tenderness in them towards God in what sect soever they be in for poor creatures they are to be pittied and the way of truth is to be shewn unto them and this day will bring some of them unto the principle of God in themselves and they must come unto that before they can find a true stay to their minds and them that comes not to that and keeps not to that will wither as the grass upon the house top On friends I can even rejoyce and sing for joy notwithstanding the rage and strength of the enemies for I see the day that approacheth will be exceeding good for truth and for friends that dwell in it for they that stand approved shall be made manifest and the upright shall not loose but gain through all these things and certainly when our God hath tryed us to the full he will appear for us and though our enemies were as the sand of the Sea and as strong as Gyants yet shall they fall as the untimely fruit and our God shall consume and weaken them by the majesty of his power and an exceeding dissolation shall come upon the earth and a beesome of destruction shall sweep away many Therefore dear hearts be stedfast in the Lord and keep the word of his patience and know that not one hair of your heads shall perish nor any thing shall be done unto any of you but what the Lord will be glorified by and you shall receive a full and a sufficient reward for it if ye continue faithful So live in the power and seed of God that ye may possess the kingdome the eternal peace joy and tighteousness which stands in the power And love fervently Oh friends let that abound more and more one towards another and by this shall men also know that ye are taught of Christ if ye love one another and wait that ye may feel the springs of life in your selves and feed upon that which proceeds from God that ye may grow up in the power and life and wisdome of God and therein be established So the almighty power life and wisdome of God keep and preserve you for ever Amen the Lord God almighty keep you fresh and lively meek tender and innocent and fill you with every good word and work which accompanieth peace and godliness If any decree unrighteous decrees heed them not for the decree of God shall stand which is to establish righteousness in the earth and in the power of the Lord we shall break the bonds of the ungodly and cast their cords from us So the spiritual weapon war withal and stand in the faith and hold fast the word of truth that through it you may feel and witness your sanctification and the birth immortal raised up over all which is the heir of the Kingdome without end and assuredly God will do mighty things for his people therefore be ye comforted and strengthened in the Lord and dwell in and keep his covenant and answer his requirings in the light of life and live in the retiredness and in the wisdome of God that your enemies may have no just occasion against you and that ye may be preserved out of their snares and if they imprison you and falsely accuse you or spoil your goods or persecute you any manner of wayes keep in patience and freely forgive them and suffer as Lambs in the true innocency that so your peace with the Lord may be preserved in all conditions And Friends let the dread and majesty of God fill you and as concerning the changing of Times and Governments let not that trouble any of you for God hath a mighty work and hand therein and he will yet change again until that come up which must reign and in vain shall Powers and Armies withstand the Lord for his determined work shall come to pass but what is now come up i'ts just with the Lord that it should be so and he will be served by it Therefore let none murmure nor distrust God for God will provoke many to zeal against unrighteousness and for righteousness through things which are suffered now to work for a season yea many whose zeal was even dead shall revive again and they shall see their backslidings and bewail them bitterly and God shall thander down from heaven and break forth in a mighty noyse and his Enemies shall be astonished and the workers of Iniquity confounded and all that have not on the garment of righteousness shall be amazed at the mighty and strange work of the Lord which shall be certainly brought to pass but my babes look ye not out but be still in the light of the Lamb and he shall fight for you So the Almighty hand which must break and split and divide your enemies and take away peace from them preserve and keep you whole and in unity and in peace with it self and one with another Lambeth House the third day of the 4th moneth 1660. I am your Dear Friend and Brother in the Kingdome and patience of Christ who am a Prisoner for his testimony and keep his word and am made as willing to suffer bonds or to die for his name as to declare and publish it amongst men eternal living praises and hallelujahs over all be unto him for evermore Amen George Fox the Younger The End LONDON Printed for Robert Wilson at the Sign of the Black … Eagle and Windwill in Martins near Aldersgate 1660.
A GENERAL EPISTLE And a tender Greeting sent unto The Flock of Christ Who meet together to Worship the Father and the Son in the Spirit of Truth to be read in the fear and wisdom of God amongst them DEar and tenderly beloved Friends and Children of the most high God who have felt and tasted of his eternal Word of Life and have been acquainted with the workings and opperations thereof whereby you are begotten again unto a lively hope and are brought to know that life which you were alienated from and that Covenant of Promise which ye were strangers unto Oh Friends unto you is my love in the Lord Jesus Christ exceeding great and for you do 〈◊〉 pray to the Father of life that ye may be kept stedfast in that life which ye have felt and tasted of and that nothing may move you from that hope and confidence which God hath begotten in you by the working of his mighty power Oh dear Babes let the love of our God break and melt you into the meek tender spirit of the Lamb and let the consideration of his mercy and grace which to you he hath shewn overcome you and make you sick of love Oh how can I express his goodness for it is beyond utterance yea his loving kindness to you-ward hath been exceeding large who in an acceptable time hath appeared and visited you with his tender love the light of the world and by his unresistable power hath he caused you to feel the day spring from on high even the breaking forth of light in your hearts and inward parts yea this did he do for you who were as sheep without a Shepherd scattered upon the Mountains in the cloudy and dark day Oh Friends how did his love reach unto you when ye were enemies unto him how plainly did he shew unto you the evil of your wayes which had seperated you from his presence and how tenderly did he hold forth his hand of love to lead you out of that which had made you miserable and how did he give you strength to walk when ye were lame and inclined your hearts after that which he shewed unto you to be good and how did he manifest his eternal power and righteous judgment in you against the body of sin and how did he beget and quicken a righteous seed in you which cannot live but in his presence and how mightily hath he opened the eye of your understandings by his eternal spirit that ye are brought to see the false wayes and worships of the world wherein ye were once intangled and he hath also given you to see the way to himself and the worship which he regards in the spirit of truth wherein you are come to know that which only can give satisfaction and make you eternally free Oh let the unexpressable love of the Father never be forgotten by you my dear friends but all keep to and dwell in that eternal immortal power of an endless life which ye have felt and tasted of and let your minds be kept to the workings and opperations of the same that so none of you may be daunted by the enemy within or without but all wait in the eternal light the foundation of God which can never be shaken that so your minds may be girded up and you kept upon your watch and your ear kept open to the Lord that so when he calls ye may answer and when he teaches ye may observe and obey that so your souls may live and that ye may see his eternal will in all conditions and be contented therewithal then will you feel the peace which none can take away And friends give all diligence to obey the word of wisdome that ye may be known to be its Children and that ye may feel and witness your growth into the nature of the immortal seed whose Kingdom is not of this world that so your redemption from the earth and all earthly things you may know through the blood of the unspoted Lamb of God which blood is the life which he gave a ransome for many which life is manifested in your mortal bodies that through faith in it ye may be saved And know this my Friends henceforth you are not your own for you are bought with a price and you are called with an holy calling that you might glorifie the Lord in your bodies and spirits which are the Lords Oh my Friends let not your delight be placed in the things of this world for then will you be intangled but wait in the feeling of the pure power of the Lord God that ye may be kept and preserved thereby that so ye that marry may be as if you married not and ye that have of this world as if ye possessed not and that ye may be kept in the living wisdome of God in the ordering of all things that are given unto you that so the glory of God and the honour of his eternall truth may be minded in all things and that your minds and hearts may be drawn out of all created things and ye kept single and chast unto the Lord that so if it were his will that ye should be seperated either from wife or husband outwardly or Children or Houses or Lands or any outward thing for his name sake that ye may be kept in that temper and frame of mind and spirit that ye may resign up all freely without murmuring that so ye may be known to be followers of the Lamb whithersoever he goeth for my babes it is given unto you as well to suffer for his namessake as to believe and hereby shall the world know that ye are redeemed from the earth if ye in patience and innocency give up to the will of God in all things Therefore dear hearts wait in the power and life of God that ye may feel your strength and courage and boldness for the Lord increased that when you are tryed ye may stand in that spirit of life and meekness which will give you eternal peace in all your sufferings and tryalls for the Lord will try you that ye may see and know him alone to be your strength and that the world may know that ye are a people saved by the almighty God and this know that ye that are faithfull shall not be proved beyond your strength for the Lord will be with you in all your tryals and the more that you are persecuted for his name the greater shal his power be felt in you and the more your enemies afflict you the greater shal be your joy and this shall torment your enemies So friends let patience have its perfect work that ye may be perfect and entire wanting nothing for the Lord will make up his Jewels and he will take away all the dross and nothing shall remain but that which will abide the trial in the fire for the Lord hath been loathed with the sacrifices of many who have professed his name but have not been subject to
the leadings of his spirit but have grived it from day to day Therefore will the Lord God try all professions and the chaffe shall be blown away and all false coverings shall be stript off and men shall appear as they are yea the chasse which some time seemed to joyn to the wheate shall be driven to and fro untill the fire consume it or untill it mixe it self with the mire where the swine walloweth but God will have regard unto his seed which is weighty And friends a day of calamity wil come upon them who have worshipped and do worship an unknown God at a distance and pretend the worship of the true God for they shalt call but their God shall not answer and they shall fret themselves fear and terror shal sieze upon them many shal joyn to and fall under that which they have called esteemed Babilonish But there is a Remnant yet to be gathered both from among the professors and prophane Therefore dear hearts let your circumspect walking in the life of righteousness reach the witness of God in all consciences and let your soberness and patience smite your enemies And you that are strong in the Lord and in the power of his might are able to endure much bear ye with the weak and incourage and strengthen the feeble and let your tender love and care be over such as ye feel have true breathings after the Lord though they have have little of a knowledge of the declaration of truth and let your words to and before them and all men be seasoned with grace that ye may minister unto the grace in the hearers And ye that are weak and yet have a true Love begotten in you towards the Lord all wait in the feeling of the truth in your inward parts that your minds may be wrought into subjection to the Lord through the working of his eternal power in you and when you are tempted heed not the temptation but heed the light that makes manifest the temptation and believe in the light and keep to it and ye will feel the Lords presence and strength breaking forth to deliver you and to make a way for you to escape the temptation and if at any time ye be overcome by the subtilty of the Devil and then the light arise in you to make manifest the transgression and to Judge you for it then joyn to the light and love the judgment and will not but be still until it works through and breaks forth into victory and if ye see iniquity abound then take heed that your love wax not cold and if ye see some fall from the truth and turn back with the dogg to the vomit and with the swine that was washed to the wallowing again in the mire and if ye see some for fear of persecution start aside or for the love of this world depart from the faith or turn from the holy Commandment which was delivered unto them upon any account whatsoever let none of these things move or trouble you for such things will come to pass but blessed are they that are not offended with the light but suffers and endures all things unto the end for they shall be saved But this know friends that the Lord God will try you and ye must pass through perils and tryals not only among the open prophane ones but also among such as have known the truth and turns from it yet know my friends that God will not try you further than he will give you strength to endure the tryal if ye be faithful unto him Therefore watch and be sober and waite in the life that ye may have salt in your selves to savor withal and be not weary neither faint in your minds nor let not in distrust but hope to the end and be confident that God will appear and work deliverance for his people but if it be his will that ye must yet be further tryed and that he will yet suffer the wicked to flourish spread forth themselves as a green bay-tree and that ye must yet bear your testimony for the Lord by greater sufferings Oh friends murmur not but hold fast your integrity and know certainly that whatsoever any suffer for the Lord they shall not loose their reward Therefore all friends be valiant and strong and bold for the truth upon earth and walk humbly with the Lord and wisely before your enemies that so ye by doing the thing that is right in the sight of God may put to silence the foolish and ignorant for this is the will of God And friends walk patiently towards all men knowing that ye sometimes were ignorant and foolish and disobedient therefore let your pitty and patience towards them that be disobedient be known and wait that ye may be ready to shew them the thing that is good to instruct them concerning the way of righteousness or if you have not words given you then let you conversation preach forth righteousness that so happily God may give some of them repentance and that ye may be made instruments for the bringing them unto the acknowledgment and knowledge of the truth and live in the wisdome and power of God that so your enemies may have nothing against you justly but if they will persecute you for any thing appertaining to a good conscience be not dismaid or if they falsely accuse you and falsely sweare against you and so ye reckoned among the transgressors by them be not troubled but be patient and keep to the witness of God for thus the wicked served your Master who gave his back to the smiter and his cheeks unto them that plucked of the hair and the servant is not greater than his Lord So let nothing be too dear to be given up for the Lord and bow not to any thing but to the name of Jesus whose name is called the word of God by which we must overcome and break through all this ungodliness Oh the Lord keep you faithful and patient in your tryals for much have we to pass through and to overcome through the patience and long-suffering of the Lamb So let none be exalted above their measures nor cast down by letting in of fears but all dwell in the living nobility of the immortal king of righteousness and keep in subjection to his government and meet together oft in his name though the Sea and the heathen Rage and the people imagin vain things and though the Kings of the earth and the Rulers rise up together and take counsel against the Lamb and his followers and though the rude multitude may persecute you and the whore may drink some of your blood yet be not dismaid neither fear ye at all for in vain do they strive for the Lamb shall get the victory glory to him in the highest And so friends keep your garments unspotted ye who have washed them in the blood of the Lamb and be exceeding tender toward such professors as have a