against them But it is manifest that you walk in the steps of your Fore-fathers that persecuted the Prophetâ— Habakâ—uk the Prophet of the Lord trembled and Joel the Prophet of the Lord said Blow the Trumpet in Sion and let all the Inhabitants of the Earth Tremble The People shall Tremble and all Faces shall gather Blackness and the People shall be much pained And now this Trembling is witnessed by the Power of the Lord This Power of the Lord is come the Trumpet is sounding the Earth is shaking the Inhabitants of the Earth are trembling the Dead is arising and the Living is praising God And the World is Raging and the Scoffers are Scorning and they that witness Trembling and Quaking wrought in them by the Power of the Lord can scarce pass up and down the Streets but with Stones and Blows and Fists and Sticks or Dogs set at them or pursued with Mocks and Reproaches Thus you vent forth your Malice against them that witness the Power of the Lord as the Prophets did who are come to the broken Heart and contrite Spirit and who Tremble at the Word of the Lord whom the Lord regards These you stone these you stock these you set your Dogs at these you scoff and scorn these you revile and reproach but those Reproaches are our Riches praised be the Lord who hath given us power over them And if you see one as Habakkuk whose Lips quivered whose Belly shock who said Rottenness was entred into his Bones and who trembled in himself if you see such an one in this Condition now ye say He is Bewitched Here again you shew your selves Strangers to that Power to that Life that was in the Prophet Therefore for shame never make a Profession of his Words nor a Trade of his Words nor of Joel's who witnessed Trembling which ye scorn and scoff at Ye proud Scoffers and Scorners Misery Misery is your End except you speedily Repent Daniel a Servant of the most-high God he Trembled his Strength and his Breath was gone He was Prisoned He was hated he was persecuted they laid Baits and Snares for him in whom the holy Spirit of God was Now for shame all you that make a Profession of Daniel's Words give over your Profession Priests and People who scoff and scorn at Trembling with the Light you are seen to be out of Daniel's Life and by the same Power you are judged at which you scorn and scoff And so here again be ye Witnesses against your selves that you are Scorners and Scoffers against the Truth And with the Scripture you are judged to be contrary to the Life of the holy Men of God Paul a Minister of God made by the Will of God a Messenger of the Lord Jesus a Vessel of the Lords to carry his Name abroad into several Nations when the dark blind World have got some of his Words and Epistles you filthy Teachers make a Trade of them and get great Sums of Money for it and so destroy Souls for dishonest Gain making a Trade of his Words and of the rest of the Apostles and Prophets and of Christ's Words but denying the Spirit and Life that they were guided by and that Power which shook the Flesh and the Earth which the Apostle witnessed who said When he came among the Corinthians he was then with them in weakness and fear and in much Trembling that their Faith might not stand in the Wisdom of Words but in the Power of God in that Power which made him to Tremble This Power it is that the World and all the scoffing Teachers scoff at and scorn in your Towns in your Villages in your Assemblies in your Ale-houses for shame lay away all your Profession of the Apostle's Words and Conditions And some of them that scoff at this Power call it the Power of the Devil and some persecute them and Stone and Stock Imprison and Whip them in whom that Power is made manifest and lade them with Reproaches as not worthy to walk on the Earth hated and persecuted as the Off-scouring of all things Here you may see you are in the steps of your Fore-Fathers who persecuted the Apostles and acted so against them stocked them mocked them prisoned them stoned them whipped them haled them out of the Synagogues reproached them and shamefully entreated them Do not you here fulfil the Scripture and Christ's saying who said If they kill you they will think they do God Service Yet you make a Profession of Christ's Words of the Prophets and Apostles Words and call your selves Churches and Ministers of the Gospel I charge you in the presence of the Living God to be silent who act such things And mind the Light in your Consciences ye Scoffers and Scorners which Christ hath enlightened you withall that with it ye may see your selves what ye Act and what ye have Acted for who Act such things shall not inherit the Kingdom of God for all such things are by the Light condemned And who come to witness Trembling and Quaking the Powers of the Earth to be shaken the Lustful Nature come to be destroyed the scorning and scoffing Nature judged by the Light In it Wait to receive Power from him who shakes the Earth That Power we own and our Faith stands in it which all the World scoffs at the Lofty Ones the Proud Ones the Presumptuous Ones which live in Presumption and yet make a Profession of the Scriptures as your Fathers the Pharisees did who were painted Sepulchres and Serpents and as the Scribes did who had the Chiefest Places in the Assemblies stood praying in the Synagogues and were called of Men Masters which Christ cried WO against who are not come so far as the Trembling of Devils who believed and trembled Let that Judge you The Light and Life of the Scripture is seen and made manifest and with it all you Scoffers and all you Scorners and all you Persecutors and Railers are seen Take Warning all ye Powers of the Earth how ye persecute them whom the World Nick-name and call Quakers who dwell in the Eternal Power of God lest the Hand of the Lord be turned against you and ye be all Cut off To you this is the Word of God Fear and Tremble and take Warning For this is the Man whom the Lord doth regard who trembles at his Word which you who are of the World scoff and scorn stock persecute and imprison Here ye may see ye are contrary to God contrary to the Prophets and are such as hate what the Lord regards which we whom the World scorns and calls Quakers own And we exalt that Power and honour that Power that makes the Devils tremble and shakes the Earth and throws down the Loftiness of Man and the Haughtiness of Man and which makes the Beasts of the Field to Tremble and makes the Earth Reel to and fro and cleaves the Earth asunder and over-turneth the World This Power we own and honour and preach up whom
time amongst Friends thereabouts and had Meetings at all those places Then being a little refreshed with being in the Country I went back to London where I tarried labouring in the Work of the Ministry till the middle of the Ninth Month at which time I went down with my Son Mead to his House in Essex and abode there all the Winter Essex Gooses During which time I stirred not much abroad unless it were sometimes to the Meeting to which that Family belonged which was about half a Mile from thence but I had Meetings often in the House with the Family and those Friends that came thither Many things also I writ while I was there some of which follow here One was an Epistle to the Quarterly and Yearly-Meetings of Friends in Pensylvania New-England Virginia Maryland the Jerseys Carolina and other Plantations in America And it was thus MY Dear Friends and Brethren in the Lord Jesus Christ who by believing in his Light are become Children of his Light and of his Day my desires are that you may all walk in his Light and in his Day and keep the Feast of Christ our Passover who is sacrificed for us not with Old Leaven neither with the Leaven of Malice and Wickedness but let all that be purged out that ye may be a New Lump keeping the Feast of Christ our Passover with the unleavened Bread of Sincerity and Truth Therefore let no leavened Bread be found in your Houses nor in your Meetings nor in the Camp of God or Houshold of Faith which are the Houshold of Christ But all that sour old Leaven which makes Peoples hearts sour and to burn one against another all that must be purged out of the Camp of God and kept out For the Feast of Christ our Passover must be kept in the New Covenant with his heavenly unleavened Bread of Life The Jews in the Old Testament their Feast was kept with outward unleavened Bread And now in the New Testament in the Gospel-Day our Feast is to be kept with the heavenly unleavened Bread of Sincerity and Truth Therefore Friends I desire you seriously to consider and to keep this Feast which the Apostle directed the Church of Christ to keep Do not you see Christendom 1689. Gooses so called keep their Feasts with the leavened Bread of Malice and Wickedness which makes them so sour and their hearts to burn one against another that they have destroyed and do destroy one another about Religion Therefore all live in the love of God which keeps above the love of the World so that none of your Hearts may be choaked or surfeited with these outward Things or with the Cares of the World which will pass away But mind ye the World and the Life that is without end that ye may be heirs of it And Friends you should strive to Excel all both Professor and Prophane both in Morality Humanity and Christianity Modesty Sobriety and Moderation and in a good godly righteous Life and Conversation shewing forth the Fruits of the Spirit of God and that you are the Children of the living God and Children of the Light and of the Day and not of the Night And serve God in Newness of Life for it is the Life and a living and walking in the Truth that must Answer the Witness of God in all People that they seeing your good Works may glorifie our Father which is in Heaven Therefore be valiant for God's holy pure Truth and spread it abroad among both Professors and Profane and the Indians And you should write over once a year from all your Yearly-Meetings to the Yearly-Meeting here concerning your Diligence in the Truth and of its spreading and of Peoples receiving it both Professors and Profane and the Indians and concerning the Peace of the Church of Christ amongst your selves For blessed be the Lord Truth doth get ground in these Parts and many are made very loving to Friends and the Lord's Power and Seed is over all In which God Almighty keep all his People to his Glory Amen Gooses the 28th of the 11th Month 1689. G. F. While I was in the City I had a Concern upon my Spirit with respect to a Twofold Danger that attended some who profest Truth one was of Young Peoples running into the Fashions of the World and the other was of Old Peoples going into the Earth And that Concern coming now again weightily upon me I was moved to give forth the following Paper as a Reproof to such and an Exhortation and Warning to all Friends to beware of and keep out of those Snares To all that do Profess the Truth of God MY desires are that you may walk in Humility in it For when the Lord first called me forth he let me see That Young People grew up together in Vanity and the Fashions of the World and Old People went downwards into the Earth raking it together and to both these I was to be a stranger And now Friends I do see too many Young People that do profess the Truth 1690. Gooses do grow up into the Fashions of the World and too many Parents indulge them And amongst the Elder some are growing downwards and raking after the Earth Therefore take heed that you are not making your Graves while you are Alive outwardly and loading your selves with thick Clay Hab. â— 6 For if you have not power over the Earthly Spirit and that which leadeth into a Vain Mind and the Fashions of the World and into the Earth though you have often had the Rain fall upon your Fields you will but bring forth Thistles Briars and Thorns which is for the Fire And such will become brittle peevish fretful Spirits that will not abide the heavenly Doctrine and the Admonitions Exhortations and Reproofs of the Holy Ghost or heavenly Spirit of God which would bring you to be Conformable to the Death of Christ and to his Image that ye might have Fellowship with him in his Resurrection And therefore it is good for all to bow to the Name of Jesus their Saviour and that all may Confess him to the Glory of God the Father For I have had a Concern upon me in a sense of the Danger of Young Peoples going into the Fashions of the World and Old Peoples going into the Earth and many going into a loose and false Liberty till at last they go quite out into the Spirit of the World as some have done Such their House hath been built upon the Sand on the Sea shore not upon Christ the Rock that they are so soon in the World again under a pretence of Liberty of Conscience But it is not a pure Conscience nor in the Spirit of God nor in Christ Jesus for in the Liberty in the Spirit there is the Vnity which is the Bond of Peace and all are one in Christ Jesus in whom is the true Liberty And this is not of the World for He is not of the World And
not Banish him and Persecute him out of your Cities and Corporations And how can you enter into his Kingdom and have a share of his Kingdom though you may profess him in Words And do not they go into Everlasting Punishment that did not visit Christ in Prison Then what will become of you that do Banish and Imprison him where he is manifest in his Members nor suffer them to Meet together to enjoy him amongst them according to his Promise And therefore you that will not let Christ Reign in his People and have his Liberty in them in your Cities and Countries to Exercise his Offices you will not have your Liberty in Heaven and you that will not let Christ Reign in your Hearts nor suffer him to Reign in his People here upon the Earth in this World in your Kingdoms you will not Reign with Christ in Heaven in his Kingdom nor in the World without end And so you that banish the Truth out of your Cities or Countries or his People for its sake you do banish the Truth and Christ out of your hearts from Ruling there and so you your selves are not the Temples of God And then when you have banished Christ and his Truth out of your own hearts then you do banish such in whom he Rules out of your Estates and Country and then see what Judgments the Lord doth bring upon you when you are left to your selves yea Fears and Troubles and one Judgment after another that come upon you you are even filled with them But the Banished and Sufferers for Truth and Christ's sake have a peaceable habitation in the Truth which the Devil is out of and cannot get in which habitation will out-last all the habitations of the Wicked and Persecutors though they be never so full of Words without Life and Truth So the Life and the Truth will out-last all Airy Notions and Christ the Lamb and patient Seed will overcome the Devourer and the unpatient Seed and they that have the Garments the Righteousness of Christ which is the fine Linnen it will out-last all the Rags and Inventions of Men. For Christ saith to his Learners Be of good chear I have overcome the World the persecuting World and so he said unto his Disciples Marvel not if that the World hate you for it hated me before you And therefore let all that profess themselves Christians lay away Persecution about Religion Churches or Worship Fasting or Praying-Days for you have no Command from Christ and his Apostles to Persecute any For Christ who is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords when they called him a Deceiver and blasphemed him and said He had a Devil he did not Persecute any of them for it nor force or compel any to hear and believe him nor the Apostles after him but he bad them that would have been plucking up the Tares Let the Tares and the Wheat grow together until the Harvest So you have no Command from Christ or his Apostles to Persecute Imprison or Banish or Spoil the Goods of any for matter of pure Conscience and Religion Worship Faith and Church in the Gospel-times Harlingen in Friezland the 11th of the 6th Month 1677. G. F. A Warning to the Magistrates Priests and People of the City of Hamborough to Humble themselves before the Lord and not to be High-minded Friends YOU have painted and garnished the Inside of your outward Houses and High-places but look within your Hearts with the Light of Christ Amsterdam which he hath enlightned you and every Man that cometh into the World withal and with it you may see To pag. 448 how foul your Hearts and Insides are with Sin and Evil which Christ tells you ye should make clean who told the Pharisees how they painted the Sepulchres of the Righteous and they themselves were full of Rottenness and Corruption Therefore look into your selves 1677. Amsterdam and your own hearts what you are full of to paint out the Sepulchres of the Righteous Apostles and making a Trade and a Profession of their words without the same Holy Ghost and Power and Light and Truth which they were in will not stand at the Day of God's Vengeance And therefore Repent while you have Time and turn to the Lord with your whole hearts and do not think your selves to be secure without his Immediate Almighty Protection For it is not all your Works nor all your own Strength and Power and Defence that can protect you and you to look at them and think your selves secure and to sit down in your Security and in it let your hearts be merry and at rest and ease But then when the Lord brings a Scourge upon you that you are filled with Terrours and Fears remember you were Warned that you were set down but not in the true Rest and then all your own Strength and Force will stand you in no stead and you will acknowledge that it must be God that must protect you And therefore take Warning for your Priests and People are too high and are swallowed up too much in this World and the Vanities of it carry your Minds away from God and your Care is more for the World than for God and more after the Riches of the World than after the Riches of the World that has no end For know you not that all your Heaps of outward Treasure must have an end and that you must Leave them all behind you Therefore I am to Warn and Advice you both High and Low Priests and People to come to the Grace Light and Truth that comes by Jesus Christ and also to come to the Manifestation of the good Spirit of God which is given to you to profit withal that with This Grace and Truth and Light and Spirit of Christ you may turn to Christ Jesus from whence it comes who saith Learn of me and God saith This is my beloved Son hear ye him And so all the Children of the New Covenant that walk in the New and Living Way do hear Christ their Prophet that God has raised up who is their Teacher and Priest whom God hath anointed to Preach And so now God doth speak to his People by his Son as he did in the Apostles Days And so the Lord is come to Teach his People himself by his Grace Light Truth and Spirit and to bring them off all the Worlds Teachers that are made by Men since the Apostles days who have kept People always Learning that they may always be paying of them And is come to bring them off all the Worlds Religions to the Religion that he set up in the Apostles Days in the New Covenant which is pure and undefiled before God in his sight and keeps from the Spots of the World c. And the Lord is come to bring them off all the World's Churches to the Church in God which Christ the heavenly Man is Head of and to bring them off all the World's Worships to
for and shall be given by the Lord the Righteous Judge to all them that love his Appearance Ages to come and Peoples yet unborn shall call him Blessed and bless the Lord for raising of him up And Blessed shall we also be if we so walk as we had him for an Example for whom this Testimony lives in my Heart He liv'd and died the SERVANT of the LORD T. E. Advertisement FOrasmuch as many other Testimonies from divers Counties and Friends concerning George Fox and his Great Service for the Truth are sent up to London which cannot conveniently be printed with the Journal lest they should swell it too Bigg and many of them being of the same Import Therefore they are reserved for further Consideration to be disposed of as a future Service may be seen in the Wisdom of God for them when Way is made for his Epistles or any of his other Works to be published The Appearance of the Lord 's Everlasting Truth and Breaking forth again in his Eternal Power in this our Day and Age in ENGLAND WHerein the Lord 's mighty Power and Word of Life hath been Richly and Freely preached to the Gathering of many into Reconciliation with God by it to the Exaltation and Glory of the great God through the bringing forth of the Heavenly and Spiritual Fruits from such as have been Gathered by his Eternal Light Power and Spirit unto himself And by the Sowing to the Spirit in the hearts of People Life Eternal hath been Reaped That the Flocks have been Gathered which have the Milk of the Word plenteously That the Riches of the Word have flourished and mightily abounded and God's Heavenly Plow with his Spiritual Men hath gone on chearfully to the Overturning the Fallow Ground of the Hearts that had not borne Heavenly Fruit to God And God's Heavenly Threshers with his Heavenly Flail have with Joy and Delight Thresht out the Chaff and the Corruptions that have been a-Top of God's Seed and Wheat in Man and Woman And thus have they Thresht in Hope and are made Partakers of their Hope through which God's Seed is come into his Garner Oh! the Unutterable Glory and the Unexpressible Excellency of the Everlasting Glorious Truth Gospel and Word of Life that the Infinite Invisible and Wise God who is over all hath Revealed and Manifested And how have the Professors Priests and Powers risen up in Opposition against his Children that are born of the Immortal Seed by the Word of God! And Oh! how great have the Persecutions and Reproaches and Spoiling of Goods been that have been Executed upon them But they that have Touched them and Touches them which are as Dear to God as the Apple of his Eye how hath the Lord Manifested himself to stand by them in Overthrowing Powers Priests and States What Changes have there been since 1644 and 1650 and 1652 How have the Gaols been filled since then in this Nation with the Heirs of Life God's Chosen Ones who had no Helper in the Earth but the Lord and his Christ So that Truth 's Faithful Witnesses were scarcely to be found but in Gaols and Prisons where the Righteous were Numbred among the Transgressors who had neither Staff nor Bag from Man but the Staff the Bread of Life and the Bag that holds the Treasure that waxes not old But the Lord Jesus Christ that sent them forth was their Exceeding great Supporter and Upholder by his Eternal Power and Spirit both then and now G. F. THE PREFACE BEING A SUMMARY ACCOUNT Of the DIVERS Dispensations of God TO MEN FROM The Beginning of the World to That of our present Age by the Ministry and Testimony of his Faithful Servant George Fox as an Introduction to the ensuing Iournal DIVERS have been the Dispensations of God since the Creation of the World unto the Sons of Men But the Great End of all of them has been the Renown of his own Excellent Name in the Creation and Restauration of Man Man the Emblem of himself as a God on Earth and the Glory of all his Works The World began with Innocency All was then good that the good God had made And as he blessed the Works of his hands so their Natures and Harmony magnified him their Creator Then the Morning Stars Sang together for Joy and all parts of his Works said Amen to his Law Not a Jarr in the whole Frame but Man in Paradise the Beasts in the Field the Fowl in the Air the Fish in the Sea the Lights in the Heavens the Fruits of the Earth yea the Air the Earth the Water and Fire Worshipped praised and exalted his Power Wisdom and Goodness O Holy Sabbath O Holy Day to the Lord But this Happy State lasted not long For Man the Crown and Glory of the Whole being tempted to aspire above his place unhappily yielded against Command and Duty as well as Interest and Felicity and so fell below it lost the Divine Image the Wisdom Power and Purity he was made in By which being no longer fit for Paradise he was expelled that Garden of God his proper Dwelling and Residence and was driven out as a poor Vagabond from the presence of the Lord to wander in the Earth the Habitation of Beasts Yet God that made him had pitty on him for He seeing he was deceived and that it was not of Malice or an Original Presumption in him but through the Subtilty of the Serpent that had first fallen from his own State and by the Mediation of the Woman man 's own Nature and Companion whom the Serpent had first deluded in his infinite Goodness and Wisdom found out a way to Repair the Breach Recover the Loss and Restore fallen Man again by a Nobler and more Excellent Adam promised to be born of a Woman that as by means of a Woman the evil one had prevailed upon Man by a Woman also He should come into the World who would prevail against him and bruise his Head and deliver Man from his Power And which in a signal manner by the Dispensation of the Son of God in the Flesh in the fullness of Time was personally and fully accomplished by him and in him as Man's Saviour and Redeemer But his Power was not limitted in the Manifestation of it to that time for both before and since his blessed Manifestation in the Flesh He has been the Light and Life the Rock and Strength of all that ever feared God Present with them in their Temptations followed them in their Travels and Afflictions and supported and carried them through and over the Difficulties that have attended them in their Earthly Pilgrimage By this Abel's heart excelled Cains and Seth obtained the preheminence and Enoch walked with God It was this that strove with the Old World and which they rebelled against and which sanctified and instructed Noah to Salvation But the outward Dispensation that followed the benighted State of Man after his Fall especially among the Patriarcks was generally
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
the Deceit Sing the Song of the Lamb Triumph over the World spread the Truth abroad Come ye Captive ones out of Prison and Rejoice with one accord for the Joyful Days are coming Let us be glad and Rejoice for ever Singleness of Heart is come Pureness of Heart is come Joy and Gladness is come The glorious God is exalting himself and Truth hath been talked of but now it is possessed Christ hath been talked of but now he is come and possessed The Glory hath been talked of but now it is possessed and the Glory of Man is defacing The Son of God hath been talked of but now he is come and hath given us an Understanding Vnity hath been talked of but now it is come Virgins have been talkt of but now they are come with Oil in their Lamps He will be glorified alone Where Pride is thrown down Earth and the fleshly Will is thrown down and the Pure is raised up there alone is the Lord Exalted Let the Heavens Bow down to him and the Earth Reel to and fro and Stagger up and down The Lord is setting up his Throne and his Crown and throwing down the Crown of Man and he alone will be glorified To whom be all Honour and Glory all Praises and all Thanks Who gives his Children Wisdom and Strength Knowledge and Vertue Power and Riches Blessings and durable Substance and an Eye to discern and an Ear to hear things singly and brings down the Pride of Man's Heart and turns the Wicked out of the Kingdom The Righteous Ones inherit Righteousness the Pure Ones Pureness the Holy Ones Holiness Praises Praises be to the Lord whose Glory now shines whose Day is broken forth which is hid from the World hid from all worldly wise Ones and from all the Prudent of this World hid from the Fowls of the Air hid from all Vultures Eyes and all venemous Beasts and all Liars and all Dogs and all Swine But to them that fear his Name the Secrets of the Lord are made manifest the Treasures of Wisdom are opened and the Fulness of Knowledge For thou O Lord dost make thy self manifest to thy Children G. F. My Spirit was greatly burdened to see the Pride that was got up in the Nation even amongst the Professors and in the sense thereof I was moved to give forth the following Paper directed To such as follow the World's Fashions WHAT a World is this How doth the Devil garnish himself and how obedient are People to do his Will and Mind that they are altogether carried away with Fooleries and Vanities both Men and Women that they have lost the hidden Man of the Heart and the meek and quiet Spirit which with the Lord is of great price They have lost the Adorning of Sarah they are putting on Gold and gay Apparel Women plaiting the Hair Men and Women powdering it making their Backs look like Bags of Meal They look so strange that they can scarce look at one another they are so lifted up in Pride Pride is flown up into their Head and hath so lifted them up that they Snuff up like Wild Asses and like Ephraim they seed upon Wind and are gotten to be like Wild Heifers who feed upon the Mountains Pride hath puffed up every one of them They are out of the Fear of God Men and Women Young and Old one puffs up another They must be in the Fashion of the World else they are not in esteem else they shall not be respected if they have not Gold or Silver upon their Backs or if his Hair be not powdered But if he have store of Ribbands hanging about his Waste and at his Knees and in his Hat of divers Colours Red or White or Black or Yellow and his Hair be powdered then he is a brave Man then he is accepted then he is no Quaker because he hath Ribbands on his Back and Belly and Knees and his Hair powdered This is the Array of the World But is not this from the Lust of the Eye the Lust of the Flesh or the Pride of Life Likewise the Women having their Gold their Spots on their Faces Noses Cheeks Fore-heads having their Rings on their Fingers wearing Gold having their Cuffs double under and above like unto a Butcher with his white Sleeves having their Ribbands tied about their Hands and three or four Gold-Laces about their Cloths This is no Quaker say they This is that that pleaseth the World this Array this Attire pleaseth the World and if they cannot get these things they are discontented But this is not the Attire of Sarah whose Adorning was in the hidden Man of the Heart of a quiet and meek Spirit This is the Adorning of the Heathen not of the Apostle nor of the Saints whose Adorning was not wearing of Gold nor plaiting of Hair but a meek and quiet Spirit which was and is of great price with the Lord. And here was the Sobriety and good Ornament which was of the Lord accepted This was Paul's Exhortation and Preaching But we see the Talkers of Paul's Words live out of Paul's Command and out of the Example of Sarah and are found in the steps of the great Heathen who comes to examin the Apostles in his gorgeous Apparel Now are not all these that have got their Ribbands hanging about their Arms Hands Back Waists Knees Hats like unto Fidlers-Boys Which shews that you are gotten into the basest and most contemptible Life who be in the Fashion of the Fidlers-Boys and Stage-Players quite out of the Paths and Steps of solid Men and in the very Steps and Paths of the wild Heads who give themselves up to every Invention and Vanity of the World that appears and is inventing how to get it upon their Backs Heads Feet and Legs and say If it be out of the Fashion it is nothing worth Are not these the Spoilers of the Creation who have the fat and the best of it and waste and destroy it Do not these Cumber God's Earth Let that of God in all Consciences Answer and who are in the Wisdom judge And further If one get a pair of Britches like a Coat and hang them about with Points and up almost to the Middle a pair of double Cuffs upon his Hands and a Feather in his Cap here 's a Gentleman bow before him put off your Hats bow get a Company of Fidlers a set of Musick and Women to dance This is a brave Fellow up in the Chamber up in the Chamber without and up in the Chamber within Are these your fine Christians Yea say they They are Christians Yea but say the serious People They are out of Christ's Life and out of the Apostles Command and out of the Saints Ornament And to see such as are before described as are in the Fashions of the World before-mentioned a Company of them playing at Bouls or at Tables or at Shovel-Board or Each taking his Horse that hath Bunches of Ribbands on his Head as
the World scornfully calls Quakers But all Scoffers and Persecutors Railers and Scorners Stockers and Whippers we deny by that Power which throweth down all that Nature as seeing that all who act such things without Repentance shall not inherit the Kingdom of God but are for Destruction So Rejoice all ye Righteous ones who are persecuted for Righteousness sake for great is your Reward in Heaven Rejoice ye that suffer for Well-doing for ye shall not lose your Reward And wait you in the Light that you may grow up in the Life that gave forth the Scriptures that with it ye may see the Saints Conditions and with it ye may see all that which they testified against and there with it ye will see the state of those that did reproach and scoff them and did mock them and persecute them and did whip and stock them and haled them out of the Synagogues before Magistrates So to you who are in the same Light and Life the same things do they now that they may fill up the measure of their Fathers With the Light now they are seen where the Light and Life and Power of God is made manifest for as they did unto them so will they do unto you Here is our Joy and the Scripture is fulfilled and fulfilling and with the Light which was before the World was which is now made manifest in the Children of Light with it they see the World and comprehend it and the Actions of it for he that loves the World and turns from the Light is an Enemy to God he turneth into VVickedness for the whole VVorld lieth in VVickedness He who turns from the Light turns into the VVorks of Evil which the Light of Christ testifies against And by this Light where it is made manifest all the VVorks of the VVorld are seen and made manifest G. F. This is to go abroad among the scattered Ones and among the World Great was the Rage and Enmity of the People Professors as well as Prophane against the Truth and People of God at this time and great the Contempt and Disdain they shewed of Friends plainness Wherefore I was moved to write the following Paper and send it forth directed as An Epistle to gathered Churches into outward Forms upon the Earth ALL ye gathered Churches into outward Forms upon the Earth the Son of God is come to Reign and he will tread and trample and will shake and make you Quake and Quiver you that be found without his Life out of his Light and without his Power His Day hath appeared Morter and Clay will you be found Breaking and Shaking and Quaking is coming among you Your high Building is to be laid desolate your professed Liberty shall be your Bondage the Mouth of the Lord of Hosts hath spoken it Tremble ye Hypocrites ye Notionists The fenced Cities shall be laid desolate the fruitful Fields shall become a VVilderness your false Joy shall become your Heaviness the time of VVeeping and Desolation draweth nigh Come ye witty Ones see how ye can stand before the Almighty who is now come to plead with you you 'll fall like Leaves and wither like VVeeds Come you that have boasted of my Name saith the Lord and have gloried in the Flesh ye shall fade like a Flower who have slain my VVitness yet boast of my VVords which have been as a Song unto you Come ye Novelty-Ones who love Novelties changeable Suits of Apparel who be in the Fashions outward and inward putting on one thing this day and another the other day I 'll strip thee saith the Lord I 'll make thee bare I 'll make thee naked and thou shalt know that I am the Lord. What! hast thou profest the Prophets words hast thou profest the Apostles words and my Son's words hast thou Covered thy self with their Expressions thinkest thou not that I see thee out of my Life thinkest thou thou witty One to hide thy self where none can see thee thinkest thou if thou fliest to the uttermost parts of the Earth that I am not there Is not the Earth mine and the fulness of it saith the Lord Come all ye that have trusted in your own conceited Notions and Knowledge and VVisdom who were never yet out of the Earth and the Lusts of it and never yet got the Load of thick Clay off you and never were out of the drunken Spirit whose Imperfection appears who must be come upon as a Potter's Vessel broken Cisterns and ye that have been made VVise in your own Conceit and wise in your own Eyes in which Pride hath lifted you up and not the Humility you must be Abased You have run on with every one after his own Invention and every Man hath done that thing that was right in his own Eyes and that which did please himself This hath been the Course of People upon Earth Ye have run on without a King without Christ the Light of the World which hath enlightened every one that is come into the World but now is Truth risen now are your Fruits withering And you that are fortified and have fortified your strong Houses called your Churches make you your Cords strong the Lord will break you asunder ye that are gathering in and ye that are gathered For the Lord is risen to scatter you his Witness is risen in the Hearts of his People they will not be fed with dead Words nor with that which dies of it self nor will they be satisfied with the Husk which the Swine seeds upon And all ye Priests in the Nation and Teachers that now stand against the Light your Envy shews that ye be in Cain's Way your Greediness shews that ye be in Balaam's Way your standing against the Light which hath enlightned every man that cometh into the world doth manifest that you are in Core's Way that spoke the great high Words of Vanity ye whose Consciences are seared as with an hot Iron whose Judgment doth not linger whose Damnation doth not slumber who serve not the Lord Jesus Christ but your own Bellies who are the Evil Beasts spoken of which have destroyed many Families taken away their Cattel their Horses their Goods even their Household-Goods destroyed many poor men even whole Families taking their whole Estates from them whom you do no Work for O! the grievous Actions that are seen done by you the Ministers of Vnrighteousness whose fruits declare to the whole Nation that you are the Devil's Messengers your Actions declare it your taking Tithes Augmentations treble Dammages Midsummer-Dues as ye call them of them ye do no Work for nor Minister to And all ye Powers of the Earth beware of holding such up that be Vnrighteous Let not the Words of the Vnrighteous overcome you lest the righteous Judge the righteous God the Judge of Heaven and Earth upon you take hold whose Judgment is according to that of God in you which will let you see when you Transgress Come you proud and lofty ones who
have not considered the handy-works of the Lord but have destroyed them nor have regarded the way of the Lord but have had plenty of the Creatures and have therewith fatted up your selves and forgot the Lord and his way O let Shame cover your Faces here upon Earth Come ye that are given to Pleasures and spend your Time and Days in Sports and Idleness and Fulness your Fruits declare the Sins of Sodom yet you will make a Talk of my Name and of my Saints Words But I behold you afar off saith the Lord you are Proud and Lofty you are bad Patterns and bad Examples that be full and rich and Idle who say Others are Idle that cannot maintain your Lusts Oh! the unrighteous Ballances that are among People Oh the Iniquity in Measuring Oh the Oppression in Ruling and Governing Therefore because of these things my Hand shall come upon you saith the Lord. For the Oppression is entred into the Ears of the Lord who gives Rest to the wearied to the burdened to the oppressed who feeds the Hungry and cloaths the Naked who brings the Mighty from their Seats and beats the Lofty to Ground and makes the Haughty to bend Come saith the Lord ye Mockers and Scorners and Rebellious ones light and wild People vain and heady you have had your Day of Joy you have Scoffed you have Mocked and derided my Messengers and my Ambassadors who have preached in your Streets and cried in your Synagogues and Temples a Day of Trembling and Lamentation shall on you come when you are not aware I 'le take away your Pride and your Height I 'le shake you as a Leaf and bring you to be as Men distracted I 'le distract you and make you that you shall not trust one another in the Earth who have joined hand in hand against my Servants in the Truth I 'le smite you with Terrors and bring Frets and Fears upon you the Cup of my Indignation and Fury shall you drink Where will you appear when Repentance is hid from your Eyes when prophane Esau your Father it set before you and Ishmael and Cain wild and envious whose Fruits declare the Stock Come ye proud Priests who have eaten up the Fat of the Nation who by Violence have taken other Men's Goods whose Envy hath slain many whose Wickedness and Darkness hath abounded and whose Vnrighteousness daily appears Your Fruits every day declare it in summoning up by Writs and Subpoena's from most parts of the Nation for Wages and Tithes such as you do no work for Oh the Abominable Vnrighteousness how is the State of Man lost that these things they do not take to Heart to feel them What havock is made in most parts of the Nation with such And all ye Priests and Teachers who are railing and brawling in the Pulpit setting People at variance one against another Haters and Hateful provoking People to Hate one another here is the Seed of Enmity seen which you have sown and are sowing whose Seed must be bruised by the Seed of the Woman which a top of your Heads is set G. F. This Year came out the Oath of Abjuration by which many Friends suffered and several Friends went to speak with the Protector about it but he began to harden And Sufferings increasing upon Friends by reason that envious Magistrates made use of that Oath as a Snare to catch Friends in who they knew could not swear at all I was moved to write to the Protector about it and other suffering Friends as followeth THE Magistrate is not to bear the Sword in vain which ought to be a Terror to the Evil-doers but the Magistrate that doth bear the Sword in vain as he is not a Terror to the Evil-doers so he is not a Praise to them that do well Now hath God raised up a People by his Power whom People Priests and Magistrates who are out of the Fear of God scornfully call Quakers who do cry against Drunkenness for Drunkards destroy God's Creatures and do cry against Oaths for because of Oaths the Land mourns and they Drunkards and Swearers to whom the Magistrate's Sword should be a Terror are we see at liberty but for crying against such many are cast into Prison and for crying against their Pride and Filthiness their deceitful Merchandize in Markets their Cozening and their Cheating their Excess and Naughtiness their playing at Bouls and Shovel-boards at Cards and at Dice and their other vain and wanton Pleasures for who live in Pleasures are dead while they live and who live in Wantonness kill the Just This we know by the Spirit of God which gave forth the Scriptures which God the Father hath given to us and hath placed his Righteous Law in our Hearts which Law is a Terror to Evil-doers and answers that which is of God in every Man's Conscience They which act contrary to the Measure of God's Spirit in every Man's Conscience cast the Law of God behind their Backs and walk despitefully against the Spirit of Grace The Magistrate's Sword we see is born in vain whilst the Evil-doers are at Liberty to do Evil and they that cry against such are for so doing punished by the Magistrate who hath turned his Sword backward against the Lord. And now the Wicked one fenceth himself and persecutes the Innocent as Vagabonds and Wanderers for crying against Sin and against Vnrighteousness and Vngodliness openly in the Markets and in the High-ways or as Railers because they tell them what Judgment will follow them that follow such Practices And here they that depart from Iniquity are become a Prey and few lay it to heart But God will thresh the Mountains and beat the Hills and cleave the Rocks and cast into his Press which is trodden without the City and will bathe his Sword in the Blood of the Wicked and Vnrighteous So they that have drunk the Cup of Abominations an hard Cup have you to drink you who are the Enemies of God and of you he will be avenged who be his Enemies Now ye in whom something of God is remaining consider If the Sword was not born in vain but turned against the Evil-doers then the Righteous would not suffer and be cast into Holes Dungeons Corners and Prisons and Houses of Correction as Peace-Breakers for crying against Sin openly as they are commanded of the Lord and for crying against the Covetousness of the Priests and their false Worships who exact Money now of poor People whom they do no work for Oh! where will you appear in the Day of the Lord or how will you stand in the Day of his righteous Judgment How many Jails and Houses of Correction are now made Places to put the Lambs of Christ in for following him and obeying his Commands which are too many to mention The Royal Law of Christ To do as ye would be done by is trodden down under foot So that Men can profess him in Words and Talk but Crucify him wheresoever he appears
Visit Prisoners whom you have Imprisoned Doth this shew you to have a Spirit like Paul yea or nay or are you not quite contrary like to them that persecuted Paul The Day hath declared it To that of God in you all I speak which shall witness it at the Last Day in the Day of Judgment Persecution was blind in all Ages and Madness and Folly led it Yet Persecution got always a Form or Presence of Godliness or to talk of Religion as in the Days of Moses in the Days of Jeremy in the Days of Christ and of the Apostles Come saith the Council Let us crush them while they are Young they have almost over-spread the Nation in every Corner This is as much as to say Let us put this Birth to Death as Pharaoh and Herod did the Children But the Lord caused his Truth the more to spread For you may read what Numbers came out of Egypt and what Multitudes followed Christ Therefore with Consideration read these Lines and not with Fury and let not Foolishness appear But consider in Humility your Ways you act in and your Paths you go in and what Spirit you are of and what the End of your Conversation is now see For in Love to your Souls I write that in the Day of your Visitation you may consider it From him who loveth Righteousness and the establishing of it and Truth and Peace and Faith which is by Christ Jesus Mercy and Peace be multiplied among such But a Witness against all Hypocrites and all who have a Profession but live out of the Possession who are in an Hypocritical Religion in the Lusts and Fashions of the World having a Form of Godliness but standing against the Power with might and main Sword and Staff Which things declare your Conversation and Practices to be out of Christ 's Life against the Gospel-practice and contrary to the Manner and Order of the Saints G. F We were continued in Prison till the next Assize 1656. Lanceston Assize before which time divers Friends both Men and Women were sent to Prison that had been taken up by the Watches When the Assize was come several of these were called before the Judge and Indicted and tho' the Jailer brought them into Court yet they Indicted them that they came in by Force of Arms and in an hostile manner And the Judge fined them because they would not put off their Hats But we were not called before the Judges any more but they let us alone Great Work we had and Service for the Lord both between the Assizes and after amongst the Professors and People of all sorts for many came to see us and to reason with us And Elizabeth Trelawny of Plimouth who was the Daughter of one called a Baronet being Convinced as was formerly mentioned the Priests and Professors and some great Persons of her Kindred were in a great Rage concerning her and writ Letters to her And she being a Wise and Tender Woman and fearing to give them any Advantage sent their Letters to me and I answered them and returned them to her again for her to send the Answers to them Which she did till growing in the Power and Spirit and Wisdom of God she came her self to be able to Answer the wisest Priest and Professor of them all and had a Dominion over them all in the Truth through the Power of the Lord by which she was kept faithful to her Death Now while I was in Prison here Lanceston Gaol the Baptists and Fifth-Monarchy-Men prophesied That this Year Christ should come and Reign upon Earth a Thousand Years And they looked upon this Reign to be Outward When as he was come inwardly in the Hearts of his People to Reign and Rule there and these Professors would not Receive him there So they failed in their Prophecy and Expectation and had not the Possession of him But Christ is come and doth dwell in the Hearts of his People and Reigns there And Thousands at the Door of whose Hearts he hath been knocking have opened to him and he is come in and doth Sup with them and they with him the heavenly Supper with the heavenly and spiritual Man So many of these Baptists and Monarchy-People turned the greatest Enemies to the Possessors of Christ But he Reigns in the Hearts of his Saints over all their Envy At the Assize divers Justices came to us and were pretty Civil and Reasoned of the things of God pretty soberly expressing a Pity to us There came also Capt. Fox who was Governour of Pendennis-Castle and lookt me in the Face and said never a word but went his ways to his Company and told them He never saw a simpler Man in his Life I called after him and said Stay Man we will see who is the simpler Man But he went his way A light Chaffy Man There came also at the Assize one Thomas Lower to Visit us and he offered to give us Money which we refused accepting nevertheless of his Love He asked us many Questions concerning our denying the Scriptures to be the Word of God and concerning the Sacraments and such like To all which he received Satisfaction And I spake unto him and he afterwards said 1656. Lanceston Gaol My Words were as a flash of Lightning they ran so through him And he said He never met with such wise Men in his Life for they knew the Thoughts of his Heart and were as the wise Master-Builders of the Assemblies that fastned their Words like Nails He came to be Convinced of the Truth and remains a Friend to this Day When he came home to his Aunt Hambley's where he then lived and made Report to her concerning us She with her Sister Grace Billing hearing the sound of Truth came afterwards to Visit us in Prison and was Convinced also And great Sufferings and Spoilings of Goods both he and his Aunt have undergone for the Truth 's sake About this time I was moved to give forth the following Paper to Friends in the Ministry Friends IN the Power of life and wisdom and dread of the Lord God of life and Heaven and Earth dwell that in the wisdom of God over all ye may be preserved and be a Terror to all the Adversaries of God and a Dread answering that of God in them all spreading the Truth abroad awakening the VVitness confounding the Deceit gathering up out of Transgression into the Life the Covenant of Light and Peace with God Let all Nations hear the sound by Word or Writing Spare no Place spare no Tongue nor Pen but be obedient to the Lord God go through the VVork and be valiant for the Truth upon Earth tread and trample all that is Contrary under Ye have the Power do not Abuse it and Strength and Presence of the Lord eye it and the VVisdom that with it you may all be ordered to the Glory of the Lord God Keep in the Dominion keep in the Power over all Deceit
tread over them in that which lets you see to the VVorlds End and the utmost Parts of the Earth Reign and Rule with Christ whose Scepter and Throne is now set up whose Dominion is over all to the Ends of the Earth whose Dominion is an everlasting Dominion Throne an everlasting Throne Kingdom an everlasting Kingdom Power above all Powers Therefore this is the Word of the Lord God to you all Keep in the wisdom of God that spreads over all the Earth the wisdom of the Creation that is Pure from Above not destructive For now shall Salvation go out of Zion to Judge the Mount of Esau and now shall the Law go forth from Jerusalem to Answer the Principle of God in all to hew down all Inventors and Inventions For all the Princes of the Earth is but as Air to the Power of the Lord God which you are in and have tasted of Therefore Live in it that is the Word of the Lord God to you all and do not Abuse it And keep down and Low and take heed of false Joys that will Change Bring all into the Worship of God Plow up the fallow Ground thresh and get out the Corn that the Seed the Wheat may be gathered into the Barn that to the Beginning all People may come to Christ that was before the VVorld was made For the Chaff is come upon the VVheat by Transgression he that treadeth it out is out of Transgression and fathoms Transgression and puts a difference between the precious and the vile and can pick out the Wheat from the Tares and gather into the Garner so brings to the lively Hope the Immortal Soul into God out of which it came And none worships God but who comes to the Principle of God which they have transgressed and none are plowed up but who comes to the Principle of God in him that he hath transgressed then he doth service to God then is the planting and the watering and the Increase from God cometh So the Ministers of the Spirit must minister to the Spirit that is in Prison which hath been in Captivity in every one that with the Spirit of Christ People may be led out of Captivity up to God the Father of Spirits and do service to him and to have Vnity with him with the Scriptures and one with another And this is the Word of the Lord God to you all and a Charge to you all in the presence of the living God Be Patterns be Examples in all Countries Places Islands Nations where-ever you come that your Carriage and Life may preach among all sorts of People and to them then you will come to walk Chearfully over the World Answering that of God in every one whereby in them ye may be a Blessing and make the Witness of God in them to bless you Then to the Lord God you will be a sweet Savour and a Blessing Spare no Deceit lay the Sword upon it go over it Keep your selves clear of the Bloods of all Men either by Word or Writing or Speaking and keep your selves clean that you may stand in your Throne and every one have his Lot and stand in the Lot in the Ancient of Days And so the Blessing of the Lord be with you and keep you over all the Idolatrous Worships and Worshippers let them know the Living God for Teachings Churches Worships must be thrown down with the power of the Lord God set up by Man's earthy Vnderstanding Knowledge and Wills For this all must be thrown down with that which gave forth Scripture and who be in that Reigns over it all That is the Word of the Lord God to you all In that is God Worshipped that brings to declare his Will and brings to the Church in God the Ground and Pillar of Truth for now is the mighty Day of the Lord appeared and the Arrows of the Almighty gone forth which shall stick in the Hearts of the Wicked Now will I Arise saith the Lord God Almighty to trample and Thunder down Deceit which hath long reigned and stained the Earth Now will I have my Glory out of every one The Lord God Almighty over all in his Strength and Power you keep to his Glory that you may come to Answer that of God in every one in the World Proclaim the mighty Day of the Lord of Fire and Sword who will be worshipped in Spirit and in Truth and keep in the Life and Power of the Lord God that the Inhabitants of the Earth may tremble before you That the Lord God's Power and Majesty may be Admired among the Hypocrites and Heathens and ye in the Wisdom Dread Life Terror and Dominion Preserved to his Glory that nothing may Rule or Reign but Power and Life it self and in the Wisdom of God ye may be preserved in it And this is the Word of the Lord God to you all and the Call is now Out of Transgression the Spirit bids Come and the Call is now from all false Worships and Gods and from all Inventions and dead Works to serve the living God and the Call to Repentance to the Amendment of Life whereby Righteousness may be brought forth which shall go throughout the Earth Therefore ye that be Chosen and Faithful which are with the Lamb go through your Work faithfully and in the Strength and Power of the Lord and be obedient to the Power for that will save you out of the Hands of unreasonable Men and preserve you over the World to himself hereby you may live in the Kingdom that stands in Power which hath no end where glory and life is For Tho. Mounts G. F. After the Assize the Sheriff with some Souldiers came to guard a Woman to Execution that was sentenced to die and we had a great deal of Discourse with them One of them wickedly said That Christ was as passionate a Man as any that lived upon the Earth for which wicked Saying we rebuked him Another time we asked the Jailer what Doings there were at the Sessions and he said Small Matters only about Thirty for Bastardy We thought it very strange that they who professed themselves Christians should make small Matters of such things But this Jailer was very bad himself and I often admonished him to Sobriety but he would Abuse People that came to Visit us Edward Pyot had a Cheese sent him from Bristol from his Wife and the Jailer took the Cheese from him and carried it to the Mayor to search it for Treasonable Letters as he said And though they found no Treason in the Cheese they kept it from us This Gaoler might have been made Rich if he had carried himself Civilly but he sought his own Ruin Which soon after came upon him For the next Year he was turned out of his Place and for some wickedness was cast into the Jail himself and there begged of our Friends And for some Vnruliness in his Carriage he was by the succeeding Jailer put into Doomsdale and
us that were turned to the Lord Jesus Christ but since it is become a Larger Meeting Leaving Kingston we rode to London Hide-park And when we came near Hide-Park we saw a great Concourse of People and looking towards them we espied the Protector coming in his Coach Whereupon I rode up to his Coach-side and some of his Life-Guard would have put me away but he forbad them So I rode down by his Coach-side with him declaring what the Lord gave me to say unto him of his Condition and of the Sufferings of Friends in the Nation shewing him ' how contrary this Persecution was to Christ and his Apostles and to Christianity London When we were come to James's Park-gate I left him and at parting he desired me to come to his House The next Day one of his Wife's Maids whose Name was Mary Sanders came up to me at my Lodging and said Her Master came to her and told her he would tell her some good News And when she asked him What it was He told her George Fox was come to Town She replied That was good News indeed for she was one that had received Truth but she said She could hardly believe him till he told her how I met him and rode from Hide-Park down to James 's Park with him After a little time Edward Pyot and I went to Whitehall Whitehal And when we came before him there was one called Dr. Owen Vice-chancellor of Oxford with him We were moved to speak to Oliver Cromwel concerning the Sufferings of Friends and laid them before him and directed him to the Light of Christ who had enlightned appeared to all Men. 1656. London Jude saith Behold the Lord cometh with Ten Thousands of his Saints to execute Judgment upon all and to convince all that are Vngodly among them of all their ungodly Deeds which they have ungodly committed and of all their hard Speeches which ungodly Sinners have spoken against him ver 15. Here mark again Him that cometh with ten Thousands of his Saints to Convince all of their ungodly Deeds and hard Speeches Here it is All of their ungodly Deeds and All of their hard Speeches none left out but All to be Convinced and Judged the World Reproved by him who comes with ten Thousands of his Saints and will Reign and be King and Judge And have not ye all something in you that doth Reprove you for your hard Speeches and your ungodly Deeds the Ungodliest of you all who live in your hard Speeches against him and against his Light and spiritual Appearance in his People Again the Apostle writing to the Gentiles saith But unto every one of us is given Grace according to the Measure of the gift of Christ Ephes 4.7 Now mark Here is the Measure of the Gift of Christ who lighteth every Man that cometh into the World Joh. 1.9 that all Men through him might believe He that believeth on him is not condemned but he that believeth not is condemned c. And this is the Condemnation that Light is come into the World c. Joh. 3.18.19 Now every Man that cometh â—nto the World being enlightned One he loveth it and brings his Deeds to the Light that with the Light he may see whether they be wrought in God The Other he hates the Light because his Deeds are Evil and he will not bring his Deeds to the Light because he knows the Light will reprove him So he that hates the Light wherewith Christ hath enlightned him knows the Light will reprove him for his evil Deeds and therefore he will not come to the Light Again the Lord by his Prophet saith concerning Christ I will give him for a Light to the Gentiles that he may be my Salvation to the Ends of the Earth Isa 49.6 And what is that which the Children that walk according to the Course of this World according to the Prince of the Power of the Air the Spirit that now worketh in the Children of Disobedience Ephes 2.2 are disobedient to Mark and read your selves who being disobedient walk according to the Course of the World according to the Power of the Prince of the Air Mark I say what it is that all such are disobedient to He that hath an Ear let him hear The Apostle saith to the Colossians The wrath of God cometh upon the Children of Disobedience Col. 3.6 Come ye Professors let us see Is not this something of God that is disobey'd Is it not that which is of God manifest in them which God hath shewed them which lets them see God's Judgments are upon such when they act unrighteously Is not this the Measure of God Mark and the Spirit that is in Prison and the Spirit of God that is grieved And ye Professors come let us read the Parable of the Talents and reckon with you and see who it is that hath hid the Lord's Money in the Earth Come ye that have gained enter ye into your Master's Joy Go thou that hast hid the Lord's Money in the Earth into utter Darkness Take it from him and give it to him that hath and every Man shall have his Reward For the Lord hath given to every Man according to â—is several Ability Mat. 25.15 Mark that To every Man according to his several Ability Read this if you can And now is the Lord coming to call every Man severally to Accompt to whom he hath given severally according to their Ability And now the wicked and slothful Servant who hid the Lord's Money in the Earth will be found out and the Lord's Money will be taken from him although he hath hidden it To him the Lord's Commands have been grievous but to us they are not who love God and keep his Commandments And saith the Apostle to the Romans I say through the Grace given unto me to every Man that is among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think but to think soberly according as God hath dealt to every Man the measure of Faith Rom. 12.3 Read and mark here is a Measure of Faith And saith another Apostle As every one hath received the Gift even so minister the same one to another as good Stewards of the manifold grace of God 1 Pet. 4.10 For the grace of God hath appeared to all Men. Now the good Stewards can give their Accompt with Joy But ye bad Stewards that turn the grace of God into Lasciviousness now ye will be reckoned withal now ye shall have your Reward But say the World Must every one minister as he hath received the Gift Yea say I but let him speak as the Oracles of God and let him do it as of the Ability which God giveth ver 11. John in the Revelation saith They were judged every Man according to their works Rev. 20.13 Christ saith Every idle Word that Men shall speak they shall give Account thereof in the day of Judgment Mat 12.36 So ye that name the
Vnconsecrated Bread and VVine in a safe Place with a sure VVatch upon it and let Trial thus be made VVhether the Consecrated Bread and VVine would not lose its Goodness and the Bread grow dry and mouldy and the VVine turn dead and sour as well and as soon as that which was Vnconsecrated By this means said I the Truth of this matter may be made manifest And if the Consecrated Bread and VVine change not but retain their Savour and Goodness this may be a Means to draw many to your Church If they change decay and lose their Goodness then ought you to confess and forsake your Error and shed no more Blood about it for much Blood hath been shed about these things as in Queen Mary's Days To this the Jesuit made this Reply Take said he a piece of New Cloth and cut it into two pieces and make two Garments of it and put one of them upon King David 's Back and the other upon a Beggar 's and the one Garment shall wear away as well as the other Is this thy Answer said I Yes said he Then said I by this the Company may all be satisfied that your Consecrated Bread and VVine is not Christ Have ye told People so long that the Consecrated Bread and VVine was Immortal and Divine and that it was the very and real Body and Blood of Christ and dost thou now say it will wear away or decay as well as the other I must tell thee Christ remains the same to day as yesterday and never decays but is the Saints heavenly Food in all Generations through which they have Life He replied no more to this being willing to let it fall for the People that were present saw his Error and that he could not defend it Then I asked him Why their Church did persecute and put People to Death for Religion He replied It was not the Church did it but the Magistrates I asked him Whether those Magistrates were not counted and called Believers and Christians He said Yes Why then said I Are they not Members of your Church Yes said he Then I left it to the People to judge from his own Concessions Whether the Church of Rome doth not persecute and put People to Death for Religion Thus we parted and his Subtilty was comprehended by Simplicity Now during the Time that I was at London I had many Services lay upon me for it was a Time of much Suffering And I was moved to write to O. Cromwell and lay before him the Sufferings of Friends both in this Nation and in Ireland There was also a Talk about this time of making Cromwel King Whereupon I was moved to go to him and warned him against the same and of divers Dangers which if he did not avoid I told him He would bring a Shame and Ruin upon himself and his Posterity He seemed to take well what I said to him and thanked me Yet afterwards I was moved to write unto him more fully concerning that matter About this time the Lady Claypool so called was sick and much troubled in Mind and could receive no Comfort from any that came to her which when I heard of I was moved to write unto her this following Letter Friend BE Still and Cool in thy own Mind and Spirit from thy own Thoughts and then thou wilt feel the Principle of God to turn thy Mind to the Lord God from whom Life comes whereby thou mayest receive his Strength and Power to allay all Blustrings Storms and Tempests That is it which works up into Patience into Innocency into Soberness into Stilness into Stayedness into Quietness up to God with his Power Therefore mind that is the Word of the Lord God unto thee that the Authority of God thou mayst feel and thy Faith in that to work down that which troubles thee For that is it which keeps Peace and brings up the Witness in thee which hath been transgressed to feel after God with his Power and Life who is a God of Order and Peace When thou art in the Transgression of the Life of God in thy own particular the Mind flies up in the Air and the Creature is led into the Night and Nature goes out of its Course and an old Garment goes on and an uppermost Clothing and thy Nature being led out of its Course it comes to be all on a Fire in the Transgression and that defaceth the Glory of the First Body Therefore be still a while from thy own Thoughts searching seeking Desires and Imaginations and be stayed in the Principle of God in thee that it may raise thy Mind up to God and stay it upon God and thou wilt find Strength from him and find him to be a God at hand a present Help in the time of Trouble and of Need. And thou being come to the Principle of God which hath been transgressed it will keep thee humble and the humble God will teach his way which is Peace and such he doth Exalt Now as the Principle of God in thee hath been transgressed come to it that it may keep thy Mind down low to the Lord God and deny thy self and from thy own Will that is the Earthly thou must be kept Then thou wilt feel the Power of God which will bring Nature into its Course and give thee to see the Glory of the First Body And there the Wisdom of God will be received which is Christ by which all things were made and Created to be thereby preserved and ordered to God's Glory There thou wilt come to receive and feel the Physician of Value who cloaths People in their right Mind whereby they may serve God and do his Will For all Distractions Unruliness and Confusion is in the Transgression which Transgression must be brought down before the Principle of God which hath been Transgressed against be lifted up whereby the Mind may be seasoned and stilled and a right understanding of the Lord may be received whereby his Blessings enter and are felt over all that is contrary in the Power of the Lord God which raises up the Principle of God within and gives a feeling after God and in time gives Dominion Therefore keep in the Fear of the Lord God that is the Word of the Lord God unto thee for all these things happen to thee for thy Good and for the Good of those concerned for thee to make you know your selves and your own Weakness and that ye may know the Lord's Strength and Power and may trust in him Therefore Let the time that is past be sufficient to every one who in any thing hath been lifted up in Transgression out of the Power of the Lord For he can bring down and abase the Mighty and lay them in the Dust of the Earth Therefore all keep low in his Fear that thereby ye may receive the Secrets of God and his Wisdom and may know the Shadow of the Almighty and sit under it in all Tempests and Storms
Power of God and we are Heirs of Christ who have inherited him and his Everlasting Kingdom and do possess the Power of an Endless Life Knowing this our Portion and Inheritance this is to take off all Jealousies out of your Minds and out of the Minds of all People concerning us That all Plots and Conspiracies Plotters and Conspirators against the King and all Aiders or Assisters thereunto we always did and do utterly deny to be any of us or to be of the Fellowship of the Gospel or to be of Christ's Kingdom or to be his Servants For Christ said His Kingdom was not of this World if it were his Servants would fight And therefore he bid Peter Put up his Sword for said he he that taketh the Sword shall perish by the Sword Here is the Faith and Patience of the Saints to bear and suffer all things knowing as we know that Vengeance is the Lord's and he will repay it to them that hurt his People and that do wrong to the Innocent Therefore cannot we avenge but suffer for his Name 's sake And we do know that the Lord will judge the World in Righteousness according to their Deeds and that when every one shall give an Account to him of the Deeds done in the Body then will the Lord give every Man according to his Works whether they be Good or whether they be Evil. Christ saith he came not to destroy Men's Lives And when his Disciples would have had Fire to come down from Heaven to have consumed them that did not receive him he told them They knew not what Spirit they were of that would have Mens Lives destroyed and therefore he rebuked them and told them That he came not to destroy Men's Lives but to save them Now we are of Christ's Mind who is the great Prophet whom all ought to hear in all things who saith to his If they strike thee on one Cheek turn the other and render to no Man Evil for Evil. This Doctrine of his have we learned and do not only confess him in Words but follow his Doctrine and therefore have and do we suffer all manner of Reproaches Scandals and Slanders and spoiling of Goods Buffetings and Whippings Stripes and Imprisonments for these many years and can say The Lord forgive them that have thus served us and lay not these things to their Charge And we know that the Jews outward Sword by which they cut down the Heathen outwardly was a Type of the inward Sword of the Spirit which cuts down the inward Heathen the raging Nature in People And the Blood of Bulls Lambs Rams and other Offerings and that Priesthood that offered them together with other things in the Law were Types of Christ the one Offering and of his Blood who is the Everlasting Priest and Covenant Christ our Life and Way to God and who is the great Prophet and Shepherd that looks to his Flock and the Head of his Church and the great Bishop of our Souls whom we witness come and he doth oversee and keep his Flock For in Adam in the Fall we know the striving quarrelling unpeaceable Spirits are in the Enmity one with another and not in Peace But in Christ Jesus the Second Adam that never fell is Peace Rest and Life And the Doctrine of Christ who never sinned is to love one another and who be in this Doctrine hurt no man in which we are in Christ who is our Life Therefore it is well for you to distinguish betwixt the Precious and the Vile between them that fear God and serve him and them that do not and to put a difference between the Innocent and the Guilty and between him that is Holy and Pure and the Ungodly and Prophane for they that do not so bring Troubles Burdens and Sorrows upon themselves And this we write in Love to your Souls that ye may consider these things for they that hate Enemies and hate one another we cannot say they are of God nor in Christ's Doctrine but are Opposers of it And such as wrestle with Flesh and Blood with Carnal Weapons are gone into the Flesh out of the Spirit They are not in our Fellowship in the Spirit in which is the Bond of Peace neither are they of Vs nor have we Vnity with them in their fleshly state and with their Carnal Weapons For our Unity and Fellowship stands in the Gospel which is the Power of God before the Devil was the Liar and the Murderer the Man-slayer and the Envious Man Now Christ's Mind and his Doctrine being to save Men's Lives we who are of Christ's Mind are out of and above these things And our desire is 1664. Lancaster Castle that in the Fear of the Lord ye may all Live that in that ye may all receive God's Wisdom by which all things were created that by it all may be ordered to God's Glory This is from them that love all your Souls and seek your Eternal Good Being now a Prisoner in Lancaster Castle a deep sense came upon me of a Day of sore Trial and Exercise that was come and coming upon all that had been high in Profession of Religion And I was moved to give forth the following Paper as a Warning unto such NOw is the Day that every one's Faith and Love to God and Christ will be Tried and who are Redeemed out of the Earth and who are in the Earth will be manifested and who is their Master they serve and whether they will run to the Mountains to Cover them Now will it appear who are the Stony Ground who are the Thorny Ground and who are the High-way-Ground in whom the Fowls of the Air take away the Seed and the Thorns and Cares of the World Choke and the Heat of Persecution scorches and burns up your green Blade For the Day trieth all things Therefore let not such as forsake Truth for saving the Earth say that your Brother Priest only serveth not the Lord Jesus Christ but his own Belly and mindeth Earthly things for such themselves also do the same and do hug and embrace Self and not the Lord. Now it will be made manifest who is every ones God and Christ and Saviour and their Love will be manifest whether it be of the World or the Love of God for if it be the Love of the World it is Enmity and the Enmity will manifest it self what it is and the Day will Try every Spirit and his Fruits Therefore all my dear Friends In the Everlasting Seed of God live that is over all the House of Adam and his Works in the Fall and so dwelling in the Seed Christ that never fell in him you all have Vertue and Life and Peace and through him ye will overcome all that is in the Fall G. F. I writ also another Short Epistle to Friends to Warn them to keep out of that Spirit that wrought in John Perrot and his Company against the Truth Dear Friends DWell in
are with me and we are well Glory to the Lord for ever who hath carried us through many Perils Perils by Water and in Storms Perils by Pirates and Robbers Perils in the Wilderness and amongst false Professors Praises to him whose Glory is over all for ever Amen Therefore mind the fresh Life and live all to God in it I do intend if the Lord will to stay a while this-away it may be till the Fair. So no more but my Love to all Friends Bristol the 28th Day of the 4th Month 1673. G. F. Between this and the Fair my Wife came out of the North to Bristol to me and her Son-in-Law Thomas Lower with two of her Daughters came with her And her other Son-in-Law John Rouse and W. Penn and his Wife and Gerrard Roberts came down from London and many Friends from several parts of the Nation came to the Fair and glorious powerful Meetings we had there at that time for the Lord 's Infinite Power and Life was over all In the fresh Openings whereof I was moved to declare of Three Estates and Three Teachers viz. That God was the first Teacher of Man and Woman in Paradise And as long as they kept to and under God's Teaching they kept in the Image of God and in his Likeness in Righteousness and Holiness and in Dominion over all that God had made in the blessed State in the Paradise of God But when they heark'ned to the Serpent's false Teaching who was out of Truth and disobeyed God and obeyed the Serpent in feeding upon that which God forbad them then they lost the Image of God the Righteousness and Holiness and came under the Power of Satan and were turned out of Paradise out of the Blessed into the Cursed State And then the Promise of God was That the Seed of the Woman should bruise the Serpent's Head and break his Power that Man and Woman were under and destroy his Works So here were Three States and Three Teachers God was the first Teacher in Paradise and whilst Man kept under his Teaching he was happy The Serpent was the Second Teacher and when Man followed his Teaching he came into Misery and into the Fall from the Image of God and Righteousness and Holiness and from the Power that he had over all that God had made and came under the Serpent whom he had Power over before Christ Jesus was the Third Teacher of whom God saith This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased hear ye him and who himself saith Learn of me This is the true Gospel-Teacher who bruises the Head of the Serpent that is the False Teacher and the Head of all False Teachers and of all False Religions False Ways False Worships and False Churches Now Christ who said Learn of me and of whom the Father said Hear ye him he said I am the Way to God I am the Truth I am the Life and the true Light So as Man and Woman come up again to God and are renewed up into his Image Righteousness and Holiness by Christ thereby they come up into the Paradise of God the State which Man was in before he fell and into an higher State than that to sit down in Christ that never fell Therefore the Son of God is to be heard in all things who is the Saviour and the Redeemer and hath laid down his Life and bought his Sheep with his precious Blood And we can challenge all the World Who hath any thing to say against our Way our Saviour our Redeemer who is our Prophet whom God hath raised up that we may hear and whom we must hear in all things Who hath any thing against our Shepherd Christ Jesus who leads and feeds us and we know his Heavenly Voice And who hath any thing against our Bishop in whose Mouth was never Guile found who doth Oversee us in his Pasture of Life that we do not go astray from God and out of his Fold And who hath any thing against our Priest Christ Jesus made higher than the Heavens who gives us freely and commands us to give freely And who hath any thing to say against our Leader and Counsellor Christ Jesus who never sinned but is holy and harmless and separate from Sinners God hath commanded us to hear him and he saith Learn of me and if we should disobey God's and Christ's Command we should be like our Father Adam and Mother Eve who disobeyed God's Command and hearkned to the Serpent's Teaching Now Man commands and would force us to hear the Hirelings who plead for Sin and the Body of Death to the Grave which Doctrine savours of the Devil 's Teaching not of Christ's But we resolve to hear the Son as both he and the Father command and in hearing the Son we hear the Father also as the Scripture testifies For the Author to the Hebrews says God who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the Fathers by the Prophets hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son Mark that God hath spoken unto us his Apostles Disciples Church by his Son And whereas some have objected That although Christ did speak both to his Disciples and to the Jews in the days of his Flesh yet since his Resurrection and Ascension he doth not speak now The Answer is That as God did then speak by his Son in the Days of his Flesh so the Son Christ Jesus doth now speak by his Spirit Wherefore John saith in the Revelations He that hath an Ear let him hear what the Spirit saith to the Churches Rev. 2. And Christ is said to speak from Heaven Heb. 12.25 See that ye refuse not him that speaketh for if they escaped not who refused him that spake on Earth much more shall not we escape if we turn away from him that speaketh from Heaven They that resisted Moses his Law who spake on Earth died for it without Mercy which was a Natural Death but they that refuse him that speaks from Heaven neglect and slight their own Salvation and so die a Spiritual Death through Unbelief and Hardness of Heart Therefore was the Exhortation given of old To day if ye will hear his Voice harden not your Hearts as in the Provocation c. Heb. 3.15 c. So that they who neglect or refuse to hear the Voice of Christ now speaking from Heaven in this his Gospel-Day harden their Hearts Therefore let all mark well thâ—se three States and Teachers The God of Truth was the first Teacher wâ—â—â—e Man was in Paradise and in Innocency The Serpent was the second Teacher the false Teacher who by his false Teaching came to be the God of the World which lies in Wickedneâ—s Christ Jesus that bruises the Serpent's Head is the third Teacher who saith Learn of me and of whom God saith This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased Hear ye him and of whom the Testimony of the Saints of Old was That
one another in Vertue and in that Love that doth bear all things and doth edifie the Body of Christ the Body of the second Adam For the Body of old Adam in the Fall is full of Malice Envy and Vice And therefore you that are called out of Old Adam in the Fall and have put on Christ the second Adam that never fell Walk in him who is the Treasure of Life Wisdom and Knowledge in whom ye have peace with God who is the First and Last the Beginning and the Ending So let all be gathered up to God into him who reconcileth all things in one both things in Heaven and things in the Earth who is the faithful and true Witness both in Male and Female And in him sit down who is above the subtle Foxes in their holes and the Fowls of the Air in their nests I say sit down in Christ who hath no place among them to lay his head he is your rest So in him is my Love to you all London the 20th of the 11th Month 1682. G. F. It was not long after this that I received an Account by Letter from some Friends that were Prisoners in Denby in Wales by which I understood that many Friends there were under great Sufferings for the Testimony of a good Conscience In the tender sense whereof I was moved in the Love of God to Visit them with a few Lines as a Word of Consolation to them in their Sufferings and of Exhortation to stand fast in the Testimony committed to them And that which I writ was thus DEar suffering Lambs for the Name and Command of Jesus Be valiant for his Truth and faithful and ye will feel the Presence of Christ with you And look at him who suffered for you and hath bought you and will feed you who saith Be of good Comfort I have overcome the World who destroys the Devil and his Works and bruises the Serpent's head I say Look at Christ who is your Sanctuary in whom ye have rest and peace To you it is given not only to believe but to suffer for his Name 's sake And they that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer Persecution by the ungodly Professors of Christ Jesus who live out of him And therefore be valiant for God's Truth upon the Earth and look above that Spirit that makes you suffer up to Christ who was before it was and will be when it is gone Consider all the Prophets Christ and the Apostles who suffered and were persecuted but they never persecuted them as true men but as Deceivers and yet true And Christ is the same to day as he was yesterday a Rock and Foundation for your Age and Generation for you to build upon I have written concerning you after I heard your Letter to Friends in Cheshire to Visit you understanding that you belong to their Quarterly Meeting And therefore I desire that some Friends of your County would go and lay your suffering Condition before the Monthly or Quarterly Meeting in Cheshire I have written likewise to Richard Davis that some of that side may go and visit you and see how your Condition is So my Love is to you in the Lord who is your alone Support London the 27th of the 11th Month 1682. G. F. Now because the Magistrates were many of them unwilling to have Fines laid upon Meeting-houses they kept Friends out in many places setting Officers and Guards of Soldiers at the Doors and Passages And yet sometimes Friends were fined for Speaking or Praying though it were abroad One First-day it was upon me to go to Devonshire-house-Meeting in the Afternoon Dev. Meet and because I had heard Friends were kept out there that Morning as they were that Day at most Meetings about the City I went somewhat the sooner and got into the Yard before the Soldiers came to guard the Passages but the Constables were got there before me and stood in the Door-way with their Staves I asked them to let me go in They said They could not nor durst not for they were commanded the contrary and were sorry for it I told them I would not press upon them so I stood by and they were very Civil I stood till I was weary and then one gave me a Stool to sit down on and after a while the Power of the Lord began to spring up among Friends and one began to speak The Constables soon forbad him and said he should not speak and he not stopping they began to be wroth But I gently laid my hand upon one of the Constables and wisht him to let him alone The Constable did so and was quiet and the Man did not speak long When he had done after a while I was moved to stand up and speak and in my Declaration I said They need not come against us with Swords and Staves for we were a peaceable People and had nothing in our Hearts but Good-will to the King and Magistrates and to all People upon the Earth And we did not Meet under pretence of Religion to plot and contrive against the Government or to raise Insurrections but to worship God in Spirit and in Truth And we had Christ to be our Bishop and Priest and Shepherd to feed us and oversee us and he ruled in our hearts so we could all sit in silence enjoying our Teacher So to Christ their Bishop and Shepherd I did recommend them all And after I had spoken what was upon me at that time I sate down and after a while I was moved to pray and the Power of the Lord was over all Friends and the People and the Constable and Soldiers put off their Hats And when the Meeting was done and Friends began to pass away the Constable put off his Hat and desired the Lord to bless us for the Power of the Lord was over him and the People and kept them under After this I went up and down visiting Friends at their houses who had had their Goods taken from them for worshipping God and we took an account of what had been taken from them and some Friends met together about it and drew up the Case of the Sufferings of our Friends in writing and gave it to the Justices at their Petty-Sessions Whereupon they made an Order That the Officers should not sell the Goods of Friends which they had in their hands but keep them until the next Sessions which gave some discouragement to the Informers and put a little stop to their proceedings The next First-day it was upon me to go to the Meeting at the Savoy and by that time the Meeting was gathered Savoy Meet the Beadle came in and after him came in the wild People like a Sea but the Lord's Power chained them all The Spirit of the Lord went through and over all and they were quiet and we had a glorious peaceable Meeting blessed be the Lord for his unspeakable goodness This was in the Twelfth Month 1682. In the
First Month 1683. I went to Kingston upon Thames and it being then a time of Persecution as I went to the Meeting I met the Chief Constable who had been at the Meeting-Place Kingston upon Thames and had set Watchmen there to keep us out yet he was pretty Civil and the Watchmen let Friends have a couple of Forms out to sit upon in the High-way so Friends met together there and a very precious Meeting we had for the refreshing Presence of the Lord was with us in which we parted in peace Having visited and encouraged Friends there I returned to London and went to the Meeting at Bull and Mouth London Bull and M. Meeting where the Constables with their Watchmen kept a Guard to keep Friends out of the House So we met in the Street and when any Friend spake the Officers and Watchmen made a great bustle to pull him down and take him into Custody After some other Friends had spoken it was upon me to speak and I said Heaven is God's Throne and Earth is his Footstool and will ye not let us stand upon God's Footstool to worship and serve the living God While I spake they were quiet and after I had cleared my self of what was upon me to speak we brake up our Meeting in peace This was on the Sixth-day of the Week On the First-day of the Week following I was moved to go to the Meeting at Gracious-street and when I came there Grac. Meet I found a Guard set at the Entrance in Lumbard-street and another at the Gate in Gracious-street to keep Friends out of the Meeting-Place so that we were fain to meet abroad in the Street After some time I got a Chair and stood up in it and spake largely to the People Opening the Principles of Truth to them and declaring many weighty Truths concerning Magistracy and concerning the Lord's Prayer There was besides Friends a great Multitude of People and amongst them many Professors and all was very quiet for the Lord's Power was over all and in the Lord's time we broke up our Meeting and departed in peace The next day I went down to Guilford in Surrey Surrey Guilford Sussex Worminghurst and having visited Friends there I passed from thence to Worminghurst in Sussex where I had a very blessed Meeting among Friends and free from disturbance While I was there James Claypoole of London who with his Wife was there also was suddenly taken very ill with so violent a Fit of the Stone 1683. Worminghurst that he could neither stand nor lie but through the extremity of pain cried out like a Woman in Travel When I heard it I was much exercised in Spirit for him and went to him and after I had spoken a few words to him to turn his mind inward I was moved to lay my hand upon him and prayed the Lord to rebuke his Infirmity And as I laid my hand on him the Lord's Power went through him and through Faith in that Power he had speedy Ease so that he quickly fell into a sleep And when he awaked the Stone came from him like dirt and he was so well that the next day he rode with me five and twenty miles in a Coach though he used formerly as he said to lie sometimes two weeks sometimes a month with one of those Fits of the Stone But the Lord was intreated for him and by his Power soon gave him Ease at this time blessed and praised be his holy Name therefore Now after I had had some Meetings in Sussex and Surrey and had visited Friends there aways I returned to London by Kingston Kingston where I had a Meeting on the First-day of the second Month being the First-day of the Week also We were kept out of the Meeting-House by a Constable and Watchmen as before and so were fain to meet in the High-way But it being the Monthly-Meeting-day and many of the World's People being there the Meeting was pretty large and very quiet and the Lord's blessed Presence was amongst us blessed be his Name for ever London Wheel Meet Being come to London I went to the Meeting at Wheeler-street near Spittle-fields which that day proved very large For besides that there were more Friends there that day than usually there came also many Professors to the Meeting that day and a glorious blessed Meeting it was for the Lord's Power and Truth was over all and many deep and weighty things were opened to the People to their great Satisfaction I tarried now in and near about London visiting Friends Meetings and labouring in the Service of the Gospel until the Yearly-Meeting came on which began on the 28th of the third Month this Year It was a time of great Sufferings and much concerned I was lest Friends that came up out of the Countries on the Churches-Service should be taken and imprisoned at London But the Lord was with us and his Power preserved us and gave us a sweet and blessed Opportunity to wait upon him and be refreshed together in him and to perform those Services for his Truth and People for which we met Now inasmuch as it was a time of great Persecution and we understood by our Friends who came out of the several parts of the Nation that in most Counties Friends were under great Sufferings either by Imprisonments or spoilings of Goods or both a concern was weightily upon me lest any Friends that were Sufferers especially such as were Traders and Dealers in the World should hazard the losing of other mens Goods or Estates through their Sufferings Wherefore as the thing opened in me 1683. London I drew an Epistle of Caution to Friends in that Case which I communicated to the Brethren at the Yearly-Meeting and from thence it was sent forth among Friends throughout the Nation A Copy of which here followeth DEar Friends and Brethren in the Lord Jesus Christ who is your only Sanctuary in this day of Storm and Persecution Spoiling of Goods and Imprisonments Let every ones Eye be unto him who has all Power in Heaven and Earth given unto him so that none can touch an hair of your head nor you nor any thing ye have except it be permitted or suffered in this day to Try his People whether their minds be with the Lord or in the Outward things And now Dear Friends take care that all your Offerings may be free and of your own that has cost you something so that ye may not offer of that which is another man's or that which ye are intrusted withal and not your own or Fatherless or Widows Estates but all such things ye may settle and establish in their places You may remember many years ago in a time of great Persecution there were divers Friends who were Traders Shop-keepers and others who had the Concerns of Widows and Fatherless and other Peoples Estates in their hands And when a great Suffering Persecution and Spoiling of Goods
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
were many loose Spirits there yet they were bound down by the Power and Spirit of the Lord that they could not get up to make disturbance About this time I was moved to write the following Epistle Friends and Brethren WHO have received the peaceable Truth let the fruits of its peaceableness and of your quiet Spirit appear in all your Meetings and in all your Words and Actions for he that inhabits Eternity dwells with an humble heart and he gives Grace to the humble and resisteth the proud Heaven is his Throne and the Earth ye walk upon is his Foot-stool happy are ye that see and know him that is Invisible And now Friends ☞ Let all things be done in your Meetings and otherways in Love without strife or vain-glory For Love fulfils the Law and Love overcomes and edifies the Body of Christ and builds it up and there is neither Self nor Envy in Love neither is it pufft up but abides and bears all things So see that this Love of God have the sway in you all and over you all Christ saith Blessed are the Poor in Spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven Blessed are they that mourn for they shall be comforted Blessed are the Meek for they shall inherit the Earth Blessed are they that do hunger and thirst after Righteousness for they shall be filled Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain Mercy Blessed are the Pure in heart for they shall see God Blessed are the Peace makers for they shall be called the Children of God Blessed are they that are Persecuted for Righteousness sake for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you and shall say all manner of evil against you falsly for my sake rejoice and be exceeding glad for great is your reward in Heaven For so persecuted they the Prophets which were before you Now Friends here is a great deal in these words And all must be in these States and Conditions if they have these Blessings And the Children of God are Peace-makers and strive to make Peace in the Truth and to live in Peace with all men if it be possible So live in the Peace and the Good-will to all men which Good-will is both for their Sanctification and Salvation And Friends consider The Wisdom of God which is from above is pure peaceable and gentle and easie to be entreated full of mercy and good fruits without Partiality and without Hypocrisie And now Dear Friends let this pure peaceable gentle Wisdom that is from above that is easie to be entreated 1683. London and is full of mercy and good fruits be exercised and practised in all the true Churches of Christ so that Wisdom may be justified of her Children For the Works of the Flesh or fleshly Spirit are Hatred Variance Wrath Strife Envyings Drunkenness Revilings Adultery Fornication Lasciviousness Uncleanness c. and they which do such things shall not inherit the Kingdom of God But the Fruits of the Spirit of God are Love Joy Peace Long-suffering Gentleness Goodness Faith Meekness Temperance c. And so Dear Friends and Brethren strive to exceed one another and all People upon the Earth in Humility in Meekness in Gentleness in Temperance in Love and in Patience in Pureness and in Mercy and then ye will shew forth the Fruits of the Spirit of God and of his heavenly Wisdom that is from above And in this Wisdom will be justified of her Children and ye will be the Salt of the Earth and the Light of the World set on an Hill that cannot be hid and your Moderation will appear to all men And be ye just and righteous and faithful and true in all your Words Dealings and Conversations so that ye may answer the Truth in all People For Christ saith his Father is glorified by such as bring forth Fruits when men do see their good Works for he that doth Righteousness is accepted with God And he that dwells in Love dwells in God for Love is his Habitation And let that be the Habitation of every one that hath received the Truth for if it be not such do not dwell in God let them profess what they will And therefore my desire is that all you who have received Christ the Seed which bruises the Serpent's head may walk in him your Sanctuary Life and Salvation your Rest and Peace Amen London the 14th of the 6th Month 1683. G. F. I continued yet at London labouring in the Work and Service of the Lord both in Meetings and out sometimes visiting the Friends that were in Prison for the Testimony of Jesus encouraging them in their Sufferings and exhorting them to stand faithful and stedfast in the Testimony which the Lord had committed to them to bear sometimes also visiting those that were sick and weak in Body or troubled in Mind helping to bear their Spirits up from sinking under their Infirmities Sometimes our Meetings were quiet and peaceable sometimes they were disturbed and broken up by the Officers One First-day it was upon me to go to the Meeting at the Savoy Sav. Meet and it was a large Meeting for many Professors and sober People were there And the Lord opened many precious weighty things in me to the People which I declared amongst them and directed them to the Spirit of God in themselves which the Lord had given them a measure of that all by the Spirit might understand the Scriptures which were given forth from the Spirit of God And that by the Spirit of God they might know God and Christ whom God hath sent whom to know was Eternal Life And that by the Spirit they might all come into Christ and know him to be their Sanctuary who destroys the Devil the Destroyer and his works and bruises the Serpent's head For Christ was a Sanctuary to them to whom he was a Saviour whom he saved from the Destroyer And Christ did baptize them with the holy Ghost and with Fire and did thorowly purge his floor and burn up their Chaff with unquenchable fire that is Sin and Corruption which is got into Man and Woman by their Transgression But Christ gathereth his Wheat into his Garner So all that are baptized with Christ's Baptism their Wheat is in God's Garner and no Spoiler can get into God's Garner to meddle with the Wheat there though they may be permitted to meddle with the outward Goods c. Now as I was speaking in the power of the Lord and the People were greatly affected therewith on a sudden the Constables with the rude People came in like a Sea and one of the Constables said to me Come down and he laid hands on me I asked him Art thou a Christian We are Christians He had hold on my hand and was very fierce to pluck me down but I stood still and spake a few words to the People desiring of the Lord that the Blessings of God might rest upon them all
Yearly-Meeting was over which this Year was about the beginning of the Fourth Month. A precious Meeting it was and a very refreshing Season Friends had together the Lord vouchsafing to honour our Assemblies with his living and glorious Presence in a very plentiful manner At the Conclusion of the Meeting I felt a Concern upon my Spirit to give forth the following Paper to be dispersed abroad amongst Friends ALL you Believers in the Light that are become Children of the Light walk as Children of the Light and of the Day of Christ and as a City set on a Hill that cannot be hid and so let your Light shine that People may see your good Works and glorifie your Father which is in Heaven For a good Tree bringeth forth good Fruit and therefore be ye Trees of Righteousness the planting of the Lord having Fruits unto Holiness and then your End will be Everlasting life And such are the Wells and Cisterns that hold the living Water of life which springs up in them to Eternal life so ye may all drink Water out of your own Cisterns and running Water out of your own Wells and eat every one of his own Fig-tree and of his own Vine having Salt every one in your selves to season every one's Sacrifice acceptable to God by Jesus Christ and like unto the Wise Virgins that have Oil in their Lamps and follow the Lamb and enter in with the Bridegroom 1688. London Yearly-Meeting And now is the time to Labour while it is day yea the Day of Christ and to stir up every one's pure Mind and the Gift of God that is in them and to improve your Talents that Christ hath given you that ye may profit And to walk every one according to the Measure that Christ hath given you for the Manifestation of the Spirit of God is given to every one to profit withal Now consider what you have profited in spiritual and heavenly things with the heavenly Spirit of God and be not like the wicked and slothful that hid his Talent from whom it was taken and he cast into Utter darkness And a Dwarf or one that had any blemish was not to come nigh to Offer upon God's Altar And therefore mind the Word of Wisdom to keep you out of that which will Corrupt you and Blemish you and that ye may grow in Grace and in Faith and in the Knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ and feeding upon the Milk of the Word may grow by it that ye may not be Dwarfs and so to Offer your spiritual Sacrifice upon God's holy Altar For the Field or Vineyard of the slothful grows over with Thorns and Nettles and his Walls go down such are they that are not diligent in the Spirit of God and the Power which is the Wall a sure Fence and the Spirit of God will Weed out all both Thorns and Thistles and Nettles out of the Vineyard of the heart And you that are Keepers of others Vineyards see that you keep your own Vineyard clean with the Spirit and Power of Christ and sanctifie your selves and sanctifie the Lord in your hearts that ye may be a holy People to the Lord who saith Be ye holy for I am holy that ye may be the holy Members of the Church of Christ that is clothed with the Sun and hath the Moon under her feet the changeable World with all her changeable Worships Religions Churches and Teachers And be ye new and heavenly Jerusalem's Children for new and heavenly Jerusalem that is above is the Mother of all the Children of the Light and that are born of the Spirit and these be they that have been persecuted and have suffered by the false Church Mystery Babylon and Mother of Harlots And now all heavenly Jerusalem's and Sion's Children that are from above labour in the Gospel the Power of God and the Seed in which all Nations and all the Families of the Earth are blessed which Seed Christ bruises the Serpent's head and destroys the Devil and his Works and overcomes the Whore the false Church and the Beast and the false Prophet And takes away the Curse and the Vail that is spread over all Nations and over all the Families of the Earth and brings the Blessing upon all Nations and upon all the Families of the Earth if they will receive it saying In thy Seed shall all Nations and all the Families of the Earth be blessed And this is the Gospel of God preached to Abraham before Moses writ his Five Books and was preached in the Apostles days and is now preached again Which Gospel brings Life and Immortality to light and is the Gospel of Peace Life and Salvation to every one that believes it And so all Nations and all the Families of the Earth must be in Christ the Seed if they be blessed and be partakers of the Blessing in the Seed which Gospel God did preach and reveal to Abraham as in Gal. 3.8 And this Gospel was revealed and preached by Christ unto his Apostles who preached it which is not of Man nor from Man And now God and Christ hath Revealed the same Gospel unto me and many others in this Age I say the Gospel and the Seed in which all Nations and Families of the Earth are blessed in which Gospel I have laboured and do labour that all may come into this blessed Seed Christ who bruises the head of the Serpent that in it they might have peace with God And this Everlasting Gospel is preached again to them that dwell upon the Earth and they that believe it and receive it receive the Blessing and the Peace and Joy and Comfort of it and the stability in it and the life and immortality which it brings to light in them and to them And such can praise the Everlasting God in his Everlasting Gospel And Friends all seek the peace and good of all in Christ for Truth makes no Cains Corahs Balaams nor Judasses for they come to be such that go out of the peaceable Truth And therefore walk in the peaceable Truth and speak the Truth in the love of it as it is in Jesus G. F. Sometime after the Yearly-Meeting was over I went to my Son Mead's House Essex Gooses called Gooses in Essex and abode there some Weeks often visiting Friends Meeting near there and sometimes at Barking And after I had been a while there I went to visit Friends at Waltham-Abbey and at Hodsdon Waltham-Abbey Hodsdon Eâ—field South-street Ford-green Winchmore-hill and about Enfield South-street Ford-Green and Winchmore-Hill where I had several very serviceable Meetings amongst Friends the Lord opening many deep and weighty things through me both for the Informing the Understandings of Inquirers and building up those that were gathered into the Truth and establishing them therein It was in the Seventh Month that I returned to London having been near Three Months in the Country for my health's sake which now was very much Impaired so that
worship God in Spirit and in Truth which Christ set up above Sixteen hundred years since So all Men and Women must come to the Spirit and Truth in their hearts by which they must know the God of Truth who is a Spirit and then in the Spirit and Truth they will Worship him and know what and who they Worship And also the Lord is come to bring his People off all the World's Temples that with the Spirit they may know â—â—at their Bodies are the Temples of the Holy Ghost And the Lord is come to bring his People off all the World's Crosses and Pictures and Images and Likenesses to know that the Power of God is the Cross of Christ which Crucifies them to the World and brings them up into the Likeness and Image of God as Man and Woman was in before they fell and so to Christ that never fell And this Work of Christ must all know in their hearts by the Light of Christ Jesus who is the true Light that lighteth every Man that cometh into the World It is called the Light in Man and Woman and the Life in Christ the Word and Christ saith Believe in the Light that ye may become Children of the Light And the Light lets you see all your Evil Actions that you have done and committed and your ungodly Ways you have walked in and your ungodly Words and Thoughts and now if you do hate this Light and love the Darkness and the Prince of it more than this Light which is the Life in Christ the Prince of Life and will not come to it because your Deeds be Evil and it will reprove you Christ tells you This Light is your Condemnation And then what is all your Profession good for when you remain under the Condemnation of the true Light in which you should believe and so become Children of Light and out of Condemnation And therefore every one must believe in the Light if they do receive Christ Jesus and as many as receives him he gives them Power to become the Sons of God So he that hath the Son of God hath Life and they that have not the Son of God have not Life and then if you have not Life what good doth all your Profession of the Scriptures from Genesis to Revelations do you any more than the Jews Scribes and Pharisees that would not receive Christ the Life upon whom God brought his overflowing Scourge And therefore do you take heed of that for your Strength will be no better than theirs if you have not God and Christ's supporting Power when God's Scourge comes upon you and you are filled with Horrours and Fears But my desires are that you may all Repent even from the Highest to the Lowest and not grieve nor quench nor vex nor rebel against God's good Spirit in you nor walk despitefully against the Spirit of Grace nor turn from it unto Wantonness which would teach you and bring your Salvation Which if you do how can you escape the over-flowing Scourge of the Almighty and the Wrath of the Lamb But my desires are that you may all obey God's good Spirit of Truth which will lead you out of all Evil into all Truth and reprove you for your Righteousness and for your own Judgment and Sin c. and it will bring you to cleave to that which is good and forsake that which is evil and to turn to the Lord who will receive you in his Mercy and Kindness By which Means you may escape the over-flowing Scourge in the Day of Vengeance which dreadful Day is coming upon all Evil-doers And this as a Warning to you both for your Temporal and Eternal Good and for you to Read it in your Assemblies and your Priests to Read it in their Churches so that all People may hear and fear as you will Answer it at the Terrible and Dreadful Day of Judgment Amsterdam the 19th of the 7th Month 1677. G. F. For the Embassadors that are Met to Treat for Peace at the City of Nimmeguen in the States Dominions To pag. 448 CHrist Jesus saith Blessed are the Peace-makers for they shall be called the Children of God Matth. 5.9 so all Christian men are to forsake Evil and do Good and seek Peace and follow it if they will love Life and see good Days 1 Pet. 3.11 for God hath called all true Christians unto Peace 1 Cor. 7. and therefore all Christians ought to follow this Peace which God calls them to and they should let the Peace of God rule in all their Hearts which is above the Peace of this World that is so soon broken For the Apostle Commands the Christians to let the Peace of God rule in their Hearts to which all Christians should be subject Now the Practice of this should be among Christians that profess Christianity and this Peace is above that which Christ takes from the Earth Rev. 6. which is the Peace of the Wicked And the Apostle saith to the Christians Be at Peace among your selves 1 Thess 5. Now all Christians should obey this Command and be at Peace among themselves and not in Wars and Strife And further the Apostle exhorts the Christians to keep the Vnity of the Spirit in the Bond of Peace so this Vnity and this Bond of Peace should be kept and not be broken by all that bears that Noble Name Christian and they should keep the Unity of the Spirit of Christ in the Bond of the Prince of Princes and King of Kings and Lord of Lords Peace which is the Duty of all true Christians to keep In which they may honour Christ in bringing forth the Fruits of Peace which is Love and Charity For the Apostle tells you The fruits of the good Spirit is Love Joy and Peace Long-suffering Gentleness Goodness c. Gal. 5. And the Apostle exhorts the Christians and saith If it be possible as much as lieth in you live peaceable with all Men and this should be the Endeavour of all Christians For it is no honour to Christ that Christians should war and destroy one another that do profess the Name of Christ who saith He came to save Mens lives and not to destroy them For Christians have Enemies enough abroad without them and therefore they should Love one another as Christ commands who saith By this ye shall be known to be my Disciples if ye Love one another For Christians are commanded to love Enemies therefore much more one another And Christ saith As the Father hath loved me so I have loved you Continue ye in my Love John 15.8 and By this shall all Men know that ye are my Disciples if ye Love one another John 13.35 But if Christians do war and destroy one another this will make both Jews Turks Tartars and Heathens to say That you are not Disciples of Christ. And therefore as you love God and Christ and Christianity and its Peace All make Peace as far as you have power among Christians that