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
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
blood and he that burned Incense as if he blessed an Idol and all this was because they chose their own ways and their Souls did delight in their Abominations as you may read Isaiah 66. 3 4. And therefore were all their Performances rejected of the Lord and he brought their fear upon them because when he called they would not answer when he spoke they would not hear but did Evil before his Eyes and chose that in which he delighted not So that all along you may see in the Scripture that it was not that which People did do as upon the account of the Worship of God that did at all please him or appease his Wrath while they did Evil before him and chose that in which he delighted not as is very evident from the Scriptures of Truth in divers Testimonies therein to this purpose Time would fail to mention all and what was written afore-time was written for our Learning and that we should take warning by their Example who sinned and continued therein till the day of Mercy was over Rom. 15. 4. 1 Cor. 10. 11. And therefore since the Lord hath stirred in you to take notice of his Judgments and of his Hand upon the People of this Island prepare your Hearts to seek the Lord in his own way and before you do pretend to draw nigh unto him that is Holy or to Worship him or to offer an Offering or to keep a Day unto him forsake your Sins Put away the evil of your doing from before his Eyes and learn to do well that your Prayers may be heard and that you may keep the Day holy unto the Lord and so observe the Fast which the Lord hath chosen which is To loose the bands of Wickedness to undo the heavy Burthens and to let the oppressed go free and to break every Yoke to deal thy Bread to the hungry with such like Works of Righteousness And then the Lord hath promised that such their Light shall break forth as the Morning and their Health shall spring forth speedily and their Righteousness shall go before them and the Glory of the Lord shall be their Reward And then may such cry and the Lord will answer and say Here am I when there is a taking away from the midst of you the Yoke the putting forth of the Finger and the speaking of Vanity c. Isa. 58. 6 7 8 9. And therefore try your ways and your doings and let none think that the Lord is like a Man that he will be satisfied with fair Words or Pretences where his Voice is not hearkned unto and obeyed but Sin lived in and the Fast kept which the Scripture condemns which the Lord hath not chosen as you may read Isa. 58. 2 3 4 5 verses for you may see there how that that People did seek him daily and had a delight to know his ways as a Nation that did Righteousness and forsook not the Ordinances of their God They asked me the Ordinances of Justice saith the Lord and they take delight in approaching unto God and then cryed Wherefore have we fasted and thou seest not Wherefore have we afflicted our Souls and thou takest no knowledge The Lord gives the reason Behold saith he In the Day of your Fast ye find Pleasure and exact all your Labours Behold saith he ye fast for Strife and Debate and to smite with the Fist of Wickedness ye shall not fast as ye do this day to make your Voice to be heard on high saith the Lord. Is it such a Fast that I have chosen a Day for a Man to afflict his Soul and bow down his Head as a Bulrush and to spread Sackcloth and Ashes under him Wilt thou call this a Fast and an acceptable Day to the Lord saith the Prophet Nay as I have shewed before this is not it and therefore let every one consider how they are prepared to keep the Fast that God hath chosen that the Fruits thereof may be brought forth by every one that pretends unto it or else their cry will not be heard on high for the Lord knows every ones intent and takes notice of their doings so that it is not every one that saith Lord Lord that shall enter and be accepted but he that doth the Will of God So here you may see there is two Fasts the one chosen and the other rejected and the Fruits of both manifested whereby they may be known who are the true Fasters and who are not agreeable to what Christ hath said every Tree shall be known by its Fruit And so let all mind what they do and what they bring forth for they that fast for strife and debate and do smite with the Fist of Wickedness they do not fast to the Lord their Voice he will not hear according to the Scripture And such who instead of setting the oppressed free of undoing the heavy Burthens and of breaking every Yoke do bring under Oppression and lay heavy Burthens and make Yokes instead of breaking them such are not the People the Lord will accept in their Fasts nor whose Prayers he will hear Because they walk not in the equal way of the Lord but love to wander and have not restrained their feet therefore saith Ieremiah The Lord doth not accept them but will remember their Iniquity and visit their Sins and therefore the Lord commanded the Prophet that he should not pray for that People for their good for said God When they fast I will not hear their cry and when they offer Burnt-offerings and an Oblation I will not accept them but I will consume them by the Sword and by the Famine and by the Pestilence Ier. 14. 10 11 12. So you may see all along the Lord doth not regard all that Man can do or may do so long as he wandereth from God and doth not restrain his feet from walking in the evil way Thus hath it been in all Dispensations of the Scripture before and therefore much more under this last and most glorious Ministration of the Gospel of Christ Jesus which is professed by you wherein the former comes to be fulfilled and finished or perfected where Christ himself is the great Law giver who gives out his Ordinances and Precepts unto all his People who according to the promise of the Father gives unto them the Spirit and writes his Law in the Hearts of all the Children of the new Covenant Ier. 31. 33. which they are to observe and to walk after and if any one do otherwise he ought to be dealt withall according to the command of this great Law-giver Mat. 18. 15 16 17. First to be spoke to and see if he will hear either a Brother two or three or the Church And if he will not hear nor be gained then saith Christ Let him be unto thee as an Heathen and a Publican But he gives no Commission unto Christians to persecute to put in Prison to take away Goods to pull down their Houses
of this peaceable Spirit you Living and Walking you may then come to be rightly concerned to God's glory in the Blessed Order which the Truth hath led into and by the Power of God is now set up in the Churches of Christ for the keeping of all out and down that are unclean unruly and unholy and preserving of the Camp of God in that Purity that is proper for it that he that is holy may delight to dwell there and abide in the midst thereof And dear Friends all you that keep your habitations in the Lord's Power neglect not your Gifts received from Christ but be you all concerned in your places and according to your abilities for the Honour of Truth that every thing that would bring Dishonour to that worthy name by which ye have been called and give Occasion of stumbling unto the weak may be removed in the Wisdom of God or at least by the tender power of God Judged out from among you that the Camp may be kept clean and Righteousness may run down and the glory of the Lord break forth upon you and you therein may shine to his Praise and Glory for ever more Dear Friends I also was willing to let you know that our Meeting this year at London was very quiet and peaceable and blessed Unity and comfortable Fellowship in the Power and Love of God was Witnessed among us and we gathered up in that together into that care and concern which the state of the Churches of Christ in this trying day did require For many of our Friends in divers places of this Nation are under great Sufferings for their Testimony But otherwise the Truth doth prevail and gain upon many Hearts and through these Tryals God will Magnifie his Power in the end and Crown his People with Dominion for through Sufferings will the Lamb and his Humble and Faithful Followers have the Victory We had also account from divers Countries of the Prosperity of Truth and the State of Friends at the Yearly Meeting now lately over as Holland and the Country that way and from Ireland and Scotland and so had an account in Letters to the Yearly Meeting of the state of things and the affairs of Truth to our great Comfort And therefore it is desired that if the Lord should so order that we may Meet together as hitherto we have done and intend if he permit to do that you in America would endeavour to send over against that time from your several Countries an account of the Prosperity of Truth and how it is among you as to the Affairs thereof that at that Meeting Friends may have an account from you as we have from other Parts And for this end it was desired by Dear G. F. whom many of you know hath a general Care upon him for the good of the whole Body that at your Half-years-Meeting in the latter part of the year you might draw up an Epistle which might be sent to be at London at the Yearly Meeting every year and so from your Half-years-Meeting in every place there may be an account given yearly which will be a refreshment and comfort to Friends And therefore it is desired that if this come in time to your Half-years-Meeting you would be mindful of it and answer the desire of Friends and let Copies of this be sent to Virginia Maryland Pensylvania and New-Iersey and to Long-Island and Road-Island and to Sandwich and where there may be a Service or to Scituate if the Half-years-Meeting be there and to Barbadoes or the Leeward-Islands So with my Love to you all in that wherein all the Faithful have Fellowship I conclude and remain Your Friend and Brother in the Truth I. B. Hartford the 19th of the 4th Month 1682. An Epistle to Friends of Bristol Directed to C. J. Dear C. J. IN that everlasting Truth and Seed of Life through which the God of Truth hath reached us and visited us is the living Love and true endeared Affection of my Heart and Spirit Richly and Sweetly let forth and extended unto thee with thy dear Wife and your Children as also unto the Faithful and true-Hearted to the Lord in that City who in this Trying day are given up unto God both to Do and Suffer for his Name 's sake My Soul I can still say is deeply Affected with your Suffering state and be sure you are many times livingly in my Remembrance and that in the near Approaches of my Spirit unto the Lord for in that in which the access and the true drawing nigh unto him is experienced do you live upon my Heart and are brought very often into my view together with your Suffering State under which it is the Pleasure of your Heavenly Father to Try you and to prove your Faith and Confidence and to let you know the preciousness thereof in the time of need And now my dearly Beloved see all of you that you keep in the Faith that gives the Victory and truly saves and defends and know that ancient saying true for ever The very hairs of your Head are all numbered and not one shall fall to the ground without your Father's Providence And therefore let your Eyes be unto him both for Salvation and Preservation and know that he both can and will deliver when he sees good for you know him that is the living God that reigns and will reign over all and in due time make all know that he can do whatsoever he pleaseth in Heaven and in the Earth And therefore mind your acquaintance with him and your knowledg of him in that which may be known of him in your Hearts and your Unity with his Life in your Souls that you may all feel the Peace thereof and the Holy Spring therein which Man by all his Cruelty cannot reach to put a stop unto But when they that seek to destroy you and to take all Comfort from you have done all they can this Spring being open in your Hearts you have Comfort Peace and Joy that they neither know of nor can keep from you Oh! you dear Suffering Children and tender Babes of the Almighty who are called unto this day and hour of Temptation or Trial how doth my Soul Love you how is my very Heart's Love let forth unto you at this time as at many other times The Lord the God of Strength be with you and strengthen and fill your tender Souls with the Glory of his Life and the sweetness of his Presence that your Spirits with gladness may Praise him in the midst of all these Exercises with which you are compassed And now my dear Friends you being so in my Heart with a living Sense of your Trials that are upon you methinks I see the Wall with which the God of Israel doth compass you about over which the Adversary cannot shoot an Arrow tho his Boasting may be great what he will do as of Old it was Oh! happy are they that abide within the compass of it
the Scripture where is the Divine Right either for Tithes or the other great Revenues you Clergy-men Compel the Nations to pay you It is not from Christ's Command nor the Apostles nor from any of their Examples neither Apostles Bishops Pastors nor Teachers You are without Warrant from the Scripture you have neither Precept nor Precedent for your Practices either as in respect to your great Revenues that you seek after and enjoy nor your manner of forcing People to pay you All we see in Christ's Ordination that was to be done to them that would not receive them and relieve them was they were to shake off the Dust of their Feet as a Witness against them And then Christ shews the danger of their rejecting but refers it to the day of Judgment But this will not serve you though ye pretend to be spiritual Men yet it plainly appears you are for your carnal Ends you cannot trust your selves under Christ's Care to live of the Gospel and what that freely produceth in the Hearts of the People as Christ's Ministers did And you may see what they answered when he questioned them as in Luke 22. 35. And he said unto them when I sent you without Purse and Scrip and Shooes lacked ye any thing and they answered Nothing So here is Faith and Obedience and the Effects also of the Faith and Obedience of Christ's Ministers set before us for an Example But it 's evident you do no more love to follow the Example of the Primitive Ministers than you love to submit to what Christ hath ordained as appears by the great bustle thou makest and the many shuffling Arguments thou usest to invalidate the good Example of the Apostle in that godly Care that was upon him that he might not make the Gospel chargeable which is no more than the real duty of every true Minister of Christ although you make it not your concern as is evident from your practices And what if the Apostle had Power and asserted his Power Thou seest what Power he asserts in these Words Have we not power to eat and to drink and again Have we not power to forbear working c as in 1 Cor. 9. So thou may'st still see that he pretended to no power above his Master's Commission who said They might Eat such things as were set before them The Labourer was worthy of his Meat So still this makes nothing for thee and thy Brethren his Power you will not be content with no more than his Example for then you know you must not live in Pride Highth Fulness and Idleness as ye do And so being his Power will not answer your Ends you fly from his Power which was the Gospel which they that Preached it were to live by to Man's Power and Law for your Maintenance and by that Force and Compel People to pay you for whom you do no Work and to whom you cannot say as he did 1 Cor. 9. 1. Are not you my Work in the Lord But alas how many Thousands do you Compel in Ireland to pay you that are not your Work in this sense he speaks of You have no concern in their Conversion if they be Converted but whether they be or not you matter not you will have your Revenue from among them But thou tellest him He does not consider that the Gospel of Christ was but in its Infancy Paul was but then planting it endeavouring to make it the established Religion of the Nations as now it is Answer That Paul was planting it we grant but that the Religion which he endeavoured to establish is now the Established Religion of the Nations we deny For first there is no such Unity Nationally in Religion as he endeavoured to establish as in 1 Cor. 1. 10. Now I beseech you Brethren by the Name of our Lord Iesus Christ that ye all speak the same thing that there be no Division among you that ye be perfectly joined together in the same Mind and in the same Iudgment Secondly They are not established in Holiness and that Perfection which he laboured to establish and present them in as Col. 1. 28. Warning every Man and teaching every Man in all Wisdom that we may present every Man perfect in Christ Iesus And likewise in Ephes. 4. we read that he gave Ministers and Gifts for the Ministry for the perfecting of the Saints and for the edifying of the Body of Christ c. till they all come in the Unity of the Faith to a perfect Man c. And 2 Corinth chap. 7. verse 1. His Labour was To bring them to perfect Holiness in the Fear of God This is the Religion Paul and others endeavoured to Establish in the Nations and to Establish People in and for this end Peter exhorts the Believers To be holy in all manner of Conversation that as he which had called them was holy so they might be holy 1 Pet. 1. 15. Here is that which they laboured to make the Established Religion of the Nations viz. Unity Perfection and Holiness in all manner of Conversation Thou affirmest That now it is made as he to wit Paul endeavoured to make it If this were true then the Nations would be gathered into Righteousness and Holiness Unity and Peace Love and Good will But alas there appears no such Fruits of the true Religion amongst the generality of the People of the Nations which doth demonstrate that there is no such Establishment of it as thou hast asserted what-ever may be professed in words We take notice how much thou art offended at his telling thee That the Ministers wrought with their Hands and takest occasion at the Word Ministers as if he had said All laboured and then affirmest it 's very false whereas he only saith Ministers in the plural Number not All which is proved true by the Scripture and thy own Confession who grantest That Paul and his Fellow-travelling Apostles did labour with their Hands And then when thou hast Asserted it to be false thou challengest him to shew another Apostle besides them in the New Testament that wrought For sayst thou They for sook their Boats their Nets their Trades for his sake and the Gospel and the New Testament doth not inform us that they ever returned to these Trades again for a Livelihood Answ. We read Iohn 23. that Peter above three years after he was called by Christ with several other Disciples after they had so forsaken their Boats c. went a Fishing and that Peter then had his Fisher's Coat not a long Gown as those called Ministers now wear and we do not believe they went for Pleasure but to get Fish From whence we may groundedly conclude that they used that Imploy for a Livelihood at times when they were not immediately imployed in Preaching the Gospel And we challenge thee to prove the contrary if thou canst Concerning thy querying for a Command for keeping the First Day of the Week or calling it the Lord's Day We say
we Meet together on the First Day of the Week for to Meet is our Duty and also upon other Days and for this Practice we have both Command and Example The Saints were commanded not to forsake the assembling of themselves together Heb. 10. 25. and we account every day is the Lord's and He that regardeth a Day ought to regard it to the Lord and he that regardeth not the Day to the Lord he doth not regard it Rom. 14. 6. But what Scripture have ye for all such Days as you observe which are called such and such Saints Days Thou sayst Thou hast been the longer on this particular because thou findest it galls us most Answ. When thou hast read our Answer which by reason of thine being so long hath caused ours to be so too thou mayst consider of it and of thy impertinency in quoting the Scriptures to prove your Practice which being well observed doth witness against you and then we doubt not but it will prove that which will gall thee and thy Brethren who are so found in such Covetous practices as the Scriptures plentifully testifie against And for a further Testimony against your Practices read these following Scriptures of which for brevity's sake having been so long already we shall forbear to write the Words they that can may read them in the Bible Isa. 59. 9 10 11 12. Ier. 5. 30 31. Ezek. 13. 19. Ezek. 34. ch Mich. 3. 5 11. Ioh. 10. 12. Tit. 1. 10 11. 1 Tim. 3. 1 2 3. 2 Pet. 2. 14 15 16. Iud. 11 12 13. In the next place thou undertakest to inform him of some Defects in that Religion he had chosen and first thou sayst Our Teachers have no lawful Call to Preach the Gospel and quotest the Apostle's saying Rom. 10. 15. How shall they Preach except they be sent That is sayst thou how can they Preach the true Doctrine of Christ unless they be sent by him or by those Apostles of Christ who received immediate Commissions from him c. Answ. We grant what the Apostle saith How can they Preach except they be sent c But that our Teachers are not so sent thou neither undertakest to prove by Argument nor Scripture although thou hast the confidence to affirm that they have no lawful Call or Commission to Preach the Gospel which we turn back upon thee as a false Accusation and demand of thee to prove and make it appear to be true if thou canst For we do believe that none can be true Ministers but such as are sent by Christ and have their Call and Commission from him and also receive the Gospel which they Preach and their Ability from him For the Scripture is plain that the Gospel-Ministers were sent by him and received the Gospel they Preached and Ability to Preach it from him and not from Men as in Gal. 1. 11 12. And in 2 Cor. 3. 6. the Apostle saith They were made able Ministers of the New Testament not of the Letter but of the Spirit and in the foregoing verse he saith Our sufficiency is of God And Ephes. 3. 7. he declares That he was made a Minister according to the Gift of the Grace of God given unto him by the effectual working of his Power And Peter saith 1 Pet. 4. 11. If any Man speak let him speak as the Oracles of God if any Man Minister let him do it as of the Ability which God giveth that God in all things may be glorified c. And so from him we say we have received our Call by his Eternal Spirit and do wait upon him to receive our Ability daily that what we do may be by the Gift of the Grace of God given unto us that God in all things may be Glorified And if this be not according to the Scripture and the way of God do thou in thy next shew what is And prove your way of being bred up at Schools and Learning your Tongues and taking your Degrees there and observing your Ceremonies in your Ordination and coming forth according to your Traditions and then looking for a Benefice the greatest you can get and then setling in a Parish for so much a Year until you can hear of a Place with a greater Benefice and then remove for Greater Gain and Preferment And while you stay in a Parish take such Lordship upon you that none of your Church or Hearers may have Liberty to Speak or Preach but such as are so Ordained as you are Clear these things in thy next to be according to Scripture if thou canst In the mean while we charge this Method and these doings not to be according to the Rule of the Gospel or Example of the Primitive Ministers That this is your Practice we believe thou canst not deny But in the true Church this Order and Liberty was Ordained by the Apostle as in 1 Cor. 14. 30 31 32. If any thing be revealed to another that sitteth by let the first hold his peace for you may all Prophesie one by one that all may learn that all may be comforted and the Spirits of the Prophets are subject to the Prophets But this Liberty which the Apostle Ordained you do not admit of no more than you do of other things which were the practice of the true Church and Christ's Ministers but instead thereof are gone into things which are of Man's Ordaining and setting up And therefore Robert Lacky and all in whom God hath opened an understanding to see you a right have reason enough to forsake you and your Church And as for those Scriptures thou quotest to prove a successive Power to send others They make nothing for your method of Ordination at all for Matth. 28. he said He would be with them c. doth not say They should send others In Acts 1. the Apostles desired one in the place of Iudas to be numbered with them and he was chosen by Lot So here was the Lord's Lot And in Acts 14. 23. it is said They Ordained Elders in every Church Now how these Scriptures do prove a true Succession to your Call and Ordination let all that are wise in heart judge Secondly Thou sayst We have no Sacraments administred in our Religion neither that of Baptism whereby People are admitted into the Christian Church nor that of the Lord's Supper by which they are strengthned and preserved in it Ans. First We demand whence thou hast this Term Sacraments and what is the proper Signification of it We are sure thou hast it not from Scripture And Secondly We put it upon thee to prove whence you have your Authority for that which thou callest Baptism by which thou sayst People are admitted into the Christian Church viz. Sprinkling Infants We deny that you have any Authority from Scripture either by Command or Example for it For we never read in all the Scriptures of either Baptising or Sprinkling Infants There is no such thing in that Scripture by thee quoted Therefore thou
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
by Doctrine and Practice that holy Truth he professed and was a Preacher of and made full proofs of his Ministry in many Lands and Countries and at the great City of London where he was made Instrumental to the Good and Comfort Refreshment and Edification of many and was Valiant there as in other places in the time of Trials Sufferings Storms and Persecution And he was also a great Incourager of the Good in Young and Old and as a tender Father and loving Brother to those who were young in their Testimonies for the Truth and would rather help a Young Branch to strengthen it in its growth than to bruise or hurt it in any measure This short Testimony we Dedicate to his Memorial that shall be had in Everlasting Remembrance for his Name is Written in the Lamb's Book of Life where none can blot it out Our Brother our Friend and our beloved Companion in the Heavenly Fellowship with whom some of us have some-times Travelled in England and Ireland upon divers Services for the Truth 's sake and Blessed was our Labour of Love together He was an Apostle among the Chnrches of Christ and he is a fixed and bright Star in the Firmament of God's Heavenly Power and Kingdom for ever O Friends you that knew him know the Loss of him in the Church of Christ with other Faithful Brethren since departed worthy of double honor concerning which sad Providence we have this to say to you It points plainly to us the Evil that is to come upon the Wicked and Unfaithful and the great Calamities that are at the Door The Lord fit us all for them that we may find an Interest and Sanctuary in the Truth above the Reach of this Evil World which they will want that do not prefer it above the chiefest Ioy. London the 10th of the 11th Month 1690 1. Stephen Crisp. Charles Marshall William Bingley John Field Francis Stamper Jasper Batt William Penn. Benjamin Antrobus John Vaughton Benjamin Bangs Samuel Waldenfield John Butcher A Testimony of several Friends in Ireland in whose Hearts it sprung and who gave it forth in the behalf of our Dear Brother Iohn Burnyeat AS for our Dear Friend and Worthy Brother in the Lord John Burnyeat late of Dublin deceased whom some of us have known many years we have this Testimony in the Truth concerning him viz. That he has been steadfast in the Lord's Work an able Minister of the Gospel and faithful Lobourer who had a Word in Season to Minister to the several Conditions of Friends and People dividing the Word aright a Strengthener of the Weak and a free Feeder of Christ's Lambs and Sheep with the Food he had freely received to the Comforting many His Testimony for the Power of Truth and Righteousness was clear many were Convinced by him His Conversation was so heavenly and becoming the Principle of Truth he was a Preacher of that we know no one that can truly Charge him with any thing that might spot his Profession or Ministry He was a Man excellently well qualified for the Work whereunto he was called of God the Lord having endued him with a large Measure of his Spirit He had great Openings and Discoveries of the Mysteries of God's Kingdom he had also the Tongue of the Learned and was fitted for every good Word and Work the Lord employed him in His Qualifications were beyond many and thô little in himself yet in the Lord a Mighty Man of Valour In all times of Suffering and Exercise he failed not to be in the Front he was a Valiant in Israel and a Pillar in the House of God He did Sympathise with the Afflicted seeking the good of others and above all the Honour and Prosperity of Truth was in his Eye When he took his Wife amongst us how Careful and Circumspect was he of Truth 's Honour and the Concord and Unity of Friends and Brethren And where he came among Friends he would not be Idle but did often Visit the Sick and Comfort those that were in Distress or Affliction For indeed he was a true Servant to all honest Friends as well the Poor as Rich and would freely Administer of his outward Substance to such as stood in need He was meek and gentle and of a healing Spirit and it was the unspeakable Love and Mercy of God to us in this Nation and particularly this City of Dublin to order his outward Abode and Settlement amongst us By whom many were Convinced of the Truth and turned from the Evil of their Ways and the Peace of the Church the Unity and Fellowship of Friends Increased He was one of the Archers of Israel who could shoot to an Hairs-breadth to the wounding of the Hairy Scalp of the Wicked one and the putting of the Lord's Enemies to Silence He was a Messenger of Glad Tidings and directed us to the blessed Light that God had caused to shine in our Hearts when we were Strangers to it yea then did it Appear as a Witness for the Lord against all Ungodly Practices It was a Day of Glad Tidings to many when the Lord made him one of his Trumpets to us to sound his Gospel to the reaching God's Witness in our Hearts Oh! that it may not be forgotten by any of us who have been turned to God! He had a true Love for all Tender-Hearted Friends and travelled for their Growth and Prosperity in the blessed Truth not only in these Three Nations but also in the Western Islands and America to the turning many to the blessed Way of Life and Salvation as by following Accounts will appear He was a true Pattern of Godliness and Piety in an humble meek and in-offensive Conversation Apt to Teach Ready to give heavenly Advice and Instruction a good Example in all things An Early Comer to Meetings and a diligent Waiter therein Many times he would sit a pretty while in Silence not being forward to speak Reverently waiting upon the Opening of the heavenly Life like the good Housholder spoken of to bring forth of his Treasury things both New and Old He was deeply Experienced in the Work and Service of the Lord and was a great Comfort and Support to many in their great Sufferings and hard Exercises and did mightily Strengthen and Encourage Friends in their several places of Abode Twice during the late Troubles he visited Friends in Munster and in this Province of Lynster unto whom he was very open and had large Meetings for in many places the World's Teachers were fled and left their Flocks Many times in the Publick Meetings he would bear a faithful plain and clear Testimony against Superstition and Idolatry and against that Loose Wicked Blasphemous and Unclean Spirit that many gave up to be led by As soon as the way was open to the North he visited Friends there Now after the Death of his Wife he had some Intentions to go for England and sent his Son thither but seeing the Troubles of Wars coming
Then not long after in the same Year I was moved of the Lord by his Spirit to go to Briggham to speak to one Priest Denton who then was preaching in the Steeple-house to the People who in his Sermon which he had before hand prepared had many false Accusations Lyes and Slanders against Friends and the Principles of the Truth I stayed till he had done and then did speak to him but got little Answer but immediately some of his Hearers fell upon me and did beat me with their Bibles and with a Staff or Staffs all along out of the House and also out of the Grave-yard that the next day I was sore with the Blows and so the Priest commanded the Constable to secure me and a Friend that was with me and next day did cause him to carry us to Lancelot Fletcher of Talantyre who did order a Warrant to be written for us and so sent us from Constable to Constable to the common Goal in Carlisle where I was Prisoner three and twenty Weeks And when I wrote a Paper to the Priest wherein I answered his false Accusation and sent it to him by a Friend he would not read it but as I was told put it in the fire and burnt it Now while I was in Prison something came upon me for Scotland but I being a Prisoner and not yet deeply acquainted with the way and work of the Lord's Power and Spirit as in relation to such a Service great was the Exercise of my Spirit that I went under and for want of Experience and a clear Understanding I was swallowed up and for a time quite lost in the Deep where great was the Distress of my Soul beyond utterance but the merciful God by his powerful Arm and healing saving Word of Life did restore and bring up my Soul out of the Deep where it was for a time buried and renewed Life and Understanding and caused the Light of his Countenance to shine and the Sweetness of his Peace to spring so that I may truly say he caused the Bones that he had broken to rejoyce And then when he had thus crushed and humbled and let me see how he could make all things become as nothing again and so hide all Glory from Man then in his Goodness he revealed his Glory and Power and Presence and reviving Life and so opened to my Understanding his good Pleasure which with all readiness and willingness of mind I gave up unto in my Heart and Spirit So after my being kept about three and twenty Weeks in Prison I had my Liberty and so came home and followed my outward Calling that Summer and grew more and more into the Understanding of the Mind and Will of the Lord in that which I had a Sight of while I was in Prison And so keeping to Meetings and waiting upon the Lord in a true travel of Spirit after more acquaintance with him and more enjoyment of his Power and Word I grew not only into an Understanding but also into a degree of Strength and Ability sit to answer that Service which the Lord had called me unto And so then in the Faith that stood in God's Power about the beginning of the Eighth Month 1658. I took my Journey into Scotland and travelled in that Nation about Three Months and was both in the North and West of it as far North as Aberdeen and back again to Edinborough and so down West to Lithcow Hamilton Aire and as far as Port-Patrick and back to Aire and Duglass and our Service was at their Steeple-Houses and Markets and other places where we met with People and sometimes at Friends Meetings where there was any And our work was To call People to Repentance out of their lifeless hypocritical Profession and dead Formalities wherein they were setled in the Ignorance of the true and living God and so to turn them unto the true Light of Christ Iesus in their Hearts that therein they might come to know the Power of God and so come to know Remission of Sins and receive an Inheritance amongst the Sanctified And being thus clear of that Nation we returned into England and came over the water to Bowstead-hill the first day of the Eleventh Month 1658. Then returning home I followed my Calling or Trade again from that time until the Third Month 1659. and then I took shipping for Ireland according to what had been Opened unto me in the Truth when I was in Scotland and grew mightily in me through the Strength of the Power and Word of Life while I stayed at my Calling at home and kept to Meetings For the Lord often filled and enriched my Heart and Soul with his glorious Power and so sanctified and prepared me for that which he set before me For often in Spirit was I carried thither and had it sealed unto me that it was my place to go into that Nation to serve the Lord and bear witness unto the Truth and call People to Repentance and hold forth the Way of Life and Salvation unto them So I waited till the full Season came according to the blessed Counsel of God in which I found his leading Power with me and to go before me and so at the time aforesaid I took shipping at Whitehaven and landed at Dunacadee in the North of Ireland and travelled up to Lisbourne and so up to Lorgan and on to Kilmore in the County of Armagh and so up and down in the North for some time amongst Friends and had Meetings And many People came to Meetings and many Convinced and turned to God from the evil and vanity of their ways And then from thence I travelled up to Dublin and thence to Mountmeleck and so forward to Kilkenny and so on to Caperqueen and Tallow and so to Cork and Bandon and back to Cork and then to Toughal and to Waterford and to Ross and to Waxford and had Meetings along as I travelled and according to that Ability I received of God I was faithful and preached the Truth and true Faith of Jesus From Waxford I came to Carlough and Mountmeleck and so down into the North and spent some time there And so having gone through and in the fear of God published his Name and Truth as I had opportunity I then was willing to return home to England and for that end as I intended came down to Carrickfergus but before I got thither it came upon me that I should return back again to Lorgan and Kilmore and from thence to Londonderry And so I sent word to appoint a Meeting at Lorgan and went on to Carrickfergus and got a Meeting where there was many People at it and I did clear my self unto them in the fear of the Lord and then returned to Lorgan as I had appointed And there I met with Robert Lodge newly come out of England who had something in his Heart also to go to Londonderry this was about or near the beginning of the Seventh Month 1659.
So Robert Lodge and I became concerned in one Work Service and Travel together and were truly united in Spirit in the Unity of the Faith and Life of Christ in which blessed Unity and Fellowship of the Gospel of the Son of God we laboured and travelled in that Nation of Ireland for Twelve Months after we met together not often parting but sometimes we were moved to part for the Service's sake for a little time and came together again and the Lord gave us sweet Concord and Peace in all our Travels for I do not remember that we ever were angry or grieved one at the other in all that time And so we went down to Londonderry together and when we came there were soon discovered what we were and then the People were unwilling to receive us or let us have Lodging for our Money We were at their great Steeple-house on the first day and had a large time among the People to declare the Truth but at last the Major sent his Officers who would not suffer us to stay any longer but forced us out of the City and down to the Boat and commanded the Boat-man to carry us over and not to bring us back again So being clear we took our Journey towards Coalraine and then to the Grange and so to Antrim and so up to Lorgan and so through Friends in the North. And then after some time we took our Journey into the South and did travel through a great part of the Nation as to Dublin Mountmeleck and to Arthlone and Galloway Limmerick Cork and Bandon and so through the South and again into the North. And thus we spent our time with diligent Labour and hard Travel often in cold hunger and hardships in that County which then was in many Parts uninhabited And in Prison several times once in Armagh once in Dublin twice in Cork besides other Abuses we received from many because of our Testimony which we had to bear for the Lord in their Towns and in their Steeple-houses and against their Hireling-Priests which sought their Rewards and loved the Wages of Unrighteousness like Baalam and worse then he forces it from the People like the Sons of Eli whose Sin was very great 1 Sam. 2. 16 17. And thus having travelled and laboured in the Gospel together for Twelve Months and many being Convinced and gathered to the Truth we were clear of our Service there and in the Seventh Month 1660. we took shipping at Carrickfergus and intended for Whitehaven in England but by contrary Wind were driven to Kirkowbry in Scotland and from thence came over Land into Cumberland and to Cockermouth and then I again returned to my outward Calling and followed that and kept diligently to Meetings for it was still my Delight so to do and there to be diligent in waiting upon the Lord for I always found that therein I received an increase of Strength Life and Wisdom from the Lord. And as I found any motion upon me from the Lord to go to any Meeting abroad either in our Country or any other I went and cleared my self as the Lord gave Ability and so did return again to my Calling and so to our own Meeting where I did delight to wait in Silence upon the Lord for I loved that much because I found an inward growth thereby through the Teachings and Openings of his Spirit in my Heart and when something did open in me for that end to speak in our Meeting I gave up for the most part sometimes ready to quench through backwardness but that was hurtful but I grew over it by degrees and increased in Faith and holy Confidence more and more Now from the Seventh Month 1660. unto about the First or Second Month 1662. I was very much at home at my Calling and then I was moved of the Lord to go to London to see George Fox and others of the Elders and to acquaint him with what was upon me from the Lord to go to America which came weightily upon me in Ireland when I was there so that I had a great travel in Spirit and deep Exercise in Mind before I gave up But when I had given up in belief that it was the Word of the Lord and so gone through it in my Spirit and submitted unto his Will the weight and exercise was removed and I with my former Openness again restored into my Service and no more of that remained but a remembrance of the Prophecy or Opening which I had received and Faith in the Word which I was satisfied was sure for ever And therein I rested as to that matter until the time aforesaid that it came upon me to go and and acquaint G. F. as also Ed. Burrough who were then at London and Richard Hubberthorn for I loved to have the Counsel and Countenance of my elder Brethren who were in Christ before me And then I did return through Yorkshire home and had some Meetings as I came along and stayed at home but a little time and was moved to go again into Yorkshire and went through divers Meetings to visit Friends And being as I thought clear to return home I came to Rippon to see some Friends that were then Prisoners for meeting together to worship God and going into Prison to see them and in the Love of God speaking some words of Exhortation unto them the Goaler took me and had me to a House in the Town where the Major and the Chancellor and several of the Aldermen were together and there the Chancellor chiefly took in hand to examine me and sought to ensnare me that he might get occasion to Commit me to Prison And first he would have my going to Prison to my Friends to have been an Offence but I pleaded in so doing I had broken no Law Then he said I spoke in Prison I answered There was no Law that forbid us to speak to our Friends when we came to visit them Then he asked me when I was at Church and when I took the Sacrament according to the Laws of England I answered I knew no Law I had broken nor no evil I had done to any man if any man had evil against me let him bear witness of the evil Then he began to be in a rage and said He would have an Answer e're we had done c. But when he could not get an Advantage that way he reached for a Book and asked me if I would take the Oath of Allegiance and Supremacy And when I answered Not in Contempt to the King or his Authority but in Obedience to Christ's Command I could not swear Then he commanded the Clerk to write a Mittimus and sent me to the Prison to the rest of my Friends who were four and twenty before and there I was kept Prisoner fourteen Weeks And because when we sate down to wait upon the Lord for we fate down once every day together and many times Friends with us that came to see us
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
Souls as the Reward of your Obedience and Faithfulness unto the Lord that hath called you thereunto and raised you up for that purpose And therefore let none look back nor be dismayed for the Cause is the Lord's and he will stand by you and will plead your Cause with all that rise up against you and will bring your Righteousness to light more and more and shew who are his and approved in his sight And he will also discover and lay open the Cruelty of such and manifest them who outwardly would shew themselves to be Sheep but are inwardly Ravenous and so Ravening Wolves and so labour to lay waste the Heritage of the Lord to spoil his Flock They are such who would not have the Lambs seed quietly in the green Pasture of the Lord's pleasure nor to lie still in the Fold of true Rest. But blessed be the Lord for ever and ever he hath brought many to the Mountain of his Holiness where they shall not hurt nor destroy even as he hath promised And therefore let all mind their dwelling there and be not moved and the Treasure will be known and the Riches received which all the Spoilers from Babylon and Men of War from Egypt shall not rob you of For it is from thence they all come to spoil Zion and to rob her of her Glory But the Lord is her defender and her King is in the midst of her and Salvation is round about her for Walls and Bulwarks Glory and Honour and Praises to the Lord our God for ever and ever For he hath taken to himself his great power and is going on Conquering and to Conquer And will effect his own purposes and bring to pass his own Designs in despite of all his Adversaries so that when they think to pull down he is building up and in that way which they think to destroy he will establish and so repair the Streets of Zion in troublesome times and build up her Desolations and repair her Breaches as before hath been prophesied And seeing it is certainly thus let us all trust in him for ever and wait upon him that his power by us may be felt and his Love and vertue may be fed upon which nourisheth up the Soul to Eternal Life Dear Friends the Aboundings of the Love of God which is in my Heart towards you all I cannot but signifie unto you amongst whom I have been a partaker of such pretious Mercy and rich Blessings as we have enjoyed together and as I am satisfied still abounds in your Hearts from the God of our Mercies And so Friends this is a Testimony of my love unto you all do you receive it in particular as if I had writ unto you all one by one For this it is the Lord hath made one in his Son and brought us into Unity as we abide in him there is no Separation therefore cannot we be forgotten one by another Dear Friends by this you may understand that I am very well every way and going on in the Service into which I am called The last day but yesterday I had a Meeting in Boston but very few of the People came they are still under the fear of them who are like them and of that Generation unto whom Christ said would neither enter-in themselves nor suffer others However we had a very comfortable and peaceable Meeting and Truth is over them and will bring them under and confound their Inventions From Your Friend and Brother Iohn Burnyeat To the Rulers Ministers and People of the Island of Barbadoes who see and take notice in any measure of the Hand of the Lord that is upon them and have desires in them to have his Iudgments removed FRIENDS IT is Sin that provokes the Lord and causeth his Judgments in his wrath to come upon a Nation a People or a particular and for that doth the Lord visit with his Rod and many times smite with his sore Judgments And while that is lived in the Lord will not hear though man may cry and make many Prayers as you may see in the Scriptures of Truth Read Isaiah the 1 st and see what the Lord said unto Israel when they were revolted and become a sinful Nation a People laden with Iniquity Tho they offered Sacrifices and burnt Offerings and called Assemblies and observed the new Moons and the appointed Feasts the Prophet called them the Rulers of Sodom and said Hear the Word of the Lord ye Rulers of Sodom give Ear unto the Law of our God ye People of Gomorrah to what purpose is the multitude of your Sacrifices saith the Lord c. And further told them That though they spread forth their Hands he would hide his Eyes from them and when they did make many Prayers he would not hear their Hands were full of Blood And therefore commanded them to wash make clean and put away the Evil of their doings from before his Eyes and cease to do evil and learn to do well seek Judgment relieve the Oppressed judge the Fatherless plead for the Widow and then come and let us reason together saith the Lord. So here you may see this is the way for Man to cease from doing Evil and to learn to do well whereby he may come into acquaintance with the Lord and to have his Prayers to be heard and his Requests to be answered and so the Judgment to be removed And also Daniel's Counsel to the King was that he should break off his Sins by Righteousness and his Iniquities by shewing Mercy to the poor that it might be a lengthening to his Tranquillity Dan. 4. 27. And all along in the Scriptures of truth you may see that Sin was the cause why the Lord was angry with any People and why his Wrath came upon any Nation and that the Lord though he spared long many times would not be reconciled unto them till they obeyed his call in turning from the Evil of their ways and if they would not be turned at last he brought his Judgments upon them to cut them off As you may see concerning Israel many times both in the Wilderness where the unbelieving and disobedient were cut off and perished and also after they were come into the Land of Promise how often because of their Sins he brought his Judgments over them and Destruction upon them after that he had warned them and by his Prophets called unto them to leave their Wickedness and to learn to do righteously and to amend their ways and their doings And because they would not hear but continued in their Sin the Lord brought his sore Judgments upon them and rejected them and cut them off and laid the Land desolate notwithstanding the multitude of their Sacrifices of their Prayers and of their Observations So that he that killed an Ox was as if he slew a Man and he that sacrificed a Lamb as if he cut off a Dog's neck and he that offered an Oblation as if he offered Swines
Friends in quietness sitting still only one who reasoned the matter with him he at last went out and all his Company to the Stable and there took all the Horses and Friends Horses all they could find in the Town But after Meeting we got them again they being then taken without any colour of Law But the next day being the 3 d day of the 10 th Month the said Informer went to one William Pugh of Mathauern a Justice of Peace so called who came along with him and met Iohn Burnyeat and Thomas Ellis upon the Road and stopt them both and caused them to turn back to an Ale-house where this Informer and another Man which was William Pugh's Bayliff Swore against them for Preaching at the aforesaid Meeting for which the Justice Fined them and wrote a Warrant and sent for a Constable who by that Warrant seised upon Iohn Burnyeat's Mare and Thomas Ellis's Horse with Saddles and Bridles and so they were constrained to Travel on their Way on Foot till they could get to an Ale-house to get Lodging This Reward the Lord's Servants Received at their Hands for their Love and Good will to the Souls of People Iohn Burnyeat's Mare was worth about 8 l. Thomas Ellis's Horse about 3 l. 10 s. Iohn Burnyeat's Mare Dyed within an hour and an half after Seizure and the other Friends took the Mange and Dyed in the Informer's Hands within six Months time J. B. Dear and Well-beloved in the Lord WITH you my Soul hath Precious Unity in the Spiritual Fellowship and Nearness and Heavenly Oneness which stands in that Life by which we were first Quickened in which we Live and in the Increase of which we grow into a Heavenly Understanding and true Soundness in Discerning and Judgment whereby the Faithful come to be more and more accomplished for their Places and fitted for every good Work that so they may answer their Office and Membership in the true Body whereof Christ Jesus is the Head of which Body we are made living Members through his Love who hath called us and in his Son chosen us to be Heirs of Life Dear Friends your selves know that he who through his Bounty hath blessed us with Spiritual blessings in Christ Jesus so that we are made Stewards of his Manifold Graces who now doth require answerable Service from us all according to our gifts received from him and whosoever is found Faithful to their Gifts and Places shall certainly witness an Increase and so grow in Grace and in the Knowledg of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and so come more and more into true soundness and to the Spirit of a sound Mind For you know how richly the Power of Christ was Manifested in us and among us in the beginning and how wonderful it did work for the Redeeming of our Hearts out of the World the Vanity and Pleasures of it that we might Love and Affect Heavenly things and delight in the glory of that which comes from Heaven And in that day you may remember the glorious and Heavenly Raptures we many times were raised up into and with admiration were ready to turn about and say We will Behold this Wonder the Bush which Burns and is not Consumed But since that time many have been the Exercises and weighty have been the Tryals that have been met with in our Spiritual Progress through which the Lord hath led us and many Temptations hath the Lord delivered us from and led us out of and many Weaknesses hath he passed by and Trespasses hath he in his great Mercy forgiven so that to this day we remain and that in covenant with him Therefore have we cause to Praise him and to Sing unto him Now our present state and capacity to which he hath brought us is to be minded and our duty therein for now many are come to be Free from being Servants or Slaves unto the old Task-masters and though but in our Journey yet there is something to be done which was truly Figured out in Israel's Travel they were to fit the Tabernacle with all the Services and Ornaments belonging thereunto though in the Wilderness in their Travel and the Men and Women were both concerned as you may read in the work to prepare for the Fitting of the Tabernacle according to the Command of the Lord. And this was after the Lord had appeared unto Moses shewed his Wonders in Egypt wrought that great Salvation at the Red Sea and manifested his dreadful Presence upon Mount Sinai and given forth his Holy Law and his Manifestations by which he Taught Israel to do his Will so that in the observation of which they were blessed a lively Figure of what our Souls are Witnesses of in the Heavenly Substance So that now we are not to be negligent for it would not have been well in Israel to have answered Moses when according to the Command of God he put the People upon it both Men and Women to Work for the Fitting of the Tabernacle We had no such thing when we came out of Egypt we had no such thing put upon us when we began our Iourney we will do as we did in the beginning This would have been Rebellion against him that by the Hand of Moses brought them out of Egypt and freed them out of Bondage And you know what Judgments and Destruction he brought upon them that did rebel and gainsay as Corah and his Company who withstood the Ordinance of God Oh! my dear Friends methinks I am as if I were talking with you of the Lord's Mercies and former Loving Kindnesses and Dealings with us and being also under a present sense of our present state and capacities to which he hath brought us my Bowels within me are even Melted with a Holy Love and Tenderness towards you and in that Love I send these Lines as the Salutation of my Soul in that which Lives for ever and as a signification of that entire love which in my Heart lives towards you Wherein I desire that both you and I forever may so mind our present state and our growth and the increase of the Mercies of our God unto us as to answer them by a Faithful Serving of him and one another in that love which thinks no Evil and is never weary of doing good and yet will not vaunt it self Now this is that which lives in my view the Power of Christ which was so Richly Manifested in the beginning did then Work to the preparing of us to be a People fit to do his Will and so it wrought unto a Cleansing Washing and Sanctifying of us that we might be Holy Vessels fit for his use Now being Prepared the same power in the Faithful works mightily to the Fitting and Furnishing of us unto every Good Work that we might be to the praise of his grace who hath called us and if we so be to his praise we must grow in Grace and in the knowledg of our Lord and Saviour
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
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
and so retire and spread their Cause before the Lord who is the living God Remember the King of Old who commanded silence and said Answer him not a Word and so returned to the Temple and to the Altar of the Lord and spread the Cause before him and confessed the weakness of the Daughter of Sion to bring forth and also his Faith in the sufficiency of God's Power when he said Thou art able to Save c. Oh! my dear Friends Live up to the Lord in your Spirits and be Faithful and keep your Peace with him in the inner-Man and mind your Unity with his Spirit and take heed of that which would obstruct your Fellowship with his Life let no Fair Pretences over you Prevail that may have any tendency to bring your Spirits into Bondage or any straitness over your Hearts for that Bondage will prove the greatest Slavery and this I do believe you right well know And now my Dear Friends all of you minding your inward Freedom and your Spiritual Ease in the Freedom and Liberty given you of God through Christ your Saviour you will have a Dwelling and Habitation filled with Glory Riches and Comfort over which the Enemies Cloud cannot come and in that you will see through to the end of all that would either Darken or bring Distress And so you will see how good it is to trust in the Lord and to rely upon his Power and be given up freely into his Will And so dear Hearts my Love is truly unto you all and in the Love with which I have anciently Loved you and in which I Love you as much as ever do I very dearly Salute you all you tender Suffering Children and with my Soul and Spirit desire that God in Mercy and Kindness may bless you with Spiritual Blessing in Christ Jesus and enrich your Souls with the Divine Fatness of his House and Pleasure of his Life that you may have Joy every day and delight every Morning in your Bosoms that so your Strength may be renewed and your Ability so encreased that you may be able to bear what is upon you till the Lord see good to Work your Deliverance and case you of the yoak and Burthen that you bear Which the Lord in Mercy take off if it be his pleasure is the desire of Your Friend and Brother in the Fellowship of the Sufferings and Tribulation and also of the Consolation which we are called unto through Christ Jesus our Lord. I. B. The Copy of an Epistle sent to Friends at Bristol in the time of their Sufferings Written at Eaglesfield in Cumberland the 1st of the 6th Month 1682. Cork the 25th of the 10th Month 1682. Dear Friends IN the Everlasting Covenant of Life and Peace and in the pure spring of Divine Love in the same do I remember you and in Spirit reach unto you and very dearly salute you all who in the Faith that gives the Victory do remain and stand stedfast and so keep your Habitations and Dwellings in the Heavenly places in Christ Jesus your Redeemer who hath redeemed you out of the Wickedness that is in the World unto himself and so into his own Power and Nature which is righteous that you might become the Righteousness of God in him and so be restored into the Image Nature and State in which Man was Created by him that made all things good and Man in his own Image that he might delight in Man and that Man might honour and glorifie him Now this Work of Restauration you know God hath sent his Son to effect and accomplish in Man and for Man that again Man might honour his Creator and become the delight of his Maker whose delight is to dwell in the Habitable parts of the Earth even among the Sons of Men. And therefore that you may be his Delight and that he may take Pleasure in you do you all keep in that which hath Renewed or doth Renew and change the Heart and Spirit of the mind that in the Newness thereof you may serve and honour and glorifie him from whom the renewing Power and Word doth come that so the new Creation the new Heavens and Earth may be known wherein Righteousness doth dwell and that you may have your Conversation there and so shine as Lights among this crooked and perverse Generation in whose Heaven and Earth Unrighteousness doth dwell And therefore will the Lord as the Apostle said not only shake the Earth but the Heavens also that that which cannot be shaken may remain And truly I do believe that many ones Heaven will be shaken before this searching winnowing trying Day be over that 's growing on upon the Nations and People for the Heavens of many are grown over and covered with Darkness and thick Clouds and the Glory thereof is gone and the brightness and stedfastness thereof is lost not a Star to be seen except a Wanderer out of its course out of the Covenant that hath greatly lost its Light and so in the Clouds of Darkness driven to and fro by the variable uncertain Winds that are and may be suffered to blow to shake that which is shakable and remove that which will not endure that that which cannot be shaken may remain and the Glory of that may appear which will endure Dear Friends God hath manifested that which is sure for ever and will endure and stand and last and you have known the power of it and as you keep in the holy sense thereof you will be stedfast constant and firm in your Minds and not soon shaken nor removed from your Habitation and stedfastness in the Gospel of Christ Jesus our Lord which is the power of God which is above all Powers Thrones and Dominions and will stand and cannot be shaken For it s above Iohn's Ministration the Gospel Power and Kingdom is and he that 's least there is greater than Iohn and is come to that which is surer than a Reed that may be shaken with the Wind though it be not broken yet it may be shaken And therefore they that would dwell there and not come on to Christ the Rock that cannot be shaken their Dwelling is not safe their Habitation will be thrown down and their House made a Desolation Methinks I see it so in our Days upon such that have sitten down short of the Eternal Substance that ended all Shadows Iohn's as well as those that were before him And therefore dearly Beloved you that have known the Eternal Substance the living Power of the Lord Iesus Christ manifested in your Hearts by which you have been quickned raised up and made alive unto God keep to the Power in your Souls and mind its living in you that you therein may live unto God and so abide a living People through your Age God's living Witnesses in your Day without Alteration and so be such as have not only been Hearers of the Word but Doers also and so such whose House is built upon
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
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
speak the Word and it shall not stand for God is with us For the Lord spake thus to me with a strong Hand and instructed me that I should not walk in the way of this People saying Say ye not A Confederacy to all them to whom this People shall say A Confederacy neither fear ye their fear nor be afraid Sanctify the Lord of Hosts himself and let him be your fear and let him be your dread Isa. 8. 10 11 12 13. ADVERTISEMENT TO THE READER Christian Reader ANother Letter coming to our Hands subscribed J. T. the tendency thereof being to beget a dislike in R. L. to whom it was Writ to the Principles of Truth as professed by us the truly Reformed Christians called Quakers and to prevent the writing of more such occasion'd our making thus publick the following Answer to Priest Potts ' s Letter and the rather understanding the said J. T. saw it and takes no notice thereof in his although it Answers the substance thereof excepting in these following particulars 1. His accounting it an Errour in us Not to Swear Ans. We in short say we have Christ's Command for not Swearing Matt. 5. 3 4. Swear not at all And seconded by the Apostle James 5. 12. which we believe ought to be observed by all Christians 2. He charges us with Denying the Trinity as he terms it Ans. We do really own the Three that bear record in Heaven the Father the Word and the Holy Ghost and these Three are One Iohn 5. 7. And we also own the Three that bear witness in Earth the Spirit the Water and the Blood and these Three agree in One as verse 8. and so we do and always did believe according to the Holy Scriptures 3. He charges us with Denying the Scriptures to be the Word of God Ans. We believe the Scriptures to be what they call themselves a Testimony or Declaration as in Luke 1. 1. John 5. 39. But Christ we own and believe to be the Word of God according to John 1. and Rev. 19. 13. So we own the Word of the Lord that came unto the Prophets saying as in Ezek. 7. 1. and in divers other places and we own and believe the Sayings of the Word as recorded in the Holy Scriptures So the Word that came unto the Prophets was the Sayer or that which spake unto them and the Scriptures are the Words or Sayings which the Word or Spirit of Christ spake unto and through the Prophets as is evident from the Testimony of the Apostle 1 Pet. 1. 10 11. Dublin the 12th of the 9th Month 1688. J. B. J. W. The Holy Truth and its Professors Defended c. Lawrence Potts WE having met with a Paper of thine and finding our selves and others of the People called Quakers concerned therein with our Christian Religion and Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ which we are called to bear witness unto and contend for were not willing to let it pass without taking notice of thy false Charges upon Us and our Religion together with thy weak Vindication of thy self with the rest of the Clergy of your Church in those things which thou hast yet to prove And we find our selves the more concerned because of thy Challenge in thy Paper where thou say'st It dos become your Teachers to make this plainly appear to you and me from whom they have drawn you and therefore if they can make it out I again challenge it of them and you By the way we would have thee take notice of this that Robert Lacky in his Letter to thee doth acquaint thee that it was the Light or Grace of God that let him see the Evil or Defects in himself and others and so meerly the Love of God that prevailed in his Heart so that it was not Man that drew him from thee and thy Teachings but the Lord Iesus Christ the true Shepherd whom the Father promised that by his Spirit of Light and Grace did draw him and so fulfilled the Promise of the Father in Ezek. 34. 10. where he saith He would deliver his Flock from the mouth of such as fed themselves that they might not be Meat for them c. In the first place we observe thou blamest him for saying If he or any other through the Light of God's Grace in the Heart do see Defects in themselves or others that profess that Religion wherein they were bred he does not understand how he incurs Damnation by forsaking it c. And so in thy Answer blamest him for confounding Religion as thou say'st with the Carriage of its Professors c. Answer It 's true there may be wicked Men Professors of a most holy and pure Religion and therefore for some particulars being of an evil carriage to condemn a Religion is not proper But when a Man finds and understands that in the Exercise of his Religion he receives not power against Sin and Temptation in himself nor yet sees the effect of such a power in others it may be not in the very Teachers but that is lived in which answers not the Law of God nor the Life of a true Christian and yet here is no dis-membring of such or excluding them from their Church-Fellowship This may justly give ground to suspect a Defect in that Religion And therefore it may be warrantable for a Man under these Observations both concerning himself and others to enquire and seek after a Religion wherein Power may be enjoyed from Christ to overcome Sin and withstand Temptation And we do believe thou thy self art not ignorant how that not only many of the People of your Church are of a loose Conversation but diverse of your Clergy also and yet they suffered to abide in their Places and Offices without either being excluded or silenced though the Apostle exhorts To withdraw from every Brother that walks disorderly And again 1 Cor. 5. 11. He writes unto the Church not to keep company with any called a Brother that was a Fornicator or Covetous or an Idolater or Railer or a Drunkard or an Extortioner such thou mayst see were to be denied Fellowship in the Church But we have often observed how that in your Church there have been and still are both Swearers Liars Drunkards and Men given to other profaneness and yet little zeal appearing to Excommunicate or exclude them But when any for Conscience sake could not pay the Priest his Wages though it were but some small matter oftentimes such a one should soon be prosecuted and Excommunicated so that by your practices what-ever you may profess in words you are more zealous for your Gain and Interest than for excluding Evil and promoting Righteousness in your Church and so like them the Apostle speaks of who minded earthly things whose end he said was Destruction Phil. 3. 19. Now such practices are no marks of the Church of Christ but of a false Church where there is want of zeal for Righteousness Whereby it is manifest that you
art in a great mistake in charging this to be a defect in the Quaker's Religion not to have such a Practice which is an unwarrantable human Invention And it is a great Defect in your Religion to perswade people that when you have Sprinkled a little Water on the Head or Face of a Child and signed it with the sign of the Cross it is thereby admitted into the Christian Church and call it Baptism when it is but Sprinkling and therefore a Defect throughout But thy Charge upon the Quakers Religion that we deny that of Baptism by which People are admitted into the Christian Church we affirm to be false For we own that Baptism according to what the Apostle saith 1 Cor. 12 13. For by one Spirit are we all Baptised into one Body whether we be Iews or Gentiles c. This we own to be Christ's Baptism And we also own Iohn's Ministration of Water to have been God's Ordinance in its day But yours we leave for thee to prove from whence you had it Secondly Thou sayst Nor that of the Lord's Supper by which they are strengthened and preserved in it Ans. Let all that are wise in Heart consider whether that which thou callest a Sacrament which you take hath such a great effect in it as to strengthen and preserve in the Christian Church which is Christ's Church For the Protestants do account it no more than a Sign of an inward Spiritual Grace But we are satisfied concerning what Christ did as in that Scripture thou quotest Luke 22. For he had regard to the fulfilling of the Law and his time drawing near that he was to be Sacrificed and so the true Passover as Paul saith 1 Cor. 5. 7. For even Christ our Passover is Sacrificed for us had a desire to eat the Figurative Passover with his Disciples before he suffered as thou mayst see Luke 22. and in eating the Passover he took the Cup and gave thanks and gave it to them and bid them divide it among themselves and likewise took Bread and brake it and gave it to them And after Supper again he took the Cup and gave them And thou mayst see what he said both of the Bread and the Cup the One was his Body which was given for us the other was the Cup of the New Testament in his Blood which was shed for us Which words import that his Body which is broken for us is the substance of that Unleavened Typical Bread and his Blood which was shed is the substance of that Cup. Not that the Bread and Wine was his Body and Blood for that was but Typical though some do ignorantly imagine that he meant the outward Bread and Wine was his real Body and Blood As the Iews thought he had meant the Temple made with hands when he spake of the Temple of his Body For we read that when the Passover was instituted they were to have a Lamb without blemish and unleavened Bread and the Door-Posts were to be sprinkled with the Blood of the Lamb which Passover was certainly a Type of Christ the immaculate Lamb whose Body is the true Bread that nourishes the Soul to Life eternal and his Blood sprinkles the Conscience from dead works to serve the Living God This is that we have an eye to that which was broken for us and shed for us and we think by thy Writing thou art not of the Papists mind for the Real Presence And if not then consider what that Bread and Drink was that was broken and shed for us which he spake of though he was then eating the Passover with his Disciples and then come on and see what the Apostle saith to the Mystery of it which was that which he preferred in the Church at Corinth 1 Cor. 10. there he tells them of the Fathers viz. the Church in the Wilderness and saith They did all eat of the same spiritual Meat and did all Drink of the same spiritual Drink for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them and that Rock was Christ. So here thou mayst see the Meat was Spiritual and the Drink was Spiritual and the Rock was Spiritual that they drank of and that was Christ. So the Apostle speaking to Wise Men bids them judge what he saith as in ver 15. and in ver 16. saith he The Cup of Blessing which we bless is it not the Communion of the Blood of Christ And the Bread which we break is it not the Communion of the Body of Christ And ver 17. For we being many are one Bread and one Body for we are all partakers of that one Bread The Iudgment of this thou seest the Apostle referred to Wise Men and we know Wise Men will Iudge that it is this Spiritual Meat and Drink that strengthens and preserves in the Church of Christ what-ever thou may'st say to the contrary And so thou wrongest the Quakers in saying That we have not the Lora's Supper administred in our Religion for we greatly delight in the Lord's Supper to eat and drink that which strengthens and preserves us in the Church of Christ. And for your Practice that you use in your Church we demand your Example for it and whence it did arise For thou may'st see that Christ in the Figure did eat the Passover with his Disciples according to the Law and gave them the Cup both before and after Supper as a foresaid Thou pretendest Thou hast other notorious defects in our Religion but forbearest to bring them forth only one thou say'st thou canst not omit which is so great a one that it renders the generality of the Quakers almost no Christians at all And thou say'st Most of us are guilty and that is a defect in the very badg and mark of a Christian Disciple which say'st thou is Love and Charity and so quotest Christ's words John 13. 35. By this shall all Men know that you are my Disciples if ye love one another Ans. Thou dost in this as thou hast done in other things before charge us to be Guilty but dost not bring one Proof or Argument to prove the Guilt upon us from matter of fact unless thy saying It is so be either Proof or Argument which no wise Man will understand to be so Thou say'st Perhaps we have charity among our selves we love one the other who are of our Perswasion However that is well so far it answers this Text of Scripture which thou hast quoted we wish we might say in truth so much for all of your Perswasion But thou goest on to shew how we should love Enemies c. and tellest us what Iohn says That God is Love and the more a Man hath of Love the nearer he doth approach to the Nature of God and so tellest us what Paul saith of Charity c. But what doth all this towards the proving us to be defective in this great badg and mark of a Christian Disciple That this is both your and our Duty we