of time and he bore Testimony for the Truth a full hour or more on the first day before he departed which was on the 4th day after which is all from thy loving Friend John Kennerley NOw concerning our Dear Friend and Brother in the Lord Thomas Briggs who travelled in the Service and Work of God above thirty years and bore Witness both of Christs Sufferings Death Resurrection and Ascension and to the pure Religion that keeps from the Spots of the World and to the Worship of God that Christ set up in the Spirit and Truth and had a zeal for the living God against all Loosness and Debauchery and Deceit and Hypocricy and all unrighteousness and Ungodliness and Profaneness and such as made a profession of God and Christ and did not walk according to their Profession and was zealous for a pure holy life against all Profaneness in Professors and Profane and could not sow Pillows under the Arm-holes of Hypocricys Apostates Backsliders Disemblers and Flatterers with their fair Speeches that had got a form of Godliness but denied the power thereof for such to lie soft upon But from such he always turned away according to the Apostles Doctrine and gave Gods Judgment upon them that such might not deceive the Simple being an upright hearted Man for God and Christ and his pure holy Truth and sounded and declared the pure holy day of Christ in whose day no workers of the Night nor Darkness cometh without Repentance and he preached Christ in his days in most Countrys in England and Wales and in Ireland and in Bardados and some of the Cariby Islands and was faithful to the end in the service and work of Christ and finished his service for the Lord in Cheshire where he dyed in the Lord and his works follow him Being a Man of a Blameless life and Conversation which preached to people as well as his Doctrine of Salvation who turned many from the Darkness to the Light and from the power of Satan to God And likewise turned many from their vain Conversation to the Spirit of Grace that brought their Salvation and so to serve God in newness of Life and Spirit and to walk in the new and living way Christ Jesus in whom they have peace with God He was a Man that went through great Sufferings and Imprisonments and Afflictions Especially in the other Powers Days and since for I have seen the Butchers and the Tanners set their Masty Dogs at him when he bath declared to them the Truth of Christ at Salisbury in Suffolk and the Lord chained up the Dogs Mouths that never a one fastened upon him and the outward professors have been worse then the outward Dogs against him But none of all these things could separate him from the Love of God which he had in Christ Jesus who esteemed the reward of Righteousness in Christ Jesus his Crown of life above all his Afflictions and Sufferings who loved the Lord Jesus Christ and his Son and was valiant for his name and pretious truth upon the Earth who laid down his head in peace and is entered into Christ Jesus his everlasting rest in whom he hath peace with God And so blessed are they that die in the Lord as this Faithful Servant of the Lord hath done London the 2d of the 8th Month 1685. G. F. NOw as in Relation to Thomas Briggs deceased before he was convinced of Gods blessed Truth he was in the Notion of outward Profession amongst the Presbiterians and Independants without life and power but after the Lord opened his understanding he came to see the emptiness of it and the Lord brought him very low and bowed him by his power and made him subject unto his will and mind and he was obedient to the Lord as a Child unto a Father and the Lord gave unto him his good Spirit to inable him in his service and to clear his Conscience at Steeple-houses and Market Places to them and all People and then they rose up in great Rage against him as the Jews did against Paul he was a Man of Sorrows and was in several Prisons and fastings often yet he gave Bread to the Hungry Milk unto the Babes and stronger Meat to them that were of ripers years he had still in the word and Doctrine of Christ Jesus who made him a Minister of Righteousness Peace and Good Will He was a man for Peace among his Brethren a true Labourer in the work of the Lord and did continue to the end steadfast in the Faith without wavering and he rejoyced to see the increase of Labourers in the Vine-yard of the Lord he brought up his Children to be good servants who were not accused of Riot nor of ill Carriage and when they grew to riper age they marryed with equal Yoak fellows and partners in the Truth and grace of God and he hath left them a blessing behind him and a good example he was to them and to the Flock and Family of God In life and Conversation in Sufferings and Afflictions whom the Lord was with and bore him up in all his Tryals and now hath taken him unto himself where no unclean thing can come to rest from all his Labours and his works follow him for a sweet savour hath he left behind him as many can testify who hath been refreshed and comforted by him and a good report he had of them that were without for his life was pure and harmless and they are blessed that follow the Lord in Faithfulness and Truth as he did to receive a Kingdom that is Eternal and never fades away as the Lord in his Love hath made him partaker of London the 3d. of the 8th Month 1685. Thomas Robertson THE END So he was seventy five Years Old when he wrote this So he Laboured in the Gospel of Christ Jesus 37 Years In Cheshire for worshipping God Namptwhich in Cheshire
For he found case in being so to me and said when I was released he would ask no fees And at the Assizes we were called before the Judge and the Power and Presence of the Lord was so with us that when the Judge examined us many times he would turn his Face another way and he set all Friends at Liberty but me and there I remained three weeks and I wrote to the Justice that did commit me to Prison for by him I was commâ—ted and I laid it upon him to release me and at the three weeks end he sent for me and I met him in the Street as I was going to his House and he looked cheerfully on me and I am perswaded the Lord did plead my cause with him and he demanded of me that if I would promise to come again at the Assizes I should have my Liberty And I said if I had my Health and Liberty I should appear again at the Assizes When the Assizes came I did appear and sent to him that I was come to answer what was laid against me he sent me word again there was nothing laid against me I might go which way I would so I went to the Goaler and he desired me that if I came into that Town I would call upon him and see him for he had a love for me and after that time the Goaler was very loving to Friends who had been very wicked before Blessed be the Lord God of Heaven and Earth for evermore who by his blessed power has made our Enemies become our Friends I with John Moon appointed a Meeting in Wiltshire near to the Vizes where many Friends and People of the World came to our Meeting and two Justices of Peace hearing of it came to our Meeting and broke it up and took the names of most part of Friends that were there and let them all go but John Moon and me and three other Friends and they took us to a House by our selves and examined us The one of the Justices was a Royalist and the other a Turn-Coat a deceitful Man they made a Mittimus to send us to the House of Correction for three Months and when they had done we who were Committed were filled with the Power and Presence of the Lord exceedingly and I said to the Justices Friends I am one that believes in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and better it were for you that a Milstone were hanged about your Neck and you be cast into the Sea than to offend one of the little ones that believe in his Name And so we went to the House of Correction and the Man that was the Master of it in a little time became exceeding loving and we had very many pretious Meetings while we were there and many Friends came to visit us And in that time the Justice that had been a Turn-Coat being a Parliament Man went up to London and as he returned home again he Dyed I never saw his Face more We did understand by their Speeches when they examined us that they did intend to profer us the Oath at the three Months end and so to continue us Prisoners but the Lord prevented them and so the keeper of the Prison according to the command of the Justices when the three Months were up sent to know what he should do with us the Man that was a Steward to that great Man who was a Royalist perswaded him to let us go for we were honest Men and through the mercy and goodness of the Lord their snare was broken and we were delivered Blessed be the Name the Lord God for evermore And since that time I have travelled and laboured in the Gospel of Jesus Christ in many parts of England and thrice through the most part of Ireland where I have found the blessed presence of the Lord to go along with me and have had a good service for the Lord. And also I went to the West Indies to Barbados with George Fox and other Friends and the power and presence of the Lord was largely manifest with us and over us and many were wonderfully refreshed and comforted and many turned from the Darkness to the Light and from the power of Satan to Christ And I and William Edmundson went down to Anlego where we had several pretious Meetings and many believed and received our Testimony with gladness of heart we also went down to Mevis to visit Friends in that Island and when we came there an Old Persecutor called Wheeler sent eight Souldiers aboard the Vessel to stop us from coming on Shore for many Friends of that place came to visit us and were refreshed abundantly though he was wicked to hinder us to come a shore to see Friends So we returned again to Anlego and had some Meetings there and then returned again to Barbades And I being long upon the Sea was very weak and few Friends did expect that I should live I was giving up freely to stand in the will of God for Life or Death and as I was waiting on the Lord one Morning in my Bed to know his Mind and Will the word of the Lord came to me and broke my heart in great tenderness and said to me lie low before me thou shalt not die in this Island but return to thine own Nation and there thou shalt lay down thy Head in Peace And thus the Lord hath dealt Mercifully and Bountifully with me in all my Travels and Labours in the Gospel of the Lord Jesus his power and presence hath attended and been with me Blessed and Praised and Magnified be his holy Name for evermore Amen IN the forty third year of my Age I was convinced and in the Year of our Lord God 1653. I was drawn out to go from my dwelling Place to declare the everlasting Gospel in most parts of this Nation and these were the words given unto me that John spoke in the Revelations saying The Angel flying in the midst of Heaven having the everlasting Gospel to preach again saying fear God and give Glory to him and give over Worshipping the Beast and Worship him that made Heaven and Earth and the Fountains of the great Deep for the hour of his Judgment is come and coming upon all false ways and worship for God who is a Spirit will be worshipped in the Spirit and the Truth and such he hath sought and is seeking to worship him And this is that worship that will stand with Christ Jesus set up Sixteen hundred years ago when he reasoned with the Woman of Samaria saying Neither at this Mountain nor yet at Jerusalem will the Father be Worshipped but true Worshippers shall Worship the Father in Spirit and in Truth and in the power of the Lord was I carried on to declare the Truth through this Nation and other parts who preserved me and kept me in all my Travels by his mighty power to him be Glory Honour and Praise for ever and for evermore Amen
AN ACCOUNT OF SOME OF THE TRAUELS AND SUFFERINGS Of that Faithful Servant of the Lord Thomas Briggs And also several Testimonies concerning his Faithfulness to the LORD and Diligence in his Service till DEATH Revel 14. 13. Blessed are the Dead that die in the Lord that they may rest from their Labours and their Works follow them Printed in the Year 1685. An Account of some of the Travels and Sufferings of that Faithful Servant of the Lord Thomas Briggs IN my Youth and tender Years I sought after the Lord God of my Life with Weeping and Crying after him that I might know the way to everlasting Peace and Salvation and run up and down among those People called Ministers twenty years together in a Profession that was called Puritans who were the Ministers that were then called Puritans But they never could direct me to my teacher within which was the cause of my wanting Peace and Satisfaction to my immortal Soul and I went under many heavy Burdens because of my sin and iniquity that separated me from the God of my Life And in an acceptable time it pleased the Lord God to send his dear Servant George Fox into the North Country who was a Messenger of the everlasting Gospel of Peace and did direct me and others to the true light of Jesus Christ that doth lighten every Man that cometh into the World And I with many more did believe his Message and received and joined to the Light and in that which shined in a dark place I believed and waited And the mighty power of the Lord God did appear and was manifested in me and did shake terribly the Earthly part that was above the Seed in which I held the profession of God and Christ but did not know him and in that power of God that did shake the Earthly part the Lord God did give me faith to believe And so the judgments of the Lord God I felt to be come in me And I waited in the way of his Judgments in Patience on the Lord God and his power had brought down that which was for Judgement and the door of Mercy was opened and my understanding by the Light of Christ was opened and I saw all the Teachers of the World that were not sent of God that they were in the Scribes and Pharisees way And I was moved to bear a Testimony against them all and to go to Steeple Houses and to cry against them and to exhort People to turn from them to the true Light of Christ Jesus and to hearken to the Light of Christ within them that they might know the Lord to be their Teacher And I was commanded of the Lord to go from my House and dwelling Place to Manchester to Preach repentance to that Town that was high in Profession The Lords power and presence did wonderfully accompany me and these were the sum of the Words that I was moved to speak through the Town Repent Repent for the mighty terrible day of the Lord God of power is appearing wherein no worker of iniquity shall stand before him who is of a purer eye than to behold iniquity for he wills not the death of a Sinner and if ye repent and turn to him he will abundantly Pardon And this Message the Lord God did lay upon me to go through many Towns and Cities in England through Preston in Lancashire and Gaerstang and through many Villages and Places up and down thereaway the Lord God required me to go through Cambridge streets with the same Message among the Scholars that they might repent and turn to the Lord and also this was my message to them The Lord God was never known by all the Learning that is got at Cambridge and Oxford In Manchester I was moved to go to the Steeple-house to declare against the Priest and they haled me out and put me in a Dungeon on the top of their Bridge and when I was put into that hole the Lords power and presence did so fill my heart that I Sung for joy to the admiration of those that put me in And on the Morrow they brought me out before a Man called a Justice and he said I must go out of the Town I told him I had been without Victuals all that Night and a Piece of the other day and I had done nothing worthy of being thrust out of the Town and I told him that I was one that believed in the name of Jesus Christ and it were better for him that a Milstone were hanged about his Neck and that he were cast into the Sea then that he should offend one of the Little ones that believed in his Name He said if he knew that I were such a one he would not offend me for all the World the Lords blessed power and presence was with me and some of his Servants were convinced But to please the People he sent a Man with me and put me out of the Town over the Bridge and so left me and I followed him into the Town again and got a deal of Friends that were convinced to settle a Meeting in that Town And in Warrington in Lancashire I was moved to go to the Steeple-house with another Friend and the Friend spoke a few words after the Priest had done and his People fell upon us violently and many blows they laid upon us with all their strength but that the Lords power did support us we had been destroyed by them for many weighty blows they laid upon my head and I lost my hat and went above a mile bare headed to a meeting of Friends and this was the fruits of a Priest that was called an Independant who since the King came in is turned out of that Place And as I was going in my journey in Cheshire I was moved to speak to a Priest and he was full of Wrath and Indignation against me and one of his Hearers came behind me and with a mighty blow upon my Head he fell'd me down to the Ground and I got up again and I turned unto him my Face and gave it to the Smiter and he Smote me upon the Teeth that I gusht out and Bled exceedingly Then some People standing by cryed exceedingly against him and they were ashamed and fled away After some little time the Man that Smote me fell Sick and Dyed and upon his Death-Bed said Oh that I had not Smiten the Quaker And in Salisbury in Wiltshire I was moved to declare the terrible Day the mighty Day of the Lord God of Power and was carried on by his mighty Power to clear that which was upon me that they might Repent and turn to the Lord. And when I was got through most part of the Town an Officer came and took hold upon me and brought me before many called Justices who profered me the Oath and accused me to be a Jesuit and I said I could not Swear because Christ had commanded not to Swear at all so they made