nor all Agents can never prevail against the Lord vvill hear the cry of his own and plead the cause of the innocent and release the distressed and set his own life and power at liberty which lies groaning under the burden of oppression where it must not lye the Lord hath spoken and therefore he will deliver he hath striken and he will strike and by his strokes we are healed he hath wrought and he will work and who can hinder if the wicked have his prey for his season yet the Lord will bring him to his end but Gods prosperity and truth shall never have an end neither in this World nor in the World to come Therefore my dear and loving Wife whom God hath given me and not man we may well be content and waite with much patience the Lords time in all things knowing that it hath been our best time we can never call to mind the things that are past since we knew this truth of God but we have had comfort therein and I can never desire it otherwise if I should be restrained of the liberty of my body all the dayes of my life Thine W. W. Dear and loving Wife I Have nothing to write unto thee as yet but only the remembrance of my unfained love unto thee and my Children hoping you are in Health as I am at this preesnt I praise the Lord of Heaven and Earth for it is reasonable well with me every way I bless the Lord for it and desire to know how it is with thee tho indeed it goes near me to ask how things is with thee because I cannot help thee and that is my heaviness sometimes But the Lord will in due time plead my Innocent cause who knows the uprightness of my heart and that one hair of my head shall not uphold the false profits wayes nor the hirelings wages who saith and doth not I have been often assaulted to have it payed for me but my uprighteousness is known to the Lord and I cannot dissemble with my God but this is a Mystery to the World and therefore they cannot receive it but unto thee my loving Wife is it given to understand And therefore am I much comforted and the Lord preserve thee and my little Children in the true fear of God for our way is not to look out and therefore I can inwardly beseech the Lord for you all thy dear and loving Husband W. W. My love to all our Family Kendal the 14th of the 10th Month 1672. Will. Wilson My Dear Friends and Brethren who are like to be fellow sufferers with me in this case of not yielding to satisfie the will of this unreasonable man who is persecuting us for not paying him tythes or reckonings as he calls them TO all you my faithful Friends this is the word of advice unto you all that you see and examine your selves well and see how ye stand in Gods righteousness that so my Dear Friends your sufferings may never become your burden but that your establishment may be felt in Gods Righteousness with you all for my friends you had better never have put your hand to this plow then to look back therefore my friends examine well your own selves how you are minded in this concern for the Lord knows my heart I wish you all well 〈◊〉 the honour of Gods truth as mine own heart and therefore I would not have any of you all to go one step further then you feel the suffering seed of God Almighty to bear you up in your pure blessed minds that sees over all the sufferings that can happen in this present world For indeed Friends in this estate God will plead our cause and our suffering with him will bring a raigning with him and in this state friends you must look over Wife and Children which is near and dear unto you all but Gods righteousness is more then all and will bear you out over all and through all for the Lord alone will be your help and no man shall need to plead our cause but he will appear for us in his due time when he saith it is enough who shall be able to say Nay Therefore my friends feel your hearts purified from all double mindedness that single in God righteousness you may be found and so will his holy seed reign in your hearts and Gods blessing will be upon your Children that so you need not fear the want of any good thing unto them nor your Wifes the beloved of your Bosoms under God and therefore Friends in singleness of heart as having a sence of your Conditions I write these lines unto you for the bettering of your establishment in Gods Righteousness where you will never be made afraid to appear for the Lord and bear a single Testimony for his name and truth upon Earth for truly Friends this is the feeling of my heart and the full bent of my mind that if one hair of my head would serve in consideration of this task I could not give it I believe I shall not be a Hypocrite I would not be found out of Gods Righteousness doing mine own will but even the will of him that hath called me that his power might be more made manifest And therefore friends was this word of Exhortation the more in my heart unto you all that you might truly feel your own selves in that which will carry through or else as I said it were better never to step further then to faint by the way but hoping you are furnished with that heavenly spirit of life that will carry through to the end as need requries I take leave with you all and rest your loving Brother William Wilson And Friends LOok not back into Aegypt for help for it is in vain neither have we need so to do for the Lord is our helper therefore we need not fear what man can do unto us for Friends I dare not look out at any thing of any hand for if I do I am afraid and Gods witness would be against me and would be heavier then a thousand such as Ambrose the Priest could be and therefore that you eye and mind the Lord above all hireling Priests is the advice of your Friend and Brother Will. Wilson William Wilson being moved of and by the living power of God to travel into the North or remote parts of Scotland to declare what the Lord did then and there immediately reveal unto him during the time of which travail he wrote several letters into England to his Wife Coppies of which is as followeth Dear Wife IN the living truth of the Lord Jesus Christ doth the bowels of my unsained love salute thee in the unseparable life doth my dearest love reach unto thee in the unchangeable life of holiness where we cannot forget each other dear heart my life is often powred out before the Lord in consideration of thee my dear love the Lord thy God who hath seperated the from thy Mothers
Sword of Gods Spirit that it may be broken down and all made as a plain before him and serve him in true feer with a perfect love and upright heart out of all forms shews or forms of Godliness in the true power and senceableness of the pure holy life which he hath raised up in us to bear his heavenly Image under his heavenly banner which is love under which we are to make wair in much patience in this day of Battle wherein they are fighting against us with a cause and we cannot resist them with Sword nor with Spear but in patience suffer under them all during the Lords time in which I rest and bid you all farewell This was as a part of my dear love to you my Friends because I wish you well William Wilson DEar friends that suffer in Carlile Prison for non payment of Tyths or otherwise in bearing a pure Testimony for the Holy God of eternal life unto you is my dear love and the tender Salutation of my life ye sufferers for the Lord do it with thearfulness of heart in the tenderness of your Spirits towards the only true God and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent a light into the world to lighten the blind Eyes and be the Glory of his People in the midst of Tribulations Persecutions or sufferings and friends I know that you are not unsensible of the eternal love of God which is more in this day then the whole world blessed be his holy name for ever friends it s no marvel that you suffer persecution for Righteousness sake seing the hard heartedness cruelty that is in the world through unbelief and hardness of heart amongst the sons and daughters of men who in these days have set themselves against the Lord and against his anointed his People and chosen ones whom God hath gathered and not men therefore friends of the same flock c sheep of his foald be you gathered together in the Lord and feel his daily love over all and above all your Persecuters and heads of your Enemies in the daly Cross and power of the righteous God of Heaven and Earth who gives you dominion over all in his power and authority to stand in the day of Tryal during the Lords time unto the time of God over all who is to be waited on above all blessed for ever who hath called you and us for that very purpose that we may waite upon his name and feel his strength and blessed presence and loving power in which friends you may have boldness with good Courage to testifie of his name unto all the world in your sufferings and in your Conversation as the Lord makes way in your heart for the glory of his truth and the honour of his eternal name which is become great amongst us and is the strong Tower of the righteous and safe hyding place of his people in the Storms and in the Tempest he his the sure stay of all them that trusts in him and stands to him in all Tryals and trouble whatsoever The Lord kindles up his own Spirit in them and riases up his own Seed which he hath blessed to magnifie his mercys over all and Rejoyce in the hearts of his called ones and gathered ones to place his name among in this day of his living truth in which he is much made manifest by the vallour of his Power which raigns in his Saints and faithful Servants to the glory of his name and counts the present sufferings of this life nothing to the glory that shall be revealed oh the endless love of God that is manifested in our hearts is it past expressing with my tongue or relating with my pen but this is my pure satisfaction that you know the Lord and is sensible men of his eternal truth which is able to fill your hearts with praises unto God and rejoyce in the midst of trouble and make you willing to lay down your lives for his sake if he should require it for his Testimony is true you know and can seal to it in your sufferings with the rest of many more of your Brethren and Sisters fellow Sufferers in this day who Witnesses their lives raised through sufferings who rejoyces that they are found worthy not being weary nor thinking time long but waits with much patience the Lords time some of our friends is released already in laying down their bodys in this their present sufferings for the Lord which they did I believe in much joy of heart a lightsomness of mind to the preaching of the truth of God and incouragment of friends in the truth who rejoyces with the faithful over all to the praise and glory of his name for ever and friends here is Copies of two Papers that were set upon their Corpses as they were had to then burial places and after spread abroad in the Country and sent up and down amongst friends and you may send Copies of them and you may see Service for them amongst friends or others if it be into Northumberland or in Scotland as you see way made there may beservice in sending them abroad so I rest your dear friend in the eternal truth of God and a sufferer for the same because I cannot swear Willam Wilson TO all you who say your are the Seed of Abraham Abraham believed God and so was found Righteous and all you that say you are of the same Seed and not in the same belief I say you are not the Children of Abraham did not the God of Israel promise by Moses whom you say you believe that he would raise up a Prophet like unto him and him the people should hear in all things and they that would not here that Prophet should be cut of from among the People so to you who are called Jews was I moved to write these few lines and to exhort you to that Prophet whom God promised to raise and I witness him raised and the goverment is laid on him and of his dominion there shall be no end and so to him I exort you all he is near to you even in your hearts and in your Consciences teaching you to deny all that is contrary to the God of Israel did not Moses say that the word is nigh thee in thy heart and in thy mouth to do it People this word become flesh and dwelt among us and this flesh was Crucified but the word lives and abides forever in which the Lord is worshipped and all other worships is Abomnable unto him doth he not say he is weary with the Sacrifices yea truely people he is wearyed with them for his delight is in his Elected one doth not the God of Isreal say behold my Servant whom I uphold my Elect in whom my Soul delighteth I put my Spirit upon him and he shall bring forth Judgment to the Gentiles verily people he is Judging the secrets of all hearts both of Jews and Gentiles so again I exhort you all to
us by Fining of some and partially singling me out and put the Oath to me which hath not sworn this many years nor never shall I fully believe in my heart neither for nor against any man for I have learned Christ and am a Christian and cannot swear at all though thou hast wickedly separated me from my Wife and Children which I maintained well with my labour and kept them from charge so now see thou to that and inquire of them how they can live without me and my maintainance and let thy Warrant be as strong for the relieving of them in manner as I did as it was for carrying me to Prison and in giving the Gaoler charge over me in the Sessions for not swearing and so break Christs commends which thing is a shame to thee when it will be a honour unto me likewise a poor man of Bootle for coming over to Swarthmore Meeting thou proffered him the Oath and caused him to stay in Prison from his Wife and Children which is an ungodly deed of thee and the rest that did it So consider this and either let us go to live at home or take care for our Wives and Children seeing thou hast power to cast us into Prison surely thou hast power to look to our Charge we have lest behind us and think not that it is far to look to Bootle for there is need for the man I know Thy friend Willam Wilson A Letter to William Wilson Priest of Windermer in the County of Westmoreland IN the weighty consideration of the service God hath laid on his Servants to make his name known in the Earth throughout the whole world and to declare his love and kindness unto the Sons and Daughters of men who are in the fallen State and doth not know the work of God in the new Creation Regeneration and Restoration whereby man is restored up to God again out of the fallen State in which all men have had a place and being from God in the fall and without God in sin and iniquity which hath made the great seperation and being at a distant from the living God Therefore with pitty unto thy Soul Willam Wilson who is now placed in VVindermer to Preach unto people there do I speak and also desire thee to beware and take heed what thou dost against the Lord and his people whom he hath raised up by his Power and they must bear Testimony to his Holy Name which is but little known and much less regarded by a prophane people whose Lives and Conversations is not conversant with the great God of Heaven and Earth as they ought to be neither hath their being with him as they should therefore was a necessity upon us to declare his blessed Truth unto Gods witness in man that they might come to heare and understand the things that belong to their everlasting peace to their mortal Souls and this is all and ever was all the end we have or ever had in meeting So were the place of your worship that we whom God hath revealed his Son in may not smother him neither strangle him the womb but must let his mouth be open who hath right to speak who speaks from Heaven whose voice we have heard and shape wee have seen and cannot but declare his love to all men on the face of the whole Earth that they may have and see and understand and not be Ignorant of the things of God but have the knowledge of him whom to know is life and this is the Substance in short of what hath lain upon us this many years even unto the Souls of people that we may be clear of their blood and our God in his Judging whether they will hear or forbear this is our messuage and Service we ow to our God and duty unto his people as all people are his by Creation and of right his Son should Raign in them So we leave the work unto the Lord who can work and none can hinder who hath the hearts of people in his disposing and can turn them as he pleases and this is he whom we own and in whose name we trust whatever we suffer for the same we are freely given up as into the hands of a faithful Creator who is God over all blessed of ever and for evermore So now I say unto thee VVillam Wilson who is called of men Master and born up by an outward power without and hath them to back and uphold thee and is yet dark and ignorant of the power of God within which is the higher power even God to dwell in us and walk in us according to his promise of old which is made good to us in our age and we must confess Christ before men who is Gods righteousness and Gods great power and Salvation unto lost man and as I said before he must not be smothered in the Womb but must have his liberty to speak in his people And if thou take this ill out and call it a provocation or disturbance and so do evil and intreat his people evil for their work and Service the Lord will reward the there after Therefore this is the pitty was in my heart at the moving to write this unto thee that as thou art provoked to wrath and fury as was plainly seen in thee who would not let God Messengers declare their messuage and deliver unto people what God had to say by them who may be might never have had the like upon them there again but caused them abusively to be halled out of our peaceable Meeting So I say take heed believes that thou do not provoke the Lord our God to Anger and sore displeasure against thee even for so doing for the Lord will take notice of those things and reward every man according to his works be they good or be they evil therefore I say let things alone and do not provoke the Lord to Anger by thy casting them to suffer but rather seek to turn away his wrath while it is kindled but a little and this is part of what arose in my mind unto thee to aquaint thee with and inform thee of and advise thee to whether thou wilt hear or forbear it is in pitty to thy Soul and for the preventing of further trouble thereof which will not be easily taken away if thou persist herein and do evil to those people So say not afterwards that thou was not warned for in plain words from the mouth of thy friend thou art warned as well as the people by one whose life is given up unto God in my measure to serve the living God in my day nor doubting nor fearing what man can do unto me for my heavenly Testimony that God hath given me to bear in this blessed day of his love which is offered unto all mankind upon the face of the whole Earth so the wo and trouble will be unto them that seeks to stop the Current of his love from runing freely as from Vessel to Vessel that as we have freely received we may freely give so this is all at present as a gentle warning in love unto thee to prevent the danger that may come by doing of evil to thy Neighbours which thou ought to love as thy self or else thou art guilty of the breach of Gods Commandment and doth the things thou ought not to do therefore I say again be warned who is a lover of thy Immortal Soul whose name is known unto the world to be VVillam Wilson of Longdalechappellsteel
is no peace to the wicked faith our God and is it not adishenour to our Nation that so many of you should be comed out of it having not the love of God in you may read Christs own words on John 5th and 41 42 43 and 44. the verses O blush and be ashamed that you would lay the dishonour of our Nation upon those who are innocent and harmless fearing to dishonour God who hath power over us all therefore repent and turn to the Lord God of life and Light least suddain destruction come upon you and this in love to all your Souls whether you will hear or forbear R. H. W. W. Here follows a Letter written to Captain Loaler whin he was in Kendal in Westmoreland with his Soldiers written in the behalf of Regnal Walker and George Benson who had Well packs to Kendal and was sent into visit him in Prisen To the Priests ALL you Priests and great Scholars who is in your Tongues of humane Learning and is proud of it take heed to your selves that you set not your Hebrew Greek and Latine above the head Christ Jesus the Son of God who is the life and the power of God and so make a God to your selves of your great learning which is humane and can never give the knowledge of God for Pilat who delivered Christ to be Crucified of the Jews caused Hebrew Greek and Latine to be set over Christs Head take head I say unto you you proud Scholars that you do not so for the Lord is greived with your Pride and Presumtion of Tongues which may be cut of in a moment and when you dye your Tongues dyes with you but the pure living God endures for ever so you send Scholars and foolish Priests who is making to your selves a God after your own way and will not have him after his own way which is Christ within manifested in the flesh destroying the Devils work now in People as he did great Miracles in the days of his Flesh among the Jews but they could not believe then no more then ye can believe that he is now made manifest in sinful flesh destroying the Devils work in the flesh that all through him might be saved from the Devils work which is sin and wickedness would you separate God from poor ignorant People that would believe in the light of his Son in their own hearts and confine him to your great Schools of Humane Learning that none can know the way of God but you alas for you for all your Tongues of humane Learning you are no nearer knowing of Christ now in this dispensation of revealing himself in man then Pilat was that delivered him up to the Jews in that day and time and you are worse then he for he did it not willful but would have let him go So see where your Hebrew Greek and Latin is while you are ignorant of Christ the true Light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world here the poor blind and ignorant may have the benefit of Chirst as they believe in the light that gives the true knowledge of God whom to know is life and that never dies and here is none shut out of knowing God I say the Lord shuts none out as you would do with your Scholarship if you could but the Lord is risen and he did arise in the days past to confound the wisdom of the wife and bring to nought the undrstanding of the Prudent he is setting up his Son to Raign in the hearts of his People that believes in his name and they are not ashamed to confess his name before the men of this generation who seems mighty in their day but the Lord is blasting the wisdom of man and hath said it shall not rule over his People for they have been a pray over long to thir Mouths that have said the Lord saith when he hath never spoken to them therefore this I say unto you foolish and not wise who is proud of your Hebrew Greek and Latine and thinks that God cannot be known in any other way then your teaching of him you are deceived for God will not be mocked by you for he is setting up his Son to Raign a top of all that ever hath been set a top of him either in this time or in times past W. W. Here follows several Letters that were written to those in Authority when he was Prisoner in Lancaster Goal for not Swearing To the Judges of the Assise at Lancaster JUdge or Judges I desire them or you to read this little Note and then consider the poor mans state that suffers for the Lord God eternal and his holy Truth as it is in Jesus and dare not disobey his Comands manifestest in his heart that he may do them wheresoever he be and obey his sayings who saith Swear not at all but let your yea be yea and your nay nay whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil and the same Christ commands to do the truth and to speak the truth from my heart wheresoever I be in all places and at all times in the which I desire that I may be kept faithful to the end that I may live in peace with my eternal God of Heaven and of Earth and follow peace with all men that be upon the face of the whole Earth for the Lord God hath called me to peace and out of wars and strife Although in the year 1648. I was in wars for the King and did remain with faithfulness unto the end till we were not a Party able to stand any longer and took leave of my Captain who did bid me shift for my self which was but sorrowful to me and that night was I taken Prisoner and stript to the Shirt from my back and that Night had like to been starved to death and afterwards sed in Prison with a penny a day and shamefully used in Prison and had not left to my back that any would have given me a peny for and much more then this did I suffer for the Kings service which I might have escaped all them if I would have taken up Arms with the other Party then and have betrayed my friend which thing my heart stood against and truly friends I must relate much concerning my sufferings with a heavy heart because of so little regard that was taken of me and my poor coming home nor never gave me a penny pay to this day neverheless I freely wish that you and all men knew the reality and truth of my heart to the King and all his true Subjects much more might I write but would not be tedious in writing very much I am a poor man and hath a small Family whose mentenance depends only on my labours by which I did mentain them well but now I cannot because I am here in Prison for my Conscience sake because I cannot swear but stands in obediance to Christs Commands my Allegiance to the King stands in Faithfullness
while he knows not the works of the Devil destroyed in him that he may know God to work all his works in him and through him to his own praise and Glory for ever and the heart of man can never be upright unto God while in the old nature with old Adam in the fall which brought death upon all men and in that state man cannot stand up for the Lord as a living witness against sin and wickedness and all unrighteousness of men because he remains in death for all his duties and performances in that nature is without God and without Christ in the world and man in the Flesh cannot please God so people as I have said you that loves and desires to serve the true and living God must come to the Light of his Son in your hearts and be willing to be taught of him who tells you plainly you should not lye nor swear an oath nor do to any but as you your selves would be done by and heare you may know a learning of Christ the good Teacher and Bishop of your Souls and this is in love to you all who desires singly after God for none else can receive it given forth in Scotland by R. R. and VVilliam VVilson A Letter sent to Justice Willam Kirby from Lancaster Gaol 1663. WIllam Kirby the whole cause of my being imprisoned is laid upon thee for thy Cozen Fleming said it was because he was informed that I was as a traveller which I heard thee say with my own Eares and made answer in the open Sessions and if this be the cause as I am informed its shamful that I should be imprisoned for travelling the Lords business six or seven veirs since which was when I saw thee in Hambrough it would but be a shame to thee that I should publish this abroad concerning thee that I should be cast into Prison for this which was past six or seven years since being change of government since and an act of Indulgence since an Act of Grace if it had been a Transgression in those days thou ought not to punish me for it now I believe no Laws in the Land will bear thee out to do it for I believe your act is for them that departs from their house or habitation and meets together to the terrisying of the Kings Subjects which I should be loath to do being the Kings friend as was manifested in the year forty eight both by my continuance with the longest in his service here and suffering imprisonment and the loss of all that I had and more as I can make it appear by my neighbours after I got home and there was none of the Kings friends that then took any care of me then I might have been starved for them then as I am Prisoner by them now and I have as good reason to have this in my mind now by which I had like to have lost my life and lost all I had for obediance to the King as thou to have my travel for the Lord into Hambrough in thy mind where my brother and I was used like dogs sometimes by the dogs nature in many of our English men which we found therein pride and haughtyness which the Lord will abase and bring to nought when we shall be exalted for our abediance unto God and testifying of his eternal truth which shall never dye and of which we shall never be ashamed when ungodly sinners and wicked men shall be consounded and brought to naught therefore consider if envy have rested in thy mind to do we a mischief ever since that time it is a wicked deed of thee and thou had need to amend it and shortly to least the Lord should cut thee off before the time then it would be too late to remember this my friend And I brought a good messuage into the City of Hambrought and that unto you that did understand my Language but you did receive our messuage but badly and entreated the Lords Servants with many dangers as we dayly found among you in the streets and in your English Church as my body found by your unreasonable blows and thrusting by you English men the like was never received among the Dutch by us but our God delivered us then as he will do now to our great comfort and our eternal Peace in that we were found faithful in his work did never shrink to any one of you whom we found out of the way of God in wildness wickedness lightness and vanity lustfulness pleasure and pride of life which things we boldly bare our Testimonys against in the Faith Fear and Power of the Eternal God of Heaven and Earth which did preserve us and will preserve us as we in his Faith abide for whose Faith and Testimony I suffer in Prison now in Lancaster Castle without any just cause or breach of any Law that should have exposed me so imprisonment but only thy Imformation to Justice Fleming of my traveling as it is to me related therefore the cause of my writing is that thou may take care and oversight of my Wife and Children which thou hast caused to be left desolate by staying me in Prison from them and when Justice Fleming was willing that I should have a little Liberty from the Goaler and would joyn with the in any thing thou did as his Brother Roger wrote unto thee then thou did write that the Goaler might let me have some liberty but it most be upon his own account for thou would not meddle in the thing which rather caused my streightning then otherways and also Thomas Watters of Bootle whose time might ill be taken up in lying here his Wife being near down lying and having little help about her a little liberty at this time might do him much good so consider and let not the ery of innocent Children fall upon thy head least thou come to be dealt with as thou deal'st with us in keeping us them from helping of them in their time of need and we fear thou will be but a bad friend to them in need therefore let one line or two be under thy hand to the Goaler if thou would have us do good to our Familys as some others have done before thee and then it may be well accepted of so to that of God I leave thee which never wrought evil nor never will work evil thy Friend and a Traveller for the Lord and his Truth Will. Wilson a sufferer also for the same it s not this slip out of thy mind but it was even a shame thou should send so many of thy hoest Neighbours to Prison like Vagabonds from Constable to Constable as not caring for us but sent us away to Prison where I believe it caused the death of two of us and the third was very near the point of death if he yet recover and thou would not come to see us till thou came to work wickedness against us as many hundreds can witness for