any other by which they could only convey the Truth to their Understandings Or is Thou more acceptable to God than You in the declaration of Truth I believe those Words and that Language which proceeds from the Spirit of Love is best and most acceptably received by them that are in the same Spirit And what is there in refusing to swear after that manner the Magistrate commands while in the mean time you will call God to witness to what you affirm for Truth Is it any more than to oppose the Magistrates Form by your own Doth not he that speaks the Truth and calleth God and Man to witness the same swear by Christ Jesus the Truth and Oath of God Doth true swearing consist in the meer Ceremony of kissing the Book or standeth it not rather in calling God to record to the Truth which we declare And yet this manner of swearing is owned by G. F. and his Friends and frequently practised by them both by Word and Writing And what is all this but to swallow the Camel and swear substantially while you strain at a Gnat of some small Ceremony which the Magistrate thinks fit to enjoyn perhaps more to obtain Credit from those who have Conscience in such a Form of Swearing rather than to offend them that know how to distinguish between the Ceremony and the Substance And is not Verily verily an Asseveration and kind of Oath and more than Yea and nay And doth not St. Paul say who had Christ in him that he call'd God to record c. And is not this a great Oath And whether you have any other thing to rule and guide you in not swearing save the * Which tho it saith Swear not at all yet no where forbids laving on the hand or kissing the Book the only thing you scruple Letter And whether that be not more against you than with you let the wise in Heart who are acquainted with the Scriptures judg in this Case Thou sayest That the Gospel of Christ is Yea and Amen and that it leads not back to what it led from I say This hath been a Principle long received and taught by your Teachers and indeed hath occasioned much Persecution to the Innocent amongst you to call your outward Observations and Traditions the Gospel or Truth for when any have bin carried out of the way of your received Traditions into any new Appearance how have you upon this ground risen up against them with Floods of Reproaches to devour them To which Principle or rather Opinion of yours I answer and say That the Gospel Truth or Kingdom stands not in any outward Observations for why may not the Lord do both in Heaven and Earth whatsoever he pleaseth and lead his People howsoever or wheresoever he will How dare any find fault with him And who shall say unto him What dost thou He leadeth Abraham Joseph and all Israel into Egypt yea Jesus of Nazareth into the Wilderness and doth when he pleaseth turn the Course of his Dispensation leading them back again from whence they came Why may not God command Moses to set up a Brazen Serpent yea and give power to it also and then again withdraw his power from it and by his Light lead Hezekiah to pull it down and call it Nebushtan which is an Idol or nothing altho to the very day of its dissolution the Children of Israel burnt Incense to it supposing it may be as you also do that the Lord would not relinquish that Appearance once established by Himself The Lord hath had his sundry ways of appearing to his People as in the Mount of Samaria and at Jerusa em and yet she that was limited in her self was led by the Light from all this to worship the Father every where and in all places and things in the Spirit and Truth Christ appeared in divers Forms as the Scripture testifies yet no other save them only that saw him would believe the report of him according to their Testimony but counted their Words as Joseph's Brethren did his Dreams idle Fables as ye do while you judg your Brethren whom the Lord hath visited in a different manner from your selves What if the Lord will so strangely appear as to leave the Jew and turn to the Gentile to call them a People that were not a People What if God will make you that have been first and highest in Profession last and lowest in the Kingdom What if Capernaum now exalted to the Heavens should be brought down to Hell It will then be manifest that the Almighty is not confined to either Persons or Appearances But further why may not the Lord lead Mordecai openly to withstand the Pride and Oppression of Haman and at the same time lead Hester in a clean contrary work to feast him hereby overcoming Evil with Good If one Person should act these two parts which seem so contrary to each other as is Light to Darkness being led thereto by the Light whether that may not be accepted of God tho all Men should therefore condemn it And why may not one abstain from Meats to day and to morrow see a liberty to eat or have Conscience of an Idol now and anon know it to be nothing VVere not some led to sacrifice circumcise and baptize as being all beautiful while the Power of God was in them but that being departed the Practisers of those things may now tell you that they avail and profit nothing Surely did but all Sects knowingly consider that in my Fathers House are many Mansions and that his Commands are exceeding broad and various that there are diversities of Administrations and Operations yet the same Spirit working all and in all and was the Substance which is the Grace appearing to all more minded by Professors and the Form less also were the weightier Matters of the Law as Mercy Justice Truth and Love more in estimation than the lesser which only stand in outward Observations and are but the outside of the Dish and Platter in all Forms there would not be such tearing one another for the Form's sake For in the Substance and weightier Matters all People of all sorts do without controversy agree yet every one in and for the House of his Imagery rends and devours his Brother not equally fashioned and made up in the same proportion of Understanding as touching our outward Behaviour in the Truth 's Profession by which the Image of the Heavenly is indeed so defaced that the pure Love which thinks no ill amongst all Professors of Godliness is very rarely and hardly found These are indeed the bitter VVaters that cause the Curse upon all Sects Nations Tongues and Peoples as at this day this devours the Earth and makes all desolate this profanes the Lord 's own Sanctuary and the Princes thereof and causeth Jacob to be given to the Curse and Israel to Reproaches For this kind of Spirit of bitter envying is indeed that City Meroz which no way
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
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
I might have said much more in return to thine but that I see and know that Words and Declarations tho never so true unless the Life it self speak them and go along with them have but little strength And I could also tell thee that to forsake your Form yea and to speak against it too were not to forsake Truth as thou chargest And is it not strange that you should so complain of my disturbing your Meetings in a Song or few words of Truth when as your selves have gone to others assembled even with railing Accusations calling them Dumb Dogs Liars Hirelings Baal's Priests c. yet cannot bear with such as come to admonish you O that the time were come that those who desired Liberty of Conscience would give it to others I know you cannot believe the Truth when told you nor cease from reproaching judging and condemning it neither will you let the Innocent go free to serve the Lord according as their Light shall lead them till the Judgments you have pronounced against the Innocent fall upon your own Heads For I know that the Lord hath poured out upon you a deep Spirit of Slumber which hath so blinded your Eyes and hardened your Hearts that in seeing you should not see neither perceive the Truth in things that differ And there is yet a Treasure a Dispensation of Grace where you have as yet by reason of your Self-exaltation and bitter Spirit seen but little into the which some have seen felt and handled To this you must all stoop and bow tho never so high before you find Peace and Rest to your Souls or be free from vain Contention and Strife R. R. to M. B. and other Quakers THis I have to say unto thee or rather to G. F. who hath begot many of you into his Image That you no longer tempt any of the innocent Lambs of Christ to withdraw from the leading and teaching of the Unction of God which is Christ to follow the Letter or your Teachings or Traditions wherein you must and shall perish in the dark Wilderness of your own Imaginations for the Lord hath sworn in his Wrath that you who call your selves Good old Friends and the Israel of God who have so falsly accused condemned and bitterly persecuted your innocent Brethren for those things the Lord hath and doth justify shall never inhabit the good Land I know G. F. is raised of God for this very end to try refine and purify many as Pharaoh was and tho many fall in the Trial under his Power yet many will be delivered into the glorious Liberty of the Sons of God I likewise see that daily more and more will fall off from that Body and that some that separate from them will with Daniel stand in their Lot and follow the Lord in the Spirit of the Lamb more fully than they have done whilst they that oppose shall stand with Lot's Wife turned into a Pillar of Salt continuing their preaching up Truth in Words without Power whilst others baptize with the Holy-Ghost and with Fire Thou writest of my going to the Steeple-house To which I answer Blessed are those that have Rest Peace and Satisfaction in themselves for they that look forth are like to find but little in this the day of God's searching Jerusalem with Candles wherein he will stain the Pride and Glory of all Flesh R. R. in Answer to some Friends not Quakers YOu judg me to be a Ranter and to hold their Principles I can truly say I have been but little acquainted with that People or with their Principles I would not be thought to be an Advocate for the loose and licentious Practices of any sort of People much less for Them who from the itching ☜ Notions of Liberty have run without their Guide into the excess of all Riot and Prophaneness who while they greedily catch at the Bait are caught with the Hook till a Dart strike through their Liver and they are led with the Fool to the Correction of the Stocks and there plagued with their own Iniquities I desire this may be shewn to Mr. Bacon as to all others who seem to stumble at my Love to this dark Beelzebub this mad ranting Crew THe time is coming and now is that we shall not know and own each other as we are of one Sect or outward way but as the Grace and Principle of God appears in each other the Love of God shed abroad in our Hearts and where this is witnessed thither will the Upright resort and gather If you see any dividing among the Religious Parties take you notice of that I know every one must divide till all unite in the Word in the Heart My Love flows to all that in uprightness of Heart serve the Lord in any Form For as all Forms are alike to me so is the Substance the Power of Godliness also and altho Uprightness God accepted in all Forms and suffered all Sects to walk in them yet now calleth all Men to reject the evil in each Form and to wait on Him to be their Teacher from henceforth and for ever J. N. and J. P. tho dead yet speak who declared they were to cease from words even of Truth spoken from the comprehending part of Man's Understanding and from thus speaking in set Meetings and so to give way for a greater Glory viz. the Spirit 's teaching leading and speaking in the Saints Also they declared that they had received greater Wounds from the House of their Friends than from the House of their Enemies And I can assure you they who meddle with the Quakers had need be fenced within and without with the whole Armor of God Truth and love to Righteousness David â—s Sling and Stone and enabled to use both hands the left as well as the right the Wisdom of the Serpent as the Innocency of the Dove And truly till the Spirit of Love and Reconciliation be brought forth wherewith every Christian shall willingly leave each other to the guidance of God's holy Spirit of Grace in that Form or Way they are persuaded to walk in the Strife which is occasioned by outward Traditional Observations will never cease And I have this further to declare to all the World to Jew Gontile Barbarian and Christian tho I know it will be an Offence and Stone of stumbling to G. F. and all Masters of Assemblies in every Sect who prescribe impose and would have Dominion over the Faith of others that the Eternal God who wills not the death of any Sinner hath sent his dear Son Emanuel his Light and Spirit of Grace into the World his everlasting Covenant a Divine Law writ in every Man's Heart that whosoever believeth in Him and followeth Him shall have Eternal Life And this Divine Law and Word in the Heart is the Ensign to gather together all things into Himself and to present every Man perfect in God being thereby sanctified justified and saved from their Sins To which Word