Selected quad for the lemma: justice_n
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A44541
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A book of some of the sufferings and passages of Myles Halhead of Mount-Joy in Underbarrow in the county of Westmorland as also, concerning his labour and travel in the work of the Lord ...
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Halhead, Miles, 1613 or 14-1689 or 90.
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1690
(1690)
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Wing H285; ESTC R5882
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20,571
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26
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A BOOK Of some of the SUFFERINGS AND PASSAGES OF Myles Halhead OF MOVNT-JOY in VNDERBARROW in the County of Westmorland As also Concerning his Labour and Travel in the Work of the Lord And how the LORD supported him and delivered him by his mighty POWER out of the Hands of his Enemies Printed and Sold by A. Sowle at the Crooked-Billet in Holloway-Lane in Shoreditch And at the Three-Keys in Naggs-Head-Court in Grace-Church-Street 1690. A true and faithful Testimony of the tender Love and Fatherly Care of the Lord in keeping and preserving me by his Eternal Arm and Power in all my Straits and Hardships and making good his Promise unto me from time to time even unto the End of my Dayes IN the Year 1652 in the 4th Month I being about the Age of 38 Years it pleased the Lord to reveal the Light of his Son in me and I saw him whom I had peirced and my Sins and Iniquities were laid before me and I went all the day long and in the Night season I could find no rest I travelled many days in Sorrow in this condition and no pleasure could I find in any thing I had in all the World neither in Wife nor Children in House nor Land in Gold nor Money nor any thing I had about my Habitation till it pleased the God of my Life to blot out my Sins and Transgressions and then that which had condemned me and shewed me my Sins and Evil Deeds even the same doth now bear witness for me that the Lord doth love me and that his Countenance doth shine upon me which made my Heart more glad than Corn or Wine or all the Treasures of the whole Earth so that the same Word which had been to me as a two edged Sword and a Hammer is become to me by the love of God sweeter than the Honey or the Honey-Comb Then I heard the Voice of the Lord in me saying I have Loved thee from thy Mother's Womb I have chosen thee to do my Work my powerful presence shall be with thee in the Fire and in the Water I will never leave thee nor forsake thee but I will be thy God and thou shalt serve me all thy dayes Oh this Voice Oh this Voice this heavenly Voice did make my Heart leap with Joy for I was filled with the sweet incomes of God's eternal Love which is of more worth and value than all the Honour and Glory this World can give And in the 6th Moneth in the Year 1652 in the Government of Oliver Cromwell the Word of the Lord came unto me saying Go to the Steeple-House in Kendall and speak to the Chief Priest in that place say unto him Friend come down thy Covering is too narrow the Lord God of Heaven and Earth will plead with thee thou painted Hypocrite After these Words I was taken away and brought before John Archer one of the Justices of the Peace so called for that time being who committed me to Prison in the Common-Goal of Kendall And the very first Night as I lay in Prison the Word of the Lord came unto me saying fear not for I will be with thee according to my Promise and will make thee a burthensom Stone unto the Town of Kendall and to thy Persecutors and I will send my Servants my Sons and my Daughters from the East and from the West from the North and from the South to bear witness to the same Truth that thou suffers for yea against the Justice that committed thee therefore be thou faithful for I have chosen thee to be the first that shall suffer for my Names sake in the Town of Kendall And the Lord God made his Promise good unto me for before I was released out of Prison there was committed of my Brethren and Sisters for the same Truths Testimony by the same Justice Archer two of my dear Brethren Francis Howgill and Thomas Holme with thirty more of the Lords Servants with whom I continued about one quarter of a Year at the end of which the Justices being confounded in themselves set me at liberty Again the Word of the Lord came unto me in my Bed saying Arise and put on thy Cloathes and take thy Horse and ride to the Town of Kendall and put on thy great Coat and speak through the Streets of the Town the Words that I shall give thee As the Lord liveth you painted Hypocrites and Dissemblers as you have seen the Lords Servants both his Sons and his Daughters go naked and bare-footed so shall your Covering be rent from you and your dissembling shall be laid open to all men Therefore repent and take warning while you have time And so having cleared my self of the Town James Cocke Mayor sent for me and committed me to Prison and the said Mayor being one of the chiefest Professors in the Town of Kendall had little Peace from the Lord in what he had done till he had released me Then I returned to my House again and had great Peace with the Lord. In the same Year 1652 in the Government of Oliver Cromwell the Word of the Lord came unto me saying Go thy ways to Swarthmore where my Lambs and Babes and Children of Light will be gathered together to wait upon my Name I will feed them with the finest of Wheat and with Honey out of the Rock and with the Dew of Heaven I will refresh them that they may grow as Plants of my right Hand planting that above all the Families of the Earth I may rejoyce to do them good So I freely gave up and took my Journey towards Swarthmore and as I was going between Carptmell-Town and Howker-Hall I met with Thomas Preston's Wife and one man with her on foot I passed by her very quietly and had nothing in my Heart to say to her but she being full of Wrath and Envy towards me commanded her man to go back and beat me and so he did and then the mighty power of the Lord did arise in me I spoke these Words to her Oh thou Jezabel thou proud Jezabel canst thou not permit and suffer the Servant of the Lord to pass by thee quietly that had nothing to say unto thee Then she fell upon me in great Rage and held forth her Hands as though she would have struck at me and spitted in my Face and said I scorn to fall down at thy Words Then I said Jezabel thou proud Jezabel thou that hardenest thy Heart and brasenest thy Face against the Lord and his Servant as the Lord liveth he will plead with thee in his own time and set in order before thee things that thou hast done this day to his Servant So I parted with her and went to Swarthmore where I found the Lords People gathered together to wait upon his Name and the Lord was very good unto that Family in feeding them with the Dew of Heaven and with the sweet incomes of his Love according to his promise Glory and Honour
and Brethern I beseech you in the Bowels of dear and tender Love that you walk as dear Children faithful to him who hath called you with an honourable calling and loved you from the beginning with an Everlasting Love that all your Friends and Neighbours and Men of this World that see your Life coupled with fear may be made to confess and acknowledge to the Honour and Glory of the living Lord that the God whom ye serve and fear is the only true God of Israel and herein you become a pretious savour unto the living eternal God and sweet smelling savour unto all the Children of Light and no good thing will the Lord God withhold from you the Mouth of the Lord God of Hosts hath spoken it whose Promises are Yea and Amen to his own Seed for evermore Given forth the 14th day of the 6th Month 1655 when I was Prisoner at the Prison-House at the City of Exceter in the County of Devnoshire for the Testimony of Jesus and the Word of God Myles Halhead IN the year 1663 in the Reign of King Charles the second I was Summoned to appear at one of the Bishops Esclesiastical Courts before his Chancellor Doctor Cradict holden at Kendal and I was free in the Lord to go with many of my dear Friends and Brethren who were likewise Summoned to be their I waited in the Court obove three hours and at length I was called to give my answer why I came not to the Steeple-house to hear the Priests Then I desired the Court they would hear me and I would give them a plain answer in the fear of God and uprightness of my Heart and they promised me they would be quiet and still I told them I was about fifty years of Age and I had spent thirty of it in hearing the Priests and in all that time I had not profited by them but finding them preaching one thing one year and another year preaching quite the contrary therefore I cannot now hear them Then I said to the Doctor now I appeal to that of God in thee and to all moderate Men that hear me this day if I have not given thee a plain answer in the fear of the Lord to thy own Question He answered I had come as near him as any had done that day So this is recorded in the Bishop's Court against me That I went thirty years to the Church and in all that time I had not profited at all So I stand Excommunicated in the Bishop's Court. Again the Word of the Lord came unto me in the year 1667 in the fourth Month in the Reign of King Charles the second Saying Go thy ways into the City of Bristol and Glostershire and Wiltshire and Summersetshire Devonshire and Cornewall where thou hast been formerly and declared my Eternal Word amongst them and suffered hard and sore Imprisonments for my Name sake and speak to my own People my Sons and my Daughters whom I have called and chosen in this the Day of my Love out of the World and the barren Mountain thereof to serve me in Truth and in Righteousness all their dayes and bid them prepare themselves for I am coming to take account upon them all my Sons and my Daughters even from the greatest to the least of my Children and he whom I have given Ten Tallents shall count for Ten and he to whom I have given five Tallents shall count for five and be to whom I have given two shall count for two so every one both Man and Woman shall count for what he hath received So I command thee to go and speak to my own People whom I have chosen to serve me the Words that I shall give thee and though thou be weak and feeble of Body yet fear thou not for I will uphold thee in all thy weakness by my eternal Arm and Power and I will put my Word into thy Mouth what thou shalt say unto my chosen People my Sons and my Daughters whom I have called in this the Day of my Love and they shall receive thee as my Servant and confess and acknowledge that I have again sent thee in dear and tender Love and Fatherly Care unto them So I took my Horse and went to the City of Bristol and into those other Counties as the Lord had required and spoke to the Churches as I was moved and though I was but very weak of Body yet the Lord made his Promise good unto me in all my weakness Glory and Honour and Living eternal Praises be gvien to the Lord my God for ever of all the Children of Light And when I was about ten Miles off Plimouth I was brought before the chief Rulers in Devonshire and Cornewall and they asked me my Name and from whence I came I said out of the North. They asked me Out of what Country in the North And I said Westmorland Then they asked me What business I had in Devonshire I answered to see my old Friends whom formerly about ten Years since I had acquaintance with One of the Rulers answered I am a Devonshire man I pray you what are the Names of your Friends you had acquaintance with ten Years since in Devonshire I answered one Sr John Coplestone who was then High Sheriff of Devonshire and one John Page who was then the Mayor of Plimouth and one Justice Vowell who was then the Judge of the Sessions of the City of Exceter and one Colonel Buffit who was a Justice at that time Then one of the Rulers said Truly Gentlemen though this man call these men his Friends surely they have been his Persecutors Then another of the Rulers said Would you know how it is with these your old Friends No man in all Devonshire nor Cornwall can give you a more perfect nor truer Account than I can Your old Friend Sr. John Coplestone hath sold his Land and I know not where he may be found And as for your Friend John Page who was the Mayor of Plimouth he is become a broken Merchant and is fled out of his own Country and as I hear is gone for the Barbadoes And as for your Friend Justice Vowell he is gone to his long home And as for your old Friend Colonel Buffit he was committed to Prison at Bridge water in Summersetshire for high Treason and is stolen away from the Goaler and is quite gone and dare not be seen in his own Country And so Friend I have given you a true Account of your old Friends And truly Friend if these men were your Persecutors you may be sure that they will trouble you no more for if they that trouble you and persecute you have no better fortune than these men I wish that I nor none of my Friends may have any Hand in Persecuting of you So I took my leave of these moderate men and travelled to Cornewall Thus hath the Lord pleaded my Cause according to his Word and Promise who will give to every man a just