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
naturally led into So that what is an evil to One is so to All and what is Vertuous Honest and of good Report to One is so to All from the Sense and Savour of the one Vniversal Principle which is common to all and which the disaffected profess to be the Root of all True Christian Fellowship and that Spirit into which the People of God drink and come to be Spiritually Minded and of one Heart and one Soul Some weakly mistook good Order in the Government of Church Affairs for Discipline in Worship and that it was so prest or recommended by Him and other Brethren And they were ready to reflect the same things that Dissenters had very reasonably objected upon the National Churches that have coercively pressed Conformity to their Respective Creeds and Worships Whereas these things related wholly to Conversation and the Outward and as I may say Civil part of the Church that Men should walk up to the Principles of their Belief and not be wanting in Care and Charity But though some have stumbled and fallen through Mistakes and an unreasonable Obstinancy even to a Prejudice yet blessed be God the Generality have returned to their First Love and seen the Work of the Enemy that looses no Opportunity or Advantage by which he may check or hinder the Work of God and disquiet the Peace of his Church and chill the Love of his People to the Truth and one to another and there is hope of divers that are yet at a Distance In all these Occasions though there was no Person the Discontented struck so sharply at as this Good Man he bore all their Weakness and Prejudice and returned not Reflection for Reflection but forgave them their weak and bitter Speeches praying for them that they might have a Sense of their hurt and see the Subtilty of the Enemy to Rend and Devide and return into their First Love that thought no Ill. And truly I must say that though God had visibly cloathed him with a Divine Preference and Authority and indeed his very Presence exprest a Religious Majesty yet he never abused it but held his Place in the Church of God with great Meakness and a most engaging Humility and Moderation For upon all Occasions like his blessed Master he was a Servant to all holding and exercising his Eldership in the Invisible Power that had gathered them with Reverence to the Head and Care over the Body And was received only in that Spirit and Power of Christ as the First and Chief Elder in this Age who as he was therefore worthy of double Honour so for the same Reason it was given by the Faithful of this day because his Authority was inward and not outward and that he got it and kept it by the Love of God and Power of an Endless Life I write my Knowledge and not Report and my Witness is True having been with him for Weeks and Months together on divers Occasions and those of the nearest and most exercising Nature and that by Night and by Day by Sea and by Land in this and in Foreign Countrys And I can say I never saw him out of his Place or not a Match for every Service or Occasion For in all things he acquitted himself like a Man yea a strong Man a New and Heavenly minded Man A Divine and a Naturalist and all of God Almighty's making I have been surprised at his Questions and Answers in Natural things that whilst he was Ignorant of useless and Sophistical Science he had in him the Foundation of useful and commendable Knowledge and cherisht it every where Civil beyond all Forms of Breeding in his Behaviour Very Temperate eating Little and sleeping Less though a Bulky Person Thus he Lived and Sojourned among us and as he lived so he died feeling the same Eternal Power that had raised and preserved him in his last Moments So full of assurance was he that he Triumpht over Death and so even to the last as if Death were hardly worth Notice or a Mention Recommending to some with him the Dispatch and Dispersion of an Epistle just before Written to the Churches of Christ throughout the World and his own Books but above all Friends and of all Friends those in Ireland and America twice over Saying mind poor Friends in Ireland and America And to some that came in and enquired how he found himself he answered Never heed the Lord's Power is over all Weakness and Death the Seed reigns Blessed be the Lord Which was about Four or Five Hours before his Departure out of this World He was at the great Meeting near Lombard-street on the First day of the Week and it was the Third following about Ten at Night when he left us being at the House of H. Goldney in the same Court. In a good Old Age he went after having lived to see his Childrens Children to many Generations in the Truth He had the Comfort of a short Illness and the Blessing of a clear Sense to the last and we may truly say with a Man of God of Old that being Dead he yet Speaketh and though absent in Body he is Present in Spirit neither Time nor Place being able to interrupt the Communion of Saints or dissolve the Fellowships of the Spirits of the Just His Works praise him because they are to the Praise of him that worked by him for which his Memorial is and shall be Blessed I have done as to this part of my Preface when I have left this short Epitaph to his Name Many Sons have done virtuously in this Day but Dear George thou Excellest them All. And now Friends you that profess to walk in the way this Blessed Man was sent of God to turn us into suffer I beseech you the word of Exhortation as well Fathers as Children and Elders as Young Men. The Glory of this Day and Foundation of the Hope that has not made us ashamed since we were a People you know is that Blessed Principle of Light and Life of Christ which we Profess and Direct all People to as the great Instrument and Agent of Man's Conversion to God It was by this we were first Touched and effectually enlightned as to our Inward State which put us upon the Consideration of our Latter End causing us to set the Lord before our Eyes and to Number our Days that we might apply our Hearts to Wisdom In that Day we judged not after the Sight of the Eye or after the Hearing of the Ear but according to the Light and Sense this Blessed Principle gave us we judged and acted in reference to Things and Persons our selves and others yea towards God our Maker For being quickned by it in our Inward Man we could easily discern the difference of things and feel what was Right and what was Wrong and what was Fit and what not both in reference to Religion and Civil Concerns That being the ground of the Fellowship of all Saints it was in
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
And such as these I saw might deceive now as they had in former Ages But it is impossible for them to deceive the Elect who were chosen in Christ who was before the World began and before Deceiver was Though others may be deceived in their Openings and Prophecies not keeping their Minds to the Lord Jesus Christ who doth Open and Reveal to his And I saw the State of those both Priests and People who in reading the Scriptures cry out much against Cain Esau and Judas and other wicked Men of former Times mentioned in the Holy Scriptures but do not see the Nature of Cain of Esau of Judas and those Others in themselves And these said It was They They They that were the bad People putting it off from themselves But when some of these came with the Light and Spirit of Truth to see into themselves then they came to say I I I it is I my self that have been the Ishmael and the Esau c. For then they came to see the Nature of wild Ishmael in themselves the Nature of Cain of Esau of Corah of Balaam and of the Son of Perdition in themselves sitting above all that is called God in them So I saw it was the fallen Man that was got up into the Scriptures and was finding Fault with those before-mentioned and with the back-sliding Jews calling them the sturdy Oaks and tall Cedars and fat Bulls of Bashan wild Heifers Vipers Serpents c. And charging them that it was They that closed their Eyes and stopped their Ears and hardned their Hearts and were dull of Hearing And that it was They that hated the Light and rebelled against it and that quenched the Spirit and vexed and grieved it and walked despightfully against the Spirit of Grace and turned the Grace of God into Wantonness And that it was They that resisted the Holy Ghost and They that got the Form of Godliness and turned against the Power And that They were the inwardly Ravening Wolves that had got the Sheep's Cloathing And that They were the Wells without Water and Clouds without Rain and Trees without Fruit c. But when these who were so much taken up with finding Fault with others and thought themselves clear from these Things came to look into themselves and with the Light of Christ throughly to search themselves they might see enough of this in themselves and then the Cry could not be It is He or They as before but I and We are found in these Conditions I saw also how People Read the Scriptures without a right Sense of them and without duly applying them to their own States For when they read that Death reigned from Adam to Moses and that the Law and the Prophets were until John and that the least in the Kingdom is greater than John they read these things without them and applyed them to others without them and the Things were true of others without them but they did not turn in to find the Truth of these things in themselves But as these things came to be opened in me I saw Death reigned over them from Adam to Moses from the Entrance into Trangression till they came to the Ministration of Condemnation which restrains People from Sin that brings Death Then when the Ministration of Moses is passed through the Ministry of the Prophets comes to be read and understood which reaches through the Figures Types and Shadows unto John the greatest Prophet born of a Woman whose Ministration prepares the Way of the Lord by bringing down the exalted Mountains and making strait Paths And as this Ministration is passed through an Entrance comes to be known into the Everlasting Kingdom So I saw plainly that none could read Moses aright without Moses's Spirit by which Moses saw how Man was in the Image of God in Paradice and how he fell and how Death came over him and how all Men have been under this Death And I saw how Moses received the pure Law that went over all Transgressors and how the clean Beasts which were Figures and Types were offered up when the People were come into the righteous Law that went over the first Transgression And both Moses and the Prophets saw through the Types and Figures and beyond them and saw Christ the great Prophet that was to come to fulfil them And I saw that none could read John's Words aright and with a true Understanding of them but in and with the same Divine Spirit by which John spake them and by his burning shining Light which is sent from God For by that Spirit their Crooked Natures might be made strait and their Rough Natures smooth and the Exacter and violent Doer in them might be thrown out And they that had been Hypocrites might come to bring forth Fruits meet for Repentance and their Mountain of Sin and Earthliness might be laid low in them and their Valley exalted in them that there might be a Way prepared for the Lord in them And then the least in the Kingdom is greater than John But all must first know the Voice crying in their Wilderness in their Hearts which through Transgression were become as a Wilderness Thus I saw it was an easie matter to say Death reigned from Adam to Moses and That the Law and the Prophets were until John and That the least in the Kingdom is greater than John But none could know how Death reigned from Adam to Moses c. but by the same Holy Spirit which Moses and the Prophets and John were in They could not know the Spiritual Meaning of Moses the Prophets and John's Words nor see their Path and Travels much less see through them and to the end of them into the Kingdom unless they had the Spirit and Light of Jesus Nor could they know the Words of Christ and of his Apostles without his Spirit But as Man comes through by the Spirit and Power of God to Christ who fulfills the Types Figures Shadows Promises and Prophecies that were of him and is led by the Holy Ghost into the Truth and Substance of the Scriptures sitting down in him who is the Author and End of them then are they read and understood with profit and great Delight Moreover the Lord God let me see when I was brought up into his Image in Righteousness and Holiness and into the Paradise of God the State How Adam was made a Living Soul And also the Stature of Christ the Mystery that had been hid from Ages and Generations Which things are hard to be uttered and cannot be born by many For of all the Sects in Christendom so called that I discoursed withal I found none that could bear to be told that any should come to Adam's Perfection into that Image of God and Righteousness and Holiness that Adam was in before he fell to be so clear and pure without Sin as he was Therefore how should they be able to bear being told that any should grow up to the Measure of
Name of the Lord to bid her Be quiet and still And she was so And the Lord's Power setled her Mind and she mended and afterwards Received the Truth and Continued in it to her Death And the Lord's Name was honoured To whom the Glory of all his Works belongs Many great and wonderful Things were wrought by the heavenly Power in those Days For the Lord made bare his Omnipotent Arm and manifested his Power to the Astonishment of many by the healing Vertue whereof many have been delivered from great Infirmities and the Devils were made subject through his Name Of which particular Instances might be given beyond what this unbelieving Age is able to receive or bear But blessed for ever be the Name of the Lord and everlastingly Honoured and over all Exalted and Magnified be the Arm of his Glorious Power by which he hath wrought gloriously and let the Honour and Praise of all his Works be ascribed to him alone Now while I was at Mansfield-Woodhouse I was moved to go to to the Steeple-house there and declare the Truth to the Priest and People But the People fell upon me in great Rage and struck me down and almost stifled and smothered me and I was cruelly beaten and bruised by them with their Hands Bibles and Sticks Then they haled me out though I was hardly able to stand and put me into the Stocks where I sate some Hours and they brought Dog-whips and Horse-whips threatning to Whip me And after some time they had me before the Magistrate at a Knight's House where were many great Persons who seeing how evilly I had been used after much Threatning set me at Liberty But the rude People stoned me out of the Town for Preaching the Word of Life to them And I was scarce able to go or well to stand by reason of the Ill Vsage I had received Yet with much ado I got about a Mile from the Town and then I met with some People that gave me something to Comfort me because I was inwardly bruised But the Lord's Power soon healed me again And that day some People were Convinced of the Lord's Truth and turned to his Teaching at which I rejoiced Leicester-shire Then went I out of Nottingham-shire into Leicester-shire several Friends accompanying me And there were some Baptists in that Country whom I desired to see and speak with because they were separated from the publick Worship So one Oats who was one of their Chief Teachers and others of the Heads of them with several others of their Company Barrow came to Meet us at Barrow and there we discoursed with them One of them said What was not of Faith was Sin Whereupon I asked them What Faith was And how it was wrought in Man But they turned off from that and spake of their Baptism in Water Then I asked them Whether their Mountain of Sin was brought down and laid low in them And their rough and crooked Ways made smooth and strait in them For they looked upon the Scriptures as meaning Outward Mountains and Ways But I told them they must find them in their own Hearts Which they seemed to wonder at And we asked them Who baptized John the Baptist and who baptized Peter 1649. Barrow John and the rest of the Apostles and put them to prove by Scripture that these were baptized in Water But they were silent Then I asked them Seeing 〈◊〉 who betrayed Christ and was called the Son of Perdition had Hâ—â—ged himself what Son of Perdition was that which Paul spake of that sâ—te in the Temple of God exalted above all that is called God And â—hat Temple of God that was in which this Son of Perdition sate And whether he that betrays Christ within in himself be not one in Nature with that Judas that betrayed Christ without But they could not tell what to make of this nor what to say to it So after we had had some Discourse together we parted and some of them were loving to us On the First Day of the Week following we came to Bagworth Bagworth and went to a Steeple-House where some Friends were got in and the People locked them in and themselves too with the Priest But after the Priest had done they opened the Door and we went in also and had a Service for the Lord amongst them Afterwards we had a Meeting in the Town amongst several People that were in high Notions Then passing from thence I heard of a People that were in Prison in Coventry for Religion Coventry And as I walked towards the Jail the Word of the Lord came to me saying ☜ MY LOVE WAS ALWAYS TO THEE AND THOV ART IN MY LOVE And I was ravished with the Sense of the Love of God and greatly strengthned in my Inward Man But when I came into the Jail where those Prisoners were a great Power of Darkness struck at me and I sate still having my Spirit gathered into the Love of God At last these Prisoners began to Rant and Vapour and Blaspheme at which my Soul was greatly grieved They said They were GOD But another of them said We could not bear such Things So when they were calm I stood up and asked them Whether they did such things by Motion or from Scripture and they said from Scripture Then a Bible lying by I asked them for that Scripture and they shewed me that Place where the Sheet was let down to Peter and it was said to him What was sanctified he should not call Common or Vnclean Now when I had shewed them That that Scripture made nothing for their purpose they brought another Scripture which spake of God's Reconciling all Things to himself Things in Heaven and Things in Earth I told them I owned that Scripture also but shewed them that that was nothing to their purpose neither Then seeing they said They were GOD I asked them If they knew whether it would Rain to Morrow They said They could not tell I told them God could tell Again I asked them If they thought they should be always in that Condition or should change And they answered They could not tell Then said I unto them God can tell and God doth not change You say you are God and yet you cannot tell whether you shall Change or no. So they were Confounded and quite brought â—own for the time Then after I had Reproved them for their blasphemous Expressions I went away For I perceived they were Ranters and I had met with none before And I admired the Goodness of the Lord in appearing so unto me before I went amongst them Not long after this 1649. Coventry one of these Ranters whose Name was Joseph Salmon put forth a Paper or Book of Recantation upon which they were set at Liberty Atherstone From Coventry I went to a Place called Atherstone and it being their Lecture-day I was moved to go to their Chappel to speak to the Priests and People
him How Did nor Christ suffer without the Gates of Jerusalem through the Professing Jews and Chief Priests and Pilate And he denied that ever Christ suffered there outwardly Then I asked him Whether there were not Chief Priests and Jews and Pilat there outwardly And when he could not deny that then I told him As certainly as there was a Chief Priest and Jews and Pilat there outwardly so certainly was Christ persecuted by them and did suffer there outwardly under them Yet from this Man's Words was a Slander raised upon us That the Quakers should deny Christ that suffered and died at Jerusalem Which was all utterly false and the least Thought of it never entred our Hearts but it was a meer Slander cast upon us and occasioned by this Person 's Words The same Person also said That never any of the Prophets nor Apostles nor Holy Men of God suffered any thing Outwardly but all their DunSufferings were Inward 1651. Darby-Dungeon But I instanced to him many of the Prophets and Apostles how they suffered and by whom they suffered And so was the Power of the Lord brought over his wicked Imaginations and Whimsies There came also another Company to me that pretended They were Triers of Spirits And I asked them What was the first Step to Peace And what it was by which a Man might see his Salvation And they were presently up in the airy Mind and said I was Mad. Thus they came to Try Spirits who did not know themselves nor their own Spirits In this Time of my Imprisonment I was exceedingly exercised about the Proceedings of the Judges and Magistrates in their Courts of Judicature And I was moved to write to the Judges concerning their putting Men to Death for Cattel and Money and small Matters and to shew them how Contrary it was to the Law of God in old Time for I was under great Suffering in my Spirit because of it and under the very Sense of Death but standing in the Will of God an heavenly Breathing arose in my Soul to the Lord. Then did I see the Heavens opened and I rejoiced and gave Glory to God So I writ to the Judges as followeth I Am moved to write unto you to take heed of putting Men to Death for stealing Cattel or Money c. for the Thieves in the old Time were to make Restitution and if they had not wherewith they were to be sold for their Theft Mind the Laws of God in the Scriptures and the Spirit that gave them forth and let them be your Rule in executing Judgment And shew Mercy that you may receive Mercy from God the Judge of all And take heed of Gifts and Rewards and of Pride for God doth forbid them and they do blind the Eyes of the Wise I do not write to give liberty to Sin God hath forbidden it But that you should Judge according to his Laws and shew Mercy For he delighteth in true Judgment and in Mercy I beseech you to mind these Things and prize your Time now you have it and Fear God and Serve him for he is a Consuming Fire Besides this I writ another Letter to the JUDGES to this effect I Am moved to write unto you That ye do true Justice to every Man and see that none be Oppressed nor Wronged nor no Oaths Imposed for the Land mourneth because of Oaths and Adulteries and Sorceries and Drunkenness and Prophaneness O Consider ye that be Men set in Authority Be moderate and in Lowliness Consider these things Shew Mercy to the Fatherless and to the Widoâ—s and to the Poor And take heed of Rewards or Gifts for they do blind the Eyes of the Wise The Lord doth loath all such Love Mercy and true Judgment Justice and Righteousness for the Lord delighteth in such Consider these Things in Time and take heed how ye do spend your Time Now ye have Time prize it and shew Mercy that ye may receive Mercy from the Lord For he is coming to Try all Things and will plead with all Flesh as by Fire Moreover I laid before the Judges what an hurtful thing it was that Prisoners should lie so long in Jail shewing how that they learned Badness one of another in talking of their bad Deeds and therefore speedy Justice should be done For I was a tender Youth and dwelt in the Fear of God and I was grieved to hear their bad Language and was often made to reprove them for their wicked Words and evil Carriage towards each other And People did admire that I was so preserved and Kept for they could never catch a Word or Action from me to make any thing of against me all the time that I was there For the Lord 's Infinite Power upheld and preserved me all that time to him be Praises and Glory for ever Now while I was here in Prison there was a young-Woman in the Jail for Robbing her Master of some Money and when she was to be Tried for her Life I writ to the Judge and to the Jury about her shewing them How contrary it was to the Law of God in old Time to put People to Death for Stealing and moving them to shew Mercy Yet she was Condemned to die and a Grave was made for her and at the Time appointed she was carried forth to Execution Then I writ a few Words Warning all People to beware of Greediness or Covetousness for it leads from God but that all should Fear the Lord and avoid all Earthly Lusts and prize their Time while they have it This I gave to be read at the Gallows And though they had her upon the Ladder with a Cloath bound over her Face ready to be turned off yet they did not put her to Death but brought her back again to Prison And in the Prison she afterwards came to be Convinced of God's Everlasting Truth There was also in the Jail while I was there a Prisoner a Wicked Vngodly Man who was reputed a Conjurer and he threatned how he would talk with me and what he would do to me but he never had Power to open his Mouth to me And on a time the Jailer and he falling out he threatned the Jailer That he would Raise the Devil and break his House down so that he made the Jailer afraid Then I was moved of the Lord to go in his Power and Rebuke him in it and to say unto him Come let 's see what thou canst do and do thy worst And I told him The Devil was Raised high enough in him already but the Power of God Chained him down So he sluâ—k away and went from me Now the Time of Worcester-Fight coming on Justice Bennet sent the Constables to press me for a Souldier seeing I would not voluntarily accept of a Command And I told them That I was brought off from outward Wars They came down again to give me Press-Money but I would take none Then I was brought up to Sergeant Holes and kept
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
we perswade Men but we are made manifest unto God and shall be made manifest in all your Consciences which ye shall witness G. F. Divers times both in the time of the Long Parliament and of the Protector so called and of the Committee of Safety when they proclaimed Fasts I was moved to write to them and tell them their Fasts were like unto Jesabels For commonly when they proclaimed Fasts there was some Mischief contrived against us And I knew their Fasts were for Strife and Debate to smite with the Fist of Wickedness as the New-England-Professors soon after did who before they put our Friends to Death proclaimed a Fast also Now was it a time of great Suffering and many Friends being in Prisons many other Friends were moved to go to the Parliament to offer up themselves to lie in the same Dungeons where their Friends lay that they that were in Prison might go forth and not perish in the stinking Dungeons and Goals And this we did in Love to God and our Brethren that they might not die in Prison and in love to them that cast them in that they might not bring Innocent Blood upon their own Heads which we knew would cry to the Lord and bring his Wrath Vengeance and Plagues upon them But little Favour could we find from those Professing Parliaments but instead thereof they would be in a Rage and sometimes threaten those Friends that thus attended them that they would whip them and send them home Then commonly soon after the Lord would turn them out and send them home who had not an Heart to do good in the Day of their Power But they went not off without being forewarned For I was moved to write to them in their several turns as I did to the Long-Parliament unto whom I declared before they were broken up That thick Darkness was coming over them all even a Day of Darkness that should be felt And because the Parliament that now sate was made up mostly of high Professors who pretending to be more Religious than others were indeed greater Persecutors of them that were truly Religious I was moved to send them the following Lines as a Reproof of their Hypocrisie O Friends do not cloak and Cover your selves There is a God that knoweth your Hearts and that will Vncover you He seeth your way Wo be to him that Covereth but not with my Spirit saith the Lord. Do ye do contrary to the Law and then put it from you Mercy and true Judgment ye neglect Look what was spoken against such My Saviour spake against such I was sick and ye visited me not I was hungry and ye fed me not I was a Stranger and ye took me not in I was in Prison and ye visited me not But they said When saw we thee in Prison and did not come to thee Inasmuch as ye did it not unto one of these Little Ones ye did it not unto me Friends ye Prison them that be in the Life and Power of Truth and yet profess to be the Ministers of Christ But if Christ had sent you ye would bring out of Prison and out of Bondage and receive Strangers Ye have lived in Pleasure on the Earth and been Wanton ye have nourished your Hearts as in a Day of Slaughter Ye have condemned and killed the Just and he doth not Resist you G. F. After this as I was going out of Town having two Friends with me when we were gone little more than a Mile out of the City there met us Two Troopers belonging to Col. Hacker's Regiment and they took me and the Friends that were with me and brought us back to the Mews and there kept us Prisoners a little while But the Lord's Power was so over them that they did not have us before any Officer but after a while set us at liberty again The same Day taking Boat I went down to Kingston Kingston and from thence went afterward toward Hampton-Court Hampton-Court to speak with the Protector about the Sufferings of Friends I met him Riding into Hampton-Court-Park and before I came at him as he rode in the Head of his Life-guard I saw and felt a Waft or Apparition of Death go forth against him and when I came to him he look'd like a dead Man After I had laid the Sufferings of Friends before him and had warned him according as I was moved to speak to him he bid me come to his House So I went back to Kingston and the next day went up to Hampton-Court again to have spoken further with him But when I came he was sick and Harvey who was one that waited on him told me The Doctors were not willing I should come in to speak with him So I passed away and never saw him any more 1658. Bucks London Essex From Kingston I went to Isaac Penington's in Buckinghamshire where I had appointed a Meeting and the Lord's Truth and Power was preciously manifested amongst us After I had Visited Friends in those parts I returned to London And soon after went into Essex where I had not been long before I heard that the Protector was dead and his Son Richard made Protector in his Room Whereupon I came up to London again London And before this time the Church-Faith so called was given forth which was said to be made at the Savoy in Eleven Days time I got a Copy of it before it was published and writ an Answer to it And when their Book of Church-Faith was sold up and down the Streets my Answer to it was sold also This angred some of the Parliament-Men so that one of them told me They must have me to Smithfield I told him I was over their Fires and feared them not And reasoning with him I wish'd him to consider Had all People been without a Faith these Sixteen hundred Years that now the Priests must make them one Did not the Apostle say that Jesus was the Author and Finisher of their Faith And since Christ Jesus was the Author of the Apostles Faith and of the Churches Faith in the Primitive Times and of the Martyrs Faith should not all People look unto him to be the Author and Finisher of their Faith and not unto the Priests A great deal of work we had about the Priests made Faith For they called us House-creepers leading silly Women Captive because We Met in Houses and would not hold up their Priests and Temples which they had made and set up But I told them that it was they that Led silly Women Captive and Crept into Houses who kept People always Learning under them who were Covetous and had got a Form of Godliness but denied the Power and Spirit which the Apostles were in Such began to Creep in the Apostles Days but now they had got the Magistrates on their side who upheld those Houses for them which they had Crept into their Temples with their Tithes Whereas the Apostles brought People off