found in his Mouth And that he was Crucified for us in the Flesh without the Gates of Jerusalem and that he was Buried and Rose again the Third Day by the Power of his Father for our Justification And we do Believe that he Ascended up into Heaven and now sitteth at the Right Hand of God This Jesus who was the Foundation of the Holy Prophets and Apostles is our Foundation and we do believe that there is no other Foundation to be laid but that which is laid even Christ Jesus who we believe tasted Death for every Man and shed his Blood for all Men and is the Propitiation for our Sins and not for ours only but also for the Sins of the whole World According as John the Baptist testified of him when he said Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the Sins of the World Joh. 1.29 We believe that he alone is our Redeemer and Saviour even the Captain of our Salvation who saves us from Sin as well as from Hell and the Wrath to come and destroys the Devil and his Works who is the Seed of the Woman that bruises the Serpent's Head to wit Christ Jesus the Alpha and Omega the First and the Last That he is as the Scriptures of Truth say of him our Wisdom and Righteousness Justification and Redemption neither is there Salvation in any other for there is no other Name under Heaven given among Men whereby we may be saved It is he alone who is the Shepherd and Bishop of our Souls He it is who is our Prophet whom Moses long since testified of saying A Prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your Brethren like unto me him shall ye hear in all things whatsoever he shall say unto you And it shall come to pass that every Soul that will not hear that Prophet shall be destroyed from among the People Acts 2.22 23. He it is that is now Come and hath given us an Vnderstanding that we may know him that is true and he rules in our Hearts by his Law of Love and of Life and makes us free from the Law of Sin and Death and we have no Life but by him for he is the quickning Spirit the Second Adam the Lord from Heaven by whose Blood we are cleansed and our Consciences sprinkled from Dead Works to serve the Living God And he is our Mediator that makes Peace and Reconciliation between God offended and us offending he being the Oath of God the New Covenant of Light Life Grace and Peace the Author and Finisher of our Faith Now this Lord Jesus Christ the Heavenly Man the Emanuel God with us we all own and believe in him whom the High-Priest raged against and said he had spoken Blasphemy whom the Priests and the Elders of the Jews took Counsel together against and put to Death the same whom Judas betrayed for Thirty Pieces of Silver which the Priests gave him as a Reward for his Treason who also gave large Money to the Souldiers to broach an Horrible Lie namely That his Disciples came and stole him away by Night whilst they slept And after he was Risen from the Dead the History of the Acts of the Apostles sets forth how the Chief-Priests and Elders persecuted the Disciples of this Jesus for Preaching Christ and his Resurrection This we say is that Lord Jesus Christ whom we own to be our Life and Salvation And as concerning the Holy Scriptures we do believe That they were given forth by the Holy Spirit of God through the Holy Men of God who as the Scripture it self declares 2 Pet. 1.21 spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost We believe they are to be Read Believed and Fulfilled He that fulfils them is Christ and they are profitable for Doctrine for Reproof for Correction and for Instruction in Righteousness that the Man of God may be perfect throughly furnished unto all good Works 2 Tim. 3.16 and are able to make wise unto Salvation through Faith in Christ Jesus And we do believe that the Holy Scriptures are the Words of God for it s said in Exod. 20.1 God spake all these Words saying c. meaning the Ten Commandments given forth upon Mount Sinai And in Rev. 22.18 saith John I testifie to every man that heareth the Words of the Prophecy of this Book If any man addeth unto these and if any Man shall take away from the Words of the Book of this Prophecy not the Word c. So in Luke 1.20 Because thou believest not my Words And so in John 5.47 and John 15.7 John 14.23 John 12.47 So that we call the Holy Scriptures as Christ and the Apostles called them and Holy Men of God called them viz. the Words of God Another Slander and Lye they have cast upon us namely That we should teach the Negroes to Rebell A thing we utterly abhor and detest in our Hearts the Lord knows it who is the Searcher of all Hearts and knows all things and so can witness and testifie for us that this is a most Abominable Vntruth For that which we have spoken and declared to them is To exhort and admonish them to be sober and to fear God and
Gain Yet how can we avoid being deeply affected with Sadness of Spirit and brokenness of Heart under the sense and consideration of such Loss and Revolutions which we have cause to believe are Ominous of Calamities to the wicked World though of good to the Righteous Did the Death of plain upright Jacob Gen. 50. namely Israel who was as a Prince of God so deeply affect both his own Children and Kindred as that they made a great and exceeding sore Lamentation for him and even the Egyptians also that they bewailed him seventy days And the Death of Moses so deeply affect the Children of Israel Deut. 34. as that they did weep and mourn for him in the Plain of Moab thirty Days And the Death of Stephen that faithful Martyr of Jesus so deeply affect certain Men fearing God Acts 7. as that they made great Lamentation for him And the Apostle Paul when taking his leave of the Elders of the Church of Ephesus Acts 20. and telling them They should see his Face no more If this did so deeply affect them that they wept all abundantly sorrowing most of all for these Words That they should see his face no more with many more of this kind How then can we otherwise chuse but be deeply affected with Sorrow and Sadness of Heart though not as those which have no hope when so many of our Ancient Dear and Faithful Brethren with whom we have had much sweet Society are removed from us one after another We pray God raise up and increase more such Yet must we all contentedly submit to the good Pleasure and Wisdom of the Lord our God in all these things who taketh away and none can hinder him nor may any say unto him What dost thou Yet we have cause to bless the Lord that he hath of late raised and is raising up more to publish his Name in the Earth And we that yet remain have but a short Time to stay after them that are gone but we shall be gone to them also The Lord God of Life keep us all Faithful in his holy Truth Love Vnity and Life to the End He hath a great Work still to bring forth in the Earth and great things to bring to pass in order to make way for Truth and Righteousness to take place therein and that his Seed may come forth and be gathered and the Power and Kingdom of our God and of his Christ made known and exalted in the Earth unto the Ends thereof Dear Friends and Brethren Be faithful till Death that a Crown of Life you may obtain All dwell in the Love of God in Christ Jesus in Vnion and Peace in him To whom we tenderly Commit you to keep and strengthen you bless and preserve you to the End of your Days In whose dear and tender Love we remain Your Dear Friends and Brethren Stephen Crisp Geo. Whitehead Fra. Camfield James Park John Elson Peter Price John Field John Edridge Nicholas Gates Francis Stamper John Vaughton Gilbert Latey Charles Marshal Rich. Needham James Martin Daniel Monro John Heywood George Bowles William Robinson William Bingley John Butcher Benjamin Antrobus These Names are since added at the desire of the Persons following Sam. Goodaker Amb. Rigg William Fallowfield POSTSCRIPT BEfore his Death he writ a little Paper desiring all Friends every where that use to write to him about the Sufferings and Affairs of Friends in their several Countries should henceforth write to their several Correspondents in London to be Communicated to the Second-Days Meeting to take Care that they be answered Thomas Ellwood's Account of that Eminent and Honourable Servant of the Lord George Fox THis Holy Man was raised up by God in an Extraordinary Manner for an Extraordinary Work even to Awaken the sleeping World by proclaiming the Mighty Day of the Lord to the Nations and publishing again the Everlasting Gospel to the Inhabitants of the Earth after the long and dismal Night of Apostacy and Darkness For this Work the Lord began to prepare him by many and various Trials and Exercises from his very Childhood And having fitted and furnished him for it he called him into it very Young and made him Instrumental by the effectual Working of the Holy Ghost through his Ministry to call many Others into the same Work and to turn many Thousands from Darkness to the Light of Christ and from the Power of Satan unto God I knew him not till the Year 1660 from that Time to the Time of his Death I knew him well Conversed with him often Observed him much Loved him dearly and Honoured him truly and upon good Experience can say He was indeed an Heavenly-minded Man zealous for the Name of the Lord and preferr'd the Honour of God before all things He was Valiant for the Truth Bold in Asserting it Patient in Suffering for it Unwearied in Labouring in it Steady in his Testimony to it Immoveable as a Rock Deep he was in Divine Knowledge Clear in opening heavenly Mysteries Plain and Powerful in Preaching Fervent in Prayer He was richly endued with heavenly Wisdom Quick in Discerning Sound in Judgment Able and ready in Giving Discreet in Keeping Counsel A Lover of Righteousness an Encourager of Vertue Justice Temperance Meekness Purity Chastity Modesty Humility Charity and Self-Denial in all both by Word and Example Graceful he was in Countenance Manly in Personage Grave in Gesture Courteous in Conversation Weighty in Communication Instructive in Discourse Free from Affectation in Speech or Carriage A severe Reprover of hard and obstinate Sinners A mild and gentle Admonisher of such as were tender and sensible of their Failings Not apt to resent personal Wrongs Easie to forgive Injuries But zealously Earnest where the Honour of God the Prosperity of Truth the Peace of the Church were concerned Very Tender Compassionate and Pitiful he was to all that were under any sort of Affliction full of Brotherly Love full of Fatherly Care For indeed the Care of the Churches of Christ was daily upon him the Prosperity and Peace whereof he studiously sought Beloved he was of God Beloved of God's People and which was not the least part of his Honour the Common Butt of all Apostates Envy whose Good notwithstanding he earnestly sought He lived to see the Desire of his Soul The Spreading of that Blessed Principle of Divine Light through many of the European Nations and not a few of the American Islands and Provinces and the Gathering many Thousands into an Establishment therein which the Lord vouchsafed him the Honour to be the First Effectual Publisher of in this latter Age of the World And having fought a good Fight finished his Course and kept the Faith his righteous Soul freed from the Earthly Tabernacle in which he had led an Exemplary Life of Holiness was translated into those Heavenly Mansions where Christ our Lord went to prepare a Place for His there to possess that Glorious Crown of Righteousness which is laid up
that of Angels as the Scriptures of the Old Testament do in many places express as to Abraham Jacob c. The next was that of the Law by Moses which was also delivered by Angels as the Apostle tells us This Dispensation was much outward and suited to a low and servil State called therefore that of a School-Master to point out and prepare that People to look and long for the Messiah who would deliver them from the servitude of a Ceremonious and imperfect Dispensation by knowing the Realities of those Misterious Representations in themselves In this time the Law was written on Stone the Temple built with Hands attended with an outward Priest-hood and External Rites and Ceremonies that were Shadows of the Good Things that were to come and were only to serve till the Seed came or the more excellent and general manifestation of Christ to whom was the Promise and to all Men only in him in whom it was Yea and Amen even Life from Death Immortality and Eternal Life This the Prophets foresaw and comforted the believing Jews in the certainty of it which was the Top of the Mosaical Dispensation and which ended in John's Ministry the Forerunner of the Messiah as John's was finished in him the Fullness of all And God that at sundry Times and in divers manners had spoken to the Fathers by his Servants the Prophets Spoak then by his Son Chrâ—st Jesus Who is Heir of all things being the Gospel-Day which is the Dispensation of Sonship Bringing in thereby a nearer Testament and a better hope even the beginning of the Glory of the latter days and of the Restitution of all things yea the Restoration of the Kingdom unto Israel Now the Spirit that was more sparingly communicated in former Dispensations began to be Poured forth upon all Flesh according to the Prophet Joel and the Light that shined in Darkness or but dimly before the most gracious God caused to Shine out of Darkness and the Day-star began to arise in the Hearts of Believers giving unto them the knowledge of God in the Face or Appearance of his Son Christ Jesus Now the Poor in Spirit the Meek the true Mourners the Hungry and Thirsty after Righteousness the Peace-makers the Pure in Heart the Merciful and the Persecuted came more especially in Remembrance before the Lord and were sought out and blessed by Israel's true Shepherd Old Jerusalem with her Children grew out of Date and the New Jerusalem into Request the Mother of the Sons of the Gospel-Day Wherefore no more at Old Jerusalem nor at the Mountain of Samaria will God be worshipped above other places for behold he is declared and preached a Spirit and he will be known as such and worshipped in the Spirit and in the Truth He will come nearer then of old time and he will write his Law in the Heart and put his Fear and Spirit in the inward parts according to his promise Then Signs Types and Shadows flew away the Day having discovered their Insufficiency in not reaching to the inside of the Cup to the cleansing of the Conscience and all Elementary services were expired in and and by him that is the substance of all And to this Great and Blessed End of the Dispensation of the Son of God did the Apostles Testifie whom he had chosen and anointed by his Spirit to turn the Jews from their Prejudice and Superstition and the Gentiles from their Vanity and Idolatry to Christ's Light and Spirit that shined in them that they might be quickned from the Sins and Trespasses in which they were Dead to serve the Living God in the Newness of the Spirit of Life and walk as Children of the Light and of the Day even the Day of Holiness For such put on Christ the Light of the World and make no more Provision for the Flesh to fulfil the Lusts thereof So that the Light Spirit and Grace that comes by Christ and appears in Man was what the Apostles ministred from and turned Peoples Minds unto and in which they gathered and built up the Churches of Christ in their Day For which cause they advised them not to quench the Spirit but wait for the Spirit and Speak by the Spirit and Pray by the Spirit and Walk in the Spirit too as that which approved them the truly begotten Children of God born not of Flesh and Blood or of the will of Man but of the will of God by doing his will and denying their own by drinking of Christ's Cup and being Baptized with his Baptism of Self-denial The Way and Path that all the Heirs of Life have trod to Blessedness But alas even in the Apostles Days those bright Stars of the first Magnitude of the Gospel Light some Clouds foretelling an Eclipse of this Primitive Glory began to appear and several of them gave early Caution of it to the Christians of their Time that even then there was and yet would be more and more a falling away from the Power of Godliness and the Purity of that Spiritual Dispensation by such as sought to make a fair shew in the Flesh but with whom the offence of the Cross ceased Yet with this comfortable Conclusion that they saw beyond it a more glorious Time than ever to the true Church Their sight was true and what they foretold to the Churches gathered by them in the Name and Power of Jesus came so to pass For Christians degenerated a-pace into outsides as Days and Meats and divers other Cerimonies And which was worse they fell into Strife and Contention about them separating one from another then Envying and as they had Power Persecuting one another to the shame and scandal of their common Christianity and grievous stumbling and offence of the Heathen among whom the Lord had so long and so marvellously preserved them And having got at last the Worldly Power into their Hands by Kings and Emperors embracing the Christian Profession they changed what they could the Kingdom of Christ which is not of this World into a Worldly Kingdom or at least stiled the Worldly Kingdom that was in their Hands the Kingdom of Christ and so they became Worldly and not true Christians Then Humane Inventions and Novelties both in Doctrine and Worship crowded fast into the Church a Door being opened thereunto by the Grossness and Carnality that appeared then among the generality of Christians who had long since left the Guidance of God's meek and heavenly Spirit and given themselves up to Superstition Will-worship and Voluntary Humility And as Superstition is Blind so it is Heady and Furious for all must stoop to its blind and boundless Zeal or Perish by it In the Name of the Spirit persecuting the very appearance of the Spirit of God in others and opposing that in them which they resisted in themselves viz. the Light Grace and Spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ but always under the Notion of Innovation Heresie Schism or some such plausible Name Though Christianity
and some Years I continued in that Condition in great Troubles and fain I would have put it from me And I went to many a Priest to look for Comfort but found no Comfort from them From Barnet I went to London where I took a Lodging London and was under great Misery and Trouble there For I looked upon the great Professors of the City of London and I saw all was dark and under the Chain of Darkness And I had an Uncle there one Pickering a Baptist and they were tender then Yet I could not impart my Mind to him nor join with them For I saw all Young and Old where they were Some tender People would have had me stayed but I was fearful and returned homewards in Leicestershire again Leicestershire having a Regard upon my Mind unto my Parents and Relations lest I should grieve them who I understood were troubled at my Absence When I was come down into Leicestershire my Relations would have had me Married But I told them I was but a Lad and I must get Wisdom Others would have had me into the Auxiliary Band among the Soldiery Coventry but I refused and I was grieved that they proffered such Things to me being a tender Youth Then I went to Coventry where I took a Chamber for a while at a Professor's House till People began to be acquainted with me for there were many tender People in that Town And after some time I went into my own Country again Leicestershire and was there about a Year in great Sorrows and Troubles and walked many Nights by my self Then the Priest of Drayton the Town of my Birth whose Name was Nathaniel Stevens would come often to me and I went often to him and another Priest sometimes would come with him And they would have given place to me to hear me and I would ask them Questions and reason with them And this Priest Stevens asked me a Question viz. Why Christ cryed out upon the Cross My God my God why hast thou forsaken me And why he said If it be possible let this Cup pass from me yet not my Will but thine be done And I told him At that time the Sins of all Mankind were upon him and their Iniquities and Transgressions with which he was wounded which he was to bear and to be an Offering for them as he was Man but died not as he was God And so in that he died for all Men and tasted Death for every Man he was an Offering for the Sins of the whole World This I spake being at that time in a measure sensible of Christ's Sufferings and what he went through And the Priest said It was a very good full Answer and such an one as he had not heard And at that time he would applaud and speak highly of me to others And what I said in Discourse to him on the Week-days that he would Preach of on the First-days for which I did not like him And this Priest afterwards became my great Persecutor Mansetter in Warwick-shire After this I went to another Ancient Priest at Mansetter in Warwick-shire and reasoned with him about the Ground of Despair and Temptations but he was ignorant of my Condition And he bid me Take Tobacco and Sing Psalms Tobacco was a thing I did not love and Psalms I was not in an Estate to Sing I could not Sing Then he bid me come again and he would tell me many Things But when I came again he was angry and pettish For my former Words had displeased him And he told my Troubles and Sorrows and Griefs to his Servants so that it was got among the Milk-Lasses which grieved me that I should open my Mind to such an one I saw they were all Miserable Comforters And this brought my Troubles more upon me Tamworth Then I heard of a Priest living about Tamworth who was accounted an Experienced Man and I went Seven Miles to him But I found him but like an Empty hollow Cask Then I heard of one called Doctor Cradock of Coventry and I went to him and I asked him the Ground of Temptations and Despair and how Troubles came to be wrought in Man He asked me Who was Christ's Father and Mother I told him Mary was his Mother and that he was supposed to be the Son of Joseph but he was the Son of God Now as we were walking together in his Garden the Ally being narrow I chanced in turning to set my Foot on the side of a Bed at which the Man was in such a Rage as if his House had been on Fire And thus all our Discourse was lost and I went away in Sorrow worse than I was when I came I thought them Miserable Comforters And I saw they were all as Nothing to me for they could not reach my Condition After this I went to another one Macham a Priest in high Account And he would needs give me some Physick and I was to have been let Blood But they could not get one drop of Blood from me either in Arms or Head though they endeavoured it my Body being as it were dried up with Sorrows Grief and Troubles which were so great upon me that I could have wished I had never been born to see Vanity and Wickedness or that I had been born Blind that I might never have seen Wickedness nor Vanity and Deaf that I might never have heard vain and wicked Words or the Lord's Name blasphemed And when the time called Christmas came while others were Feasting and Sporting themselves I would have gone and looked out poor Widows from House to House and have given them some Money And when I was invited to Marriages as I sometimes was I would go to none at all but the next day or soon after I would go and visit them And if they were Poor I gave them some Money for I had wherewith both to keep my self from being Chargeable to others and to administer something to the Necessities of Others About the beginning of the Year 1646. as I was going to Coventry and entring towards the Gate a Consideration arose in me how it was said That All Christians are Believers Coventry both Protestants and Papists And the Lord opened to me that if all were Believers then they were all born of God and passed from Death to Life and that none were true Believers but such And though Others said they were Believers yet they were not At another time as I was walking in a Field on a First-day Morning the Lord opened unto me That being bred at Oxford or Cambridge was not enough to fit and qualifie Men to be Ministers of Christ And I stranged at it because it was the common Belief of People But I saw it clearly as the Lord opened it to me and was satisfied and admired the Goodness of the Lord who had opened this thing unto me that Morning Which struck at Priest Stevens his Ministry namely
that To be bred at Oxford or Cambridge was not enough to make a Man fit to be a Minister of Christ So that which opened in me I saw struck at the Priest's Ministry But my Relations were much troubled at me that I would not go with them to hear the Priest For I would get into the Orchard or the Fields with my Bible by my self And I told them did not the Apostle say to Believers That they needed no Man to teach them but as the Anointing teacheth them And though they knew this was Scripture and that it was true yet they would be grieved because I could not be subject in this Matter to go to hear the Priest with them For I saw that a true Believer was another thing than they looked upon it to be And I saw that being bred at Oxford or Cambridge did not qualifie or fit a Man to be a Minister of Christ and what then should I follow such for So neither them nor any of the Dissenting People could I join with but was as a Stranger to all relying wholly upon the Lord Jesus Christ At another time it was opened in me That God who made the World did not dwell in Temples made with Hands This at the first seemed a strange Word because both Priests and People use to call their Temples or Churches dreadful Places and Holy Ground and the Temples of God But the Lord shewed me so that I did see clearly that he did not dwell in these Temples which Men had commanded and set up but in People's Hearts For both Stephen and the Apostle Paul bore Testimony That he did not dwell in Temples made with Hands not even in that which he had once commanded to be built since he put an End to it But that his People were his Temple and he dwelt in them This opened in me as I walked in the Fields to my Relations House And when I came there they told me That Nath Stevens the Priest had been there and told them He was afraid of me for going after New Lights And I smiled in my self knowing what the Lord had opened in me concerning him and his Brethren But I told not my Relations who though they saw beyond the Priests yet they went to hear them and were grieved because I would not go also But I brought them Scriptures and told them There was an Anointing within Man to teach him and that the Lord would teach his People himself And I had great Openings concerning the Things written in the Revelations and when I spake of them the Priests and Professors would say That was a sealed up Book and would have kept me out of it But I told them Christ could open the Seals and that they were the nearest things to us For the Epistles were written to the Saints that lived in former Ages but the Revelations were written of things to come After this I met with a sort of People that held Women have no Souls adding in a light manner no more than a Goose But I reproved them and told them that was not right For Mary said My Soul doth magnify the Lord and my Spirit hath rejoyced in God my Saviour And removing again to another Place I came among a People that relied much on Dreams And I told them Except they could distinguish between Dream and Dream they would mash or confound altogether For there were Three sorts of Dreams for Multitude of Business sometimes caused Dreams And there were Whisperings of Satan in Man in the Night-Season and there were Speakings of God to Man in Dreams But these People came out of these Things and at last became Friends Now though I had great Openings yet great Trouble and Temptation came many Times upon me so that when it was Day I wished for Night and when it was Night I wished for Day And by reason of the Openings I had in my Troubles I could say as David said Day unto Day uttereth Speech and Night unto Night sheweth Knowledge And when I had Openings they answered one another and answered the Scriptures For I had great Openings of the Scriptures And when I was in Troubles one Trouble also answered to anothâ—â— About the beginning of the Year 1647. I was moved of the Lord to go into Darbyshire Darbyshire where I met with some Friendly People and had many Discourses with them Then passing further into the Peak-Country I met with more friendly People Peak-Country Leicesterâ—â—ire Nottinghamshire and with some in empty high Notions And travelling on through some Parts of Leicestershire and into Nottinghamshire there I met with a tender People and a very Tender Woman whose Name was Eâ—â—â—beth Hootton and with these I had some Meetings and Discourses Bâ—â— my Troubles continued and I was often under great Temptations and I fasted much and walked abroad in solitary Places many Days and often took my Bible and went and sate in hollow Trees and lonesome Places till Night came on and frequently in the Night walked mournfully about by my self For I was a Man of Sorrows in the Times of the first Workings of the Lord in me Now during all this Time I was never joined in Profession of Religion with any but gave up my self to the Lord having forsaken all evil Company and taken leave of Father and Mother and all other Relations and travelled up and down as a Stranger in the Earth which Way the Lord inclined my Heart taking a Chamber to my self in Town where I came and tarrying sometimes a Month sometimes more sometimes less in a Place For I durst not stay long in any Place being afraid both of Professor and Profane lest being a tender Young-Man I should be hurt by conversing much with either For which Reason I kept my self much as a Stranger seeking heavenly Wisdom and getting Knowledge from the Lord and was brought off from outward Things to rely wholly on the Lord alone And though my Exercises and Troubles were very great yet were they not so continual but that I had some Intermissions and was sometimes brought into such an Heavenly Joy that I thought I had been in Abraham's Bosom As I cannot declare the Misery I was in it was so great and heavy upon upon me so neither can I set forth the Mercies of God unto me in all my Misery Oh! the everlasting Love of God to my Soul when I was in great Distress when my Troubles and Torments were great then was his Love exceeding great Thou Lord makest a fruitful Field a barren Wilderness and a barren Wilderness a fruitful Field thou bringest down and settest up Thou killest and makest alive all Honour and Glory be to thee O Lord of Glory The Knowledge of thee in the Spirit is Life But that Knowledge which is fleshly works Death And while there is this Knowledge in the Flesh Deceit and Self will conform to any thing and will say Yes yes to that it doth not know The Knowledge which
is the Author of ye will have Peace and Access to God But if ye look out from the Faith and from that which would keep you in the Victory and look after fleshly Things or Words ye will be brought into Bondage to the Flesh again and to the Law which takes hold upon the Flesh and Sin and worketh Wrath and the Works of the Flesh will appear again The Law of God takes hold upon the Law of Sin and Death But the Law of Faith or the Law of the Spirit of Life which is the Love of God and which comes by Jesus who is the end of the Law for Righteousness-sake this makes free from the Law of Sin and Death This Law of Life fleshly-minded Men do not know yet they will tempt you to draw you from the Spirit into the Flesh and so into Bondage Therefore ye who know the Love of God and the Law of his Spirit and the freedom that is in Jesus Christ stand fast in him in that divine Faith which he is the Author of in you and be not entangled with the Yoke of Bondage For the Ministry of Christ Jesus and his Teaching bringeth into Liberty and Freedom But the Ministry that is of Man and by Man and which stands in the Will of Man bringeth into Bondage and under the shadow of Death and Darkness And therefore none can be a Minister of Christ Jesus but in the Eternal Spirit which was before the Scriptures were given forth For if they have not his Spirit they are none of his Though they may have his Light to condemn them that hate it yet they can never bring any into Unity and Fellowship in the Spirit except they be in it For the Seed of God is a burdensome Stone to the selfish fleshly earthly Will which reigns in its own Knowledge and Understanding that must perish and in its Wisdom that is Devilish And the Spirit of God is grieved and vexed and quenched with that which brings into the fleshly Bondage and that which wars against the Spirit of God must be mortified by it For the Flesh lusteth against the Spirit and the Spirit against the Flesh and these are contrary the one to the other The Flesh would have its Liberty and the Spirit would have its Liberty But the Spirit is to have its Liberry and not the Flesh If therefore ye quench the Spirit and join to the Flesh and be Servants of it then ye are judged and tormented by the Spirit But if ye join to the Spirit and serve God in it ye have Liberty and Victory over the Flesh and its Works Therefore keep in the daily Cross the Power of God by which ye may witness all that to be Crucified which is contrary to the Will of God and which shall not come into his Kingdom These things are here mentioned and opened for Information Exhortation and Comfort to others as the Lord Opened them unto me in that day And in that day I wondred that the Children of Israel should murmur for Water and Victuals for I could have fasted long without murmuring or minding Victuals But I was judged sometimes that I was not contented to be sometimes without the Water and Bread of Life that I might learn to know how to Want and how to Abound Lancashire And I heard of a Woman in Lancashire that had Fasted Two and twenty Days And I traveled to see her but when I came to her I saw that she was under a Temptation And when I had spoken to her what I had from the Lord I left her her Father being one high in Profession Duckenfield Manchester And passing on I went among the Professors at Duckenfield and Manchester where I stay'd a while and declared Truth among them And there were some Convinced who received the Lord's Teaching by which they were confirmed and stood in the Truth But the Professors were in a Rage all pleading for Sin and Imperfection and could not endure to hear talk of Perfection and of an holy and sinless Life But the Lord's Power was over all though they were chained under Darkness and Sin which they pleaded for and quenched the tender Thing in them About this time there was a great Meeting of the Baptists 1647. Broughton in Leicester-shire at Broughton in Leicester-shire with some that had separated from them and People of other Notions went thither And I went thither also Not many of the Baptists came but abundance of other People were there And the Lord opened my Mouth and his Everlasting Truth was declared amongst them and the Power of the Lord was over them all For in that day the Lord's Power began to spring and I had great Openings in the Scriptures and several were Convinced in those Parts and were turned from Darkness to Light and from the Power of Satan unto God and his Power they did receive and by it many were raised up to praise God And when I reasoned with Professors and other People some were Convinced and did stand Yet I was under great Temptations sometimes and my inward Sufferings were heavy but I could find none to open my Condition to but the Lord alone unto whom I cryed Night and Day And I went back into Nottingham-shire Nottingham-shire and there the Lord shewed me that the Natures of those things which were hurtful without were within in the Hearts and Minds of Wicked Men. The Natures of Dogs Swine Vipers of Sodom and Egypt Pharaoh Cain Ishmael Esau c. the Natures of these I saw within though People had been looking without And I cryed to the Lord saying Why should I be thus seeing I was never addicted to commit those Evils And the Lord answered That it was needful I should have a sense of all Conditions how else should I speak to all Conditions And in this I saw the Infinite Love of God I saw also that there was an Ocean of Darkness and Death but an infinite Ocean of Light and Love which flowed over the Ocean of Darkness And in that also I saw the Infinite Love of God and I had great Openings And as I was walking by the Steeple-house side in the Town of Mansfield Mansfield the Lord said unto me That which People do trample upon must be thy Food And as the Lord spake he opened it to me how that People and Professors did trample upon the Life even the Life of Christ was tramâ—led upon and they fed upon Words and fed one another with Words but trampled upon the Life And trampled under Foot the Blood of the Son of God which Blood was my Life and they lived in their airy Notions talking of him It seemed strange to me at the first that I should feed on that which the high Professors trampled upon but the Lord opened it clearly to me by his Eternal Spirit and Power Then came People from far and near to see me And I was fearful of being drawn out by them yet
the Stature of the Fulness of Christ when they cannot bear to hear that any shall come whilst upon Earth into the same Power and Spirit that the Prophets and Apostles were in Though it be a certain Truth that none can understand their Writings aright without the same Spirit by which they were written Now the Lord God hath opened to me by his invisible Power how that Every Man was enlightned by the Divine Light of Christ and I saw it shine through all And that they that believed in it came out of Condemnation and came to the Light of Life and became the Children of it But they that hated it and did not believe in it were Condemned by it though they made a Profession of Christ This I saw in the pure Openings of the Light without the help of any Man neither did I then know where to find it in the Scriptures though afterwards searching the Scriptures I found it For I saw in that Light and Spirit which was before Scripture was given forth and which led the Holy Men of God to give them forth That all must come to that Spirit if they would know God or Christ or the Scriptures aright which They that gave them forth were led and taught by But I observed a Dulness and Drowzy Heaviness upon People which I wondred at For sometimes when I would set my self to sleep my Mind went over all to the Beginning in that which is from Everlasting to Everlasting And I saw Death was to pass over this sleepy heavy State And I told People they must come to witness Death to that sleepy heavy Nature and a Cross to it in the Power of God that their Minds and Hearts might be on things above And on a certain Time as I was walking in the Fields the Lord said unto me Thy Name is written in the Lamb's Book of Life which was before the Foundation of the World And as the Lord spake it I believed and saw it in the New Birth Then sometime after the Lord commanded me to go abroad into the World which was like a briary thorny Wilderness And when I came in the Lord 's mighty Power with the Word of Life into the World the World swelled and made a Noise like the great raging Waves of the Sea Priests and Professors Magistrates and People were all like a Sea when I came to proclaim the Day of the Lord amongst them and to preach Repentance to them Now I was sent to turn People from Darkness to the Light that they might receive Christ Jesus For to as many as should receive him in his Light I saw that he would give Power to become the Sons of God Which I had obtained by receiving Christ And I was to direct People to the Spirit that gave forth the Scriptures by which they might be led into all Truth and so up to Christ and God as they had been who gave them forth And I was to turn them to the Grace of God and to the Truth in the Heart which came by Jesus that by this Grace they might be taught which would bring them Salvation that their Hearts might be established by it and their Words might be seasoned and all might come to know their Salvation nigh For I saw that Christ had died for all Men and was a Propitiation for all and had enlightned all Men and Women with his divine and saving Light And that none could be a true Believer but who believed in it I saw that the Grace of God which brings Salvation had appeared to all Men and that the Manifestation of the Spirit of God was given to every Man to profit withal These Things I did not see by the help of Man nor by the Letter tho' they are written in the Letter but I saw them in the Light of the Lord Jesus Christ and by his immediate Spirit and Power as did the Holy Men of God by whom the Holy Scriptures were written Yet I had no slight esteem of the Holy Scriptures but they were very precious to me For I was in that Spirit by which they were given forth and what the Lord opened in me I afterwards found was agreeable to them I could speak much of these things and many Volumes might be written but all would prove too short to set forth the Infinite Love Wisdom and Power of God in prepairing fitting and furnishing me for the Service he had appointed me to letting me see the Depths of Satan on the one Hand and opening to me on the other Hand the divine Mysteries of his own Everlasting Kingdom Now when the Lord God and his Son Jesus Christ did send me forth into the World to preach his Everlasting Gospel and Kingdom I was glad that I was Commanded To turn People to that Inward Light Spirit and Grace by which all might know their Salvation and their Way to God even that divine Spirit which would lead them into all Truth and which I infallibly knew would never deceive any But with and by this divine Power and Spirit of God and the Light of Jesus I was to bring People off from all their own ways to Christ the new and living Way and from their Churches which Men had made and gathered to the Church in God the general Assembly written in Heaven which Christ is the Head of And off from the World's Teachers made by Men to learn of Christ who is the Way the Truth and the Life of whom the Father said This is my beloved Son hear ye him and off from all the Worlds Worships to know the Spirit of Truth in the inward Parts and to be led thereby that in it they might Worship the Father of Spirits who seeks such to Worship him Which Spirit they that Worshipped not in knew not what they Worshipped And I was to bring People off from all the World's Religions which are vain that they might know the pure Religion and might visit the Fatherless the Widows and the Strangers and keep themselves from the Spots of the World And then there would not be so many Beggars the sight of whom often grieved my Heart to see so much Hard-heartedness amongst them that professed the Name of Christ And I was to bring them off from all the World's Fellowships and Prayings and Singings which stood in Forms without Power that their Fellowships might be in the Holy Ghost and in the Eternal Spirit of God that they might Pray in the Holy Ghost and Sing in the Spirit and with the Grace that comes by Jesus making Melody in their Hearts to the Lord who hath sent his beloved Son to be their Saviour and caused his heavenly Sun to shine upon all the World and through them all and his heavenly Rain to fall upon the Just and the Unjust as his outward Rain doth fall and his outward Sun doth shine on all which is God's unspeakable Love to the World And I was to bring People off from Jewish Ceremonies and from
Covetousness and Extortion God doth forbid that Wo be to the Man that Coveteth an Evil Covetousness that he may set his Nest on high and cover himself with thick Clay O do not love that which God doth forbid His Servant thou art whom thou dost obey whether it be of Sin unto Death or of Obedience unto Righteousness Think upon Lazarus and Dives the one fared sumptuously every Day the other was a Beggar See if thou be not Dives Be not deceived God is not mocked with vain Words Evil Communication corrupteth good Manners Awake to Righteousness and sin not G. F. That to Justice Barton was in these Words Friend THou that preachest Christ and the Scriptures in Words when any come to follow that which thou hast spoken of and to live the Life of the Scriptures then they that speak the Scriptures but do not lead their Lives according thereunto persecute them that do Mind the Prophets and Jesus Christ and his Apostles and all the Holy Men of God what they spake was from the Life But they that had not the Life but the Words Persecuted and Imprisoned them that lived in the Life which they had back-slidden from G. F. Now as I had written to the Justices and to the Priests so it was upon me to write to the Major of Darby also who though he did not sign the Mittimus had a Hand with the rest in sending me to Prison And to him I writ after this manner Friend THou art set in Place to do Justice but in Imprisoning my Body thou hast done contrary to Justice according to your own Law O take heed of pleasing Men more than God for that 's the way of the Scribes and Pharisees They sought the Praise of Men more than God Remember who said I was a Stranger and ye took me not in I was in Prison and ye visited me not O Friend thy Envy is not against me but against the Power of Truth I had no Envy to you but Love O take heed of Oppression for The Day of the Lord is coming that shall burn as an Oven and all the Proud and all that do wickedly shall be as Stubble and the Day that cometh shall burn them up saith the Lord of Hosts It shall leave them neither Root nor Branch O Friend if the Love of God were in thee thou would'st love the Truth and hear the Truth spoken and not Imprison unjustly The Love of God beareth and suffereth and envieth no Man If the Love of God had broken your Hearts you would shew Mercy but you do shew forth what ruleth you Every Tree doth shew forth its Fruit you do shew forth your Fruits openly For Drunkenness Swearing Pride and Vanity rule among you from the Teacher to the People O Friend Mercy and true Judgment and Justice are Cried for in your Streets Oppression Vnmercifulness Cruelty Hatred Pride Pleasures Wantonness and Fulness is in your Streets but the Poor is not regarded O take heed of the Wo Wo be to the Crown of Pride Wo be to them that drink Wine in Bowles and the Poor is ready to perish O remember Lazarus and Dives One fared deliciously every Day and the other was a Beggar O Friend Mind these Things for they are near and see whether thou be not the Man that is in Dives his State I writ also to the Court at Darby thus I Am moved to write unto you to take heed of Oppressing the Poor in your Courts or laying Burdens upon poor People which they cannot bear And of false Oaths or making them to take Oaths which they cannot perform The Lord saith I will come near to Judgment and will be a swift Witness against the Sorcerers against the false Swearers and against the Idolaters and against those that do oppress Widows and Fatherless Therefore take heed of all these things betimes The Lord's Judgments are all true and righteous and he delighteth in Mercy So love Mercy Dear People and Consider in Time Likewise to the Ringers who used to Ring the Bells in the Steeple-house called S. Peter's in Darby I sent these few Lines Friends TAke heed of Pleasures and prize your Time now while you have it and do not spend it in Pleasures nor Earthliness The Time may come that you will say You had Time when it is past Therefore look at the Love of God now while you have Time for it bringeth to loath all Vanities and worldly Pleasures O Consider Time is precious Fear God and rejoyce in him who hath made Heaven and Earth Now while I was there in Prison divers of the Professors came unto me to discourse with me And I had a Sense before they spake that they came to plead for Sin and Imperfection And I asked them Whether they were Believers and had Faith and they said Yes Then I asked them In whom and they said In Christ Then I replyed If ye are true Believers in Christ you are passed from Death to Life and if passed from Death then from Sin that bringeth Death And if your Faith be true it will give you Victory over Sin and the Devil and purify your Hearts and Consciences for the true Faith is held in a pure Conscience and it will bring you to please God and give you Access to him again But they could not endure to hear of Purity and of Victory over Sin and the Devil For they said They could not believe that any could be free from Sin on this Side the Grave Then I bid them give over babling about the Scriptures which were Holy Mens Words whilst they pleaded for Vnholiness And at another Time another Company of Professors came and they also began to plead for Sin And I asked them Whether they had Hope And they said Yes God forbid but we should have Hope Then I asked them What Hope is it that you have Is Christ in you the Hope of your Glory Doth it purify you as he is Pure But they could not abide to hear of being made pure here Then I bid them forbear talking of the Scriptures which were the Holy Men's Words For the Holy Men that writ the Scriptures pleaded for Holiness in Heart Life and Conversation here but since you plead for Impurity and Sin which is of the Devil what have you to do with the Holy Men's Words Now the Keeper of the Prison being an high Professor was greatly enraged against me and spake very wickedly of me But it pleased the Lord one Day to strike him so that he was in great Trouble and under great Terrors of Mind And as I was walking in my Chamber I heard a doleful Noise and standing still I heard him say to his Wife Wife I have seen the Day of Judgment and I saw GEORGE there and I was afraid of him because I had done him so much wrong and spoken so much against him to the Ministers and Professors and to the Justices and in Taverns and Ale-houses After this towards the Evening
he came up into my Chamber and said to me I have been as a Lion against you But now I come like a Lamb and like the Jailer that came to Paul and Silas trembling And he desired that he might lie with me I told him that I was in his Power he might do what he would But he said Nay he would have my Leave and he could desire to be always with me but not to have me as a Prisoner And he said He had been plagued and his House had been plagued for my sake So I suffered him to lie with me and then he told me all his Heart and said He believed what I had said of the true Faith and Hope to be true And he wondred that the other Man that was put into Prison with me did not stand to it and said That Man was not right but I was an honest Man He confessed also to me that at those Times when I had asked him to let me go forth to speak the Word of the Lord to the People and he had refused to let me go and I had laid the weight thereof upon him that then he used to be under great Trouble amazed and almost distracted for some time after and in such a Condition that he had little Strength left him When the Morning came he arose and soon after went to the Justices and told them That he and his House had been plagued for my sake and one of the Justices replied as he reported to me that the Plagues were on them too for keeping me This was Justice Bennet of Darby who was the first that called us Quakers because I bid them Tremble at the Word of the Lord. And this was in the Year 1650. After this the Justices gave leave That I should have Liberty to walk a Mile I perceived their End and I told the Jailer If they would set down to me how far a Mile was I might take the liberty of walking it sometimes For I had a Sense they thought I would go away And the Jailer Confest afterwards that they did it with that Intent to have me go away to ease them of their Plague But I told him I was not of that Spirit This Jailer had a Sister who was a sickly young Woman and she came up into my Chamâ—er to Visit me and after she had stay'd some time and I had spoken the Words of Truth to her she went down and told them That we were an Innocent People and did none any hurt but did good to all even to them that hated us And she desired them to be Tender towards me Now forasmuch as by reason of my Restraint I had not the Opportunity of Traveling about to declare and spread Truth through the Countries it came upon me to Write a Paper and send it forth to be spread abroad both amongst Friends and other tender People for the Opening of their Understandings in the Way of Truth and directing them to the true Teacher in themselves And it was as followeth THE Lord doth shew unto Man his Thoughts and discovereth all the secret Workings in Man A Man may be brought to see his evil Thoughts and running Mind and vain Imaginations and may strive to keep them down and to keep his Mind in but cannot Overcome them nor keep his Mind within to the Lord. Now in this State and Condition submit to the Spirit of the Lord that shews them and that will bring to Wait upon the Lord and he that hath discovered them will destroy them Therefore stand in the Faith of the Lord Jesus Christ who is the Author of the true Faith and mind him for he will discover the Root of Lusts and evil Thoughts and vain Imaginations and how they are begotten conceived and bred and then how they are brought forth and how every evil Member doth work He will discover every Principle from its own Nature and Root So mind the Faith of Christ and the Anointing which is in you to be taught by it which will discover all Workings in you And as he teacheth you so obey and forsake else you will not grow up in the Faith nor in the Life of Christ where the Love of God is received Now Love begetteth Love it s own Nature and Image And when Mercy and Truth do meet what Joy there is And Mercy doth Triumph in Judgment And Love and Mercy doth bear the Judgment of the World in patience That which cannot bear the World's Judgment is not the Love of God for Love beareth all things and is above the World's Judgment for the World's Judgment is but Foolishness And though it be the World's Judgment and Practice to cast all the World's Filthiness that is among themselves upon the Saints yet their Judgment is false Now the Chaste Virgins follow Christ the Lamb that takes away the Sins of the World But they that are of that Spirit which is not Chaste will not follow Christ the Lamb in his Steps but are disobedient to him in his Commands So the fleshly Mind doth mind the Flesh and talketh fleshly and its Knowledge is fleshly and not spiritual but savours of Death and not of the Spirit of Life Now some Men have the Nature of Swine wallowing in the Mire And some Men have the Nature of Dogs to bite both the Sheep and one another And some Men have the Nature of Lions to tear devour and destroy And some Men have the Nature of Wolves to tear and devour the Lambs and Sheep of Christ And some Men have the Nature of the Serpent that old Adversary to sting envenom and poison He that hath an Ear to hear let him hear and learn these things within himself And some Men have the Natures of other Beasts and Creatures minding nothing but earthly and visible things and feeding without the fear of God Some Men have the Nature of an Horse to praunce and vapor in their Strength and to be swift in doing Evil. And some Men have the Nature of Tall sturdy Oaks to slourish and spread in Wisdom and Strength who are strong in Evil which must perish and come to the Fire Thus the Evil is but one in all but worketh many Ways and whatsoever a Man's or Woman's Nature is addicted to that is Outward the Evil one will fit him with that and will please his Nature and Appeâ—ite to keep his Mind in his Inventions and in the Creatures from the Creator O therefore let not the Mind go forth from God 〈◊〉 it do it will be stained and venomed and corrupted And if the Mind go forth from the Lord it is hard to bring it in again Therefore take heed of the Enemy and keep in the Faith of Christ O! therefore mind that which is Eternal and Invisible and him who is the Creator and Mover of all things For the things that are made are not made of things that do appear for the visible covereth the invisible Sight in you But as the Lord who
is Invisible doth open you by his Invisible Power and Spirit and brings down the carnal Mind in you so the Invisible and Immortal things are brought to Light in you O therefore you that know the Light walk in the Light For there are Children of Darkness that will talk or the Light and of the Truth and not walk in it but the Children of the Light love the Light and walk in the Light But the Children of Darkness walk in Darkness and hate the Light and in them the earthly Lusts and the carnal Mind choke the Seed of Faith and that bringeth Oppression on the Seed and Death over them O therefore mind the pure Spirit of the Everlasting God which will reach you to use the Creatures in their right place and which iudgeth the Evil. To thee O God be all Glory and Honour who art Lord of all Visibles and Invisibles To thee be all Praise who bringest out of the Deep to thy Self O powerful God who art worthy of all Glory For the Lord who created all and gives Life and Strength to all is over all and Merciful to all So thou who hast made all and art over all to thee be all Glory In thee is my Strength Refreshments and Life my Joy and my Gladness my Rejoycing and Glorying for evermore So to live and walk in the Spirit of God is Joy and Peace and Life but the Mind going forth into the Creatures or into any Visible Things from the Lord this bringeth Death Now when the Mind is got into the Flesh and into Death then the Accuser gets within and the Law of Sin and Death that gets into the Flesh and then the Life suffers under the Law of Sin and Death And then there is straitness and failings For then the Good is shut up and then the Self-Righteousness is set a top and then Man doth work in the outward Law and he cannot Justify himself by the Law but is Condemned by the Light For he cannot get out of that State but by abiding in the Light and resting in the Mercy of God and believing in him from whom all Mercy doth flow For there is Peace in resting in the Lord Jesus This is the Narrow Way that leads to him the Life but few will abide in it Therefore keep in the Innocency and be obedient to the Faith in him And take heed of Conforming to the World and of Reasoning with Flesh and Blood for that bringeth Disobedience and then Imaginations and Questionings do arise to draw from Obedience to the Truth of Christ But the Obedience of Faith destroyeth Imaginations and Questionings and Reasonings and all the Temptations in the Flesh and Buffetings and lookings forth and fetching up things that are past But not keeping in the Life and Light and not crossing the Corrupt Will by the Power of God the Evil Nature grows up in Man and then Burdens will come and Man will be stained with that Nature But Esau's Mountain shall be laid waste and become a Wilderness where the Dragons lie But Jacob the second Birth shall be fruitful and shall arise For Esau is hated and must not be Lord but Jacob the second Birth which is perfect and plain shall be Lord for he is beloved of God G. F. I writ another Paper also much about the same time and sent it forth amongst the Convinced People as followeth THE LORD is KING over all the Earth Therefore all People praise and glorifie your King in the true Obedience in the Uprightness and in the beauty of Holiness O Consider in the true Obedience the Lord is known and an Understanding from him is received Mark and consider in silence in the Lowliness of Mind and thou wilt hear the Lord speak unto thee in thy Mind His Voice is sweet and pleasant His Sheep hear his Voice and they will not hearken to another And when they hear his Voice they Rejoice and are Obedient they also sing for Joy Oh their Hearts are filled with everlasting Triumph They sing and praise the Eternal God in Sion their Joy shall never Man take from them Glory to the Lord God for Evermore But many that had been Convinced of the Truth turned aside because of the Persecution that arose Whereupon I writ a few Lines for the Comfort and Encouragement of the Faithful thus COme ye Blessed of the Lord and Rejoice together Keep in Unity and Oneness of Spirit Triumph above the World Be joyful in the Lord reigning above the World and above all things that draw from the Lord that in Clearness Righteousness Pureness and Joy you may be preserved to the Lord. O hear O hearken to the Call of the Lord and come out of the World and keep out of it for evermore And come Sing together ye Righteous Ones the Song of the Lord the Song of the Lamb which none can learn but they who are Redeemed from the Earth and from the World Now while I was in the House of Correction my Relations came to see me and being troubled for my Imprisonment they went to the Justices that cast me into Prison and desired to have me home with them offering to be bound in One hundred Pounds and others of Darby in fifty Pounds a piece with them that I should come no more thither to declare against the Priests So I was had up before the Justices and because I would not consent that they or any should be bound for me for I was Innocent from any Ill Behaviour and had spoken the Word of Life and Truth unto them Justice Bennet rose up in a rage and as I was kneeling down to Pray to the Lord to forgive him he ran upon me and struck me with both his Hands Crying Away with him Jailer Take him away Jailer Whereupon I was had back again to Prison and there kept until the time of my Commitment for Six Months was Expired But I had now the Liberty of walking a Mile by my self which I made use of as I felt freedom And sometimes I went into the Market and Streets and warned the People to Repent of their Wickedness and so returned to Prison again And there being Persons of several sorts of Religion in the Prison I sometimes went and visited them in their Meetings on the First-days After I had been before the Justices and they had required Sureties for my good Behaviour which I could not Consent should be given to blemish my Innocency It came upon me to write to the Justices again which I did as followeth Friends SEE what it is in you that doth Imprison and see who is Head in you and see if something do not Accuse you Consider you must be brought to Judgment Think upon Lazarus and Dives the one fared sumptuously every day the other a Beggar And now you have time prize it while you have it Would you have me to be bound to my Good Behaviour I am bound to my Good Behaviour And do Cry for Good Behaviour
abused and he offered to Assist me in what he could But I told him The Lord's Power was over all So I walked through the People in the Market and none of them had power to touch me then But some of the Market-People abusing some Friends in the Market I turned me about and saw this Souldier among them with his naked Rapier whereupon I ran in amongst them and catching hold of his Hand that his Rapier was in I bid him Put up his Sword again if he would go along with me for I was willing to draw him out from the Company lest some Mischief should be done Yet a few days after seven Men fell upon this Souldier and beat him cruelly because he had taken part with Friends and me For it was the manner of the Persecutors of that Country for twenty or forty People to run upon one Man And they fell so upon Friends in many Places that they could hardly pass the High-ways Swarthmore stoning beating and breaking their Heads Now when I came up to Swarthmore I found the Friends there dressing the Heads and Hands of Friends and Friendly People which had been broken or hurt that day by the Professors and Hearers of Lampitt the Priest My Body and Arms were yellow black and blue with the Blows and Bruises I received amongst them that day And now began the Priests to prophesy again That within half a Year we should be all put down and gone 1652. Walney Island About two Weeks after this I went into Walney-Island and James Naylor went with me and we stay'd one Night at a little Town on this side called Cockan and had a Meeting there where there was one Convinced After a while there came a Man with a Pistol Cockan whereupon the People ran out of Doors He called for me and when I came out to him he snapp'd his Pistol at me but it would not go off This caused the People to make a great Bustle about him and some of them took hold of him to prevent his doing Mischief Buâ— I was moved in the Lord's Power to speak to him and he was so struck by the Power of the Lord that he trembled for fear and went and hid himself Thus the Lord's Power came over them all though there was a great Rage in the Country The next Morning I went over in a Boat to James Lancaster's and as soon as I came to Land there rushed out about Forty Men with Staves Clubs and Fishing-poles and fell upon me beating and punching me and endeavoured to thrust me backward into the Sea And when they had thrust me almost into the Sea and I saw they would have knock'd me down there in the Sea I went up into the Middle of them but they laid at me again and knock'd me down and stunn'd me When I came to my self I looked up and saw James Lancaster's Wife throwing Stones at my Face and her Husband James Lancaster was lying over me to keep the Blows and the Stones from off me For the People had persuaded James Lancaster's Wife that I had bewitched her Husband and had promised her That if she would let them know when I came thither they would be my death And having got knowledge of my Coming many of the Town rose up in this manner with Clubs and Staves to kill me but the Lord's Power preserved me that they could not take away my Life At length I got up upon my Feet but they beat me down again into the Boat which James Lancaster observing he presently came into the Boat to me and set me over the Water from them but while we were on the Water within their Reach they struck at us with long Poles and threw Stones after us By that time we were come to the other side we saw them beating James Naylor for whilst they had been beating of me he walked up into a Field and they never minded him till I was gone then they fell upon him and all their Cry was Kill him Kill him Now when I was come over to the Town again on the other side of the Water the Townsmen rose up with Pitchforks Flails and Staves to keep me out of the Town crying Kill him knock him on the Head bring the Cart and carry him away to the Church-yard So after they had abused me they drove me a pretty way out of the Town and there left me Then went James Lancaster back again to look after James Naylor and I being now left alone went to a Ditch of Water and having washed my self for they had all bedirted and besmeared my Face Hands and Cloaths with Miry Dirt and Wet I walked about three Miles to Thomas Hutton's House where lodged Thomas Lawson the Priest that was Convinced And when I came in I could hardly speak to them I was so bruised only I told them where I left James Naylor whereupon they took each of them an Horse 1652. Cockan and went and brought him thither that Night The next day Margaret Fell hearing of it sent an Horse for me but so sore I was with the Bruises I had that I was not able to bear the shaking of the Horse without much pain When I was come to Swarthmore Swarthmore Justice Sawrey and one Justice Thompson of Lancaster granted forth a Warrant against me but Judge Fell coming home it was not served upon me for he was out of the Country all this time that I was thus abused and cruelly used But when he came home he sent forth Warrants into the Isle of Walney to apprehend all those Riotous Persons whereupon some of them fled the Country James Lancaster's Wife was afterwards Convinced of the Truth and Repented of the Evil she had done me and so did some others of those bitter Persecutors also but the Judgments of God fell upon some of them and Destruction is come upon many of them since Judge Fell asked me to give him a Relation of my Persecution but I told him They could do no otherwise in the Spirit wherein they were and that they manifested the Fruits of their Priest's Ministry and their Profession and Religion to be wrong So he told his Wife I made nothing of it and that I spake of it as Man that had not been concerned For indeed the Lord's Power healed me again Yelland After I was recovered I went to Yelland where there was a great Meeting In the Evening there came a Priest to the House with a Pistol in his Hand under pretence to light a Pipe of Tobacco and the Maid of the House seeing the Pistol told her Master who thereupon clapping his Hands on both the Door-Posts told him He should not come in there And while he stood there keeping the Door-way he looked up and spied over the Wall a Company of Men coming some armed with Staves and one with a Musket But the Lord God prevented their Bloody Design so that seeing themselves discovered they went
became very sober Men and good Friends in the Truth And great Blessing and Praising the Lord there was amongst them and great Admiration in the Country Out of Sussex I traveled through the Country till I came to Reading Reading where I found a few that were Convinced of the Way of the Lord. There I stay'd 1655. Reading till the First-day and then had a Meeting in George Lamboll's Orchard and a great part of the Town came to it A glorious Meeting it was and a great Convincement there was that day and the People were mightily satisfied Thither came Two of Judge Fell's Daughters to me and George Bishop of Bristol came with his Sword by his side for he was a Captain After the Meeting many Baptists and Ranters came privately reasoning and discoursing but the Lord's Power came over them The Ranters pleaded That God made the Devil But I denied it and told them I was come into the Power of God the Seed Christ which was before the Devil was and bruised the Head of him And he became a Devil by going out of Truth and so became a Murderer and a Destroyer So I shewed them That God did not make the Devil for God is a God of Truth and he made all things good and blessed them But God did not bless the Devil And the Devil is bad and was a Liar and a Murderer from the beginning and spoke of himself and not from God And so the Truth stopt them and bound them and came over all the highest Notions in the Nation and Confounded them For by the Power of the Lord God I was manifest and sought to be made manifest to the Spirit of God in all that by it which they vexed and quenched and grieved they might be turned to God as many were turned to the Lord Jesus Christ by the Spirit of God and were come to sit under his Teaching London After this Meeting at Reading I passed up to London where I stay'd a while and had large Meetings and then went into Essex and came to Cogshall Essex Cogshall And there was a Meeting of about Two Thousand People as it was judged which lasted several hours and a glorious Meeting it was for the Word of Life was freely declared and People were turned to the Lord Jesus Christ their Teacher and their Saviour the Way the Truth and the Life Near Colchester On the sixth day of that Week I had a Meeting near Colchester to which many Professors and the Independent-Teachers came After I had done speaking and was stept down from the place on which I stood One of the Independent-Teachers began to make a Jangling which Amor Stoddart who was with me perceiving he said to me Stand up again George for I was going away and did not at the first hear them But when I heard the Jangling Independent I stood up again and after a while the Lord's Power came over him and his Company and they were confounded and the Lord's Truth went over all And a great Flock of Sheep hath the Lord Jesus Christ in that Country that feed in his Pastures of Life On the First-day following we had a very large Meeting at another place not far from Colchester wherein the Lord's Power was eminently manifested and the People were very well satisfied for they were turned to the Lord Jesus Christ's free Teaching and they received it gladly Many of these People had been of the Stock of the Martyrs As I passed through Colchester I went to visit James Parnel in Prison but the Cruel Gaoler would hardly let us come in or stay with him Very Cruel they were unto him The Gaoler's Wife threatned to have his Blood and in that Jail they did destroy him 1655. Colchest as the Reader may see at large in a Book printed soon after his Death giving an Account of his Life and Death and also in an Epistle printed with his Collected Books and Writings From Colchester I went to Ipswich where we had a little Meeting Ipswich and very rude but the Lord's Power came over them After the Meeting I said If any had a desire to hear further they might come to the Inn And there came-in a Company of Rude Butchers that had abused Friends but the Lord's Power so chained them that they could not do Mischief Then I writ a Paper and gave it forth to the Town warning them of the Day of the Lord that they might Repent of the Evils they lived in and directing them to Christ their Teacher and Way exhorting them to forsake their hireling-Teachers We passed from Ipswich to Mendlesham where Robert Duncon lived Suffolk Mendlesham in Suffolk where we had a large Meeting that was quiet and the Lord's Power was preciously felt amongst us Then we passed to a Meeting at one Captain Lawrence's in Norfolk where it was judged Norfolk were above a Thousand People and all was quiet Many Persons of Note were there and a great Convincement there was for they were turned to Christ their Way and their Teacher and many of them received him and sate down under him their Vine Here we parted with Amor Stoddart and some more Friends who intended to meet us again in Huntingtonshire About the Second Hour in the Morning we took Horse for Norwich Norwich where Christopher Atkins that dirty Man had run out and brought dishonour upon the blessed Truth and Name of the Lord. But he had been judged and denied by Friends and afterwards he gave forth a Paper of Condemnation of his Sin and Evil. So we came to Yarmouth yarmouth and there stayed a while where there was a Friend one Thomas Bond in Prison for the Truth of Christ There we had some Service for the Lord and some were turned to the Lord in that Town From thence we rode to another Town about Twenty Miles off where were many tender People and I was moved of the Lord to speak to the People as I sate upon my Horse in several Places as I passed along We went on to another Town about Five Miles from thence and set up our Horses at an Inn having travelled Five and forty Miles that Day Richard Hubberthorn and I. There were some friendly People in the Town and we had a tender broken Meeting amongst them in the Lord's Power to his Praise We bid the Hostler have our Horses ready by the Third Hour in the Morning for we intended to ride to Lyn about three and Thirty Miles next morning But when we were in Bed at our Inn about the Eleventh Hour at Night came the Constable and Officers with a great Rabble of People into the Inn and said They were come with an Hue and Cry from a Justice of Peace that lived near that Town about five Miles off where I had spoken to the People in the Streets as I rode along to search for two Horsmen that rid upon gray Horses and in gray Cloaths an House
turned him to the Spirit of God in his Heart and to the Light of Christ Jesus and he was throughly Convinced and continued so to his Death and was very serviceable to us There came also to see us one Colonel Rouse a Justice of Peace with a great Company with him and he was as full or Words and Talk as ever I heard any Man in my Life so that there was no speaking to him At length I asked him ' Whether he had ever been at School and knew what belonged to Questions and Answers this I said to stop him At School said he yes At School said the Souldiers Doth he say so to our Colonel that is a Scholar Then said I If he be so let him be still and receive Answers to what he hath said Then I was moved of the Lord so speak the Word of Life to him in God's dreadful Power which came so over him that he could not open his Mouth his Face swelled and was red like a Turkey and his Lips moved and he mumbled something but the People thought he would have fallen down I stept to him and he said He was never so in his Life before For the Lord's Power stopt the Evil Power and Air in him so that he was almost choked The Man was ever after very Loving to Friends and not so full of Airy Words to us though he was a Man full of Pride but the Lord's Power came over him and the rest that were with him Another time there came another Officer of the Army a very malicious bitter Professor whom I had known in London And he was full of his airy Talk also and spake slightly of the Light of Christ and against the Truth as Colonel Rouse had done and against the Spirit of God being in Men as it was in the Apostles Days till the Power of God that bound the Evil in him had almost Choked him also as it did Colonel Rouse for he was so full of Evil Air that he could not speak but blubbered and stuttered But from that time that the Lord's Power struck him and came over him he was ever after more Loving to us Now the Assize being over and we settled in Prison upon such a Commitment as we were not likely to be soon Released we broke off from giving the Gaoler Seven Shillings a Week a piece for our Horses and Seven Shillings a Week for our selves and sent our Horses out into the Country Upon which the Gaoler grew very Wicked and Devilish Dooms-Dale and put us down into Dooms-dale a nasty stinking Place where they used to put Witches and Murderers after they were Condemned to Die The Place was so Noisom that it was observed few that went in did ever come out again in Health for there was no House of Office in it and the Excrements of the Prisoners that from time to time had been put there had not been carried out as we were told for many Years So that it was all like Mire and in some Places to the Top of the Shoes in Water and Piss and he would not let us Cleanse it neither would he let us have Beds or Straw to lie on At Night some friendly People of the Town brought us a Candle and a little Straw and we went to burn a little of our Straw to take away the Stink The Thieves lay over our Heads and the Head-Gaoler lay in a Room by them over our Heads also Now it seems the Smoke went up into the Room where the Gaoler lay which put him into such a Rage that he took the Pots of Excrements of the Thieves and poured them down through a Hole upon our Heads in Dooms-dale so that we were so bespattered with the Excrements that we could not touch our selves nor one another And the Stink Increased upon us so that what with Stink and what with Smoke we had like to have been choked and smothered in Dooms-dale For we had the Stink under our Feet before but now we had it on our Heads and Backs also And he having quenched our Straw with the Filth he poured down had made a great Smother in the Place Moreover he railed on us most hideously calling us Hatchet-faced Dogs and such strange Names as we had never heard of In this manner were we fain to stand all Night for we could not sit down the Place was so full of filthy Excrements And a great while he kept us after this manner before he would let us cleanse it or suffer us to have any Victuals brought in but what we got through the Grate One time a Lass brought us a little Meat and he Arrested her for breaking his House and sued her in the Town-Court for breaking the Prison and a great deal of Trouble he put the Young-woman to whereby others were so discouraged that we had much a do to get Water or Drink or Victuals Near this Time we sent for a Young-woman one Ann Downer from London that could write 1656. Lanceston Doomsdale and take things well in Short-hand to buy and dress our Meat for us which she was very willing to it being also upon her Spirit to come to us in the Love of God and she was very serviceable to us This Head-Gaoler we were Informed had been a Thief and was burnt both in the Hand and in the Shoulder His Wife too had been burnt in the Hand The Vnder-Gaoler had been burnt both in the Hand and in the Shoulder and his Wife had been burnt in the Hand also And Colonel Bennet who was a Baptist-Teacher having purchased the Gaol and Lands belonging to the Castle had placed this Head-Gaoler therein The Prisoners and some wild People would be talking of Spirits that haunted Doomsdale and walked there and how many had died in it thinking perhaps to terrify us therewith But I told them and Friends That if all the Spirits and Devils in Hell were there I was over them in the Power of God and feared no such thing for Christ our Priest would sanctify the Walls and the House to us he who bruised the Head of the Devil The Priest was to cleanse the Plague out of the Walls of the House under the Law which Christ our Priest ended who sanctifies both inwardly and outwardly the Walls of the House and the Walls of the Heart and all things to his People By this time the General Quarter-Sessions drew nigh and the Gaoler still carrying himself basely and wickedly towards us we drew up our Sufferings and sent it to the Sessions at Bodmin upon the reading of which the Justices gave Order That Doomsdale-Door should be opened and that we should have liberty to Cleanse it and to buy our Meat in the Town We sent up a Copy also of our Sufferings to the Protector setting forth how we were taken and Committed by Major Ceely and how we were abused by Capt. Keat as aforesaid and the rest in Order Whereupon the Protector sent down an
one of you a Reward according to your Works you which have the Letter which speaks of Christ but now ye are persecuting that which the Scripture speaks of so your Fruits make you manifest Therefore every one Sheriff Justices Constables c. see what ye do possess Consider what ye do possess and what a Profession ye are now in that all these Carnal Weapons are now set up against the Innocent yea against the Truth Which shews that ye have not the Spiritual Weapons that they are not among you and that ye want the Counsel of Gamaliel yea ye want the Counsel of such a Man among you who said Let the Apostles alone If it be of God it will stand if it be not it will come to nought But ye may see your selves on the Contrary in the Spirit of them that came with Judas with Swords and Staves from the Chief-Priests against Christ still it is against Christ where he is made manifest Paul while Saul went against him though he professed a Christ that was to come and the Jews professed a Christ that was to come Yet Paul persecuted him where he was manifested in his Saints So ye profess a Christ that is come but persecute him where he is manifest You that have the Letter the High-Places the Synagogues you persecute him where he is made manifest in his Saints as the Jews did They who were in the Letter out of the Life persecuted them that were in the Life of that which they profess in the Letter So now do you persecute them that are in the Life and are your selves Strangers to it as your Fruits make appear You have numbred the People of God amongst Transgressors but have you prisoned any of the Rogues and Transgressors you speak of you have prisoned the Innocent and let the others go free G. F. When I had sent abroad the fore-going Papers concerning the Watches that were then set up to Intercept and Stop Friends in their Travels in the Work of tho Lord so great a sense came upon me of the Darkness and Vail that was over the Priests and Professors of Christianity that I was moved to give forth the following Paper as An Awakening Warning to them BLindness hath happened to the professed Christians of the Letter now a days as Blindness happened to the Jews who professed the Letter but owned not the Life which the Letter speaks of As the Christians now to whom this Blindness hath hap'ned who profess the Scripture but own not the Life which the Scripture speaks of For against the Life the Jews stood who profest the Letter of the Scripture but they were Blind they gathered Counsel against the Life they were in an Vproar when the Babe was born in Bethlehem Herod and all the Chief Priests And Herod sought to destroy all the young Children in Bethlehem yet missed the Babe Herod that Fox though he slew John and put him to death And you may here see how the Literal Professors did stand up not for the Truth but quite against it Furthermore the Chief-Priests consulted together how they might take Jesus by Subtilty and put him to death mark by their Subtilty The Professors of a Christ that was to come they preached of a Messias of a Christ of a Saviour but denied the Life when he was made manifest The Chief-Priests and the Council gathered together they profest his words and the Chief-Priests who were gathered together with the Council said That his Disciples had stolen him away by Night and gave large Monies to the Souldiers to declare this Likewise in the day when the Children of Israel were in Egypt and they with their Children began to spread and multiply Come said the Egyptians Let us deal wisely with them to Afflict them and tax them Which held until the Lord overthrew their Oppressors and brought out his Seed by his mighty Power from under the Oppressor and exalted his Son above all though the Heathen raged and the People imagined vain things and he made his Power known that all might see that there was no God upon the Earth but himself This Power now hath brought forth the Work of the Lord Many who be turned to the Light Christ have received the Power of God and are thereby become the Sons of God Now this Birth that is born of God are all the Powers of the World joined together to Crucify to put to Death those Jews in the Spirit as they did put Christ to Death in the Flesh formerly This is the Birth that all the Wicked World is enraged against and mad at Against this they set their Watches this Birth brought forth by the Mighty God of Jacob who rides upon the High-places of the Earth This is the Birth that the profest Christians without the Life in our Days and Age rage against and lay out all their Wisdom about Are not the Chief-Priests and Wise Men of the Earth consulting together how they might destroy this Birth Is not this the Birth that is banished out of your Hearts you that profess the Scripture and are Talkers of it but do not own the Light and Life which the Scripture speaks of as the Jews would not and so will not have Christ to Reign over you as they would not Do you not hale out of your Synagogues and before Magistrates Do you not herein fulfil Christ's Words who said to his Disciples They should be haled out of the Synagogues and before Rulers Do you not Persecute them from City to City Do you not almost fill your Prisons with them And now set your Watches that none should go to Visit them whom ye have put into Prison Is not this an Vnchristian Spirit How can you for shame say You are Vpholders of Truth Or how can you for shame say that Truth hath been profest among you Yet we say We Grant that you have talked of it And how can you for shame say The Gospel shines among you when you will not own it the Life of it when you call it Error and the evil Seed Yea the very Truth yea the very Life of Truth ye have blasphemed against now as the Jews did against Christ calling him a Devil you now call it Error and the Evil Seed and stand up against it and turn the Sword against it As it was in the days of the Jews who turned the Sword against Christ so it is in these days of the Professed Christians of the Scripture but out of the Life that gave it forth as it was with the Jews outward in the Flesh who were not the Jews in the Spirit And is it not a shame to all the Ministers of the Gospel as they are called that they can find no better Way to maintain that which they call the Truth and their Gospel than by Carnal Weapons Stocks and Prisons and Whips Watches and Wards and Powers of the Earth Were these the Apostles Weapons Carnal Watches and Wards Stocks and Prisons and haling out
of the Synagogues when they came to speak Judge your selves what an Antichristian Spirit you have Never talk of defending Truth with that which is against Truth For are you not setting up the Rabble of the World against it Do they not Join with you with Swords and Staves against it And is this the Life of Christians Is not this the Life of Error and of the Evil Seeds-man Surely ye would find Work enough if ye were in the Fear of the Lord to turn your Swords against the Prophaneness the Oaths and Wickedness that is in your Streets and High-ways How do they ring like Sodom and give a sound like Gomorrah But they are become a Prey in this your Age that Reprove in your Gate Sin Wickedness and Prophaneness They are become your By-word Against them your Councils are gathered and them you cast into Prison and hale them out of your Synagogues and cast them likewise into Prison that write against it and speak against it and set your Guards to stop and hinder any from Visiting them whom you cast into Prison and give them the Names of Vagabonds and Wanderers Was ever the like heard in the days of the Heathen against the Apostles who witnessed the Gospel Did they set Guards and Watches in every Town in every City to take the Disciples the Brethren the Believers that heard that the Apostles were cast into Prison and came to see what they wanted Shew ye not as much Rage and Fury now in your Age as was in those that were in that Age And how can you talk of the Gospel and of defending the Gospel when you are setting Guards and Watches against it and are defending that which stands against it and the Lambs of Christ are almost torn to pieces amongst you who are like Wolves for the Lord hath now sent his Lambs amongst Wolves And have not you profest the words of Christ and of the Prophets and Apostles as the Jews had long profest the Scriptures the words of Moses and of the Prophets that prophesied of Christ that was to come and stood against him when he was come as you do in this Day of his Reign and in this Day of his glorious Gospel who are persecuting the Messengers of it imprisoning them persecuting them in your Streets and High-ways and now setting up your VVatches against them who bring you the glad Tidings of Peace to your Souls whose Feet are beautiful a Top of the Mountains Mark a Top of the Mountains that against which the Mountains rage and swell but God will make them to melt the Sun is risen which will make them to melt And God will cleave the Rocks and Mountains asunder and make the Hills to bow perpetually for his Son he will exalt and his Glory he will give to him and not to another Therefore be awakened ye Rulers of the Earth and take Counsel of the Lord and take not Counsel together against him Make not your Bonds strong and set not your selves in Battel against him for ye will be found but as Briers and Thorns before him which the Fire shall consume Therefore be awakened all ye that be Talkers of the Scripture and that gather your selves together by your Multitudes and Meetings and have had your Teachers but not having the Spirit that gave forth the Scriptures the Lord God of Glory the Father of Spirits will scatter you all your Bonds will not hold you together who are out of the Spirit which is the Bond of Peace The Threshing Instrument is gone forth which will beat the Hills to pieces Sion is risen to Thresh out of the holy Mountain is the Trumpet sounded Stand not up against the Lord for all Nations are with the Lord as the Drop of a Bucket He that measures the VVaters in the hollow of his Hand and weighs the Earth in Scales the Lord of Hosts is his Name who is now risen and rising to plead the Cause of the Innocent who is exalting his Son and bringing his Sheep to him Now are they seen and known that feed upon wind that are lifted up given up to believe Lies who report and say Report and we will report it Now are they seen who have a Form of Godliness but the Power is denied by them so Christ is denied the Power it self is denied for Christ is the Power of God And the Power being denied by you that have a Form of Godliness that have the words of the Scriptures the Gospel is denied for the Gospel is the Power of God And thus it is among you that have the Knowledge and VVisdom that is sensual earthly and devilish Doth it not appear so Let your Gaols and VVatches witness your Fruits in every Town Your VVisdom is earthly sensual and Devillish so you have a Knowledge and VVisdom but not that which is from above for that is pure and gentle and so is not your knowledge But to know Christ is Life Eternal Now your Fruits have manifested that you are not of this and so out of the Power of God which is the Cross of Christ For you are found in the VVorld out of the Power of God out of the Cross of Christ persecuting So that which doth persecute and send forth VVritings and Decrees to stop all and take up all and set VVatches and prepare Bonds to stint the Lord to Imprison and persecute and suffer none to go to visit them This shews you are not Christians but stand against a Christian's Life which is to love your Enemies Where is your Heaping up Coles of Fire your Love to your Enemies who are thus persecuting your Friends He came to his own and his own received him not Here is a turning the Sword against the Just. Do you shew here a Christian's Life or your selves Christians who are filling your Gaols with the Christians in the Spirit you that be in the Letter in Shadows as the Jews in the Letter did put the Jews in the Spirit into Prison Is not this the Fruit in our Days of the Christians in the Letter to put the Christians in the Spirit into Prison And doth not this shew that your Decrees which you have sent forth proceed from Death who thus Act against the Life and them that be in it which the Scriptures were given forth from Is it not here as it was with Saul when he went to persecute to hale to Prison and bind all that he could find calling upon that Name who were Christians in the Life the Spirit such as now you are persecuting because they are in the Life though you profess their Words Are not your Decrees gone forth from the same Spirit of Envy against the same Spirit of Christ they were in Is it not manifest to all that fear God and to the sober-minded and honest-hearted People that see your Practices your Decrees your Letters to stop to molest to hinder to Imprison them that are moved of the Lord to do his Will or to go to
Christ as he commands are in the Election and sit under the Teaching of the grace of God which brings their Salvation But such as turn this grace into Wantonness are in the Reprobation and such as hate the Light are in the Condemnation Therefore I exhorted all the People to believe in the Light as Christ commands and own the grace of God their free Teacher and it would assuredly bring them their salvation for it is sufficient Many other Scriptures were opened concerning Reprobation and the People were opened to see and a spring of Life rose up among them These things soon came to the Priests Ears for the People that sate under their dark Teachings began to see Light and to come into the Covenant of Light So the Noise was spread over Scotland amongst the Priests That I was come thither and a great Cry was among them that all would be spoiled for they said I had spoiled all the honest Men and Women in England already so upon their own account the worst were left to them Upon this they gathered great Assemblies of Priests together and drew up a Company Articles of Curses to be read in their several Steeple-houses and that all the People should say Amen to them Some few of these I will here set down the rest may be read in the Book before-mentioned of The Scotch Priests Principles The first was Cursed is he that saith Every Man hath a Light within him sufficient to lead him to Salvation And let all the People say Amen The second Cursed is he that saith Faith is without Sin And let all the People say Amen The third Cursed is he that denieth the Sabbath-day And let all the People say Amen In this last they make the People Curse themselves for on the Sabbath-day which is the Seventh-day of the Week which the Jews kept by the Command of God to them they kept Markets and Fairs and so brought the Curse of God upon their own Heads And as to the first concerning the Light Christ saith Believe in the Light that ye may become Children of the Light and he that believeth shall be saved he that believeth shall have everlasting Life He that believeth passes from Death to Life and is grafted into Christ And ye do well said the Apostle that ye take heed unto the Light that shines in the dark place until the day dawn and the Day-star arise in your Hearts So the Light is sufficient to lead unto the Day-star And as concerning Faith it is the gift of God and every gift of God is pure The faith which Christ is the Author of is precious divine and without Sin And this is the faith which gives Victory over Sin and Access to God in which faith they please God But they are Reprobates themselves concerning this faith and are in their dead faith who Charge sin upon this faith under pain of a Curse which faith gives victory over their Curse and returns it into their own Bowels There were a Company of Scots near Badcow Badcow who challenged a Dispute with some of our Scotch Friends for with me they would not dispute so some of the Scotch Friends met them at the Market-Place The Dispute was to be concerning the Sabbath-day and some other of their Principles before-mentioned And I having gotten their Principles and Assertions shewed the Friends where they might easily be overthrown and a Scotch Friend a Smith overthrew them clearly There were two Independent Churches in Scotland of which many were Convinced But the Pastor of the other was in a great Rage against Truth and Friends They had their Elders who sometimes would exercise their Gifts amongst the Church-members and would sometimes be pretty tender but their Pastor speaking so much against the Light and us who are the Friends of Christ he darkned his Hearers so that they grew dark and blind and dry and lost their Tenderness And he continued preaching against Friends and against the Light of Christ Jesus calling it natural At last one Day in his Preaching he Cursed the Light and fell down dead in his Pulpit The People carried him out and laid him upon a Grave-stone and poured Strong-Waters into him which fetched him to Life again and they carried him home but he was Mopish After a while he stripped off his Cloths and put on a Scotch Plod and went into the Country amongst the Dairy-women and when he had staid there about two Weeks he came home and went into the Pulpit again Whereupon the People expected some great Manifestation or Revelation from him but instead thereof he began to tell them what Entertainment he had met with how One Woman gave him Skim'd Milk Another gave him Butter-milk and Another gave him good Milk So the People were fain to take him out of the Pulpit again and carry him home He that gave me this Account was one Andrew Robinson who was one of his Chief Hearers and came afterwards to be Convinced and received the Truth And he said He never heard that he recovered his Senses again By this People may see the Vengeance of God which came upon him that cursed the Light which Light was the Life in Christ the Word And it may be a Warning to all others that speak Evil against the Light of Christ Now were the Priests in such a Rage that they posted up to Edenborough to O. Cromwel's Council there with Petitions against me And the Noise was That all was gone for several Friends were come out of England and spread over Scotland Sounding the Day of the Lord and preaching the everlasting Gospel of Salvation and turning People to Christ Jesus who died for them that they might receive his free Teaching After I had gathered up the Principles of the Scotch Priests and the Sufferings of Friends and had seen the Friends in that part of Scotland settled by the Lord's Power upon Christ their Foundation I went up to Edenborough Lithgow and in the way came to Lithgow Where lodging at an Inn the Inkeeper's Wife who was blind received the Word of Life and came under the Teaching of Christ Jesus her Saviour At Night there came in abundance of Souldiers and some Officers with whom we had much Discourse and some were rude One of the Officers said He would obey the Turk 's or Pilate 's Command if they should command him to guard Christ to crucify him So far he was from all Tenderness or Sense of the Spirit of Christ that he would rather crucify the Just than suffer for or with the Just whereas many Officers and Magistrates have lost their Places before they would turn against the Lord and his Just one Edenburg Leith When I was come to Edenborough and had stayed there a while I went from thence to Leith where many Officers of the Army came in with their Wives and many were convinced Among those that came Edward Billing's Wife was one She brought a great Deal of Coral in her
own Spirit and gives it forth as he is moved but to the Harlots Judgment So Friends this is the Word of the Lord to you all be Watchful and Careful in all Meetings ye come into for where Friends are sitting together in silence they are many times gathered into their own measures Now when a Man is come newly out of the World from ministring to the World's People he cometh out of the Dirt and then he had need take heed that he be not Rash For now when he comes into a Silent Meeting that is another State then he must come and feel his own Spirit how it is when he comes to them that sit silent for if he be Rash they will judge him that having been in the World and amongst the World the Heat is not yet off him For he may come in the Heat of his Spirit out of the World whereas the others are still and cool and his Condition in that not being agreeable to theirs he may rather do them Hurt by begetting them out of the Cool State into the Heating State if he be not in that which commands his own Spirit and gives him to know it There is a great Danger too in Travelling abroad in the World The same Power that moves any to go forth is that which must keep them For it is the greatest Danger to go abroad except a Man be moved of the Lord and go in the Power of the Lord for then he keeping in the Power is kept by it in his Journey and in his Work and it will enable him to answer the Transgressed and keep above the Transgressor And every one feeling the Danger to his own particular in Travelling abroad there the pure Fear of the Lord will be placed and kept in For now though they that Travel may have Openings when thâ—y are abroad to Minister to others yet as for their own particular Growth they must dwell in the Life which doth open and that will keep down that which would boast For the Minister comes into the Death to that which is in the Death and in Prison and so returns up again into the Life and into the Power and into the Wisdom to preserve him clean So this is the Word of the Lord God to you all Feel that ye stand in the Presence of the Lord for every Man's Word shall be his Burden but the Word of the Lord is pure and answers the pure in every one The word of the Lord is that which was in the Beginning and brings to the Beginning It is an Hammer to beat down the Transgressor not the Transgressed and as a Fire to burn up that which is contrary to it So Friends come into that which is over all the Spirits of the world and fathoms all the Spirits of the world and stands in the Patience with that ye may see where others stand and reach that which is of God in every one So here is no Strife no Contention out of Transgression for he that goeth into the Strife and into the Contention he is from the ' pure Spirit For where any goeth into the Contention if any thing hath been begotten by him before then that contentious Nature doth get a top and spoil that which was begotten and qâ—encheth his own Prophesying So if that be not subjected by the Power in the Particular which would arise into the Strife that is dangerous Now if any one have a Moving to any Place and have spoken what they were moved of the Lord let them return to their Habitation again and live in the pure Life of God and in the Fear of the Lord and so will ye in the Life and in the solid and seasoned Spirit be kept and preach as well in Life as with Words for none must be light or wild For the Seed of God is weighty and brings to be solid and leads into the Wisdom of God by which the Wisdom of the Creation is known But if that Part be up which runs into the Imaginations and that Part be standing in which the Imaginations come up and the pure Spirit be not throughly come up to rule and reign then that will run out and that will glory and will boast and vapor and so will such an one spoil that which opened to him And this is for Condemnation So every one mind that which feels through and commands his Spirit whereby every one may know what Spirit he is of for he should first Trie his own Spirit and then he may Trie others and he should first know his own Spirit and then he may know others Therefore that which doth command all these Spirits where the Heats and Burnings come in and get up in that wait which chains them down and cools That is the Elect the Heir of the Promise of God For no hasty rash brittle Spirits though they have Prophecies have held our and gone through they not being subjected in the Prophecy The Earthly will not abide for it is brittle and in that State the Ministry was another's not the Son 's for the Son hath Life in himself and the Son hath the Power which Man being obedient to he may be serviceable but if he go from the pure Power then he falls and abuseth it Therefore let your Faith stand in the pure Power of the Lord God and do not abuse it but let that search through and work through and let every one stand in the Power of the Lord God which reacheth the Seed of God which is the Heir of the Promise of Life without End And let none be hasty to speak for ye have Time enough and with an Eye ye may reach the witness Neither let any be backward when ye are moved for that brings Destruction Now Truth hath an Honour in the Hearts of People which are not Friends so that all Friends being kept in the Truth they are kept in the Honour they are honourable and that will honour them but if any lose the Power they lose the Life they lose their Crown they lose their Honour they lose the Cross which should crucify them and they crucify the Just and by losing the Power the Lamb comes to be slain And as it is here so will it be in other Nations for all Friends here and there are as one Family the Seed the Plants they are as a Family Now all being kept in that which subjects all and keeps all under to wit the Seed it self the Life it self that is the Heir of the Promise and that is the Bond of Peace for there is the Vnity in the Spirit with God and with one another For he that in the Life is kept hears God and sees Man's Condition and with that he answers the Life in others that hear God also Thus one Friend that is come into that comprehends the world But that which Friends do speak they must live in so may they look that others may come into that which they speak to live in
make Havock of Ship and Goods with the World but rather that ye do run to save the Men and the Goods for them and so deny your selves and do unto them as ye would they should do unto you G. F. This Paper had a good Service among People 1660. And Friends have endeavoured much to save the Lives of the Men in times of Wracks and to preserve the Ships and Goods for them And when some that have suffered Shipwrack have been almost dead and starved some Friends have taken them to their Houses to succour them and recover them which is an Act to be practised by all true Christians Now turned I back again from the Lands-End and after I had had many precious and blessed living Meetings in Cornwall several Eminent People being Convinced in that County whom neither Priests nor Magistrates by spoiling Goods or Imprisonments could make to forsake their Shepherd the Lord Jesus Christ that had bought them and all Friends who were turned to Christ their Teacher and Saviour being setled in Peace and Quietness upon him their Fundation we left them unto the Lord Jesus Christ's Teaching and Ordering fresh and green and Thomas Lower who had accompanied me through all that County brought me over Horse-Bridge into Devonshire again Devonshire And after several Meetings up and down in Devonshire we came into Somersetshire where we had divers large and peaceable Meetings Somersetshire and so passing through the County visiting Friends till we came to Bristol 1660. Bristol I came into Bristol on the Seventh Day of the Week and the Day before the Souldiers came with their Muskets into the Meeting and were exceeding rude beating and striking Friends with their Muskets and drove them out of the Orchard in a great Rage threatning what they would do if Friends came there again For the Mayor and the Commander of the Souldiers had it seems combined together to make a Disturbance amongst Friends Now when I came to Bristol and Friends told me what a Rage there was in the Town how they were threatned by both the Mayor and Souldiers and how unruly the Souldiers had been to Friends the day before I sent for several Friends as George Bishop Thomas Gouldney Thomas Speed and Edward Pyot and desired them to go to the Mayor and Aldermen and desire them seeing he and they had broke up our Meetings to let Friends have the Town-Hall to Meet in and for the use of it Friends would give them Twenty Pounds a Year to be distributed amongst the Poor and when the Mayor and Aldermen had business to do in it Friends would not Meet in it but only on the First Days Those Friends were astonished at this and said The Mayor and Aldermen would think that they were Mad But I said Nay for they should offer them a considerable Benefit to the Poor And it was upon me from the Lord to bid them Go and at last they Consented and went though in the Cross to their own Wills When they had laid the thing before the Mayor it came so over him that he said For his part he could consent to it but he was but one And he told Friends of another Great Hall they might have but that they did not accept of it being inconvenient So Friends came away leaving the Mayor in a very loving Frame towards them For they felt the Lord's Power had come over him When they came back I spake to them to go also to the Colonel that Commanded the Souldiers and lay before him the rude Carriage of his Souldiers how they came Armed amongst naked innnocent People who were waiting upon and worshipping the Lord But they were backward to go to him Next Morning being the First Day of the Week we went to the Meeting in the Orchard where the Souldiers had so lately been so rude And after I had declared the Truth a pretty while in the Meeting there came in many rude Souldiers and People some with Drawn Swords The In-keepers had made some of them drunk and one of them had bound himself with an Oath to cut down and kill the Man that spoke So he came pressing in through all the Crowd of People to within two Yards of me and stopt at those Four Friends before-mentioned who should have gone to the Colonel as I would have had them and fell a jangling with them On a sudden I saw his Sword was put up and gone For the Lord's Power came over all and chained him and the rest and we had a blessed Meeting and the Lord 's Everlasting Power and Presence was felt amongst us On the Day following those Four Friends went and spake with the Colonel and he sent for the Souldiers and Cut and Slasht some of them before the Friends Faces Which when I heard of I blamed the Friends for letting him do so and also for that they did not go on the Seventh Day as I would have had them which might have prevented this Cutting of the Souldiers and the Trouble they gave at our Meeting But thus the Lord's Power came over all those persecuting bloody Minds and the Meeting there was settled in Peace for a good while after without Disturbance I had then also a General Meeting at Edw. Pyot's near Bristol at which it was judged there were divers Thousands of People For besides Friends from many parts thereabouts some of the Baptists and Independents with their Teachers came to it and very many of the sober People of Bristol insomuch that the People that staid behind said The City looked naked there were so many gone out of it to this Meeting It was a very quiet Meeting and many glorious Truths were opened to the People and the Lord Jesus Christ was set up who was the End of all Figures and Shadows and the Law and the first Covenant And it was declared to the People how that all Figures and Shadows were given to Man after Man fell and how that all the Rudiments and Inventions of Men which have been set up in Christendom many of which were Jewish and Heathenish Ceremonies were not set up by the Command of Christ and all Images and Likenesses Man has made to himself or for himself whether of things in Heaven or things in Earth have been since he lost the Image and Likeness of God which God made him in But now Christ was come to Redeem Translate Convert and Regenerate Man out of all these things that he hath set up in the Fall and out of the true Types Figures and Shadows also and out of Death and Darkness up into the Light and Life and Image and Likeness of God again which Man and Woman were in before they fell Therefore all now should come and all might come to receive Christ Jesus the Substance by his Light Spirit Grace and Faith and should live and walk in him the Redeemer and Saviour And whereas we had had a great deal of work with the Priests and
a prosperous Gale in about Six Weeks time arrived before the Town of Boston in New-England upon a First-Day Morning called Sunday With him went many Passengers both of New and Old England that were Friends whom the Lord did move to go to bear their Testimony against those Bloody Persecutors who had exceeded all the World in that Age in their Bloody Persecutions The Towns-men at Boston seeing a Ship come into the Bay with English Colours soon came on Board and asked for the Captain Ralph Goldsmith told them He was the Commander They asked him if he had any Letters He said Yes They asked If he would deliver them He said No not to day So they went a-shore and reported There was a Ship full of Quakers and that Samuel Shattock was among them who they knew was by their Law to be put to Death for coming again after Banishment but they knew not his Errand nor his Authority So all being kept close that day and none of the Ships-Company suffered to go on Shore next morning Samuel Shattock the King's Deputy and Ralph Goldsmith the Commander of the Vessel went on Shore and sending back to the Ship the Men that landed them they two went through the Town to the Governour 's John Endicott's Door and knock't He sent out a Man to know their Business They sent him Word their Business was from the King of England and they would deliver their Message to none but the Governour himself Thereupon they were admitted to go in and the Governour came to them and having received the Deputation and the Mandamus he laid off his Hat and look'd upon them then going out he bid the Friends follow him So he went to the Deputy-Governour and after a short Consultation came out to the Friends and said We shall obey his Majesty's Commands After this the Master gave liberty to the Passengers to come on Shore and presently the Noise of the business flew about the Town and the Friends of the Town and the Passengers of the Ship Met together to offer up their Praises and Thansgivings to God who had so wonderfully delivered them from the Teeth of the Devourer While they were thus met in came a poor Friend who being Sentenc'd by their bloody Law to Die had lain some time in Irons expecting Execution This added to their Joy and caused them to lift up their Hearts in High Praises to God who is worthy for ever to have the Praise the Glory and the Honour for he only is able to deliver and to save and to support all that sincerely put their Trust in him Here follows a Copy of the said Mandamus CHARLES R. 1661. London TRusty and Well Beloved We Greet you Well Having been Informed that several of Our Subjects amongst you called Quakers have been and are Imprisoned by you whereof some have been Executed and others as hath been represented unto Vs are in Danger to undergo the like We have thought fit to signifie our Pleasure in that behalf for the future And do hereby require That if there be any of those People called Quakers amongst you now already Condemned to suffer Death or other Corporal Punishment or that are Imprisoned and obnoxious to the like Condemnation you are to forbear to proceed any further therein but that you forthwith send the said Persons whether Condemned or Imprisoned over into this our Kingdom of England together with the respective Crimes or Offences laid to their Charge to the end such Course may be taken with them here as shall be agreeable to our Laws and their Demerits And for so doing these our Letters shall be your sufficient Warrant and Discharge Given at Our Court at Whitehall the 9th day of September 1661. in the Thirteenth Year of Our Reign Subscribed To Our Trusty and Well Beloved John Endicot Esq and to all and every other the Governour or Governours of our Plantations of New-England and of all the Colonies thereunto belonging that now are or hereafter shall be and to all and every the Ministers and Officers of our Plantations and Colonies whatsoever within the Continent of New-England By His Majesty's Command WILLIAM MORRIS Some time after this several of New-England's Magistrates came over hither and one of their Priests and we had several Discourses with them at several times concerning their Murdering our Friends the Servants of the Lord but they were ashamed to stand to their Bloody Actions At one of those Meetings I asked Simon Broadstreet who was one of the New England-Magistrates Whether he had not an hand in putting to Death those Four Servants of God whom they hanged for being Quakers only as they had nick-named them And he confessed he had I then asked him and the rest of his Associates that were present Whether they would acknowledge themselves to be Subjects to the Laws of England And if they did By what Law they had put our Friends to Death They said They were Subjects to the Laws of England and they had put our Friends to Death by the same Law as the Jesuits were put to Death here in England I asked them then Whether they did believe that those Friends of ours whom they had put to Death were Jesuits or Jesuitically affected And the said Nay Then said I Ye have murdered them if ye have put them to Death by the Law that Jesuits are put to Death here in England and yet confess they were no Jesuits By this it plainly appears ye have put them to Death in your own Wills without any Law Then Simon Broadstreet finding himself and his Company ensnared by their own Words said Did we come to Catch them I told them they had Catched themselves and they might justly be questioned for their Lives and if the Father of William Robinson who was one of them that was put to Death were in Town it was probable he would question them and bring their Lives into Jeopardy Hereupon they began to excuse themselves saying There was no Persecution now amongst them But next morning we had Letters from New-England giving us Account that our Friends were persecuted there afresh Thereupon we went to them again and shewed them our Letters which put them both to Silence and to Shame and in great Fear they seemed to be lest some should call them to Account and prosecute them for their Lives especially Simon Broadstreet for he had at first before so many Witnesses confess'd He had a hand in putting our Friends to death that he could not get off from it though he afterwards through Fear shuffled and would have unsaid it again But after this he and the rest of them soon left the City and got back to New-England again I went also to Governour Winthrop and discoursed with him about these matters but he assured me he had no hand in putting our Friends to Death or in any way persecuting of them but was one of them that protested against it Now these stingy Persecutors of New-England
in the time of the Commonwealth and of Oliver and Richard the Protectors through cruel and hard Imprisonments upon Nasty Straw and in Dungeons Thirty Two Persons There have been also Imprisoned in thy Name since thy Arrival by such as thought to ingratiate themselves thereby to thee Three Thousand Sixty and Eight Persons Besides this our Meetings are daily broken up by Men with Clubs and Arms though we Meet peaceably according to the Practice of God's People in the Primitive times and our Friends are thrown into Waters and trod upon till the very Blood gusheth out of them the number of which Abuses can hardly be uttered Now this we would have of Thee to set them at Liberty that lie in Prison in the Names of the Common-wealth and of the two Protectors and them that lie in Thy own Name for speaking the Truth and for good Conscience sake who have not lifted up an Hand against thee nor any Man and that the Meetings of our Friends who meet peaceably together in the Fear of God to Worship him may not be broken up by rude People with their Clubs and Swords and Staves One of the greatest things that we have suffered for formerly was because we could not Swear to the Protectors and all the changeable Governments and now we are Imprisoned because we cannot take the Oath of Allegiance Now if Yea be not Yea and Nay Nay to thee and to all Men upon the Earth let us suffer as much for breaking of that as others do for breaking an Oath We have suffered these many years both in Lives and Estates under these Changeable Governments because we cannot Swear but obey Christ's Doctrine who commands We should not swear at all Matth. 5. Jam. 5. and this we Seal with our Lives and Estates with our Yea and Nay according to the Doctrine of Christ Hearken to these things and so consider them in the Wisdom of God that by it such Actions may be stopped Thou that hast the Government and may'st do it We desire that all that are in Prison may be set at Liberty and that for the time to come they may not be Imprisoned for Conscience and for the Truth 's sake And if thou question the Innocency of their Sufferings let them and their Accusers be brought up before thee and we shall produce a more particular and full Account of their Sufferings if required G. F. R. H. I mentioned before how that in the Year 1650. I was kept Prisoner Six Months in the House of Correction at Darby and that the Keeper of the Prison being a Cruel Man and one that had dealt very wickedly by me was smitten in himself the Plagues and Terrors of the Lord falling upon him because thereof this Man being afterwards Convinced of Truth wrote me the following Letter Dear Friend HAving such a Convenient Messenger I could do no less than give thee an Account of my present Condition remembring that to the first Awakening of me to a Sense of Life and of the Inward Principle God was pleased to make use of thee as an Instrument So that sometimes I am taken with Admiration that it should come by such a means as it did that is to say That Providence should order thee to be my Prisoner to give me my first real sight of the Truth It makes me many times to think of the Jailer's Conversion by the Apostles O happy George Fox 1662. London that first breathed that Breath of Life within the Walls of my Habitation Notwithstanding my outward Losses are since that time such that I am become nothing in the World yet I hope I shall find that all these light Afflictions which are but for a moment will work for me a far more exceeding and eternal Weight of Glory They have taken all from me and now instead of keeping a Prison I am rather waiting when I shall become a Prisoner my self Pray for me that my Faith fail not but that I may hold out to the Death that I may receive a Crown of Life I earnestly desire to hear from thee and of thy Condition which would very much rejoice me Not having else at present but my kind Love unto thee and all Christian Friends with thee in haste I rest Derby the 22th of the 4th Month 1662. Thine in Christ Jesus Thomas Sharman There were Two of our Friends in Prison in the Inquisition at Malta they were both Women The name of the one was Katharine Evans and of the other Sarah Chevers I was told that One called the Lord D' Aubeny could procure their Liberty wherefore I went to him And having Informed him concerning their Imprisonment desired him to write to the Magistrates there for their Release He readily promised me he would and said If I would come again within a Month he would tell me of their Discharge I went agaâ—n about that time and he said he thought his Letters had Miscarried because he had received no Answer But he promised he would write again and he did so and thereupon they were both set at Liberty With this Great Man I had a great deal of Reasoning about Religion and he did confess that Christ hath enlightned every Man that cometh into the World with his Spiritual Light and that he had tasted Death for every Man and that the Grace of God which brings Salvation hath appeared to all Men and that it would teach them and bring their Salvation if they did obey it Then I asked him What would They the Papists do with all their Relicks and Images if they did own and believe in this Light and receive the Grace to teach them and bring their Salvation And he said Those things were but Policies to keep People in Subjection Very free he was in Discourse and I never heard a Papist Confess so much as he did Now though several about the Court began to grow Loving to Friends yet the Persecution was very hot and several Friends died in Prison Whereupon I gave forth a little Paper concerning the Grounds and Rise of Persecution which was thus ALL the Sufferings of the People of God in all Ages were because they could not Join to the National Religions and Worships which Men had made and set up and because they would not forsake God's Religion and his Worship which he had set up And ye may see through all Chronicles and Histories how that the Priests joined with the Powers of the Nations The Magistrates and Soothsayers and Fortune-tellers all these joined against the People of God and did imagin vain things against them in their Counsels And when the Jews did badly they turned against Moses and when the Jewish Kings transgressed the Law of God then they persecuted the Prophets as may be seen in the Prophets Writings And when Christ the Substance came then the Jews persecuted Christ and his Apostles and Disciples And when the Jews had not Power enough of themselves to persecute answerable to their Wills then
again with his Wife to his own House at Barrow where afterwards he came to be Convinced of God's Eternal Truth and died in it A little before his Death be said Though he had not born a Testimony for Truth in his Life he would bear a Testimony in his Death and would be buried in his Orchard and was so He was an Example to all the Flying Baptists in the time of Persecution who could not bear Persecution themselves and yet persecuted us when they had Power From Barnet-Hills we came to Swanington in Leicestershire Leicestershire Swanington where Wil. Smith and some other Friends came to me but they passed away towards Night leaving me at a Friend's House in Swanington At Night as I was sitting in the Hall speaking to a Widow-Woman and her Daughter there came one called Lord Beaumont with a Company of Souldiers who slapping their Swords on the Door rusht into the House with their Swords and Pistols in their hands crying Put out the Candles and make fast the Doors Then they seized upon the Friends in the House and asked If there were no more about the House The Friends told them there was one Man more in the Hall Now there being some Friends that came out of Darbyshire one of them was named Thomas Fauks and this Lord Beaumont so called after he had asked all their Names bid his Man set down that Man's Name Thomas Fox but the Friend said Nay his Name was not Fox but Fauks In the mean time some of the Souldiers came and fetcht me out of the Hall and brought me to him and he asked me my Name I told him my Name was George Fox and that I was well known by that Name Ay said he you are known all the World over I said I was known for no Hurt but for Good Then he put his Hands into my Pockets to search them and pluck'd out my Comb-Case and afterwards commanded one of his Officers to search further for Letters as he pretended I told him I was no Letter-Carrier and askt him Why would he come amongst a Peaceable People with Swords and Pistols without a Constable which was contrary to the King's Proclamation and to the late Act For he could not say there was a Meeting I being only talking with a poor Widow-Woman and her Daughter By reasoning thus with him he came somewhat down yet sending for the Constables he gave them Charge of us that Night and to bring us before him next Morning Accordingly the Constables set a Watch of the Town 's People upon us that Night and had us up next Morning to his House about a Mile from Swanington When we came before him he told us We Met contrary to the Act Whereupon I desired him to shew us the Act. Why says he you have it in your Pocket I told him he did not find us in a Meeting Then he asked us Whether we would take the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy I told him I never took any Oath in all my Life nor Engagement nor the Covenant Yet still he would force the Oath upon us Then I desired him to shew us the Oath that we might see whether we were the Persons the Oath was to be tendred to 1662. â—waningâ—on and whether it was not for the Discovery of Popish Recusants At length he brought forth a little Book but we called for the Statute-Book He would not shew us that but caused a Mittimus to be made which mentioned That we were to have had a Meeting And with this Mittimus he delivered us to the Constables to Convey us to Leicester-Jail But when the Constables had brought us back to Swanington it being Harvest-time it was hard to get any body to go with us for the People were loth to go with their Neighbours to Prison especially in such a busie time They would have given us our Mittimus to have carried it our selves to the Jail for it had been usual for Constables to give Friends their own Mittimus for they durst trust Friends and they have gone themselves with their Mittimus to the Jailer But we told them though our Friends had sometimes done so yet we would not take this Mittimus but some of them should go with us to the Jail At last they hired a poor labouring Man to go with us who yet was loth to have gone though hired So we rid through the Country to Leicester being Five of us in number some carried their Bibles open in their hands declaring the Truth to the People as we rode in the Fields and through the Towns and telling them We were the Prisoners of the Lord Jesus Christ going to suffer Bonds for his Name and Truth-sake and one Woman's Friend carried her Wheel on her Lap to spin on in Prison and the People were mightily affected At Leicester we went to an Inn and the Master of the House seemed to be troubled that we should go to Prison and being himself in Commission he sent for Lawyers in the Town to advise with and would have taken up the Mittimus and kept us in his own House and not have let us gone into the Jail But I told Friends it would be great Charge to lie at an Inn and many Friends and People would be coming to Visit us and it might be hard for him to bear our having Meetings in his House and besides we had many Friends in the Prison already and we had rather be with them So we let the Man know that we were sensible of his Kindness and to Prison we went Leicester Prison the Poor Man that brought us thither delivering both the Mittimus and us to the Jailer This Jailer had been a very wicked cruel Man and there being Six or Seven Friends in Prison before we came he had taken some occasion to quarrel with them and had thrust them into the Dungeon amongst the Fellons where was hardly room for them to lie down they were so thronged We stay'd all that day in the Prison-Yard and desired the Jailer to let us have some Straw He surlily answered You do not look like Men that would lie on Straw After a while William Smith a Friend came to me and he being acquainted in the House I asked him What Rooms there were in the House and what Rooms Friends usually had been put into before they were put into the Dungeon I asked him also Whether the Jailer or his Wife was Master He said The Wife was Master and that though she was Lame and sate mostly in her Chair not being able to go but on Crutches yet she would beat her Husband when he came within her reach if he did not do as she would have him do Now I considered that probably many Friends might come to Visit us and that 1662. Leicester-Prison if we had a Room to our selves it would be better for them to speak to me and for me to speak to them as there should be
to Prison some for Meeting to Worship God and soâ—â—e for not Swearing so that the Prison was very full And many of them being poor Men that had nothing to maintain their Families by but their Labour which now they were taken off from several of their Wives went to the Justices that had committed their Husbands to Jail and told them 1663. Lancaster Prison If they kept their Husband 's in Jail for nothing but the Truth of Christ and for good Conscience-sake they would bring their Children t them to be maintained A mighty Power of the Lord rose in Friends and gave them great Boldness so that they spake much to the Justices Friends also that were Prisoners writ unto the Justices laying the Weight of their Sufferings upon them and shewing them both their Injustice and waâ—t of Pity and Compassion towards their poor Neighbours whom they knew to be honest consciencious and peaceable People that in tenderness of Conscience could not take any Oath yet they sent them to Prison for refusing to take the Oath of Allegiance Though several of them who were Imprisoned on that Account were known to be Men that had served the King in his Wars and had hazarded their Lives in the Field in his Cause and had suffered great Hardships with the loss of much Blood for him and had always stood faithful to him from First to Last and had never received any Pay for their Service and to be thus requited for all their Faithful Services and Sufferings and that by them that pretended to be the King's Friends was hard unkind and ungrateful Dealing At length the Justices being continually attended with Complaints of Grievances released some of the Friends that were Prisoners but kept divers of them still in Prison Amongst those that were then in Prison there were Four Friends Prisoners for Tithes who were sent to Prison at the Suit of the Countess of Derby so called and had lain there then near Two Years and an half One of these whose Name was Oliver Atherton being a Man of a Weakly Constitution was through his long and hard Imprisonment in a cold raw unwholsom place brought so low and weak in his Body that there appeared no hopes of his Recovery or Life unless he might be removed from thence Wherefore a Letter was written on behalf of the said Oliver Atherton to the said Countess and sent by his Son Godfrey Atherton wherein was laid before her the Reasons why he and the rest could not pay Tithes because if they did they should deny Christ come in the Flesh who by his coming had put an end to Tithes and to the Priesthood to which they had been given and to the Commandment by which they had been paid under the Law And his Weak Condition of Body was also laid before her and the apparent likelyhood of his Death if she did continue to hold him there that she might be moved to Pity and Compassion and also warned not to draw the Guilt of his Innocent Blood upon her self But when his Son went to her with his Father's Letter a Servant of hers abused him and pluck'd off his Cap and threw it away and put him out of the Gate Nevertheless the Letter was delivered into her own hand but she shut out all Pity and Tenderness and continued him in Prison till Death So when his Son came back to his Father in Prison and told him as he lay on his Dying-Bed that the Countess denied his Liberty he only said She hath been the Cause of shedding much Blood but this will be the heaviest Blood that ever she spilt and soon after he died Then Friends having his Body delivered to them to bury as they carried it from the Prison to Ormskirk the Parish wherein he had lived they stuck up Papers upon the Crosses at Garstang Preston and other Towns through which they passed with this Inscription This is Oliver Atherton of Ormskirk-Parish persecuted to Death by the Countess of Derby for good Conscience sake towards God and Christ because he could not give her Tithes c. Setting forth at large the Reasons of his refusing to pay Tithes the Length of his Imprisonment the Hardships he underwent her hard-heartedness towards him and the manner of his Death After his Death Richard Cubban another of the said Countess her Prisoners for Tithe writ a large Letter to her on behalf of himself and his other Fellow-Prisoners at her Suit laying their Innocency before her And that it was not out of Wilfulness Stubbornness or Covetousness that they refused to pay her Tithes but purely in good Conscience towards God and Christ and letting her know that if she should be suffered to keep them there till they every one died there as she had done their Fellow-Sufferer Oliver Atherton yet they could not yield to pay her And therefore desired her to consider their Case in a Christian Spirit and not bring their Blood upon her self also But she would not shew any Pity or Compassion towards them who had now suffered hard Imprisonment about two Years and an half under her but instead thereof she sent to the Town of Garstang and threatned to complain to the King and Council and bring them into trouble for suffering the Paper concerning Oliver Atherton 's Death to be stuck upon their Cross The Rage that she express'd made the People take the more notice of it and some of them said The Quakers had given her a Bone to pick. But she that regarded not the Life of an Innocent Sufferer for Christ lived not long after her self For That day three Weeks that Oliver Atherton 's Body was carried through Ormskirk to be buried she died and her Body was carried dead that day Seven Weeks through the same Town to her Burying Place And thus the Lord pursued the hard-hearted Persecutor Lancaster Assize As for me I was kept to the Assize and then Judge Turner and Judge Twisden coming that Circuit I was brought before Judge Twisden on the 14th day of the Month called March in the latter end of the Year 1663. When I was set up to the Bar I said Peace be amongst you all The Judge lookt upon me and said What! do you come into the Court with your Hat on Upon which Words the Jailer taking it off I said ' The Hat is not the Honour that comes from God Then said the Judge to me Will you take the Oath of Allegiance George Fox I said I never took any Oath in my Life nor any Covenant or Engagement Well said he will you Swear or no I answered I am a Christian and Christ commands me not to swear and so does the Apostle James likewise and whether I should obey God or Man do thou Judge I ask you again said he Whether you will Swear or no I answered again I am neither Turk Jew nor Heathen but a Christian and should shew forth Christianity And I asked him If he did not know that
before Christ commanded not to swear at all but where is it written so since Christ forbad all Swearing I could bring as many Instances out of the Old Testament for Swearing as thou and it may be more too but of what Force are they to prove Swearing lawful in the New-Testament since Christ and the Apostle forbad it Besides said I in that Text where it is written Ye shall Swear What Ye was this Was it Ye Gentiles or Ye Jews To this he would not Answer But one of the Priests that were with him Answered and said It was to the Jews that this was spoken and then Dr. Cradock confessed it was so Very well said I but where did God ever give a Command to the Gentiles to Swear For thou knowest that we are Gentiles by Nature Indeed said he in the Gospel-times every thing was to be established out of the Mouths of two or three Witnesses but there was to be no Swearing then Why then said I dost thou force Oaths upon Christians contrary to thy own Knowledge in the Gospel-times And why said I dost thou Excommunicate my Friends for he had Excommunicated abundance both in Yorkshire and Lancashire He said For not coming to Church ' Why said I ye left us above Twenty Years ago when we were but young Lads and Lasses to the Presbyterians Independents and Baptists many whereof made Spoil of our Goods and persecuted us because we would not follow them Now we being but Young knew little then of your Principles and the Old Men that did know them if ye had intended to have kept them to you and have kept your Principles alive that we might have known them ye should either not have fled from us as ye did or ye should have sent us your Epistles and Collects and Homilies and Evening-Songs for Paul writ Epistles to the Saints though he was in Prison But they and we might have turned Turks or Jews for any Collects Homilies or Epistles we had from you all this while And now thou hast Excommunicated us both Young and Old and so have others of you done that is ye have put us out of your Church before ye have got us into it and before ye have brought us to know your Principles And is not this Madness in you to put us out before we were brought in Indeed if ye had brought us into your Church and when we had been in if we had done some bad thing that had been something like a ground for Excommunication or putting out again But said I What dost thou call the Church Why said he That which you call the Steeple-house Then I asked him Whether Christ shed his Blood for the Steeple-house and purchased and sanctified the Steeple-house with his Blood And seeing the Church is Christ's Bride and Wife and that he is the Head of the Church Dost thou think the Steeple-house is Christ's Wife and Bride and that he is the Head of that Old House or of his People No said he Christ is the Head of the People and they are the Church Then said I But you have given that Title Church to an Old House which belongs to the People and you have taught People to believe so I asked him also Why he persecuted Friends for not paying Tithes And whether God did ever give a Command to the Gentiles that they should pay Tithes And whether Christ had not ended Tithes when he ended the Levitical Priesthood that took Tithes And whether Christ when he sent forth his Disciples to preach had not commanded them to preach freely as he had given them freely And whether all the Ministers of Christ are not bound to observe this Command of Christ He said He would not dispute that Neither did I find he was willing to stay on that Subject for he presently turned to another matter and said You Marry but I know not how I replied ' It maybe so but why dost thou not come and see Then he threatned that he would use his Power against us as he had done I bid him Take heed for he was an Old Man I asked him also ' Where he did read from Genesis to the Revelations that ever any Priest did Marry any And I wisht him to shew me some Instance thereof if he would have us come to them to be Married For said I thou hast Excommunicated one of my Friends two Years after he was dead about his Marriage And why dost thou not Excommunicate Isaac and Jacob and Boaz and Ruth Why dost thou not use thy Power against these For we do not read that they were ever Married by the Priests but they took one another in the Assemblies of the Righteous in the Presence of God and his People and so do we So that we have all the Holy Men and Women that the Scripture speaks of in this Practice on our side Much Discourse we had but when he found he could get no Advantage on me he went away with his Company With such sorts of People I was much exercised while I was there for most that came to the Castle would desire to speak with me and great Disputes and Reasonings I had with them But as to Friends I was as a Man buried alive for though many Friends came from far to see me yet few were suffered to come at me and when any Friend came into the Castle about Business if he looked but towards me they would Rage at him But at last the Governour came under some Trouble himself for he having sent out a Privateer to Sea they took some Ships that were not Enemies-Ships but their Friends whereupon he was brought into some Trouble after which he grew somewhat more Friendly to me For before I had a Marshal set over me on purpose to get Money out of me but I was not to give him a Farthing and when they found they could get nothing of me then he was taken off again And the Officers would often be threatning me that I should be hanged over the Wall Nay the Deputy-Governour told me one time That the King knowing that I had a great Interest in the People had sent me thither that if there should be any Stirring in the Nation they should hang me over the Wall to keep the People down And there being a while after a Marriage at a Papist's House upon which occasion a great many of them were Met together they talked much then of hanging me But I told them If that was it they desired and it was permitted them I was ready for I never feared Death nor Sufferings in my Life but I was known to be an Innocent peaceable Man free from all Stirrings and Plottings and one that sought the Good of all Men. But afterwards the Governour growing kinder I spake to him when he was to go to London to the Parliament and desired him to speak to him that was called Esq Marsh and to Sir Francis Cob so called and to some others and let them
Lord and being one Body in him For God's Heavenly Flail hath brought out his Seed and his Heavenly Plow hath turned up the fallow Ground and his Heavenly Seed is sown by the Heavenly Man which brings forth Fruits to the Heavenly Sower in some Fifty Sixty and an Hundred fold in this Life And such in the World without End will have Life Eternal Oh therefore all keep within and let your Lights shine and your Lamps burn and that you all may be the Wells full of the Living Water and the Trees full of the Living Fruit of God's Planting whose Fruit is unto Holiness and End is Everlasting Life And so the Lord God of Power preserve you all in his Power and let all your Faith stand therein that you may have both Vnity in the Faith and in the Power and by this Faith and Belief you may be all grafted into Christ the sure Root and Rock of Ages where the Eternal Sun of Righteousness shines in the Heavenly and Eternal Day upon his Plants and Grafts And this Sun never sets nor goes down And the Heavenly Springs of Life and Showers are known to Water and nourish the Grafts and Plants and Buds that they may always be kept fresh and green and never wither bringing forth fresh and green and living Fruit which is offered up to the Living God and he is glorified in that you bear much Fruit. And so as I said before The Lord God Almighty keep you and preserve you all in his Power Light and Life over Death and Darkness that in the Light Life and Power of God you may spread his Truth abroad and be valiant for it upon the Earth answering that of God in all That with it the Minds of People may be turned to God and Christ so that with it they may come to know the Lord Christ Jesus in the New Covenant in which the Knowledge of the Lord shall cover the Earth as the Waters do the Sea and his Life must go over Death and his Light must go over Darkness and the Power of God must go over the Power of Sa tan And so all ye that be in the Light Life and Power Keep the Heavenly Fellowship in the Heavenly Power and the Heavenly Vnity in the Heavenly Divine Faith and the Vnity of the Spirit which is the Bond of the Heavenly Prince of Princes Peace who bruises the Head of the Enmity and of the Adversary and reconciles Man to God and all things in Heaven and in the Earth a blessed Reconciliation And let every one's Faith stand in the Power of God which Jesus Christ is the Author of that all may know their Crown of Life For all outward things without the Substance the Life the Power is as the Husk without the Kernel and doth not nourish the Immortal Soul nor the new-born Babe but that which it is nourished by is the Milk of the Word by which it is born again and groweth by it in the Heavenly Life Strength and Wisdom And the Gospel which is not of Man nor by Man but is the Power of God and answers the Truth in all all the Possessors of it are to see that all Walk according to it which Everlasting Order is ordained of God already and all the Possessors of him possess their Joy their Comfort and Salvation So with my Love unto you all with him that Reigns and is over all from Everlasting to Everlasting So dwell in the Love of God which passeth Knowledge which Love of God doth Edifie the Living Members of the Body of Christ which Love of God you come to be built up in and in the Holy Faith which Christ is the Author of that stands in his Power And this Love of God it brings you to bear all things and endure all things and hope all things From this Love of God which you have in Christ Jesus nothing will be able to separate you neither Powers nor Principalities Heights nor Depths things present nor things to come Prisons nor Spoiling of Goods neither Death nor Life So the Love of God keeps above all that which would separate from God and makes you more than Conquerors in Christ Jesus And therefore in this Love of God dwell which you have in Christ Jesus And that with the same Love you may Love one another and all the Workmanship of God so that you may Glorifie God wiâ—h your Bodies Souls and Spirits which are the Lord 's Amen G. F. All Friends sit low in the Life and the Lord's Power and keep your Place in it till the Lord and Master of the Heavenly Feast bid you Sit higher lest you take the Highest Place and be put down with Shame He that hath an Ear let him hear G. F. And Friends take heed of speaking the things of God in the Words that Men's Wisdom hath taught for those Words will lift up the foolish that be erred from the Spirit of God which Words and Wisdom is for Condemnation and that which is lifted up by them and they that thereby speak the things of God in them So that Old House with it's Things must be thrown under the Foot of the New Birth And Friends I desire that you may all keep the Holy Order which is in the Gospel the Glorious Order in the Power of God which the Devil is out of which was before all his Orders were and before they made any in the World In this Gospel the Power of God is the Glorious Order this Joyful Order keeps all Hearts pure to God an everlasting Peace Vnity and Order feel it and keep the Order of it both Men and Women and come to be Heirs of the Gospel which brings Life and Immortality to Light and to see over that Power of Darkness by him who was before the Power of Death was In this is the Holy Order in Love and Peace And so keep in this that keeps you always pure and what Men and Women act in this they act in that which will stand when the World is gone This is not received of Man nor by Man every Man and Woman must feel this Power that brings Life and Immortality to Light through the Gospel in that feel this then Heirs of this Gospel This is their Inheritance and Portion which they have Right to and to Membership Every Man and Woman inherit it possess it every one take your Possessions of this Gospel of Salvation and of it's Holy Orders There hath been some Scruple about Men and Womens-Meetings Men and Women in the Gospel are Heirs of the Power which was before the Devil was Heirs of this then enter into the Possession of it and do the Lord's Business therein And every one take the Care of God's Honour and to keep all things in Righteousness and Holiness which becomes God's House And in that which Honours the Lord God it eased me when those Meetings were set up for Men and Women That are Heirs of the Gospel have Right to the
that and that Liberty answers the Grace the Truth the Light the Spirit the Faith the Gospel of Christ in every Man and Woman and is the Yoke to the Contrary in every Man and Woman And that makes it rage and swell and puff up for that is restless and unruly and out of patience and is ready to curse his God and that which reigns over him because it hath not its Will And it works with all Subtilty and Evasion with its restless Spirit to get in and defile the minds of the Simple and to make Rapes upon the Virgin Minds But as they receive the heavenly Wisdom by which all things were made which Wisdom is above that Spirit through this Wisdom they will be preserved over that Spirit And Christ hath given Judgment to his Saints in his Church though he be Judge of all and the Saints in the Power and Spirit of God had and have Power to Judge of Words and Manners of Lives and Conversations and Growths and States from a Child to a Father in the Truth and to whom they are a Savour of Death and to whom they are a Savour of Life And who serve the Lord Jesus Christ and preach him and who preach themselves and serve themselves And who Talk of the Light and of Faith and of the Gospel and of Hope and of Grace and preach such things and in their Works and Lives deny them all and God and Christ and preach up Liberty from that in themselves to that in Others which should be under the Yoke and Cross of Christ the Power of God And so the Saints in the Power and Spirit of Christ can discern and distinguish who serves God and Christ and who serves him not and so can put a distinction between the Prophane and the Holy But such as have lost their Eye-salve and their Sight is grown dim lose this Judgment Discerning and Distinction in the Church of Christ and such come to be spewed out of Christ's mouth except they Repent and if not they come to Corrupt the Earth and burden it that it Vomits them out of it And therefore all are Exhorted to keep in the Power and Spirit of Christ Jesus and in the Word of Life and the Wisdom of God which is above that that is below in which they may keep their heavenly Understandings and heavenly Discernings and so set the heavenly Spiritual Judgment over that which is for Judgment which dishonours God which leads into loose and false Liberty out of the Unity which stands in the heavenly Spirit which brings into Conformity and to be Conformable to the Image of the Son of God and his Gospel the Power of God which was before the Devil was and his Truth which the Devil is out of in which all are of one Mind Heart and Soul and come to drink into one Spirit being baptized into one Spirit and so into one Body which Christ is the Head of and so keep one Fellowship in the Spirit and Unity in the Spirit which is the Bond of Peace the Prince of Princes Peace And they that Cry so much against Judging and are afraid of Judgment whether they be Apostates Professors or Prophane they are the Most-judging with their censorious false Spirits and Judgment and yet cannot bear the true Judgment of the Spirit of God nor stand in his Judgment This hath been manifest from the beginning they having the false Measures and the false Weights for none have the true Measure and the true Weight but who keep in the Light Power and Spirit of Christ And now there is a loose Spirit that cries for Liberty and against Prescriptions and yet is prescribing ways both by Words and Writings And the same Spirit cries against Judging and would not be Judged and yet is Judging with a wrong Spirit And this is given forth in Reproof to that Spirit London the 9th of the 4th Month 1678. G. F. When I had finished what Service I had for the Lord at this time here I left London and went towards Hartford visiting Friends and having several Meetings in the way At Hartford I stay'd several days having much Service for the Lord there both amongst Friends in their Meetings and in Conferences with such as having let in evil surmisings and jealousies concerning Friends stood in Opposition to the Order of Truth And in Answering some Books that had been written against Truth and Friends And while I was here it came upon me to write a few Lines and send them abroad amongst Friends as followeth Dear Friends LET the holy Seed of Life reign over Death and the unholy Seed in you all that in the holy Seed of the Kingdom ye may all feel the everlasting holy Peace with God through Christ Jesus your Saviour and sit down in him your Life and glorious Rest the holy Rock and Foundation that standeth sure over all from Everlasting to Everlasting in whom all the fulness of Blessedness is so that ye may glory in him that liveth for evermore Amen! Who is your Eternal Joy Life and Happiness through whom you have Peace with God 1678. Hartford Which holy Seed bruiseth the Head of the Serpent and will out-live all his Wrath and Rage Malice and Envy who was before He and It was and remains when He and It is gone into the fire that burns with brimstone The Seed Christ will reign and so will ye as ye do live and walk in him and sit down in Christ and build up one another in the Love of God Hartford the 10 of the 5th Month 1678. G. F. Next day a fresh Exercise came upon me with respect to those unruly and disorderly Spirits which were gone out from us and were labouring to draw others after them into a false Liberty And in the sense I had of the hurt and mischief these might do where they were given way to I was moved to write a few Lines to Warn Friends of them as followeth All Friends KEep in the tender Life of the Lamb over that unruly puffed up and swelling Spirit whose work is for Strife Contention and Division drawing into Loosness and false Liberty under a pretence of Conscience and dangerous to the Spoiling of Youth They that do encourage them will be guilty of their Destruction and set up a sturdy Will instead of Conscience in their Rage and Passion which will quench the universal Spirit in themselves and in every Man and Woman and so that Spirit shall not have the Liberty in themselves nor in Others and so shut up the Kingdom of Heaven in themselves and also in Others And so a loose Spirit getting up under a pretence of Liberty of Conscience or a stubborn Will making a Profession of the Words of Truth in a Form without Power all Loosness and Vileness will be sheltered and covered under this pretence which is for Eternal Judgment for that doth dishonour God Therefore keep to the tender Spirit of God in all humility that
Weapons which Faith is Victory or gives Victory by which ye lay hold on Eternal Life and have access unto God who will render to every man according to his Deeds to them who by patient continuing in well-doing seek for glory and honour and immortality Eternal Life but unto them that are contentious and do not obey the Truth but obey unrighteousness indignation and wrath Tribulation and Anguish upon every soul of man that doth evil but glory honour and peace to every man that worketh good Christ said to his Disciples If the world hate you ye know that it hated me before it hated you If ye were of the world the world would love it's own but because ye are not of the world but I have chosen you out of the world therefore the world hateth you And If they have persecuted me they will also persecute you And John in his general Epistle to the Church saith Marvel not my Brethren if the world hate you We know that we have passed from death to life because we love the Brethren And Christ in his Prayer to his Father saith of his Followers As thou hast sent me into the world even so have I also sent them iâ— the world And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them that they may be one even as we are one And therefore all ye that know God and Jesus Christ whom to know is Eternal Life and are Partakers of his Glory keep the Testimony of Jesus and be valiant for his Truth upon Earth that ye may be all settled upon Christ the Rock and Foundation Dolston the 3d of the 8th Month 1682. G. F. I made but little stay at Dolston but returned again to London London where I continued most part of the Winter labouring in the Service of Truth amongst Friends Save that I was a little while at Kingston in the Tenth Month this Year where I writ a Book Kingston setting forth The state of the Birth Temporal and the Birth Spiritual And the Duty and State of a Child Youth Young Men Aged Men and Fathers in the Truth c. But I staid not long at Kingston neither for the heat of Persecution still continuing I felt my Service to be most at London London where our Meetings were for the most part disturbed and broken up or Friends were forced to Meet without Doors being kept out of their Meeting-Houses by the Officers Yet sometimes beyond expectation we got a quiet and peaceable Meeting in the Houses One time I was minded to have gone a mile or two out of Town to visit a Friend that was not well But hearing that the King had sent to the Mayor to put the Laws in Execution against Dissenters and that the Magistrates thereupon intended to Nail up the Meeting-house-doors I had not freedom to go out of Town but was moved to go to the Meeting at Gracious-street And notwithstanding all the Threats a great Meeting it was and very quiet and the Glory of the Lord shone over all The same Week I went to the Meeting at the Peel in John's Street and the Sessions were holden the same day at Hicks's hall Peel-Meet I went to the Peel in the Morning and William Mead being to appear at the Sessions for not going to the Steeple-house-worship he came once or twice from Hicks's hall to me at the Peel which some Ill-minded-people observing went and Informed the Justices at the Bench that he was gone to a Meeting at the Peel Whereupon the Justices sent a Messenger to see if there were a Meeting but this being in the Forenoon there was no Meeting there then and so the Messenger when he had looked about went back and told them Then others Informed the Justices that there would be a Meeting there about three or four in the Afternoon Whereupon they sent for the Chief Constable and asked him Why he suffered a Meeting to be at the Peel so nigh him He told them He did not know of any Meeting there They asked him How he could but know it and live so nigh it He said He was never there in his life 1682. London and did not know that there was a Meeting there They would have perswaded him that he must needs know of it but he standing stedfast in the denial of it they said They should take order to have it look'd after in the Afternoon But a multitude of Business coming before them at the Sessions when Dinner-time came they hasted to their Dinner without giving order And when they came to the Bench again after Dinner the Lord put it out of their Minds so that they sent no Officer and so the Meeting was quiet beginning and ending in peace and a blessed Meeting we had the Lord's Presence being preciously amongst us Many Friends had a concern upon their minds when they saw me come into the Meeting lest I should have been taken But I was freely given up to suffer if it was the Lord's Will before I went into the Meeting and had nothing in my mind concerning it but the Lord's Glory And I do believe the Lord put it out of their minds that they should not send to break up our Meeting that day Yet the First-day after three or four Justices as I heard came to the Peel and put Friends out of their Meeting there and kept them out and inquired for William Mead but he was not there Grac. Meet That day I was moved to go to Gracious-street-Meeting and it was expected that the Officers would come to break up the Meeting or keep Friends out and many hundreds of People came to see what would be done to us But the Officers came not and so we were in peace and quietness and many of the People that came to look on staid all the time and a glorious precious Meeting we had for the Lord's Presence was plentifully amongst us and his Power came over all Glory to his Name for ever who is over all I had seen the Mayor's printed Speech for putting the Laws in Execution against Dissenters and it was much in my mind that we should draw up a Paper to send to the Mayor and Aldermen to clear our selves from being such as those Laws were made against and to set forth our peaceable Behaviour both towards the King and the Government Accordingly a Paper was drawn up and signed and delivered to the Mayor and Copies thereof to the Aldermen and to the Bishop of London also And they generally took it kindly and were Civil to the Friends that delivered it About this time I was moved to write the few Lines following to Friends Dear Friends FEel the Power of God in you all and over all and by it let all your hearts be united to one another and to the Lord God who hath gathered you to himself by his Power and Spirit to be a People to serve and worship him So that you may all strive to Excel
let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly in all Wisdom teaching and admonishing one another c. Col. 3. And whatsoever ye do in Word or Deed do all in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ giving thanks to God and the Father by him And above all things put on Charity which is the Bond of Perfectness And the Apostle saith to Timothy Be not thou ashamed of the Testimony of our Lord nor of me his Prisoner but be thou Partaker of the Afflictions of the Gospel according to the Power of God who hath saved us and called us with an holy Calling not according to our works but according to his own purpose and grace which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began 2 Tim. 1.8 9. So here it concerns every one not to be ashamed of the Testimony of our Lord who hath called them by his Grace and not to be ashamed of any of Christ's Prisoners and afflicted Ones for Christ's and his Gospels sake who abolishes Death and brings Life and Immortality to Light through his Gospel You that believe in the Light know it And Peter saith in his General Epistle to the Church of Christ As every man mark every man hath received the Gift so minister the same one to another as good Stewards of the manifold Grace of God If any man speak let him speak as the Oracles of God so not of Men If any man minister let him do it as of the Ability which God gives so not of the Ability of mens Arts and Sciences that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ c. For these Gifts and Grace come from Jesus into the hearts of the Members of his Church whom he is in the midst of And if any man suffer as a Christian let him not be ashamed but let him glorifie God c. And every true Christian hath the presence of Christ who hath all power in Heaven and in Earth given him to support them with his power light and life And Christ saith to his Believers Beware of men for they will deliver you up to the Councils and they will scourge you in the Synagogues and you shall be brought before Governours and Kings for my Names sake for a Testimony against them and the Gentiles But when they deliver you up take no thought how or what ye shall speak for it shall be given you in the same hour what ye shall speak for it is not you that speak but the Spirit of your Father that speaketh in you And ye shall be hated of all men for my Names sake but he that endureth to the end shall be saved The Disciple is not above his Master nor the Servant above his Lord It is enough for the Disciple that he be as his Master and the Servant as his Lord for if they have called the Master of the house Beelzebub what will they do to his Servant Fear not them which kill the Body but are not able to kill the Soul c. A Sparrow shall not fall to the ground without your heavenly Father c. The hairs of your head are all numbred ye are of more value than many Sparrows Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven But whosoever shall deny me before Men him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven And whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words of him shall the Son of Man be ashamed c. Matth. 10. And again Christ saith Whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful Generation of him also shall the Son of Man be ashamed when he comes in the Glory of his Father with his holy Angels Mark 8.38 And Christ saith to his Disciples He that receiveth you receiveth me and he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me He that receiveth a Prophet in the name of a Prophet shall receive a Prophet's reward And he that receiveth a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man's reward And whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a Cup of cold water only in the name of a Disciple verily I say unto you he shall in no wise lose his reward Matth. 10.40 41 42. Here ye may see how Christ encourages his Disciples and them that receive them And John saith Among the chief Rulers of the Jews many believed in Christ but because of the Pharisees they did not confess him lest they should be put out of the Synagogue John 12.42 Too many such Believers are now a-days who dare not Confess Christ lest they should lose the favour of men But Christ encourages the faithful Disciples and told them They would put them out of their Synagogues yea that the time should come that whosoever killed them would think they did God service And these things said he will they do unto you because they have not known the Father nor me But these things have I told you that when the time shall come ye may remember that I told you of them John 16.2 3 4. Here ye may see what Christ told his Disciples should come to pass to them And Saul before he was Converted did Compel the Christians to blaspheme and made havock of the Church of Christ Acts 8. and chap. 22. and 26. And did not the Beast in the Revelations Compel both small and great to worship him and his Image And did not all worship it but they who had their Names written in the Lamb's Book of Life before the Foundation of the World And did not Nebuchadnezzar set up an Image sixty Cubits high and six Cubits broad And then did not he cause an Herauld to cry aloud It is commanded that all People and Nations and Languages fall down and worship the golden Image that Nebuchadnezzar hath set up And whoso falleth not down and worshippeth shall the same hour be cast into the midst of the fiery Furnace And were not Shadrach Meshach and Abednego cast into the Furnace Dan. 3. But God delivered them Therefore it is good to be faithful to God and his Worship in Spirit and Truth And the Jews had agreed that if any man should Confess Christ he should be put out of their Synagogue John 9.22 So it was for Christ's sake they were Excommunicated out of their Synagogues But as it is written Behold I lay in Sion a Stumbling-stone and a Rock of Offence and who so believes on him shall not be ashamed So Christ is a Stumbling-stone and a Rock of Offence to all the Unbelievers in the Light which is the Life in Christ whether they be Jews Christians or Gentiles The Jews did believe a Christ was To come from the Scriptures And the Christians believe He is come by the Scriptures but do not believe in the Light which is the Life in Christ as Christ commands and so do not become the
well as Men. And Deborah was a Judge and a Prophetess and do not You make use of Deborah's and Miriam's words in your Service and Worship as you may see Judg. 5. v. 1 31. Deborah's large Speech or Song And Barak did not forbid her nor none of the Jewish Priests And did not she make this Speech or Song in the Congregation or Church of Israel And in the Book of Ruth there are good Speeches of those good Women which were not forbidden And Hannah prayed in the Temple before Ely and the Lord Answered her prayer And see what a Speech Hannah makes and a praising of God before Ely the High-Priest and he did not forbid her 1 Sam. 2. v. 1. to 10. And Josiah the King sent his Priest with several others to Ask Counsel of Huldah the Prophetess who dwelt at Jerusalem in the Colledge 2 King 22.14 2 Chron. 34.22 So here the King and his Priests did not despise the Counsel of this Prophetess and she did prophesie to the Congregation of Israel as may be seen in these Chapters And in Luke 1.41 to 55. there see what a godly Speech Elizabeth made to Mary and what a large godly Speech Mary made also And Mary said That the Lord did regard the Low Estate of his Hand-maid c. And don't you make use in your Worship and Service of Mary's and Elizabeth's words from Luke 2.41 to 55. who were holy Women in your Churches and yet forbid Womens speaking in your Churches and to be in silence yet all sorts of Women speak in your Churches when they sing and say Amen And in Luke the second there was one Anna a Prophetess she was a Widow of about fourscore and four years which departed not from the Temple but served God with Fasting and Prayer night and day Did not she Confess Christ Jesus in the Temple and gave thanks to the Lord and spake of Christ to all that looked for Redemption in Jerusalem Luke 2.36 37 38. So such holy Women were not forbidden to speak in the Church neither in the Law nor Gospel And was it not Mary Magdalen and other Women that first preached Christ's Resurrection to the Apostles The Woman indeed namely Eve was first in Transgression and so they were Women that first preacht the Resurrection of Christ Jesus for Christ said to Mary c. Go to my Brethren and say unto them I Ascend unto my Father and to your Father and to my God and to your God John 20.17 And Luke 24.10 it was Mary Magdalen and Johanna and Mary the Mother of James and other Women that were with them which told the Apostles that Christ was risen from the dead and their words and these Womens words were as Idle Tales to the Apostles and they believed them not Ibid. vers 11. And vers 22. Certain Women also of our Company made us astonished they said So here it may be seen that the Womens preaching the Resurrection of Christ did Astonish the Apostles and Christ sent these Women to preach his Resurrection so it is no shame for such Women to preach Christ Jesus neither were they to be silent when Christ sends them And the Apostle says Every Tongue shall Confess to God Rom. 14.11 and Every Tongue shall Confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the Glory of God the Father Philip. 2.11 So Here 't is Clear that Women must Confess Christ as well as men if Every Tongue must Confess And the Apostle saith There 's neither Male nor Female for ye are all one in Christ Jesus Gal. 3.28 And whereas 't is said Women must ask their Husbands at home c. Now the Duke knows very well Virgins have no Husbands nor Widows for Anna the Prophetess was a Widow And if Christ be the Husband Men must ask Counsel of him at home as well as Women before they Teach And set the Case that a Turk's Wife should be a Christian or a Papist's Wife should be a Lutheran or a Calvinist must they Ask and Learn of their Husbands at home before they confess Christ Jesus in the Congregation of the Lord Their Counsel will be to them to turn Turks or Papists I Intreat the Duke to Consider these things And again I Intreat him to mind God's Grace and Truth in his heart that is come by Jesus that by his Spirit of Grace and Truth he may come to serve and worship God in his Spirit and Truth so that he may serve the Living Eternal God that made him in his Generation and have his Peace in Christ that the World cannot take away And I do desire his Good Peace and Prosperity in this World and his Eternal Comfort and Happiness in the World that is Everlasting without End Amen London the 26th of the 8th Month 1684. G. F. Besides the fore-going I writ also Epistles to Friends one of which the following is a Copy FRiends and Brethren in the Lord Jesus Christ in whom you have all life peace and salvation Walk in him who is your heavenly Rock and Foundation that stands sure who hath all Power in Heaven and Earth given unto him So his Power is over all And let your Faith stand in his Power which is over all from everlasting to everlasting and so is over the Devil and his power that in the holy heavenly Wisdom of God ye may be all preserved and kept to God's glory out of all snares and temptations so that God's Wisdom may be justified of all his Children in this day of his power and they all may be faithful serving and worshipping God in his Spirit and Truth and valiant for it upon the Earth For as the Apostle saith They that believe are entred into their rest and have ceased from their own works as God did from his Now this Rest is an Eternal Rest in Christ the Eternal Son of God in whom every true Believer hath everlasting Life in Christ Jesus their Rest and everlasting Day For Christ the Rest bruiseth the Serpent's head and through Death destroyeth Death and the Devil the power of Death and his works And he is the eternal Rest that giveth eternal Life to his Sheep And Christ fulfilleth the Prophets and all the Figures Shadows and Ceremonies as in the Old Testament and all the Promises are Yea and Amen in Christ their and our Eternal Rest who was the Eternal Rest to all the true Believers in the Apostles days and ever since and is so now And Christ is the Beginning and the Ending the First and Last who is ascended above all Principalities Powers Thrones and Dominions that he might fill all things For by Jesus Christ all things were made and created whether they be things in Heaven or things in the Earth and he is the eternal Rest and they that believe are entred into Christ their Eternal Rest in whom they have as I said before Eternal Life and peace with God Wherefore I say again in him who is your Rest live and abide for in
him ye are happy and his Blessings will rest upon you God Almighty keep and preserve you all his true Believers in Christ your Rest and Peace this day Amen London the 18th of the 12th Month 1684 5. G. F. About a Month after this I got a little out of London visiting Friends first at South-street then at Ford-Green and Enfield where I had Meetings South-street Ford-green Enfield Waltham-Abbey Enfield Edmunton side and afterwards I went to Waltham-Abbey and was at the Meeting there on a First-day which was very large and peaceable Then returning through Friends at Enfield and about Edmunton-side I came back to London in the Third Month to Advise with and Assist Friends in laying Friends Sufferings before the Parliament then sitting and we drew up a short Account of our Sufferings which we caused to be printed and spread amongst the Parliament-men London Yearly-Meeting The Yearly-Meeting now coming on I was much concerned for the Friends that came up to it out of the Countries lest they should meet with any Trouble or Disturbance in their Passages up or down and the rather for that about this time there began to be great bustles in the Nation upon the Duke of Monmouth's landing in the West But the Lord according to his wonted goodness was graciously pleased to preserve and keep Friends in safety and gave us a blessed Opportunity to Meet together in peace and quietness and accompanied our Meeting with his living refreshing Presence blessed for ever be his holy Name Now considering the Hurries and Bustles that were in the Nation it came upon me at the Close of this Meeting to write a few Lines to Friends to Caution all to keep out of the Spirit of the World in which the Trouble is and to dwell in the peaceable Truth Wherefore I writ as followeth Dear Friends and Brethren WHom the Lord hath called and chosen in Christ Jesus your Life and Salvation in whom ye have all rest and peace with God The Lord God by his mighty Power which is over all hath preserved you and supported you to this day to be a peculiar holy People to himself so that by his Eternal Spirit and Power ye might be all preserved and kept out of the World for in the World is the Trouble And now in this great Day of the Lord God Almighty he is shaking the Heavens and the Earth of outward Professions and their Elements are in a heat and their Sun and their Moon are darkened and the Stars falling and the Mountains and Hills shaking and tottering as it was among the Jews in the Day of Christ's appearing And therefore all Dear Friends and Brethren dwell in the Seed Christ Jesus who is the Rock and Foundation 1685. London that cannot be shaken that ye may see with the Light and Spirit of Christ that ye are the fixed Stars in the â—irmament of God's Power and in this his Power and Light you 'l see over all the wandring Stars and Clouds without water and Trees without fruit And that which may be shaken will be shaken as will all they that are wandred from the Firmament of God's Power Now Dear Friends and Brethren you that are redeemed from the Death and Fall of Adam by Christ the second Adam in him ye have Life Rest and Peace for Christ saith In me ye shall have Peace but in the World Trouble And the Apostle saith They that believe are entred into their Rest namely Christ who hath overcome the World who bruiseth the Serpent's Head and destroys the Devil and his Works and fulfils the Types Figures and Shadows of the Old Testament and the Prophets In whom the Promises are Yea and Amen who is the First and Last Beginning and Ending Yea and Amen who is the eternal Rest So keep and walk in Christ your Rest every one that have received him your Eternal Rest And now Dear Friends and Brethren whatever Bustlings and Trouble or Tumults or Outrages Quarrels and Strife should arise and be in the World keep out of them all and concern not your selves with them but keep in the Lord's Power and peaceable Truth that is over all such things in which Power ye seek the peace and good of all men And live in the Love which God hath shed abroad in your hearts through Christ Jesus in which Love nothing is able to separate you from God and Christ neither outward Sufferings Persecutions nor any outward thing that is below and without nor to hinder or break your heavenly Fellowship in the Light and Gospel and Spirit of Christ nor your holy Communion in the Holy Ghost that proceeds from the Father and the Son which leads you into all Truth And in this Holy Ghost in which is your holy Communion that proceeds from the Father and the Son you have fellowship with the Father and the Son and communion and fellowship one with another And this is it which links and joins Christ's Church or Body together to him the heavenly and spiritual Head and in Unity in his Spirit which is the Bond of Peace of all his Church and living Members in whom they have Eternal and Everlasting Rest and Peace in Christ and with God everlasting who is to be blessed and praised for ever Amen Now Dear Friends forsake not the Assembling of your selves together who are gathered in the Name of Jesus who is your Prophet that God has raised up in the New Testament to be heard in all things who opens to you and no man can shut and shuts and no man can open Who is your Priest made higher than the Heavens by the Power of an endless Life by him you are made a Royal Priesthood to offer up to God spiritual Sacrifice Who is the Bishop of your Souls to oversee you that ye do not go astray from God Who is the good Shepherd that hath laid down his Life for his Sheep and they hear his voice and follow him and he gives to them eternal Life And now Dear Friends and Brethren abide in Christ the Vine that ye may bring forth fruit to the glory of God And as every one hath received Christ walk in him who is not of the World that lies in wickedness so that ye may be preserved out of the Vain Fashions and Customs of the World which satisfie the Lust of the Eye the Lust of the Flesh and the Pride of Life which are not of the Father but are of the World that passes away And who joins to that which is not of the Father or encourages it draws the mind from God the Fathâ—r and the Lord Jesus Christ. And therefore Let Christ rule in your hearts that your Minds Souls and Spirits may be kept and preserved out of the Vanities of the World both in their words ways and actions so that ye may be a peculiar People zealous of good works serving the Lord God through Jesus Christ in whom is life and may be a peculiar People to
amongst other Services that I found there one was to assist Friends in drawing up Testimony to Clear our Friends from being concerned in the late Rebellion in the West and from all Plots against the Government Which accordingly we did and delivered them to the Chief-Justice who was then to go down into the West with Commission to Try Prisoners I tarried some time in London visiting Meetings and labouring among Friends in the Service of Truth But finding my Health much impaired for want of fresh Air I went a little way out of Town to Charles Bathurst's Country-house at Epping-Forrest Epping-Forrest where I stay'd a few days And while I was there it came upon me to write the following Epistle to Friends Dear Friends WHO are called chosen and faithful in this Day of Trial 1685. Epping-Forest and Temptations and Sufferings whom the Lord by his right Hand hath upholden in all your Sufferings and some to Death for the Lord and his Truths sake Christ saith Be of good cheer I have overcome the World In me ye have peace but in the World ye have trouble The Children of the Seed which be Heirs of the Kingdom know this is true And though ye have Trials by false Brethren Judasses and Sons of Perdition that are got into the Temple of God and exalted above all that is called God whom the Lord will destroy with the breath of his Mouth and the brightness of his Coming And though ye be Tried by Powers or Principalities yet there is nothing able to separate you from the Love of God which ye have in Christ Jesus In that Love dwell which bears all things and fulfils the Law in which edifie one another and be courteous and kind and humble for to such God giveth his Grace plentifully and such he teacheth And pray in the Holy Ghost which proceeds from the Father and the Son and in it keep your holy Communion and Unity in the Spirit the Bond of Peace which is the King of Kings heavenly Peace In that you are all bound to good behaviour and keeping Peace among your selves and seeking the Peace of all men and shewing forth the heavenly gentle and peaceable Wisdom to all men in Righteousness and Truth answering the good in all People in all your Lives and Conversations for the Lord is glorified in your bringing forth spiritual fruit that ye may eye and behold the Lord in all your actions that the Blessings of the Lord ye may all feel to rest upon you Whether ye be the Lord's Prisoners for his Name and Truth 's sake or at Liberty in all things labour to be Content for that is a Continual Feast and let no Trouble move you then ye will be as Mount Sion that cannot be removed And in all things exercise the Word of Patience which Word will sanctifie all things to you And study to be Quiet and do the Lord's business that he requires of you and your own in Truth and Righteousness and whatsoever ye do let it be done to the praise and glory of God in the Name of Jesus Christ All they that do make God's People to suffer they make the Seed to suffer in their own particulars and Imprison the Just there And such will not visit the Seed in themselves but cast it into Prison in Others and not visit it in Prison You may read that Christ saith Such must go into Everlasting Punishment That is a sad punishment and prison And all such as are become Apostates and Backsliders that do crucifie to themselves Christ afresh and put him to open shame and trample under feet the blood of the Son of God by which they were cleansed and then come to be Vnclean such grieve vex and quench and rebel against the Spirit of God in themselves and then such rebel against them that walk in the Spirit of God Such are Vnfaithful to God and Man and are Enemies to every good Work and Service of God But their End will be according to their works who are like unto the Earth that hath often received Rain but brings forth Briars and Thorns which are to be rejected and are for the fire Therefore Dear Friends in all your Sufferings feel the Lord's Eternal Arm and Power which hath upheld you and supported you to this day and will to the end as your Faith stands in it and as you are settled upon the Rock and Foundation Christ Jesus that cannot be removed in whom ye have life and peace with God And so the Lord God Almighty in him give you Dominion and preserve and keep you all to his Glory that in all your Sufferings ye may feel his presence and that when ye have finished your Testimony ye may receive the Crown of Glory which God hath laid up for them that fear and serve him Amen The 15th of the 7th Month 1685. G. F. Having spent about a week at this time among Friends in the Country London I returned to London Where I continued about Two Months visiting Friends Meetings and labouring to get Relief for Friends from their Sufferings which yet lay heavy upon them in many parts of the Nation Several Papers also I writ relating to the Service of Truth one of which was concerning Order in the Church of God which some that were gone out of the Unity of Friends did much oppose And that was as followeth AMong all Societies or Families or Nations of People in the World they have among them some sort of Order There was the Order of Aaron in the Old Testament and there was the Order of Melchizedeck before that after whose Order Christ Jesus came and he did not despise that Order So God is a God of Order in his whole Creation and in his Church And all the Believers in the Light the Life in Christ that do pass from death to life they are in the Order of the holy Spirit Power Light Life and Government of Christ Jesus of the Increase whereof there is no End And this is a Mystery to all those disorderly People who have written and printed so much against Orders which the Lord's Power and Spirit hath brought forth among his People And you that cry so much against Orders is it not manifest that you are gone into a Land of Darkness thick as darkness it self and of the shadow of death into disorder and where the Light is as Darkness And is not this your Condition seen by all them that live and walk in the Truth and whose Conversations are according to the Gospel of Life and Salvation The Devil Satan Dragon and the first and second Beast 1685. London and the Whore and false Prophets and their Worshippers and Followers all these are out of the Truth and abode not in it nor in the Order of it And the Truth is over them all In Salem is God's Tabernacle a peaceable Tabernacle and his Tabernacle is in Shiloh And these are far beyond the Tabernacles of Ham Psal
Holy and glorifie your Father which is in Heaven for he is glorified in your bringing forth good Fruits as ye abide in Christ the Vine in this his day of Life Power and Light thas shines over all And therefore all you that believe in the Light walk in the Light as Children of the Light and of Christ's everlasting Day that in the Light ye may have Fellowship with the Father and the Son and one with another keeping in the Unity of his holy Spirit in the Bond of his holy Peace in his Church that he is Head of And my desire is that God's Wisdom every where may be justified of her Children and that it may be shewed forth in Meekness and in the Fear of the Lord in this his Day Amen G. F. By that time the Yearly-Meeting was over I was very much wearied and spent wherefore about a Week after the Meeting I got out of Town to a Friend's House a little beyond Edmunton Edmunton South-street Winchmore-hill Berry-street where and at Southstreet I abode some time and had Meetings amongst Friends there and at Winchmore-hill and Berry-street And having my mind continually exercised in the Things of God the sense of his Infinite Goodness and Mercy to Mankind in visiting them after they had transgressed and rebelled against him and providing a Way and Means for their Return to him again was very much upon me And in the Opening of the Spirit of Truth I writ the following Paper on that Subject GOD who made all Men and Women 1687. Berry-street though they have transgressed his Commands and Laws and rebelled against him and hated his Light and grieved his Spirit and walked despitefully against his Spirit of Grace yet God who is merciful would have all to be saved and come to the knowledge of the Truth And all that come to the Knowledge of the Truth must know it in their inward parts I say the Grace and Truth which comes by Jesus all that do know and find do know and find it in their hearts and inward parts And such do find the hidden Man of the heart and the Pearl and the Leaven and the lost piece of Silver and the Kingdom of Heaven within For until all come to the Light and Truth in their hearts they have been strangers to these things in Adam in the Fall from the Image of God and his Light Power and Spirit and Kingdom But Christ that never fell brings Man and Woman again that follow him to know these things and to know the Truth him the Saviour and brings them into his Image and his everlasting Kingdom The Devil who is out of the Truth tempted Man and Woman to disobey God and so drew them into the Fall from the Truth So it is the Devil that hath stopped Mens Eyes and Ears and Hearts from the Truth who is called The God of the World who hath blinded the Eyes of Infidels or Heathen But Christ who bruises the Serpent's Head and destroys the Devil and his Works doth open Men's Hearts and Eyes and Ears who is their Saviour and Redeemer and giveth Life Eternal to his People that obey him and his Truth Blessed be the Lord for ever through Jesus Christ who hath tasted death for all Men to bring them out of the death of Adam and is a Propitiation for the sins of the whole World and gave himself a Ransome for all to be testified of in due time For as by Adam's transgression and disobedience Death and Condemnation came upon all Men so by Christ's Obedience unto Death Justification of Life is come upon all Men and He that believeth in Christ hath eternal life but he that doth not is condemned already But God would have all Men to be saved and come unto the knowledge of the Truth as it is in Jesus who is their Saviour and in him there is no Condemnation G. F. After I had been a while here I went to a Monthly-Meeting at Enfield and from thence with some Friends to Hartford Enfield Hartford where I stay'd three or four days visiting Friends both at their Publick Meetings on the First-day of the Week and at their Quarterly-Meetings both of Men and Women and good Service for the Lord I had amongst them Then passing from thence to Waltham-Abby I had a very good Meeting with Friends there Waltham-Abbey and the next day went from thence to another place to compose a Difference which for want of a right Understanding of each other had happened between some Friends I returned to Waltham that night 1687. Waltham Essex Gooses Wanstead Barking Gooses and the next day went with some Friends to Gooses which is William Mead's House in Essex Here I stay'd some Weeks yet was not Idle but often visited the Meetings thereabouts as at Wanstead Barking and at John Hardings And betwixt Meeting and Meeting I writ many things for spreading of Truth and for the opening Peoples Understandings to receive it One was a Paper proving from the Scriptures that People must Repent before they can receive the Gospel and the holy Spirit and the Kingdom of God or be baptized And this was it JOhn the Baptist came Preaching in the Wilderness of Judea saying Repent ye for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand Matth. 3.2 And when John the Baptist was cast into Prison Mark says That Jesus came into Galilee preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom of God and saying The time is fulfilled and the Kingdom of God is at hand Repent ye and believe the Gospel Mark 1.14 15. Matthew also says From that time Jesus began to preach and to say Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand Matth. 4.17 And when Christ sent forth his Twelve Disciples two and two they went out and preached that Men should Repent Mark 6.12 Christ said to the Jews Except ye Repent ye shall all likewise perish Luke 13.3 5. And when the Publicans and Sinners came to hear Christ and the Pharisees and Scribes murmured saying This Man receiveth sinners and eateth with them Luke 15.1 2. Christ reproved them by a Parable and then told them Joy shall be in Heaven over one sinner that Repenteth more than over ninety and nine just persons which need no Repentance ver 7. And adds There is Joy in the presence of the Angels of God over one sinner that Repenteth ver 10. And Christ after he was Risen said unto his Disciples That Repentance and Remission of sins should be preached in his Name among all Nations beginning at Jerusalem Luke 24.47 Peter said unto the Jews Repent and be baptized every one of you in the Name of Jesus Christ for the Remission of sins and ye shall receive the Gift of the Holy Ghost Acts 2.38 And Paul said The times of this Ignorance God winked at but now commandeth all Men every where to Repent Acts 17.30 Simon Magus was called to Repentance if he had regarded it Acts 8.22 And the Apostle Paul did
harmless and separate from Sinners and is a Priest made higher than the Heavens This is the Priest that gives power to all that receive him to become the Sons and Daughters of God And Jerusalem that is above is the Mother of all the Sons and Daughters of God which is free but Jerusalem that is below is in bondage with her Children And they that are the Children of Jerusalem that is above do not look down at Jerusalem that is below but they look at Jerusalem that is above which is their Mother Christ said Neither at Outward Jerusalem nor in the Mountain of Samaria should God be worshipped but God should be worshipped in Spirit and in Truth for he is a Spirit and such he seeks to worship him John 4. This is the Worship that Christ set up above Sixteen hundred years ago And therefore the Idolatrous Jews must never think to Offer their outward Offerings and Sacrifices nor set up their outward Worship at Jerusalem in the holy Land of Canaan more For Christ by the Offering up of himself once for all for the Sins of the whole World hath ended all the Jews Offerings and changed the Priesthood and the Law by which it was made and hath blotted out the Hand-writing of Ordinances which commanded both Priests and Offerings and triumphed over them And so he is the Offering and Sacrifice of all the Children of the New Testament and New Covenant and heavenly new Jerusalem that is above and he is their Prophet that openeth to them and Shepherd that feeds them and Bishop that oversees them and Priest that died for their Sins and is risen for their Justification and sanctifies them and presents them to God So he is the one Mediator betwixt God and Man even the Man Christ Jesus Kingston the 9th of the 10th Month 1687. G. F. Guilford After this I went from Kingston to Guilford to visit Friends there and stay'd three days with them and had a large and very good Meeting there on the First-day of the Week After which I came back to Kingston again Kingston and tarried there about Two Weeks longer visiting the Friends and having Meetings amongst them both at their Publick Meeting-house and in their Families Many things I writ while I was now at Kingston amongst which the following Paper was one GOD so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him shall not perish mark not perish but have everlasting life John 3.16 And again he saith He that believeth on the Son of God hath mark hath everlasting Life ver 36. So these Believers have Everlasting Life while they are upon the Earth And he that believeth on Christ is not condemned but he that believeth not is condemned already and the wrath of God abideth on him And He that heareth Christ 's word and believeth on God that sent him hath mark hath everlasting life and shall not come into Condemnation but is passed from death the death in the first Adam to life the life in Christ the second Adam John 5.24 And that Meat which Christ doth give endureth unto Everlasting Life as in John 6.27 And the Water that Christ doth give shall be in him that drinks it a Well of water springing up into everlasting life John 4.14 Christ said to the Jews Search the Scriptures for in them ye think ye have eternal life and they are they which testifie of me And ye will not come to me that ye might have life John 5.39 40. Here ye may see the Eternal Life is to be found in Christ and not in the Scriptures which testifie of him the Life Christ's Sheep that hear his Voice and know and follow him he gives unto them Eternal Life and they shall not perish neither shall any pluck them out of his hand They shall not pluck Christ's Sheep to whom he hath given Eternal life out of his Eternal hand Christ said to Martha I am the Resurrection and the Life he that believeth in me though he were dead mark though he were dead yet shall he live mark live though he were dead and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die Believest thou this Martha said Yea Lord John 25.26 This is the true and substantial Belief which they that do believe shall not perish but have Everlasting life John saith This is the Record That God hath given to us Eternal Life and this Life is in his Son 1 John 5.11 The Life was manifested and we saith he have seen it and bear witness and shew unto you that Eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested unto us 1 John 1.2 So these were the Believers that had Eternal Life in the Son of God and shewed it unto others He that hath the Son hath life saith John and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life 1 John 5.12 Christ saith Every one that hath forsaken Houses or Brethren or Sisters or Father or Mother or Wife or Children or Lands for my Names sake shall receive an hundred fold and shall inherit everlasting life Matth. 19.29 And the Wicked that do not receive Christ shall go into everlasting punishment but the Righteous into everlasting life And the true Servants of God have their fruits unto holiness and their End is everlasting life For the Wages of Sin is death but the Gift of God is everlasting life through Jesus Christ our Lord. And such have a Building of God an House not made with hands eternal in the Heavens Therefore I desire that God's People may endure all things that they may obtain this Salvation which is in Christ Jesus with Eternal Glory a Glory which is Eternal For Christ being made perfect became the Author of Eternal Salvation to all them that obey him And this Eternal Salvation is above an External Salvation for they come to receive an Eternal Inheritance and live in the possession of the everlasting Gospel of Joy Comfort Peace and Salvation having eternal and everlasting life in Christ Jesus which shall never die Kingston the 6th of the 11th Month 1687. G. F. Another Paper I writ there Concerning the Stone spoken of by Daniel Chap. 2. which became a great Mountain and filled the whole Earth shewing that thereby was set forth the Kingdom and Power of Christ WHen Christ the Stone that became a great Mountain and filled the whole Earth had broke to pieces the Head of Gold and the Breast of Silver and the Belly of Brass and the Legs of Iron and the Feet part Iron part Clay which were the four Monarchies to wit the Babylonian and Mede the Persian the Grecian and the Roman and had ended the outward Jews Typical Kingdom Daniel saith In the days of these Kings shall the God of Heaven set up a Kingdom which shall never be destroyed Dan. 2.44 Christ saith All Power is given unto me in Heaven and in Earth Matth. 28.18 And he saith My Kingdom is not of this
Amen London the 27th of the 3d Month 1689. G. F. Being much Wearied and Spent with being at many large Meetings 1689. Kingston and in much Business with Friends during the time of the Yearly-Meeting and finding my health much impaired thereby I went out of Town with my Daughter Rouse to their Country-house near Kingston and tarried there most of the remaining part of the Summer In which time I sometimes visited Friends Meetings at Kingston and writ divers things for the Service of Truth and Friends Amongst those things that I writ there one was an Epistle to Friends in Barbados and it was as followeth To all Friends in Barbados that are Convinced of God's Truth MY Desires are that ye may live and walk in his peaceable Truth and shew forth that ye are Children of the Light and of the Truth for the heavenly gentle and peaceable Wisdom is justified of her Children But Debate Strife Wilfulness and laying open one another's Nakedness and Weakness that is not heavenly Wisdom's Children's doing but Ham's nor from the Spirit of Christ nor such as bite and tear one another That 's from a devouring Spirit and not from the Spirit of Jesus which cloaths and covers that which is uncomely and can forgive And now my Friends you profess that Truth which is beyond all the World's ways therefore see that you do Excel them in the heavenly gentle Wisdom that is easie to be intreated for the Wisdom of the World is not easie to be intreated and sometimes will not be intreated at all And now pray see how you do excel the World in Wisdom in Vertue in Kindness in Love that is over hatred in Meekness and Lowliness and Humility and in Sobriety Civility and Modesty and in Temperance and Patience and in all that which is called Morality and Humanity which will not act any thing below Men or unmanly and to shew forth true Christianity and that ye are the Converted and Translated Believers in Christ dwelling in the Love of God that beareth all things and endureth all things and is not puffed up and envies not For they that be out of this Love of God and Christian Charity are nothing but as a tinkling Cymbal and a sounding Brass and are discontented Murmurers and Complainers full of Doubts Questions and false Jealousies Keep that Spirit out of the Camp of God for do not you read in the Scriptures both of the New and Old Testament that the End of such was Misery Therefore in the Love of God build up one another for Love edifies the Body of Christ and he commands his Believers to love Enemies and to love one another By this they are known to be the Disciples of Christ But to live in Envy Strife and Hatred is a Mark they are no Disciples of Christ For he that loveth not his Brother abides in Death and whosoever hates his Brother is a Murderer and ye know that no Murderer hath eternal life abiding in him But they that do love the Brethren are passed from death to life 1 John 3.14 15. And If a Man say I love God and hateth his Brother he is a liar for he that loveth not his Brother whom he hath seen how can he love God whom he hath not seen And this Commandment have we from God that he who loveth God loveth his Brother also Chap. 4.20 21. Therefore love one another for Love is of God and Hatred is of the Devil and every one that loveth is born of God and knows God Now all are Children of God by Creation and therefore in that state they are to love their Neigbours as themselves and to do unto all Men as they would have them do unto them Secondly God pouring his Spirit upon all Flesh or all Men and Women all that are led by the Spirit of God are the Sons of God and Heirs of God and Joint-heirs with Christ and so are in Fellowship in the Everlasting Gospel and so are in Vnity in the Spirit the Bond of Peace And they that go out of this Unity and out of the Bond of Peace and do not keep it they break the King of Kings Peace but they that keep in the Unity and Fellowship in the Spirit and walk in the Light have Fellowship one with another and with the Father and the Son So it is not every one that talks of the Light and talks of the Word and of Righteousness and talks of Christ and of God but he that Doth the will of God And therefore My Friends all strive to excel one another in Love and in Vertue and in good Life and Conversation and strive all to be of one Mind Heart and Judgment in the Spirit of God for in Christ all are one and are in peace in him The Lord God Almighty preserve you in him who is your holy Rock and Foundation that is heavenly and stands sure that ye may all be Valiant for the Truth upon the Earth and for the Lord and his glorious Name so that ye may all come to serve him in your Generation and in his New Creation in Christ Jesus Amen And now that you are come into so much Favour with the Magistrates and Powers that they let you serve the Office of a Constable c. without swearing or taking any Oaths hereby Christ's Doctrine and Command and his Apostle's is set up And therefore I desire that you may double your diligence in your Offices in doing that which is just and true and righteous so that ye may excel and exceed all them that are tied shack'led or bound by Swearing or Oaths to perform their Offices and you can do it at Yea and Nay so say and so do according to Christ's Doctrine and Command For Adam and Eve by disobeying the Command of God fell under Condemnation and they that disobey the Command of Christ in taking Oaths and Swearing go into Evil and fall into Condemnation Matth. 5. and Jam. 5. So my Love in the Lord is to you all Kingston upon Thames the 10th of the 5th Month 1689. G. F. I stay'd at Kingston till the beginning of the Seventh Month where not only many Friends came to visit me but some Considerable People of the World with whom I discoursed about the Things of God Then leaving Kingston I went to London by Water visiting Friends as I went Hammersmith and taking Hammersmith-Meeting in my way And having recovered some strength by being in the Country when I was come to London London I went from Meeting to Meeting labouring diligently in the work of the Lord and opening the Divine Mysteries of the heavenly things as God by his Spirit opened them in me But I found my Body would not long bear the City wherefore when I had travelled amongst Friends there about a Month Tottenham-High-Cross Winchmore-hill Enfield I went to Tottenham-High-Cross and from thence to Edward Man's Country-house near Winchmore-hill and to Enfield spending a matter of Three Weeks
God 409-412 Dead Faiths and Doctrines 587 Fanaticks who and what they are 205. 220 Fashions and Vanities of the world testified against 25. 602 603. see Apparel Fast of G. F's 92. 103. of a Woman in Lancashire 12. Fast proclaimed by O. C. for Rain 147* a Day of Humiliation 190. The true and false Fast 194. 248* 251* Fast and Holy-days so called 387. Fasting and Prayer 621-624 Feastings and Sporting whilst others were G. F. visited the Poor relieving them 5 Fees Marshal's 230 231. 303. G.F. could not pay being Innocent and the Jailer's 217* 258 Fell Judge sends a Warrant against the Abusers of G. F. 88. and grants a Supersedeas of a Warrant against him 90 Margaret shews to the King Friends Sufferings and Innocency 231 Fellowships in outward things will corrupt and wither 288 Fifth-Monarchy-mens Uproar 229 230. 238. They cleared Friends openly at their Execution 240. 247. They look for Christ's Personal Coming 247. are Fighters 248 Fighters are not of Christ's Kingdom 200. Sion needs no such 201. 204. 246. 268. See Wars Fox George his place of Birth Parents and Relations 1-3 30. 41. 135. 213. 310. 390. 396. his Cloths and Wear 60. 173 174. his Marriage 334. A great Weight fell upon his Spirit 342. his Travel and Sufferings at Reading 198 199 200. 213. 229. Offers his Hair and Cheek to the Threatner 240 241 c. and Labours diligently in the Work of the Lord 601. his Persecutors would have hanged him 110. His care for Truth and Friends 613 614. He prays to the Lord 7. 348. and for the Afflicted 30. 503 504. c. See Miracles His weakness of Body 594. 613. His Death and Burial 614. whose Name is written in the Lamb's Book of Life which was before the Foundation of the World 22 His Epistle left sealed up c. 615-617 Mary Mother of G.F. 1. died 369 Frederickstadt-Friends Cause pleaded by G. F. 423 424 Friends much abused by Priest and People 69 86. Their Charity to the Poor 215. going for a Sign see Sign G. GAoler see Jailer God's People to be like unto him 571 572. The Power of God thundred amongst the Magistrates of Darby c. 31. Good Behaviour G. F. Could not consent to be bound to who had committed no Ill Behaviour 41. See Bond. Good morrow good evening c. Vain Customs and Traditions forbidden 24 Goods ill gotten are a Curse to Men 208 Gospel is not the four Evangelists 264. 436. Governments Change God has a mighty Hand therein 224 Governor of Dover Convinced 151 of Tinmouth Castle with others visits G. F. in Prison 300 Grace of God teaches those that turn to it 22 23. 239* 240* 264* which hath appeared to all men 300 Grammar and Accidence distinguish the Singular from the Plural 30â— Groans which brake forth through G. F. did reach to People and strike them 57. 10 H. HAbeas Corpus c. for G. F.'s Removal 222 223. 394. 399. 405. Hacker Coll. his Son Needham's wicked Saying of G. F. 136. Hacker Coll. cut off being hanged at Tyburn 137. His Wife and Marshal convinced of Truth 166. Hagget Judge his Wife visits G.F. c. in Lanceston-Gaol and was convinced 200* Hair worn long of G.F. 176. 221* 259* Hales Judge his Answer to G. F.'s Adversaries in Court 406 Hands not to be laid on any suddenly 283** 597 Hat-honour proud Flesh looks for 24 25. 121. 179 180. 182. 184. 273* 219* A Professor's absurd Proof for it from Scripture pretendedly 188. 192*-196* 202* Professors offended at it 244* 198. Friends fined for it 211. and Imprison'd 254* 197 198. 205. 227. 239. 273 274. 276. 339. The Hat kept on in Prayer by J. Perrot and his Party 310. 394. 624-626 Hebrew Greek and Latin makes no Minister of Christ 281* Hirelings and Diviners for Money get vast Sums of it by selling the Scriptures 26. 133 Honour the true from the false distinguished 24. 202* 284* 274. 308. Hornby-Castle robb'd of the Wainscot and Bucks-horns in Major Poâ—ter's House 222 House-Creepers leading silly Women Captive c. are such as having crept into Temples with Tithes and Offerings keep People always learning under them c. 196 House of Israel the House of God 588 589. Humility goes before Honour 202* 416. 478. 548 549. I. JAiler of Darby watches G. F. for evil being in a rage against him 32. His Vision concerning G. F. 37. Was convinced of Truth G. F. finding him among Friends 213. and afterwards he writ a sensible Letter to G. F. 251 252 Jailers of Carlisle their Cruelty against G.F. 110. 112. so that the Under-Jailer was put into the Dungeon to G. F. for using him so badly 117 Jailer at Lanceston 179. his Wickedness and Rage against G. F. c. 186. who had been a Thief and burnt in the Hand 187. 214* and afterwards was put into Doomsdale himself and died in Prison ibid. Under Jailer at Lancaster a very wicked Man 218. 222. And the Upper-Jailer Hunter was cut off in his Young days for his Wickedness to G. F. 297. 306. Jailer at Leicester was very Cruel to Friends in his Prison before G. F. came there 256 257. Jailer of Durham incensing the Governor and Soldiers of Scarb. Castle against G. F. was cut off in his Wickedness 306 Jeroboam's Calves-houses likened to the Houses called Churches set up in the darkness of Popery 84 Jerusalem which comes down from Heaven its State described 345 346. The Children thereof 616 617 Jesuits two of them fawning upon Friends discoursed by G. F. concerning the degeneracy of the Churcn of Rome 246 247. 286* 287* who are filthy Dreamers dreaming they are the Apostles Successors 247. and are in a Rage against the Work of the Lord 331. and persecute to Death for Religion 288* A Jew discoursed by G. F. concerning the Coming of the Messiah 441. others would not discourse 453. 559 560 Imprisonments for not Swearing 164. 168. for Tithes and going to Steeple-houses c. 231 * 253*-255* 258* 263* 153. G. F. Imprison'd in a nasty stinking Prison at Nottingham 26 27. in Darby-Prison 32-46 49-53 in Darby-Dungeon 46-48 in Lanceston Prison 178 179. 185 186. Doomsdale 186-188 Lanceston Goal 189* 210*-219* at Leicester 256-258 in Lancaster Prison 274-297 in Scarborough-Castle 298-305 Taken at London-Meetings and had before Magistrates 339 340 c. G. F. in Worcester Goal 389 being premunired 405. and pleading the Errors of the Indictment at the K. 's-Bench-Bar was set at Liberty 406 Friends Imprison'd to Death 252. 304. Independent-Woman's prejudice against G.F. 154. Independents 247 Indian King discoursed by G. F. and several Indians at the King's Cabbin 379. their Gravity and Attention 382 Indictment's Errors pleaded by G. F. 289-294 297. 400-402 calls it a bundle of Lyes 398. is quash'd 405 406 Informers hired in Cumberland 270. set at work by Priests 343. a Papist-Informer against G. F. 339. they make spoil 491 492. Hilton 494 495. Sâ—ad 514. Inn-keepers in Wales their Treachery to G. F.'s
the World hath of what the Prophets and Apostles spake is a fleshly Knowledge and the Apostates from the Life in which the Prophets and Apostles were have gotten their Words the Holy Scriptures in a Form but not in their Life nor Spirit that gave them forth And so they all lie in Confusion and are making Provision for the Flesh to fulfil the Lusts thereof but not to fulfil the Law and Command of Christ in his Power and Spirit For that they say they cannot do but to fulfil the Lusts of the Flesh that they can do with Delight Now after I had received that Opening from the Lord that To be bred at Oxford or Cambridge was not sufficient to fit a Man to be a Minister of Christ I regarded the Priests less and looked more after the Dissenting People And among them I saw there was some Tenderness And many of them came afterwards to be Convinced for they had some Openings But as I had forsaken all the Priests so I left the Separate Preachers also and those called the Most-Experienced People For I saw there was none among them all that could speak to my Condition And when all my hopes in them and in all Men was gone so that I had nothing outwardly to help me nor could tell what to do Then O! then I heard a Voice which said ☞ There is one even Christ Jesus that can speak to thy Condition And when I heard it my Heart did leap for Joy Then the Lord did let me see why there was none upon the Earth that could speak to my Condition namely that I might give him all the Glory For all are concluded under Sin and shut up in Vnbelief as I had been that Jesus Christ might have the Pre-heminence who enlightens and gives Grace and Faith and Powe◠Thus when God doth work who shall let it And this I knew experimentally My Desires after the Lord grew stronger and Zeal in the pure knowledge of God and of Christ alone without the help of any Man Book or Writing For though I read the Scriptures that spake of Christ and of God yet I knew him not but by Revelation as he who hath the Key did open and as the Father of Life drew me to his Son by his Spirit And then the Lord did gently lead me along and did let me see his Love which was Endless and Eternal and surpasseth all the Knowledge that Men have in the natural State or can get by History or Books And that Love did let me see my self as I was without him and I was afraid of all Company For I saw them perfectly where they were through the Love of God which let me see my self And I had not Fellowship with any People Priests nor Professors nor any sort of separated People but with Christ who hath the Key and opened the Door of Light and Life unto me And I was afraid of all Carnal Talk and Talkers for I could see nothing but Corruptions and the Life lay under the Burden of Corruptions And when I my self was in the Deep under all shut up I could not believe that I should ever Overcome my Troubles my Sorrows and my Temptations were so great that I thought many times I should have despaired I was so tempted But when Christ opened to me how he was tempted by the same Devil and had Overcome him and bruised his Head and that through him and his Power Light Grace and Spirit I should Overcome also I had Confidence in him So he it was that opened to me when I was shut up and had not hope nor Faith Christ it was who had enlightened me that gave me his Light to believe in and gave me Hope which is himself Revealed himself in me and gave me his Spirit and gave me his Grace which I found sufficient in the Deeps and in Weakness Thus in the deepest Miseries and in the greatest Sorrows and Temptations that many times beset me the Lord in his Mercy did keep me And I found that there were Two Thirsts in me the one after the Creatures to have gotten Help and Strength there and the other after the Lord the Creator and his Son Jesus Christ And I saw all the World could do me no good If I had had a King's Diet Palace and Attendance all would have been as nothing For nothing gave me Comfort but the Lord by his Power And I saw Professors Priests and People were whole and at ease in that Condition which was my Misery and they loved that which I would have been rid of But the Lord did stay my Desires upon himself from whom my help came and my care was cast upon him alone Therefore all Wait patiently upon the Lord whatsoever Condition you be in wait in the Grace and Truth that comes by Jesus For if ye so do there is a Promise to you and the Lord God will fulfil it in you And Blessed are all they indeed that do indeed hunger and thirst after Righteousness they shall be satisfied with it I have found it so praised be the Lord who filleth with it and satisfieth the desires of the hungry Soul O let the House of the Spiritual Israel say His Mercy endureth for ever It is the great Love of God to make a Wilderness of that which is pleasant to the outward Eye and fleshly Mind and to make a fruitful Field of a barren Wilderness This is the great Work of God But while People's Minds do run in the Earthly after the Creatures and changeable Things and changeable Ways and Religions and changeable uncertain Teachers their Minds are in Bondage and they are brittle and changeable and tossed up and down with windy Doctrines and Thoughts and Notions and Things their Minds being from the unchangeable Truth in the inward Parts the Light of Jesus Christ which would keep their Minds to the Unchangeable who is the Way to the Father who in all my Troubles did preserve me by his Spirit and Power praised be his Holy Name for ever Again I heard a Voice which did say Thou Serpent Thou dost seek to destroy the Life but canst not For the Sword which keepeth the Tree of Life shall destroy thee So Christ the Word of God that bruised the Head of the Serpent the Destroyer preserved me my inward Mind being joined to his good Seed that bruised the Head of this Serpent the Destroyer And this inward Life did spring up in me to answer all the Opposing Professors and Priests and did bring in Scriptures to my Memory to refute them with At another time I saw the great Love of God and I was filled with admiration at the Infiniteness of it And then I saw what was Cast out from God and what Entred into God's Kingdom And how by Jesus the Opener of the Door by his Heavenly Key the Entrance was given And I saw Death how it had passed upon all Men and oppressed the Seed of God in Man and in me
and his Marshal to the Meeting and were Convinced for the glorious powerful Day of the Lord was exalted over all and many were Convinced that day at that Meeting There were at that Meeting Two 1655. Whetston that came out of Wales who were Justices of Peace their Names were Peter Price and Walter Jenkin who came both to be Ministers of Christ I went from thence to Sileby to William Smith's Sileby where was a great Meeting to which several Baptists came and one of them a Baptist-Teacher was Convinced and came to sit under the Lord 's Teaching by his Spirit and Power This Baptist said he had Baptized Thirty in a day From thence I went to Drayton my Native Town Drayton where so many Priests and Professors had formerly gathered together against me but now never a Priest nor Professor did appear I asked some of my Relations Where were all the Priests and Professors now They said The Priest of Non-Eaton was dead and there were Eight or Nine of them seeking to get into his Benefice They will let you alone now said they for they are like a Company of Crows when a rotten Sheep is dead they all gather together to pull out the Puddings and so do the Priests for a fallen Benefice These were some of their own Hearers that said so of them But they had spent their Venom against me and the Lord delivered me by his Power out of their Snares Then I went to Badgley Badgley where there was a great Meeting from many parts many came far to it and many were Convinced and turned to the Lord And they that were Convinced came under Christ's Teaching and were settled upon him their Foundation and their Rock From thence I passed into Nottinghamshire Nottingham-shire Darbyshire and had large Meetings there and so into Darbyshire where the Lord's Power came over all and many were turned from the Darkness to the Light and from the Power of Satan unto God and came to receive the Holy Ghost And great Miracles were wrought in many Places by the Power of the Lord through several In Darbyshire James Nailer met me and told me Seven or Eight Priests had challenged him to a Dispute I had a Travel in my Spirit for him and the Lord answered me and I was moved to bid him Go on and God Almighty would be with him and give him the Victory in his Power And the Lord did so insomuch that the People saw the Priests were foiled and they cried A Nailer a Nailer hath confuted them all After the Dispute was over he came to me again praising the Lord. Thus was the Lord's Day proclaimed and set over all their Heads and People began to see the Apostacy and Slavery they had been under to their Hireling-Teachers for Means and they came to know their Teacher the Lord Jesus who had bought them and purchased them and made their Peace betwixt God and them While we were here Friends came out of Yorkshire to see us and were glad of the Prosperity of Truth After this I passed into Warwickshire through Friends Warwickshire Worcestershire Birmingham visiting their Meetings and so into Worcestershire and had a Meeting at Brummingham as I went where several were Convinced and turned to the Lord. At length I came to one Cole's House in Worcestershire near Chattan 1655. Near Chattan This Cole had given an Independent-Preacher a Meeting-place and the Independent came to be Convinced and after he was Convinced he laid aside his Preaching Whereupon the Old Man Cole gave him an hundred Pounds a Year I had a Meeting at that Meeting-place and a very great Meeting it was insomuch that the Meeting-place would not hold the People and many were turned to the Lord that day Afterwards when the time of Trials came this Independent did not stand to that which had Convinced him but turned back Whereupon the Old Man took away his 100 l. a Year from him again But this Old Man Cole himself died in God's Truth Now I heard that at Evesholme the Magistrates had cast several Friends into Prison in several Prisons and that hearing of my coming they made a pair of high Stocks So I sent for Edward Pittaway a Friend that lived near Evesholme and asked him the Truth of the thing and he said It was so Then I went that Night with him to Evesholme Evesholme and in the Evening we had a large precious Meeting wherein Friends and People were refreshed with the Word of Life and with the Power of the Lord. Next Morning I got up and rid to one of the Prisons and visited Friends there and encouraged them Then I rid to the other Prison where there were several Prisoners and amongst them one Friend that had been a Priest but was now become a free Minister of Christ his Name was Humphrey Smith So when I had visited the Friends at both Prisons and was turned away from the Prison to go out of Town I espied the Magistrates coming up the Town to have seized me in Prison But the Lord frustrated their Intents that the Innocent escaped their Snare and the Lord God's blessed Power came over them all But exceeding Rude and Envious were the Priests and Professors about this time in those Parts Worcester I went from Evesholme to Worcester and had a precious Meeting there and quiet But after the Meeting as we came down the Street towards our Inn some of the Professors fell to discourse with Friends and were like to have made a Tumult in the City and as we went into the Inn they all cluttered into the Yard but I went among them and got them quieted The next day I walked forth into the Town and had a great deal of Discourse with some of the Professors concerning Christ and the way of Truth One of them denied That Christ was of Abraham according to the Flesh and that he was declared to be the Son of God according to the Spirit But I proved from Rom. 1. that he was of the Seed of Abraham being made of the Seed of David according to the Flesh and that according to the Spirit he was declared to be the Son of God Afterwards I writ a Paper concerning it Tewksbury From Worcester we went to Tewksbury where in the Evening we had a great Meeting And there came in the Priest of the Town with a great Rabble of rude People and the Priest boasted That he would see whether he or I should have the Victory I turned the People to the Divine Light which Christ the heavenly and spiritual Man had enlightned them withal that with that Light they might see their Sins and that they were in Death and Darkness and without God in the World 1655. Tewksbury And with the same Light they might see Christ from whom it came their Saviour and Redeemer who had shed his Blood for them and died for them and who was the Way to God
the Truth and the Life Here the Priest began to Rage against the Light and denied it for neither Priest nor Professor could endure to hear the Light spoken of So the Priest having railed at the Light went away and left his rude Company amongst us but the Lord's Power came over them though Mischief was in their Hearts Leaving Tewksbury we passed back through the Country and came to Warwick Warwick where in the Evening we had a Meeting at a Widow-woman's House whither many sober People came together and a precious Meeting we had in the Lord's Power and several were Convinced and turned to the Lord. After the Meeting was done and I was walking out a Baptist in the Company began to Jangle and the Bayliff of the Town with his Officers came in and said What do these People here at this time of the Night So he secured John Crook and Amor Stoddart and Gerrard Roberts and me but we had leave to go to our Inn all that were Strangers and to be forth-coming in the Morning The next Morning there came many rude People into the Inn and into our Chambers desperate Fellows but the Lord's Power gave us Dominion over them Gerrard Roberts and John Crook went up to the Bailiff to speak with him and to know What he had to say to us He said We might go our ways for he had little to say to us Then as we rid out of Town it lay upon me to ride to his Hâ—â—se to speak to him and to let him know That the Protector having given forth an Instrument of Government in which Liberty of Conscience was granted it was very much that contrary to that Instrument of Government he would trouble peaceable People that feared God The Friends went with me but the rude People gathered about us with Stones And one of them took hold of my Horse's Bridle and brake it but the Horse drawing back threw him under him Though the Bayliff saw this yet did he not stop nor so much as Rebuke the Rude Multitude so that it was much we had not been slain or hurt in the Streets amongst them for the People threw Stones and struck at us as we Rode along the Town When we were come quite out of the Town I told Friends It was upon me from the Lord that I must go back into the Town again and if any one of them felt any thing upon him from the Lord he might follow me and the rest that did not might go on to Dun-Cow So I passed up through the Market in the dreadful Power of God declaring the Word of Life to them and John Crook followed me Some struck at me but the Lord's Power was over them and gave me Dominion over all And I shewed them their Vnworthiness of the Name of Christians and the Vnworthiness of their Teachers that had not brought them into more Sobriety and what a shame they were to Christianity Having cleared my self I turned back out of the Town again and passed to Coventry but when we came thither Coventry we found the People closed up with Darknâ—ss I went to a Profâ—ssor's House that I had formerly been at 1655. Coventry and he was drunk which grieved my Soul so that I did not go into any House in the Town but rode into some of the Streets of the Town and into the Market-place and I felt the Power of the Lord God was over the Town Duncow Then I went on to Duncow and had a Meeting there in the Evening and some were turned to the Lord by his Spirit as some also were at Warwick and Tewksbury before-mentioned We lay at the Duncow that Night and there we met with John Cham a faithful Minister of the Everlasting Gospel In the Morning there was gathered together a Rude Campany of Priests and People who behaved themselves more like Beasts than Men for some of them came Riding on Horseback into the Room where we were But the Lord gave us Dominion over them Leicestershire Warwickshire Badgley From thence we passed into Leicester-shire where we had a great Meeting again at the place where I had been taken formerly And after that we came back into Warwickshire to Badgley Here William Edmundson a Friend that lived in Ireland having some drawings upon his Spirit to come over into England to see me met with me and by him I writ a few Lines to those few Friends that were then Convinced in the North of Ireland as followeth Friends IN that which Convinced you Wait that you may have that removed you are Convinced of And all my Dear Friends dwell in the Life and Love and Power and Wisdom of God in Vnity one with another and with God and the Peace and Wisdom of God fill all your Hearts that nothing may rule in you but the Life which stands in the Lord God G. F When these few Lines were read amongst the Friends in Ireland at their Meeting the Power of the Lord seized upon them all that were in the Room Swannington Higham Northamptonshire Bedfordshire Hertfordshire Baldock From Badgley we passed to Swannington and Higham and so through the Countries into Northamptonshire and Bedfordshire having great Meetings and many were turned to the Lord by his Power and Spirit When we came to Baldock in Hertfordshire I asked If there was nothing in that Town no Profession and it was Answered me There were some Baptists and a Baptist-woman sick John Rush of Bedfordshire went along with me to visit her and when we came in there were many People in the House that were Tender about her And they told me She was not a Woman for this World but if I had any thing to comfort her concerning the World to come I might speak to her So I was moved of the Lord God to speak to her ☞ and the Lord raised her up again to the astonishment of the Town and Country Her Husband 's Name was Baldock This Baptist-woman and her Husband came to be Convinced and many hundreds of People have been at Meetings at their House since Great Meetings and Convincements there were up and down in those Parts afterwards and many People received the Word of Life 1655. Baldock and sate down under the Teaching of Christ their Saviour When we had visited this sick Woman we went back to our Inn and there were Two desperate Fellows fighting so furiously that none durst come nigh them to part them But I was moved in the Lord's Power to go to them and when I had loosed their Hands I held one of them by one Hand and the other by the other Hand and I shewed them the Evil of their doings and reconciled them one to the other that they were loving and very thankful to me so that People admired at it From thence I passed through the Country to Market-street Market-street Albans London where God had a People and so through Albans to London where
World John 18.36 And Christ is the Image of the Invisible God the First-born of every Creature For by him were all things created that are in Heaven and that are in Earth visible and invisible whether they be Thrones or Dominions or Principalities or Powers all things were created by him and for him and he is before all things and by him all things consist Col. 1.15 16 17. Here ye may see All things Consist by Jesus Christ and all things were Created by Christ and for him whether they be things in Heaven or things in Earth visible or invisible they were Created by him and for him yea Thrones Dominions or Principalities or Powers these were all created by him and for him So Christ is King of Kings and Lord of Lords Rev. 19.16 And the Prince of the Kings of the Earth Chap. 1.5 And out of his Mouth goes a sharp Sword with which he shall smite the Nations and he shall rule them with a Rod of Iron As the Vessel of a Potter shall they be dashed in pieces who do not obey him who is King of Kings and Lord of Lords This is Christ by whom all things were made who doth rule the Nations who saith I am Alpha and Omega the Beginning and the Ending the First and the Last So he is over all Nations and above them all Now we must understand this Rod of Iron by which Christ who is the First and Last doth rule the Nations is a Figurative Speech of Christ who is Ascended into Heaven and is at the right hand of God yet all Power in Heaven and Earth is given unto him and All things were created by him and for him So then they are Christ's and he hath power over all things for all are his So as the Scripture saith By me Kings Reign and Princes decree Justice Prov. 8.15 But if they abuse his Power and do not do Justice as is decreed by Christ the King of Kings and Lord of Lords the First and the Last they must feel and know the weight of his Rod of Iron by which he will rule such as abuse his Power and do not do Justice that is decreed by him who hath all Power in Heaven and Earth given to him and rules in the Kingdoms of Men. Kingston the 11th Month 1687. G. F. Several other things I writ while I was now at Kingston for my Spirit being continually exercised towards God I had many precious Openings of Divine Matters and divers places of Scripture both in the Old Testament and in the New relating to a state of Regeneration and Sanctification c. were brought to my remembrance by the holy Spirit some of which I committed to writing and were as followeth THey that Touched the dead were unclean and were to be cleansed by the Water of Purification Numb 19. And they which touch the dead Doctrines or Faiths and let them in burden the pure and defile and make themselves unclean until the Spring of the Water of the Word do arise and wash and cleanse them for all the Dead in Adam in the Fall are Vnclean and they must be washed by Christ in his Blood and Water of Life who quickeneth and makes alive A Dwarf might not come near to Offer upon God's Altar but he might eat ot the holy Bread that he might grow Levit. 21.20 c. So the New-born Babes may eat of the Milk of the Word that they may grow thereby and increase And he that had any Blemish might not come near to Offer upon God's Altar neither might any thing be Offered upon God's Altar that had any Blemish or was Vnclean Lev. 21. And it is said The Vngodly shall not stand in the Judgment nor Sinners in the Congregation of the Righteous Psal 1.5 But God standeth in the Congregation of the Mighty Psal 82.1 The Camp of God was to be kept Clean and Holy All that which was unclean or defiled was to be kept out of God's Camp in the Old Testament And in the New Testament all that is defiled and unclean must be kept out of God's Kingdom the new and heavenly Jerusalem that is from above All was to pass through the Fire even of those things that would bear the Fire and to be purified by Fire and Water before the People might come into God's Camp Numb 31. So all must be Circumcised and Baptised with the Holy Ghost and with Fire and be cleansed with the Blood of Christ and washed with the Water of the Word before they come into the Kingdom of God and into heavenly Jerusalem The Apostle Paul saith We know that if our earthly House of this Tabernacle were dissolved we have a Building of God an House not made with Hands eternal in the Heavens For in this we groan earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our House which is from Heaven that mortality might be swallowed up of life 2 Cor. 5.1 2 4. Here is WE in the Earthly House of this Tabernacle which We are they that have received Christ and are become the Sons of God and New Creatures and Children of the Light that do believe in Christ's Light who have an Eternal House in the Heavens where Mortality is swallowed up of Life in which House from Heaven they will not groan And Peter said I think it meet as long as I am in this Tabernacle to stir you up by putting you in remembrance knowing that shortly I must put off this my Tabernacle even as our Lord Jesus Christ hath shewed me 2 Pet. 1.13 14. So Peter knew he must put off this Tabernacle shortly but as long as he was in it he did stir up the Saints to their duty in holiness that they might remember it after he was deceased The Apostle Paul saith The first Man is of the Earth Earthly mark Earthly 1 Cor. 15.47 And as we have born the Image of the Earthy we shall also bear the Image of the Heavenly mark the Heavenly ver 49. And We have this Treasure in earthen Vessels c. 2 Cor. 4.7 And I live said he yet not I but Christ liveth in me Gal. 2.20 who is the Life of all God's People And Christ said to the Jews That the Dead are raised even Moses shewed at the Bush when he calleth the Lord the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob for he is not the God of the Dead but of the Living for all live unto him Luke 20.37 38. So None of us liveth to himself and no man dieth to himself For whether we live we live unto the Lord and whether we die we die unto the Lord. Whether we live therefore or die we are the Lord 's For to this end Christ both died and rose and revived that he might be Lord both of the dead and living Rom. 14.7 8 9. For all died in Adam and Christ by the Grace of God tasted death for every Man that they might come out of the death in Adam to