the Saints my love to that Testimony made me willing to stand by him in his Sufferings and to bear his Cross for which Testimony the World the Powers of darkness then ruling my Kindred and my Brethren the Quakers sold me into Aegypt by their many false reports yet there the Lord my God appeared to me and finding me in my Innocency wherewith he had clothed me hath ever fince become my exceeding great Reward Nov. 30. 1678. BY what I have formerly and now sent for England you may see how I have bin acted for many years Lately I have heard a Voice from Heaven saying Turn thy Sword into Plowshares and into Pruning Hooks stay at home Dress and keep clean the Garden of Eden thine own Heart that no root of bitterness spring up there I also now begin to feel an inclination to write out fair that which long since I have prepared and to present each of the seven Churches of Christendom with an Epistle I formerly intended them Then will many come to see beyond the Letter of that * Viz. the Gift of 210l. to the 7 Churches An. 1666. Action and not the sound of Words only nor from Mount Sinai but from Sion where it is written In the Mount of the Lord it shall be seen and heard by all that have an Ear to hear what the Spirit saith at whose Voice of Love our Friend Lazarus will awake and rise out of his sleep In truth I thought the Epistles promised would soon have followed my Gift but in short time after I came to see that the day was not for Unity and Amity but for biting and devouring one another so that instead of raising our Brother Lazarus we had our hands every one against his Brother two against three and three against two which work tended to the Crucifying of the Lord of Life afresh but I hope the day is dawning that after Ages or next Dispensation will speak more reverently of Unity and Amity I have bin made contrary to my Nature a Man of Contention and strife to all the World one that at the command of the Lord hath sold my Coat made of Love and Good-will to all and bought a Sword with which I have fought a long and tedious Battel of about ten years standing against all Professors of Moses and of Christ which War I believe will go on throughout the whole World to the destruction of all Idols in all Religions and to the setting up of Christ Jesus God's Word in the Heart his Priest and Prophet King over all the Earth His Fan is in his hand and he will throughly purge his Floor even all the Children of Light that they may offer to the Lord in a clean Vessel of His own an Offering in Righteousness Wherefore be ye clean pure Virgins that bring forth the Birth of God and bear the Vessels of the Lord. Thus all that are baptized into this one Spirit of Love to Truth and Righteousness stand as Saviours on Mount Zion with the Trump of God in their Hearts to judg and save the Mount of Esau not in a wrathful bitter Spirit but in the same loving-kindness wherewith God hath judged and saved us for so will the Kingdoms of this World become the Kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ and he shall and must reign for ever and ever I confess formerly for a long time I have had Conscience of an Idol and contended only for one sort of People but now an Idol to me is nothing and my present state is to own that which is of God in any sort of Men and to become all things to that of God in all Men that is not of Sin that so I may reach save and unite in the Love of God all Men to each other in all Religions which Love shed abroad in our Hearts is God's Salvation to all Men even to the ends of the Earth I have here sent my Epistle to the Roman Catholicks that by this you may see the Patern of the rest which Patern I received some years since from the Mountain of God's Love not from Mount Sinai but from Mount Sion the Habitation of the Blessed the New Jerusalem who is Father and Mother Brother and Sister of all God's Children who are regenerate and born again of the Seed and Spirit of Grace God's Sons and Daughters At the revelation of which when I saw and considered the end of the Lord in that my saluting of the seven Churches my Heart did leap and skip within me like to a Roe or young Hart upon the Mountain of Spices I say in this Mountain of God's Love the sanctified Heart stands the Saviour Christ our Lord the Spirit of the Father who saves his People from their Sins the which sanctifies and redeems them from all Iniquity Who is who was and who is to come one and the same through all Generations from everlasting to everlasting An. 1677. And now I shall settle to write out fair what I have prepared for the remaining seven Churches That already sent I think hath no contention or strife in it if you see any thing of that Nature I pray take it out of the way My Mind is directed in this Testimony of the universal Love of God to the World to receive and treasure up as in Joseph's Store-houses all that which is of God in every Religion and to hand it forth in this time of Famine of Love to God and our Neighbour which is seen to break in as an overflowing Scourge over all Christendom not only in Egypt amongst the Prophane but amongst Professors of all sorts who account themselves the Sons of Jacob And what I see to be false and reprobate Silver the Inventions Traditions and Impositions of Men to return that back again as their own Money in their own Sacks And in so doing I hope none will be offended thereat You need not be careful or sollicitous in publishing what I send only when you feel your Mind in frame whether as in a Cloud or Pillar of Fire fitting and preparing to such an end gently follow after it as it leadeth for they that are come into the Faith of God's Elect the second Covenant do not make haste but are entred into their Rest even into God's everlasting Sabbath of Rest where in the new Covenant of Grace in Matters Spiritual they cease from their own Works from labouring and toiling in the first Covenant of Works as He did from His. The Days approaching are evil to all Worshippers in the outward Court Lo here and Lo there where the Potsherds of the Earth will dash one against another and bring all into Confusion This is the portion of the Ungodly that have not the Birth of God in them In this time of Trouble will God build his Church and Temple the New Jerusalem in the sanctified Hearts of his People wherein he will place his Name for ever And as for those that worship God in the Spirit
parts by and through which I see and know how to give to God those things which belong to him and unto Cesar likewise his due For as with my Soul I own God only to be my Lord and Teacher so over my outward Humanity for divers respects I can as truly call Man my Lord and Master also c. An Abstract of a Letter R. R. wrote to an endeared Friend of his called a Quaker 1657. Dear Heart HOw is it that I hear in thee a Voice of weeping Rachel mourning for her Children Wottest thou not that I must go about my Father's business and that for this end I came into the World to bear witness to the Truth Was not my self and many more innocent ones cast out from amongst them and sold into Egypt Many dark things laid to our charge which we never said nor did I would not have thee one with them in their Work to fight their Battels either to justify the wicked or condemn the innocent lest thou partake with them in their Judgments as Jehosaphat did in siding and making a Confederacy with Ahab who daily impose upon their Brethren and will not let them go free to act what the Lord requireth of them O Jerusalem Jerusalem how oft have I sought to find Love in thee towards thy Brethren and when it fled how oft have I pursued after it I believe I might have been received again into fellowship amongst them but then I must first have turned the Truth of God into a Lie and spoke evil of those things I knew to be good denying the Testimony which I knew the Lord gave me to finish and so have betrayed Jesus which thing I shall never do so long as the Breath of the Almighty is in me nor call any Man Master of my Light and Spirit save God only And if now at length the Lord hath seen the Oppression of his People and is coming to plead their Cause or hath raised up any to be a Rod or Scourge to whip out of his Temple those that have bought or sold the Innocent for a thing of nought what am I that I should resist or judg evil of them that do his Will Or if any be commanded of the Lord to feast Haman why should Mordecai be offended thereat For my part I have long seen wherein the Liberty and Freedom of the Son consisteth and that this is he that loves his Enemy that rewards evil with good and doth not salute a Brother only this is He that is Heir of all things and must reign tho at present his Face be more marred than any Man's and blessed is he that is not offended in Him but is made conformable in all things to Him he must reign also But he that judges his Brother in Meats or Drinks or any other outward thing that contends more for his own Traditions than the Commands of God that will not let his Brother go free to worship God where and how he requireth I say this is the Son of the Bondwoman which must be cast out and shall not inherit I am not troubled to see the Lord coming to plead the Cause of the Innocent and to make a separation betwixt the two Seeds who have served the Lord and who have served their own ends and blessed are they who with joy can stand the Trial. O dear Heart enter thou not into their Secrets nor say a Confederacy with blood-thirsty Men who have usurped Authority over the measure of God in their Brethren and with Herod have slain the Man-child begot in many and would not hear his Testimony nor suffer his Voice to be uttered As the Lord lives their Nakedness shall be no longer hid and what hath long lain secret must now be preached upon the House-top and herein the Innocent can and will rejoice I am Bone of their Bone and Flesh of their Flesh who are innocent and of an upright Heart with the Lord in what is made manifest such a one is as my Father and Mother Sister and Brother Another to the same Person 1658. O That thou wert not one with them that have condemned their innocent Brethren in Meats and Drink c. all which are but shadows of good things and must perish but the Body is Christ For my part my Hat to me is no more than any other part of my Apparel and I find I may without sin shew the Love I have in my Heart to any by putting off my Hat and that it is to me all one as if I gave my hand and signifies the same thing Yet I would not have all others to follow me in this but first to examine themselves and so let them eat and drink left they eat and drink their own damnation Neither dare I judg any that can love his Enemy or do good to the good and to the bad or that can become all things that is not evil in the sight of God to all Men to save all I am persuaded such do well to follow the Lord when he leads into these things I dare not judge such to be Men-pleasers or to be one with the wicked in their evil but rather judg such an one to be an Example to all the Children of God as being most like our heavenly Father For my part I have great reward with the Lord for bearing my Testimony against this Spirit of Imposition which hath been as high as Heaven but my hope is the Lord will bring it down as low as Hell and in this Faith have I rest An Abstract of a Letter written by R. R. to R. M. a Quaker ONe of you being offended at my speaking a few words in your Meeting said He knew my Spirit to be in opposition T o whom I replied If it be so framed ought not I to be faithful to what it requires Certainly the Majesty of true Love and Meekness would have born what I had to offer and not have been offended truly a little Christian Patience and some of that Perfection talked of would have taught you this Lesson And you might know this that he that is the Light of the World is set as well for the Fall as for the Rise of many in Israel But you have long dwelt here usurping Authority to condemn those God hath justified Through such carnal reasoning as you have brought against me hath the first appearance of Truth in all Ages been opposed by the Builders and Masters of Assemblies in all Sects who are so right in their own eyes that they can hardly acknowledg Truth that comes after them to have been before them as John did John 3.30 this Self-denial being too great a thing for him to do that sticks in form or that is born of a Woman such with Rachel cannot live except they bring forth Children in their own likeness There are many innocent meek and tender-hearted amongst you that are and shall be willing in the day of his Power to follow him in his Resurrection
helpeth the Lord in his VVork for it doth not beget to love And is it not most just that that Name or Form should be left for a Curse that despiseth the Innocent for these outward things but I trust and am assured that the Lord will in his due time free the Earth from this Curse Thou askest me How I could compare or liken thy Friends Actions to the Pope or to them in New-England calling them your Forefathers seeing as thou sayest thy Friends bear their Testimony against the Pope's Idolatry and Persecution and also have suffered Deach for a Testimony against the New-England Oppression To all which I answer and say That the Spirit of Persecution is but one throughout all Generations and Forms tho never so refined for he that murders in New-England is the same that imprisons at Rome yet each bear a Testimony against one anothers Forms The same Spirit of Persecution have I seen and observed amongst those which thou callest Friends who for a Song of Zion or a Shout of inward Gladness or any other thing that suites not with their Traditions or Forms can with the same Spirit of Persecution cast out of their Synagogues smite with the Fist of VVickedness and wound with the venomed Arrow of their Reproaches those who cannot submit or join with them in their way And this is not falsly to accuse the Brethren as thou chargest me withal for any to tell you what they have heard and seen amongst you but rather a just return of your own Money into your own Sacks that you may measure your dealings with the Innocent by your own Practices and when the Witness of God ariseth amongst you and sheweth you your Transgressions and wherein you have offended those that have been otherwise acted than our selves then will you know that these things are Truth and the Desolation that shall be in your House at that day shall testify to your Faces that a Prophet hath been amongst you When mark what I say it shall so come to pass that the same Wrath and Vengeance shall break out upon you from others which you have heaped upon the Backs of those who were justified in their Hearts and Ways before the Lord then know and you shall assuredly that I have not spoken Lies unto you or forged a false Divination amongst you What I have here charged upon some I would not be understood to lay it upon all that have been called and are known by the Name of Quakers I know the Lord hath his People amongst them as in all Forms both of Jews and Gentiles such as love and fear the Lord doing the thing which is just and right and such are accepted with me as Bone of my Bone and as my Brother Benjamin that came of the Free-Woman and are in that Freedom fitted to act in all Forms as the Lord their Light shall lead them that they may replenish the Earth And those who are come to this Freedom viz. to give the Light its Liberty of leading according as it enlightens every Man that comes into the World in all Forms and Appearances the Curse is taken away the Enmity is departed and the Earth become the Lord's and his Christ's Let him that can receive it as doth R. R. And when your Work is done and come to an end then shall the Stone from Sion you stumbled at be set up with shouting crying Grace Grace unto it Zech. 4.7 THere are divers Operations and Dispensations yet all good as having their beginning and End in God And why therefore may not God enjoin that as an Ordinance to day and give his power to it also which to morrow he will lay aside as useless and by his withdrawing his Power from it leave it no better than an Idol Such was the Brazen Serpent such was the Temple and Tabernacle such were the Legal Offerings the Jewish Ceremonies and Sacrifice and such also are many things at this day both amongst the Quakers and other Sects which have been Forms and Figures of good things to come which were beautiful in their season whilst the Presence of God filled them but that being withdrawn are become dead and cold as Idols of no use Wherefore my advice is that all Men walk as they see and have received from the Lord and none to look out at others or to call any Man Master or Father of their Spirits save God only And if the Lord commands any to forsake Father or Mother the Forms and Traditions they were brought up in ought not all rather to obey God than Man Consider this G. F. and whether to forsake our own Guide and to follow thee or any Number of People that call themselves a Church who take upon them to impose upon their Brethrens Consciences be not Apostacy And whether this Usurpation did not at first lead the Church of Rome into the Apostacy And whether it will not the second time lead the Quakers to apostatize from the true Faith once delivered to them let the wise in Heart judg J. C. THou accusest me of being fallen and deeply revolted from the Truth and of being brutish and uncivil at your Meetings c. What thou hast here laid to my Charge is not so much by far as thy Generation at sundry times hath also cast on the Innocent and upright-hearted even all manner of Evil for bearing record to the Truth as made manifest in the Light viz. by witnessing to small and great that the Lord is my Shepherd and Teacher alone and that I needed no Man to teach me save him only and that to those who had received the Anointing it was sufficient to bring to Peace and Rest with God and Man and to preserve Union and Communion with Him in all his Creation And for this and my rejoycing which daily I have in Christ Jesus my Lord have I suffered all these things at your hands and been set at nought by Herod and his Men of War even by those amongst you that would be accounted Some-body who desire preheminence and to have Dominion over the Faith of others and that glory in making Proselytes and to have a Multitude to follow them calling you Masters or Teachers For by such and in this manner have I long and oft received your Arrows even bitter Words and Writings which sometimes as I saw cause I have returned back again into your own Bosoms and this you call a wrangling and unruly Spirit At present I have little more to say than that I am resolved to be faithful to what is committed unto me and to declare the same to day and to morrow and also the third day even till the Body be perfected and Him set upon the Throne even that Light that is in true Love whose right it is to reign which thing tell Herod that Fox your King so that all may have Peace and Rest in Him who is only worthy of Praise Honour and Glory alone even so saith my Spirit Amen
of Truth such he will save and preserve as his Jewels in the hollow of his hand Wherefore to your Tents O Israel you that are circumcised in Heart and Ears enter ye into your Master's Joy the Love of God shed abroad in your Hearts the Ark and Tabernacle which God not Man hath pitched in all the Sanctified and be therein at Peace with that of God in all his Creation So will you come to the everlasting Sabbath of Rest which God hath prepared for all that love him and wait for his Appearance An. 1678. More Abstracts of Letters to particular Friends I Received yours which I accepted as an ample Testimony of your endeared Union with the Bridegroom of our Souls in which I greatly rejoice to meet you one in the footsteps of his Companions enquiring where He maketh his Flocks to rest at Noon as not willing to shade your self under any false Rest or Security but waiting in the Patience and Faith of the Saints till his Power of Grace from on high more abundantly shines forth and overshadows the whole Earth with the Glory of his Immanuel This Spirit of Love is the Tree of Life whose Leaves are for the healing of the Nations and under the infinite spreading Branches thereof we may all of every Nation Sect or People sit down together the Wolf with the Lamb in safety and peace In the humble expectation and patient waiting of my Spirit for the full manifestation of this all-saving Grace I dearly salute you together with all Saints in whose Bodies as in the Clouds I see the Lord coming to reconcile all things to Himself through the death of Sin by nailing the Enmity to his Cross which is the Power of Love and by that Life swallow up Death into Victory As for my self it hath pleased the Lord to lead me through various Changes and Operations shewing me the Wonders of his Power Many years since I heard a Voice in the Wilderness preaching Repentance for the Remission of Sins and to prepare a Way for the Lord by putting off the Old Man with his deeds under which Dispensation of the Quakers as that of Elias and John I was baptized in that Cloud and there abode till Judgment was brought forth into Victory Afterwards being called up higher by receiving a double measure of the Spirit sate down in Heavenly Places with Christ Jesus whence I heard a Voice saying In whomsoever I saw the Spirit descending like a Dove and abiding viz. the Spirit of Meekness of Innocency and of universal Charity that this was and is the Son of God in whom He is always well pleased And Him not my self I preach for Salvation to the ends of the Earth Him who was before Abraham was and is now and for ever the same throughout all Generations From which root of Jesse did proceed the Salutation of me R. R. to the seven Churches of Christendom that all of every Form or Sect of People in the World might cease from Man and all other Idols look up unto Him and be saved I see the Multitude of all Sâ—cts standing at this day with Moses in the Mount each under their proper Attainments contending with one another and condemning all others both Persons and Things that suit not with their Laws and legal Discoveries of Truth every one in their Tribes highly pretending to the Glory of God but in truth only tending to crucify the Son of God afresh and put him to open shame c. July 2. 1670. To another Friend WHerefore ye Sons and Daughters of Sion ye Inhabitants of the New Jerusalem blow ye the Trumpet of God say ye The Lord reigneth make ye a joyful Noise that the whole World and all therein may ring and sing forth his Praise whose Name Worship and Nature is one and the same most excellent yea whose Name is also Truth in the inward parts the Word in the Heart that whosoever walketh in the Truth and Light manifested in every Conscience of all or any Religion shall be saved To other Friends Dear Hearts I Lately saw you sent forth as Sheep amongst Wolves therefore be ye as wise as Serpents and as innocent as the Dove In the Power that sends you forth stand and for it wait then as any thing is to be done it will arise And when you are before those that would rule over your Conscience take no thought neither be at all careful what you shall speak for it shall be given you at that instant Thus will you come to witness the Lilly which is more glorious than Solomon Behold I go before you into Galilee of the Gentiles whither our Lord the Power is gone to gather all things into Himself for out of Egypt will he bring his Son But wait you at Jerusalem the Mother of us all for the Power which is the Father that begat us of his own good will and pleasure into which and by which the gathering of the People will be and not by Words or Sounds neither into Sects or Opinions but whosoever is Servant to the Power will be accepted of what Nation Kindred or People soever he be This is a true and faithful Saying blessed is he that can receive it such an one comes to cease from his own Labours and hath rest and peace in God to which I commend you and in it abide Your Brother R. R. These are the Days of Vengeance wherein none can live in Peace that cannot pass by an Injury love their Enemies and reward Evil with Good The END Pag. 11. lin 30. for were read was P. 16. l. 25. for our read your