are not in the undefiled Christian Religion which keeps from the Spots of the World and leads into Fellowship with the Father and his Son And therefore there was no such Danger as thou insinuatest in thy Letter in his leaving of your Church of incurring the Damnation of his Soul or choosing an unsafer way to Heaven in coming to that Religion he hath chosen Next we observe thou seemest to take an advantage at his saying It is the Light of God's Grace that let him see the evil of his own Heart that he lived in and the evil of others also and so wouldst strain these words the evil of others particularly to the seeing of the hidden Evils of their Hearts in secret as he saw his own whereas it is not to be questioned but that he intended the Evil that others brought forth into Words or Actions Though when he speaks of himself he names his Heart saying My own Heart yet thou unfairly makest a great deal ado about it to bring him under blame as if he assumed God's Prerogative and plainly contradicted the Apostle Paul in the 14 th chap. of the Romans but that thou hast no just reason for these thy endeavours wise Men may easily comprehend However it is certain that through the Light of God's Grace in the Heart Men may come to see the defects in themselves and also in others without assuming God's Prerogative And as to thy saying It 's a Term often used by the Quakers but not rightly understood by them Thy Charge is false The Quakers understand it and thou canst not make out the contrary though it 's easie for thee and others to accuse But that we leave upon thee to prove and make out But as for his seeing the wickedness of his own Heart it is not to be questioned and also to see the Vanity and Wickedness of others is not difficult For it is apparent enough that Men that are in the Society of the People of your Religion may see what is brought forth daily that is not agreeable to Christianity both in Words and Actions And seeing this and that which Christ lays down being granted that out of the abundance of the Heart the Mouth speaks and a good Man out of the good Treasure of his Heart brings forth good things and an evil Man out of the evil Treasure brings forth evil things Matth. 12. 35. Then according to this Rule of Christ's by what Men bring forth in their Conversations the Heart may be judged And though the Lord search the Heart and try the Reins and to know Secrets is his Prerogative yet what is thus manifested according to the Rule of Christ is no presumption to believe or give judgment in And as to the Apostles Words Rom. 14. Thou makest an impertinent Application of them in bringing them as a Testimony in this concern against him for the case in which they were not to judge one another was in point of Faith or their growth or liberty therein the Weakness of the Faith of a weak Brother was to be born with in that straitness that was upon some as in respect to Meats and the observing of Days which others were grown over that were not to be judged but in point of Faith were to be left to their own liberty and in that case saith he Let not him that eateth not judge him that eateth for God hath received him and he that did eat was not to despise him that did not eat So thou may'st see that the Apostle had a regard to their Growth in the Faith and so would have all walk accordingly in Wisdom with care not to hurt one another But what is this to People of a loose Life whose Words and Actions are contrary to the Law of God and so sinful May we bear no Testimony against such Was it not the Practice of the Prophets Christ and the Apostles to Reprove such and give Testimony against them and yet not contradict Paul in this case How ignorant thou shewest thy self to be of the Scriptures But mark thy Iudgment and where it will fall Have not these many years your Church and Ministry been concerned in Persecuting such as could not for Conscience sake and in the liberty of their Faith Observe Days and other things which you required And when they could not conform to you they have not only been judged by you but sorely abused and cast into Prison put in the Stocks and their Goods spoild Thus have many suffered only for matters of Faith and Conscience towards God And so herein it is evident that your established Church thou speakest of is highly Guilty of the Fact thou chargest to be plainly contrary to the Apostle in that fore-cited Scripture in Rom. and so is judging another Man's Servant in that wherein he ought to be left to his own Master and presumest to meddle with Christ's Prerogative so you are under thy own Condemnation being guilty of that which thou wouldst condemn in others And this to be your practice can be proved by many Witnesses that have suffered upon this account by your Church both in England and Ireland From what is before said it's evident that for a Man to say That he sees the evil of his own Heart by the Light and Grace of God and the evil of other Men which were conversant with him in his loose Conversation doth not bring him under the Censure of the Apostle as thou ignorantly dost imply Therefore thou mayst take it home to thy self and thy Brethren as a just Judgment upon you for the reasons aforementioned Thou further say'st That perhaps we will object that Christ in Matth. 7 16. says Ye shall know them by their Fruits c. To which thou Answerest He does so but tellest us It hath relation to false Prophets and withal wouldst insinuate as if the Teaching Quakers as thou callest them were such But that they are such is a false Insinuation which thou canst never be able to prove And by Fruits thou tellest us that both there and in other places is meant the Doctrine of those false Prophets or Teachers that being the proper Fruits of such men and not their particular Actions Answer That Christ's words here have a relation to false Prophets we grant it and that they are to be known by their Fruits we also acknowledg But that the Fruits there meant are only their Doctrines and not their particular Actions as thou affirmest we do deny And that it is not so as thou sayst doth plainly appear from the words of Christ in many parts of the same Chapter For first he saith They shall come in Sheeps-Cloathing but inwardly they are ravening Wolves so not in the Sheep's Life And what is the Sheep's Cloathing Is it not the Words of the true Phrophets Apostles and Servants of God As appears by the Testimony of the Lord's Servants as may be seen in Ierem. 23. 30. Behold I am against the Prophets saith the Lord that
Truth Exalted IN THE WRITINGS OF THAT Eminent and Faithful Servant of CHRIST Iohn Burnyeat COLLECTED Into this Ensuing Volume as a MEMORIAL to his Faithful Labours in and for the TRUTH Prov. 10. 7. The Memory of the Iust is Blessed Psal. 112. 6. The Righteous shall be had in Everlasting Remembrance LONDON Printed for Thomas Northcott in George-Yard in Lumbard-Street 1691. THE PREFACE TO THE READER READER AS the Tree is known by its Fruits so I desire thee to Taste of these which are here presented to thee with a Serious and Unprejudiced Mind which are but Some of the Many Testimonies of the Love and Labour of the Deceased Author for the General Good of Mankind and particular Edification of the Churches of Christ that are Gathered in our Day by the Eternal Spirit in and among whom he was a Faithful Able and Successful Labourer The End of Books is the End of Preaching viz. Informing the Inquirer Stirring up the Careless Stopping the Gainsayer and Comforting and Building up those whose Faces are turned already Sion-ward and that are Attended with many Exercises in their Iourney to Everlasting Habitations And as the End is the same so where the Servants of Christ cannot come Books may that are the Testimony of their Care and Ministry for others They remain also with us and are a Memorial of those that writ them when they are Gathered to their Fathers and by them the Living often Converse with the Dead who yet Die not but Live in their Labours in the Children they beget to God in their Writings they leave behind them as Pledges of their Love and Care for the Flock and in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus with the Spirits of the Just To whom and to God the Judge of all the Dispensation of our Day has brought Thousands Blessed be his Eternal Name for ever These following Writings I Recommend the more Earnestly and Pleasingly to thy Solemn Perusal Serious Reader because they are very little Controversial they chiefly Refer to Practice to an Holy and Divine Life and Walking with God The First is an Account of his own Convincement the Path he trod-in to Peace with God out of a Wicked World where the Heavenly Call found him It is Sweet Lively Instructive and Perswading to others to Try as he did and to Embrace the Holy Truth Then follows a Relation of his Travels and Ministry in these Nations and beyond the Seas as Luke presented the Churches with the Acts or Travels of the Apostles in their Infancy A Pleasant and Seasoning Lecture both for the Young who love to hear of Voyages to Excite them to seek the Lord his Way and Kingdom and to Journey towards the New and Heavenly Ierusalem and to Quicken those more Aged to shake off their Dust the Earth that is too Apt to Contract and Stick upon them in the Daily Attention they give to their Temporal Affairs and to Lift up their Eyes and see the Fields how White they are to Harvest and how few Labourers there are to Take it in and what need there is of an Holy Care and Oversight of those that are already Gathered especially Considering how many Eminent Ones of late are Taken from us His Next Writings are Epistles of divers sorts to several Places and upon different Occasions containing Divine Truths and Strong Perswasives to Faithfulness Love Holiness and Perseverance in the Way of God Revealed to them in the Light of Iesus Christ the Great Light of the World that Enlightens every one that comes into the World Those that have any Spiritual Savour will Taste a Sweet Savour in them and God will Witness to them as he is wont to do to the Labours and Writings of his Servants in the Hearts of those that with Seriousness shall peruse them His last Two Tracts in this Book saving Two Epistles that by coming too late are misplaced are in Defense of the Truth against some Opposers of it and the only Controversy in the Book The Soundness of his Answers and Moderation of his Spirit in delivering of them are no small Commendation to the Truth he defends whose Faithful Servant he was for it shews the Power it had over him how well he knew what he writ and that he was not only a Professor but a Possessor of the Living and Saving Faith that was once deliver'd to the Saints and is now again Restored by the Operation of the same Holy Spirit I shall Conclude with saying That as the Author was one of the Most-Eminent of the Second Stock of Ministers the Lord Anointed and Sent forth in this his Glorious Day and was so Generally Witnessed in his Services in the Hearts of his People It is tenderly hoped that those who loved him will prize his Remaining Testimonies and be Good Examples to their Families in Reading such Edifying Labours of the Brethren that their Children and Servants may be brought up and Instructed in the Religious Tradition of our Day according to the Testimony of the Blessed Truth in the Inward Parts Unto which they are all left and the holy Teachings and Guidings of it and Thou Reader likewise that leads into the Way of Holiness and into the Path of Endless Peace ON IOHN BURNYE AT ' s Book GO Little Book speak out the Praise Of him that did thy Author Raise An Eminent Apostle of our Days May He that Blest him Bless thee too That thou the Way of Truth may shew To the Vain Gentile and Benighted Iew Thee Who spake through him can speak by And make thy Readers Hear and See The Saving Truths of thy Divinity A TESTIMONY Concerning the Life and Death OF OUR Dear Friend and Brother in the Lord John Burnyeat HE was a faithful Friend and Brother and an able Minister of Christ Jesus who freely preacht the Everlasting Gospel and laboured to keep it without Charge who was a True Apostle of Iesus Christ and preacht him Freely both by Sea and Land He received the Truth in 1653. in Cumberland and died in the Lord in Ireland in the Year 1690. after he had stood those great Troubles Storms and Trials there and was a great Strength to Friends in the time of their late great Sufferings He stood it out when many were Ruined and fled to England for Succour and remained till after King William came in and King James went out of Ireland And then he went up and down Visiting Friends Meetings that were gathered in the Name of Jesus And after he had intended to come for England but there he died in the Lord and is Blessed and Rests from his Labours and his Works follow him He travelled and Preacht the Gospel in Ireland Scotland Barbadoes Virginia Maryland New-Jerseys Long-Island Road-Island and up and down in New-England and had many Disputes with many Priests and Professors that opposed the Truth but the Lord gave him Dominion over all and to stop the Mouths of the Gainsayers and he turned many to the Lord
hath a good place amongst sober People Though the Professors who shrink and hide we are informed do rail against Friends they do seem as if they were given up to hardness of heart and so set in their blindness and hardness as to go on till the Rod come upon them For they do not lay any thing so to heart as thereby to be brought off from the evil Errour of their hard and prejudiced Minds It doth appear that they envy Friends good and are offended that we do not flie into holes as they do But as for Friends they are very cheerful and we have had a very blessed Season and kept in Unity Peace and Concord in our Meetings and Concerns and the Lord 's good Presence pretiously with us to our Comfort and Consolation And blessed be the Lord he is not wanting unto us both to sanctifie our hearts and also to fill them with his Spiritual Mercies and to Contribute of his other Mercies and Blessings whereby he may make our days pleasant unto us that with Gladness and Joy of Soul we may serve and praise him who is worthy for ever Amen! Dublin the 4th of the 6th Month 1685. Yesterday I came home having been through the South-end of the Nation and between six and seven weeks away and have had a very comfortable Journey amongst Friends and peaceable Blessed be the Lord for his Mercies towards us Dublin the 6th of the 7th Month 1685. I am glad to hear that things are so still and quiet in England and that Friends have some little breathing time of ease from their sharp persecution It is the Lords mercy towards us but our Innocency is that which must speak for us and if we loose that our defence would depart from us and then there would be none to fly unto for vain is all help from below Therefore it will be our happiness to rest quiet with our Faith in him for he is able to preserve who promist them of old he would give them favour in the eyes of the King of Babilon And it had been their safety to have trusted in his word but in their taking of their own way they brought Ruin upon themselves and so will all do now whose eye is not unto the Lord to stay their minds upon him but look out to follow their own Contrivances I know the Truth will keep out of all such things if Friends be careful to keep under the Conduct thereof But if fleshly Reasonings prevail in the Unbelief then the Eye goes out and the Mind into the haste so the Patience and Long Suffering is lost and the Hope and Faith let fall Then the Creature can neither trust in the Lord nor stay rightly for his Time and Season Our Meetings are very quiet and peaceable which is a Mercy we greatly value and our Hearts in the Lord's Truth are at rest and that 's our Comfort Both there and here and where-ever we are it will be our place to be prepared for Sufferings that 's likely to be our Portion for the Truth And it is but as it has been of old If any will live Godly in Christ Iesus he must suffer Persecution I am ready to go out of Town to visit Friends in the County of Wicklow Dublin the 19th of the 7th Month 1685. I am sorry that so much Occasion of Offence should be given to some Friends here by some that take Liberty there viz. at London by running back into such things as the Truth Condemns and so to be Encouragers of Pride and Vanity that will grow too fast to the drawing down of the Displeasure of the Lord upon Man And therefore I would have Friends to stand in that which is plain and keep to the Cross in their Trades and Dealings and Cloaths and in all things that they may remain standing Witnesses for God in Righteousness against Pride and all the Vanity of the World for therein will stand our Safety for ever I desire that we may live up to the Truth in all Things that the Blessing may attend us And indeed we had need to be Circumspect For every Lawful Thing is not Expedient because there may be an unlawful Liberty strengthened thereby The Lord keep us all in his Wisdom truly Lowly and Humble that we may still honour him in all things and remain a People through our Day to his Glory For if upon us in our Day we let the Spirit of the World prevail to the overthrowing of our own Testimony what Example and Footsteps shall we leave to them that come after us I am full and could say much for my Heart is concerned to hear them who themselves are not so good as they ought to be strengthen themselves by bad Examples For though some may be slow to mind that which is good so as to learn Good from the Example thereof yet they are quick to take Encouragement from the Contrary Dublin The 18th of the 9th Month. We have had a comfortable Season this Half-Years-Meeting quiet and peaceable and in Love and Unity among our selves so that we have cause to be truly thankful unto the Lord for that Mercy amongst all other Mercies we Enjoy from his blessed Hand Dublin the 29th of the fourth Month 1686. Though the World be full of Tumults Disquietness and Amazements yet blessed be the God of our Salvation who hath brought us into a Degree of that Rest which the Distresses that are from below cannot Reach So that there is something known to Retire unto for a Sanctuary that the World knows not neither can the Destroyer come into it Therefore our Safety is always to keep our Interest therein that we may have our Priviledge unto our Mansion there and so rest in the Time of Trouble where no Hurter nor Destroyer can come The Lord's Power is to be admired loved and believed in for ever who gives us blessed Seasons and Calms and Quiets It 's true for ever the Winds and Seas must obey him blessed are all that put their Trust in him Fears and Restlesness doth possess the Hearts of many but for our parts we have an Eye unto the Lord and know he hath a hand in ordering of or suffering all things for Ends best known unto himself and therein we Rest. And I desire that the Lord by the Indwelling of his Power in our Souls may still so keep and preserve us in that Simplicity and Godly Sincerity wherein we may always know one another and be a Comfort one unto another in the plainness and simplicity of that blessed Truth that saves and sanctifies from all Unrighteousness and Unites unto God and brings into near Fellowship one with another For this is that which sanctifies fits and prepares the Heart of Man for every good Vertue and settles and composes his Nature not only for heavenly Mercies and that he may receive and enjoy them but also for his Station in this World and the Enjoyment of Temporal Favours that he may
you may grow in and be guided by it in your further Travels in the Heavenly Journey towards the blessed Heavenly Canaan which is still before you as the Price of the high Calling of God in Christ Jesus And therefore observe the true Mark and still press forward towards the same as the Apostles and ancient Saints did And take heed I intreat you unto your selves and the exercise of your Minds lest your Eye inwardly be drawn forth to look at another Mark for if you do then will not the Price be the same that was theirs who was faithful unto Death and so continued unto the end and obtained the Crown Therefore be you all watchful to keep the Enemy of your Souls out of your Hearts that he may reign who is your Friend for ever who seeks your good and brings Life and Peace unto your Souls under whose Government and peaceable Dominion you will find Rest and Pleasure for your inward Man And now my dear Friends since it is the Lord's Truth you have received and his Holy Power that you have felt in these Countries even as his People in other parts dwell you with it and in it with careful Minds that you may therein live unto God as such that have a part in the first Resurrection that you may reign for ever and ever over the Power of the Second Death And all take heed of the mysterious Workings of the wicked one who works in Deceit by Guile in every transformed Appearance to draw the Mind out of the pure Center in the true Power to the Likeness and Image which hath no Life in it where there can be no stedfastness nor true reigning over the Will that is unruly and foolish Therefore my dear Friends keep your Watch every one in your own Hearts continually that you may not be betrayed from that pure Life that yields vertue unto your Souls and nourisheth up to Eternal Life For I know that the wicked one in his deceitful Workings you have been acquainted with and his evil Design the Lord by his Power in his Light hath discovered unto many of you so that you by the same have escaped his hurtful Snares and yet lives in that which must reign at last over all And therefore keep your Habitation in the Power that is unchangeable wherein you may live for ever without fading for the Power fades not but abides in its Glory for ever so that the first is the last the Root and Off-spring Blessed are they that have kept their first Love and have stayed in their Righteous Habitation into which the Power did redeem them they do still witness a growing from Grace to Grace from Strength to Strength and from one degree of Holiness unto another until they come to be purely like him who is their Redeemer who shall change them and bring them from Glory to Glory till they bear the Image of the Heavenly Man and be like him that is altogether glorious who is putting of his Glory richly upon his Church which is his People in this Day And therefore you that have received the Spirit of the Lord and are acquainted with it do you follow it in all its pure leadings with faithful Hearts for it will certainly lead all the Faithful to know an increase of Glory And take heed of the Spirit of the World which is not of God but leads from him that Spirit where it prevails causeth to wither and sade and brings Barrenness upon the Soul and Darkness and Death and then the Glory is lost and the Image of the Heavenly then is not born nor no Man in that is Heir of the Heavenly Inheritance Therefore it doth behoove all to look to their standing in that wherein the Heirship is that none may come short of that Crown which Paul said was laid for him and all them that loved the appearance of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so the God of Love and Peace keep you all in his Love Fear and Wisdom that your Dwellings for ever may be in his Peace which the World cannot take away nor rob you of that so with the rest of his Heritage you may shine in the Light of his Glory and dwell in the Richness of his Kingdom for ever and ever Amen Bristol the 9th of the 10th Month 1675. This is the Desire of my Soul for you all whom I truly love and in the Life Salute wherein I am your Friend and Brother J. B. Taunton the 7th of the 2d Month 1677. My dear Friends in Cumberland UNto you my Love and Life reaches and purely flows forth in that which Lives for ever wherein I do in the Innoceney and Life of Righteousness truly Salute you all whom the Lord hath raised and called to be a part of the first Fruits unto himself in this day of ours wherein the Glory of his hidden Life he hath Revealed unto a Remnant even that which from the Wise and Prudent of this World is still hid and from such as turn back into that Wisdom it comes again to be Vailed so that the Light of the Glory of it they lose again though they had a view thereof And therefore blessed are all who keep their Habitation in that Power which never Changeth nor Decays the Glory of the Heavenly things will be still in their view by which their Hearts will be enlarged towards the Lord both in Love unto him and a Living People to his Honour in all things that his Name may be Exalted and the Testimony of his Truth in its own pure Nature in every thing kept up according to its Brightness and Glory as by the power thereof we were raised up in the beginning as the life of Holiness grew in us dear Friends that which quickned and raised us from the Dead in years past through which we Live unto God and as we keep in the same we shall for ever be accepted by him and be well pleasing in his sight but out of that you know none shall be regarded by him though ye might do much for he did not regard them in the days of old for all they could do that did not keep in the Life of Righteousness though they might go far even to the covering of the Altar with Tears And therefore as I said that by which you were first quickned and raised is that in which for ever we must be accepted so that every one is to mind and wait for an increase and by experience of the growth of that wherein there is a coming upwards from a Child's State to a farther growth and still it is in the same Nature without degeneration from that which was first and so the first is witnessed to be last and ye grow more and more into the fulness of Christ in whom all fulness dwells And therefore my dearly Beloved in all your Meetings upon the Truth 's account have an eye unto and wait for an Injoyment of his Blessed and Heavenly and Heart-breaking Power
may come short of the Price the blessed Inheritance and so be such as Iames speaks of that ask and receive not because they ask amiss For the Heavenly Wisdom is to be sought after and waited for that comes down from above which teacheth and guideth in the Heavenly Way the Heavenly Path of Life and Salvation where every ones steps will be sure and their goings will be established and their understandings will grow For the Iust Man's Path will be as the shining Light that shines more and more unto the perfect Day Here none will be like those that beat the Air or run at an uncertainty the Apostle said they were not such yet there may be such whose Pains and Travels may be great Therefore still I say let your pressing be towards the Mark in the sense of the Lord's power which is the true Guide and the true Cross that mortifies and crucifies the Flesh with its Affections and Lusts and keeps Self down in the Death out of the Reputation for there is none due unto it For whosoever gives and seeks Reputation to it which ought to be made of no Reputation such can never rightly seek God's Honour nor work his Work nor obtain the right Price nor attain the Crown but must fall short at last For it is in him that crucifies Self and makes it of no Reputation that the Election stands and in whom the Heirship is for ever And therefore dear Friends wait all to feel his power in your Hearts and diligently mind the blessed working thereof that you may feel how it purgeth your Consciences from dead Works and cleanseth your Hearts from Sin for Sin defileth the Heart that it is not prepared for the Lord he will not dwell therein Therefore it must be washed and dead Works must be purged away for no Man can serve the living God therein it must be the living Works in the living Power wherein we must be accepted And so let all mind the living Power which is the living Guide which doth guide in the living Way and keeps alive unto God and so you will all be kept a living People and grow up in the living Wisdom that is from above which is inwardly taught by the living Gift that is received from the Father of Lights with whom there is no variableness nor shadow of turning And as you grow up in this Wisdom you will be constant there will be an establishing and such will shew out of a good Conversation their Works with Meekness and Wisdom But saith the Apostle if there be bitter Envying and Strife in your Hearts glory not and lie not against the Truth this Wisdom descendeth not from above but is Earthly Sensual and Devilish For where Envying and Strife is there is Confusion and every evil Work But the Wisdom that is from above is first pure and then peaceable gentle and easie to be entreated full of Mercy and good Fruits c. And the Fruit of Righteousness is sown in Peace of them that make Peace so you may see the Fruits brought forth manifest the Wisdom from whence it comes The Heavenly peaceable Wisdom brings forth the peaceable Fruits of Righteousness and is full of Mercy gentle and easie to be intreated and full of good Works but the Earthly brings forth the contrary Therefore saith the Apostle If there be bitter Envying and Strife in your Hearts glory not and lie not against the Truth Say not thou art in the Heavenly Wisdom while this lodgeth in thee for this Wisdom descendeth not from above but is earthly and sensual and therefore can never establish but bring Confusion because he is the Author of it that can never work good And therefore dear Friends let your Hearts be always kept in subjection unto that Power that bridles your Wills and crosses them and keeps you lowly humble and gentle where the daily dying which the Apostle was in may be witnessed and so you will see the true pressing forward towards the Mark and the true growing into Dominion over him that would hinder and then as Iames saith Swift to hear slow to speak slow to Wrath for the Wrath of Man worketh not the Righteousness of God Yet this I have often observed Man in a heat of Wrath would be working for God but in that he cannot work the Righteousness of God Therefore well said Iames Swift to hear slow to speak slow to Wrath And you know that he whom we ought to hear saith Learn of me for I am meek and lowly in Heart And so as every one learns of him and minds the leadings of his Power and the teachings of his spirit of Grace in their Hearts they will grow more and more like him and come into his Nature and healing Spirit and so in his Grace and Life be Healers and Saviours And therefore was it said by the Prophet they should be as Saviours upon Mount Zion Now Friends every one mind this saving healing power in your selves and bow in your Hearts unto it and be still in your Minds and calm and you shall see how it will sweeten you level your Spirits and bring down that which is high and losty and hard and you shall see how the Mountains will melt at the prefence of the Lord at the presence of the God of Iacob and you shall see how the Winds and Seas obey your Saviour and into what calmness he will bring your Spirits and then when all is still your Ear being opened which is the first Work of the Word you will be swift to hear and hearing your Souls will live And you will come down out of all the noises floatings and swellings into the calmness and stillness where you will admire your Saviour and say What manner of Man is this that even the Winds and Seas obey him And you will see that though Iordan over-flow her Banks yet at the leadings on of our Ioshuah and at the entrance of the feet of our High Priest it must be driven back that the Ransomed of the Lord may pass over dry-shod Much of this nature in Spirit may be read as there is a hearkning and keeping low but the forward rash and hasty are often tossed upon the Waters and very uncertain in their ways and doings and therefore do produce unto themselves much affliction of Soul and Spirit for to them the promise doth not belong where it is said He will keep them in perfect Peace whose Minds are stayed upon him because they trusted in him Now Friends methinks the Way is plain if every one would be careful to attend upon the power and its openings and give way thereunto and be humble for its the humble he teacheth his Ways and the meek he will guide in Iudgment and the willing and obedient he will feed for the Promise is They shall eat of the good of the Land And therefore I do beseech all be mindful be you all careful keep your Hearts out of the World and the
drowning surfeiting Cares and Pleasures of it that you may neither be choaked nor surfeited with the excess of that nor so led up into the worldly Pleasures and Liberty out of the Truth which that draws into as thereby and therein to forget the Lord and overlook your inward State For if any so do they lose the Glory the Beauty and Sweetness of their Heavenly condition and then they grow weary of the Way of the Lord and ready to say as some of old What profit is there in serving of God or in keeping of his Ordinances And therefore the God of Life stir you up and awaken all unto Watchfulness and Diligence that you may grow rich in the inward Man and be replenished with the Vertues and Graces of God that you may be a fruitful People in those parts of the World to the Honour and Glory of him who hath called and visited you who is Worthy of all Glory and Honour Praise and Dominion for ever And dear Friends my Heart's love reacheth unto you all who love and fear the Lord and in the Love of God I dearly salute you all and send this as a Testimony of that Love that still lives in my Heart unto you and therein I remain London 1680. Your Friend and Brother I. B. Dear Friends THE Love of my Heart and Soul is richly extended forth unto you and surely my Heart is affected with you in the Exercise you are under and do endure in this Day wherein the Lord seems to be pleased to try you as in a Furnace of Affliction and to prove your Faith and Patience that you may come to know the value of it even of that which is more precious than Gold that perisheth And truly my Heart believes that the Lord doth not suffer it to come upon you to destroy you but to try you and when his good Will is fulfilled in that and they have filled up their measure whose Hearts are hardened in their Cruelty he will find a way to deliver and bring forth his tryed and proved People whose Hearts are right before him and whose Souls are wisely set to seek him unto such shall all things be rightly sanctified and the Blessing and the Peace and Glory shall rest upon their inward Man with the richness of that Life which comes from Heaven for which you suffer for it is your innocent suffering for this as you have the Witness thereof in your selves that brings the Crown and Diademe of Glory to be put upon the Head of your inward Man So that the saying of the Apostle comes to be witnessed The Spirit of God and of Glory shall rest upon you Oh my most dearly beloved Friends How is my Soul melted into tenderness and my Heart broken within me in the meltings of the love of God towards you and in the sense of your long and weighty Trials that you have endured and gone through and yet for all must they seem as if they were but beginning Is the strength of the hard-hearted such that they are resolved to make a full end or to try what the Lord can do Will they prove their Arm to the utmost Well the Lord in his own time will manifest that it is but Flesh and not Spirit and therefore that which must decay and wither and be dried up and so prove weak at last when the unseen Arm of the Lord which they see not nor know not shall be revealed and stretched out and made bare which you that look not at things that are seen have a Faith in which Faith is that by which you live and in which you have your Victory and in which your Hope doth fasten as an Anchor both sure and stedfast So that though the Winds do blow and the raging Waves do swell high yet you are preserved and kept from being overthrown and destroyed Dearly Beloved methinks I find a Word of sweet Exhortation in my Heart unto you whom my Soul loves who may be or are tryed in this exercising Day with Bonds or Imprisonments In the first place get into a quiet frame of Spirit and Mind within your selves every one and into a resignedness freely up into the Will of God out of time looking as little at that as you can for if you do it will make your Exercises worse and harder For this I have experienced that when a Man is freeliest resigned into the Will of God and in a right Spirit most given up to suffer for him he is fittest to have his Liberty and most commonly it is the nearest unto him Dear Lambs I know there is sometimes a Travel in Spirit to get into a right place with the inward Man when the outward Man is in Bonds but when the Heart once gets thither all things are made easie and comfortable by him who said his Yoke was easie and his Burthen light And now be all concerned thus to get through in your Spirits and then you will feel that the Word of God is not bound but free and your Souls will be free in it and its holy Power and so be fed by the Milk of it that your Souls will draw spiritually from the blessed Breasts thereof by which you have been born again And being thus in your inward Man renewed unto God and up into his Life where the Habitation of Peace and Quietness is for your Souls that they cannot reach to bring a Disturbance to and there feeling your Ease Joy Peace and Pleasure to be such that you can in your Prison-House sing joyful Praises unto the Lord then my Friends be vvatchful tender and kind one unto another and over one another that Love Peace and Joy may be maintained among you all who suffer rightly and innocently for the Truth of our God that so you may be one anothers Ioy and Crown of Rejoicing in the Lord Jesus Christ your Life and Strength And dear Friends where there is innocency and simplicity bear one with another and help one another that in your sufferings you may have fellowship one with another and so keep in the fellowship of the sufferings of Jesus Christ where all may be humble and tender that so while others are striving to provoke you to come out of your places and to offend the Lord you may not provoke one another nor be an occasion unto any one to go out of their place in the Truth and so to lose their Peace with the Lord and in his Spirit For I have observed that there is a care to be amongst Friends at such times and in such conditions when they are kept up together that all things may be kept sweet and pleasant and that they may even join together in bearing the Burthen that is laid upon them and those that are more grown and deeper in their experience of what they are called unto may help the weak and so fulfil the Law of Love And dear Friends let not unprofitable Discourse be gone into for that may lead into
in Print his Arguments to prove the Quakers grand Hereticks in these Points c. And why would not Iames Barry give us a Meeting to prove us such according to his former Boasting Might not that have been convenient first or otherwise in writing to have given us some Arguments that we might have had something to have vindicated our Selves against that wise Men might have seen a little into the ground of our Difference But it is to be questioned whether he hath any Arguments against them that are fit to be brought forth before wise Men and therefore his greatest Policy is to keep them hid and so please Fools with his boasting of them But to do him Justice we must confess he hath given us cause to appear some way to vindicate our selves and our Principles according to his demand and since he himself proposeth Printing as the Method now we think it not amiss to do accordingly believing he cannot reasonably find fault with that which he himself seems to advise unto In his first Paper he calls us Persons who delight in brangling and stirring up the Spirit of Animosity and Prejudice and Men of as little Charity and Religion as those we receive our idle Stories from whether this be not more his guilt than ours we shall leave to the Lord to judge and also to Men of understanding who have the knowledge of both our Practices In his second Paper he charges our Principles to be dark and uncertain but lays down no Arguments against them In his last before recited you see how he charges Quakerism as he terms it to be made up and constituted of Subtlety and judges us to be in serpentine acts and our Cause dark and rotten and likewise you may see what an Imputation of being God's Enemies he endeavours to fasten upon us in his Application of those two Scriptures viz. Psal. 17. 14. and 73. 12. and in the conclusion of the same Paper giving his Reason why he sent all his without date tells us He did it willingly having seriously considered that a dateless Answer was at any time good enough for foolish and impertinent Stories and nonsensical Whimsies So that though he lays down no Arguments to confute our Principles yet you may see who are unbiassed and without prejudice what confidence he hath to pass sentence upon us and our Blessings to be that kind of Blessedness which is the portion of God's Enemies and that is a sad portion Let him be as full of Envy as he can to answer it he need desire no worse for us the Lord forgive the thoughts of his Heart and the words of his Mouth and bring him to Repentance if he see good for from these doings of his it appears he is in the gall of Bitterness and wants Charity which is the perfecting Vertue He spares not to judge both us and our Principles as the worst of Men and Principles which if he speaks truth of us then we are so indeed but he hath that yet to prove and therefore he had been wiser if he had first proved us such and then given his Judgment upon us but alas his Malice and Envy would not suffer him to stay for that lest he should be prevented for want of proof You see how he judges us to delight in brangling and stirring up the spirit of Animosity and Prejudice which is the work of evil Men and our Principles dark and uncertain and therefore not of God who is Light and unchangeable and that our Religion is made up and constituted of Subtlety then not of Simplicity and our Acts Serpentine that proceed from the Wicked one and not from Christ that bruiseth the Serpent's head and our Cause dark and rotten then it is not in the Everlasting Light All this being once proved by him then he makes good his Application we are Enemies indeed to God and Christ But all this we do deny and leave at his Door to prove if he can and until then we lay it upon him as a wicked Sentence and Judgment But this is not all tho' this were enough if true to make the Quakers and their Principles hated of God and good Men. But in his Preaching and other Discourse as well as in his said Papers he hath not spared to Rail Abuse and pass Judgment upon us as appears by several Witnesses one whereof affirmed that he heard him in his publick Preaching declare That the Quakers were the Spawn of the Iesuites and that the Iesuites were the Spawn of the Devil which he himself hath since owned to two of our Friends who spoke to him about it Now this false and wicked Accusation we utterly deny and therefore turn it upon himself to prove the same we having born our Testimony against them as we do against him and all others who stand up against the glorious appearance of Truth as it hath pleased God to manifest it in this Day and therefore do utterly deny to be of their Off-spring yet do desire that in his next he would make out how they are the Spawn of the Devil and we their Off spring in that Line So let all People consider the desperate boldness harshness and hardness of this Man's Heart and Spirit you see how in his unwholsom Words he places us in the Devil's Line and Off spring and so near as his Grand-children what worse can he make of us or in what state that 's more dreadful can he place us Sure in his Judgment we are far separated from God Doubtless he accounts us of the reprobate number that God never had Mercy for since he believes there are such It is also evidenced unto us that he joined the Quakers and Muggletonians together and said that we did take upon us to know the Dimensions of God viz. To know his length breadth bigness form and likeness which is altogether false for we utterly deny such Erroneous Principles and have born our Testimony against Muggleton It is also evidenced unto us by two Witnesses that Iames Barry in his Preaching did affirm that the Quakers were a bewitching and blaspheming erroneous People cheating God of his Right and that they did compass Sea and Land to make one Proselite and when they had done made him two-fold a Child of the Devil more than before Thus it appears that he still endeavours to incense People against us as that we are from the Devil and are working for him to turn and beget to him and not to God Those with many more such like unchristian Reflections and Abuses against us and our Principles are brought to us and testified to have proceeded from his Mouth and therefore we offered as before that we desired a publick Meeting before the People that the Witnesses and he might come face to face and that the People might hear both sides with their Witnesses and when all was heard that we would leave it as before proposed And this we thought might be a good
steal my Words every one from his Neighbour And the Apostle speaking of Deceivers Rom. 16. 18. saith That by good words and fair speeches they deceive the Hearts of the simple So that it is evident these false Prophets and Deceivers had good words for God said they had Stoln his Words from their Neighbours c. and they had fair Speeches but were inwardly Ravening from whence evil Fruits were brought forth But that by Fruits there is not meant their Doctrine as thou say'st Observe further what Christ saith in that Chapter Do men gather Grapes of Thorns or Figs of Thistles Even so every good Tree bringeth forth good Fruit But a corrupt Tree bringeth forth evil Fruit c. Wherefore by their Fruits ye shall know them ver 20. And in the following verses it is most clear that by Fruits he means their Deeds and particular Actions for his words are Not every one that saith unto me Lord Lord shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven but he that doth the Will of my Father which is in Heaven so the Fruits here meant are Doings not sayings Many will say to me in that day Lord Lord have we not prophesied in thy Name c. and then will I profess unto them I never knew you depart from me ye that work iniquity Here the Working of Iniquity was the cause of their exclusion from him And further speaking of the Wise and Foolish Builders he saith He that heareth these sayings of mine and doth them I will liken him unto a wise Man c. And every one that heareth these sayings of mine and doth them not shall be likened unto a foolish Man c. So that all along it doth appear that the Particular Actions are the Fruits whereby Christ declares they may be known and accordingly may be judged though Thou say'st Many Hereticks men who have embraced vile Doctrines as thou affirmest the Quakers do have been of good Lives First As to thy affirming That the Quakers do embrace vile Doctrines that is false and we turn it back upon thee as a wicked slander and challenge thee to bring them forth that we may know what they are that thou accounts so and whether they be ours or not In the next place where dost thou read in all the Scriptures of Men that held vile Doctrines that were of Good Lives The next matter thou takest in hand to defend in thy Paper is Your Tithes your great Delilah For it 's evident that it is your Tithes and other Revenues that is the very cause for which the most of you did become Ministers otherwise we are perswaded we had not had One of an Hundred in those Offices at this day of you For it 's the Trade as it 's made by you whereby you get your Rich Gain that is chiefly in the Eye of those concerned in the preferring of Youth into the Schools and we think it is as much in the eye of the Ministers in their coming out of the Schools and going into the Nations to be Teachers as your practice doth manifest So that Christ and his Gospel is the least of your concern in the ground of your design whatever may be pretended For in all things Mens ways and Actions are a more sure Evidence to Demonstrate what they are than their Words therefore Christ saith by their Fruits ye shall know them So that we do not wonder to find thee so concerned to plead Worldly Gain But to come to the matter thy business is To prove Tithes of Divine Institution now under the Gospel Dispensation which if thou do then we will confess it is no defect in your Religion Thou say'st It will be no hard matter to do but thou hast not done it And if it be so easie to do thou should'st have done it to have convinced him that scruples its Lawfulness However it may be supposed thou hast brought thy chief Proof in quoting Christ's Words in Matth. 23. 23. and Luke 11. 42. Where he speaks of the Pharisees paying Tithes of Mint Anise Cummin c. and tells them These things ye ought to have done And then thou say'st Nothing can be plainer to them that are not desirous to wrest the Scriptures to their own destruction So by thy own Words this is thy chief proof being as thou sayst nothing can be plainer But as plain as thou wouldst make the simple believe it is all that are wise do clearly see that this has no relation to the Gospel-Dispensation but to the first Covenant and Priesthood And saith the Apostle Hebrews 7. 12. For the Priesthood being changed there is made of necessity a change also of the Law And in the 8th chap. thou may'st see how he proves the Lawchanged and gives the Reason for the Lord 's giving a New Covenant or Testament and making the first Old So it 's plain the Priesthood that received Tithes and the Law that made them of Divine Right to the Priesthood are both changed and both a New Law or Covenant and Priesthood set up and established by the Oath and Promise of God which are the two immutable things by which God shews the Immutability of his Counsel abundantly unto the Heirs of Promise for the strengthening of their Consolation through Christ that is made an High Priest for ever as thou mayst read Heb. 6. Now thy work is To prove Tithes of Divine Institution in the New Covenant and then to prove and shew the Priesthood that is to Receive them for thou mayst see both the Law that gave them and the Priesthood that received them are changed And though Christ told the Scribes and Pharisees they ought to have done it that was according to the Law of the First Covenant which was not then dis-annulled Christ not being offered up but he himself under it for it is said He was made under the Law to Redeem them that were under the Law Gal. 4. 4 5. and so he taught People to observe it as when he had cleansed the Leper in Matth. 8. he bid him shew himself to the Priest and offer the Gift that Moses commanded for a Testimony unto them and so while under the Law he was for observing the Law But now that being ended in him his Law is to be observed and what he has ordained we are to be subject to But before we speak to that we are willing to take a little observation of the difference between your Priesthood that now takes Tithes and God's Priesthood that received Tithes by his Law in his first Covenant First Levi's Line that was to receive Tithes of Israel had not their Inheritance of Land among their Brethren this the Lord ordered to be their Inheritance to wit Tithes and Offerings which they were to have from the rest of the Tribes as thou mayst see in Numb 18. And likewise when they had received the Tithes which was all the Inheritance they had among the Children of Israel they were not to have it only
and was a Peace-maker and he preacht in his Life and Conversation as well as his Words And he travelled with me from Maryland through the Wilderness and through many Rivers and Desperate Bogs where they said never English Man nor Horse had Travelled before where we lay out at Nights and sometimes in Indian Houses and many times were very hard put to it for Provisions but the Lord by his Eternal Arm and Power did support us and carry us through all Dangers Blessed be his Name for ever And he was an Elder and a Pillar in the House of God and the Name of the Righteous shall be had in Everlasting Remembrance but the Name of the Wicked will Rot. He was a Man Endued much with the Wisdom of God and in it had a Care of the Welfare of the Church of Christ to keep in Peace out of Strife and Contention and laboured with the Apostates and Back-sliders to turn them to Christ and his peaceable Truth So that they might Study to be Quiet and keep in the Unity of the Spirit which is the Bond of the King of Kings and Lord of Lord's Peace And much more I might write concerning our Dear Brother in the Lord I knowing him very well and his Travels and Service in the Lord's Power and Truth and so doth the Church of Christ among whom he will be missed But he is gone to his Rest and the Lord by his Eternal Arm and Power is able to Raise up others in his place The 13th of the 9th Month 1690. G. F. The Testimony of Friends in Cumberland COncerning that Faitful Servant of the Lord John Burnyeat belonging formerly to Pardsay-Meeting in Cumberland he was born at Crabtreebeck in the Parish of Lows-water in the said County his Parents were of good Repute and his Education was according to his Parentage The Lord visited him in his young and tender Years and inclined his heart after good things whereupon he gave himself to Reading the Scriptures that thereby he might be informed of those things that made for his Soul's Peace and going from one Man to another who were counted Men of Experience yet found no true Satisfaction until it pleased the Lord to send his Ministers to turn his Mind to the Invisible Word of Life which he gladly received into his heart and came to Wait in Humiliation to feel the Operation of it So that he was brought forth Early in the Day of the breaking forth of God's Light and Power in our Age when it pleased God to Visit many People in divers Nations of the World and to make known his Everlasting Truth in the North-Country which Day of Light and Truth and Grace many waited for and were in a readiness to Receive with Ioy and Gladness of Heart amongst whom this our Dear Friend J. B. being called by Grace to the Knowledge of the Lord his Truth and Power and receiving the same in Love Faith and Obedience he came to Witness the Effectual working thereof to his Sanctification and so became a Vessel of Honour fitted for his Master's Use even Christ and learned to Rule his own House well in washing first the Inside and the Outside appearing clean also Then his Light began to shine before Men to the Glory of God that called him And this being first done in him and for him to his particular peace and satisfaction in the Lord 's Eternal Truth then the Lord opened his Mouth in a few words in much tenderness which tended greatly to the comforting of his People he always being careful to wait for the Motion of the Word and to keep close with it whereby he grew in his Gift and was drawn forth to visit Friends in this County where we dearly loved him He was faithful in the discharge of his Duty when called to give Testimony against the Hireling-Priests in the Steeple-Houses to gather People from the Mouths of those Greedy Shepheards that feed themselves and not the Flock and did not profit the People at all And for these things he suffer'd Imprisonment a long time under a severe Goaler in a close nasty place For the Lord sent him forth in his joyful opening Power and Spirit to preach glad Tidings of Salvation by Christ Iesus sometimes to the Spirits in Prison and to them coming out of Prison and entring into the Glorious Liberty of the Sons of God and to them who walked stedfastly in that Glorious pure Liberty he that hath an Ear to hear let him hear whereby he was a blessed Instrument in the Hand of the Lord both for Convincing and Converting to God and for the Refreshing Comforting and Strengthening of them in the Faith Grace and Truth that they might be built on the Rock Christ the Foundation for all the Chosen of God in him throughout all Generations that Man might answer the End for which he was made even to Glorify God who is worthy of Glory and Praise for ever He was a Man of an Excellent Spirit and of deep Experience in the things of God and Mysteries of his Kingdom which were richly made manifest unto him And it was his Delight to be Meditating therein whereby his Experience was daily increased unto the Conclusion of his Days He was a Man tender of God's Glory and Earnestly sought the spreading and propagating of the Truth The Lord made his Travels successful and he saw the Fruit of his Labour and the Lord blessed him with the Fruits of his holy Spirit whereby he became well qualified for the Work of the Ministry a Nursing Father lending a hand of help to the feeble of the Flock and comforting the Mourners in Sion For his Doctrine did drop as the Dew and his Speech as the small Rain He was a Pattern of Righteousness to the Young Generation over whom he was very Tender and to the Aged he could give Counsel so that God made him a strong Pillar in his Church and cloathed him with Divine Wisdom that he was capable of speaking a Word in Season to all which was as a Nail fastned in a sure place He was one of the Lord's Worthies in his day of a quick Sight and clear Discerning of a strong Arm and skilful Hand whose Bow abode in strength and carried the Arrows to the Mark aimed at like as the Men of Benjamin that could sling Stones to a Hair's breadth so he fixed Judgment upon the head of the Transgressor And his Arrows returned not in vain particularly against that Wicked Spirit of Separation where-ever he met with it He was often concerned in Testimony against those that profess the Truth and Way of God and yet did incline to suit themselves to the vain Fashions and Customs of the World as Inlets to a wrong Spirit and became evil Precedents to others especially Young People that are too much employed in their Minds with foolish Dresses and Fashions that never knew the weighty Work of Truth and Power of God in their Hearts to work a Change
to shine For he was an Instrument of Good to many making a Difference saving some with Fear pulling them out of the Fire hating even the Garment spotted by the Flesh being found in that pure and undefiled Religion of Visiting the Fatherless and widows in their Affliction and through the Grace of our Lord Iesus Christ keeping himself Unspotted from the World and therefore knew how to Save upon Mount Zion and Judge upon Mount Esau. Much might be written concerning him for we know the very Desire of his Heart and Bent of his Spirit was that God through his Son might Reign in the House of Jacob and the Kingdom might be the Lord's He abhorred the Appearance of Gathering to himself and had Self of no Reputation therefore the Lord honour'd him with his Divine Presence and made his Company althô dreadful to the Back-sliders yet very desirable unto many especially those who knew his Integrity and Zeal for the Exaltation of the Name and Truth of God in whose Hearts he was highly esteemed for his Works sake which shall follow him althô he be at Rest from his Labour being got to his desired Haven where the Wicked cease from troubling where the Weary be at Rest. And there the Prisoners rest together they hear not the Voice of the Oppressor for the Accuser of the Brethren is cast down Temptations cannot prevail an Over-coming is known by the Blood of the Lamb and by the Word of their Testimony who have not loved their Lives unto Death And To him that overcomes saith Christ Iesus will I grant to sit with me in my Throne as I also overcame and am sate down with my Father in his Throne he shall not be hurt of the Second Death but with Abraham Isaac and Iacob and with all the Faithful in the Kingdom of God without ceasing sing Praises unto him who sits upon the Throne and to the Lamb for ever and ever-more who is Worthy O the great Loss we have of him How can we but Lament Yet it is his Everlasting Gain For he shall never Return to us but we may go to him And that Word of Life in which his Life was hid yet remains for our support which as we are careful to keep to will preserve us as it has done him to Enter into that Mansion of Glory the Lord hath in store for all the Faithful He was Dear unto us in the Lord with whom our Souls were bound up in God's Everlasting Covenant And thô his Body is gone to the Dust yet our Souls rejoice with many more in that we enjoy his Spirit and are come to the General Assembly and Church of the First-born and to God the Judge of all and to the Spirits of Just Men made Perfect and to Jesus the Mediator of the New Covenant and to the Blood of Sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel where our Ioy is full and our Spirits bowed and subjected to the Will of God where our Peace flows and the Life arises that fills our Hearts with Praises that Ascend as sweet Incense to the Lord God and to the Lamb who is blessed for evermore The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord and he delighteth in his way Psal. 37. 23. And they that be Wise shall shine as the brightness of the Firmament and they that turn many to Righteousness as the Stars for ever and ever Dan. 12. 3. Broughton in Cumberland the 22th of the 2d Month 1691. Margaret Fawcet Jane Wilson Margaret Head Jane Hall Mary Wilson Mary Bowman Sarah Fallowfield An Account by Way of Testimony concerning our Dear Friend and Brother Iohn Burnyeat WE will leave to others the Account of his Birth and Convincement that were his Neighbours and Kindred and shall speak of him only as some of us knew him from an Intimate Fellowship in divers Services for above Twenty Years He was a Choice and Seasoned Vessel of Christ the special Workmanship of his Power and Wisdom by which he was effectually qualified for the Ministry of his Everlasting Gospel throughly furnished may We say to every good Word and Work God called him unto Deep and Large in his Gift reaching what was seasonable to every State in Judgment sound free in Utterance Zealous for Holiness severe against Unsound and Dividing Spirits Most tender to Penitents and returning Prodigals affectionate to the Brethren und careful over the Flock of God that they might Answer their Heavenly Call and grow in the Truth Of a grave and steady Temper yet sweet Hardy in his Constitution and Undaunted and Unwearied in Mind He was the Father of many Children in Christ who through his Ministry were begot again to a Living Hope and the Builder up of more through the same in the pretious Faith of God's Elect. For this he often Travelled through this Nation and sometimes Scotland and the Plantations in America but Ireland in a more peculiar manner both at his first Entrance upon his Ministry and of latter Years where he Married and chiefly resided and where he laid down his Head in Peace with God and Love to his People and good Will to all men being about the 59th Year of his Age and is entred into Eternal Habitations to praise the God of his Mercies in the Living Family of the Spirits of the Just for ever He was indeed a Man of an Excellent Spirit and Divine Understanding from God and deep in the Knowledge of the Heavenly Mysteries of the Kingdom of God and also of the Depths Wiles and Subtil Workings of Satan wherein he lies in wait to beguile the Children of Men and the Lord many times opened him in his Heavenly Wisdom to declare of them that those who had regard to God and the Peace of their own Souls might be preserved out of Satan's Snares He was an able and powerful Minister of the Gospel of Salvation a Strengthener of the Weak and an Incourager of the Upright and Sincere-hearted to continue to the end But he was indeed dreadful to the Hypocrites and Rebellious and all the Opposers and Gainsayers of the Truth A skilful Marks-Man yea one of the Lord's Worthies of Israel a Valiant in the Camp of the Lord and an Undaunted Warrier in his Holy Host and his Bow abode in strength and Wisdom was given him to direct his Arrows to the very Mark so that the Sturdy were wounded the Meek were comforted the Tender in Spirit refreshed And was by the Lord made Instrumental to wound that Self-separating and Dividing Spirit thad had for want of Watchfulness in the Divine Light and Faithfulness to God's Spirit and Truth in the inward parts prevailed over some who notwithstanding in a disguise and under specious pretences endeavour to sow the Seeds of Dissension Discord Separation and Division among the Gathered of God And the Lord blessed his Labours greatly and so preserved him in a Holy Conversation and in a meek tender bearing healing Spirit that he promoted both
and so taught of the Lord according to that New Covenant promise They shall be all taught of the Lord Isa. 54. 13. Iohn 6. 4 5. Then was our Hearts inclined to hearken unto the Lord and our Ears which he had opened to hear was bent to hear what the Spirit 's Teaching was and what he said unto the Church who was the chief Shepherd and Bishop of the Soul And thus were we gathered into a right Gospel Exercise and Gospel Worship by him and through whose Name we had received Remission of Sins past and whose Blood had sprinkled our Hearts from an evil Conscience and who gave the pure Water that washed and made clean so that with true Hearts many began to draw nigh unto God in the full assurance of Faith as the ancient Saints did and was accepted and had access by that one Spirit by which we came to be baptized in one Body and so came to drink into one Spirit and was refreshed and greatly comforted and grew up together in the Mystery of the Gospel fellowship and so worshipped God who is a Spirit in the Spirit received from him which is the Gospel Worship according to Christ's appointment Iohn 4. 24. And then we came to see over all the Worships in the World which were set up either by Imitation or man's Invention and saw it to be in vain to worship God and teach for Doctrines the Commandments of men as our Lord had said Matth. 15. 9. and therefore were we constrained to withdraw from them and also many of us to go and bear witness against them in their invented and traditional Worships where they were ignorant of the Life and Power of God And thus being gathered by the Lord Jesus Christ that great Shepherd and Bishop of our Souls we became his Sheep and did learn to know his Voice and to follow him and he gave unto us Eternal Life and manifested the Riches of his Grace in our Hearts by which we were saved through Faith and delivered from that wrath fear and terrour which had been so weighty upon our Souls and in measure from the power of that Death that had reigned and made us miserable and wretched and came to partake of that Life wherein the blessedness doth consist and so then the Lord becoming our Shepherd he taught us and led us forth into green Pastures where we did feed and rest together with great delight O the Joy the Pleasure and the great Delight that our Hearts was overcome with many times in our reverent and holy Assemblies how was our Hearts melted as Wax and our Souls poured out as Water before the Lord and our Spirits as Oyl Frankincense and Myrrhe offered up unto the Lord as sweet Incense when not a word outwardly in all our Assembly has been uttered And then did the Lord delight to come down into his Garden and walk in the midst of the Beds of Spices and he caused the North-wind to awake and the South-wind to blow upon his Garden and the pleasant Showers to descend for the refreshing of his tender Plants that they might grow still more and more And now unto them that had known the Night of Sorrow was the joyful Morning come according to that ancient experience of David Psal. 30. 5. and such as had been in the foregoing deep Afflictions Tossings and Distresses came to witness the fulfilling of that great Gospel Promise O thou afflicted tossed with tempest and not comforted behold I will lay thy stones with fair colours and lay thy foundations with Saphires and I will make thy windows of Agates and thy gates of Carbuncles and all thy borders of pleasant Stones and all thy Children shall be taught of the Lord and great shall be the peace of thy Children In righteousness shalt thou be established thou shalt be far from oppression for thou shalt not fear and from terrour for it shall not come near thee Isa. 54. 11 12 13 14. Thus then came we by him to be gathered into Covenant with God and to witness the fulfilling of the Promises of God in whom all the Promises are Yea and Amen and so come to sit together in heavenly places in him and so come to feed upon the heavenly food the Bread of Life that came down from Heaven which Christ the heavenly Shepherd did give unto us who had gathered us from amongst the Shepherds that fed themselves with Temporal Things from the Flock but knew not how to feed the Flock with Spiritual Food for they had it not And now we coming to be acquainted with the Power of the Lord Jesus Christ in our Hearts became great Lovers of it and Delighters in the Enjoyment thereof having already counted all things but as Dross and Dung in comparison of the Excellency that we saw therein and therefore was willing to suffer the loss of all that we might win him as it was with the Apostle of old and blessed be the Lord many obtained their desire they found their Beloved met with their Saviour witnessed his Saving health by which their Souls was healed and so became his Flock and Family or Houshold of Faith And thus then as his Children and blessed Family we still did continue to meet together twice in the Week or oftner and in his Name and holy Fear being gathered together his Promise we did witness according to Matth. 18. 20. he was in the midst of us and did honour our Assemblies with his heavenly Power and Presence and that was our great delight and the sweetness of it did wonderfully engage our Souls to love him and our Hearts to wait upon him for we did find the ancient experience of the Church true as testified in the Scripture because of the savour of thy good Ointments thy Name is as Ointment poured forth therefore do the Virgins love thee And growing thus into this Experience of the Goodness of the Lord and of the Sweetness Glory and Excellency of his Power in our Assemblies we grew in Strength and Zeal for our Meetings more and more and valued the benefit thereof more than any worldly Gain yea it was unto some more then our appointed Food And thus continuing we grew more and more into an understanding of Divine Things and Heavenly Mysteries through the Openings of the Power that was daily amongst us and wrought sweetly in our Hearts which still united us more and more unto God and knit us together in the perfect Bond of Love of Fellowship and Membership so that we became a Body compact made up of many Members whereof Christ himself became the Head who was with us and did rule over us and so further gave Gifts unto us by which we still came to be enlarged and further opened that we might answer the end for which he had raised us up and so far blessed us and sanctified us through his Word that dwelt in our Souls and so we keeping still in our Zeal and unto our first Love and
and worshipped I say when my heart was thus fitted and filled then did I endeavour to keep down my Spirit to the meltings of it and great was the care of my Soul that I might no ways miss nor abuse this Power nor let up a wrong thing into my Mind to be betrayed thereby and then I knew if I kept all that was wrong down sound Wisdom and a true Understanding would be grown into even of those Mysteries that the World was ignorant of for the Son of God being come it was he that did give the Understanding to know him that was true as Iohn said of old in his first Epistle and he was made Wisdom as Paul said 1 Cor. 1. 30. So I often observed and that with great care and diligence in those blessed and pleasant Seasons wherein the Lord did so wonderfully appear amongst us and filled our Hearts with the glorious Majesty of his Power how it was with my own Spirit and whether that was subject as it ought or no for I clearly saw the Enemy might beguile and lead up into the hights and unnecessary pride and vain-glorying in that which the Soul might soon be deprived of if it kept not humble for it 's the humble the Lord teacheth and the meek he guides in Judgment And thus in the greatest Enjoyments I saw there was need of care and fear to be kept in for as those that grew sluggish idle and careless in waiting in a Meeting for the Power did sit without the sense of it in a dead dry barren state even so such as weer not diligent to mind to keep low humble and tender and so to mind the Nature of the working of the Power and the Nature of their own Spirits under the Powers exercise and also to watch against the Enemies subtilty who lay in wait to betray might easily be led aside out of the Powers way by the Stranger even while the Power was a working and Joy was in the Heart And thus for want of true Fear and Care might the Soul come into a loss e're it be aware and I believe some have so done and can scarcely find the reason of it Great is the Mystery of Godliness it may truly be said even the great Mystery which Paul writes of in Colossians the first Christ in us the hope of glory c. And as he is there great is the Mystery of his working by his Spirit to the opening and clearing of the Understandings of all that rightly wait upon him and it is the Soul in the Sanctification and Oneness with the Life the true Unction that comes to be a Priest and so of the Royal Priesthood chosen and elected in God's Covenant that comes rightly and lawfully to eat of those holy things and so to partake of the sanctified holy Food This I did observe and therefore the Stranger is not to come nigh this was in the Figure signified the Stranger was not to eat of the Passover Exod. 12. 43. and the Command of God was to Aaron by Moses that no Stranger should eat of the holy things c. Lev. 22. 10. And Solomon saith The heart knoweth his own bitterness and a stranger doth not intermeddle with his joy Prov. 14. 10. Much might be said but this is the matter its Wisdom for the Heart that hath known his own bitterness in the Judgment and Distress and through it is come to this Peace and Joy to keep it and not to let that which would have no share with it there come to intermeddle with the Joy for if it do it will soon overthrow the Joy of the Soul and bring to another state and then have no more pity in the Day of Distress than the Iews had of Iudas when they bad him look to it what was that to them when he had betrayed his Master And thus I continued as I have said before for these four Years mostly following my outward Calling and attending and waiting upon the Lord in the workings of his holy Power in my Heart both in Meetings and at other times where-ever I was or whatever I had to do for I found that as my Heart was kept near the Power it kept me tender soft and living And besides I found as I was diligent in eying of it there was a constant sweet Stream that run softly in my Soul of Divine Peace Pleasure and Joy which far exceeded all other Delights and Satisfactions and this became the great Engager of my Soul to watch with such diligence for I did find the love of God to constrain And furthermore I did observe that if I neglected or let my Mind out after any thing else more than I ought and so forgot this I began to be like a Stranger and saw that I soon might lose my Interest in these Riches and Treasure and true Common-wealth of God's Spiritual Israel which Christ had purchased for me and given me the earnest of to inherit And thus being mindful of the opening Wisdom of God which was from above and heavenly and not from below earthly I was preserved and helped and succoured in the needful time and because of the Blessings and rich Mercies of the Lord that my Soul enjoyed I was willing to serve him in what I might and willingly received upon me a share of that Concern that became proper for me with others to take upon us in the Church that I might be helpful in all necessary things And thus I went on in the holy Fellowship of the Gospel of Life and Salvation with the rest of my Brethren and Sisters and many joyful Day we had together in the Power of the Holy Ghost that was richly and graciously continued amongst us and daily poured out upon us so that we still grew in favour with God and unity one with another and received daily strength from the Lord and an increase of his Divine Wisdom and Spirit which did greatly comfort us And in this our pleasant state I do well remember my Heart was satisfied and setled into a content where I was willing to abide but the Lord that had so dealt by me in Mercy as I have said began to stir in my Heart by his Spirit to arise and go forth in the strength of his Word and declare against the Hirelings that feed themselves and not the People and kept the People ignorant of those good things that he had made me and others Witnesses of And when the Word of the Lord came unto me with this Message it became a great Exercise unto me and I would willingly have shunned it and have dwelt in that Ease Peace and Pleasure the Lord had brought me into but there was none but in obeying the Lord and giving up to do his Will that I soon came to know for I was sure it was the Word of the Lord and then I yielded in Spirit and longed for the Day that I might clear my self and be eased of the Charge that was upon
me for weighty was the Dread and Majesty of the Power of the Word of Life that lived and as a Fire burned in my Heart that I could not stay And when the first day of the Week came in Obedience unto the word of the Lord I went to Aspetry the Place which the Lord set before me to speak to one Warwick a Priest who when I came was preaching in their Bell-house who soon after I came in with a Friend with me began to put forth some subtil Questions to provoke us to speak that he might have an opportunity to cause us to be haled out and sent to Prison but I resolved not to mind his Temptation but to wait upon the Lord and when he could not prevail with his Questions to get his end upon us he spoke to the Constable to put us forth who answering bid him go on and said They do not disturb us c. Then the Priest went on with his Sermon and finished And when he had done I began to speak to the People and the Priest he got away and the People hurried me out and kept me and the Priest asunder so that I got not to speak to him that Fore-noon So I came away with my Friend and thought to have returned home but immediately after I was got out of the Town the wrath and displeasure of the Lord in his Word sprung dreadfully in my Heart and a dreadful Cry was in me from the same Cursed is he that doth the Work of the Lord negligently c. And then I saw how I had let in a Fear upon me in which I had shunned the Priest and spared him for fear I should be sent to Prison for speaking to him the Law being such at that day That whosoever did disturb a Minister as they termed it should be sent to Prison c. And when I found out my Weakness in this that I had spoke to the People and spared the Priest that I was sent to cry against then was I sore afraid and my Heart filled with horrour and a sore cry in me still Cursed is he that doth the Work of the Lord negligently c. then I knew not what to do for the wrath of God was upon me and another Cry from the same Word was sounded in my Heart saying Babylon hath sinned all ye that bend the Bow shoot at her spare no Arrows for she hath sinned c. Now when it was thus with me and I saw that I had not been faithful but had mist my Service after I had come so far as the Common above Plumland I sate me down and there I mourned before the Lord whom I had so grieved and humbly desired of the Lord that he would but grant me liberty to go again to clear my self that I might come into Peace with him again and then let Life or Liberty outwards go I did not value So waiting upon him in this humble bowed frame of Spirit the Word of Life rose in me again and opened my Heart and sealed to me I might go Then I arose with boldness and went with speed till I came there at the Worship house and the Priest was preaching again in the After-noon and I went in and stood before him till he had done and then was my Heart filled with Peace and I resolved in the Name of the Lord not to spare but speak the Word of the Lord faithfully whatever I might suffer for it for in comparison thereof I valued neither Life nor Liberty So when he had done I spoke unto him what the Lord put in my Mouth He immediately got away and gave me no Answer But I followed him so quick and cried out after him so that he turned again to me in the Grave-yard and then I did clear my Conscience to him and a great Dispute we had for I did not spare him At last he went away and would stay no longer Then I spoke to the People and did clear my Conscience amongst them and then I came away in peace and my Heart was filled with unspeakable Joy and my Soul with Gladness Then I saw it was good to be faithful unto the Lord and to trust in him and to obey his Voice and then I came to feel and see more and more the woful and dreadful state that the Priests and Hirelings were in who for their own earthly gain made Merchandise of People although they were defended by the Laws of Men yet I found the Laws of God they were in the transgression of and so were in Cain's Corah's and Baalam's way in Envy and Gainsayers of the Truth and Lovers of the Wages of Unrighteousness and so such as Peter and Iude wrote of 2 Peter 2. 15. and Iude cried Wo against Iude 10 11 12. Then some time after I was moved by the Spirit of the Lord to go to Lorton to speak to one Fogoe a Priest who was preaching to the People in their Worship-house and I stayed till he had done and there he did affirm in his preaching to the People that both he and they was without the Life of both the Law and the Gospel And then I spoke to him and questioned him what he had to preach or to pray that was without the Life of both Law and Gospel But after a few words he fell into a rage and stirred up the People and they fell upon me and haled me out of the House and did beat me and the Priest did threaten to put me in the Stocks So I came away and that day two Weeks I was moved to go again to speak to the same Priest at Louswater the Parish where I did then dwell and when I came in the People beginning to look at me and take notice the Priest bid them let me alone if I would be quiet he would discourse with me when he had done So I stood still and quiet waiting upon the Lord the Priest he prepared to go to Prayer but when he saw that I did not put off my Hat for I could not so do because I could not joyn with him in his dead lifeless Prayers Then instead of going to Prayer he fell a railing against me and said I should not stand there in that posture At last I spoke to him and did ask him What he had to pray with that was without the Life of both Law and Gospel But he continued calling out to the People to take me away so that at last my Father being there and displeased with me for troubling their Minister came himself and haled me out of the House and was very angry with me Then I stayed in the Grave-yard till the Priest and People came out and then I got to him and spoke to him again but he soon began to be in a rage and to threaten me with the Stocks and got away And then I cleared my Conscience to the People of what I had to say and so came away in great peace with the Lord.
did visit Friends And then took shipping at Whitehaven for Ireland and landed at Belfast in the North and spent that Winter in Ireland in the travels and labour of the Gospel and had blessed Service for the Lord and his People in that Nation and was richly comforted and refreshed amongst them in the gracious presence of the Lord that was with us who is the Recompencer and rich Rewarder of all that are given up in Faithfulness to serve him So that now none doth lose their Reward under the Ministration of the Gospel no more then they did under the Law in the Figure when he said Who is thère among you that would shut the Doors for nought neither do you kindle fire on mine Altar for nought Mal. 1. 10. To him be Glory and Honour and Praise over all for ever for he is worthy And when I was clear of that Nation I took shipping at Dublin and landed at Whitehaven in Cumberland and stayed a little time in Cumberland and then took my Journey for London to the yearly Meeting that was in the Spring of the Year 1670. and so spent a part of that Summer in London and thereabouts in the Service of the Truth until I could have a Conveniency to go for Barbadoes that being upon me And in the fifth Month all things being ready I and William Simpson went down to Gravesend with many Friends from London that did accompany us and staying there but a few days we set Sail from Gravesend the eighth day of the fifth Month 1670. and came to the Downs and stayed there some days and then set Sail from the Downs the twentieth day of the same Month and because of contrary Winds we put in at Falmouth and stayed two Nights there and then put to Sea again and so set Sail for the Barbadoes and arrived there the thirtieth day of the seventh Month so that we were twelve Weeks from Gravesend e're we got Barbadoes And then I stayed in the Barbadoes six Months and had great and weighty Service in that Island before I could be clear And my dear Companion William Simpson after he had been there was taken sick of a violent Fever that was very much among People at that time and very many died he was sick but about six days and then was taken away At his Death a very little before his Departure he gave a living heavenly Testimony unto the Truth with wholesome Advice unto them that were about him and departed in the Peace and Joy of the Lord an Account whereof may be further seen in a Book writ by one that was with him from his beginning to be sick until he departed I was with him very much but sometimes was constrained to leave him for the Service sake that was upon me He was a very Innocent man and full of fear and reverence and ordinarily very open in his Testimony and very sweet and pleasant we walked in great love and unity together for he was a humble man and had very low thoughts of himself and always under dread He had gone through great Sufferings and Afflictions and cruel Persecutions for his Testimony and Service sake that he was called unto he likewise had met with hard Buffetings from Satan's Messenger and sore Temptations by which he had been wounded and sore hurt through the wiles of Satan and his cunning slights of which he would be often speaking to me in our brotherly Fellowship and Communication wherein we would open our hearts and states one unto another and in the remembrance of things he was kept very low and tender and near the Lord and took great delight in his Power by which he had been redeemed and his Soul delivered and he raised up into a good degree of Dominion in which he reigned at the last and with great triumph departed this Life and is blessed for ever My Heart is well satisfied that it is even so and when he was taken away from me my Heart was broken within me my Spirit was bowed down greatly in the sense of my loss and I could not but mourn though not as such that have no hope for my hope was firm concerning his well-being and gain that he had obtained but great was my loss for I was left as one alone as I had been often before to bear the burthen my self which was very weighty upon me at that time considering the state of the Church in that Island and the care of it was upon me but the Lord was with me and his Power did assist me to go through my Charge and clear my self and free my self from the Blood of all Men and Women And so through all being guided by his Spirit in his Wisdom the Lord's Children and People were comforted and my Soul and Spirit refreshed and revived and so in peace clearness and gladness I came away and took shipping for New-England and set Sail the first of the second Month 1671. and arrived at New-York the 27 th day of the same Month and so did go from New-York unto Long-Island and did visit Friends on the Island and other places there-aways and was with them at their Half-years-Meeting at Oyster-Bay And so being clear of those Parts took shipping for Road-Island and was there at their Yearly-Meeting in 1671. which begins the ninth of the fourth Month every Year and continues for much of a Week and is a General Meeting once a year for all Friends in New-England And after that Meeting when I was clear of those Parts I took my Journey towards Sandwich and so did visit Friends all along at Tewkesbury Marshfield and Cittuate and so on to Boston and there had a Meeting and so on to Salem and Hampton and Piscataway all along visiting Friends and had many pretious Meetings and the Lord was with us and his Power was over all And from Piscatoway I returned back again the same way and had blessed Service and so through I came to Road-Island again and there I spent some time and went up to Providence and did visit Friends there and so returned again And when I was clear of those Parts I took shipping back again for Long-Island and landed at Oyster-Bay and had some Meetings and then went down to Flushing and so to Gravesand and had some Meetings And then went over to East-Iersey to visit Friends there and had some Meetings and then returned back again to Gravesand and from thence went back again to Oyster-Bay and was there at their Half-years-Meeting which began about the eighth day of the eighth Month and had a blessed time But in our Meeting for Business we had an Exercise with several that rose up in a wrong Spirit against the blessed Order of the Truth which by the Power of God Friends were gathered into and sweetly setling in And chiefly their Envy and Bitterness was against George Fox and his Papers of Wholsome Advice which he in the Love of God had sent amongst Friends and in
up a Separate Meeting and so had withdrawn themselves from the rest of their Brethren and broken the Christian Fellowship which thing when understood by the Brethren there assembled was a grief unto them And thefore under the sence thereof and in that Brotherly Love with which their Hearts were filled towards them were there Two Epistles writ from the Meeting one to I. S. and I. W. warning and advising them as Heads and Leaders in that Sedition and Schism to endeavour to break up that Separate Meeting and to be Reconciled unto their Brethren before they did go abroad to offer their Gift And the other was writ to the Meeting as Advice unto them to Return to their former Fellowship with Friends and lay that Separate Meeting down and joyn with their Brethren in the Unity of the Truth c. But all this did not prevail with them but still they grew higher and harder and went on in the strong Resolutions of their Wills Only there were divers Particulars that were for a time concerned in that Opposition and Separation whose Understandings the Lord opened so that they did see the Snare of the Enemy and returned and under a sense of the Lord's Iudgments did give forth divers Testimonies in Writing against that Spirit by which they had been Seduced with a Confession of the Errour they were led into and so returned into the true Fellowship and Unity with the Church of Christ and were received with Gladness Glory to the Lord who is the Saviour and Healer of his People who now heals and saves by his Word as he did of old I. Burnyeate A Paper of John Burnyeat's that came to hand since his Works were Printed The 27th Day of the 8th Month 1677. IN the Morning as I was Laying upon my Bed and my Soul greatly Afflicted under the View and Consideration of the State of things as it was among Friends in the City of Bristol and some parts adjacent because of the great Contention and Opposition and when I was under the Exercise and my Life appeared Grieved even until my Soul was brought into sore Anguish at times and Grief to see how Hard some were and Unruly and Obstinate In this Travel of Spirit my Heart being bowed I said within my self and before the Lord and unto him I matter not what I be nor how much I be Abased For we must pass through good and bad Report as the Faithful in former times did And then when I was thus gone down into the Grave of Self-denial where I thought I could Lye and be Troden upon the Lord God signified unto me by his Holy Spirit on this wise Though thou be willing so to be yet will not I be Troden under and further said There are some of them that are as Dead Men before me because they have lifted up their Heel against me and have rejected my Word and slighted or set at naught my Reproof And further the Lord God signified unto me That the Spirit of Core and Balaam had entred which would shut Truth out of Doors and pluck Christ from his Throne and lead away the Minds of People after their own Inventions to worship the Works of their own Hands And He further signified unto me how that the Plague of Leprosy and sore Judgment of Hardness of Heart was upon them and they had lost their Beauty and were not sit to come nigh the Altar of the Lord nor to be in the Lord's Congregation and that he would Decide the matter And further he signified to my Comfort There was a Priest to stand between the Living and the Dead with a Holy Censer and pure Incense to make an Atonement and the Eyes of all the Tender and Sensible were to be towards him that they might Receive the Law from his Mouth and that his Lips might preserve their Knowledge And further there was something also of the Spirit of Cain which did appear had Entred even that which did Envy Abel's Acceptance When I had seen these things from the Lord and it was shewed me I should speak forth the Matter unto the People my Heart was wonderfully broken within me And I cried and said Wo is me must I be the Messenger to carry this Message unto this People And when I was under this Exercise the Lord did signifie unto me If I Delivered his Word Faithfully then should I Deliver my own Soul but if not I should Die for it my Life should go for theirs Then did the Dread of the Lord's Word and his Majesty strike me down and made me willing to be given up without any more Reasoning Blessed be the Lord for ever who both gives the Word and Power to Deliver it J. B. AN ABSTRACT Of some of Iohn Burnyeat HIS LETTERS TO HIS Brother T. A. of LONDON Which is a Continuation of his Travels for the last Eight Years of his Life being all his own Hand-writing Dublin the 28th of the 8th Month 1682. I Am arrived here safe from Cumberland and was at all those Meetings I had appointed in Westmorland viz. I had a large Meeting at Camsgill on the third day of the Week it being the General Meeting it was a most pleasant day the Meeting out of doors very large Friends so generally came in And indeed the Lord's Power was with us my Heart greatly enlarged unto Friends The fourth day following I was at Sedber the Meeting without Doors by the Meeting-House the Doors being shut up by the Officers but quiet and large The fifth day I was at Grayrig sixth day at the Hight first day at Swartmore and on the third day at Hawkes-head and had a blessed Meeting my Heart was comforted The fourth day we had a great Flood hindred me from getting home that day but got to Keswick in Cumberland and fifth day got home to our Meeting at Pardsay and was also there the first day where the Lord enlarged my Heart to clear my self heartily that day The third day I was at the Mens-Meeting where the Lord was richly with us Everlasting Glory be to him for ever The fourth day early I came down to Whitehaven several Friends came with me but the Ship being ready could not stay So went on Board and the next day in the Evening arrived safe here at Dublin where all is well I left all our Friends well in Cumberland Dublin the 13th of the 9th Month 1682. It greatly pleases me to hear of Friends in England and how it is with them this Trying day For as we love the Truth and one another therein we have a Concern upon us for one another and for the Truth in General And therefore I delight in the Truth 's prevailing and in Friends prospering therein The Lord stir up all concerned in their Places to be Faithful that none may shrink in the Day of Trial c. Last Week was our Half-Years-Meeting many Friends here and a blessed Season we had through the enriching Vertue of the Lord's
Power and in Love Peace and Concord all was carried on amongst us and so all was sweet and comfortable Here is a Discourse of putting the Laws in Execution against Dissenters however if the Lord suffer such a thing to be I believe it will be for his own Glory at last in the manifesting the Approved and trying the Faith of his People But we are yet quiet save some that are in Prison for Tithes Our Meetings are large and full in this Nation and Friends tell me there is an Openness in many places O! that we may be found faithful that we may work with him in his Vineyard and Harvest Dublin the 6th of the 10th Month 1682. The Lord preserve us all in the Faith that gives the Victory and faithful to God in this Trying day wherein it appears the Lord sees it meet to Try his People both in their Faith and Patience that the Approved may be made manifest We have large Meetings in this City and an Openness in divers places in the Country I have been in the Counties of Wicklow and Carlow and the Queens-County and at the Mote and Edenderry And to morrow I intend if the Lord will forth again to the Province-Meeting at Rosen-Allies Cork the 8th of the 11th Month 1682. I have been through these Parts as far as Castle-Salem and had a Meeting there yesterday was a Week and so returned back again to Cork to the Six-Weeks-Meeting where we had a blessed Season the Lord's Power was richly amongst us And after to morrow I think to go toward Toughill and so into the County of Tipperary and then to Castle-Dormant-Meeting and then for ought I know towards Dublin I am comforted in my Service amongst Friends who are generally glad of my coming and of what they have an Expectation of in relation to my Marriage but my Heart is fully satisfied in that I feel the Lord's Goodness towards us and in his Fear I do delight to wait upon him in this as in other things and desire that we may be a good Example And therefore I find it our way not to be hasty The Lord give us wisdom to walk so as that he may be Glorified and Friends in us Comforted This I desire above all Earthly Things Dublin the 30th of the first Month 1683. I am concern'd to hear of the Continued Sufferings of our Friends in England we are yet at Ease here as from those things The Lord work our Hearts more and more into Thankfulness and guide us in Wisdom to walk worthy of these Favours that in displeasure he may never take them from us but when-ever he is pleased to Remove them it may be in his Love for a Trial unto us as I believe it is with many of his Faithful Ones whom my Soul desires he may still preserve in the Faith that gives the Victory I have been in the North and did pass through Friends and had a blessed Service I am intended to go forth of this City to morrow towards Wicklow and so through the County of Wexford to visit Friends there Dublin the 10th of the 3d Month 1683. We have now Accomplisht that Concern of Marriage which we have for some time been under and blessed be the Lord he has been unto us a comfortable Director in our Undertakings in this Matter to the Satisfaction of Friends in the General who were with us And besides the Friends of this City we had many of the Friends of the South-end of the Nation who were come to be at the Half-Years-Meeting and some the sooner upon our Account and abundance of other People We had a blessed Meeting several Brethren with us and the Lord's Power assisting all things were well and we had Peace and Comfort and the Truth was honoured and not only Friends but many sober People were greatly affected with the Management thereof Well the Lord will honour his Name and Way and People if we be but careful to honour him The Lord is good unto us we have Cause to mind his Goodness unto us and truly that which is chiefly in both our Hearts is to seek his Glory and above all things to desire preservation in his Wisdom Dublin the 4th of the 8th Month 1683. I have been a time in the Country and came into the City again but yesterday I went to the Prevince-Meeting at Rosen-Allies and have visited many Meetings I was comforted with Friends in the good presence of the Power that did attend us Things are pretty well among Friends and our Meetings large and full We feel little of those Sufferings that our dear Friends in England have heavy upon them The Lord preserve us Tender Low and Humble that we may be worthy of such a Mercy from the Hand of the Lord. Dublin the 24th of the 5th Month 1683. Here is a Report abroad that Meetings will be disturbed and broken up but nothing done yet It must be Friends here as well as in other Parts that must bear the Burden as to the right part in Suffering and I hope it will be Friends Care to be given up in the Innocency to suffer for that Testimony the Lord hath raised in their Hearts by which we have been kept Innocent and Clear from the beginning under all Governments And so never could touch nor join with that which did seek the hurt of any This must be our Cloak or Covering and that gives Boldness and is and will be the Ease of the Spirits of all the Faithful and that which will answer the Consciences of our Adversaries And I believe if some Suffering do come it will work for good through Trying our Spirits Faith and Patience so that many may come to know themselves and the Lord and his Power also better thereby From the Marshalsee's Prison in Dublin the 9th of the 6th Month 1683. We are very likely to partake in some measure of Sufferings with our Friends and Brethren in England The last first day the Major sent the Marshal to our Meeting in the Forenoon and I being speaking he commanded me to go with him which after some Discourse I did He commanded the Meeting to Disperse but Friends kept quiet in their plaplaces I was carried before the Major with whom I had some Discourse to this effect He asked me Why we did act contrary to the Government having been commanded not to meet I told him We do nothing in Contempt of the Government But said he why do you not obey then I said Because it is Matter of Conscience to us and that which we believe to be our indispensible Duty to Meet together to Worship God To which he Answered You may be misled I told him If we were misled we were willing to be informed if any could do it Then it was urged Other Dissenters had submitted and why would not we I said What they do will be no Plea for us before the Judgment-Seat of the Great God So after some other Discourse the Major committed
me to this Prison The Professors have left their publick Meeting-Places The Bishop of Dublin sent for them and they Consulted together and with Consent returned this Answer That they would forbear The Bishop also sent for A. S. and did to him require the same of Friends but A. S. told him We could not forbear to Meet to Worship God c. So in the end the Bishop said If we would meet we must take what did follow c. However I hope it will work for the honour of Truth The Lord preserve Friends faithful and valiant I hope God has a Remnant that will stand in the Trial Though if Sufferings do come hard it may cause some to turn their Backs Let the Lord order as he pleaseth I know no better way than to endeavour to be prepared for Sufferings Dublin the 9th of the 7th Month 1683. We are satisfied that the Lord's Hand is in all these things and doubtless he hath a purpose to Magnifie his Arm and thereby to Exalt his own Name and pretious Truth in the End and in his so doing his People shall be Comforted and receive the Reward even every One that endures unto the End And truly as our Eye is unto him in our Exercise we feel still a Ground for a sure Hope that abides as an Anchor sure and stedfast by which we are held that we cannot be driven away In this is our Comfort when we seem as to the outward as if we had no surer Place than upon the tossing Waves of the Troubled Tempestuous Sea all uncertain no stedfastness nor stay for Rest unto any in Looking out And therefore I often think I am satisfied it 's God's way thus to blow upon the Nations with the Breath of his Displeasure that all the Waters for the People are Waters may be Tossed together and that they may be made Restless and driven on Heaps and into Confusion and so become a Sea into which Babylon as a great Milstone must fall to make her perpetual End Even that Mystery Babylon spoken of of old that hath so prevailed and made the Nations drunk and gone over Peoples and Languages not one People only and all that partake with her in her Sins must partake with her in her Plagues and Iudgments And therefore is the Lord calling out of her but her Sins her Delights and Delicacies many are unwilling to part with and that 's the Reason why many stay there that do not think themselves within her Borders But the Nations are drunk with her Wine and know not what they are doing for their Understanding is lost O! the sadness of that day my Soul of ten doth view it but the Greatness of their Sin doth draw it down upon them which is come into the View and Remembrance of the dreadful God! And therefore may all the Righteous Rojoyce who truly feel Redemption out of her and are come through Christ the Seed to be Sons and Daughters of Zion and so Heirs of the peaceable Ierusalem that 's built upon the Rock and Foundation that the Gates of Hell cannot prevail against We are here still detained Prisoners and have of late writ to the Major but he answered He would not set us at Liberty without an Order from the Deputy Then we wrote to him and A. S. and S. C. did go to him and he was very kind to them and told them He had a greater Love for us than any other Dissenters because he believed that we did mean honestly Dublin the 16th of the 8th Month 1683. I am now clear'd of my Imprisonment we wrote to the Deputy a few Lines which he carried to the Council After which he sent his Secretary to the Recorder of the City with his Order for our Release which was very full and clear without any thing demanded of us I have not heard that Friends in any part of this Nation are medled with We enjoy great Favours at the Hand of the Lord O! that we may walk worthy thereof for ever and be mov'd thereby to a Sense of what our dear Friends in England still suffer and then will the Mercies we live under be rightly valued Dublin the 9th of the 12th Month 1684. I have been through all the Meetings in Ulster and did return home but the third day this Week I had a blessed time amongst Friends and found things in the main very well I had large and peaceable Meetings which is a Mercy I desire the Lord may so sanctifie unto us as that we may walk worthy of them while they are afforded us and when he sees meet to order it otherwise we may be prepared I have been but little at home of late and know nothing but that I may go next Week forth of Town again towards the other end of the Nation Dublin the 17th of the first Month 1683 4. I came home this day I have been through the most of the South and Western Parts and have had a good Journey and Friends generally well and all our Meetings peaceable Dublin the 21th of the first Month 1683 4. In my last I hinted that I was but newly come home from visiting Friends in the South-end of the Nation and so from the Province-Meeting at Castle-Dormant I came home on the second day and an appointed Marriage was to be on the third day which was accordingly and abundance of People there was so that we had a good Opportunity and the People generally well satisfied so that a very great Report of Recommendation is abroad through the City concerning our Order and Method and the Gravity and Solemn Manner of our Accomplishing of it It 's greatly our Comfort when that in all our ways we honour the Truth I have had a busie Winter in Travelling and prosperous and now I see nothing but I shall have Liberty to stay a while at home The Lord is good to us and orders things to our Comfort and we are comforted in him and one in another blessed be his Name for ever Dublin the 9th of the 3d Month 1684. It is just the time of our Half-Years-Meeting and there are many Friends in Town We had a very large Meeting and very quiet and well And things in the general very well amongst Friends as relating to Truth We have Cause to be Thankful to the Lord for his Mercies and Comforts we enjoy who is the Author of all Mercies and Comforts sanctifying all things rightly to them that fear and love him through the sanctifying of their Hearts by his Word that keeps bears up and upholds O! the Lord keep all our Hearts stayed in this and then will all things work together for good according to the antient Saying Crabtreebeck in Cumberland the 12th of the 6th Month 1684. I left Dublin sixth day was a Week I have some intent to go over into Scotland but am not yet certain of the time but do hope if the Lord preserve me in my Liberty to Return
into this Country again Graysouthen the 19 th of the 6 th Month. Between two or three Weeks time I hope to be as far as Edenborrough Leith the 6th of the 8th Month 1684. I have had a very peaceable and prosperous Journey since I came into Scotland hitherto I came to Edenburgh at the time appointed and stayed here one first day and then took my Journey into the North and I. H. and I. T. with me and spent about three weeks there and in my Journey had Meetings while I was there almost every day and a blessed open Service through the Lord's Power amongst Friends For there is an open tender-hearted People and they were glad of my coming for there had not been any English Friend among them of a long time And being clear I. T. and I came away this day a Week and left I. H. there we got to this Town the fourth day of the last Week and was at Edenburgh the fifth day at their Meeting and yesterday had a blessed Meeting there in the Fore-noon and here the Afternoon and to morrow we intend to take our Journey for the West and do hope to be clear this day a Week to go for England and hope to be in Cumberland to morrow a Week if the Lord will Hitherto all hath been very quiet where I have been and I hear nothing but Friends Meetings are quiet all over Scotland and Friends are suffered to be quiet but in some places they are very busie with some other People Here hath been a pretty deal a-do about a Plot but of these things we know nothing nor in such doings have no hand and therefore about it desire not to meddle Though others doings may bring Sufferings upon us yet still our Happiness is to be kept Innocent that if we suffer it may not be for evil-doing and then it will be well Eaglesfield the 12th of the 9th Month 1684. And truly in this Trying day wherein we are all of us like to have our Faith and Love to God Tried our greatest Concern always is to be in our hearts truly and wisely given up and resigned into the Will of God that we may therein rest in and under whatsoever the Lord may order for us or call us unto and then may we have peace in every Exercise and have Dominion in our Spirits over every Opposition which are many that the true Travelling Israel of God doth meet withal in this Age. I got very well through the West of Scotland met with no Disturbance All was quiet when I was there Our Meetings are quiet in Cumberland I suppose I may stay yet about two weeks here Stockton the 11th of the 10th Month 1684. I came out of Cumberland about two Weeks ago and was at Strickland-head and then came on into Bishoprick and thought I should but have touched at Darnton and this Town and so on into Yorkshire But when I was at Darnton it came upon me to give Friends a visit further in this County And so I went to Durham and had a blessed Meeting there and did visit the Prisoners And then went to Sunderland had a Meeting there And then to Shields and to T. F. had a Meeting there And so returned to Shâ—tton and so to this Town and had a blessed Meeting in the Evening yesternight it being their Meeting-time They are usually kept out of their Meeting-House here but yesternight we got in and the Meeting was full and peaceable and so have all the Meetings where I have been And now I am ready to go over into Yorkshire and do hope to be at York in about two Weeks time I suppose I may be there first day come two Weeks Grayrig the 26th of the 11th Month 1684 5. I have had a very comfortable and peaceable Journey and came through Cleveland and the Moors to Whitby and from thence up to Molton and to York Meetings have been quiet all along where I have been Yesterday a Fortnight a Constable was at the Meeting-House before I came and stood in the way to speak with the Friend that I came along with it being just before the Sessions He had a Warrant and was to give his Return at Sessions and therefore threatned that if we would not forbear to meet that day he must carry us before a Iustice. However after we had Reasoned a while with him we parted and went into the Meeting and he went away and did not come into the Meeting So we had a blessed Meeting and parted in Peace and the Lord's Power was over all to our great Joy This was all the Appearance of Molestation I have yet met with And I have had a very good Season and abundance of Meetings since I left York In Yorkshire I was at Robert Lodge's House and had his Company a pretty time out of Yorkshire I went to Lancaster and when I had visited Friends I came into Westmorland to Preston-Meeting and yesterday was at Sedberge We had a peaceable Meeting but out of the Meeting-House in the Street the Meeting-House being locked up from Friends I intend some Meetings in this County and so down to Swartmore and on into Cumberland as the Lord makes way Eaglesfield the 25th of the 12th Month 1684. I have had a very peaceable Journey and did visit Friends Meetings very fully in Westmorland and all quiet And since I came into Cumberland I was down at Carlisle and the Border And now my Service seems to be over and I am preparing to go home And was at Workinton this day and to morrow I intend to go to Whitehaven and to take the first Opportunity for Dublin Thus far I have been preserved very well through all my Travels and now I hope I shall get home Dublin the 25th of the first Month 1685. I got well here last Night but was put ashore in the North in Strangford-River about seventy Miles from Dublin and about four and twenty from Lisnagarvy And being put ashore there I found an Openness in my Heart to give Friends a Visit in the North and so spent near two Weeks among them and had many good Meetings I am very glad and my heart is truly Thankful unto the Lord for his preservation through this last Journey so safe and clear and ordered my way so comfortably home where I hope I may be of Service in my place and a Comfort to Friends The Lord our God is to be minded by us in all things I find things amongst Friends generally pretty well as formerly and Meetings very large and peaceable here and in the North. I am intended out of Town to the Province-Meeting Dublin the 16th of the 3d Month 1685. This Half-Years-Meeting we had a very great Appearance of Friends out of the Country many say they have not seen so many ever before And to our publick Meetings abundance of other People came even far more than could get into our House and they were very sober so that the Truth
fire And that shall such know who in the day of the Lord 's Gathering and tender Visiting in Mercy and Loving-kindness will not be won and gained into Faithfulness but slight the Day of their Visitation Therefore my dear Friends be faithful unto the Lord every particular of you in that which you have receiv'd from him and wait to be guided by that in your own hearts And keep low and down to the Principle of Life in your own hearts that you may never become stiff-necked nor hardned in your hearts again For this was Israel's Sin of old whose hearts were hardned and whose neck was become like an Iron sinew that it could not bend unto God's Toke For which he was wroth with his People and cast off his Inheritance in that day so that their Enemies had power over them and laid their Dwellings desolate Those things are left unto us for an Example that we might not fall after the same manner of Unbelief but fear lest a Promise being left us of entring into his Rest we should fall short through Unbelief and so loose the Inheritance and so by the Enemy have our Habitations luid desolate and so be carried Captives out of our Dwelling-place These things my Friends and Brethren I lay before you in the fear and love of God which is weigty in my heart towards you all and so desire that the Lord may preserve you all faithful unto himself in the feeling of his life and good presence by which your hearts may be kept open unto him and so open in true Love one towards another that as a Family in the love of God you may dwell together In which love my Soul dearly Salutes you all and so in it remain To my dear Friends in the North of Ireland about Kilmore Lurgan and that way Your Brother and Companion in the Tribulation and Patience of Christ Jesus I. B. Bristol the 25th day of the 11th Month 1667. Dearly Beloved WIth whom in the Covenant of Life Light and Peace I am one wherein I am with you and in Spirit do reach unto you in that love which many waters cannot quench in which my Soul at this time doth very dearly salute you all ye Children of the Covenant which have been born again of the Word Immortal and in the life of the true Seed remain unto you all without respect of Persons doth the love of my Soul reach with the Salutation of my life in the power that is endless In which my desire is that the Lord may preserve you all that as living Plants in the Vineyard of God you may flourish and bring forth righteous Fruits and so be a honour unto the Lord in your generation and then you need not doubt but the Lord will honour you in the glory of his Kingdom that is without end And therefore Friends the life of Righteousness in the power that is without end do you all mind to live in that fruits of holiness in a godly conversation may be brought forth by you all by which the Gospel of Peace and Salvation comes te be adorned and so the effects of Righteousness you will all come to know which is peace and assurance for ever Which is that you ought all to be mindful of that the evidence of peace by the testimony of the living Spirit in all your hearts ye may feel renewed daily which will not be without an abiding and living in the life of Righteousness whatsoever Notion of Profession may be held in the wrong mind and not in the power and life of Righteousness For this Testimony is true and living searching narrowly under all Coverings and breaking through all Vails entring into the inner Court and breaking through into the Secret Chambers to see what may have a being there or be worshipped So that in vain it is to cover any thing in this day wherein the searcher of all hearts hath appeared and he is come whose Fan is in his hand who sits as Resiners fire and as Fullers sope to cleanse and to purifie his chosen Tribe that they may be a peculiar People a chosen Generation and a Royal Priesthood to shew forth the Praises of him who hath called out of darkness into his marvellous light And therefore My dear Friends with open hearts and nakedness of Spirit do you all walk before the Lord not seeking any Covering but that of the Spirit in the life of Righteousness that its Testimony and witness you may all have in your hearts to bear witness with you unto Justification that so ye may be cloathed with the white Robe of Righteousness in the power of the Lamb and so become Kings and Priests unto God reigning over that in the power of the Lamb's Spirit which can never offer a Sacrifice acceptable before which the hearkening and obedience hath acceptance and so will the life of the true Priest be known to spring in you in which you are accepted and so in the life of him that is a Priest for ever after the Order of Melchisedeck according to the word of the promise and of the oath you will be a Royal Priest-hood offering up an acceptable Sacrifice unto the Lord. And so my dearly beloved unto whom my heart in pure love is opened keep your habitations in the Life of the Son in the Life of the Priest that lives for ever that you may never be rejected in him is the Father well pleased in him are all our Offerings accepted and without him ye can do nothing All Coverings and Robes without him are but as filthy Rags and all Garments without his power and life of righteousness are no better than a Menstruous Cloath and abomination in the sight of the Lord. And therefore keep your Garments clean your hearts pure before the Lord that the acceptance you may never lose and mind the living of the power in your hearts and your living in it unto God the Father that as we have been quickened together in the Resurrection of the Life even so in the same we may worship the Father for evermore And so in this Friends doth my heart's love reach unto you all in which my Soul doth once more very dearly salute you all ye Children of the Covenant and of the blessed day of God Almighty who walk in the Light my heart is ravished with pure love in the Remembrance of you O ye dearly beloved of my Soul I have not forgotten you neither have I been unmindful of you though outwardly we have been separated but the antient love hath lived in my heart yea and doth live towards you all which draws forth strong desires in me unto the Lord that in his Will I might see your faces which I hope will be answered in his time and until then I am freely given up into his Will to stand out of time being satisfied with the invisible union and fellowship in the Spirit that I have with you which time nor distance of places can never
And then will you feel the holy Dew abide upon your Spirits throughout your Age that will preserve you from withering your Leaf from fading and so your Fruit shall be ripe in due season and not be untimely brought forth in that which will not endure For that in which we have believed will endure for ever The Heavenly Power which God hath revealed in our Hearts and made manifest for a standing Foundation that 's sure for ever upon which as you all abide stedfast the Gates of Hell with all the power of Darkness shall not prevail against you but you shall be able to withstand him and keep your Habitations in the Dominion thereof and dwell in Peace upon the Rock of safety in the midst of all Storms and sing for joy of Heart when those that forsake this Rock shall howl and lament for vexation of Spirit For the Lord God will bring his Day and his Power over all and upon all that fly to any shelter or seek any other defence that have once known his Truth and he will be unto such as a Moth and as Rottenness and their Strength he will waste and their Garment and Clothing he will destroy and their Beauty and Glory he will cause to fade though they have been as a beautiful Flower in the head of the fat Valley yet will fading come upon them even dryness at the Root and withering and decaying upon the beauty of their Blossoms And therefore let all keep unto that and in that which will not decay come to nothing nor never be turned into Darkness but abide in its vertue and glory in and by which the Lord hath visited you and through which his Day hath dawned upon your Souls the Morning whereof you have known bright and clear as without Clouds in which you have seen the Son in his Glory to appear unto your Souls with his Heavenly healing warmness and vertue Now Friends this is that which for ever is to be kept too that the Day may be known to increase in the light and glory of it in its own clearness without mixture not mixing with it your own Wisdom Thoughts or carnal Imaginations which do prove such Clouds where they are suffered to arise that they bring Darkness over the understanding and make the Day cloudy and dark and so occasion wandering and to some turn the very Eye-lids of the Morning into the Shadow of Death And through such things hath the Enemy so prevailed over some that he hath brought them again into the Night of Everlasting Darkness and Confusion ere they have been aware whither he would lead and thus as a Man void of Understanding over whom the Whorish Woman hath prevailed and so led down to the Chambers of Death have many followed those Steps that have taken hold on Hell where Misery is sure to be met withall Dear Friends that which preserves from these Dangers is that Arm and Power which God revealed in the beginning by which as we are Witnesses he redeemed our Souls out of many afflictions And therefore let it be every ones care to wait for a clear and sensible feeling of that same Power in its own pure Nature to spring in all your Hearts every Day and then will your delight be so in it and your acquaintance in a clear Understanding will be so with it that you will never be deceived so as to take any other for it Then to your comfort will your Heavenly Peace spring under the Power and Government of him that is the Prince of true Peace and so will your Hearts be made truly glad and weighty and ponderous and not to be carried about with every Wind For in this is the true and sure Establishment of the Soul with Grace in the Covenant of Life for ever and these are they whose Peace is of a standing nature who are not given to change But this I have always observed that where there is an uncertain Spirit or Mind though in some states into which at times they may come they may have Peace and feel some Refreshment yet for want of constancy and stedfastness which is preserved through a true watchful and diligent attendance upon that which doth not change which is sure for ever they lose their Habitation and their state of Peace and come to be tossed in their Minds and afflicted in their Spirits and also are the occasion of tossing affliction and distress unto others who not being aware may sometimes be in danger to suffer with them when they fly from the Word that should uphold as it was with Ionah in the days of old And therefore it is good for every one to have their Hearts established with Grace and in the Grace wait for a settlement that under the pure teachings thereof they may be preserved from going into those things that will procure Woe and so shall every ones State in that which is good be more and more constant and then will there be a growing and going forward and not backward For that which doth occasion any to linger or draw back is Carelesness Unbelief and Disobedience and in such the Lord's Soul doth take no pleasure And therefore in that which doth not change all live by which all changeable and mutable Thoughts and Imaginations and Desires will be judged down and the spring of Life over all will slow and the First will be the last for in that the Beauty and Glory doth stand for ever And all that abide not in it to grow in the vertue thereof whatever they have been at the best will be but as a fading Flower in the head of the fat Valley as it was with Ephraim the Lord will take no delight in them but reject them and cast them out as such whose Beauty is gone whose Gold is become dim and whose Wine is mixt with Water And so as reprobate Silver shall they be esteemed even of Men because the Lord hath rejected them So the Lord God keep and preserve you all in that which was from the beginning and will endure unto the end that in that ye may flourish and grow as the Lilly of the Valley and the Tree by the Rivers of Water This is the desire of my Soul for you all who truly love you in the love of God wherein I remain one with you and am London the 10th of the 3d Month 1677. Your Brother in the Truth J. B. Let Copies of this be sent to New-England Virginia Maryland and Barbados Upon the 2d of the 10th Month 1677. ONE Oliver Morross an Informer came into a Meeting in Mahuntleth in Mountgomery in Wales where Iohn Burnyeat in the fear of God was speaking unto the People and Preaching the Gospel of Peace and Salvation unto them for their good as he had received from the Lord the said Oliver Morross Informer with several Constables and many other Rude People came twice into the Meeting to break up the Meeting and made a great disturbance But
Jesus Christ And if we grow in the Knowledg of him as we have known him to save us from Sin and to destroy the evil one and so to be our Sanctification and Redemption even so we must Wait to know him to be made of God unto us Wisdom that he may be our Wisdom and the Fountain of it unto us may be the gift of his Holy Power in our Hearts And so then as it did mightily work in our Hearts to Prepare us even so will the same Gift be felt to work mightily to furnish us with Wisdom and to enable for every Good Work and so you will know him to be made of God Wisdom unto you For the Holy dread of the Power upon the Heart in Righteousness being felt guides him or her in Wisdom that Speaks the same Holy Fear and Dread upon the Heart guides him in Silence that in Silence sitteth whose mouth is not opened and so he is made still and Christ your Head who is one in the Man and in the Woman Wisdom unto you and so here all will be kept in your places as you keep in Subjection unto him who is the Head the Husband of the true Wife And dear Friends mind his Heavenly Power and keep under a Holy Reverence unto it and that will keep you Savoury and Reverent in your Meetings and clear and in a good understanding and Subject one unto another and so you will be Co workers together and helpers one of another and so you will come to have the benefit one of anothers gifts And thus as Members will you supply in a Blessed Unity every one your Office in the Body And therefore my Counsel as a Brother in Love unto you is Let all be Subject None in whom the tender Life in a Heavenly Reverence doth move for Counsel Advice or otherwise to quench it or to stop the Service for in so doing others may be wronged as well as the particular unto whom the Lord intends benefit by thy gift For it is not good to Stop only let all take heed that their own Spirits may be Subject that Christ may be head in all and he may be your Wisdom And be open and ready in your Hearts to Receive Counsel Help and Instruction one from another and keep down the forward heady and rash Spirit that would run without Reverence and speak without the true Fear from that none will rightly understand nor have a true sense of the Weight of the Service of this Day O! it is fresh in my Heart the Dread the Reverence the Fear that our Hearts were filled with in the beginning in which we went about Truth 's Concern this same is still to be Felt and Minded and then all will be kept Savoury and in this will all your Meetings your Care and Labour of Love be a sweet Smelling Sacrifice unto the Lord. And Friends let your Monthly and Quarterly-Meetings be kept orderly for the Service determined and aimed at that you may be retired from the World and such not concerned in the Service Proposed for such Meetings that so all that come may be either Capable of doing Service in a Reverent Mind or to Learn that which may be for Truths Honour their own Good and your Comfort and then will all you who are concerned get into your Service without Straitness and so will be a help one unto another in your particular gifts and the Spring of Life will be opened among you and your Meetings will be Delightful unto you and you in that will be a Delight one to another and then with one Consent in the Pleasant Unity you will do the Lord's Work together as his Servants and Hand-maids and a part of his pleasant Heritage which he hath Chosen and upon whom he rains down his 〈◊〉 daily And so the God of Peace and Love fill your Assemblies with his Presence Life and Love that you may Flourish as the Plants of his Right-hand-planting and be faithful through your whole Day is the desire of my Heart and Soul who Remain Your Brother in the Lord Jesus Christ I. B. To the Women's Meetings in Cumberland From London 20 th of the 4 th Month 1678. Dear Friends YOU whom the Lord hath visited and reached unto by his own holy Arm of Heavenly Power for that blessed end for which he hath visited many Nations and appeared unto many People that he might shew Glory again unto Mankind which through Sin they were fallen short of that so in his Visitation he might renew that Heavenly Image whereby he might be glorified again among the Sons of Men and now in this great Day of Visitation which hath dawned upon the Nations you in these Countries have been visited and reached unto and graciously saved and delivered from the Snares of Death and opened unto the way of Life so that you have both seen into that hidden Glory and tasted of and been enjoyers of the power of that Life which hath no end And now that care which always ought to dwell upon your Hearts is this that you may keep in possession that which you have received That as was said of old None may take your Crown from you nor none may fall short of that Rest which is prepared for the visited and redeemed of the Lord. The way you have known God hath shewed it unto you and called you to walk therein and the mark you have seen the Lord hath set that before you that you might press towards it as the antient Christians did for the Price of the high Calling of God in Christ Jesus And now dear Friends that which I desire all may be concerned in is how there is a pressing forward towards the Mark and a going on in this way which the Lord hath cast up or revealed and called you to walk in for it is he that travels on that shall come to the blessed End and obtain the Crown of Glory and not such as lingers or sits down by the way either to take up a Rest or look for another Inheritance besides what God hath promised shall be the possession after the War is over and the Conquest obtained For Iordan must be gone through and the Canaanites utterly subdued before any Man of War sit down in his Inheritance Therefore those Tribes that had their Lots on the other side of Iordan were to go through Iordan and continue in the War till all was subdued And thus is the saying true He that continues unto the end shall be saved and he that 's faithful unto Death shall have the Crown of Life And therefore let a concern be always upon your Minds in this weighty matter that you may see how it is with you and whether you are still in your Journey upon your Travel towards the Mark for the Price And as you must mind whether you are in your Travel pressing forwards or no even so you must mind also that you press forwards toward the Mark or else you
the Rock Christ Iesus which by the Storms and Winds cannot be thrown down For the sure Foundation being kept unto you will abide and endure and the Lord will bless you with inward Peace in your Souls and true Pleasure in your Hearts and you will enjoy the true Riches and Heavenly Treasure and learn as you keep to the power of God in your Hearts to lay up this true Treasure in Heaven through the true Faith where the Thief cannot come to steal nor the Moth to waste or corrupt And then your Riches and Treasure that you trust and delight in being thus laid up in Safety your Hearts will be at quiet and in ease and setled in the Kingdom in Heaven where the Treasure is and then Christ's Words will be witnessed Where the Treasure is there will the Heart be also Oh my dear Friends how true are these things Happy are they that grow up into the experience thereof through the working operation and openings of the true living Heavenly Power in their Hearts such their Minds are kept free from that which would entangle and their Feet at liberty that they may run chearfully the Race that is set before them For the Riches the Price that their Hearts are upon being before them and the Mark also that they look at this draws them to look forward and press forward so that they are not of them that draw back to Perdition And thus Friends you may see where and in what your profitable Exercise is through your Day and where the lasting Gain Riches and Treasure is to be got that will endure and be your Portion when the Enemy and all his Instruments have done what they can And this made David say he would not fear what Man could do unto him for the Lord was his Shepherd he said and the Lord was the Portion of his Cup and the Lot of his Inheritance c. And therefore keep your Hearts out of the World and the Riches thereof which are uncertain and also above the delighting in the Glory thereof and let your delight be in the Lord and in the sweet and pleasant Enjoyment of his righteous peaceable Power all the Day long that you may still feel a Habitation therein and a place of Safety to fly unto in every needful time And wait you upon its holy springings in your Hearts that your Souls thereby being united unto God you may dwell in his Covenant and so in Unity with him and his blessed Son and so feel the Fellowship which is a Mystery held in a pure Conscience And dearly Beloved live at Peace among your selves and wait for the Spirit of Love and Concord to spring in all your Souls that the true Mark of Christ's Disciples may appear among you Remember what he said unto his of old By this shall all Men know that ye are my Disciples if you love one another And consider what the Apostle said He that dwells in God dwells in Love c. And therefore I intreat you wait for the power of it in your Hearts that you therein may serve one another and so the whole Body may be edified the weak strengthned the faint-hearted encouraged and the lame not turned out of the way but all helpt forward on their way And you all being thus in the righteous holy Power exercised for good which is that it will lead unto you will be a Strength and Comfort and Crown of Rejoycing one unto another and so helpers forward of one anothers Joy in the Lord Surely this is needful in this Day wherein Zion hath so many Enemies she had need to be as a City that 's at Peace within her self So the God of Peace keep you all in the Dominion of his Life that therein you may reign over every hurtful Thing and so dwell in the holy Mount of Safety where the Destroyer cannot come and upon the holy Hill of Zion about which he hath appointed Salvation for Walls and Bulwarks That so you may all witness Peace to be within her Walls and Prosperity within her Palaces And so you may every Day witness high Praises in your Hearts and Mouths unto her King who is King of Kings and reigns over all who only hath Immortality and dwells in the Light To whom be Glory and Eternal Praises saith my Soul for ever and for evermore Amen From your Friend and one that truly loves you in the Truth J. B. Dear R. S. UNTO thee with thy Dear Wife C. H. R. U. and theirs with the rest of Friends there in Prison with you doth the living sincere Love of my Heart truly reach and livingly flow forth for I can say of a truth that you are often near my Soul and livingly in my Heart and that in my nearest approach unto the Lord when my Life opens and my Spirit is let forth through the Power thereof and poured forth into his Bosom as blessed be his Name he gives us access by his own Spirit even then are you many times fresh in my Heart and Livingly before me as if I were present in Body with you and with great delight do I put up my Supplications upon your account unto the Lord our God rejoycing to feel the Lord so concerned for you that by his own Spirit he so often stirs up a remembrance of you in my Soul and that upon such Holy occasions Oh! blessed be his Name he is the Keeper of Israel that neither Slumbers nor Sleeps but remembers his People and his Eye is open to see their Afflictions and his Ear is open to hear their Complaints and tender Groanings and no doubt but he will arise in his own due time to work Deliverance and Salvation and they shall glorify him Oh! my dear Friends how is my Soul overcome in the weighty Love of God at this time unto you all who Suffer or are given up to Suffer for his Name 's sake that hath Loved you and values your Testimony above all things and so are of that number that love not your Lives unto Death but are given up to follow the Lamb whithersoever he goes Oh! my Heart is affected with you in your Testimony and can say as Debora of old My Heart is towards you who offer your selves willingly among the People now to Suffer in the Lambs Battle as they did to War in the outward War for that 's the way the Lamb and his followers do overcome he was made Perfect through Suffering And the Promise still is The Lamb shall have the Victory everlasting Glory and Honour and Praise to the Living God that sits upon the Throne and to the Lamb who is worthy for ever more And therefore my dear Friends look not out look not back but to the Lord your Rock and Strength look for Help and for Deliverance for you know that its from him that Salvation comes and not from the Hills and Mountains for he is the God of the whole Earth and the Mountains shall Melt at his
Presence and before him shall the Hills Fly yea the Sea also shall Fly and Iordan shall be Driven back that his Ransomed may pass on his Redeemed People may Enter into their Rest. Oh! theresore let us Cleave unto the Lord our Saviour and so sollow Christ our Redeemer who can cut a passage through the great Deep let us not be dismayed at any thing that may rise up in our way to oppose us so long as our Leader is with us and our blessed Rock attends us and we feel our dwelling within the Munition thereof our Bread will be sure and our Water will not fail and our Hearts will not be barren nor our Souls will not be faint but we shall grow through the blessing of Israel's God and Live when with all their cunning the enemies of the Truth have contrived our overthrow For there is nothing can hurt us more in the Trying Day than want of Faith in God's Power and Arm of strength which never failed them that put their trust therein And therefore my dearly Beloved with whom my Soul is bound up in the Covenant of Life wherein I have Unity with you and can say although you bear the Burden yet my Heart is concerned for you and also with you in your Godly concern and Testimony for which you Suffer and therefore cannot you be forgotten by me For as we Love the Truth and the Holy Testimony thereof for which you Suffer and are in Bonds in Spirit we are often as Bound with you and fellow-feelers of your Burthens And furthermore we cannot propose to our selves any other than e're long to be Sharers with you to be Partakers of the like Sufferings Trials and Exercises and therefore still it is our safety to be Prepared in our Hearts and into the Will of God to be given up to Do or Suffer for his Name 's sake For our days do seem to be like the Days of Old wherein the Apostle said they were Killed all the Day long and accounted as Sheep for the Slaughter If we look into the Scriptures we have a Cloud of Witnesses and so through what was Written aforetime which was Written for our Learning we may have Comfort and our hope Strengthened and so be Encouraged to Trust in the Lord our Strength and in whom our Hope is And now it is still to be our care as Lambs or Sheep to Live in Innocency and so as Lambs to Suffer for our Innocency and for our Testimony which we are called unto and surely I often consider what more Innocent Practice can we ever be found in than in our Peaceable Meetings to Wait upon the Living God and to Worship him in his peaceable Spirit by which our Hearts come to be cleansed of all Evil and our Spirits gathered into the Peace and Love of God in which we Love God again and not only so but have our hearts filled with Love and Good will towards all Men in the Peace and Sweetness of which we are enabled to Pray for the Good of All even our Enemies And if this must be misinterpreted and our Righteous and Godly Intents counted a Transgression of the Law and a Breach of the Peace I do not know what such who so do can call Innocency For surely every one whose Heart is rightly Exercised in this Godly Duty which the Living God calls us unto must needs be Innocent before God and in that Frame of Spirit wherein we cannot nay dare not desire the Hurt of any but as the Truth ariseth Pray for all Men both for Rulers and People Thus I know under the Exercise of the Righteous Power of Christ in our Meetings are our Hearts qualified and then if we must Suffer for Well doing under the name of Evil-doers we shall be happy and may satisfy our selves with what Christ of old said The Servant is not greater than his Lord For if they accounted him a Blasphemer and said he had a Devil and so Persecuted him we may well look unto him and Comfort our selves in following such an Example And therefore be ye Comforted you Faithful Sufferers with Christ and for him and Comfort your Hearts in the Recompence of Reward which is with God for you and wait for the Spirit of God and of Glory that it may rest upon you And never look out for your Cause is Good it is that which God hath called you unto and you are happy in your Nobility and Valour and whosoever shrinks from their Innocent Testimony in this matter will suffer Loss in their Inward Condition for if any draw back such shall know the Lord will not go with them nor have any Pleasure in them nor be their Comforter but Reprover And therefore my Soul desires that all may be Valiant for the Truth and stand in the Power thereof unto what the Lord hath called unto that so you may be together as a City set on a Hill that cannot be hid For though the Foxes have Holes and the Fowls of the Air have Nests yet remember what Christ said to the Man that said he would follow him And so the Lord give you all Valour and Strength and Enrich you with true Patience which the Tribulation worketh into in the right Exercise that so you may all grow up into the true Experience and so into the Hope which makes not ashamed that the Love of God may be shed abroad in your Hearts every day by his Spirit which he hath given you And then will you all feel a dwelling in his Covenant and in his Peace And so in this Covenant Peace and Love I very dearly Salute you all and in it do I still remain Your Friend and Brother I. B. Castle-Salem in the West of Ireland the 30th of the 10th Month 1682. J. B's Epistle to Friends in Glocester-Prison Dear Friends UNTO you who are Faithful Sufferers in that City with the rest of the Faithful in that City and Country who in your Hearts are given up to Suffer for the holy Name of the Lord Jesus Christ our Saviour who hath Called and Redeemed Chosen and given you Hearts not only to believe but also to suffer for his Name 's sake and thus hath counted you worthy as Vessels of his Choice unto you all I say in the Name and Love of Christ Jesus our Lord I send Greeting and with-all the tender Salutation of my Soul and Spirit in that near Affection and holy Union into which by the power of the Holy Ghost we have been gathered and united So that as Members of that one Body into which we have been Baptized by that one Spirit wherein the true access unto God doth stand we have our Fellowship together and so drink together into that one Spirit and are refreshed with the Water that flows from the living Rock that followed Israel of Old who is the Rock of our Age the stay of the Generation of the Righteous in this Day that upon which we have our sure standing so
that we cannot easily be moved Though the Winds do blow and the Waters swell and toss and the unestablished be driven to and fro and so afflicted in their Spirits yet this Rock abides for a Habitation and Being of Safety unto all them that keep firm thereunto and so do abide near in their Spirit unto the holy Power thereof they find the living Spring of that Grace from the same in their Souls that the World cannot take away whose Treasure the Thief cannot steal nor the Moth waste for its Heavenly and kept by a Heavenly Hand And such who mind this will be ready to offer up their Earthly Substance and also themselves into his Hand and Will out of which no Man is able to pluck And surely in this Day there is no true Rest nor Satisfaction to the Souls or Spirits of Friends but as they get hither in the Faith with their Hearts and Spirits And when we are here spiritually oh this holy Shield how doth it defend Oh the holy Rock how do we sit under the shadow of it Oh the holy Ioy that the Dwellers upon this do feel in their Spirits though the Tempest be great Oh the God of Heaven keep us all in the holy sense of this that our Spirits may be born up from sinking under our Exercises in the Trial that so we may all glorify him in our Day Dearly Beloved you tender suffering Children whose Hearts are tender of God's Glory and therefore are willing to give up your selves and your all for his Name 's sake that you may be of that number who following the Lamb whithersoever he goes and not loving your Lives unto Death that may stand with him upon Mount Sion My Heart and Soul is knit unto you and you are near me and in the unity of the antient Life I feeling Love abundantly to flow unto you you have had a proof of the sincerity of my Love of old unto you And truly you that stand in your innocent Testimony faithfully do ingage my Heart still more and more in Love unto you Oh the tender meltings of my Spirit in the sweetness of the Love of God in which I reach you and rejoyce with you in your Ioy which all the Wrath of Man cannot put a stop unto I know your Hearts are at ease and your Spirits free and the Weights and Burdens from off you who are freely given up to suffer though in these Bonds outwardly But there can be no such spiritual Portion received by any that shrink from their Testimony in this Day of Trial. For the Word is true for ever They that suffer with him shall reign with him He the Captain was made perfect through Sufferings he must be followed by all that come in the fulness to pertake with him of his Glory And such who draw back and would find a place of Safety for themselves to escape their Sufferings for their Testimony though they should fly to the uttermost parts of the Earth the Lord's hand will find them out and there will not only be a holding back of the Portion but a spiritual Pain will overtake where the Heart is tender and because thereof uneasie will every ones place be unto their Spirits And therefore my dear Friends keep in the Faith and Word that Iustifies and then will you reign in the Seed that 's heir for ever wherein you will Overcome and Inherit and be Conquerors and so Triumph with the Lamb that must have the Victory before whose Feet the Crowns of all the Mighty must be laid down unto whom the Kings of the Earth and all Flesh must bow in him we trust his Heavenly Kingdom we wait for and pray for the coming of that even such as are our Enemies by the power thereof may be Converted unto God and so have an Inheritance with us in that Kingdom that hath no End That so Mankind might rest together in that Hope that makes not ashamed where the Love of God might be shed abroad in all Hearts by his Spirit Thus God is filling the Hearts of his Children with good Will towards all The Lord keep us therein for ever Dear Friends by this know that I am well and am now come to have a share with you of the Sufferings that attend for the Gospel's sake I have been three Weeks a Prisoner here in the Marshalsee of Dublin So in the true Fellowship of the Gospel am a Partaker with you both of the Sufferings and Consolation that attend us for the Testimony thereof I remain From the Marshals in the City of Dublin the 25 th of the 6 th Month 1683. Your Brother I. B. Dublin the 19th of the 6th Month 1685. Dear J. Banck UNTO thee with thy fellow-Prisoners who suffer for the blessed Testimony of that precious Truth in which we have believed doth the real and tender Affection and Love of my Heart and Soul flow forth at this time and in the sweetness and peaceableness of that which is our Life do I dearly salute you and in the unity thereof tenderly greet you all whose Hearts are kept up in that and under the holy conduct of it for which you suffer In this have we our unity which in it self lives and reigns over all and shall reign in its own pure Dominion and Dignity even the Power of our Lord Iesus Christ to whom Principalities and Thrones and Dominions must be subject It is for the Testimony of him you know that you suffer to wit the Testimony of Iesus which you have received from him by his Spirit and thereby have it sealed in your Hearts Though many do not understand the weight and certainty of your Testimony for which you suffer and therefore may look lightly upon it yet you who are enjoyers of the Power and so have received the Spirit of Iesus which is the Spirit of Prophesy and so his Testimony therein you feel the Weight of it and know the Certainty of the Testimony for which you suffer and so in your Sufferings have your Peace and Iustification And therefore my dearly Beloved in the Lord see that you all hold that fast in all your Hearts in the inward rich Possession of it for which you suffer that you may feel your Reward with you and your Comforter in you to bear up your Spirits over all your Sufferings and so you will have a Satisfaction in your selves that whatever others say or may think of your Sufferings and the reason thereof you know within your selves that it is for the Truth and its Testimony that you suffer and for the keeping of your Consciences clear in the sight of God And so in the hidden Man of the Heart you rest in quietness in that hidden Life which you receive from Christ and here is your Peace and Comfort which no Man can take from you no nor Man knows of it but such as are in Fellowship with you who live in and love the same Testimony And therefore those that know
might have been at the Meeting which he could not possibly know who nor of what sort he might have brought all his own Hearers if he would we put no limitation but as above an orderly peaceable Auditory of sober People But instead of coming to Grapple with us in publick as he terms it which one might have thought by his boasting there was to be no doubt of he flies quite off from that and tells us of Printing to the view of the World what we have to offer c. And in the beginning of his Paper tells us The expedient propounded in our last Paper is altogether vain and impertinent c. and saith It rather bespeaks us Children not past our Non-age in those things c. and further saith That our offering such an expedient for an Accommodation c. He looks on it to be a part of that Subtlety of which the mystery of Quakerism is made up and constituted in that we do so readily contrive and under colour of seeming Zeal for Truth propose such Mediums as we doubt not will in the end or event make for the advantage of our Cause and Interest could we by our pretty Serpentine acts as easily charm Iames Barry into a compliance with our Proposals as our Semi-proselites into a belief that because of our forwardness and seeming earnestness to appear for our dark and rotten Cause the People termed Quarkers are beyond all dispute the only holy and pure People whom God hath blessed c. Thus far Iames Barry Now let all sober unprejudiced Readers observe and consider whether our Expedient that we offered and the Mediums we proposed be such as he would here suggest and insinuate and whether there appears such subtle Contrivance and partial Intentions in our method for the advantage of our Cause and Interest that in the end or event if our Proposals had been complied with beyond all Dispute the Judgment must be given on our side that we were the only holy and pure People whom God had blessed Now our Offer was as before related and if our Proposals had been complied with he might have brought whom he pleased we excluded none that he would bring nor put any limitation otherwise than desiring an orderly and peaceable Auditory of sober People so that it 's evident we had no Contrivance nor could in that method we desired to have only such Persons as would give the Cause on our side right or wrong as he would wickedly insinuate But it 's plain for all his boasting and railing Rabshekah like he has been contriving how to find out a crafty shift to cover himself in his Retreat not being willing to appear to our faces in publick lest he should be publickly manifested and reproved for his unchristian Railing against us and abusing and belying of us and our Principles behind our backs But this is not all that hath this tendency in his Paper but he renews it over again to perswade People to believe That the Quakers had made such a choice of Moderators as would give it on their side let it be Non-sense or Heresie or what it will For saith he you will not leave the Decision to men that are the same in Iudgment with me c. and in Answer he proceeds to give Judgment upon the Meeting that was proposed to whom he saith he will not leave it counting them the Moderators which the Quakers chose and thus represents the people calling them a dark faithless and ignorant Rabble whose Nature saith he is the very Recipient of spiritual darkness and who will on that account suck and drink in Whimsies and the poison of Error as the Fish drinks Waters with those kind of Moderators saith he which the Quakers choose to decide Controversie in Matters of Faith Nonsense and Heresie will be the best Divinity Noise and Clamour set off with the paint and varnish of Multitude of Words and Texts of Scriptures neither understood nor rightly applyed will be the most convincing Arguments to prove a Victory By all this the Reader may see that he would perswade the People that the Quakers had made a choice of what sort of People they would have and that they were such a People whose Nature is the very Recipient of Spiritual Darkness c. And with whom Non-sense and Heresie would be the best Divinity c. Let all sober unbiassed People judge in this Case whether he doth not greatly wrong us yea or nay for you may see he is left free to bring whom he would What! could he find none but such to bring with him to hear and judge Secondly You see what sort of People we desire as in our Paper signified and we also affirm that it was the desire of our Hearts to have sober Conscientious Religious People that would have their understandings exercised according to a good Conscience that they might discern Right from the Wrong and receive every thing accordingly And so he goes on further with a Lye from his Pen and saith Certainly should James Barry consent to the Quakers in this Matter he believes the Quakers themselves as well as others would laugh at him This is but a silly shift to endeavour to get off with and he a Believer of a Lye for we are more serious in our Resolutions and intend better things in our Desires than in the obtaining of them to Laugh at it And we do believe that if Iames Barry had given us a Meeting as desired and had given no more occasion nor worse than his Answering our desire in that no sober People would have Laught at him nor have made Rimes of him neither for all he saith When he doth so he will not be displeased with Quakers and others if they do make Rimes of him for his folly in this thing But the Wise in Heart may see the end of all these Evasions and Shuffles and impertinent Excuses as well as his wicked Abuses and ungodly Reflections and false Accusations which he endeavours to cast upon us and so to the Understandings and Consciences of such we leave it let them judge between us in this Matter But among all these he has yet another Proposal which it may be he accounts a chief one offered in a former Paper and that is that we agree upon Judicious Persons to be present at our Discourse who may be in the capacity of Moderators to judge indifferently who is in the Right and who is in the Wrong I can hear nothing of that but willing you are saith he to leave the Dispute to be determined by the Conscience or Reason of every one that shall hear We suppose that in this Proposal he accounts himself above a Child because he judges our Expedient we propounded altogether Vain and Impertinent which rather bespeaks us Children not past our Non-age in those things we pretend to know However we would have him produce his Example for his riper Age he thinks himself grown into and seeing
of the most powerful Engines by which the art of Quakerism hath been propagated in the Kingdoms of the Earth Now let all sober People observe how he applies these Scriptures and how like it is to the rest of his envious doings for first he confesseth that we are blessed in having Worldly Riches so then it is well that what we have comes as a Blessing and is not wickedly got O but saith he it is with that kind of Blessedness which is the Portion of God's Enemies Now we would have him make out how he knows it to be so Are all that prosper in the World and increase in Riches God's Enemies Surely nay Abraham Iob David and Solomon when his Heart was inlarged in the Wisdom of God and many other Faithful Men were Rich and yet not Enemies to God Paul in his Epistle to Timothy did not find fault with their being Rich but desired such might be warned not to trust in them but to be Rich in good works And Christ said It is more blessed to give than to receive Acts 20. 35. Therefore it would be no unhappiness in Iames Barry to have Riches that he might rather give and be helpful to the Poor than to be burthensom and make his Ministry chargeable to his Flock for we suppose he is subject to seek and desire it as well as other Men as is evident from his receiving several sums of Mony upon pretence of going into America which when he had got fail'd in performance Oh but he doubts not but this is one of the most powerful Engines by which the art of Quakerism hath been propagated c. but what reason he hath thus to believe he doth not give But we may easily believe it is because he is full of Envy and Bitterness towards us or else he might see cause to doubt of it But in short we say that true Christianity which he calls Quakerism hath not been propagated by this Engine but by the Power of God which upheld his People That it could not be the increase of Worldly Riches that propagated it will plainly appear seriously considering the cruel and grievous Sufferings of our Friends from the very first that it pleased God to call and raise them up to bear a faithful Testimony to his Name and Truth Surely if they had sought the Riches Ease and Glory of the World they would not have chosen Afflictions by chearfully giving their Back to the Smiter and not with-holding their Goods from the Spoiler Many to the losing of all not having a Bed left to lye upon nor Cattle to Till their Ground nor Corn for Bread or Seed nor Tools to work withal Also Whipping Stocking Stoning Imprisonment they have been treated with For many years not so few as a Thousand Prisoners at once until Released by the present King scarce a Prison in England but hath been fill'd with them besides many Premunired their Estates seized and they kept Prisoners some for twenty years others during Life many hundreds dying Prisoners All this in Old England Yet Iames Barry's Brethren in New-England exceeded these Cruelties against our Friends there not only Stockt but Whipt so unmercifully their Flesh like Jelly and in that condition drove them many Miles into the Wilderness among the Indians and wild Beasts Yea Tender Women have they tyed to a Cart stript to the Wast and whipt through several Towns ten Stripes a piece in each on their naked Backs and then unmercifully left them in Frost and Snow also cut off Ears burnt in the Hand Banisht on pain of Death and at last put four of our Friends to Death by the hands of the Common Hangman on no other pretence but meerly for being Quakers in which Cruelty they continued until stopt by an Order from the late King In Plymouth-Patent they made a Law to take all the Quakers Cattle from them except one and in the Execution left the worst Thus our Friends were fully tryed there but the Lord who called them not only to Believe but also to Suffer upheld them by his Power so that they chearfully underwent all those Hardships rather than violate their Faith or make Shipwrack of a good Conscience Now all seriously considering their Faithfulness towards their God their Patience in Sufferings their Peaceableness towards the several Governments they have lived under their Honesty and Charity towards their Neighbours will plainly demonstrate Iames Barry's Charge cannot be true viz. the getting of Riches is one of the most powerful Engines to propagate the Art of Quakerism as he scornfully calls our Holy Religion which we affirm to be no other than Worshipping God in his own Spirit and Truth and doth also evidence Iames Barry's application of the aforesaid Scriptures to be wicked and false and not as David intended who sets them forth in the 73 d Psalm as you may see They set their Mouth against Heaven c. saying how doth God know is their knowledge in the most high After all this abusing of us and these shuffling Evasions to avoid giving us a publick Meeting he comes off thus Seeing therefore that by coming together the matter in Dispute is not like to be determined it remains therefore that what you have to offer in Vindication of your Selves and Principles c. be in Print exposed to the view of the World by you But let all consider why we do not come together to endeavour the Determination of the Matters in dispute and they may see it is because he will not appear in publick though he hath boasted as before and now puts us to Print in Vindication of our Selves and the three Principles before mentioned But wherefore shall we Print in Defence seeing he hath not in all his Papers laid down one Argument noâ— brought one Scripture to confute any of the three as laid down either by us or by our Friends whom he abuseth nor yet as they are laid down by himself and besides the same Friends of ours that he names and divers others have writ in Vindication of two of the said Principles So that whosoever desires to read the Vindication of them may see it in Samuel Fisher's Rusticus ad Academicos never yet answered and in George Whitehead's and William Penn's in answer to divers Books and Thomas Hicks's lying Dialogues where he like Iames Barry forges many Lies against us entituled The Christian Quaker c. remaining unanswered either by him or any else that we ever heard of And as for the third Principle we never before him heard any judge Perfection in Sanctification as to degrees attainable in this Life an Erroneous Principle and therefore it doth not so much concern us to vindicate in Print that which so often is done already and he to make no offer to confute them however he after his former manner as may be seen in his last Paper can make a great threatning boast saying At the back of your Vindication James Barry will send forth
bring you to a Reformation that the People you may lead in Errour no longer We conclude and remain Desirers of the Good of all Men. Dated the 13th of the 4th Month 1688. Iohn Burnyeat Iohn Watson An Addition of two Epistles of Iohn Burnyeat's to Friends in Long-Island and Barbadoes which came to Hand since the Printing of the former Long-Island the 23d of the 5th Month 1666. Dearly Beloved WHO are called to be Saints and to believe in the only Begotten of God the Father which he hath raised to be the Horn of Salvation in the House of his Servant David to rule over the Redeemed in Israel for ever unto you are my Bowels opened in pure unfained Love and in the plentiful flowing of the same at this time doth my Soul dearly salute you all who keep faithful unto the Beloved and live in the power of his Salvation over all the fallen Spirits which are in the World which brings into bondage With you my Soul hath Unity in the Life which was before Transgression and the Fall was and in that My Friends are you written in my heart and often in my remembrance even when my Supplication is poured forth unto the Lord in the behalf of his People that you in that place among the rest of his heavenly Flock and Sheep of his own Pasture may be safely kept by the right hand of his power from the Devourer and from the deceitful Snares of the Enemy which are laid as Traps by the cunning flight of Satan to ensnare the Simple and betray the Innocent from the simplicity of the Gospel which ye have received in Christ Jesus our Lord in which as ye have believed ye have found Salvation and Peace and Rest unto your Immortal Souls I even as a Brother and one that entirely loves you with that unfeigned love which thinks no evil do at this time beseech you all in the fear of God to see that ye Walk Circumspectly answerable unto the Gospel of Christ Iesus in which ye have believed that ye may adorn the same in your Lives and Conversations as Children of the Light and of the Day bringing forth the Fruits of the Spirit in Righteousness and true Holiness and not the Fruits of the Flesh in the night and in the darkness in which they walk who follow not the Lord Jesus Christ. And therefore My Friends stand fast in your Liberty in which Christ Jesus hath made you free and be not entangled with the Yoak of Bondage but mind purely the operation of the Eternal Spirit and invisible power of the everlasting God which he hath made manifest and revealed in your hearts by which you have in measure known Liberty from the Bondage of Corruption the corruptible Bond and have tasted of the glorious Liberty of the Sons of God in which your Souls have found pleasure I say Friends mind all its lively Operation in your hearts and wait upon it with diligence that your hearts may be kept clear and the eye of your Understandings single that you may purely distinguish and put a difference between the pretious and the vile between that in which the Lord is to be Worshipped and that in which there is no Acceptance with God And so will you come more and more to know how to chuse the good and refuse the evil And Friends in the freedom of God's Spirit and in his fear I warn you all Take heed of a fleshly Liberty beyond or above the pure fear which keeps the heart clean for that will let in Pollutions and bring the Just into Bondage and your Souls into death again where there will be a want of the pure presence of God to refresh them although the Boaster may boast of liberty and promise it as they did in the Apostles days who themselves were the Servants of Corruption And so My Dear Friends whom my Soul loves with the heavenly love that seeks the good of all you who have tasted of the love of God and of the power of the World which is to come and of the power of that life which is without end Keep Constant in the Faith unto the Beloved of your Soul and gad not abroad to change your way like her whose Feet abides not in her house but runs out after other Lovers and so lose the first Love For this the Lord reproved the Church in the days of the entrance of the Apostacy when they begun to decline from the purity of the Gospel And therefore as ye have received that which is unchangeable live in it that your Souls may never die from the sense of God's Love and the feeling of his vertuous presence that in the joy and peace that is unspeakable and full of glory you may abide and for ever live where your Souls may be refreshed from day unto day and from time unto time through the multiplying of his numberless Mercies by which he nourisheth all them that fear him and wait upon him And so will you all keep lively and vertuous in a growing and flourishing Condition fruitful bringing forth fruit to his praise who hath called you And as you keep unto the power of God which is the Cross unto that part which would be out and dwell in it your mind will be setled and stayed and kept clear and the understanding open whereby you may behold the Glory of God and be kept in Covenant with him and so feed upon his Mercies with all his Lambs and Children and lye down in the fold of Rest and Safety with the Sheep of his pasture in Covenant with him for evermore In which I remain Your Friend and Brother J. B. For Friends in the Barbadoes New-England Virginia and Maryland the Signification of my purest Love unto you all amongst whom I have travel'd in those parts Friends IN the eternal Truth and Power of the Lord God dwell and keep your Habitations in that which changes not in the power of an endless life where there is no shadow of turning All you that have known the Lord and have been sensible of the Word of his Eternal Power in your hearts by which you have been quickned unto him so that with the rest of his beloved ones you have been made Partakers of that heavenly treasure of Life and Vertue which is in him and through his Son is manifested unto us by whom Life and Immortality is brought to Light unto you all without respect of Persons doth the Love of my Soul reach and the Salutation of my Life at this time having you fresh in my Rememberance In the Bowels of true Love is my Heart opened and my Spirit drawn forth in this word of Exhortation unto you all who have tasted that the Lord is gracious That you all take heed of turning from the Grace of God into Wantonness Laciviousness or any vanity whatsoever by which your Hearts may be defiled But that ye all watch unto the Truth and wait upon the preserving power of the Lord
God that ye may reign in the dominion of the same over all the evil Lusts of the Flesh which would arise in your hearts to war against the Spirit of Holiness and so would hinder your Sanctification This of a truth Friends you ought to take heed unto even the Spirit of Holiness and Power of the Lord our God which in this latter Age he hath largely manifested for to sanctifie his People that so your hearts may be kept clean and preserved according to Christ's Command out of the surfeiting with the Cares of this Life and from being overcome with and drowned in the Pleasures and Vanities of this World that you may never lose the excellency and glory of these heavenly things which God the Father in the bountifulness of his loving kindness hath been pleased to manifest with which all the glory of this present World is not to be compared And so my Dear Friends you that feel the Lord and his goodness in your hearts Walk Circumspectly as before him with Reverence and Godly Fear in the holy Awe that you may not provoke him at any time nor grieve his holy Spirit by which you are Sealed but with tenderness of heart and pureness of mind wait upon him at all times So will your Peace spring up as a River and your Righteousness be multiplied as the Waves of the Sea and so over all the choaking Cares of this Life and drowning Pleasures of this present vain World you will be preserved to have a being in the power of that life which is without end In which as there is a dwelling faithfully you will all grow and increase in the dominion over all hurtful Lusts that war against the Soul in your own particulars And also there will be a growing over all hurtful Spirits that have entred since the beginning whose Life is in the Fall and not in the pure Redemption nor in the redeeming Power that brings out of the Fall And so to the Lord God Friends be ye all faithful in your places that you may be a blessing in your Generation in those Countries and Places where ye dwell that the Nations may be seasoned that your savory life may sweeten the People And Friends have an eye to the Glory of God and the Honour of his Truth in all your undertakings I even command you in his fear it being upon me by his Spirit that the Lord's name may not be blasphemed among the Heathen through your unfaithfulness For truly my love being great towards you I am jealous over you with a godly jealousie and therefore am constrained to use great plainness as having a sense of your state And therefore be ye provoked unto Love and to good Works in a faithful obedience and serving of the power for it s in that that all accepted And lay aside all Wrath and Clamour and evil Speaking with all bitterness and receive with meekness the ingrafted Word which is able to save your Souls And in the power of that dwell and it will divide aright between the Pretious and the Vile and so will cut off all that is not of God not regarding what may be professed where the living vertue is wanting This pure living Word is your Preserver that keep faithful in it and will keep you from all deceiveableness and lying Spirits which are not of the Father but of the World and from the God of the same in the dark power beguiling the unstable Soul through his lying Signs and Wonders in the power of darkness without living vertue And this Word which you have received will live in your hearts and minister daily of its own vertue into your Souls for their refreshment if you keep faithful unto the same But if the Thorny Cares of this life and the choaking Pleasures of this vain World take root and place in your hearts then the freshness is lost the issue of living vertue is stopt the ministring word and power is with-drawn the Fountain again is sealed up and the dry Winds and the scorching heat comes and dries up and causes to wither the green Blade before the Corn comes to perfection So that the harvest and time of gathering never comes Therefore O my Friends be faithful unto the Lord and be not drawn aside from the stedfastness of the Gospel neither on the one hand nor on the other but step in the straight path of Life Peace and Salvation which the Lord hath prepared for your feet that the Weak may be strengthned and the Lame recovered and none turned out of the way For truly there is much upon you I feel it in this matter even you that feel the Lord in any measure that you all be vigilant and diligent in your places that you may be a strength unto the Weak And therefore am I moved once more to warn you now you even you that know the Lord To take heed unto the power of the Lord God in your hearts and with that keep down the earthly worldly Spirit that so you live over it in the Spirit and Power of the Lord may draw more unto you or else I feel it you will not only be guilty of your own Blood but the Blood of others also which stumble at your unfaithfulness who have been call'd and accounted as the first Fruits unto God and unto the Lamb in those parts of the World in this blessed day of the Lord in which he hath appeared and gathered by his power and also doth preserve and nourish by the vertue of the same all that he hath gathered whose trust and confidence is in him And so My Friends this may give you to understand that I am safely arrived in England and am perfectly well every way And Friends here are generally well Meetings very large and the Truth in good esteem among many People who are not yet of us And great openness in all places where I have been in the hearts of all People and great desires to hear the Truth for it is of good Report This from Me who remain Your Friend and Brother J. B. The END 1671. In our going down to Virginia we were in great danger and had like to have been Castaway with a North-west Storm 1672. 1673. 1674. 1675. 1676. * * The Earl of Arran This was Amos Strettel's Marriage As at large may be seen in George Bishop's two Books entituled New-England judged * * Iohn Smith Witness Thomas Smith Iohn Kelson Thomas Cole
there but were too apt to look out at others These things he did often testify against as one having Authority being himself Redeemed out of those things by the Power of God His Innocent Deportment and blameless Conversation preached where-ever he came Gravity and Patience was with him Moderation in Meat Drink and Apparel having laid aside all superfluity of Naughtiness and received with meekness the Ingrafted Word all which were as Ornaments upon him and preached for the Truth abundantly as also did the many Living Testimonies he bore that flowed through him as Showers upon the tender Grass He was a True Labourer who spared not his Life unto Death and was willing to spend and be spent that he might gain upon the Sons and Daughters of Men to turn them from Darkness unto the true Light and from the Power of Satan unto God Oh! what shall we say of him He was a faithful Preacher of the Gospel not only in Words but in Life and Practice and his Memory shall Live for ever For his Labour and Travel both at home and abroad in Prison and at Liberty hath been such as cannot easily be forgotten by many who have reaped the benefit thereof For the Lord was pleased wonderfully to appear by him and sound through him to the awakening many to Righteousness and greatly encouraging all the Faithful amongst God's People In Sickness and other deep Exercises he was as a skilful Physitian to Apply that which was sutable unto all yea he was quick sharp and nimble on the one hand to Search as on the other hand to Cure heal bind up and comfort but unto the Hypocrites he was Dreadful and Terrible though he was a Man of large Bowels of Compassion Many an untrodden Path he travelled and passed through great Dangers both by Sea and Land in visiting Friends not only in England but also in Scotland Ireland Barbadoes New-England with thé Islands adjacent passing through Wilderness-places and dangerous Waters Through all which the Lord in a most wonderful manner preserved him with the rest of his Servants and from the hands of Wicked and Unreasonable Men who was ever near him for his Preservation both inwardly and outwardly And the Lord Cloathed him with Humility before all as became the Gospel he preached which he preached freely counting nothing near nor dear unto him to be parted with suffered or to be done but a willingness was wrought in him through the mighty Power of God who always strengthened him to do to suffer and to undergo all things whatsoever for his worthy Name 's sake And thô the Lord had bestowed eminent Gifts on him yet he would Condescend to the weak Capacities of all to reach to the Good in all that he might lay a Foundation to build upon He had the Word of Reconciliation committed unto him whereby he was made Instrumental to Reconcile many to God by Iesus Christ and one unto another And the Lord caused him to Triumph in Christ and made manifest the Savour of his Knowledge in many Places and his Ministry is sealed in the Hearts of many who are satisfied of his Faithfulness unto God who hath received him into his Rest. Now althô his Body be gone to the Dust yet his Spirit lives and that Word of Life which was his pleasure remains for our Comfort who are yet behind in that Pilgrimage which he hath past through and may be attended with the Temptations which he is deliver'd from who hath finisht his Days-work Whom the Lord raised up to shine forth as a Glorious Star in several parts of the Northern and Western World And his Mild and Grave Deportment did so well become his deliberate Ministry that it greatly hightned his Esteem amongst his Neighbours so that he was not without honour in his own Country And when at any time he came into Cumberland where he was born and educated his Neighbours would abundantly flock to the Meeting to hear him Yet he was far from Glorying in his Gift or desiring to be popular but would rather Restrain such who would applaud him he having Self in no Reputation He may be truly numbred among the Righteous who sought God's Glory and the Peace and Unity Flourishing and Prosperity of his Church which Christ is the Head of Much more might we say concerning him but shall attribute nothing to him but to the Lord ' s Power that did support him And now if Samuel had cause to Mourn for Saul and the Children of Israel wept thirty days for Moses much more cause have many now to mourn for the loss of so dear a Friend But though our Loss be great his Gain is beyond utterance who hath received the blessed Recompence of Reward for his Labours and Travels for all his Service and Suffering And having finished his Course and Time in this World is entred into Life and Happiness everlasting in the World to come And we pray the Lord of the Harvest to raise up other Labourers both in his Room and also in the place of others that have finished their Testimonies for God and Christ that God over all through Iesus Christ may have the Honor Glory and Praise from Generation to Generation who is blessed for ever Amen! Mark the perfect man and behold the upright for the end of that man is peace Psal. 37. 37. Broughton in Cumberland the 22d of the 2d mon. 1691. Philip Burnyeat John Tiffin John Bancks Tho. Laythes Tho. Dockwray Chr. Wilson Tho. Fletcher Rich. Head Chr. Story Peter Fearon Jonathan Bowman John Bowstead Thomas Wilson Ja. Dickinson The Testimony of several Women-Friends in Cumberland IN brokenness of Heart and tenderness of our Spirits we have this Testimony concerning our Dear Friend and Brother John Burnyeat That he was one of the Lord's Worthies chosen and fitted by him for his Work and Service and it was his whole Delight to do the Will of God so he came more and more to know of his Doctrine whereby he was made a good Instrument in the Hand of God for the Converting many from the Error of their ways to the way of Truth and Righteousness He was one on whom that Prophecy came to be fulfilled That Saviours shall come upon Mount Zion to judge the Mount of Esau and the Kingdom shall be the Lord's For he well knew how to Divide the Word of God aright which dwelt plentifully in him as Deep Waters and the Well-spring of Wisdom as a flowing Brook so that he was often as Clouds full of Rain emptying himself at the Lord's Command causing the Seed of Life to spring whereby God's Inheritance was confirmed He was a Man of a Thousand clothed with Innocency and beautified with Humility Words are too short to set forth the Excellency of that Spirit by which he was guided Neither can we express fully what is in our Hearts concerning him Yet shall we Attribute nothing to him but to the Lord's Power that wrought effectually in him to the making him
you as a Cart is pressed that is full of Sheaves saith he Hence it may be understood that when he hath been at work and hath done good by his glorious Power who worketh wonderfully for them and now in them also that believe in his Power if there be a going from him and a letting in of other things into the Heart where he should Rule and have his Dwelling in Man and so with Man it becomes a Grief and an Oppression unto him and so a Provocation that he will not always bear it nor spare Man though he is long-suffering as may be seen very fully in that Prophesy of Amos and more at large through the Scripture which was written for our Learning that we might be warned and thereby be stirred up unto that diligence care and watchfulness which may tend to our preservation And now considering these things that were of old and observing how that in our Age the Lord hath made known his wonted goodness unto us even that which doth far exceed the outward Priviledges of outward Israel for that which he blesseth us withall is a Possession and Enjoyment of a degree of his own Life who is the Creator by which he Created all things which is more than the Enjoyment of the Creature the Loss of which was the great penalty laid upon Adam if he broke the Command which he having lost is again restored unto us through Christ Iesus the Second Adam the Lord from Heaven which we having received do thereby live unto God and therein serve him And so Dear Friends the thing that is chiefly in my mind unto you in the reach of the Heavenly Bowels is To intreat and beseech you all To be tender in your Hearts and careful over your Spirits that you may not let in nor join with any thing that will bring Grief or Oppression upon your Life or lead you into the Transgression of the Law thereof Mind the Exhortation of the Apostle Grieve not the Spirit by which you are Sealed c. And so as you are careful watchful and wise to take heed unto the Holy Conduct and Blessed Leadings and Direction of this Spirit and the Law thereof your Souls will dwell in Peace and your Feet will tread in a safe Path even the Path of Peace and your Steps will not Slide but you will witness what David said of old to be true The Righteous shall inherit the Land and dwell therein forever for saith he The mouth of the Righteous speaketh Wisdom and his Tongue talks of Iudgment The Law of his God is in his Heart none of his steps shall slide So here you see what it is that keeps from Sliding the Law of God which is in the Heart this preserved David for it was as a Lanthorn to his Feet and a Light unto his Paths Oh! my Dear Friends you may be happy yea we may all be happy if we be as careful as we ought to walk by this Rule Oh! the Sweetness Peace and Glory that he fills the Hearts of all his People with that take heed unto his Law the Spirit is not grieved the Life of the Soul is not Oppressed the Soul Life or Spirit of Man is at ease and so in the glorious Liberty of the Sons of God and so in that state where it can Sing unto the Lord and Praise him And therefore all of you mind your Dwelling and inward Liberty and Spiritual Freedom from all the Corruptions of the World and of the Flesh both inwardly in your selves and all Temptations from without that you may reign in the Dominion of the Seed Christ Iesus for ever and so with him be Co-heirs of that Heavenly Inheritance and Possession which he hath Purchased for you And so in the Unity of that Life which reigns over all do I very dearly Salute you all who Love the Truth and in that do I desire that the God of Life may bear up your Spirits by his Power over and a top of all that would Defile or Oppress that you may be preserved to remain the Sons and Daughters of God without Rebuke in and among this Crooked and Perverse Generation amongst whom do you Shine as Lights to the Glory of him who hath called you out of Darkness into his Marvellous Light who over all is worthy of Glory and Honour and Dominion World without End From Your Friend and Brother in the Truth I. B. Dublin the 23 d of the 11 th Month 1685. Dear R. R. IN the Love and Unity of the Blessed Truth which lives and abides for Ever do I very dearly Salute thee and thy Wife and therein is my Heart's desire for you unto the Lord that by his blessed Hand and Power you may be born up and supported under all Exercises that may attend and in your minds Preserved with an invisible Eye unto the Lord taking notice of his Orderings as it is his Hand that brings to pass what he sees Good and then in his Fear and Love there will be a Reverent Submitting unto his Will without Murmuring or Repining at what the Lord doth Though Nature in the True and Natural Affection which good Men and Women cannot be without may be broken and greatly bowed down yet as long as the mind is preserved from Murmuring at what the Lord doth it will be well there will be a Heart Capable of giving him his due as it was with Iob. Dear R. I must needs say my Heart is concerned for you both upon thy own Account having heard of thy great Weakness there and Affliction thou hast been under and also because of the Loss of thy Dear and Tender Daughter who in your Absence is taken away both from you and us But what shall I say It is so and the Lord hath done it and it is not safe to Dispute the Case with him or say Why hath he done so But tenderly submit unto his Will and bless him that gives and takes away as he sees good However this I think I may say to thee and thy Wife with safety you need not sorrow as such who have no Hope because of the ground God hath given for a sure Hope of her Eternal Well-being which is the Mark we are all Pressing towards and they are happy that do obtain it For I was with her that same day that she Dyed in the Afternoon and had a serious weighty season with her She sent for me and told me as soon as I came to her That now she was satisfied she must Die and her Heart was wholly set after her Assurance of Peace with the Lord and her desires to us to wit her Husband and me was That the Doctor might not trouble her or meddle with her for she was not willing to be molested or hindred from a quiet Departure For her Heart was set after a peaceable Departure out of this World as was evident from her words several times And she was very sensible and did speak to me with
a good understanding and seemed to be concerned for many as she said that came to Meetings in Dublin who did not mind their Conditions or the stay of their minds which she feared would scarcely be Saved My Heart I must needs say was greatly affected with her Exercise and Concern and was Comforted in the Sense of that living Presence that was with us at that Season And when we had spent some time together and were Refreshed and I to go away she did most solemnly take her Leave of me in great Affection and signified how kind she took my Visit withall seriously saying Farewel dear John If I never see thee more And so I came away In a few Hours after she was struck with Death In the Evening my Wife and I went again to see her then we found her very Ill but lay quiet under the Extremity of her Pain We with several other Friends sate by and waited on her until she Departed which was about the 11th Hour at Night She went away in quietness as I found before was her Desire And we sitting and standing quietly by her our Hearts were broken and I felt a Glorious Melting Power which tendred my Spirit and a Brightness and Light that did shine and it was sweetly in my Heart when she was Departed She is not gone into Darkness but is in the Light The sense whereof was great Satisfaction to me because I know the Glory is there in the Light for ever And now poor Lamb it is her Gain though your and our Loss For considering her years she was a Modest and Good Example and as she said to me at that Season She was never inclined to Vanity And I perceived her care was sometimes greatly for you fearing your Exercise would be Great Well I must needs consider that the Loss of such a Dear Child cannot but come very near Tender Parents yet you may be comforted in a satisfaction of her Well-being and so rest and even say with David We may go to her but she cannot come to us And so Comfort your Hearts in the Lord and so rest in his Will And Dear R. this may find thee something better in Health than we have of late heard however I am sure my Heart truly desires that it may be so And if the Lord give strength I should be glad to see thee here For methinks all this while thou hast been absent thy place seems to be empty I cannot look upon it that thou shouldst be from amongst us But if the Lord give strength thou shouldst be here bearing and having thy share with us For I look upon thee as one of us and so methinks would not have thee delay as the way opens My Wife 's very dear Love is to thee and thy Wife and our Love is dearly to Ellin Callow and Friends there For further account of things I may leave to other hands We are all quiet and peaceable here So with my true and endeared Love unto thee I conclude and remain Thy Friend J. B. The above is a Copy of a Letter Writ by John Burnyeat to Roger Roberts concerning the Death of his Daughter Ann late wife to Amos Srettel who Departed this Life the 8 th of the 11 th Month 1685 about the 11 th Hour at Night For the Priests in CARLISLE and their Followers YE which stand up to teach the People behold your Flock which ye teach and see what is brought forth among them such Fruits as were never brought forth among them that were taught of God nor by any that he sent But the small Effect your Teaching doth bring forth for God doth evidence to your faces that ye are not sent by him but run and the Lord doth not send you therefore doth the People profit nothing by you but the Fruits of Unrighteousness do still remain among them and they are not turned to God and out of their Sins by all your Teaching For Persecution is found in some and Pride and Drunkenness and Mocking and Scorning and Reproaching of them that fear God doth appear among them that follow you Oh consider of it you that take in Hand to Teach these People did ever any of the Ministers of Christ own such for Christians Consider of it was Persecution found among the Saints Or did they Imprison any Shew one Example in the Scriptures for it if there be any Or did the Apostles own them for Christians that did persecute Consider of these things Were not they Enemies to the Truth that did persecute and imprison And was it not the Saints that the Persecution rose against And did not the Apostles suffer Persecution And were not they Enemies to Christ that persecuted them And are not they Enemies to Christ that persecute now Oh! that you would but consider of it and see what Generation ye are of and what Fruits ye bear and whether ye and your Followers bear the Fruits of the Ministers of Christ and the Saints or ye bear the Fruits of the false Prophets and of the rude Multitude and persecuting Generation that persecuted the Righteous For from the beginning the Righteous were persecuted even from Abel but we never read that the Righteous did persecute any but were always Sufferers So it is evident that they that persecute and imprison are shut out of the Life of them that gave forth the Scripture and are found in their steps which were Enemies to the Truth and did persecute them that lived in the Life of it And so ye that take in hand to Teach the People of this Town look upon your Flock and see what Fruits are brought forth by some of them Yet for all this your Teaching of them you have not brought them to so much Moderation and Love as was in Felix who commanded a Centurion to keep Paul and to let him have Liberty and that he should forbid none of his Acquaintance to Minister or to come to him But we find not so much Moderation nor Love among you who say ye are Christians for we are kept in Prison and our Friends are hindered to come to us Oh be ashamed of your Flock ye Teachers that for all your teaching ye have not brought them so far into Moderation and Love as they were who persecuted the Apostles and Saints and so they must needs be far short of being true Christians But you are bad Examples to them herein for many of you who are Teachers do cause the Innocent to be cast into Prison and persecuted and so do manifest your selves by your Fruits not to be in the same Life the Apostles were in who always suffered and never did persecute any So consider well ye Teachers of this that your Flock is not a Flock of Sheep and Lambs but rather the Nature of Wolves doth appear among them whose Mouths are open against the innocent who live in the Nature of the Lamb. Are ye not therefore of those who run and the Lord never sent you
which he doubts not but we will make good upon occasion Thou in answer say'st Thou knowest our Practice well enough Which if true and if so bad as thou endeavourest to make People believe of us why hast thou brought none of them to make good thy Charges against us And as for our Principles thou say'st Thou never heard'st we had any Then thou must needs be ignorant of our Way and Religion And therefore in thy speaking evil of it thou speakest evil of things thou understandest not and so art of that Generation spoken of 2 Pet. 2. 12. And as for our Faith and Principles they have been published to the World both by Words and Writing they have not been hid in a corner so that any that had a mind to concern themselves against us and yet as wise Men would not judge without an understanding lest like thee they should speak evil of the things they did not understand might easily be informed what our Principles are However we are a People that believe in the Lord Iesus Christ and that the Father sent him into the World to lay down his Life a Ransom for all Men that whosoever believeth in him shall not perish but have Eternal Life That he was Crucified without the Gates of Ierusalem and so became a Propitiation for the Sins of the whole World And that after he had suffered and was buried God the Father Raised him again by his Eternal Spirit after which he shewed himself unto many Witnesses and then Ascended into Heaven and is Glorified with the Father with that Glory he had with him before the World was made And we further believe that he is the Light of the World and that he ought to be followed according to his own words Iohn 8. 12. and That he lighteth every Man that cometh into the World according to Iohn 1. 9. and that this Light wherewith he lighteth every Man all ought to believe in that they may be Children of the Light according to Iohn 12. 36. And so we believe in his spiritual Appearance according to his Promise who said He would pray the Father and he should send them another Comforter even the Spirit of Truth according to Iohn 14. 16 17. and this was his own Spirit for he is the Truth and of this the Saints were Witnesses as the Apostle saith Gal. 4. 6. And because ye are Sons God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your Hearts crying Abba Father And thus was Christ in the Saints the Hope of Glory according to Col. 1. 7. And thus believing and witnessing the Truth of the Scripture we wait upon God for his Spirit that we may worship him therein according to the Institution of his Son Christ Jesus as in Iohn 4. 23 24. and that we may pray with the Spirit and sing with it according to 1 Cor. 14. 15. For the Apostle exhorted the Saints To be filled mith the Spirit Eph. 5. 18. and the Saints were to Pray in the Holy Ghost Jude 20. So our Faith stands in the Power of God which is that the Apostle laboured that the Saints Faith might stand in as thou may'st see 1 Corinth 2. 5. believing that there shall be a Resurrection both of the just and unjust they that have done good unto the Resurrection of Life and they that have done evil unto the Resurrection of Damnation according to Iohn 5. 29. Here we have given thee some account in short of our Faith Principles and Practice and proved them to be according to the Scripture whereby thou may'st see if Prejudice and Self-Interest do not blind thine Eye that Robert Lacky in turning from thy Teaching to Christ the true Light and his Teaching according to God's Promise under the New Covenant who said They shall be all taught of the Lord which according to our Principle we direct People to wait for it 's no unsafe way to Heaven nor as thou falsly accusest us a pursuing such ways as are directly contrary to holy Scripture which thou in some measure promisest thou wilt make appear but hast it yet to do Thou say'st Because thou art fully satisfied we cannot make this out therefore thou wilt shew him how he has incurred not only the Displeasure of God for the present but the Damnation of his Soul hereafter unless he repent and return by this his departure from the Religion he was bred in Ans. Thou may'st see thy Satisfaction is without ground as also thy confident presumption in thy passing such a Sentence upon him concerning his present and Eternal Estate And surely thy Iudgment herein is groundless rash and vain as all may see who have any true Christian understanding and discerning and do but observe what is brought forth under your Teaching in your Religion For we understand no Reason thou assignest for thy Iudgment but His leaving of your Religion which we have before proved he had good reason so to do And therefore neither he nor any other need be afraid of thy Threatning upon this account because from what is before written it is clear that there are great Defects in the Principles and Exercise of the Religion he was bred in if he was bred in yours and so not according to Christ's Institution as may be seen if compared with the Scripture and that there are no such Defects in the Religion he now embraceth but proved in the Principles and Exercise of it to be of Christ's Institution according to the Scripture And herein thy Challenge we have answered and endeavoured to make it appear both to thee and him according to thy demand But if thou hatest to be Informed it shall lie at thy own door and thou shalt answer for it thy self So it is plain he may have changed out of a Principle of Conscience and pure Love to God and his Soul and not out of Interest Humour Passion or Prejudice as thou seemest to accuse him And as for thy Assuring him upon thy Word that it is not for any temporal advantage that thou seekest to reduce him but only in love to his Soul as thou hast to all Mens as thou say'st Ans. We think he hath no reason to believe that thou and the rest of your Clergy have such a Love to the Souls of all Men as to be the only Reason of your coming amongst them to be their Teachers for your Practice which is a surer evidence than your Words speaks the quite contrary in that you do leave any People where you are to go to another place for an Augmentation and higher Preferment So that it 's evident it is not the good of People's Souls nor the Glory of God that chiefly moves you in this concern what-ever may be pretended to And so to the Consciences and Understandings of Wise Men we refer these things to be considered of with our Hearts desire to God for you all that he would open your Understandings and let you see the Errour of you Ways and