keep you tender and open to the instruction of life both in your selves and in whomsoever it shall breath forth Exhortation or doctrine that ye may be edified or built upon that foundation which is sure whereby ye may be strengthened against every appearance of evill and stand pure in a righteous holy blamelesse life which may silence all gainesayers and be to the praise and glory of God who hath called you out of darkaness into his marvellous light wherein that ye may abide for ever is the earnest desire of your brother and Companion in tribulation who under his owne hand hath sent you this Salutation from Spalding prison this 19th day of the 9th Moneth 1664. John Whitehead This is a Salutation or a Token of the Lords Love to all the Sufferers who are Prisoners in Newgate and in the other Prisons about London and Hertford unto you this is given forth by the flowings of life to you wards MOst dar and Well-beloved of the Lord who have chosen the good part even the seed that is elected for ever in which Gods blessings as the dew from heaven you have felt by which your hearts are deeply engaged unto him and ye cannot but follow him whithersoever he is pleased to lead you and me thinks I hear the cry of the beloved seed which sayes Thy will be done on earth Oh ye dear and choice ones of my Father I daily remember you and when my heart is fixed on my God and my life drawn by his eternal Spirit to make supplication unto him then many a time are ye spread before me and as Gods innocent host are ye brought into my mind as a welcome present for me to draw near my God withal then doth my soul cry mightily unto Jehovah saying Oh Lord God how are the precious Sons of Sion who are comparable unto fine gold now in this day esteemed of and by men as earthen pitchers the work manship of Potters how long how long shall it be so O Lord Shall the wicked wear out the righteous and the upright be alwayes their prey Shall Sions Daughters for ever mourn under the oppressive yoake of Babylon No no saith my God I will but try them as well refined gold that they may be made bright as the Sun at noon day for I will go before them and my goings are prepared as the morning yet will I suffer them to be winnowed and I le give the power of darknesse power over them for a time yet I will set a hedge about them as I did my servant Job and this will I suffer to come to passe for the severing the Sheep from the Goats the Gold from the Tin the Possessors from the Professors and in this my work I will give the righteous ones hearts greatly to rejoyce and in their greatest tryals to blesse my Name which hath and shall for ever be a strong Tower unto them and I who am the invisible Jehovah their mighty and beloved God I will never leave them for my children they shall be and their children shall rejoyce and their childrens children shall be exceeding glad that God is honoured in his people and shall blesse honour and praise the Name of the God of their fathers and shall learn to know that which is a law to their mothers and now shall the oppressed for my Name and Truth sake learn the language of Canaan and the lovely melodious songs of Sion and the voice of mourning amongst my chosen shall not be heard nor Lamentation among my tender plants for I will water them every moment and my dew from heaven shall fall on them and I will cause them to grow in a Winter season and I will build them up and establish them in my grace which shall be sufficient for them in a troublous time and this will I do for my Name sake and all that are tender of my truth and in that dwells and puts their trust in me they shall never be confounded for I will give them the heart of a valiant man and they shall not be as a fainting woman in the time of her Travel but with a spirit of Courage and Valour will I fill them as a mighty men for the battel and I will make them more then Conquerors and their and my enemies shall see that in weaknesse I can ordain strength and can cause praises to break forth out of the hearts of the long mourners even as the breaking forth of the Sea because my people have had no helper in the earth but have said Thee O Lord have we vvaited for in the faith and patience of Jesus thy Will to know thy Counsel to receive Oh these shall be as Gems and Diadems in my hand and I will never leave them nor forsake them saith the Lord of Hosts for I will be a father unto them who without me are fatherlesse and a fountain open to all the thirsty ones and I will lead them by the hand and uphold them by my power and they shall drink of the brook by the way of the vvater prepared for Judah and Jerusalem by which sin and uncleannesse shall be throughly vvashed away and my spotlesse Lambs shall be my delight for I will dwell amongst them and as I have raised them up as an heavenly host so will I lead them to their Jrurneys end for the honouring of my Name and to the comfort of their souls and none shall repent in that they followed me for double into their bosomes will I returne and of my heavenly riches vvill I abundantly give them in the sence of which they shall in the demonstration of my spirit offer the sacrifice of praises unto me and their Prison cryes I will regard and though men cast them out as a loath some thing yet them will I receive And when I heard this my soul rejoyced and said within me Worthy worthy art thou to Reign O Lord God and the Lamb for ever These things I was pressed in my spirit to declare unto you who are sufferers in the places aforesaid or elsewhere that you may have strong Consolation that you may be frequent and fervent in spirit for he who is the light of life is come and we look not for another who hath given us an understanding of him that is true and hath signified unto us that we are in him that is true even in him that the Father hath sent in whom he hath pleased all fulnesse should dwell and we have received of his fulnesse grace for grace Thus with my love remembred to you all I take my leave of you From Visiting our Fathers Flock in the South part of the County of Kent among whom I have been sweetly refreshed since I left you and now intend towards the East part if God will Thus much at present from Tenterden the 21 of the 9ht Moneth 1664. Your Brother in Tribulation Faith and Patience of Jesus Farewell Thomas Greene. John Whitehead A suffering Servant of the
A Tender VISITATION OF Heavenly Love Streaming from the Fountain of Endless Life UNTO The tribulated Flock of Christ whom the World in Derission calls Quakers Being several Epistles given forth by the one Spirit of Truth through several of the Servants of the Living God Who are Called among Men RICHARD FARNSWORTH JOHN WHITEHEAD THOMAS GREENE And the Leaves of the Tree were for the Healing of the Nations Rev. 22.4 Printed in the Year 1664. DEar Friends whom I dearly love and not I only but the Lord also you are beloved of the Lord though you be hated of the world and though you be attended with many Temptations and Tryals within and without the Lord doth support your spirits and reacheth forth of his vertue and povver unto you both to enable and refresh you to bear you above the spirit of the world that it may neither vvithin nor vvithout prevail against you or overcome you for it is by the povver of the Lord that you stand and are upheld and he hath ovvned you and joyned himself spiritually vvith you vvho is pleased to help you upon every occasion and take part vvith you to manifest his povver vertue and vvisdome unto you povver to sustain support ease help and deliver you wisdome to teach and instruct you vertue to refresh and comfort you that you may be acquainted vvith him depend upon him and give glory unto him and since he hath manifested his love unto you and shed it abroad vvithin you have you not both been dejected and comforted dejected by the buffetings of Satan and comforted by the Revivings Refreshings Encouragements and pourings forth of the Love Vertue and Spirit of God in and amongst you if the Lord have either vvith-held or hid himself from you for a trial of you hath not many strange thoughts and questions risen and abounded vvithin you hath not Satan struck greatly at you and sorely buffetted you and hath not much invvard vveaknesse faintnesse and deadnesse attended you and vvas not all called into question that ever had been manifested from God and make knovvn unto you But after you had been tryed under such an exercise the Lord vvas pleased to appear again and manifest himself unto you again and then all strange thoughts and questionings fled from you deadnesse and faintnesse vvas removed and carried avvay from you and the appearance and pourings forth of God in you did enliven ease comfort open and fill you so that sorrovv and sighing fled avvay and the joyes of heaven were manifested in you and reached unto you then was you filled with praises and could ascend over all sorrows and troubles in pure thanksgivings and give glory to the God of your mercies and manifold deliverances Oh! my dear friends you have had many troubles and also many deliverances so that you have not been killed and overwhelmed with sorrows and Satans buffettings though you have been sore struck at without as well as within but are yet kept alive in the principle and spirit of God therein to appear for him and give glory unto him that principle of Truth and Righteousnesse which God hath manifested and given unto you hath met with many oppositions within you and since you received the same and were possessors thereof you have been opposed for its sake and because Satan could not kill that good thing within you that God hath manifested and given unto you he hath struck sorely at you for it he could but either by his flatteries or threatnings dispossesse you of that principle and spirit which God hath possessed you withall to keep your hearts souls and Consciences close to the Lord and for his service and prayes in his own way of appointment then would persecutions and banishments be at an end for the cause of God as aforesaid but because you cannot be banished and driven by the spirit of the world from the principle and spirit of God and his wayes and worship into the spirit of God and his wayes and worship into the spirit and way of the world and the worship thereof you are threatned with banishment from your Native Countrey and outward Relations But as you abide true and faithful to the Lord they cannot banish or drive you from the presence of the Lord for the earth is the Lords and the fulnesse thereof and if the Lord suffer them to banish any of you it will be for good you are his and he is yours he hath owned you for his people and signified unto you that he is your God you have had many testimonies of his love and refreshings from his own presence to engage your hearts to him and to carry you forth after to do or to suffer for him he was with his people Israel when they went over the sea and in the wildernesse also and did both preserve them and prepare a table for them and he knows what is best for his people and which way to bring most glory to his name and comfort to them and therefore it is good to be with the Lord where-ever he would have us to be and to commit our cause to him whose care is over us and whose love is so greatly manifested unto us So to the Lord I commit and commend you with my self and the whole flock and family of God to be kept by his power as a people in Covenant with him to be ordered and disposed of by him as he sees good And my dear love extends it self unto you in a pure remembrance from that spirit and power which hath begot us unto it self and bound us up in it and thereby one in another to live and walk together in the footsteps of the flock and to lye down on that hill of rest where the flock meets at noon day and the blessing of him that dwelt in the bush when the bush was on fire and was not burnt be with you all Farewell South Leverton in Nottinghamshire this sixth day of the ninth Month 1664. Yours as you are the Lords Richard Farnesworth Let this be coppied fair over and sent abroad amongst Friends to be read in the fear and wisdome of God in London Bristoll Hartford Kingston Glocestershire Worcestershire Warwickshire and in them parts DEar friends and brethren called of and gathered in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ which is the word the light and the life whereby we and all men were Inlightned that we might see our deformity and be made sensible what glory dignity and felicity we lost by degenerating from the law of the life of the Creator and not only so but in the same light God hath given us again the knowledg of his glory vertue and power that by the operation thereof through faith we might be reformed or created anew regenerated restored and established in the image and glory of God wherein man was formed at first by the word of God which hath been the principal thing pressed unto by all the Prophets Apostles and righteous men which have
served God in their generation and been witnesses of his good will towards men who gave his eternal Son a ransome for all and to enlighten all as the spirit of God now in due time hath testified unto us which is an evident token that God hath not appointed us to wrath but to obtain salvation and through regeneration to become heirs of a kingdome that cannot be shaken which stands in righteousnesse peace and joy in the holy spirit wherein yee that are faithful have an access to God and do enjoy sweet inward communion with him whose tabernacle is with us and whose bounty towards us hath been exceeding great and his goodnesse infinite of which I cannot but declare a little that posterity may know there is mercy with him that he may be feared for in long-suffering he bore the infirmities of our youth and in mercy passed by the sins of former ignorance he did also quicken us when we were dead and opened our eyes that we might see and our ears that we might hear when compassion moved him to pity us in the day of our wearisome wandrings he restored us a path to dwell in wherein he hath guided us by the skilfulnesse of his hands and chastised us when we have turned aside but loving kindnesse and mercy he hath not taken away from us but opened his ear unto our cry when we were little he carried us in his arms and in our travels and triale he hath supported us when temptations have overtaken us and the enemy compassed us about on every side he hath pitied our weaknesse and stretched out his hand to deliver us by his power we have been plucked out of the mire and clay and our feet set upon a rock out of which clean water hath flowed both to wash and refresh us Therefore I will praise the Lord with my whole heart and ascribe glory and honour unto the most high for his work is perfect and his love immeasurable to his children he hath given people for our life and will not spare Nations for our ransom they which have digged a pit have fallen therein and they which do lay snares for the innocent shall be taken therein as our eyes have seen and our fathers have told us wherefore let us hope in the Lord as long as we live for though he doth now and hath often suffered us to be distressed yet have we not been nor are forsaken and though we have been sometimes cast down yet have we not been destroyed because under us have been the everlasting arm of our God who every way hath dealt with us as a father with his children in whom he delighteth Therefore dear friends as we have tasted that God is gracious let us take heed unto the grace which he hath given us and not decline from the way that he chose for us in the day of our simplicity but bow our ears to the instruction of life that we may be kept tender towards God out of the corruptions of this world and defilements of sin which in ancient time did grieve Gods good spirit and provoke him to be wroth with his inheritance wherefore let us hold fast the mystery of faith in a pure conscience and passe the time of our sojourning here in Gods fear waiting for the fulfilling of these very precious promises which we have received that we may be partakers of the divine nature and thereby do the things contained in the royal Law of our Lord so shall we stand justiefid when the secrets of men shall be manifest and judged with his light and every man feel in himself the reward of his works whether they be good or evil for in them that have done evil shall the wrath of God burn like devouring fire but in them that have done good shall divine joy and consolation arise from the wel-spring of Gods everlasting love so these things bearing a weight upon my heart I judged it my duty to stir ye up by way of remembrance for the joy that is set before you to endure the crosse and despise the shame committing your selves wholly to the Lord in well-doing that he may keep your minds stable in the love of the truth till ye come to receive a full reward for every labour of love and for all sufferings that ye have undergone for the Lords sake And deare hearts though I am perswaded that divers of you know these things and are established in the present truth yet whilest we dwell in Tabernacles of clay and are subject to be tempted the love of God constrains me to communicate that which I have received for your good and preservation desiring that ye also in the same love may seek to preserve one another and admonish exhort and stir up that which is good in one another so much the more as we know the true light shineth and hath manifest the things belonging to our peace considering that ye must give an account to God how you improve your talents be not discouraged at the untowardnesse of such as have given way to the enemy and are drove aside by his subtilty and violence for they do most need help that are the least sensible of it and do presumptuously kick against the admonitions and exhortations of faithful friends and brethren being hardened in themselves that they feel not Gods witnesse wherein persisting they are not only beguiled of their reward but lose all tendernesse to the truth and are covered with thick darknesse and drowned in destruction and perdition Therefore as soon as ye are sensible that the enemy hath got advantage of any particular be ready to give and receive warning and exhortation to and from one another lest any be hardened through the deceitfulnesse of sin And dear friends in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ diligently meet together and suffer not your selves to be drawn out from a watchful waiting state lest ye slumbering do trifle away your precious time and grow weak and the enemy enter at unawares for they that wait on God shall renew their strength and the watchful eye shall see his Saviour and deliverer near to the refreshing of his soul which shall be cloathed with righteousnesse and filled with the glory and vertue of an immortal life whilest the soul of the sluggard is cloathed with rags and such as be carelesse intangled with many hurtful lusts wherefore dear and tender plants I say again be watchfull and obedient to God in things that are cleare and manifest so will hidden things be revealed and ye tought to avoide every thing that tends to beget doubts disputing or Contension about persons or things which are below that divine life whereby you are enlightened and to waite for the latter raine where ye have received the former raine so shall ye take deepe root in a fruitfull ground and be no more subject to coffiing whilest your hearts are tender in the Light sound Judgement shall shut out deceit false spirits and
Lord unto the sheep of his pasture wisheth stability in grace increase of faith with all spiritual comforts and blessings needful for your strengthening and preservation in the path of life unto the end of the race set before you that you may obtain that which your souls long after and not be beguiled of the recompence of Reward prepared for you that endure faithful unto the end of Time ASI was waiting on God to fulfill his will I felt the love of God springing in me unto all souls and in spirit beholding their bondage to corruption as also in the light plainly seeing the manifold tryals that do attend the camp of the Saints and the beloved City which they that dwell upon the earth with the instruments of cruelty are compassing about thinking to wear out the Saints of the most high and scatter the power of the holy people who have been made instruments to reprove their ungodly deeds I say having beheld these things and felt Gods yearning bowels to his creatures and his everlasting love to the house of Jacob I have therein laboured since I saw you face to face with good successe to streng then the plants of Gods vineyard that they may live and grow in that ground where they have felt both the root of life to nourish and the dew of heaven to refresh and received divers testimonies of Gods power in delivering and of his love in preserving them that thereby they might be encouraged to hold fast their confidence and persevere untill the righteousnesse of God be revealed to render tribulation to them that trouble us and to you that are troubled Rest with us in the day that the Lord Jesus shall take vengeance in flames of fire on them that know not God and are disobedient to his glorious Gospel which I have also laboured to preach unto them that dwell upon the earth testifying that the common salvation of every soul is the light which shineth in the heart and shews the corruptions therein that have imbondag'd the soul that the light may give unto it the knowledg of the glorious God and lead it into the possession of the treasure in the earthen vessel which so many are seeking without to find And further I have in the light manifested the confusion of Babels builders and shewed the nakednesse of the Whore in her second dress and reproved the abominations of the times whereby Satan felt his kingdome weakened and hath stirred up wrath against me and by his instruments hath cast me into prison in the Castle of Lincolne where I am now shut up for the testimony of Jesus and because I love his lambs and have laboured to inform strangers into the right way And now dear friends what can I do more to stablish and confirm you in the faith than patiently to suffer for the Lord and your sakes untill he break their bonds asunder Be assured that I am not straitned in spirit towards you neither is the word of God bound but therein do I breath unto the God of all power that your faith may not fail but be daily encreased and in the vertue of the word my soul saith unto my heavenly Father who is the husbandman and walketh in his Vineyard Water thy plants every moment and cause them to grow in thy vertue for without instrument thou canst perform thy work therefore let the light of thy countenance shine upon them that they may behold thy presence in their assemblice in their watchings let them feel thee near to deliver out of temptation and in their waiting upon thee let thy visitations renew their strength that they may walk together in thy love and trust perfectly in thy name O Lord poure forth of thy Spirit both on sons and Daughters that in the leadings of it they may serve and worship thee and be a refreshing and comfort one to another Let thy glorious power be revealed in us and stretch out thy hand for our help for thou alone dost know our innocency and hast pittied us in our affliction Therefore we hope in thy mercy and commit our selves to thee for in the day of thy power we were made willing to stay on thee and are gathered in thy name for refuge And now O righteous Father not only we whom thou hast recovered out of the Apostacy that have received the first fruits of thy Spirit but the Creation which thou hast made groans to be delivered from the oppression of Violence and bondage to corruption Therefore let thy bowels yerne towards thy suffering seed and thy mercy reach over all thy works and in thy righteousnesse cut short the dayes of Jacobs trouble and restore all things by thy power that all thine enemies may dread thy name and see that thou knowest how to deliver them that put their trust in thee that they also may bow to thy Scepter and thy kingdome come over all for unto thee alone with thy Word and Spirit belongs Glory Majesty Worship Dominion and Reverence for ever and ever Thus having poured out my supplication unto the Lord who himself loveth you in discharge of my duty to him as also to you unto whom I owe my whole life I do exhort you all to wait upon the Lord in the measure of light which he hath given you and look not out at things which are seen lest your faith fail neither be discouraged because you are sensible of your own weaknesse for you are Gods instruments by whom he will confound the strong and mighty therefore be not dismayed at the enemies rage whether inward or outward for though he fift you as wheat yet not one corn shall be lost and though he tread over and crush some of your tender plants with his feet yet shall the life of your root cause such again to spring up Therefore let not your hearts be troubled nor fear those sufferings or hardships that the enemy sets before you to cause you to stumble or turn aside out of the right way but look up unto the God of all mercy by whom you do enjoy all things that you have both pertaining to this life and that which is to come who hath delivered you out of the jaws of the devourer unto this day and doth not intend your destruction though he suffer you to passe through many great tribulations for the trial of your faith and exercise of your patience that all of you may be fully made manifest and such approved as do love God more than all things under the Sun and with their hearts do perfectly trust in him and seek not out any invention to save themselves which may grieve his spirit but delight in his love to do his will and do patiently wait to inherit the promise in the day of their distress flying unto his name alone for refuge and protection I say such shall never be put to confusion nor rooted up but grow and be nourished as the Lillies in the valley and in bringing