Rejoyce in Iniquity but leads to Repent of it So this is the WORD OF THE LORD GOD to you all Friends every where abroad scattered Know the Power of God in one another and in that Rejoyce for then you Rejoyce in the Cross of Christ who is not of the World which Cross is the Power of God to all them that are saved So you that know the Power and feel the Power you feel the Cross of Christ you feel the Gospel which is the Power of God unto Salvation to every one that believeth Now he that believes in the Light believes in the Everlasting Covenant in the one Offering comes to the Life of the Prophets and Moses comes to see Christ the Hope the Mystery which Hope perisheth not but lets you see the Hope that perisheth which is not that Mystery and the Expectation in that perishing Hope fades And where this never-failing Hope is witnessed the Lord comes to be sanctified in the Heart and you come to the Beginning to Christ the Hope which perisheth not but the other Hope and the other Expectation that perisheth So all of you know the perishing of the Other and the failing of the Expectation therein and know that which perisheth not that you may be ready to give a Reason of this Hope with Meekness and Fear to every Man that asketh you Christ the Hope the Mystery that perisheth not the End of all perishing things the End of all changeable things the End of the decaying Covenant the End of that which waxeth old and doth decay the End of the first Covenant of Moses and of the Prophets the Righteousness of God Christ Jesus the Son his Throne ye will know Heirs with him ye will be who makes his Children Kings and Priests to him and brings them to know his Throne and his Power There is no Justification out of the Light out of Christ Justification is in the Light in Christ Here is the Doer of the Will of God here 's the Entring into the Kingdom He that believes in the Light becomes a Child of Light and here the Wisdom is received that is justified of her Children Here believing in the Light you shall not abide in Darkness but shall have the Light of Life and come every one to witness the Light that shines in your Hearts which Light will give you the Light of the Knowledge of the Glory of God in the Face of Jesus Christ With which Light you will see him reign who is the Prince of Life and of Peace which Light turns from him that is out of the Truth and abode not in it where the true Peace is not Friends Be not hasty For he that believes in the Light makes not Haste Here the Grace is received by which you come to be saved the Election is known which obtains the Promise The Will is seen that wills the Mind is known that runs which obtains not but stops and dulls Now that with the Light being seen and judged and stopt the Patience is here known which obtains the Crown and the Immortality is come to Light So all they now that act contrary to the Light and do not believe in it they do not come to Justification And all Friends if you go from the Light from wanting to have the Promise of God fulfilled to the Seed whereby you may know Christ Reign you thereby bring on your selves Changable Garments and come to wear the Changable Garments and the strange Flesh which leads to Adultery which the Law goes upon which shuts out of the Kingdom And out of this Will doth proceed the Work or Building that is for the Fire whereby you may come to suffer Less Therefore the Light love which doth that Condemn and receive the Power from the Lord with which you stand over that and do it Condemn feeling and seeing that which gives you the Victory over the World and to see out of Time to before Time And again Friends Know Abraham that must obey the Voice of Sarah that bears Seed which casts forth the Bond-woman and her Son Do not go forth there will the Wildness lodge Know that which bears the Wild Son and its Mother who is not Sarah for the Promise is to the Seed not of many but one which Seed is Christ And this Seed now you come to witness stand on the Top of all yea on the Head of the Serpent And so all as I said before who this come to feel and witness ceme to the Beginning and this to all the Seed of God the Church that it you all may come to know where there is no blemish nor spot nor Wrinkle nor any such thing which is that which is purchased by the Blood of Jesus and to the Father presented out of all that does defile which is the Pillar and Ground of Truth And none comes to this but such who come to the Light which doth come from Christ who purchased this Church They who go from the Light are shut out and condemned though they profess all the Scriptures declared forth from it Therefore walk in the Light that you may have Fellowship with the Son and with the Father and come all to witness his Image and his Power and his Law which is his Light which hath converted your Souls and brought them to submit to the higher Power above that which is out of the Truth that you may know here the Mercy and Truth and the Faith that works by Love which Christ is the Author of who lighteth every one of you which Faith gives the Victory Now that which gives the Victory is perfect and that which the Ministers of God received from God is that which is perfect and that which they are to Minister is for the perfecting of the Saints till they all come in the Unity of the Faith unto a Perfect Man So this is the Word of the Lord God to you all every one in the Measure of Life Wait that with it all your Minds may be guided up to the Father of Life the Father of Spirits all to receive Power from him and Wisdom that with it you may be ordered to his Glory to whom be all Glory for ever All keep in the Light and Life that judgeth down that which is contrary to the Light and Life So the Lord God Almighty be with you all And keep your Meetings every where being guided by that of God by that you may see the Lord God among you even him who lighteth every Man that cometh into the World by whom the World was made that Men that be come into the World might believe He that believeth not the Light condemns him He that believeth cometh out of Condemnation So this Light which lighteth every Man that cometh into the World which they that hate it stumble at this is the Light of Men. All Friends that speak abroad see that it be in the Life of God for that begets to God the Fruits of that shall never
Redeemer their Mediator and come to feed upon him the Bread of Life from Heaven Many were turned to the Lord Jesus Christ and to his free Teaching that Day and all were bowed down under the Power of God 1657. Radnorshire so that though the Multitude was so great that many sate on Horse-back to hear there was no Opposition made by any And a Priest sate with his Wife on horse-back and heard Attentively and made no Objection but the People parted peaceably and quietly with great Satisfaction many of them saying They never heard such a Sermon before and the Scriptures so opened For the New Covenant was opened and the Old and the Nature and Terms of each and the Parables were explained and the State of the Church in the Apostles Days was set forth and the Apostacy since laid open and the free Teaching of Christ and the Apostles was set a top of all the hireling-Teachers and the Lord had the Praise of all for many were turned to him that Day Lemster I went back from thence to Lemster where there was a great Meeting in a Close many hundreds of People being gathered together There were a Matter of six Congregational Preachers and Priests amongst the People and Thomas Taylor who had been a Priest but was now become a Minister of Christ Jesus was with me I stood up and declared about three Hours and none of the Priests were able to open their Mouths in Opposition the Lord's Power and Truth so reached them and bound them down At length one Priest went off about a Bow-shot from me and drew several of the People after him and there set a preaching to them So I kept our Meeting and he kept his But after a while Thomas Taylor was moved to go to him and spake to him and he gave over and then he and the People he had drawn off came up to us again and the Lord's Power went over them all At last a Baptist that was Convinced said Where 's Priest Tombs how chance he doth not come out This Tombs was Priest of Lemster Hereupon some went and told the Priest and up comes he with the Bailiffs and other Officers of the Town And when he was come they set him upon a Stool over against me Now I was speaking of the heavenly divine Light of Christ which he Enlightens every one that cometh into the World withal and turning them to it to give them the Knowledge of the glory of God in the Face of Christ Jesus their Saviour When Priest Tombs heard this he cried out That is a Natural Light and a made Light Then I desired the People to take out their Bibles and I asked the Priest Whether he did Affirm that that was a Created natural made Light which John a Man that was sent from God did bear witness to and did speak of when he said In him to wit in the Word was life and that life was the Light of Men Joh. 1.4 Dost thou affirm and mean said I that this Light here spoken of was a Created Natural Made Light And he said Yes Then said I Before I have done with thee I will make thee bend to the Scriptures Then I shewed by the Scriptures that the Natural created made Light is the outward Light in the outward Firmament proceeding from the Sun Moon and Stars And dost thou Affirm said I that God sent John to bear witness to the Light of the Sun Moon and Stars Then said he Did I say so I replied ' Didst thou not not say it was a Natural Created Made Light that John bore witness unto If thou dost not like thy Words take them again and mend them Then he said That Light which I spake of was a natural created Light I told him 1657. Lemster He had not at all mended his Cause for that Light which I spake of was the very same that John was sent of God to bear witness to which was the Life in the Word by which all the natural Lights as Sun Moon and Stars were made In him to wit the Word was Life and that Life was the Light of Men. So I directed the People to turn to the Place in their Bibles and I recited to them the Words of John how that In the Beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God The same was in the beginning with God All things were made by him and without him was not any thing made that was made So all natural created Lights were made by Christ the Word In him was life and the life was the light of Men And that was the true light which lighteth every Man that cometh into the World And Christ saith of himself John 8.12 I am the light of the World And bids them Believe in the light John 12.36 And God said of him by the Prophet Isaiah ch 49.6 I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles that thou mayest be my Salvation to the Ends of the Earth So Christ in his Light is saving And the Apostle said The light which shined in their Hearts was to give them the light of the knowledge of the Glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ And that was their Treasure in their earthen Vessels 2 Cor. 4.6 7. When I had thus opened the matter to the People the Priest cried to the Magistrates Take this man away or else I shall not speak any more But said I ' Priest Tombs deceive not thy self thou art not in thy Pulpit now nor in thy Old Mass-house but we are in the Fields So he was shuffling to be gone and Thomas Taylor stood up and undertook to make out our Principle by Christ's Parable concerning the Sower Matth. 13. Then said the Priest Let that Man speak and not the other So he got up into a little Jangling for a while till the Lord's Power catched him again and stopt and confounded him Afterwards a Friend stood up and told him How he had sued him for Tithe-Eggs and other Friends for other Tithes for he was an Anabaptist Preacher and yet had a Parsonage at Lemster and had several Journey-men under him And he said He had a Wife and he had a Concubine and his Wife was the Baptized People and his Concubine was the World But the Lord's Power came over him and them all and the everlasting Truth was declared that Day and many were turned by it to the Lord Jesus Christ their Teacher and Way to God And of great Service that Meeting was in those Parts The next day Thomas Taylor went to this Priest and reasoned with him and came over him by the Power of the Word From this place I travelled on in Wales Tenby having several Meetings as I went till I came to Tenby where as I rode up the Street a Justice of Peace came out of his House and desired me to alight and stay at his House and I did so On the First-day the Mayor
were born again that were translated into the Kingdom of Christ and were Fellow-workers unto the Kingdom of God Christ exhorts his Disciples to Love and to do Good that they might be the Children of their Father which is in Heaven Matth. 5.45 And he bids them be perfect even as their Father which is in Heaven is perfect ver 48. And the Apostle saith to the Church at Philippi That ye may be blameless and harmless the Sons of God without Rebuke in the midst of a crooked and perverse Nation amongst whom ye shine as Lights in the World holding forth the Word of Life c. Phil. 2.15 16. And writing to the Church of the Thessalonians he puts them in mind how he had exhorted them That they would Walk worthy of God who had called them into his Kingdom and Glory 1 Thess 2.12 The Lord had promised by the Prophet Joel that he would Pour out his Spirit upon all Flesh and that Sons and Daughters should Prophesie Old men should dream Dreams and Young-men see Visions Joel 2.28 Now the Cause that Sons and Daughters Hand-maids Servants Young-men and Old men have not these heavenly Visions Dreams and Prophecies is because they are Erred from the Spirit of God which he poureth upon them but as many as are led by the Spirit of God are the Sons of God John saith Christ was the True Light which lighteth every Man that cometh into the World John 1.9 And that As many as received him to them gave he power to become the Sons of God ver 12. which were born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of God ver 13. Now the Reason why People do not become the Sons of God is because they do not receive Christ The Jews the great Professors which had the Promises Prophecies Figures and Shadows of him they would not receive him when he came And now the Priests and high Professors of Christ they are so far from receiving the Light of Christ and believing in it that they have hated the Light and scoff at it calling it a Natural Conscience and some have called it Jack in the Lanthorn Such are not like to become the Sons of God nor to see the glorious Kingdom of Christ which stands in Righteousness Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost For the Light that shines in the heart gives the Light of the Knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ Jesus And they that do not receive Christ Jesus but hate his Light which is the Life in him and yet profess him in words such neither know the Children of the Light nor true Fellowship in the Light nor the Kingdom of God that stands in Righteousness Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost but by the Light they are condemned And this is the Condemnation that Light is come into the World and Men love Darkness rather than Light because their deeds are evil For every one that doth evil hateth the Light neither cometh to the Light lest his deeds should be reproved John 3.19 20. But the Children of the Light that walk in the Light they come to heavenly Jerusalem and to the City of the living God and to the innumerable Company of Angels and to the general Assembly and Church of the First born that are written in Heaven and can sing Hallelujah Gooses the 2d of the 7th Month 1687. G. F Having now been somewhat more than a quarter of a Year in the Country London I returned to London somewhat better in health than formerly having received much benefit by the Country-Air And it being now a time of General Liberty and great Openness amongst the People I had much Service for the Lord in the City being almost daily at Publick Meetings and frequently taken up in Visiting Friends that were sick and in other Services of the Church I continued at London about Three Months and then finding my strength much spent with continual labouring in the Work of the Lord and my Body much stopped for want of fresh Air Kingston I went down to my Son Rouse's by Kingston where I abode some time and visited Friends at Kingston While I was there it came upon me to write a Paper concerning the Jews shewing How by their Disobedience and Rebellion they lost the holy City and Land By which Example the prosest Christians may see what they are to Expect if they continue to disobey and provoke the Lord. Of that Paper the Copy here followeth THE Lord gave the Jews in the Old Testament the Land of Canaan and they built the Temple at Jerusalem to worship in and it was called The Holy Temple and Jerusalem was called The Holy City and Canaan The Holy Land But when the Jews rebelled against the good Spirit which God gave them to instruct them and rebelled against his Law 1687. Kingston and set up Idols and Images and defiled the Land and the City the Lord sent his Prophets to Cry against them and to bring them back again to his Spirit and to his Law and so to God to serve and worship him that they might not worship Images and Idols the works of their own hands But instead of hearkening to God's Prophets they persecuted them and at last killed his Son Christ Jesus and persecuted his Apostles But Christ told the Jews that both their City and Temple should be laid Waste and they should be scattered over all Nations And it was so when Titus the Roman Emperour came and took Jerusalem and destroyed the City and Temple which was a Day of Vengeance upon the Jews for all their Idolatries and their Wickedness and for the Innocent blood they had shed both in City and Country And they were driven out of their own City and Land and scattered over all Nations And the Jews had never power to get the â—and since nor to build Jerusalem nor the Temple But the Turk hath both the Land of Canaan and that which is called The City Jerusalem Now the Turk neither makes Images nor Worships Images And so it is a just Hand of the Lord that he should be over the persecuting Idolatrous Jews so that they cannot defile the Land of Canaan now with Images and Idols for the Turk hath it who neither makes Images nor Idols nor worships them And the Jews must never hope believe nor expect that ever they shall go again into the Land of Canaan to set up an outward Worship at Jerusalem and there for their Priests to offer outward Sacrifices of Rams Sheep and Heifers c. for Burnt-Offerings for Christ the one Offering hath offered himself once for all and by this one Offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified And Christ hath changed the Priesthood of Aaron that offered Sacrifices which was made after the power of a Carnal Commandment but Christ was made after the power of an endless Life a Priest for ever who was holy and
that of Angels as the Scriptures of the Old Testament do in many places express as to Abraham Jacob c. The next was that of the Law by Moses which was also delivered by Angels as the Apostle tells us This Dispensation was much outward and suited to a low and servil State called therefore that of a School-Master to point out and prepare that People to look and long for the Messiah who would deliver them from the servitude of a Ceremonious and imperfect Dispensation by knowing the Realities of those Misterious Representations in themselves In this time the Law was written on Stone the Temple built with Hands attended with an outward Priest-hood and External Rites and Ceremonies that were Shadows of the Good Things that were to come and were only to serve till the Seed came or the more excellent and general manifestation of Christ to whom was the Promise and to all Men only in him in whom it was Yea and Amen even Life from Death Immortality and Eternal Life This the Prophets foresaw and comforted the believing Jews in the certainty of it which was the Top of the Mosaical Dispensation and which ended in John's Ministry the Forerunner of the Messiah as John's was finished in him the Fullness of all And God that at sundry Times and in divers manners had spoken to the Fathers by his Servants the Prophets Spoak then by his Son Chrâ—st Jesus Who is Heir of all things being the Gospel-Day which is the Dispensation of Sonship Bringing in thereby a nearer Testament and a better hope even the beginning of the Glory of the latter days and of the Restitution of all things yea the Restoration of the Kingdom unto Israel Now the Spirit that was more sparingly communicated in former Dispensations began to be Poured forth upon all Flesh according to the Prophet Joel and the Light that shined in Darkness or but dimly before the most gracious God caused to Shine out of Darkness and the Day-star began to arise in the Hearts of Believers giving unto them the knowledge of God in the Face or Appearance of his Son Christ Jesus Now the Poor in Spirit the Meek the true Mourners the Hungry and Thirsty after Righteousness the Peace-makers the Pure in Heart the Merciful and the Persecuted came more especially in Remembrance before the Lord and were sought out and blessed by Israel's true Shepherd Old Jerusalem with her Children grew out of Date and the New Jerusalem into Request the Mother of the Sons of the Gospel-Day Wherefore no more at Old Jerusalem nor at the Mountain of Samaria will God be worshipped above other places for behold he is declared and preached a Spirit and he will be known as such and worshipped in the Spirit and in the Truth He will come nearer then of old time and he will write his Law in the Heart and put his Fear and Spirit in the inward parts according to his promise Then Signs Types and Shadows flew away the Day having discovered their Insufficiency in not reaching to the inside of the Cup to the cleansing of the Conscience and all Elementary services were expired in and and by him that is the substance of all And to this Great and Blessed End of the Dispensation of the Son of God did the Apostles Testifie whom he had chosen and anointed by his Spirit to turn the Jews from their Prejudice and Superstition and the Gentiles from their Vanity and Idolatry to Christ's Light and Spirit that shined in them that they might be quickned from the Sins and Trespasses in which they were Dead to serve the Living God in the Newness of the Spirit of Life and walk as Children of the Light and of the Day even the Day of Holiness For such put on Christ the Light of the World and make no more Provision for the Flesh to fulfil the Lusts thereof So that the Light Spirit and Grace that comes by Christ and appears in Man was what the Apostles ministred from and turned Peoples Minds unto and in which they gathered and built up the Churches of Christ in their Day For which cause they advised them not to quench the Spirit but wait for the Spirit and Speak by the Spirit and Pray by the Spirit and Walk in the Spirit too as that which approved them the truly begotten Children of God born not of Flesh and Blood or of the will of Man but of the will of God by doing his will and denying their own by drinking of Christ's Cup and being Baptized with his Baptism of Self-denial The Way and Path that all the Heirs of Life have trod to Blessedness But alas even in the Apostles Days those bright Stars of the first Magnitude of the Gospel Light some Clouds foretelling an Eclipse of this Primitive Glory began to appear and several of them gave early Caution of it to the Christians of their Time that even then there was and yet would be more and more a falling away from the Power of Godliness and the Purity of that Spiritual Dispensation by such as sought to make a fair shew in the Flesh but with whom the offence of the Cross ceased Yet with this comfortable Conclusion that they saw beyond it a more glorious Time than ever to the true Church Their sight was true and what they foretold to the Churches gathered by them in the Name and Power of Jesus came so to pass For Christians degenerated a-pace into outsides as Days and Meats and divers other Cerimonies And which was worse they fell into Strife and Contention about them separating one from another then Envying and as they had Power Persecuting one another to the shame and scandal of their common Christianity and grievous stumbling and offence of the Heathen among whom the Lord had so long and so marvellously preserved them And having got at last the Worldly Power into their Hands by Kings and Emperors embracing the Christian Profession they changed what they could the Kingdom of Christ which is not of this World into a Worldly Kingdom or at least stiled the Worldly Kingdom that was in their Hands the Kingdom of Christ and so they became Worldly and not true Christians Then Humane Inventions and Novelties both in Doctrine and Worship crowded fast into the Church a Door being opened thereunto by the Grossness and Carnality that appeared then among the generality of Christians who had long since left the Guidance of God's meek and heavenly Spirit and given themselves up to Superstition Will-worship and Voluntary Humility And as Superstition is Blind so it is Heady and Furious for all must stoop to its blind and boundless Zeal or Perish by it In the Name of the Spirit persecuting the very appearance of the Spirit of God in others and opposing that in them which they resisted in themselves viz. the Light Grace and Spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ but always under the Notion of Innovation Heresie Schism or some such plausible Name Though Christianity
came to a great Town and went to an Inn. And Edward Edwards went into the Market and declared the Truth amongst the People and the People followed him down to the Inn and filled the Inn-yard and were exceeding rude Yet a good Service he and we had for the Lord amongst them For the Life of Christianity and the Power of it tormented their chaffy Spirits and came over them so that some were reached and Convinced and the Lord's Power came over all and the Magistrates were bound they had no Power to meddle with us After this we passed away and came to another great Town on a Market day and John ap John declared the Everlasting Truth through the Streets and proclaimed the Day of the Lord amongst them In the Evening many People gathered about the Inn and some of them being drunk they would fain have had us forth into the Street again but we seeing their Design I told them If there were any that feared God and desired to hear Truth they might come into our Inn or else we might have a Meeting with them next Morning So some Service for the Lord we had amongst them both over Night and in the Morning And though the People was hard to receive the Truth yet the Seed was sown and thereabouts the Lord hath a People gathered to himself In that Inn also I turned but my Back to the Man that was giving Oats to my Horse and I looked back again and he was filling his Pockets with the Provender that was given to my Horse A wicked theevish People to rob the poor dumb Creature of his Food I had rather they had robbed me Leaving this Town and travelling on there was a Great Man overtook us on the Way and he purposed as he told us afterward to have taken us up at the next Town for High-way-men But before we came to the Town I was moved of the Lord to speak to him And what I spake reached to the Witness of God in the Man and he was so affected therewith that he had us to his House and entertained us very civilly And he and his Wife desired us to give them some Scriptures both for proof of our Principles and against the Priests We were glad of the Service and furnished him with Scriptures enough And he writ them down and was Convinced of the Truth both by the Spirit of God in his own Heart and by the Scriptures which were a Confirmation to him Afterwards he set us on in our Journey And as we travelled we came to an Hill which the People of the Country say is two or three Miles high from the Side of this Hill I could see a great Way And I was moved to set my Face several ways and to sound the Day of the Lord there And I told John ap John a faithful Welch Minister in what Places God would raise up a People to himself to sit under his own Teaching Those Places he took notice of and since there hath a great People arisen in those Places The like I have been moved to do in many other Places and Countries which have been rude Places and yet I have been moved to declare the Lord had a Seed in those Places and afterwards there hath been a brave People raised up in the Covenant of God and gathered in the Name of Jesus where they have Salvation and free Teaching Dalgelthly From this Hill we came down to a Place called Dalgelthly and we went to an Inn and John ap John declared through the Streets and the Town 's People rose and gathered about him And there being two Independent-Priests in the Town they both came out and discoursed with him both together I went up to them and finding them speaking in Welch I asked them What was the Subject they spake upon and why they were not more moderate and spake one by one For the things of God I told them were weighty and they should speak of them with Fear and Reverence Then I desired them to speak in English that I might discourse with them and they did so Now they affirmed That the Light which John came to bear witness of was a created natural made Light But I took the Bible and shewed them as I had done to others before That the Natural Lights which were made and created were the Sun Moon and Stars but this Light which John bare witness to and which he called the True Light that lighteth every Man that cometh into the World is the Life in Christ the Word by which all things were made and created The same that is called the Life in Christ is called the Light in Man and this is an heavenly divine Light which lets Men see their evil Words and Deeds and shews them all their Sins and if they would attend unto it would bring them to Christ from whom it comes that they might know him to save them from their Sin and to blot it out This Light I told them shined in the Darkness in their Hearts and the Darkness in them could not comprehend it but in those Hearts where God had commanded it to shine out of Darkness it gave unto such the Knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ Jesus their Saviour Then I opened the Scriptures largely to them and turned them to the Spirit of God in their Hearts which would reveal the Mysteries in the Scriptures to them and would lead them into all the Truth thereof as they became subject thereunto I directed them to that which would give every one of them the Knowledge of Christ who died for them that he might be their Way to God and might make Peace betwixt God and them The People were attentive and I spake to John ap John to stand up and speak it in Welch to them which he did and they generally received it and with Hands lifted up blessed and praised God The Priest's Mouths were stopt so that they were quiet all the while for I had brought them to be sober at the first by telling them That when they speak of the things of God and of Christ they should speak with Fear and Reverence Thus the Meeting brake up in peace in the Street and many of the People accompanied us to our Inn and rejoiced in the Truth that had been declared unto them that they were turned to the Light and Spirit in themselves by which they might see their Sin and know Salvation from it And when we went out of the Town the People were so affected that they lifted up their Hands and blest the Lord for our Coming A pretious Seed the Lord hath there-aways and a great People in those Parts is since gathered to the Lord Jesus Christ to sit down under his free Teaching and have suffered much for him From this place we passed to a City like a Castle Where when we had set up our Horses at an Inn and refreshed our selves John ap John went
Friends in all the United Provinces of Holland and in Embden the Palatinat Hamborough Frederick-stadt Dantzick and other places in and about Germany which Friends were very glad of and it hath been of great service to Truth Next day an Exercise came upon me concerning that deceitful Spirit which wrought in some amongst Friends to make Divisions in the Church and the Care of the Churches being upon me I was moved to Write a few Lines to warn Friends of it as followeth ALL Friends keep over that Spirit of Separation and Division in the peaceable Truth and in the Seed of Life which will wear it all out and out-last it For the Lamb will have the Victory over all the Spirits of Strife as it hath had since the beginning and they will Wither as others have done but all that do keep in the Seed which is always green shall never Wither as Friends have been to this day kept And if any have gone out and backslidden and thrown off the Cross and are grown loose and full and are gone into Strife and Contention with their Earthly Spirits and therein plead for a liberty this Spirit taketh with loose earthly Spirits and cries Imposition to such as do admonish them to come to the Life Light and Spirit and Power of God that they may be alive and may live again with the Living And then upon this Admonishment their Spirits do arise into Contention and Strife and a Separation turning against the Living in their loose earthly Spirits which would have the Name of Truth but is not in the Nature of it but is for Eternal Judgment of the living Seed And this is it which doth deceive but it is judged by that which doth undeceive and save Amsterdam in Holland the 5th of the 6th Month 1677. G. F. This being the First-day of the Week we had a very large Meeting again there coming to it a great Concourse of People of several Opinions as Baptists Seekers Socinians Brownists and some of the Collegians Robert Barclay George Keith William Pen and I did all severally declare the Everlasting Truth among them opening the Estate of Man in the Fall and shewing by what way Man and Woman may come into the Restoration by Christ Jesus And indeed the Mystery of Iniquity and the Mystery of Godliness were very plainly laid open and the Meeting ended quietly and well The day following George Keith Robert Barclay and William Penn leaving me and some other Friends at Amsterdam set forward on their Journey towards Germany where they Travelled many hundred Miles and had good Service for the Lord Benjamin Furly going with them and Interpreting That day and the next I stayed at Amsterdam visiting the Friends and assisting them in some businesses concerning their Meetings And there came Three Baptists to discourse with me unto whom I opened things to their satisfaction and they parted from me in kindness I writ a Letter also to the Princess Elizabeth which Isabel Yeomans delivered to her when George Keith's Wife and she went to visit her Princess Elizabeth I Have heard of thy Tenderness towards the Lord and his holy Truth by some Friends that have visited thee and also by some of thy Letters which I have seen which indeed is a great thing for a Person of thy quality to have such a tender mind after the Lord and his precious Truth seeing so many are swallowed up with Voluptuousness and the Pleasures of this World and yet all make an outward Profession of God and Christ one way or other but without any deep Inward sense and feeling of him For it is not many mighty nor wise of the World that can become fools for Christ's sake or can become low in the humility of Christ Jesus from their mighty state through which they might Receive a mightier Estate and a mightier Kingdom through the Inward holy Spirit and the Divine Light and Power of God and a mightier Wisdom which is from above pure and peaceable which Wisdom is above that which is below that is earthly sensual and devillish by which men destroy one another yea about their Religions Ways and Worships and Churches but this they have not from God nor Christ But the Wisdom which is from above by which all things was made and created which the holy fear of God in the heart is the beginning of that keeps the heart clean And by and with this Wisdom are all God's Children to be ordered and with it come to order all things to God's glory So this is the Wisdom that is Justified of her Children And in this fear of God and Wisdom my desire is that thou may be preserved to God's glory For the Lord is come to teach his People himself and to set up his Ensign that the Nations may flow unto it And there hath been an Apostacy since the Apostles days from the Divine Light of Christ which should have given them the Light of the Knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ Jesus and likewise from the holy Spirit which would have Lead them into all Truth and therefore have People set up so many Leaders without them to give them Knowledge and also from the holy and precious Faith which Jesus Christ is the Author and Finisher of which Faith purifies the heart and gives victory over that which separates from God through which Faith they have access to God and in which Faith they please God the Mystery of which Faith is held in a pure Conscience And also from the Gospel which was preached in the Apostle's days which Gospel is the Power of God which brings Life and Immortality to Light in Man and Woman by which People should have seen over the Devil that has darkned them and before he was which Gospel will preserve all them that receive it in Life and in Immortality For the Eyes of People have been after Men and not after the Lord who doth write his Law in the hearts and puts it into the minds of all the Children of the New Covenant of Light Life and Grace through which they all come to know the Lord from the Least to the Greatest So that the Knowledge of the Lord may cover the Earth as the Waters doth the Sea And this Work of the Lord is a beginning again as it was in the Apostles days that People shall come to receive an Vnction in them again from the holy One by which they shall know all things and shall not need any man to teach them but as the Anointing doth teach them and also to know what the Righteousness of faith speaks the Word nigh in the heart and mouth to obey it and to do it which was the Word of Faith the Apostles preached Which is now received and preached again which is the duty of all true Christians to receive And so now People are coming out of the Apostacy to the Light of Christ and his Spirit and to receive Faith from him and not
Children of the Light Therefore ye that are the Believers in the Light and are become the Children of the Light walk in Christ your Way Life and Salvation Kingston the 5th Month 1683. G. F. Before I left Kingston something further opened in me which I was moved to write and send forth amongst Friends and it was as followeth Dear Friends MY Love is to you all in the holy Seed that reigns over all And my desire is that every one both Male and Female may feel the Seed Christ in you which is Heir of the Promise of Life Eternal so that ye may all grow up in Christ Jesus your Head and be built upon him the Rock and Foundation that God hath laid which stands sure over all Rocks and Foundations in the World That ye may eat and drink of this Spiritual Rock the Spiritual Water and Food so that ye may truly and inwardly say that your Rock and Foundation and Bread of Life and Water of Life is from Heaven and your Bread and Water is sure and that ye know his voice that feeds you and that leads you into the Pastures of Life which are always fresh and green In this your Affections are set on things that are above and seeking that which comes down from above above that which is from below where Christ sits at the right Hand of God making Intercession for you and is your Mediator making Peace betwixt God and you and is your heavenly Bishop to oversee you that ye keep in his Light Life and Power that ye do not go astray from his heavenly Fold and Pasture but he your Shepherd may feed you in it Who is your Prophet to open to you the fulfilling of the Promises and Prophecies himself being the Substance That ye may live in him and he in you yea and reign in your hearts and there to exercise his Offices his Prophetical and Priestly and Kingly Office who is heavenly and spiritual That ye may know the Three that bear Witness in the Earth viz. The Spirit the Water and the Blood which is the Life of Christ which cleanseth from all sin and the Water that washes you and refreshes you and the Spirit that baptizes you and circumcises you and leads you into all Truth And that ye may come all to drink into one Spirit and keep the Unity of the Spirit which is the Bond of the heavenly Peace So being led by the Spirit of God ye are his Sons and Daughters and by his Spirit will come to know the Three that bear Witness in Heaven viz. the Father the Word and the Holy Ghost These are the Three Witnesses that are in Heaven that bear record of all things for he is God in the Heaven and God in the Earth And therefore I desire that ye may all feel his Love shed in your hearts and in it live in Love above the love of the World which is Enmity and in that you will keep in the excellent Way For Love edifies the Body of Christ and builds his Church up and keeps out of the Enmity for it is above it and brings and keeps all in true Humanity and in the true Divinity and to be courteous and kind and tender one towards another And to shew forth the nature of Christ and true Christianity in all your Lives and Conversations so that the Blessings of the Lord may rest upon you as ye all live in the Seed of the Gospel the Seed of the Kingdom of God in which all Nations are blessed And in that ye will all have a Care of God's glory And there is the Hill or Mountain where the Light shines to the answering the Witness of God in all and the Salt that is a good Savour to the witness of God in the hearts of all And that Savour and Salt being kept in it doth not come under the feet of men So my Love to you all in Christ Jesus whom God hath given to be a Sanctuary for all his People who is from above and not of this World in whom you all have Life Peace and Salvation And in him God Almighty keep and preserve you all to his Glory Amen And as you all live in the peaceable Truth of God it keeps you under and within his protection But they that make a Profession of the Scriptures of Truth and yet live out of the Truth in the Spirit of Strife Vnquietness and Discontent in a contriving plotting ravenous destroying Spirit which is of the Devil and not of God that Spirit is judged out of the Truth and to be of him in whom there is no Truth whose Portion is in the Lake and in the Fire that burns Kingston the 27th of the 5th Month 1683. G. F. Having visited Friends at and about Kingston London I returned to London for it being a Suffering time with Friends there I had not freedom to be long from the City Being come back I went to the Meeting at the Peel Peel-Meet which but a little before the Justices and Constable had broken up and had carried themselves very roughly But that day the Meeting was in the House and quiet and a glorious Meeting it was blessed be the Lord. On the First-day following I went to the Meeting at Gracious-street When I came there Grac-Meet I found three Constables in the Meeting-house who kept Friends out so that we met in the Court. After I had been some time in the Meeting I stood up and spake to the People and continued speaking a pretty while Then one of the Constables came and took hold of my hand and said I must come down I desired him to be patient and went on speaking to the People but after a little time he pluckt me down and had me into the Meeting-house I asked them if they were not Weary of this Work and one of them said Indeed they were They let me go into the Widow Foster's house which joined to the Meeting-house where I stay'd being hot When the Meeting was ended for one prayed after I was taken away the Constables asked some Friends Which of them would pass their words that I should Appear if they should be questioned about me But the Friends telling them They need not require that for I was a man well known in the City to be one that would neither fly nor shrink They came not to me but went their ways 1683. London Sav. Meet and left me at Liberty and I heard no further of it The same Week I was at the Meeting at the Savoy which used to be kept out and disturbed but that day it was within doors and peaceable and a precious Meeting it was The First-day after Westm Meet it was upon me to go to the Meeting at Westminster where used to be great disturbances But there also the Meeting was within doors that day and it was very large The Lord's Power was over all there and kept all quiet and still for though there
Thistles and sharp Rocks and Mountains and never be hurt nor never wear out their Shooes but their Feet are always beautiful upon the Mountains Moses a Captain the Servant of the Lord said unto the People of Israel I have led you forty years in the Wilderness your Cloths are not waxen old upon you and thy Shooe is not waxen old upon thy foot Deut. 29.5 Here ye may see the Jews in the Old Testament their Cloths and their Shooes did not wax old But they who are Christ's followers whom he shooeth with his Everlasting Gospel of Peace and Cloatheth with his fine Linnen his Righteousness and Arms with his Arms and Armour they are cloathed shod and armed with that which will never decay nor wax old nor canker nor rust nor corrupt nor grow blunt Now all whether Christians or Jews or Gentiles that hate the Light of Christ and close their Eyes and stop their Ears to it are not like to see Christ their Ensign and Captain of their Salvation but are blind And as there is no outward Captain would List a Company of blind and deaf men and cloath and arm them with outward Armour so such as are blind and deaf whose Eyes are closed and Ears stopped to the heavenly Light of Christ he is not like to cloath them with his fine Linnen and arm them with his heavenly and spiritual Armour nor are they like to be spiritually and heavenly disciplined and to see and know his holy and spiritual living Camp nor to follow him while they are deaf and blind and hate his Light which is the Life in Christ the heavenly Ensign and Captain of their Salvation For it is the Light that shines in the heart which gives the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ Jesus who is the Ensign and Captain of Mens Salvations and who hath brought and doth bring many Sons unto glory Praises Honour and Glory be unto the Lord over all who liveth for ever Amen Gooses the 14th of the 2d Month 1690. G. F. London A Week after this I return'd to London and after a little stay there Kingston went down to visit Friends at Kingston where I stay'd not long London but came back to London and remained there in the Lord's work Yearly-Meeting till after the Yearly-Meeting which was in the Fourth Month this Year in which the wonted Goodness of the Lord was witnessed and his blessed Presence enjoyed and his heavenly Power livingly felt opening the hearts of his People unto him and his Divine Treasures of Life and Wisdom in and unto them whereby many useful and necessary things relating to the safety of Friends and to the honour and prosperity of Truth were weightily treated of and unanimously concluded After the Meeting was over I writ the following Paper to Friends to be added to the Epistle which from the Yearly-Meeting was sent into the several Counties ALL Friends every where that are alive to God through Jesus Christ and are living Members of Christ the holy Head Be still and stand still in the Lord's Camp of Holiness and Righteousness and therein see the Salvation of God and your Eternal Life Rest and Peace and in it you may feel and see the Lord's Power is over all and how the Lord is at work in his Power and ruling the Nations with his Rod of Iron and is breaking in the Nations the old leaky Vessels and Cisterns to pieces like the Potter's Vessels that will not hold his living Water of Life who are erred from the Spirit But blessed be the Lord God of Heaven and Earth 1690. London Yearly Meeting who by his Eternal Arm and Power hath settled all his People upon the living holy Rock and Foundation that stands sure whom he hath drawn by his Spirit to his Son and gathered them into the Name of Jesus Christ his only begotten Son full of Grace and Truth who hath all Power in Heaven and Earth given to him Whose Name is above every Name under the whole Heaven and all his living Members know there is no Salvation given by any other Name under the whole Heaven but by the Name of Jesus and he their Salvation and their living Head is felt in the midst of them in his Light Life Spirit Grace and Truth and his Word of Patience Wisdom and Power who is his People's Prophet that God hath raised up in his New Testament and Covenant to open to them and their living Shepherd that hath purchased redeemed and bought them with his precious Blood And Christ the living One feeds his living Sheep in his living Pastures of Life and his living Sheep know their living Shepherd's voice with his living Bread and Water and follow him and will not follow any of the World's Hirelings nor Thieves nor Robbers nor Climbers that are without Christ the Door And likewise Christ's living Children know Christ the Bishop of their Souls to oversee them with his heavenly and spiritual Eye that they may be preserved in his Fold of Life and go no more forth And also they know Christ their holy Priest that by the Grace of God tasted Death for them and for every Man and is a Propitiation for their Sins and not for their Sins only but for the Sins of the whole World and by the one Offering up of himself he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified And such an High-Priest becomes Christ's Sheep in his New Covenant and Testament who is holy and harmless and separate from sinners and is made higher than the Heavens who is not made a Priest after the Order of Aaron with his Tithes Offerings c. but he makes an end of all those things and hath abolished them and is made an High-Priest after the Power of an endless life who ever liveth to make Intercession for his People and is able to save to the uttermost all that come to God through him Who is the one holy Mediator betwixt God and Man and who sanctifies his People his Church that he is Head of and presents them to God without spot or wrinkle or blemish or any such thing and makes them an holy royal Priesthood to offer up spiritual holy Sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ who is King of all Kings and Lord of all Lords in the Earth So an holy heavenly King who hath â—all power in Heaven and Earth given to him and rules in all the hearts of his Sheep and Lambs by his holy divine precious Faith that is held in all the pure Consciences of his People which holy Faith Christ the holy One is the Author and Finisher of By which holy Faith all the Just live and in which holy divine and precious Faith all the Just and holy Ones have Unity and by it they do quench all the fiery Darts of Satan and by this holy divine and precious Faith they have access to the pure God in which they do please him And Christ
the Law And I opened the Inward State to them and the Outward State and they fell into a feirce Contention and so parted But the Lord's Power got Ground Then I heard of a great Meeting to be at Leicester for a Dispute Leicester wherein both Presbyterians Independents Baptists and Common-Prayer-Men were said to be all concerned The Meeting was in a Steeple-house and thither I was moved by the Lord God to go and be amongst them 1648. Leicester And I heard their Discourse and Reasonings some being in Pews and the Priest in the Pulpit abundance of People being gathered together At last one Woman asked a Question out of Peter What that Birth was viz. A being born again of Incorruptible Seed by the Word of God that liveth and abideth for ever And the Priest said to her I permit not a Woman to speak in the Church though he had before given liberty for any to speak Whereupon I was wrapt up as in a Rapture in the Lord's Power and I stepped up in a Place and asked the Priest Dost thou call this Place the Steeple-house a Church Or dost thou call this mixt Multitude a Church For the Woman asking a Question he ought to have answered it having given liberty for any to speak But he did not answer me neither but asked me What a Church was I told him The Church was the Pillar and Ground of Truth made up of living Stones living Members a spiritual Houshold which Christ was the Head of But he was not the Head of a mixt Multitude or of an old House made up of Lime Stones and Wood This set them all on Fire The Priest came down out of his Pulpit and others out of their Pews and the Dispute there was marr'd But I went to a great Inn and there disputed the thing with the Priests and Professors of all sorts and they were all on a Fire But I maintained the true Church and the true Head thereof over the Heads of them all till they all gave out and fled away And there was one Man that seemed loving and appeared for a while to join with me but he soon turned against me and joined with a Priest in pleading for Infant 's Baptism tho' he himself had been a Baptist before And so left me alone Howbeit there were several Convinced that day and the Woman that asked the Question aforesaid was Convinced and her Family And the Lord's Power and Glory shined over all Nottingham-shire After this I returned into Nottingham-shire again and went into the Vale of Beavor And as I went I preached Repentance to the People Vale of Beavor And there were many Convinced in the Vale of Beavor in many Towns for I stayed some Weeks amongst them And one Morning as I was sitting by the Fire a great Cloud came over me and a Temptation beset me And I sate still And it was said All things come by Nature And the Elements and Stars came over me so that I was in a manner quite clouded with it But inasmuch as I sate still and said nothing the People of the House perceived nothing And as I sate still under it and let it alone a living Hope arose in me and a true Voice arose in me which said There is a living God who made all things And immediately the Cloud and Temptation vanished away and Life rose over it all and my Heart was glad and I praised the living God And after some time I met with some People that had such a Notion That there was no God but that all things came by Nature And I had great Dispute with them and overturned them and made some of them Confess that there was a Living God Then I saw that it was good that I had gone through that Exercise And we had great Meetings in those Parts Nottingham-shire for the Power of the Lord broke through in that side of the Country And returning into Nottingham-shire I found there a Company of shattered Baptists and Others 1648. Nottingham-shire Mansfield Darbyshire Eton. and the Lord's Power wrought mightily and gathered many of them Then afterwards I went to Mansfield and there-a-way where the Lord's Power was wonderfully manifested both at Mansfield and other Towns thereabouts And in Darby-shire the mighty Power of God wrought in a wonderful manner At Eton a Town near Darby there was a Meeting of Friends where there was such a mighty Power of God that they were greatly Shaken and many Mouths were opened in the Power of the Lord God And many were moved by the Lord to go to Steeple-houses to the Priests and to the People to declare the Everlasting Truth unto them And at a certain time when I was at Mansfield Mansfield there was a Sitting of the Justices about hiring of Servants and it was upon me from the Lord to go and speak to the Justices That they should not oppress the Servants in their Wages So I walked towards the Inn where they sate but finding a Company of Fidlers there I did not go in but thought to come in the Morning when I might have a more serious Opportunity to discourse them not thinking that a seasonable time But when I came again in the Morning they were gone and I was struck even blind that I could not see And I inquired of the Inn-keeper where the Justices were to sit that day And he told me At a Town eight Miles off And my Sight began to come to me again and I went and Ran thitherward as fast as I could And when I was come to the House where they were and many Servants with them I exhorted the Justices Not to oppress the Servants in their Wages but to do that which was Right and Just to them And I exhorted the Servants To do their Duties and serve honestly c. And they all received my Exhortation kindly for I was moved of the Lord therein Moreover I was moved to go to several Courts and Steeple-houses at Mansfield and other Places to warn them to leave off Oppression and Oaths and to turn from Deceit and to turn to the Lord and do justly Particularly at Mansfield after I had been at a Court there I was moved to go and speak to one of the Wicked'st Men in the Country one who was a Common Drunkard a noted Whore-master and a Rime-maker And I reproved him in the dread of the Mighty God for his evil Courses And when I had done Speaking and left him he came after me and told me That he was so smitten when I spake to him that he had scarce any Strength left in him So this Man was Convinced and turned from his Wickedness and remained an honest sober Man to the Astonishment of the People who had known him before Thus the Work of the Lord went forward and many were turned from the Darkness to the Light within the compass of these three Years 1646 1647 and 1648. And divers Meetings of
we were passing from a Meeting and going through VVighton on a Market-day the People of the Town had set a Guard with Pitch-forks and although some of their own Neighbours were with us they kept us out of the Town and would not let us pass through the Town under a pretence of preventing the Sickness though there was no Occasion for any such thing However they fell upon us and had like to have spoiled us and our Horses But the Lord did restrain them that they did not much hurt and we passed away Another time as I was passing between two Friend's Houses some Rude Fellows lay in Wait in a Lane and exceedingly stoned and abused us but at last through the Lord's Assistance we got through them and had not much hurt But this shewed the Fruits of the Priest's Teaching which shamed their Profession of Christianity Bishoprick of Durham Now after I had visited Friends in that County I went through the Countries into Bishoprick having large Meetings by the way and a very large Meeting I had at Anthony Pearson's where many were Convinced From thence I passed through Northumberland to Darren-Water where there were great Meetings 1653. Northumberland and the Priests threatned that they would come but none came The everlasting Word of Life was freely preached and freely received and many Hundreds were turned to Christ their Teacher In Northumberland there came many to dispute Darren-Water of whom some pleaded against Perfection unto whom I declared That Adam and Eve were perfect before they fell and All that God made was perfect and that the Imperfection came by the Devil and the Fall But Christ that came to destroy the Devil said Be ye perfect Then one of the Professors said That Job said Shall mortal Man be more pure than his Maker The Heavens are not clear in his sight God charged his Angels with Folly But I shewed him his Mistake and let him see That it was not Job that said so but one of those that contended against Job for Job stood for Perfection and held his Integrity and they were called miserable Comforters Then these Professors said The Outward Body was the Body of Death and Sin I shewed them their Mistake in that also shewing them That Adam and Eve had each of them an Outward Body before the Body of Death and Sin got into them and that Man and Woman will have Bodies when the Body of Sin and Death is put off again when they are Renewed up into the Image of God again by Christ Jesus which they were in before they fell So they ceased at that time from Opposing further and glorious Meetings we had in the Lord's Power Then passed we on to Hexam Hexam where we had a great Meeting a Top of an Hill The Priest threatned that he would come and Oppose us but he came not so that all was quiet And the Everlasting Day and Renowned Truth of the Everliving God was sounded over those dark Countries and his Son exalted over all And it was proclaimed amongst the People that the Day was now come wherein all that had made a Profession of the Son of God might receive him and that to as many as would receive him he would give Power to become the Sons of God as he had done to me And it was further declared That he that had the Son of God he had Life Eternal but he that had not the Son of God though he profest all the Scriptures from the first of Genesis to the last of the Revelations he had not Life So after that all were directed to the Light of Christ by which they might see him and receive him and know where their true Teacher was and the Everlasting Truth had been largely declared amongst them we passed away through Hexam peaceably and came into Gilsland Gilsland a Country noted for Thieving Here a Friend spying the Priest went to speak to him whereupon the Priest came down to our Inn and the Town 's People gathered about us The Priest said He would prove us Deceivers out of the Bible but could find no Scripture for his purpose Then he went into the Inn and after a while came out again and brought some broken Sentences of Scripture that mention the Doctrines and Commandments of Men c. and Touch not Taste not c. for they perish with the using All which poor Man was his own Condition whereas we were persecuted because we would not Taste nor Touch nor Handle their Doctrines and Traditions 1653. Gillsland which we knew perished with the using I asked him What he called the Steeple-house Oh said he the dreadful House of God the Temple of God Then I shewed him and the poor dark People That their Bodies should be the Temples of God and that Christ never commanded these Temples but ended that Temple at Jerusalem which God had commanded While I was speaking the Priâ—st got away and afterwards the People made as if they feared we would take their Purses or steal their Horses judging us like themselves who are naturally given to Thieving Cumberland The next day we came through the Country into Cumberland again where we had a general Meeting of many Thousands of People a Top of an Hill near Langlands Langlands A glorious and heavenly Meeting it was for the Glory of the Lord did shine over all and there were as many as one could well speak over the Multitude was so great Their Eyes were fixed on Christ their Teacher and they came to sit under their own Vine insomuch that Francis Howgill coming afterwards to Visit them found they had no need of Words for they were sitting under their Teacher Christ Jesus In the sâ—nse whereof he sate down amongst them without speaking any thing A great Convincement there was in Cumberland Bishoprick Northumberland Westmorland Lancashire and Yorkshire And the Plants of God grew and flourished so the heavenly Rain descending and God's Glory shining upon them that many Mouths were opened by the Lord to his Praise yea to Babes and Sucklings he ordained Strength Brigham After my Release from Carlisle-Prison I was moved to go to Priest Wilkinson's Steeple-house again and I being got into the Steeple-house before him when he came in I was declaring the Truth to the People though they were but few for the most and the best of his Hearers were turned to Christ's free Teaching and we had a Meeting of Friends hard by where one Thomas Stubbs was declaring the Word of Life amongst them As soon as the Priest came in he Opposed me and there did we stay most part of the Day for when I began he Opposed me so if any Law was broken he broke it And when his People would be haling me out I manifested his Fruits to be such as Christ spake of when he said They shall hale you out of their Synagogues And then he would be ashamed and they would let me
the World was by whom it was made who is the Righteousness of God and his Wisdom to whom all Glory Honour Thanks and Praise belongs who is God blessed for ever Let no Image nor Likeness be made but in the Light Wait which will bring Condemnation on that part that would make the Images for that prisons the Just. So to the Lust yield not the Eye nor the Flesh for the Pride of Life stands in that which keeps out of the Love of the Father and upon which his Judgments and Wrath remains where the Love of the World is sought after and a Crown that is mortal in which Ground the Evil enters which is cursed which brings forth Bryars and Thorns where the Death reigns and Tribulation and Anguish is upon every Soul and the Egyptian Tongue is heard All which is by the Light Condemned And there the Earth is which must be removed by the Light it is seen and by the Power it is removed and out of its place it is shaken to which the Thunders utter their Voices before the Mysteries of God be opened and Jesus revealed Therefore all ye whose Minds are turned to this Light which brings Condemnation upon all those things before-mentioned that are contrary to the Light Wait upon the Lord Jesus for the Crown that is Immortal and that fadeth not away G. F. This is to be sent amongst all Friends in the Truth the Flock of God to be read at their Meetings in every Place where they are met together While yet Friends abode in the Northern Parts a certain Priest of Rexam in Wales whose Name was Morgan Floyd having heard Reports concerning us sent Two of his Congregation into the North to Inquire concerning us and to Try us and bring him an Account concerning us But when these Triers came down amongst us the Power of the Lord seized on them and they were both Convinced of the Truth So they stayed some Time with us and then returned back to Wales where afterwards one of them departed from his Convincement but the other whose Name was John-ap-John abode in the Truth and received a part of the Ministry in which he continued faithful Now were the Priests in a great Rage at New Castle and at Kendal and up and down in most of the Northern Counties And there being one Gilpin that had sometimes come amongst us at Kendal and soon run out from the Truth into vain Imaginations the Priests made what Evil Vse they could of him against us but the Lord's Power confounded them all And the Lord God cut off Two of those persecuting Justices at Carlisle and the other after a Time was turned out of his Place and went out of the Town About this Time also the Oath or Engagement to O. Cromwel was tendered to the Souldiers and many of the Souldiers were disbanded because in Obedience to Christ they could not swear As John Stubbs for one who was Convinced when I was in Carlisle-Prison and became a good Soldier in the Lamb's War and a faithful Minister of Christ Jesus travelling much in the Service of the Lord in Holland Ireland Scotland Italy Egypt and America and the Lord's Power preserved him out of the Hands of the Papists though many times he was in great Danger of the Inquisition But some of the Souldiers who had been Convinced in their Judgments but had not come into Obedience to the Truth took O Cromwel's Oath and going afterwards into Scotland and coming before a Garrison there the Garrison thinking 1654. NORTH-Country they had been Enemies fired at them and killed divers of them which was a sad Judgment Now when the Churches were settled in the North and Friends were sate down under Christ's Teaching and the Glory of the Lord shined over them Swarthmore Lancaster I passed from Swarthmore to Lancaster about the beginning of the Year 1654 and so through the Countries visiting Friends till I came to Synder-hill-green where there was a Meeting appointed three Weeks before leaving the North fresh and green under Christ their Teacher But before I came to Synder-hill-green we passed through Hallifax Hallifax a rude Town of Professors and came to one Thomas Taylor 's who had been a Captain where we met with some Janglers but the Lord's Power was over all for I travelled in the Motion of God's Power Synder-hill-Green And when I came to Synder-hill-green there was a mighty Meeting some Thousands of People as it was judged and many Persons of Note were there as Captains and other Officers and there was a general Convincement for the Lord's Power and Truth was set over all and there was no Opposition About this Time did the Lord move upon the Spirits of many whom he had raised up and sent forth to Labour in his Vineyard to travel Southwards and spread themselves in the Service of the Gospel to the Eastern Southern and Western parts of the Nation As Francis Howgill and Edward Burrough to London John Camm and John Audland to Bristol through the Countries Richard Hubberthorn and George Whitehead towards Norwich Thomas Holmes into Wales and others otherways for above sixty Ministers had the Lord raised up and did now send abroad out of the North-Country And the sense of their Service being very Weighty upon me I was moved to give forth the following Paper directed thus To Friends in the Ministry ALL Friends every where Know the Seed of God which bruiseth the Seed of the Serpent and is a top of the Seed of the Serpent which Seed sins not but bruiseth the Serpent's Head that doth sin and tempts to Sin Which Seed God's Promise and God's Blessing is to which Seed is One in the Male and in the Female Where it is Head and hath bruised the Head of the other to the beginning you are come and the Younger is known and he that is Servant to the Younger And the Promise of God which is to the Seed is fulfilled and fulfilling and the Scriptures come to be opened and owned And the Flesh of Christ known who took upon him the Seed of Abraham according to the Flesh the Everlasting Priesthood known the Everlasting Covenant Christ takes upon him the Seed of Abraham and is a Priest after the Order of Melchizedeck him that is without Father without Mother without Beginning of Days mark or End of Life This is the Priest that ever lives he that is the Covenant of Life of Light and Peace And the Everlasting Offering here is known once for all which Offering overthrows that Nature which offered out of which the Priesthood arose that could not continue by reason of Death And here is the other Offering known the Everlasting Offering which perfects for ever them that are sanctified which Offering blotted out the Hand-writing of Ordinances triumphs over them and ascends above all Principalities and Powers Now he that hath the Spirit of Jesus sees this and here is the Love of God received that doth not
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
at our Meeting in the Orchard As I was going along into the Orchard the People told me That Paul Gwin the rude jangling Baptist was going to the Meeting But I bid them Never heed It was nothing to me who went to it When I was come into the Orchard I stood upon the Stone that Friends used to stand on when they spake and I was moved of the Lord to put off my Hat and to stand a pretty while and let the People look at me for some Thousands of People were there While I thus stood silent this Rude Baptist began to find Fault with my Hair but I said nothing to him Then he run on into Words and at last Ye wise men of of Bristol said he I strange at you that you will stand here and hear a Man speak and affirm that which he cannot make good Then the Lord opened my Mouth for as yet I had not spoken a Word And I asked the People Whether they ever heard me speak before or ever saw me before And I bid them ' Take notice what kind of Man this was amongst them that should so Impudently say That I spake and Affirmed that which I could not make good and yet neither he nor they ever heard me or saw me before Therefore that was a lying envious malicious Spirit that spake in him and it was of the Devil and not of God Therefore I charged him in the Dread and Power of the Lord to be silent And the Mighty Power of God came over him and all his Company And then a glorious peaceable Meeting we had and the Word of Life was divided amongst them and they were turned from the Darkness to the Light and to Jesus their Saviour And the Scriptures were largely opened to them and the Traditions and Rudiments and ways 1656. Bristol and Doctrines of Men were laid open before the People which they had been in and they were turned to the Light of Christ that with it they might see them and see him to lead them out of them I opened also to them the Types and Figures and Shadows of Christ in the time of the Law and shewed them That Christ was come and had ended the Types and Shadows and Tithes and Oaths and put down Swearing and had set up Yea and Nay instead of it and a free Ministry for he was now come to Teach People himself and his heavenly Day was springing from on high So for many hours did I declare the Word of Life amongst them in the Eternal Power of God that by him they might come up into the Beginning and be Reconciled to him And having turned them to the Spirit of God in themselves that would lead into all Truth I was moved to pray in the mighty Power of God and the Lord's Power came over all But when I had done this Fellow began to babble again and John Audland was moved to bid him Repent and fear God So his own People and Followers being ashamed of him he passed away and never came again to disturb the Meeting And the Meeting brake up quietly and the Lord's Power and Glory shined over all a blessed Day it was and the Lord had the Praise After a while this Paul Gwin went beyond the Seas and many Years after I met with him again at Barbado's of which in its Place From Bristol we returned to Edward Pyot's where we had a great Meeting and the Lord's Power was over all and Truth was declared and spread abroad and many were turned to Christ Jesus their Life their Prophet to teach them their Shepherd to feed them and their Bishop to oversee them After the Meeting was done I had some Reasoning with some Professors and the Lord's Truth and Power came over them Slattenford From Edward Pyot's we passed to Slattenford where we had a very large Meeting Edward Pyot and another Friend being still with me and a great turning of People there was to the Lord Jesus Christ their Teacher and People were glad that they were brought to know their Way and their free Teacher and their Saviour Christ Jesus Wiltshire On the First-day following we went to Nathaniel Crips his House who had been a Justice of Peace in Wiltshire where it was supposed there were between Two and Three Thousand People at a Meeting and all was quiet And the mighty Power of God was manifest and People were turned to the Grace and Truth in their Hearts that came by Jesus Christ which would Teach them to deny all Vngodliness and wordly Lusts and to live soberly and godly in this present world So that every Man and Woman might know the Grace of God which had appeared to all Men and which was saving and sufficient to bring their Salvation This was to be their Teacher the Grace of God which would teach them how to live what to do and what to deny and would season their Words and establish their Hearts And this was a free Teacher to every one of them so that they might come to be Heirs of this Grace and of Christ by whom it came who hath ended the Prophets and the Priests that took Tithes and the Jewish Temple And as for these Hireling-Priests that take Tithes now 1656. Wiltshire and their Temples which Priests were made aâ— Schools and Colledges of Man's setting up and not by Christ they with all their Inventions were to be denied For the Apostles denied the true Priesthood and Temple which God had commanded after Christ had put an End thereto So the Scriptures and the Truths therein contained were largely opened and the People turned to the Spirit of God in their Hearts that by it they might be led into all Truth and understand the Scriptures and know God and Christ and come to have Unity with them and one with another in the same Spirit And the People went away generally satisfied and were glad that they were turned to Christ Jesus their Teacher and Saviour The next day we went from thence to Marlborough Marleborough where we had a little Meeting And the Sessions being in that Town that day they were granting forth a Warrant to send for me But one Justice Stooks being at the Sessions stopt them telling them There was a Meeting at his House yesterday at which were several Thousands So the Warrant was stopt and our Meeting was quiet and several received Christ Jesus their Teacher and came into the New Covenant and abode in it From hence we went to Newberry where we had a large Newberry blessed Meeting and several were Convinced there Thence we passed on to Reading where we had a large Reading precious Meeting in the Lord's Power amongst the Plants of God and many of the World came in and were reached and added to the Meeting and all was quiet and the Lord's Power was over all Kingston upon Thames We went from Reading to Kingston upon Thames where a few came in to
though they be Enemies to God to themselves and to me And I can say It is of the Lord that he is come in to bring down many unrighteously set up of which I had a Sight Three Years before he came in It is much he should say I am an Enemy to the King for I have no reason so to be he having done nothing against me But I have been often Imprisoned and Persecuted these Eleven or Twelve Years by them that have been against both the King and his Father even the Party that Porter was made a Major by and bore Arms for but not by them that were for the King I was never an Enemy to the King nor to any Man's Person upon the Earth but I am in the Love that fulfils the Law which thinks no Evil but loves even Enemies and would have the King saved and come to the Knowledge of the Truth and be brought into the Fear of the Lord to receive his Wisdom from above by which all things were made and created that with that Wisdom he may order all things to the Glory of God by whom they were Created Whereas he calleth me A Chief Vpholder of the Quakers Sect. I Answer The Quakers are not a Sect but are in the Power of God which was before Sects were and witness the Election before the World began and are come to live in the Life which the Prophets and Apostles lived in who gave forth the Scriptures Therefore are we hated by envious wrathful wicked and persecuting Men. But God is the Vpholder of us all by his mighty Power and preserves us from the Wrath of the Wicked that would swallow us up And whereas he saith That I together with others of my Fanatick Opinion as he calls it have of late endeavoured to raise Insurrections and to imbroil the whole Kingdom in Blood I say this is altogether false to these things I am as a Child and know nothing of them The Postures of War I never learned My Weapons are Spiritual and not Carnal for with Carnal Weapons I do not fight I am a Follower of him who said My Kingdom is not of this World And though these Lies and Slanders are raised upon me I deny drawing of any Carnal Weapon against the King or Parliament or any Man upon the Earth For I am come to the end of the Law To love Enemies and wrestle not with Flesh and Blood but am in that which saves Men's Lives And a Witness I am against all Murderers Plotters and all such as would Imbrue the Nation in Blood for it is not in my Heart to have any Man's Life destroyed And as for the Word Fanatick which signifies furious foolish mad c. He might have considered himself before he had used that Word and have learned the Humility which goes before the Honour For we are not furious foolish or Mad but through Patience and Meekness have born Lies and Slanders and Persecutions many Years and undergone great Sufferings The Spiritual Man that wrestles not with Flesh and Blood and the Spirit that reproves Sin in the Gate which is the Spirit of Truth Wisdom and sound Judgment this is not mad foolish furious which Fanatick signifies But all are of a mad furious foolish Spirit that wrestle with Flesh and Blood with Carnal Weapons in their Furiousness Foolishness and Rage This is not the Spirit of God but of Error that persecutes in a mad blind Zeal like Nebuchadnezer and Saul Now inasmuch as I am ordered to be kept Prisoner till I be delivered by Order from the King or Parliament therefore have I written these things to be laid before you the King and Parliament that ye may Consider of them before ye act any thing therein that ye may weigh in the Wisdom of God the Intent and End of Men's Spirits lest ye act the thing that will bring the hand of the Lord upon you and against you as many have done before you who have been in Authority whom God hath overthrown in whom we trust whom we fear and cry unto Day and Night Who hath heard us and doth hear us and will hear us and avenge our Cause For much Innocent Blood hath been shed and many have been persecuted to Death by such as have been in Authority before you whom God hath vomited out because they turned against the Just Therefore consider your Standing now that ye have the Day 1660. Lancaster-Castle and receive this as a Warning of Love to you From the Innocent a Sufferer in Bonds and close Prisoner in Lancaster-Castle called GEORGE FOX Upon my being taken and forcibly carried away from Margaret Fell's House and charged with things of so high a Nature she was concerned as looking upon it to be an Injury offered to her Whereupon she writ the following Lines and sent them abroad directed thus To all Magistrates concerning the wrong taking up and Imprisoning of George Fox at Lancaster I Do Inform the Governours of this Nation that Henry Porter Major of Lancaster sent a Warrant with Four Constables to my House for which he had no Authority nor Order They searched my House and apprehended George Fox in it who was not guilty of the Breach of any Law or of any Offence against any in the Nation After they had taken him and brought him before the said Henry Porter there was Bail offered what he would demand for his Appearance to Answer what could be laid to his Charge But he contrary to Law if he had taken him lawfully denied to accept of any Bail and clapt him up in Close Prison After he was in Prison a Copy of his Mittimus was demanded which ought not to be denied to any Prisoner that so he may see what is laid to his Charge But it was denied him a Copy he could not have only they were suffered to read it over And every thing that was there charged against him was utterly false he was not guilty of any one Charge in it as will be proved and manifested to the Nation So let the Governours consider of it I am concerned in this thing inasmuch as he was apprehended in my House and if he be guilty I am so too So I desire to have this searched out MARGARET FELL After this Margaret Fell determined to go to London to speak with the King about my being taken and to shew him the manner of it and the Vnjust Dealing and Evil Vsage I had received Which when Justice Porter heard of he vapoured that he would go and meet her in the Gap But when he came before the King he having been a Zealous Man for the Parliament against the King several of the Courtiers spake to him concerning his plundering of their Houses So that he had quickly enough of the Court and soon returned into the Country Mean while the Jailer seemed very fearful and said he was afraid Major Porter would hang him because he had not put me in the Dark-House But when
far off to come in and rescue her Master but they could not at all beat off the Bull till they brought Mastiff-Dogs to set on him and then the Bull fled in a great Rage and Fury Upon notice of it his Sister came and said to him Alack Brother what a heavy Judgment is this that is befallen you And he Answered Ah Sister It is an heavy Judgment indeed Pray let the Bull be killed and the Flesh given to the Poor said he So they carried him home but he died soon after And the Bull was grown so fierce that they were forced to shoot him with Guns for no Man durst come near him to kill him Thus does the Lord sometimes make some Examples of his just Judgment upon the Persecutors of his People that others may fear and learn to beware Now after I had cleared my self of Cornwall and Thomas Lower who had rid with us from Meeting to Meeting through that County had brought us over Horse-bridge into Devonshire again Horse-bridge Devonshire we took our leave of him And Thomas Briggs Robert Widders and I came through the Country to Tiverton and it being their Fair Tiverton and many Friends there we had a Meeting amongst them and the Magistrates gathered in the Street but the Lord's Power stopt them I saw them in the Street over against the Door but they had not Power to come in to meddle with us though they had Will enough to have done it After the Meeting was done Collumpton Wellington we passed to Collumpton and to Wellington For we had appointed a Meeting Five Miles off where we had a large Meeting at a Butcher's House and a blessed Meeting it was for the People were directed to their Teacher the Grace of God which would bring them Salvation and many were settled under it's Teaching and the Lord's Presence was amongst us and we were refreshed in him in whom we laboured and travelled and the Meeting was quiet There had been very great Persecution in that Country and in that Town a little before insomuch that some Friends questioned the Peaceableness of our Meeting but the Lord's Power chained all and his Glory shined over all The Friends told us how they had broken up their Meetings by Warrants from the Justices and how by their Warrants they were required to carry Friends before the Justices and Friends bid them Carry them then The Officers told Friends they must Go but Friends said Nay that was not according to their Warrants which required them to Carry them Then they were fain to hire Carts and Wagons and Horses and to lift Friends up into their Wagons and Carts to carry them before a Justice And when they came to a Justice's House sometimes he happened to be from home and if he were a Moderate Man he would get out of the way and then they were forced to Carry them before another So that they were Many Days Carting and Carrying Friends up and down from place to place And when afterward the Officers came to lay their Charges for this upon the Town the Town 's People would not pay it but made them bear it themselves and that brake the Neck of their Persecution there for that time The like was done in several other places till the Officers had shamed and tired themselves and then were fain to give over At one place they warned Friends to come to the Steeple-house 1663. Wellington and the Friends met together to consider of it and had freedom to go to the Steeple-house and Meet together there Accordingly when they came thither they sate down together to Wait upon the Lord in his Power and Spirit and minded the Lord Jesus Christ their Teacher and Saviour but did not mind the Priest When the Officers saw that they came to them to put them out of the Steeple-house again but the Friends told them it was not time for them to break up their Meeting yet A while after when the Priest had done his Stuff they came to the Friends again and would have had them go home to Dinner but the Friends told them They did not use to go to Dinner but were feeding upon the Bread of Life So there they sate Waiting upon the Lord and enjoying his Power and Presence till they found Freedom in themselves to depart Thus the Priest's People were offended because they could not get them to the Steeple-house and when they were there they were offended because they could not get them out again Taunton From the Meeting near Collumpton we went to Taunton where we had a large Meeting and the next day we came to a General Meeting in Somersetshire Somersetshire which was very large and the Lord 's everlasting Word of Life and Truth was largely declared and the People were refreshed thereby and settled upon Christ their Rock and Foundation and brought to sit under his Teaching and the Meeting was peaceable But about the Second Hour in the Night there came a Company of Men about the House and knocked at the Door and bid Open the Door or they would break it open for they wanted a Man that they came to search the House for I heard the Noise and got up and at the Window saw a Man at the Door with his Sword by his Side When they had let him in he came into the Chamber where I was and looked on me and said You are not the Man I look for and so went his way Street Puddimore We came from thence to Street and so to Puddimore to William Beaton's where we had a very large General Meeting wherein the Lord 's everlasting Truth was declared and the People refreshed thereby and all quiet From thence we went to John Dandy's where we had another large and very precious Meeting and then passed on to Bristol Bristol where we had good Service for the Lord and all quiet Here we met with Margaret Fell and her Daughters again And after some time we went to Slattenford in Wiltshire Wiltshire Slattenford where was a very large Meeting in a great Barn and good Service we had there for the Truth as it is in Jesus was published amongst them and many were gathered by it into the Name of the Lord. Gloucestershire Herefordshire Hereford After this I passed into Gloucestershire and Herefordshire having large Meetings in each In Hereford I had a Meeting in the Inn and after the Meeting was over and I was gone the Magistrates hearing there had been a Meeting came to search the Inn for me and were vexed that they had missed of me But the Lord so ordered it that I escaped their Snare and Friends were established upon Christ their Foundation and the Rock of Ages Then went I into Wales into Radnorshire 1663. WALES Radnorshire At a Market-Town towards ENGLAND and had several precious Meetings there and the Lord's Name and Standard was set up and many were gathered to it and
another Meeting we had on the Ninth wherein the Glory of the Lord shined over all blessed and magnified be his Holy Name for ever From hence we intended to go to Anamessy and on the Twelfth Day of the Twelfth Month we set forward in our Boat And travelling by Night as well as by Day in the Night we run our Boat on Ground in a Creek near Manaco-River Manaco River There we were fain to stay till Morning that the Tide came and lifted her off again And in the mean time sitting in an open Boat and the Weather being bitter-cold some had like to have lost the Vse of their Hands they were so frozen and benummed with Cold. But in the Morning when the Tide had set our Boat a-float again we got to Land and made us a good Fire at which we warmed our selves well and then went to our Boat again and passed on about ten miles further to a Friend's House where next day we had a very precious Meeting at which some of the Chief of the Place were I went after the Meeting to a Friend's House about four miles off Anamessy River at the Head of Anamessy-River where on the Day following the Judge of the Country and a Justice with him came to me and were very loving and much satisfied with Friend's Order The next Day we had a large Meeting at the Justice's House but it was in his Barn for his House could not hold the Company There were several of the Great Folks of that Country and among the rest there was an Opposer but all was preserved quiet and well and a precious Meeting it was and the People were much taken and affected with the Truth blessed be the Lord. We went next Day to see one Capt. Colburn who was also a Justice of the Peace and there we had some Service Then returning again we had a very glorious Meeting at the same Justice's where we met before and there were many People of Account in the World Magistrates Officers and others at it It was a large Meeting and the Power of the Lord was much felt so that the People were generally well satisfied and taken with the Truth and there being several both Merchants and Masters of Ships from New-England the Truth was spread abroad blessed be the Lord A Day or two after departing from this place we travelled about sixteen miles through the Woods and Bogs heading Anamessy-River and Amoroca-River Amoroca River Manaoke part of which last we went over in a Canooe and came to Manaoke to a Friendly Woman's House where on the Twenty fourth of the Twelfth Month we had a large Meeting in a Barn and the Lord's living Presence was with us and among the People blessed be his Holy Name for ever-more Friends had never had a Meeting in those Parts before 1673. Mary-land Wicocomaco-River After this Meeting we passed over the River Wicocomaco and through many bad and watry Swamps and Marish Way and came to James Jones a Friend who was a Justice of the Peace where we had a large and very glorious Meeting praised be the Lord God Then passing over the Water in a Boat we took Horse and travelled about Twenty four Miles through Woods and troublesom Swamps and came to another Justice's House where we had a very large Meeting much People of the World being at it and many of Considerable Account amongst them and the living Presence of the Lord was amongst us praised for ever be his holy Name This was on the Third Day of the First Month 1672 3. And on the Fifth Day of the same we had another living and heavenly Meeting at which divers of the Justices with their Wives and many others of the World's People were amongst whom we had very good Service for the Lord blessed be his Holy Name At this Meeting was a Woman that lived at Anamessy who had been many Years in Trouble of Mind and sometimes would sit moping near two Months together and hardly speak or mind any thing When I heard of her I was moved of the Lord to go to her and tell her ' That Salvation was come to her House And after I had spoken the Word of Life to her and intreated the Lord for her she mended and went up and down with us to Meetings and is since well blessed be the Lord Being now clear of these parts we left Anamessy on the Seventh Day of the First Month and passing by Water about Fifty Miles came to a Friendly Woman's House at Hunger-River Hunger River We had very rough Weather in our Passage to this Place and were in great Danger for the Boat had like to have been turned over and I lost both my Hat and Cap yet we recovered them again with much ado and through the good Providence of God got safe thither praised be his Name At this place we had a Meeting where we had never any before and amongst the People that were at it there were two Papists a Man and a Woman the Man was very tender and the Woman confessed to the Truth This Meeting was not so large as it would have been if many who intended to have been at it could have got to it but the Weather was so foul and the Water by reason of high Winds so rough that it was not safe to pass upon it I had no Friend now with me but Robert Widders the rest having dispersed themselves into several parts of the Country in the Service of Truth So soon as the Wind would permit we passed from hence about Forty Miles by Water rowing most part of the way and came to the Head of little Choptanck-River to Dr. Winsmore's Choptanck River who was a Justice of Peace and lately convinced Here we met with some Friends with whom we staid a while and then went on by Land and Water and had a large Meeting abroad for the House we were at could not receive the People There were divers of the Magistrates and their Wives at this Meeting and a good Meeting it was blessed be the Lord who is making his Name known in that Wilderness-Country We went back from thence to a Friend's House whose Name is William Stephen's where we met with those other Friends that had been travelling in other parts and were much refreshed in the Lord together when we imparted to each other the good Success we had had in the Lord's Work 1673. Mary-land and the Prosperity and spreading of Truth in the places where we travelled John Cartwright and another Friend had been at Virginia where were great Desires in People after the Truth and being now returned they staid but a little with us here and then set forward for Barbados But before we left this place we had a very glorious Meeting here at which were very many of the World's People and some of the Chief of them For there was the Judge of that Country and three Justices of the Peace
and made them appear at the Sessions where he asked them many ensnaring Questions for he knew not how to Convict them because he had no Proof against them When he saw his Questions did not Catch them 1677. â—urrowby he told them He had heard that George Fox was at a large Meeting with them and they all sate Silent and none spake in the Meeting This false Story he cunningly feigned thinking thereby to have drawn out some of the Friends to have contradicted him and have said That I had spoken in the Meeting that so he mâ—ght have Convicted them upon their own Confession and have Fined them But Friends standing in the Wisdom of God did not Answer him according to his Desire and so escaped his Snare But two other Friends that came out of Ireland and were at this Meeting having a Meeting that Evening about three Miles off this Evil-minded Justice got Information thereof and Fined Friends and plundered them very sorely for it I went from Burrowby to Isaac Lindley's calling upon Friends on the Way as I went And having Robert Lodge and some other Friends with me York from thence next Day we passed to York and the Day following being the First Day of the Week I was at Friends Meeting in York which was large and peaceable The Second day also I staid in York and had two Meetings with Friends at John Taylor 's from whence I writ unto my Wife to let her know how it was with me as followeth Dear Heart TO whom is my Love and to thy Daughters and to all Friends that enquire after me My Desires are that ye all may be preserved in the Lord 's Everlasting Seed in whom ye all will have Life and Peace and Dominion and Settlement in the Everlasting Home or Dwelling in the House built upon the Foundation of God In the Power of the Lord I am brought to York having had many Meetings in the Way The Way was many times deep and bad with Snow that our Horses sometimes were down and we were not able to ride and sometimes we had great Storms and Rain but by the Power of the Lord I went through all At Scarhouse there was a very large Meeting and another at Burrowby to which Friends came out of Cleaveland and Bishoprick and many other Meetings we have had At York Yesterday we had a very large Meeting exceeding thronged Friends being at it from many parts and all quiet and Friends well satisfied Oh! the Glory of the Lord shined over all And this Day we had a large Mens and Womens-Meeting many Friends both Men and Women being come out of the Country and all was quiet And this Evening we are to have the Mens and Womens-Meeting of the Friends of the City John Whitehead is here with Robert Lodge and others Friends are mighty glad above Measure So I am in my Holy Element and holy Work in the Lord Glory to his Name for ever To Morrow I intend to go out of the City towards Todcaster though I cannot Ride as in days past yet praised be the Lord that I can Travel so well as I do So with my Love in the Fountain of Life in which as ye all abide ye will have Refreshment of Life that by it ye may grow and gather Eternal Strength to serve the Lord and be satisfied So to the God of all Power who is All-sufficient to preserve you I commit you all to his Ordering York the 16th of the Second Month 1677. G. F. Leaving York I travelled on through Yorkshire 1677. Yorkshire Todcaster Nottingly Doncaster Balby Ballowfield visiting Friends at Todcaster Nottingly Doncaster and so on to Balby having Meetings as I went At Balby I stayed the First-day-Meeting and went next day to Thomas Stacy's at Ballowfield where in the Evening I had a Meeting to compose some difference that had happened between some that professed Truth and they were Reconciled From thence next day I came to Stainsby in Derbyshire Darbyshire Stainsby in which County I had formerly lived some time about the first breaking forth of Truth Here I had a good Meeting with Friends and afterward passed to Skegby in Nottinghamshire and from thence to Nottingham Nottinghamshire Skegby Nottingham to John Reckless his house who being one of the Sheriffs of Nottingham when I first declared Truth in that Town and was Imprisoned for it took me out of Prison into his own house and kept me there till the Mayor and the rest of the Magistrates of the Town took me away from him and sent me to the Prison again At which time this John Reckless was Convinced and abode in the Truth ever after Now I had a Meeting with Friends at his house that Evening after I came thither and another the next day in Friends publick Meeting-house which was peaceable and well I went from thence the day following to John Fox's at Wymes-would in Leicestershire where I had a Meeting that Evening Leicestershire Wymes would Sileby and went next day to William Smith's at Sileby where it being the First-day of the Week we had a very large Meeting for besides Friends that came from several places the Town 's People hearing that I was there came many of them to the Meeting Leicester and heard the Truth declared gladly Next day I went to Leicester where finding many Friends come out of the Country to be at the Horse-fair there next day I had a very good Meeting with them that Night and had another Meeting next Evening after the Fair was over at William Wells his house at Knighton Knighton Swanington about a Mile from Leicester from whence next day I passed to Swanington where I had formerly been taken Prisoner and had a Meeting there from thence went to Samuel Fretwell's at Hartshorn in Derbyshire where I had a Meeting also Derbyshire Hartshorn Warwickshire Badgely And then went through the Country to Henry Sidon's at Badgely in Warwickshire and stayed the Meeting there which it being the First-day of the Week was very large and peaceable notwithstanding that a Justice who lived not far off had threatned that he would come and break it up After Meeting having stay'd a while with Friends I went in the Evening to Richard Baal's of Whittington where several Friends came to visit me Whittington Hartshill Next day I went to Nathaniel Newton's at Hartshill where several Friends met me with whom I had good Service After this I passed on visiting Friends in divers places till I came to Dingley Dingley where a Meeting was appointed before which was very large and Truth was largely opened to the People The Meeting was peaceable and quiet and the People generally Sober saving that while I was declaring and shewing how that Christendom so called was gone from the pure Religion that is undefiled c. One Man rushed out in a furious manner and said I deny that 1677. Warwickshire Adingworth
that belong to the King of Poland and where they do live and how ye may send Books or Epistles to them and keep a Correspondence with them and also the Name of the Bishop or Cardinal that I heard was with you And if ye can get any of them that belong to the King that are his Attendants to come and visit the Prisoners that they may Inform the King of their Cruel Sufferings Also I desire you to get as many Books of mine as you can dispose of that set forth your Sufferings and the Cruelty of the Magistrates of Dantzick and give them to the King and his Council and Attendants and his Bishops And some of the Women may speak to the Queen if they can that she may signifie to the King their Cruel Sufferings and especially some of the Sufferers Wives if there be any of a Capacity to do it You may likewise give his Attendants any other Friends Books and what Books ye lack send for them to Amsterdam where ye may be furnished with them to Answer every tender Desirer and Inquiring mind after the Lord. So let all your Minds be bended with the Lord's Power to spread his Truth abroad and where ye hear of any or have any Correspondence in outward Trading with any sober People far or near send them Books that their Understandings may be opened after the Lord. So the Lord God Almighty preserve you and to his Protection in his Eternal Power do I Commend you all in Bonds or at Liberty with my Love to you in the Everlasting Seed of God Christ Jesus who bruises the Head of the Serpent that make you to suffer But Christ is over him and will be when he is gone who is First and Last over all from Everlasting to Everlasting in whom ye have both Life Knowledge Wisdom and Salvation and through him live to the Praise and Glory of God who is blessed for evermore Amen Amsterdam the 18th of the 7th Month 1677. English stile G. F. The next day being the Fourth day of the Week and 19th of the Month I had a large Meeting at Amsterdam many Professors being at it and Truth was largely opened to them in the demonstration of the heavenly Power The day following I went by Boat from Amsterdam Waterland Landsmeer many Friends going with me to Landsmeer in Waterland a Town in which they say there are above an hundred Bridges where I had a very good Meeting to which several Professors came And after the Meeting I returned with Friends to Amsterdam again Amsterdam where I stay'd with Friends till the First-day following and went to their Meeting which was large for many Professors of several sorts were at it and heard the Truth declared with great Attention I tarried amongst Friends there next day and in the night following had a great Exercise upon my Spirit concerning that loose Spirit that was run out into Strife and Contention among Friends and had drawn some after it into Division and Separation the way work and end whereof the Lord opened to me wherefore feeling the Motion of Life upon me I got up in the Morning and wrote the following Epistle to Friends My Dear Friends KEep your First Love in the Truth and Power and Seed of Life in Christ Jesus for this last night as I was lying in my Bed at Amsterdam I had a great Travel in the holy Seed of Life and Peace and my Spirit was troubled with that Spirit of Strife and Separation I saw it was a Destroying Spirit and did seek not only to get over the Seed but to destroy it and to Eat out the minds of People from it by Strife and Contention and under pretence of standing for the Antient Truth its work is to root it out and destroy the Appearance of it to set up it self And it is a Creeping Spirit seeking whom it can get into and what it cannot do it self it stirreth up others to do and setteth up their Spirits on float with the dark Wisdom to destroy the Simple And this Spirit is managed by the Prince of the Air and leadeth some to do such things which they would have been ashamed to have done as men which doth Unman them and they would not have suffered them if they had kept to the tender Principle of God which leadeth to Peace And it is a despising backbiting and a secret-whispering Spirit and a Sower of Dissension and a taker of advantage of all prejudiced Spirits that are disobedient to their first Principle and Love of Truth and begetteth into hatred so it begetteth all into that Spirit whose work is to destroy both the Good within and the good Order without Nay it would if it could destroy the Government of Christ and the Order of the Gospel to set up its own Will and Spirit which is not of God and under pretence of crying down Man are setting up Man and are gathering into a Separation of disobedient Men who float above their Conditions And this Spirit which neither liveth in the Truth nor its Order but opposeth them that do I cannot express it as I do see it and its work whose end will be accordingly And therefore Friends I am to warn you all that have not lost your Simplicity not to touch it nor to have any Vnity with it lest you be defiled and lose your Conditions of your Eternal Estate and your Everlasting Portion and that your Inward man which is after God may be preserved and Christ may reign in all your hearts And they that are joined with them it will be very hard for them ever to come down to Truth in themselves and to see their own Conditions and to have that Spirit of Strife and Contention which eateth as a Canker to be brought down in them which is carnal and slayeth the tender Babe which was once begotten in themselves and the Philistine is got up in them that stoppeth the Wells and Springs and maketh a great Busle and are crying up Men and pleading for them instead of Christ And so Friends strive not with them but let them take them that cry them up and keep you to the Lord Jesus Christ with his Light that cometh from him that he may be your Lord and ye in him may be all in Vnity in one Light Life Power and Dominion in Christ your Head And so the God of Peace and Power preserve you all in Christ Jesus your Saviour and out of and from that mischievous Spirit which is idle and slothful as to the Work of the Power and Spirit and Light of God and Christ and its very Act is that which worketh strife and disturbance against the Peace of the Church of Christ and thinks in its wilfulness and stubbornness and unruliness to set up it self and in that to have peace but Destruction will be the end of it and it is sealed for the Fire and Eternal Judgment And therefore let Christ the Seed be the Head and
all your Sacrifices will be a sweet savour to the Lord and ye will be as the Lilies and Roses and Garden of God which gives a sweet smell unto him Whose Garden is preserved by his Power that is the Hedge that hedges out all the unruly and unsavoury and the Destroyers and Hurters of the Vines Buds and Plants and God's tender Blade which springs up from his Seed of Life who waters it with his heavenly Water and Word of Life every moment that they may grow and be fruitful that so he may have a pleasant and fruitful Garden And so here all are kept fresh and green being watered every moment with the everlasting holy Water of Life from the Lord the Fountain So my dear Friends my desire is that this heavenly Seed that bruises down the Head of the Serpent both within and without may be all your Crowns and Lifes and ye in him one another's Crown and Joy to the praise of the Lord God over all blessed for evermore This holy Seed will out-last and wear out all that which the evil Seed since the Fall of Man hath brought forth and set up And as every one hath received Christ Jesus the Lord so walk in him in the Humility which he teaches and shun the occasions of Strife vain Janglings and Disputings with Men of Corrupt Minds who are destitute of the Truth for the Truth is peaceable and the Gospel is a peaceable Habitation in the Power of God which was before the Devil was and his Wisdom is peaceable and gentle c. And his Kingdom stands in Peace Oh! his Glory shines over all his Works And in Christ Jesus ye will have Peace who is not of the World yea a Peace that the World cannot take away for the Peace which ye have from him was before the World was and will be when it is gone So they are not like to take his Peace away from his People This keeps all in that which is weighty and substantial over all Chaff and will be when it is gone Glory to the Lord God over all for ever and ever Amen! And now My dear Friends the Lord doth require more of you than he doth of other People because he hath committed more to you He requires Fruits of his Spirit and of the Light and of the Gospel and of the Grace and of the Truth for herein is he glorified as Christ said in your bringing forth much Fruit Fruits of Righteousness â—liness Godliness Vertue Truth and Purity so that ye may answer that which is of God in all People And be ye valiant for his everlasting glorious Gospel in God's holy Spirit and Truth keeping in the Vnity and in the holy Spirit Light and Life which is over Death and Darkness and was before Death and Darkness was In this Spirit ye have the Bond of Peace which cannot be broken except ye go from the Spirit and then ye loose this Unity and Bond of Peace which ye have from the Prince of Peace The World also does expect more from Friends than from other People because you profess more Therefore you should be more Just than Others in your Words and Dealings and more Righteous Holy and Pure in your Lives and Conversations so that your Lives and Conversations may preach For the Worlds Tongues and Mouths have preached long enough but their Lives and Conversations have denied what their Tongues have professed and declared And Dear Friends strive to excel one another in Vertue and that ye may grow in Love that excellent Way which unites all to Christ and God And that all may stand up for God's Glory and mind that which concerns the Lord's Honour and Glory that in no wise his Power may be abused nor his Name evil spoken of by any evil Talkers or Walkers but that in all things God may be honoured and ye may glorifie him in your Bodies Souls and Spirits the little time ye have to live So my Love to you all in the holy Seed of Life that reigns over all and is the First and Last in whom ye all have Life and Salvation and your Election and Peace with God through Jesus Christ who destroys him that hath been betwixt you and God so that nothing may be betwixt you and the Lord but Christ Jesus Amen My Life and Love is to you all and amongst you all And the Lord God Almighty by his mighty Power by which he hath preserved all his People unto this day preserve and keep you all in his power and peaceable holy Truth in Unity and Fellowship one with another and with the Son and the Father Amen The 24th of the 3d Month 1679. G. F. Divers other Epistles and Papers I writ unto Friends during my stay in the North One whereof was in a few Lines To Encourage Friends to be bold and valiant for the Truth which the Lord had called them to bear witness to and it was thus worded Dear Friends ALL be Valiant for the Lord's Truth upon the Earth which the Serpent Satan and the Devil is out of and in the Truth keep him out in which you all have Peace and Life and Vnity with God and his Son and one with another And let the Love of God fill all your hearts that in it ye may build up one another and edifie one another in the Light Life and holy Spirit and Power of God the glorious comfortable Gospel of Christ the heavenly Man who is your Lord and Saviour who will fill all your Bottles and Vessels with his heavenly Wine and Water of Life and cloath you with his heavenly Cloathing his fine Linnen that never waxeth old And will arm you with his heavenly Weapons and Armour that ye may stand faithful Witnesses for God and his Son who is come and hath given you an understanding to know him and ye are in him And so walk in him in whom ye all have Life and Salvation and Peace with God So my Love to you all in the Lord Jesus Christ in whom I have laboured and God Almighty in his eternal Power and Wisdom preserve you all to his Glory Amen Swarthmore the 29th of the 10th Month 1679. G. F. The next day having a sense upon me how some that had received the Truth and had Openings thereof for want of keeping low had run out there-from I was moved to give forth the following Epistle as a Warning and Exhortation to all to dwell in Humility My Dear Friends VVHom the Lord in his tender Mercies hath visited with the Day-spring from on high and hath opened you to confess and bow to his Name keep low in your minds and learn of Christ who teacheth you Humility and to keep in it so that in no wise ye that be younger be exalted or puffed up or conceited through your Openings and by that means lose your Conditions by being carried up into Presumption and then fall into Despair and so abuse the Power of God For it was the Apostles care
that they did not take me Yet understanding that there was a Warrant out against me as soon as the Yearly Meeting was well over I took William Mead with me and went to several of the Judges Chambers to speak with them about it and to let them understand both the state of the Case and the ground and reason of our Refusing to pay Tithes The first that I went to was Judge Gregory to whom I tendred mine and my Wife's Answer to the Plaintiff's Bill in which was set forth That my Wife had lived Three and forty years at Swarthmore and in all that time there had been no Tithe paid nor demanded and an old Man who had long been a Tithe-Gatherer had made Affidavit that he never gathered Tithe at Swarthmore-hall in Judge Fell's time nor since There were many Particulars in our Answer but it would not be accepted without an Oath I told the Judge that both Tithe and Swearing among Christians came from the Pope and it was matter of Conscience to us not to pay Tithes nor to swear for Christ bid his Disciples who had freely received give freely and he commanded them Not to swear at all The Judge said There was Tithe paid in England before Popery was I asked him by what Law or Statute they were paid then but he was silent Then I told him there were Eight poor men brought up to London out of the North about Two hundred Miles for small Tithes and one of them had no Family but himself and his Wife and kept no living Creature but a Cat. I asked him also Whether they could take a Man and his Wife and Imprison them both for small Tithes and so destroy a Family and if they could I desired to know by what Law He did not Answer me but only said That was an hard Case So when I found there was no help to be had there we left him and went to Judge Mountague's Chamber and with him I had a great deal of Discourse concerning Tithes Whereupon he sent for our Adversary's Atturney and when he came I offered him our Answer He said If we would pay the Charges of the Court and be bound to stand Trial and abide the Judgment of the Court we should not have the Oath tendred to us I told him that they had brought those Charges upon us by requiring us to put in our Answer upon Oath which they knew before we could not do for Conscience sake And as we could not pay any Tithe nor swear so neither should we pay any of their Charges Upon this he would not receive our Answer So we went from thence to Judge Atkyns his Chamber and he being busie we gave our Answers and our Reasons against Tithes and Swearing to his Clerk But neither could we find any Encouragement from him to expect Redress there Wherefore leaving him we went to one of the most noted Counsellors and shewed him the state of our Case and our Answers He was very Civil to us and said This way of proceeding against us was somewhat like an Inquisition A few days after those Eight poor Friends that were brought up so far out of the North appeared before the Judges and the Lord was with them and his Power was over the Court so that the Friends were not Committed to the Fleet. Our Cause was put off till the next Term called Michaelmass Term and then it was brought before the Four Judges again Then William Mead told the Judges that I had engaged my self never to meddle with my Wife's Estate The Judges could hardly believe that any Man would do so Whereupon he shewed them the Writing under my Hand and Seal at which they wondred Then Two of the Judges and some of the Lawyers stood up and pleaded for me that I was not liable to the Tithes But the other two Judges and divers other Lawyers pressed earnestly to have me sequestred alledging that I was a publick Man At length they prevailed with one of the other Two Judges to Join with them and then they granted a Sequestration against me and my Wife together Thereupon by Advice of Counsel we moved for a Limitation which was granted and that much defeated our Adversary's design in suing out the Sequestration for this limited the Plaintiff from taking no more than was proved One of the Judges who was called Baron Weston was very bitter against me and brake forth in a great Rage against me in the open Court but in a little time after he died After the Yearly Meeting was over I tarried about a Month in London Sussex London and then went into Sussex to visit Friends there amongst whom I had many large and very precious Meetings in divers parts of that County Yet I spent not much time now in Sussex but returned pretty soon to London whether I felt drawings in Spirit and had very good Service for the Lord there both in publick Meetings and amongst Friends And when I had tarried some time in London Edmunton Bucks I went down to Edmunton and from thence into Buckinghamshire where I visited Friends at several Meetings in the upper-side of that County and then went by Henly to Reading where I tarried several Meetings 1681. Henly Reading O e. Oxfordshire Warborow I went no farther Westward at this time than to Ore where I had a very large Meeting After which striking off through the Edg of Oxfordshire I had a large and very precious Meeting at Warborow in which the Glory of the Lord shined over all Many Friends came to this Meeting some out of Barkshire some out of Buckinghamshire and some out of Hampshire Ilmore in the Vale of Bucks From thence I passed to Ilmore which is in the Vale of Buckinghamshire where we had a glorious Meeting And the day following I returned to Mary Pennington's From whence I visited the Mens and Womens Monthly Meetings at Hunger-hill Hunger-hill Watford and some other Meetings thereabouts and then passed to Watford where was a Marriage of Two Friends at which I was present A very large Meeting we had on that Occasion and the Lord's Power was over all I went from Watford to Longford in Middlesex Middlesex Uxbridge Longford visiting Friends at Uxbridge in the way At Longford we had a large Meeting it being on the First-day of the Week and the presence of the Lord was preciously felt amongst us blessed be his Name I passed from Longford to Kingston visiting Friends as I went at Stains and Sunbury Stains Sunbury Kingston At Kingston I abode with Friends two Meetings wherein we were sweetly refreshed together in the Lord. And passing on from thence towards London I had a very precious Meeting at Wansworth Wansworth Hammersmith Then crossing over to Hammersmith I had a good Meeting there which was the larger by reason of a Burial that was there that time and there being a pretty Openness in the People on that Occasion I had a
Weapons which Faith is Victory or gives Victory by which ye lay hold on Eternal Life and have access unto God who will render to every man according to his Deeds to them who by patient continuing in well-doing seek for glory and honour and immortality Eternal Life but unto them that are contentious and do not obey the Truth but obey unrighteousness indignation and wrath Tribulation and Anguish upon every soul of man that doth evil but glory honour and peace to every man that worketh good Christ said to his Disciples If the world hate you ye know that it hated me before it hated you If ye were of the world the world would love it's own but because ye are not of the world but I have chosen you out of the world therefore the world hateth you And If they have persecuted me they will also persecute you And John in his general Epistle to the Church saith Marvel not my Brethren if the world hate you We know that we have passed from death to life because we love the Brethren And Christ in his Prayer to his Father saith of his Followers As thou hast sent me into the world even so have I also sent them iâ— the world And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them that they may be one even as we are one And therefore all ye that know God and Jesus Christ whom to know is Eternal Life and are Partakers of his Glory keep the Testimony of Jesus and be valiant for his Truth upon Earth that ye may be all settled upon Christ the Rock and Foundation Dolston the 3d of the 8th Month 1682. G. F. I made but little stay at Dolston but returned again to London London where I continued most part of the Winter labouring in the Service of Truth amongst Friends Save that I was a little while at Kingston in the Tenth Month this Year where I writ a Book Kingston setting forth The state of the Birth Temporal and the Birth Spiritual And the Duty and State of a Child Youth Young Men Aged Men and Fathers in the Truth c. But I staid not long at Kingston neither for the heat of Persecution still continuing I felt my Service to be most at London London where our Meetings were for the most part disturbed and broken up or Friends were forced to Meet without Doors being kept out of their Meeting-Houses by the Officers Yet sometimes beyond expectation we got a quiet and peaceable Meeting in the Houses One time I was minded to have gone a mile or two out of Town to visit a Friend that was not well But hearing that the King had sent to the Mayor to put the Laws in Execution against Dissenters and that the Magistrates thereupon intended to Nail up the Meeting-house-doors I had not freedom to go out of Town but was moved to go to the Meeting at Gracious-street And notwithstanding all the Threats a great Meeting it was and very quiet and the Glory of the Lord shone over all The same Week I went to the Meeting at the Peel in John's Street and the Sessions were holden the same day at Hicks's hall Peel-Meet I went to the Peel in the Morning and William Mead being to appear at the Sessions for not going to the Steeple-house-worship he came once or twice from Hicks's hall to me at the Peel which some Ill-minded-people observing went and Informed the Justices at the Bench that he was gone to a Meeting at the Peel Whereupon the Justices sent a Messenger to see if there were a Meeting but this being in the Forenoon there was no Meeting there then and so the Messenger when he had looked about went back and told them Then others Informed the Justices that there would be a Meeting there about three or four in the Afternoon Whereupon they sent for the Chief Constable and asked him Why he suffered a Meeting to be at the Peel so nigh him He told them He did not know of any Meeting there They asked him How he could but know it and live so nigh it He said He was never there in his life 1682. London and did not know that there was a Meeting there They would have perswaded him that he must needs know of it but he standing stedfast in the denial of it they said They should take order to have it look'd after in the Afternoon But a multitude of Business coming before them at the Sessions when Dinner-time came they hasted to their Dinner without giving order And when they came to the Bench again after Dinner the Lord put it out of their Minds so that they sent no Officer and so the Meeting was quiet beginning and ending in peace and a blessed Meeting we had the Lord's Presence being preciously amongst us Many Friends had a concern upon their minds when they saw me come into the Meeting lest I should have been taken But I was freely given up to suffer if it was the Lord's Will before I went into the Meeting and had nothing in my mind concerning it but the Lord's Glory And I do believe the Lord put it out of their minds that they should not send to break up our Meeting that day Yet the First-day after three or four Justices as I heard came to the Peel and put Friends out of their Meeting there and kept them out and inquired for William Mead but he was not there Grac. Meet That day I was moved to go to Gracious-street-Meeting and it was expected that the Officers would come to break up the Meeting or keep Friends out and many hundreds of People came to see what would be done to us But the Officers came not and so we were in peace and quietness and many of the People that came to look on staid all the time and a glorious precious Meeting we had for the Lord's Presence was plentifully amongst us and his Power came over all Glory to his Name for ever who is over all I had seen the Mayor's printed Speech for putting the Laws in Execution against Dissenters and it was much in my mind that we should draw up a Paper to send to the Mayor and Aldermen to clear our selves from being such as those Laws were made against and to set forth our peaceable Behaviour both towards the King and the Government Accordingly a Paper was drawn up and signed and delivered to the Mayor and Copies thereof to the Aldermen and to the Bishop of London also And they generally took it kindly and were Civil to the Friends that delivered it About this time I was moved to write the few Lines following to Friends Dear Friends FEel the Power of God in you all and over all and by it let all your hearts be united to one another and to the Lord God who hath gathered you to himself by his Power and Spirit to be a People to serve and worship him So that you may all strive to Excel
Members of Christ Jesus of which he is the Spiritual Head Rock and Foundation And in the midst of his Church of living Members Christ exercises his Spiritual Prophetical Office to open to them the Mysteries of his Kingdom And is a Spiritual Bishop to oversee them that they do not go astray from the living God that made them and a Shepherd that feeds them with Bread and Water of Life from Heaven and none is able to pluck his Sheep out of his hands and he is a Priest that died for them and sanctifieth them and presents them to God who ruleth in their Hearts by the Divine Faith which he is the Author and Finisher of And his living Members do praise God through Jesus Christ in whom they have Life and Salvation who reconciles them to God that they can say they have Peace with God through Jesus Christ and so praise God through him that was dead and is alive again and reigns over all and liveth for evermore blessed for ever Hallelujah Amen! Greet one another with an holy Kiss of Charity and this Kiss of Charity is above all the Kisses of the World for Love and Charity beareth all things believeth all things hopeth all things and endures all things It envieth not and Charity vaunteth not it self nor is puffed up nor doth it behave it self unseemly It rejoices not in Iniquity but rejoices in the Truth And Charity is not easily provoked and thinks no Evil but suffereth long and is kind And Charity never faileth I say Greet one another with this holy Kiss of Charity and Peace be with you all that are in Christ Jesus your Life and Salvation The 30th of the 3d Month 1686. G. F. I remained for the most part of this Year in London save that sometimes I got out to Bednal-Green for a Night or two Bednal-Green Enfield Chiswick and some times went as far as Enfield and thereabouts amongst Friends and once or twice to Chiswick where an Ancient Friend had set up a School for the Educating of Friends Children in all which places I found Service for the Lord. London And when I was at London I spent my time amongst Friends either in Publick Meetings as the Lord drew me or visiting Friends that were not well and in looking after the Sufferings of Friends For though very many Friends were released out of Prisons yet some remained Prisoners still for Tithes c. and Sufferings of several sorts lay heavy yet on Friends in many places Yet inasmuch as many Friends that had been Prisoners were now set at Liberty I felt a Concern upon me that none might look too much at Man but might Eye the Lord therein from whom deliverance comes Wherefore I writ an Epistle to Friends and sent it abroad to be read amongst them as followeth Friends THE Lord by his Eternal Power hath opened the heart of the King to open the Prison-doors by which about Fifteen or Sixteen hundred are set at Liberty and hath given a Check to the Informers so that in many places our Meetings are pretty quiet So my desires are that both Liberty and Sufferings all may be sanctified to his People and Friends may prize the Mercies of the Lord in all things and to him be thankful who stilleth the Raging Waves of the Seas and allayeth the Storms and Tempests and maketh a Calm And therefore it is good to trust in the Lord and cast your Care upon him who careth for you For when ye were in your Gaols and Prisons Then the Lord did by his Eternal Arm and Power uphold you and sanctified them to you and unto some he made them as a Sanctuary and tried his People as in a Furnace of Affliction both in Prisons and spoiling of Goods And in all this the Lord was with his People and taught them to know that The Earth is the Lord's and the Fulness thereof 1686. London and that he was in all places who crowneth the year with his goodness Psal 65. Therefore let all God's People be diligent and careful to keep the Camp of God holy pure and clean and to serve God and Christ and one another in the glorious peaceable Gospel of Life and Salvation which Glory shines over God's Camp and his great Prophet and Bishop and Shepherd is among or in the midst of them exercising his heavenly Offices in them so that you his People may Rejoice in Christ Jesus through whom you have Peace with God For he that destroyeth the Devil and his Work and bruises the Serpent's Head is all God's Peoples heavenly Foundation and Rock to build upon which was the holy Prophets and Apostles Rock in days past and is now a Rock of our Ages which Rock and Foundation of God standeth sure And upon this the Lord God establish all his People Amen London the 25th of the 7th Month 1686. G. F. Divers other Epistles and Papers relating to Friends and Truth I writ this Year whereof one was by way of Exhortation to Friends to keep in Vnity in the Truth in which there is no Division nor Separation And thus it was DEar Friends and Brethren in the Lord Jesus Christ in whom ye have all Peace and Life and in him there is no Division nor Schism nor Rent nor Strife nor Separation for Christ is not divided and there can be no Separation in the Truth nor in the Light Grace Faith and Holy Ghost but Unity and Fellowship and Communion For the Devil was the first that went out of the Truth and separated from it and tempted Man and Woman to disobey God and to go from the Truth into a false Liberty to do that which God forbad And so it is the Serpent now that leads Men and Women into a false Liberty even the God of the World from which Man and Woman must be separated by the Truth that Christ the Truth may make them free and then they are free indeed And then they are to stand fast in that Liberty in which Christ hath made them free and in him as I said before there is no Division nor Schism nor Rent nor Separation but Peace and Life and Reconciliation to God and to one another So that in Christ Male and Female are all one for whether they be Male or Female Jew or Gentile Bond or Free they are all one in Christ And there can be no Schism Rent or Division in him nor in the Worship of God in his holy Spirit and Truth nor in the pure and undefiled Religion that keeps from the Spots of the World nor in the Love of God that beareth and endureth all things nor in the Word of God's Grace for it is pure and endureth for ever Many you see have lost the Word of Patience and the Word of Wisdom that is pure and peaceable and gentle and easie to be intreated Then they run into the Wisdom that is below that is earthly sensual and devilish and very uneasie to be intreated And they
the Inhabitants of the City of Hamborough I writ also an Epistle to the Ambassadors that were treating a Peace at Nimmeguen To the Magistrates and Priests of Embden I writ a Book shewing them their Vnchristian Practices in persecuting Friends And several other Books I writ there in Answer to Priests and others of Hamborough Dantzick and other places to Clear the Truth and Friends from their false Charges and Slanders After some time George Keith and William Penn came back from Germany to Amsterdam and had a Dispute with one Galenus Abrahams one of the most noted Baptists in Holland at which many Professors were present But not having time to finish the Dispute then they met again two days after and the Baptist was much Confounded and Truth gained ground Between these Two Disputes we had a very great Meeting at Friends Meeting-Place at which many hundreds of the World's People were and some of high Rank in the World's Account for there was an Earl and a Lord and divers other Eminent Persons who all behaved themselves very Civilly But when the Meeting was ended some Priests began to make some Opposition which when William Penn understood he stood up again and answered them to the great satisfaction of the People who were much affected with the several Testimonies that they had heard declared And after the Meeting several of them came to Gertrude's where we were with whom George Keith had much Discourse in Latin Having now finished our Service at Amsterdam we took Leave of the Friends there and passed by Wagon to Leyden Leyden which is about 25 Miles where we stayed a day or two seeking out and visiting some tender People that we heard of there We met there with a German who was partly Convinced and he Informed us of an Eminent Man that was inquiring after Truth Some sought him out and visited him and found him a Serious Man and I spake to him and he owned the Truth William Penn and Benjamin Furly went to visit another Great Man that lived a little out of Leyden who they said had been General to the King of Denmark's Forces and he and his wife were very loving to them and heard the Truth with Joy From Leyden we went to the Hague Hague where the Prince of Orange then kept his Court and we visited one of the Judges of Holland with whom we had pretty much Discourse He was a Wise Tender man and put many Objections and Queries to us which when we had answered he was satisfied and parted with us in much Love Then leaving the Hague we went to Delft and from thence that night to Rotterdam Delft Rotterdam where we stay'd several days and had several Meetings there While I was here I gave forth a Book for the Jews with whom when I was at Amsterdam I had a desire to have had some Discourse but they would not Here also I reviewed several other Books and Papers which I had given forth before and were now Transcribed And now finding our Spirits Clear of the Service which the Lord had given us to do in Holland we took Leave of Friends of Rotterdam and passed by Boat to the Briel in order to take Passage that day in the Packet-Boat for England several Friends of Rotterdam accompanying us and some of Amsterdam who were come to see us again before we left Holland But the Packet-Boat not coming in till night we were fain to lodge that night at the Briel and next day being the One and twentieth of the Eighth Month and the First-day of the Week we went on Board and set Sail about the Tenth hour viz. William Penn George Keith and I and Gertrude Dirick Nieson with her Children We were in all about sixty Passengers and had a long and hazardous Passage for the Winds were contrary to us and the Weather stormy the Boat also very leaky insomuch that we were fain to have two Plumps continually going both day and night so that it was thought there was twice as much Water plumped out as the Vessel would have held But the Lord who is able to make the stormy Winds to cease and the Raging Waves of the Sea to be calm yea to raise them and stop them at his pleasure he alone did preserve us praised be his Name for ever Though our Passage was hard yet we had a fine time and good Service for Truth on Board among the Passengers some of whom were a sort of great Folks and they were very kind and loving 1677. Harwich We arrived at Harwich on the 23th of the 8th Month at night having been Two Nights and almost Three Days at Sea Next Morning William Penn and George Keith took Horse for Colchester but I stay'd and had a Meeting at Harwich and there being no Colchester-Coach there and the Post-masters Wife being Unreasonable in her Demands for a Coach and deceiving us of it also after we had hired it we went to a Friend's House about a mile and an half off in the Country and hired his Wagon which we bedded well with Straw and rode in it to Colchester Colchester I stay'd in Colchester till the First-day of the Week having a desire to be at Friends Meeting there that day and a very large and weighty Meeting it was for Friends hearing of my Return from Holland flocked in thither from several parts of the Country and many of the Towns People coming in also it was thought there were about a Thousand People at the Meeting and all was peaceable Then having stay'd a day or two longer at Colchester having Service amongst the Friends there I travelled through Essex Essex Halsted Braintree Felsted Saling â—helmsford London visiting Friends at Halsted Braintree Felsted and Saling and having Meetings with them At Chelmsford I had a Meeting in the Evening and there being many Friends Prisoners they got liberty and came to the Meeting and we were well refreshed together in the Lord. Next day being the 9th of the 9th Month I got to London where Friends received me with great Joy and on the First-day following went to Gracious-street Meeting where the Lord visited us with his refreshing Presence and the Glory of the Lord surrounded the Meeting praised be the Lord After I had been a little while in London I writ the following Letter to my Wife whom though I had written to her several times out of Holland I had not written to since I came into England Dear Heart TO whom is my Love and to the Children and to all the rest of Friends in the Lord's Truth Power and Seed that is over all Glory to the Lord and blessed be his Name for ever beyond all words who hath carried me through and over many Trials and Dangers in his Eternal Power I have been Twice at Gracious-street-Meeting and though the opposite Spirits were there yet all was quiet and the Dew of Heaven fell upon the People and the Glory of the Lord
shined over all Every day I am fain to be at Meetings about Business and Sufferings which are great abroad and now many Friends are concerned with many Persons about them So in haste with my Love to you all London the 24th of the 9th Month 1677. G. F. About this time I received Letters from New-England 1677. London which gave account of the Magistrates and Rulers cruel and unchristian-like Proceedings against Friends there whipping and abusing them very shamefully for they whipped many Women-Friends and one Woman they tied to a Cart and dragged her along the Street she being stripped above the wast Yea they whipped some Masters of Ships that were not Friends only for bringing Friends thither And at that very time while they were persecuting Friends in this barbarous manner the Indians slew threescore of their Men and took one of their Captains and fleyed the skin off of his head while he was alive and carried it away in Triumph So that the sober People said The Judgments of God came upon them for persecuting the Quakers but the blind dark Priests said It was because they did not persecute them enough So a great Exercise I had in seeking Relief here for our poor suffering Friends there that they might not lye under the Rod of the Wicked Upon this and other Services for Truth to get Friends sufferings in several places taken off I stay'd in London a month or five weeks visiting Meetings and helping and incouraging Friends to labour for the deliverance of their suffering Brethren in other parts Afterwards I went down to Kingston Kingston and visited Friends there and there-away And having stay'd a little among Friends there over looking a Book which I had then ready to go to the Press Bucks I went from thence cross the Country into Buckinghamshire visiting Friends and having several Meetings amongst them as at Amersham Hunger-hill Jordans Hedgerly Amersham Hunger-hill Jordans Hedgerly Wickham-Turvil-heath Wickham and Turvil-heath In some of which they that were gone out from the Unity of Friends in Truth into Strife Opposition and Division were very unruly and troublesome Particularly at the Mens-Meeting at Thomas Ellwood's at Hunger-hill where the Chief of them came from Wickham endeavouring to make a disturbance in the Meeting and to hinder Friends from proceeding in the business of the Meeting When I saw their design I admonished them to be sober and quiet and not trouble the Meeting by interrupting the Service thereof but rather if they were dissatisfied with Friends Proceedings and had any thing to Object let a Meeting be Appointed on purpose some other day So Friends offered them to give them a Meeting another day and at length it was Agreed to be at Thomas Ellwood's the week following Hunger-hill Accordingly Friends met them there and the Meeting was in the Barn for there came so many both of Friends and of them that the House could not receive them So after we had sate a while they began their Jangling and most of their Arrows were shot at me but the Lord was with me and gave me strength in his Power to cast back their Darts of Envy and Falshood upon themselves And so their Objections were Answered and things were opened to the People and a good Opportunity it was and serviceable to the Truth for many that before were weak were now strengthened and confirmed and some that were doubting and wavering were satisfied and settled and the Faithful Friends were refreshed and comforted in the springings of Life amongst us 1677. Hunger-hill for the Power rose and Life sprung and in the arisings thereof many living Testimonies were born against that wicked dividing rending Spirit which those Opposers were joined to and acted by And the Meeting ended to the satisfaction of Friends That night I lodged with other Friends at Thomas Ellwood's and the same week I had a Meeting again with those Opposers at Wickham Wickham where they again shewed their Envy and were made manifest to the Upright-hearted Now after I had visited Friends in that upper side of Buckinghamshire Oxfordshire Henly Causham Reading I called upon Friends at Henly in Oxfordshire and afterwards went by Causham to Reading where I was at Friends Meeting on the First-day of the week and in the Evening had a large Meeting with Friends Next day there being another Meeting amongst Friends concerning settling a Womens-Meeting some of them that had let in the Spirit of Division fell into jangling and were disorderly for a while till the weight of Truth brought them down After this Meeting I passed on through the Country visiting Friends and having Meetings amongst them in several places Barkshire Wiltshire Bristol through Barkshire and Wiltshire and so on till I came to Bristol which was on the 24th day of the 11th Month just before the Fair. I stay'd at Bristol all the time of the Fair and some time after and many sweet and precious Meetings we had there at that time Many Friends being there from several parts of the Nation some on the account of Trade and some in the Service of Truth And great was the Love and Unity of Friends that abode faithful in the Truth though some who were gone out of the holy Vnity and were run into Strife Division and Enmity were rude and abusive to me and behaved themselves in a very Unchristian manner towards me But the Lord's Power was over all by which being preserved in the heavenly Patience which could bear Injuries for his Name 's sake I felt dominion therein over the rough rude and unruly Spirits and would leave them to the Lord who knew my Innocency and would plead my Cause And the more these laboured to Reproach and Vilifie me the more did the Love of Friends that were sincere and upright-hearted Abound towards me and some that had been betrayed by the Adversaries seeing their Envy and rude behaviour brake off from them who have cause to bless the Lord for their deliverance When I left Bristol I went with Richard Snead to a house of his in the Country and from thence to Hezekiah Coale's at Winterburn Gloucestershire Winterburn in Gloucestershire whether came several Friends that were under great Sufferings for Truth 's sake whom I had Invited to meet me there And there Stephen Smith Richard Snead and I drew up a Breviat of their Sufferings setting forth the Illegal Proceedings against them which was delivered to the Judges at the Assizes at Gloucester and they promised to put a stop to those Illegal Proceedings Sudbury Next day we passed to Sudbury and had a large Meeting in the Meeting-house there which at that time was of very good Service We went next day to Nathaniel Crip 's at Tedbury and from thence passed on to Nailsworth 1677. Tedbury Nailsworth Finchcomb where on the First-day of the Week we had a brave Meeting and large From thence we went to the Quarterly Meeting