largely signified the love of God to his Soul at that time He was in his Day a true Traveller in the Lord's Service and doubtless he hath received his Reward and though he be taken from us I doubt not but the Lord will raise many faithful Witnesses to bear a Testimony to his Name that he may have Honour to whom all Honour is due Alice Clarke A Testimony concerning our dear Friend and Brother in the Lord Robert Lodge WHo was a Yorkshire man and dyed in the Lord in the Year 1690. when he had fulfilled his Ministry and finished his Testimony who was often under great Persecution Sufferings and Spoiling of Goods which through the assistance in the Lord's Power he went through them all joyfully and many times had great Exercise with Backsliders Apostates and Prophane He was a man that laboured and travelled and had a great Care upon him for the Peace of the Church of Christ and his Government of Peace the encrease of which there is no end he travelled up and down in many places in England freely preaching the Everlasting Gospel of our Lord and Saviour and did turn many to it being a man much indued with the Gifts of God and being an Elder and Pillar in the Church of Christ he travelled with me up and down in Ireland jeopardied his Life among the Priests and Papists there in the Year 1669 where there were many large and pretious Meetings of the Lord's People and the Lord's Presence and Power was among us and them And when we had finished our Testimony there we came over into England and in it he travelled up and down visiting the Churches of Christ and turned many to the Lord and he dyed in the Lord in Yorkshire and is blessed and entred into his Rest and is ceased from his Labours and his Works follow him And much more might be writ of his faithful Labour in the Lord who was well known in the Church of Christ who preacht in his good Life and Conversation as well as in his Doctrine and was much beloved and he will be missed in the Church of Christ but the Lord can raise up more faithful Labourers in his Gospel to stand in his place Amen The 13th of the 9th Month 1690. G. F. An Epistle To FRIENDS Written from Chambrussel in the County of Armagh in Ireland the 24th of the 4th Month 1660. MY dearly beloved Friends with whom I have Unity in the unchangeable Love and Life in the Lord Jesus in whom we receive pure and living Consolation whereby the Seed is refreshed which breaths and thirsts after the Fountain of Love and Mercy which tenderly falls down upon the upright in Heart as Dew to the tender Herb whereby that which hath been in the want comes to be satisfied and filled with the living Vertue which comes from the presence of the Lord and in this my dearly beloved Friends I salute you in the Fountain of Love Life and endless Joy which is shed abroad in my heart which streams forth it self through me whereby the Seed is refreshed and in this feel me as you are felt in the measure of the unchangeable Life of God in which I rejoyce feeling you in that which is everlasting in which my Unity stands with you who are of a broken and contrite Heart who are kept in a feeling of the dreadful presence of God And therefore wait all Friends to feel the Power which raises the Seed immortal to which the Promise of Blessing is due which Seed the Lord is satisfying with the breakings forth of his Love in all them who in patience are kept waiting to feel the opperation of God's living Power for by the Power of God comes the Seed to be brought out of the weary Land which the Lord abundantly waters in all the Faithful who in faithfulness are kept near unto the Seed such come to receive of the loving-kindness of God and to pertake of his sweet Mercies which daily are felt to the glory of the Lord for ever Therefore my dearly beloved Friends wait in the Light the Power to feel that you may be kept safe in the Arms of the Lord's love that you may be shadowed over with the Power of the Most High God which is our strength and daily support wherein we feel the Spirit of the Lord lifting up a Standard against all the Enemies of the Seed So dear Hearts be stayed in the Light continually to feel the dreadful Power of God accompanying you unto which all your Enemies must become subject whose Power and Presence is felt wherein our Souls rejoyce who hath enlarged our hearts and filled us with the heavenly joy for in him we have Peace and Comfort therefore be not cast down at the sight of Affliction but all be watchful and deligent to feel the pure workings of the Spirit of Life whereby a change may be wrought in your Hearts and you raised above the Grave by the quickening Power of the Almighty God for in this is Comfort and Refreshment felt and Peace and pure Love which many Waters cannot quench and in this all wait to be knit up and united that the one Fountain of Love and Mercy may be every particulars satisfaction and reward So rest your Friend in the Truth Robert Lodge Let this be sent to Hardcastle-Garth and so to Masham A Salutation of Love from the Opening of the Springs of eternal Life unto the Flock of God in Bonds or elsewhere scattered upon the Earth but are one in the endless Life of God Greeting DEar Friends whom the Lord hath visited with the Day spring from on high and unto whom the Lord hath made known his Power and the Arm of his strength for your deliverance from the deep captivity that your Souls lay in in times past when there was none to help you nor to comfort you when you spent your days in mourning for want of the presence of the Lord and in that day did the Lord hear your groans and the sighs of your Spirits and he appeared for your comfort when you were comfortless and in that day the Lord made known his Judgments in you for the purging of the Dross out of you that way might be made in you for the sweet dispencing forth of his Mercies And since the Lord prepared you for himself by the work of his own Spirit how hath he let forth himself unto you to the making of your Hearts glad and to the overcoming your Souls with the strength of his love that hath made you to say in secret who is like to the Lord or what is to be compared with his love and when your hearts were thus disposed of by him for whom you had waited what was all the worlds glory to you for this was more to you than all whose hearts were opened in the sence of the want of him And now seeing the Lord hath done such great things for you it is the pleasure of your God to try
SEVERAL Living Testimonies Given forth by divers Friends TO THE Faithful Labours and Travels Of that Faithful and Constant Servant of the LORD Robert Lodge Who was a true Minister of the Gospel of Christ a Valient Sufferer for the Testimony of a good Conscience one that held out to the end and is saved ALSO Two General Epistles written by himself long since to the Believers in Christ And are now Printed for their Edification and Refreshment The Name of the Righteous shall be had in Everlasting Remembrance c. Printed for T. Sowle And Sold at the Crooked Billet in Hâ—llâ—â—â—â—-Loâ—e Shâ—â—â—ditch 1691. The Testimony of Peter Hardcastle concerning the Life and Death of Robert Lodge THis our Friend and Brother a Servant of the Lord Jesus Christ Robert Lodge I was acquainted with before we were gathered to be a Meeting to sit down in silence to wait upon God in his Light for he then lived near me with one related to me and we had much discourse about Religious matters and he saw the Errors of the Priests more clearly than I did and was serviceable to me at that time But after this it pleased the Lord to send his faithful Servants amongst us to Preach the everlasting Gospel and they directed our minds to the Light of it in our Consciences and many were convinced of the way to eternal Life and Salvation and thus were we gathered to be a Meeting to sit in the silence of Flesh waiting upon God in his Light And in process of time we being gathered in the Name of the Lord Jesus he made his Power known in our Meeting in an admirable manner to the renting of the Vail and breaking down the partition Wall and raising our Souls from Death unto Life which caused great Joy and Comfort in us and amongst us And by the Power and Spirit of Life after a little time our deceased Brother Robert Lodge was moved to go into Ireland to bear Testimony with other Brethren of the everlasting Truth and way of Truth and Salvation and having done his Service there at that time he returned again into England and travelled in many parts of it and went into Ireland again and travelled in both Nations to visit the Gatherings of the Lord's People and to stir up their pure minds by way of remembrance of the manifold Mercies and Favours and Loving-kindnesses of God which he hath made known unto his People in this our day after the long Night of Apostacy And the Prophecy of Daniel is fulfilled in this our Age where he saith Many shall run to and fro and Knowledge shall be increased and he saith also They that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the Firmament and they that turn many to Righteousness as the Stars for ever and ever Dan. 12. And he was Instrumental in the hand of God to turn many to Jesus Christ God's Righteousness the sure Foundation and Rock of Ages which yields living Water unto the Soul and so his Testimony reached to the Witness of God in the Consciences of many and I have been many times sweetly refreshed under his Testimony and Ministry Oh the sweet Union and Society and Fellowship we have had together in the Gospel it breaks my Heart and tenders my Spirit at this time when I am writing these Lines I loved him before we were gathered and much more since because of his Sincerity and Truth in his inward parts for he kept his first Love and Habitation in the Truth And he was Instrumental also for building up in the holy Faith that the Spirit of Opposition and Separation might not get advantage to draw us from the Spirit and Power of our Lord Jesus Christ he was committed to several Prisons in this Nation and in Wakefield-Prison he wrote an Epistle to Friends and when he suffered Imprisonment or otherwise for the Testimony of the Truth he was kept in patience and rested in the will of God So he having kept the Faith and Patience of our Lord Jesus and dying in the Lord is at Rest his Body is in the Grave but his Spirit is with the Lord Jesus and with the Spirits of just and holy Men and Women who have served the Lord in their day according to his Will revealed unto them by his holy Spirit Praises Honour and Glory to the Lord God and the Lamb for evermore So I having known him so long a time and some of his Tryals and Exercises and faithfulness to God and his Truth I could not well but give this short Testimony concerning him Peter Hardcastle senior Thomas Whitton his Testimony concerning the Life and Death of Robert Lodge THat the Memory of the Just may be had in Remembrance and the Travel of the Righteous in future Ages not forgotten this Testimony I have to bear for our dear Friend Robert Lodge who is now gone whose Exercises and Travels are at an end and I doubt not but that he is at rest with the Lord He was a man whom I knew above this thirty Years even from his Youth who received the Truth in his tender Years in a large measure and the Lord hath made him a very serviceable Instrument in his hand for gathering many to the Way of Life out of the ways of the World and that in his young Years both in this Nation and also in Ireland as many can testifie and not only so but the Lord hath as I may truly say made him a Son of Consolation amongst his People to the watering and refreshing of many weary Souls his Travels in Spirit I knew being one of the same Meeting even for the hindmost of the Flock and his sympathizing with those that travelled for the same I also knew him in the helping on the Work of the Lord and when that Life and Power of God rose in him in a Meeting to the opening his Mouth the Lord hath made his Words as the Balm of Gillead to the broken hearted Much might be said of his Service in and for the Truth in his day and toward the closure thereof he laboured with and for the young Friends that they may come up in the Footsteps of those who are gone before and at Rest with the Lord with many and frequent Supplications to the Lord for them that they might walk as becomes the Truth in their Generation The time of his Sickness was short but about three or four days and about three or four days a little ill before I going to see him asked him how he did and how it was with him he gave me account of his Distemper and Infirmness and did question his recovery of the same But saith he the Lord knows my Heart and that I have served him and it hath been of more account to me the gaining of one Soul than all my Labours and Travels So I have great cause to believe he was in a good sence of the Recompence of his Reward so leaving him very weak that night and
your love unto himself whether you can follow him to the loss of all things in this World yea or nay for such a Birth the life of God hath been long travelling for and now they are blessed that can say This birth is brought forth in which they can give up all for the enjoyment of the Lord who hath turned a Wilderness into a fruitful Land and a fruitful Land into barrenness in the inward and he likewise is able to make it so outwardly for them that believe and follow him in faithfulness unto the end So my well-beloved in the Lord who have felt his Judgments Mercies in your Hearts who by the same are ingaged to follow the Lord and hold forth your Testimonies for his righteous Name blessed you are as you abide in the overcoming love of God by which your hearts have been drawn after the Lord and after a further enjoyment of his Life who cannot be satisfied without the fresh breakings in of his Love into your hearts Oh blessed are you for ever however the Lord may dispose of you as to the outward man the Lord will be unto you as the shadow of a mighty Rock in a weary Land you are the begotten of himself by the Word of his Power he will nourish you by the vertue of his own life and by the sweetness of his own love and this being felt it makes all easie and delightsome whatsoever for there is nothing to be compared with this love of our God Therefore arise you Sons and Daughters of the Lord and shew forth the love that you bear to him that all may know whose off-spring you are and how highly you esteem of the goodness of God that you can forsake all for him and the light of his countenance which is more to you than all the world Oh Friends it is for your sakes that the Lord hath done great things already and yet will the Lord do greater things in the Earth for you as in the heavenly life you abide the Lord will arise for your help in the time of your distress and need And therefore fear not you the wrath of man nor the fury of the ungodly but in the life look unto the Rock of your Salvation and he will beautifie you with the Robes of Righteousness and with the Garments of Praises that all may see and confess to the glory of him that hath shined forth of Sion this day And dear Friends you that have felt the love of God in gathering you out of the world and in preserving you unto this day let the kindness of the Lord and the compassion that he hath shewed to you be an ingagement upon your hearts to walk with the Lord in faithfulness that as the Lord hath watered your Souls with the streams of life and pure love from day to day and from time to time he might still continue the same to you unto the end of your days that your blossom thereby may not wither but be kept beautiful in the Eyes of the Lord that his delight may be in you to do you good to rejoyce over you in his love as it hath been in times past that by the same we might grow further in love with him and be more and more affected with his glory that however it be permitted to fall out concerning these Bodies we may be the Lord's and he the lot of our Inheritance Then shall we be constrained to say Our lot it fallen in good Ground And therefore you render Babes be not discouraged nor amazed at the face of things for mighty is the Lord who is with us and glorious is his Arm that doth compass us about this day and pure is the Food that the Lord is feeding the tender spirited withal which makes us undervalue all the world and its glory because our hearts are ravished with the love of God which wonderfully is made manifest this day glory be to the Name of the Lord for ever who breaks in upon us by the force of his love daily so that our Souls are become as watered Gardens through the thowring down of his Blessings wherewith my Soul is visited at this time and in which I do visit you all in the life of God in Bonds or elsewhere who are called to bear witness for the Lord in this trying but not destroying day that the purpose of our God may be fulfilled and his determination compleated that the works of the Lord may bring him praise in the Gates of the wicked who alone is worthy of Glory and Honour for ever and ever saith my Soul From a Friend to all the upright hearted People of God that wait for the building of distressed Sion known by the Name of Robert Lodge Given forth at the House of Correction in Wakefield the 9th Day of the third Month 1665. A Testimony concerning the Life and Death of our dear Friend and Brother in the Lord John Stubbs HE received the Lord's Truth in 1653. at Carlile and forsook much for it and did Travel with me in the Lord's Service up and down in England And he was a Schollar and an excellent Writer and a notable Minister of the Gospel of Christ and went through many Sufferings and Hardships for the Gospel's sake and after he and William Caton for declaring the Truth at Maidstone in Kent the Magistrates and wicked Priests and Professors caused them to be set in the Stocks and Whipt and put out of the Town about 1652 in Oliver Cromwell's days and he having been a Baptist did convince some of them and turned many to the Lord And after he and Samuel Fisher who had been a Baptist and a Parish-Priest travelled to Rome through those dark Countries and they having cast some of our Friends into the Inquisition all was shut up but only they had some Service for the Lord with some Cardinals and the Jews and some Monks and Fryers and such like and they confest it was the Truth but if they should confess it openly they would burn them And about the Year 1660. he and some other Friends had it in their minds to go to the East-Indies and the East-India-Company would not let them go in their Ships and they got an order from the King to let them go and they would not obey it And then they went into Holland to get passage there for the East-Indies and they also denyed them and then they took Shiping and went as far as Egypt to 〈…〉 the East-Indies by Caravâ—â—◠〈…〉 where the English Consul banished them out of Egypt and then they came to England again after they had had some Service for the Lord in several places And John Stubbs the Lord let him see that the English and the Dutch would go to War one with another which not long after came to pass And about the Year 1670. he Travelled with with me to Barbadoes and also he went to New-England where he laboured in the Grace of God and had a good Service for the Lord and from thence he went to Barbadoes again freely preaching the everlasting Gospel of Christ and then he came into England and when he had fulfilled his Ministry and finished his Testimony he dyed in the Lord and is at Rest and Peace with him and is blessed and ceased from his Labours and his Works follow him And he departed this Life near London about 1673. He was a wise Man and sought the Peace of the Church of Christ and was a good Example he preacht in good Life and Conversation as well as good Doctrine and was zealous and never turned from the Lord from his first receiving of him but bore all his Sufferings and Reproaches faithfully for the Name of Jesus who was one of his Followers and was many times exercised with Apostates and Prophane and had Tryals by false Brethren but the Lord in his Power gave him Dominion over them all blessed be his Name for ever Amen The 13th of the 9th Month 1690. G. F. THE END