the Stature of the Fulness of Christ when they cannot bear to hear that any shall come whilst upon Earth into the same Power and Spirit that the Prophets and Apostles were in Though it be a certain Truth that none can understand their Writings aright without the same Spirit by which they were written Now the Lord God hath opened to me by his invisible Power how that Every Man was enlightned by the Divine Light of Christ and I saw it shine through all And that they that believed in it came out of Condemnation and came to the Light of Life and became the Children of it But they that hated it and did not believe in it were Condemned by it though they made a Profession of Christ This I saw in the pure Openings of the Light without the help of any Man neither did I then know where to find it in the Scriptures though afterwards searching the Scriptures I found it For I saw in that Light and Spirit which was before Scripture was given forth and which led the Holy Men of God to give them forth That all must come to that Spirit if they would know God or Christ or the Scriptures aright which They that gave them forth were led and taught by But I observed a Dulness and Drowzy Heaviness upon People which I wondred at For sometimes when I would set my self to sleep my Mind went over all to the Beginning in that which is from Everlasting to Everlasting And I saw Death was to pass over this sleepy heavy State And I told People they must come to witness Death to that sleepy heavy Nature and a Cross to it in the Power of God that their Minds and Hearts might be on things above And on a certain Time as I was walking in the Fields the Lord said unto me Thy Name is written in the Lamb's Book of Life which was before the Foundation of the World And as the Lord spake it I believed and saw it in the New Birth Then sometime after the Lord commanded me to go abroad into the World which was like a briary thorny Wilderness And when I came in the Lord 's mighty Power with the Word of Life into the World the World swelled and made a Noise like the great raging Waves of the Sea Priests and Professors Magistrates and People were all like a Sea when I came to proclaim the Day of the Lord amongst them and to preach Repentance to them Now I was sent to turn People from Darkness to the Light that they might receive Christ Jesus For to as many as should receive him in his Light I saw that he would give Power to become the Sons of God Which I had obtained by receiving Christ And I was to direct People to the Spirit that gave forth the Scriptures by which they might be led into all Truth and so up to Christ and God as they had been who gave them forth And I was to turn them to the Grace of God and to the Truth in the Heart which came by Jesus that by this Grace they might be taught which would bring them Salvation that their Hearts might be established by it and their Words might be seasoned and all might come to know their Salvation nigh For I saw that Christ had died for all Men and was a Propitiation for all and had enlightned all Men and Women with his divine and saving Light And that none could be a true Believer but who believed in it I saw that the Grace of God which brings Salvation had appeared to all Men and that the Manifestation of the Spirit of God was given to every Man to profit withal These Things I did not see by the help of Man nor by the Letter tho' they are written in the Letter but I saw them in the Light of the Lord Jesus Christ and by his immediate Spirit and Power as did the Holy Men of God by whom the Holy Scriptures were written Yet I had no slight esteem of the Holy Scriptures but they were very precious to me For I was in that Spirit by which they were given forth and what the Lord opened in me I afterwards found was agreeable to them I could speak much of these things and many Volumes might be written but all would prove too short to set forth the Infinite Love Wisdom and Power of God in prepairing fitting and furnishing me for the Service he had appointed me to letting me see the Depths of Satan on the one Hand and opening to me on the other Hand the divine Mysteries of his own Everlasting Kingdom Now when the Lord God and his Son Jesus Christ did send me forth into the World to preach his Everlasting Gospel and Kingdom I was glad that I was Commanded To turn People to that Inward Light Spirit and Grace by which all might know their Salvation and their Way to God even that divine Spirit which would lead them into all Truth and which I infallibly knew would never deceive any But with and by this divine Power and Spirit of God and the Light of Jesus I was to bring People off from all their own ways to Christ the new and living Way and from their Churches which Men had made and gathered to the Church in God the general Assembly written in Heaven which Christ is the Head of And off from the World's Teachers made by Men to learn of Christ who is the Way the Truth and the Life of whom the Father said This is my beloved Son hear ye him and off from all the Worlds Worships to know the Spirit of Truth in the inward Parts and to be led thereby that in it they might Worship the Father of Spirits who seeks such to Worship him Which Spirit they that Worshipped not in knew not what they Worshipped And I was to bring People off from all the World's Religions which are vain that they might know the pure Religion and might visit the Fatherless the Widows and the Strangers and keep themselves from the Spots of the World And then there would not be so many Beggars the sight of whom often grieved my Heart to see so much Hard-heartedness amongst them that professed the Name of Christ And I was to bring them off from all the World's Fellowships and Prayings and Singings which stood in Forms without Power that their Fellowships might be in the Holy Ghost and in the Eternal Spirit of God that they might Pray in the Holy Ghost and Sing in the Spirit and with the Grace that comes by Jesus making Melody in their Hearts to the Lord who hath sent his beloved Son to be their Saviour and caused his heavenly Sun to shine upon all the World and through them all and his heavenly Rain to fall upon the Just and the Unjust as his outward Rain doth fall and his outward Sun doth shine on all which is God's unspeakable Love to the World And I was to bring People off from Jewish Ceremonies and from
right understanding thereof and be gathered thereunto Several Epistles also to Friends I writ in this time on divers Occasions and Subjects whereof one was to the Friends of the Yearly Meeting which was held in London this year 1679. a Copy of which here follows My Dear Friends and Brethren WHO are Assembled together in the Name and Power of the Lord Jesus Christ Grace Mercy and Peace from God the Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ fill all your hearts and establish you in his Grace Mercy and Peace upon Christ the holy living Rock and Foundation who is the First and Last and over all the Foundations and Rocks in the whole world a Rock and Foundation of Life for all the Living to build upon which stands sure in his heavenly divine Light which is the Life in him by whom all things were made who is the precious Stone laid in Sion and not in the World which all the Wise Master-Builders rejected who pretended to build People up to Heaven with the Words of the Prophets and the Law from Mount Sinai but out of the Life of both and therefore such Builders could not receive the Law of Life from Christ the precious Stone laid in Sion nor the Word from heavenly Jerusalem But you My Dear Friends that have received this Law from heavenly Sion and the Word from heavenly Jerusalem in the New Covenant where the Life and Substance is enjoyed you do see the end and abolishing of the Jews Law and Ceremonies from Mount Sinai And therefore my desire is that you all may keep in the Law of Life and Love 1679. Swarthmore which ye have in Christ Jesus by which Love the Body is edified and knit and united together to Christ Jesus the Head Which Love doth bear all things and fulfils the Law and will preserve all in Humility and in it to be of one mind heart and soul so that all may come to drink into that One Spirit that doth Baptize them and Circumcise them Plunging down and Cutting off the Body of the Sins of the Flesh that is gotten up in Man and Woman by their transgressing of God's Commands So that in this holy pure Spirit all may serve and worship the pure God in Spirit and in Truth which is over all the Worships that are out of God's Spirit and his Truth And in this Spirit ye will all have a Spiritual Unity and Fellowship over all the Fellowships of the Unclean Spirits which be out of Truth in the World And so by this holy Spirit all your hearts minds and souls may be knit together to Christ from whence it comes and by the Grace and Truth which is come by Jesus Christ which all should be under the Teachings of in the New Covenant and not under the Law as the outward Jews were in the Old Covenant So that by this Grace and Truth in the New Covenant all may be made God's free Men and Women to serve God in the new Life and in the new and living Way shewing forth the Fruits of the new heart and new spirit in the New Covenant over death and darkness and before it was Glory be unto the Lord for ever And now Friends in this Grace and Truth is your heavenly gracious and true Liberty to every Spiritual Mind that makes you free from him that is out of Truth where your bondage was Also your Liberty in the holy divine and precious Faith which gives you Victory over that that hath separated you from God and Christ and through which Faith ye have Access to God again through Jesus Christ So in this divine and holy Faith ye have divine holy and precious Liberty yea and Victory over him that separated you from God and this Faith is held in a pure Conscience So the Liberty in the Spirit of God is in that which baptizes and plunges down Sin and Iniquity and puts off the Body of Death and Sins of the Flesh that is gotten up by transgressing of God's Command as I said before And also the Liberty of the Gospel which is sent from Heaven by the Holy Ghost which is the Power of God which was and is again to be preached to all Nations In this Gospel the Power of God which is over the Power of Satan is the true Liberty and the Gospel-Fellowship and Order So that the Evil Spirit or Conscience or false dead Faith and that which is ungracious and out of Truth and not in the Spirit of God nor in his Gospel nor in the divine Faith its Liberty is in the Darkness For all the true Liberty is in the Gospel and in the Truth that makes free and in the Faith and in the Grace and in Christ Jesus who destroys the Devil and his Works that hath brought all Mankind into Bondage So in this heavenly peaceable Spirit and Truth and Faith which works by Love and in the Gospel of Peace and in Christ Jesus is all the Saints Peace and pure true and holy Liberty in which they have Salt and Sense and Feeling Discerning and Savour yea and Unity and Fellowship one with another yea and with the Son and the Father that heavenly eternal Fellowship So all being subject to the Grace and Truth and to the Faith and Gospel the Power of God and to his good Spirit in this they distinguish all true pure and holy Liberty from that which is false And this will bring all to sit low for Patience runs the Race and the Lamb must have the Victory and not the rough unruly and vain Talkers unbaptized uncircumcised and unsanctified For such travel not in the way of Regeneration but in the way of unregeneration Neither go they down into the Death with Christ by Baptism and therefore such are not like to Reign with him in his Resurrection who are not buried with him in Baptism Therefore all must go downward into the Death of Christ and be crucified with him if they will Arise and follow him in the Regeneration before they come to Reign with him And Friends Many may have precious Openings but I desire all may be comprehended in that thing which doth open to them And that they may all keep in the daily Cross then they keep in the Power that doth kill and crucifie that which would lead them amongst the Beasts and Goats to leaven them into their rough unruly spirit But that through the Cross the Power of God That may be crucified and they in the Power might follow the Lamb. For the Power of God keeps all in Order and in Subjection and in Humility in that which is lovely and vertuous decent comely temperate and moderate that their Moderation comes to appear to all men So my desire is that all your Lights may shine as from a City set upon a Hill that cannot be hid And that ye may be the Salt of the Earth to salt and season it and make it savoury to God and you all seasoned with it Then
in Saul's nature let them be of what Name or Profession soever they be that are Persecutors and unconverted into Paul's Life of Christianity He said the Life that he did live after he was Converted was by the Faith in the Son of God And that He lived yet not He but Christ lived in him who came to save mens Lives and not to destroy them Which Life should be the Life of all Christians now which Paul in his converted state lived in And the Apostle saith The Law is good if a man use it lawfully knowing this that the Law is not made for a righteous man but for the Lawless and for the Ungodly and Sinners and for Unholy and Prophane and for Murtherers of Fathers and Mothers and for Manslayers for Whoremongers and for them that defile themselves with Mankind for Menstealers Liars and Perjured Persons 1 Tim. 1. So the Law in its place is good against such Again the Apostle says The Law was added because of Transgression Gal. 3.19 Now here all Magistrates may see what the Law in its place is good against and what it was made for and against and what Evils the Apostle says it takes hold upon He does not say the Law should be laid upon Men that differed from them in their Religion and Judgment nor upon the Righteous men And so you may see in what condition the Law is good and what it was made against not against Righteous men against whom they have nothing in their Lives and Conversations only because they differ from them in Matters of Religion and let Manslayers Whoremongers Perjured Persons Vngodly Prophane Persons Liars c. go unpunished Such do not use nor execute the Law lawfully as the Apostle says The Law is good if a man use it lawfully Therefore it ought to be used lawfully which Law the Apostle says is for the punishment of the Evil-Doers and a praise for them that do well as may be seen Rom. 13. And so as the Apostle said We do not break the Law nor make it void but we establish the Law Rom. 3.31 Kingston upon Thames the 4th of the first Month 1680 1. This is from him who desires the Eternal Good and Salvation of you all in Christ Jesus Amen G. F. After I had finished these Services there I returned to London where I stay'd about a Month London labouring amongst Friends in the Work of the Lord both in publick Meetings for Worship and in the Meetings relating to the outward Affairs of the Church Waltham-Abbey Flamsteadend Edmunton Enfield Winchmore-hill Then feeling my Spirit drawn to visit Friends about Enfield-side I went down to Waltham-Abbey where I had a very precious Meeting and another at Flamstead-Heath not far from thence And having spent some time amongst Friends there and thereabouts and had divers good Meetings at Edmunton Enfield Winchmore Hill 1681. London Yearly Meeting and other places there aways I came back to London a little before the Yearly Meeting which was in the Third Month 1681 it was a very precious Meeting in which the Glorious Presence and Power of the Lord was eminently felt and enjoyed Some time after the Yearly Meeting was over it came upon me to write the following Epistle which I directed To the Quarterly Mens and Womens Meetings that are gathered in the Name and Power of Jesus CHrist the second Adam who is both Head and Husband of his Church and Redeemer and Purchaser and Saviour and Sanctifier and Reconciler of his Sons and Daughters his Church to God I say his Presence to wit Christ's feel among you to exercise his Prophetical Office in opening of you with his Light Grace Truth Power and Spirit and to exercise his Office as he is a Bishop to Oversee you with his Light Grace Power and Spirit that ye do not go astray from God And as Christ is a Shepherd feel see and hear him exercising that Office who has laid down his Life for his Sheep and is feeding them in his living Pastures of Life and makes them to drink of his living Eternal Springs And let him rule and govern in your Hearts as he is King that his heavenly and spiritual Government all may live under as true Subjects of his righteous peaceable Kingdom which stands in Righteousness and Power and Joy in the Holy Ghost over Satan and his Power and the unclean unholy Ghost and all unrighteousness So all ye Subjects to Christ's Kingdom of Peace if ye want Wisdom or Knowledge or Life or Salvation Christ is the Treasure feel him the Treasure among you And every one among you as ye have received Christ walk in him in whom ye have all Peace who bruises the Head of the Serpent that is the Author of all Strife Distraction and Confusion yea you have Peace with God and one with another though the Trouble be from the World and the World's Spirit And therefore My dear Friends Brethren and Sisters Love one another with the Love that is of God shed in your hearts that ye may bear the Maâ—ks of Christ's Disciples and it may appear that Christ is in you and ye in him so that God Almighty may be glorified among you And whatever ye do let it be done in the Name of Jesus to the praise of God the Father keeping in Vnity in the Holy Spirit of God which was before the unholy Spirit was Which holy Spirit is your Bond of Peace yea the holy King of Kings and Lord of Lords his peace And in this holy pure Spirit is your eternal Vnity and Fellowship in which Spirit of Truth ye do serve and worship the God of Truth who is God over all blessed for ever Amen So the Lord guide you all with his Word of Patience Word of Life Power and Wisdom in all your Actions Lives Conversations and Meetings to God's glory 1681. London My Love to you all in the Lord Jesus Christ by whom all things were made and who is over all the First and the Last London the 9th of the 4th Month 1681. G. F. About this time I had occasion to go to several of the Judges Chambers upon a Suit about Tithes For both I and my Wife and several other Friends were sued in Cartmel-Wapentake-Court in Lancashire for small Tithes and we had demurred to the Jurisdiction of that Court. Whereupon the Plaintiff prosecuted us into the Exchequer-Court at Westminster where they run us up to a Writ of Rebellion for not Answering the Bill upon Oath and got an Order of Court to the Sergeant to take me and my Wife into Custody This was a little before the Yearly Meeting at which time it was thought they would have taken me up and according to outward appearance it was likely indeed that he would and very easie for him to have done it I lodging at the same places where I used to lodge and being very publick in Meetings But the Lord's Power was over them and restrained them so
that of Angels as the Scriptures of the Old Testament do in many places express as to Abraham Jacob c. The next was that of the Law by Moses which was also delivered by Angels as the Apostle tells us This Dispensation was much outward and suited to a low and servil State called therefore that of a School-Master to point out and prepare that People to look and long for the Messiah who would deliver them from the servitude of a Ceremonious and imperfect Dispensation by knowing the Realities of those Misterious Representations in themselves In this time the Law was written on Stone the Temple built with Hands attended with an outward Priest-hood and External Rites and Ceremonies that were Shadows of the Good Things that were to come and were only to serve till the Seed came or the more excellent and general manifestation of Christ to whom was the Promise and to all Men only in him in whom it was Yea and Amen even Life from Death Immortality and Eternal Life This the Prophets foresaw and comforted the believing Jews in the certainty of it which was the Top of the Mosaical Dispensation and which ended in John's Ministry the Forerunner of the Messiah as John's was finished in him the Fullness of all And God that at sundry Times and in divers manners had spoken to the Fathers by his Servants the Prophets Spoak then by his Son Chrâ—st Jesus Who is Heir of all things being the Gospel-Day which is the Dispensation of Sonship Bringing in thereby a nearer Testament and a better hope even the beginning of the Glory of the latter days and of the Restitution of all things yea the Restoration of the Kingdom unto Israel Now the Spirit that was more sparingly communicated in former Dispensations began to be Poured forth upon all Flesh according to the Prophet Joel and the Light that shined in Darkness or but dimly before the most gracious God caused to Shine out of Darkness and the Day-star began to arise in the Hearts of Believers giving unto them the knowledge of God in the Face or Appearance of his Son Christ Jesus Now the Poor in Spirit the Meek the true Mourners the Hungry and Thirsty after Righteousness the Peace-makers the Pure in Heart the Merciful and the Persecuted came more especially in Remembrance before the Lord and were sought out and blessed by Israel's true Shepherd Old Jerusalem with her Children grew out of Date and the New Jerusalem into Request the Mother of the Sons of the Gospel-Day Wherefore no more at Old Jerusalem nor at the Mountain of Samaria will God be worshipped above other places for behold he is declared and preached a Spirit and he will be known as such and worshipped in the Spirit and in the Truth He will come nearer then of old time and he will write his Law in the Heart and put his Fear and Spirit in the inward parts according to his promise Then Signs Types and Shadows flew away the Day having discovered their Insufficiency in not reaching to the inside of the Cup to the cleansing of the Conscience and all Elementary services were expired in and and by him that is the substance of all And to this Great and Blessed End of the Dispensation of the Son of God did the Apostles Testifie whom he had chosen and anointed by his Spirit to turn the Jews from their Prejudice and Superstition and the Gentiles from their Vanity and Idolatry to Christ's Light and Spirit that shined in them that they might be quickned from the Sins and Trespasses in which they were Dead to serve the Living God in the Newness of the Spirit of Life and walk as Children of the Light and of the Day even the Day of Holiness For such put on Christ the Light of the World and make no more Provision for the Flesh to fulfil the Lusts thereof So that the Light Spirit and Grace that comes by Christ and appears in Man was what the Apostles ministred from and turned Peoples Minds unto and in which they gathered and built up the Churches of Christ in their Day For which cause they advised them not to quench the Spirit but wait for the Spirit and Speak by the Spirit and Pray by the Spirit and Walk in the Spirit too as that which approved them the truly begotten Children of God born not of Flesh and Blood or of the will of Man but of the will of God by doing his will and denying their own by drinking of Christ's Cup and being Baptized with his Baptism of Self-denial The Way and Path that all the Heirs of Life have trod to Blessedness But alas even in the Apostles Days those bright Stars of the first Magnitude of the Gospel Light some Clouds foretelling an Eclipse of this Primitive Glory began to appear and several of them gave early Caution of it to the Christians of their Time that even then there was and yet would be more and more a falling away from the Power of Godliness and the Purity of that Spiritual Dispensation by such as sought to make a fair shew in the Flesh but with whom the offence of the Cross ceased Yet with this comfortable Conclusion that they saw beyond it a more glorious Time than ever to the true Church Their sight was true and what they foretold to the Churches gathered by them in the Name and Power of Jesus came so to pass For Christians degenerated a-pace into outsides as Days and Meats and divers other Cerimonies And which was worse they fell into Strife and Contention about them separating one from another then Envying and as they had Power Persecuting one another to the shame and scandal of their common Christianity and grievous stumbling and offence of the Heathen among whom the Lord had so long and so marvellously preserved them And having got at last the Worldly Power into their Hands by Kings and Emperors embracing the Christian Profession they changed what they could the Kingdom of Christ which is not of this World into a Worldly Kingdom or at least stiled the Worldly Kingdom that was in their Hands the Kingdom of Christ and so they became Worldly and not true Christians Then Humane Inventions and Novelties both in Doctrine and Worship crowded fast into the Church a Door being opened thereunto by the Grossness and Carnality that appeared then among the generality of Christians who had long since left the Guidance of God's meek and heavenly Spirit and given themselves up to Superstition Will-worship and Voluntary Humility And as Superstition is Blind so it is Heady and Furious for all must stoop to its blind and boundless Zeal or Perish by it In the Name of the Spirit persecuting the very appearance of the Spirit of God in others and opposing that in them which they resisted in themselves viz. the Light Grace and Spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ but always under the Notion of Innovation Heresie Schism or some such plausible Name Though Christianity
Intimacy of the Deceased Party The Corps being in a plain Coffin without any Covering or Furniture upon it At the Ground they pause some time before they put the Body into its Grave that if any one there should have any thing upon them to exhort the People they may not be dissappointed and that the Relations may the more Retiredly and Solemnly take their last leave of the Corps of their departed Kindred and the Spectators have a Sense of Mortality by the occasion then given them to reflect upon their own Latter End Otherways they have no set Rites or Ceremonies on those Occasions neither do the Kindred of the Deceased ever wear Mourning they looking upon it as a Wordly Ceremony and piece of Pomp and that what Mourning is fit for a Christian to have at the Departure of a beloved Relation or Friend should be worn in the Mind which is only sensible of the Loss and the Love they had to them and Remembrance of them to be outwardly exprest by a respect to their Advice and care of those they have left behind them and their Love of that they Loved Which Conduct of theirs though unmodish or unfashionable leaves nothing of the Substance of things neglected or undone and as they aim at no more so that simplicity of Life is what they observe with great Satisfaction though it sometimes happens not to be without the Mockeries of the vain World they live in These things gave them a Rough and Disagreeable Appearance with the Generality who thought them Turners of the World upside down as indeed in some Sense they were but in no other than that wherein Paul was so charged viz. To bring things back into their Primitive and right Order again For these and such like Practices of theirs were not the Result of Humour as some have fancied but a Fruit of Inward Sense which God through his Fear had begotten in them They did not consider how to contradict the World or distinguish themselves being none of their Business as it was not their Interest no it was not the Result of Consultation or a framed design to declare or recommend Schism or Novelty But God having given them a sight of themselves they saw the whole World in the same Glass of Truth and sensibly discerned the Affections and Passions of Men and the Rise and Tendency of Things What gratified the Lust of the Flesh the Lust of the Eye and the Pride of Life which are not of the Father but of the World and from thence Sprang in that Night of Darkness and Apostacy which hath been over People through their Degeneration from the Light and Spirit of God these and many other vain Customs which are seen by the Heavenly day of Christ which dawns in the Soul to be either wrong in their Original or by Time and Abuse Hurtful in their Practice And though these things seemed Trivial to some and rendered this People Stingy and conceited in such Persons Opinions there was and is more in them than they were aware of It was not very easie to our Primitive Friends to make themselves Sights and Spectacles and the Scorn and Derision of the World which they easily foresaw must be the Consequence of so Vnfashionable a Conversation in it But herein was the Wisdom of God seen in the Foolishness of these things First That they discovered the Satisfaction and Concern that People had in and for the Fashions of this World notwithstanding their Pretences to another in that any disappointment about them came so very near them that the greatest Honesty Virtue Wisdom and Ability were unwelcom without them Secondly It seasonably and profitably divided Conversation for making their Society uneasie to their Relations and Acquaintance it gave them the opportunity of more Retirement and Solitude wherein they met with better Company even the Lord God their Redeemer and grew strong in his Love Power and Wisdom and were thereby better qualified for his Service and the success abundantly show'd it Blessed be the Name of the Lord. And though they were not Great and Learned in the Esteem of this World for then they had not wanted Followers upon their own Credit and Authority yet they were generally of the most Sober of the several Perswasions they were in and of the most Repute for Religion and many of them of good Capacity Substance and Account among Men. And also some among them neither wanted for Parts Learning nor Estate though then as of Old not many Wise nor Noble c. were called or at least received the Heavenly Call because of the Cross that attended the Profession of it in Sincerity But neither do Parts or Learning make Men the better Christians though the better Orators and Disputants and it is the Ignorance of People about the Divine Gift that causes that vulgar and mischievous mistake Theory and Practice Expression and Enjoyment Words and Life are two things Oh! 't is the Penitent the Reformed the Lowly the Watchful the Self-denying and Holy Soul that is the Christian and that Frame is the Fruit and Work of the Spirit which is the Life of Jesus whose Life though hid in God the Father is shed abroad in the Hearts of them that truly Believe Oh! that People did but know this to cleanse them to circumcise them to quicken them and to make them New Creatures indeed Re-created or Regenerated after Christ Jesus unto good Works That they might live to God and not to themselves and offer up living Prayers and living Praises to the living God through his own living Spirit in which he is only to be Worshipped in this Gospel Day Oh! that they that read me could but feel me for my Heart is affected with this Merciful Visitation of the Father of Lights and Spirits to this poor Nation and the whole World through the same Testimony Why should the Inhabitants thereof reject it Why should they loose the Blessed Benefit of it Why should they not turn to the Lord with all their Hearts and say from the Heart Speak Lord for now thy poor Servants hear Oh! that thy will may be done thy Great thy Good and Holy will in Earth as it is in Heaven Do it in us do it upon us do what thou wilt with us for we are thine and desire to glorifie thee our Creator both for that and because thou art our Redeemer for thou art redeeming us from the Earth from the Vanities and Pollutions of it to be a Peculiar People unto thee Oh! this were a Brave Day for England if so she could say in Truth But alas the Case is otherwise for which some of thine Inhabitants O Land of my Nativity have mourned over thee with bitter Wailing and Lamentation Their Heads have been indeed as Waters and their Eyes as Fountains of Tears because of thy Transgression and Stiffneckedness becuse thou wilt not Hear and Fear and Return to the Rock even thy Rock O England from whence thou wert Hewen
the World hath of what the Prophets and Apostles spake is a fleshly Knowledge and the Apostates from the Life in which the Prophets and Apostles were have gotten their Words the Holy Scriptures in a Form but not in their Life nor Spirit that gave them forth And so they all lie in Confusion and are making Provision for the Flesh to fulfil the Lusts thereof but not to fulfil the Law and Command of Christ in his Power and Spirit For that they say they cannot do but to fulfil the Lusts of the Flesh that they can do with Delight Now after I had received that Opening from the Lord that To be bred at Oxford or Cambridge was not sufficient to fit a Man to be a Minister of Christ I regarded the Priests less and looked more after the Dissenting People And among them I saw there was some Tenderness And many of them came afterwards to be Convinced for they had some Openings But as I had forsaken all the Priests so I left the Separate Preachers also and those called the Most-Experienced People For I saw there was none among them all that could speak to my Condition And when all my hopes in them and in all Men was gone so that I had nothing outwardly to help me nor could tell what to do Then O! then I heard a Voice which said ☞ There is one even Christ Jesus that can speak to thy Condition And when I heard it my Heart did leap for Joy Then the Lord did let me see why there was none upon the Earth that could speak to my Condition namely that I might give him all the Glory For all are concluded under Sin and shut up in Vnbelief as I had been that Jesus Christ might have the Pre-heminence who enlightens and gives Grace and Faith and Powe◠Thus when God doth work who shall let it And this I knew experimentally My Desires after the Lord grew stronger and Zeal in the pure knowledge of God and of Christ alone without the help of any Man Book or Writing For though I read the Scriptures that spake of Christ and of God yet I knew him not but by Revelation as he who hath the Key did open and as the Father of Life drew me to his Son by his Spirit And then the Lord did gently lead me along and did let me see his Love which was Endless and Eternal and surpasseth all the Knowledge that Men have in the natural State or can get by History or Books And that Love did let me see my self as I was without him and I was afraid of all Company For I saw them perfectly where they were through the Love of God which let me see my self And I had not Fellowship with any People Priests nor Professors nor any sort of separated People but with Christ who hath the Key and opened the Door of Light and Life unto me And I was afraid of all Carnal Talk and Talkers for I could see nothing but Corruptions and the Life lay under the Burden of Corruptions And when I my self was in the Deep under all shut up I could not believe that I should ever Overcome my Troubles my Sorrows and my Temptations were so great that I thought many times I should have despaired I was so tempted But when Christ opened to me how he was tempted by the same Devil and had Overcome him and bruised his Head and that through him and his Power Light Grace and Spirit I should Overcome also I had Confidence in him So he it was that opened to me when I was shut up and had not hope nor Faith Christ it was who had enlightened me that gave me his Light to believe in and gave me Hope which is himself Revealed himself in me and gave me his Spirit and gave me his Grace which I found sufficient in the Deeps and in Weakness Thus in the deepest Miseries and in the greatest Sorrows and Temptations that many times beset me the Lord in his Mercy did keep me And I found that there were Two Thirsts in me the one after the Creatures to have gotten Help and Strength there and the other after the Lord the Creator and his Son Jesus Christ And I saw all the World could do me no good If I had had a King's Diet Palace and Attendance all would have been as nothing For nothing gave me Comfort but the Lord by his Power And I saw Professors Priests and People were whole and at ease in that Condition which was my Misery and they loved that which I would have been rid of But the Lord did stay my Desires upon himself from whom my help came and my care was cast upon him alone Therefore all Wait patiently upon the Lord whatsoever Condition you be in wait in the Grace and Truth that comes by Jesus For if ye so do there is a Promise to you and the Lord God will fulfil it in you And Blessed are all they indeed that do indeed hunger and thirst after Righteousness they shall be satisfied with it I have found it so praised be the Lord who filleth with it and satisfieth the desires of the hungry Soul O let the House of the Spiritual Israel say His Mercy endureth for ever It is the great Love of God to make a Wilderness of that which is pleasant to the outward Eye and fleshly Mind and to make a fruitful Field of a barren Wilderness This is the great Work of God But while People's Minds do run in the Earthly after the Creatures and changeable Things and changeable Ways and Religions and changeable uncertain Teachers their Minds are in Bondage and they are brittle and changeable and tossed up and down with windy Doctrines and Thoughts and Notions and Things their Minds being from the unchangeable Truth in the inward Parts the Light of Jesus Christ which would keep their Minds to the Unchangeable who is the Way to the Father who in all my Troubles did preserve me by his Spirit and Power praised be his Holy Name for ever Again I heard a Voice which did say Thou Serpent Thou dost seek to destroy the Life but canst not For the Sword which keepeth the Tree of Life shall destroy thee So Christ the Word of God that bruised the Head of the Serpent the Destroyer preserved me my inward Mind being joined to his good Seed that bruised the Head of this Serpent the Destroyer And this inward Life did spring up in me to answer all the Opposing Professors and Priests and did bring in Scriptures to my Memory to refute them with At another time I saw the great Love of God and I was filled with admiration at the Infiniteness of it And then I saw what was Cast out from God and what Entred into God's Kingdom And how by Jesus the Opener of the Door by his Heavenly Key the Entrance was given And I saw Death how it had passed upon all Men and oppressed the Seed of God in Man and in me
were a People that fled out of Old England thither from the Persecution of the Bishops here But when they had got Power into their hands they so far exceeded the Bishops in Severity and Cruelty that whereas the Bishops had made them pay Twelve Pence a Sunday so called for not coming to their Worship here they imposed a Fine of Five Shillings a Day upon such as should not conform to their Will-Worship there and spoiled the Goods of Friends that could not pay it Besides many they Imprisoned divers they Whipt and that most Cruelly of some they Cut off Ears and some they Hanged as the Books of Friends Sufferings in New-England largely shew particularly A Book written by Geo. Bishop of Bristol Entituled New-England judged In Two Parts Some of the old Royalists were earnest with Friends to have prosecuted them but we told them we left them to the Lord to whom Vengeance belonged and he would Repay it And the Judgments of God have since fallen heavy on them For the Indians have been raised up against them and have Cut off many of them About this time I lost a very good Book being taken in the Printer's Hands It was a useful teaching Book containing the Signification and Explanation of Names Parables Types and Figures in the Scriptures They who took it were so affected with it that they were loth to have destroyed it but thinking to have made a great Advantage of it they would have let us have had it again if we would have given them a great Sum of Money for it which we were not free to do And some time before this while I was Prisoner in Lancaster-Castle the Book called the Battledoor came forth which was written to shew that in all Languages Thou and Thee is the proper and usual Form of Speech to a Single Person and You to more than one This was set forth in Examples or Instances taken out of the Scriptures and out of Books of Teaching in about Thirty Languages John Stubbs and Benjamin Furly took great Pains in the Compiling of it which I put them upon and some things I added to it When it was finished some of them were presented to the King and his Council to the Bishops of Canterbury and London and to the Two Vniversities one a piece and many bought of them The King said It was the proper Language of all Nations And the Bishop of Canterbury being asked what he thought of it was so at a stand that he could not tell what to say to it For it did so Inform and Convince Pâ—ople that few afterward were so Rugged towards us for saying Thou and Thee to a single Person which before they were exceeding fierce against us for For this Thou and Thee was a sore Cut to proud Flesh and them that sought Self-honour who though they would say it to God and Christ would not endure to have it said to themselves So that we were often Beaten and Abused and sometimes in danger of our Lives for using those Words to some proud Men who would say What you ill-bred Clown do you Thou me as though there lay Breeding in saying You to one which was contrary to all their Grammars and Teaching-Books by which they had taught and instructed their Youth Now the Bishops and Priests being busie and eager to settle and 〈◊〉 up their Form of Worship and Compel all to come to it I was mâ—â—â—d to give forth the following Paper to open unto People the Nature of the True Worship which Christ set up and which God accepts Thus CHrist's Worship is free in the Spirit to all Men and such as Worship in the Spirit and in the Truth are they that God seeks to Worship him for he is the God of Truth and is a Spirit and the God of the Spirits of all Flesh And he hath given to all the Nations of Men and Women Breath and Life to live and move and have their Being in him and hath put into them an Immortal Soul So all the Nations of Men and Women are to be Temples for him to dwell in and they that defile his Temple them will he destroy Now as the outward Jews while they had their outward Temple at outward Jerusalem were to go up thither to Worship which Temple God hath long since thrown down and destroyed that Jerusalem the Vision of Peace and cast off the Jews and their Worship and in the room thereof hath set up his Gospel-Worship in the Spirit and in the Truth so now all are to Worship in the Spirit and in the Truth And this is a free Worship for where the Spirit of the Lord is and ruleth there is Liberty and the Fruits of the Spirit are seen and will manifest themselves and the Spirit is not to be limited but to be lived and walked in that the Fruits of it may appear The Tares are such as hang upon the Wheat to weigh it down and thereby to draw it down to the Earth yet the Tares and the Wheat must grow together till the Harvest lest they that take upon them to pluck up the Tares should pluck up the Wheat with the Tares The Tares are such as Worship not God in the Spirit and in the Truth but do grieve the Spirit and vex it and quench it in themselves and walk not in the Truth yet will scraul and hang about the Wheat the true Worshippers in the Spirit and in the Truth Christ's Church was never established by Blood nor held up by Prisons neither was the Foundation of it laid by Carnal Weaponed Men nor is it preserved by such But when Men went from the Spirit and Truth then they took up Carnal Weapons to maintain their outward Forms and yet cannot preserve them with their Carnal Weapons For one plucketh down another's Form with his outward Weapons And this Work and Doing hath been among the Christians in Name since they lost the Spirit and Spiritual Weapons and the true Worship which Christ set up that is in the Spirit and in the Truth which Spirit and Truth they that Worship in are over all the Tares All that would be plucking up the Tares are forbidden by Christ who hath all Power in Heaven and Earth given to him for the Tares and the Wheat must grow together till the Harvest as Christ hath commanded The Stone that smote the Image became a great Mountain and filled the whole Earth Now if the Stone do fill the whole Earth all Nations must be Temples for the Stone And all that say they do travel for the Seed and yet bring forth nothing but a Birth of Strife and Contention and Confusion their Fruit shews their Travel to be wrong for by the Fruit the End of every one's Work is seen of what sort it is G. F. About this time many Papists and Jesuits began to fawn upon Friends and talk'd up and down where they came that of all the Sects the Quakers were the best and most self-denying
Gospel-Order and it belongs to them Then take your Possessions and Practise in it and be not Talkers only but Live and Walk in the Gospel the Power of God which is the Authority of your Meetings Swarthmore the 28th of the Third Month 1676. G. F. Read at the Yearly Meeting in London the 17th of the Third Month 1676. During this time also I Collected together as many as I could of the Epistles I had written in former Years to Friends I made a Collection too of the several Papers that I had written to O. Cromwel and his Son Richard in the time of their Protectorships and to the Parliaments and Magistrates that were in their times And after I had gathered them together I Collected also the Papers I had written to King Charles the Second since his Return and to his Council and Parliaments and the Justices or other Magistrates under him I made also another Collection of Certificates which I had received from divers Governours of Places Judges Justices Parliament-Men and others for the Clearing of me from many Slanders which the Envious Priests and Professors both here and beyond the Seas had cast upon me And this I did for the Truth's-sake as knowing that their Design in Slandering me was to defame the Truth published by me and hinder thereby if they could the Spreading thereof amongst the People Besides these I made Two Books of Collections the one was A List or Catalogue of the Names of those Friends who went first forth out of the North of England when Truth first brake forth there to proclaim the Day of the Lord through this Nation The other was of the Names of those Friends that went first forth to Preach the Gospel in other Nations Countries and Places and in what Years and to what Parts they went I made also another Collection in Two Books one of Epistles and Letters from Friends and others on several Occasions to me The other of Letters of mine to Friends and others I writ also a Book of the Types and Figures of Christ with their Significations and many other things which will be of Service to Truth and Friends in times to come I took notice also of those who had run out from Truth and drawn others out after them and turned against Truth and Friends at several times since the First Breaking forth of Truth in this latter Age and what became of them noting particularly the Repentance and Return of such of them as came back to Truth again But some ran quite out and never returned again but were Cut off in their Gainsaying and Rebellion for the Word and Power of God hath blasted and is blasting them and the Holy Seed hath ground and is grinding them to pieces And this I have observed that they who have been Convinced and have not lived and walked in the Truth have been the Worst Enemies to the Truth and done most Hurt amongst Friends in the Truth and to others And in these I have seen fulfilled what the Lord did long since shew me That such should be greater Deceivers than all the Priests and Professors For such as came as far as Cain and Balaam and Corah and Dathan and could preach Christ and say They had preached in his Name and such as came to be Apostles and had tasted of the Power of Christ and then turned from it such could yet speak their Old Experiences and have the good Words like Corah and Balaam but not keeping in the Life and Truth such Deceived the Hearts of the Simple both then and now and such come to be of the Devil who abode not in the Truth as Cain and and all the Jews that abode not in the Truth were For though Cain did Sacrifice to God and did talk with God and the Jews could talk of Abraham Moses and the Prophets yet Christ told them They were of their Father the Devil In like manner though they who are called Christians can talk of Christ and use his and his Apostles and Disciples Words yet not abiding in the Truth and Power and Spirit that the Apostles were in they are of the Devil out of Truth and do his Work And so are all these that have been Convinced of God's Eternal Truth since it sprang up in this Nation that have not abode in the Light and in the Spirit and Power of Christ Jesus but have turned against the Power and have opposed the Work thereof though they may retain their former Experiences and be able to speak many good Words yet not living in the Life and Power that gave them those Experiences they live in the Power of Darkness which is of the Devil and by the Light and Truth both he and they are Condemned and must own their Condemnations if ever they come to Truth again For to Resist the Heavenly Power and to oppose the Workings and Divine Manifestations thereof through any is not a light Matter And as I had been moved of the Lord to travel in his Power round about this Nation and in other Parts to preach the Everlasting Gospel and to declare the Word of Life which was in the Beginning through many Imprisonments Hardships Sufferings and Trials so I was afterwards moved to Travel in the same Heavenly Power about the Nation again and to write to such Places where I came not to recommend unto Friends the setting up of the Quarterly and Monthly Meetings in all Counties for the looking after the Poor and taking Care for Orderly Proceedings in Marriages and other matters relating to the Church of Christ Though some Meetings for this end were settled in the North of England in the Year 1653. And after this also Truth still spreading further over the Nation and Friends encreasing in number I was moved by the same Eternal Power to recommend the setting up the Womens-Meetings also that all both Male and Female that had received the Gospel the Word of Eternal Life might come into the Order of the Gospel brought forth by the Power of God and might act for God in the Power and therein do Business and Service for him in his Church All the Faithful must labour in God's Vineyard they being his Hired Servants and he having given them the Earnest of his Spirit For a Master that hires a Servant and gives him the Earnest of his Hire expects he should do his Work after he knows his Will in the outward Creation So all God's Prople that be of the new Creation and have received the Earnest of his Spirit ought to labour with by and in his Spirit Power and Grace and Faith in the Light in God's Vineyard that they may have their Wages every one Male and Female when they have done God's Work and Business in his Day which is Eternal Life But none can labour in his Vineyard and do his Work and Will but as they walk in the Heavenly Divine Light Grace and Spirit of Christ which is hath been and is my Travel and
from men and to receive the Gospel from him and their Vnction from him the Word and as they receive him they declare him freely as his Command was to his Disciples and is so still to the Learners and Receivers of him For he Lord God and his Son Jesus Christ is come to teach his People and to bring them from all the Worlds Ways to Christ the Way the Truth and the Life who is the Way to the Father and from all the Worlds Teachers and Speakers to him the Speaker and Teacher as Hebr. 1.1 and from all the Worlds Worshippers to worship God in the Spirit and in the Truth which the Devil the Destroyer is out of which Worship Christ set up above Sixteen hundred years ago when he put down the Jews Worship at the Temple at Jerusalem and the Worship at the Mountain where Jacob's Well was and to bring People from all the World's Religions which they have made since the Apostles days to the Religion that was set up by Christ and his Apostles which is Pure and Undefiled before God and keeps from the Spots of the World And to bring them out of all the Worlds Churches and Fellowships that they have made and set up since the Apostles days to the Church that is in God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ Thess 1.1 and to bring to the Unity and Fellowship in the holy Spirit that doth mortifie and circumcise and baptise to plunge down Sin and Corruption that has got up in Man and Woman by Transgression and in this holy Spirit there is a holy Fellowship and Unity yea it is the Bond of the Prince of Princes and King of Kings and Lord of Lords Peace which heavenly Peace all the true Christians are to maintain with Spiritual Weapons not with Carnal And now my Friend the holy Men of God did speak forth the Scriptures as they were moved by the holy Ghost and all Christendom are on heaps about those Scriptures because they are not led by the same holy Ghost as they were that gave forth the Scriptures which holy Ghost they must come to in themselves and be led by if they come into All the Truth of them and to have the Comfort of God and Christ and Them For none can call Jesus Lord but by the holy Ghost and all they that do call Christ Lord without the holy Ghost take his Name in vain And likewise all that name his Name are to depart from Iniquity then they name his Name with Reverence in Truth and Righteousness And O therefore feel the Grace and Truth in thy heart that is come by Jesus Christ which is a Teacher that will teach thee how to live and what to deny and it will establish thy heart and season thy words and bring thy Salvation and will be a Teacher unto thee at all times and by it thou may'st Receive Christ from whence it comes and as many as Receive him to them he gives power not only to stand against sin and evil but to become the Sons of God if Sons then Heirs of a Life and a World and Kingdom that is Everlasting without end and of the Eternal Riches and Treasures thereof So in haste with my Love in the Lord Jesus Christ that has tasted death for every man and bruises the Serpents head that has been betwixt Man and God that through Christ Man may come to God again and so can praise God through Jesus Christ the Amen who is the spiritual and heavenly Rock and Foundation for all God's People to build upon to the praise and glory of God who is over all blessed for Evermore Amsterdam the 7th of 6th Month 1677. George Fox POSTSCRIPT THE Bearer hereof is a Daughter-in-law of mine that comes with Gertrude Dirick Nieson and George Keith's Wife to give thee a Visit G. F. The Princess Elizabeth her Answer to the aforesaid LETTER Dear Friend I Cannot but have a tender Love to those that love the Lord Jesus Christ and to whom it is given not only to believe in him but also to suffer for him Therefore your Letter and your Friends Visit have been both very welcome to me I shall follow their and your Counsel as far as God will afford me Light and Unction Remaining still Hertfort the 30th of August 1677. Your loving Friend ELIZABETH Buyckslote Purmerent Next day John Claus and I took Boat and passed to Buyckslote and thence to Purmerent where having stayed awhile and refreshed our selves at an Inn we went by Wagon through the Country to Alcmaer Alcmaer about Thirty Miles from Amsterdam We went to a Friend's house there whose name was Willem Willems where I had a Meeting that night I had also another Meeting there next day which was larger for several Professors came to the Meeting and all was quiet and well When the Meeting was done I went and visited some Friends and then taking Boat Hoorn North-Holland passed-by several places to Hoorn which is counted the chief City in North-Holland We lodged at an Inn there that night and taking Wagon again early next Morning we passed through the Country to Enckhuysen Enckhuysen Friezland Workum where we took Ship for Friezland and landing in the Afternoon at Workum took Wagon there again and rode along upon the high Bank of the Friezen Seas till we met Two Friends coming with a Wagon to meet us Mackum with whom discharging our Wagon at Mackum a Village hard by we went Harlingen in their Wagon to Harlingen the chief Sea-port-Town in Friezland We went to a Friend's house whose Name was Hessel Jacobs whither several Friends came to Visit us that night Next day we went among the Friends of the place and Visited them and I wrote a Paper directed To all them that persecute Friends for not observing their Fast-day The day following was the First-day of the Week and Friends had a Meeting there to which we went and many Professors came to it I declared the Everlasting Gospel amongst them John Claus interpreting and they were all very Civil and heard attentively and when the Meeting was done departed peaceably without making any Opposition After Meeting I went to Hessel Jacobs his house again whither after a while came a Calvinist to ask me some Questions which I answered to his satisfaction and he departed friendly Soon after he was gone a Preacher of the Collegians came to discourse with me 1677. Harlingen and he seemed well satisfied also and we parted lovingly That Evening I had another Meeting with the Friends there and next Morning when we had taken our Leave of them we passed to Leuwarden the chief City in Friezland Leuwarden and lodged that night at a Friend's house there whose Name was Sybrand Dowes Next Morning early taking Boat we passed to Dockum Dockum Strobus and walking through the City took Boat again to Strobus which is the utmost part of Friezland There we baited at a
76. and 78. All the Figures and Shadows were and are in Time but Christ the Substance is the Beginning and the Ending And all Trials Troubles Persecutions and Temptations came up in Time but the Lord's Power which is Everlasting is over all such things in which is safety The black World of Darkness lieth in wickedness and by their Wisdom knoweth not God that made the World and all things therein for the God of the World and Prince of the Air ruleth in the hearts of all them that disobey the living God that made them And so the God of this wicked World hath blinded all the Eyes of the Infidels or Heathen so that this Wicked World by their Wisdom doth not know the living God In the Old Testament the Lord said With all thy Offerings thou shalt offer Salt Levit. 2.13 And Christ saith in his New Covenant Every one shall be salted with Fire and every Sacrifice shall be salted with Salt Salt is good but if the Salt have lost its saltness wherewith will you season it Have Salt in your selves and have peace one with another Mark 9.48 49 50. We have received the Earnest of the Spirit which is the Earnest of the Inheritance that fadeth not away For God poureth out of his Spirit upon all flesh So it is God's Spirit which is above our natural Spirit by which alone we do not know God for it is with the Spirit of God that we do know the things of God And the Spirit of God doth witness to our Souls and Spirits that this Spirit of God is the Earnest of an Eternal Inheritance God opens his Peoples Ears to Discipline and commands that they turn from Iniquity If they obey and serve him they shall spend their days in prosperity and their years in pleasure but if they obey him not they shall perish by the sword and they shall die without knowledge Job 36.10 11 12. So the Disobedient that do not turn from their Iniquity have not this prosperity and pleasure but die without the knowledge of God And such their Ears are shut to this Discipline which God opens to his People G. F. When I had been about Two Months in London I was sent for to my Son Rouse's at Kingston to visit a Daughter of his Kingston which at that time lay very sick but recovered Whilst I stay'd there I had several Meetings with Friends Hammersmith and returning by Hammersmith stay'd the First-day-Meeting there which was large and peaceable And having visited Friends thereabouts I came back â—o London again being very intent upon the business of getting Redress for suffering Friends In this and other Services for Friends and Truth I continued at London till the latter end of the Eleventh Month save that I went in this time to visit an Ancient Friend at Bednal-Green Bednal-Green with whom I tarried three or four days While I was there I was much exercised in the sense of the Enemy's Working to draw from the holy way of Truth into a false Liberty and so into the World's ways and worships again And the Example of the backsliding Jews coming before me I was moved to write the following Paper as a Warning to all such HEre you may see when the Jews Rebelled against the good Spirit of God which he gave them to Instruct them they forsook God and his Law Way and Worship and then they went a whoring after Balaam's Ways and became like the wild Ass-Colt snuffing up the wind as in Jer. 2.24 And in Jer. 3. see how Judah played the Harlot under every green Tree and upon every high Mountain And therefore the Lord divorced Judah as he had divorced Israel when she forsook his Ways and followed the Heathens Ways And though the Lord had fed them to the full yet they forsook him and committed Adultery and Assembled themselves together in Harlot's-houses Jer. 5.7 And with their Whoredom they defiled the Land and committed Adultery with Stocks and Stones Jer. 3.9 So here you may see when they forsook the living Eternal God they followed the Religions and Worships of other Nations whose Gods were made of Stocks and Stones which the Jews worshipped and committed Adultery withal When they forsook the living God and his way and worship they forsook the worship at Jerusalem at the Temple and followed the Heathens Worships in the Mountains and Fields and so it was called Adultery and Whoredom to join with other Religions and forsake God as in Jer. 13.27 And now if the Children of New Jerusalem that is above should forsake the Worship that Christ in his New Testament set up which is in Spirit and in Truth and follow the Worships of Nations which men have set up will not they that do so commit Adultery with them in forsaking God's Worship and Christ the new and living Way And in Jer. 44. ye may see how the Children of Judah provoked the Lord against them by worshipping the works of their own hands and following the Gods of the Land of Egypt In this they committed Adultery forsaking the living God their Husband and his Worship and there ye may see God's Judgments pronounced against them to their destruction And what will become of those that forsake the Worship in Spirit and Truth which Christ set up and worship the works of their own hands in spiritual Egypt and follow spiritual Egypt's Will-worship which they invented may not this be called Whoredom in them that forsake Christ the new and living Way and his pure Religion and his Worship that he hath set up And they that do forsake the Lord's way 1685. Bednal-Green and his worship that he set up and follow the Worlds ways and worships that they set up do not they whose Way they follow become at last their Enemies as in Lament 1. See how the Jews forsook the Lord's way and worship and doted on other Lovers the Assyrians c. and with all their Idols they were defiled and how they did not leave the Whoredoms brought from Egypt and how they were polluted with the Babylonians Bed as ye may read in Ezek 23. When they forsook the Lord his Way and Worship and followed the Way and Worship of the Heathen then it was said They went a Whoring after other Lovers and committed Adultery with them And ye may see in Ezek. 16. how the state of the Jews was likened unto that of their Sister Sodom and how that they had played the Harlot with the Assyrians and committed Fornication with the Egyptians and had increased their Whoredoms in following their abominable Idols And therefore the Lord carried away the Two Tribes that forsook him into Babylon as ye may see in Ezek. 17.20 And they that forsake Christ the new and living Way and the Worship of God in Spirit and Truth which Christ set up in his New-Testament they go into Captivity in spiritual Babylon And in Hosea 2. ye may see how he discovers the Whoredoms and
this Gospel-day of Christ but Christ will consume them with the Spirit of his Mouth and destroy them with the Brightness of his Coming But God's People whom he hath chosen unto Salvation in Christ from the beginning through the Sanctification of the Spirit and the belief of the Truth stand stedfast in Christ Jesus and are thankful to God by and through his Son their Rock and Salvation who is their Happiness and eternal Inheritance The Apostle saith Ye were as Sheep going astray but are now returned to the Shepherd and Bishop of your Souls So when People are returned to Christ their Shepherd they do know his Voice and follow him and are returned to the Bishop of their Souls and then they do believe in him 1686. Kingston and receive Wisdom and Vnderstanding from him who is from above heavenly and spiritual Then they do Act like spiritual and holy Men and Women and come to be Members of the Church of Christ and then a spiritual Care cometh upon the Elders in Christ that all the Members do walk in Christ and in his Light Grace Spirit and Truth that they may adorn their Confession and Profession of Christ and see that all do walk in the Order of the holy Spirit and the everlasting Gospel of Peace Life and Salvation And this Order keeps out of Confusion for the Gospel of Peace the Power of God was before Confusion was And all the Heirs of the Gospel are Heirs of its Order and are in this Gospel which brings Life and Immortality to Light in them by which all Men and Women may see their Work and Services in it to look after the Poor Widows and Fatherless and to see that nothing be lacking and that all do honour the Lord in their Lives and Conversations When the whole House of Israel were in their Graves and Sepulchres and were called The scattered dry Bones yet they could speak and say Their Bones were dry their Hope was lost or they were without Hope and they were cut off so that they were Alive outwardly and could speak outwardly So that which is called Christendom may very well be called The scattered dry Bones and they be said to be in their Graves and Sepulchres dead from the heavenly Breath of Life and from the Spirit and Word of Life that gathereth to God Though they can speak and are Alive outwardly yet they remain in the Congregations or Churches of the Dead that want the vertue of Life For the Jews whom God poured his Spirit upon and gave them his Law when they rebelled against the Spirit of God and turned from God and his Law then they came to be dry scattered Bones and were turned into their Graves and Sepulchres And so Christendom that is turned from the Grace and Truth and Light of Christ and the Spirit that God poureth upon all flesh they are become the scattered dry Bones and are in their Graves and Sepulchres and are the Congregations or Churches of the Dead though they can speak and are Alive outwardly Christ saith I am come that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly And he gave his flâ—sh for the life of the World And he saith I am the Resurrection and the Life and I am the Way the Truth and the Life No man cometh unto the Father but by me And Christ is the quickening Spirit All being dead in Adam they are to be quickened and made alive by Christ the second Adam And when they are quickned and made alive by him then they do Meet together in the Name of Jesus Christ their Saviour who died for their Sins and is risen for their Justification and so was dead and is alive again and liveth for evermore And all whom he hath quickened and made alive even all the living do Meet in the Name of Jesus who is alive and he their living Prophet Shepherd and Bishop is in the midst of them and is their living Rock and Foundation and a living Mediator between them and the living God And so the Living do praise the living God through Jesus Christ through whom they have Peace with God And so all the Living have Rest in Christ their Life and he is their Sanctification and their Righteousness and their Treasure of Wisdom Knowledge and Vnderstanding which is spiritual and heavenly And he is the spiritual Tree and Root which all the Believers in the Light the Life in Christ that do pass from the death in Adam to the Life in Christ and overcome the World and are born of God are grafted into even Christ the heavenly Tree which beareth all the spiritual Branches or Grafts So these do Meet in his Name and are gathered in him and do sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus their Life who hath quickened and made them alive And so all the Living do worship the living God in his holy Spirit and Truth in which they Live and Walk And into this Worship the foul unclean Spirit the Devil cannot get for the holy Spirit and Truth is over him and he is out of it This is the standing Worship which Christ set up in his New Covenant And they that are quickened and made alive by Christ are the living Stones and living Members and spiritual Houshold and Church or Congregation of Christ who is the living Head and Husband And they that are quickened and made alive by Christ are a living Church and have a living Head and are come from the Congregations or Churches of the Dead in Adam where Death and Destruction talks of God and of his Prophets and Apostles in their Wisdom that is below and earthly and devilish and in the knowledge that is bruitish and in the understanding that comes to naught For what they know is natural by their natural Tongues and Arts and Sciences in which they corrupt themselves This is the state of the Dead in Adam But the Quickened and they that are made alive by Christ do discern between the Living and the Dead Kingston upon Thames the 12th Month 1686 7. G. F. While I was at Kingston I writ also another Paper shewing That the Lord in all Ages called the Righteous out from amongst the Wicked before he destroyed them Which Paper here follows NOah and his Family were called into the Ark before the Old World was destroyed with the Flood of Water And all the Faithful Generation that lived before were taken away and died in the Faith before that Flood of Destruction came upon the wicked Old World The Lord did call Lot out of Sodom before he did destroy and consume it and the Wicked there Christ said It cannot be that a Prophet perish out of Jerusalem and he said O Jerusalem Jerusalem which killest the Prophets and stonest them that are sent unto thee how often would I have gathered thy Children together as a Hen gathereth her Brood under her Wings but ye would not Luke 13.33 34. And Christ said unto
preach at Damascus and at Jerusalem and throughout all the Coasts of Judea and then to the Gentiles turning them from Darkness to the Light of Christ and from the Power of Satan to God that they should Repent and turn to God and do works meet for Repentance Acts 26.20 Now here ye may see that People must Repent before they do believe and are baptized and before they receive the Holy Ghost and the Kingdom of God And they must Repent of their vain Life and Conversation before they do receive the Gospel and must be turned from Darkness to the Light of Christ and from the power of Satan unto God before they do receive his Holy Spirit and his Gospel of Life and Salvation The Lord doth command all Men every where to Repent and do works meet for Repentance So they must shew forth 1687. Gooses that their Lives and Conversations and Tongues are changed and that they do serve God in the Newness of Life with new Tongues and new Hearts Gooses the 6th Month 1687. G. F. Another short Paper I writ about the same time shewing Wherein God's People should be like unto him It was thus GOD is Righteous and he would have his People to be righteous and to do righteously And God is Holy and he would have his People holy and to do holily And God is Just and he would have his People to be just and to do justly to all God is Light and his Children must walk in his Light And God is an eternal infinite Spirit and his Children must walk in the Spirit God is Merciful and he would have his People to be Merciful God's Sun shines upon the Good and the Bad and he causes the Rain to fall upon the Evil and the Good so should his People do good unto all God is Love and they that dwell in love dwell in God Love worketh no Ill to his Neighbour therefore Love is the fulfilling of the Law Rom. 13.10 And the Apostle saith All the Law is fulfilled in one word even in this Thou shalt love thy Neigbour as thy self Gal. 5.14 As the Father hath loved me so I have loved you continue ye in my love John 15.9 This should be the practice of all God's People Gooses the 6th Month 1687. G. F. And because most People would own and Confess that God's People should be thus but few knew how to come to this state Therefore in the Openings of the Spirit of Truth I writ another short Paper directing to The right Way and Means whereby People might come unto Christ and so be made like unto God That was thus CHrist saith I am the Way the Truth and the Life no Man cometh unto the Father but by me John 14.6 And again No Man can come to me except the Father which hath sent me draw him John 6.44 Now what is the Means by which God doth draw People to his Son but by his holy Spirit who poureth out of his Spirit upon all Flesh that is all Men and Women And by this holy Spirit the holy and righteous God doth draw People from their Unrighteousness and Unholiness to Christ the righteous and holy One the great Prophet in his New Covenant and New Testament whom Moses in the Old Covenant and Testament said God would raise up like unto him and whom People should hear in all things and they that would not hear him should be Cut off Now they that do not hear the Son of God the great Prophet do not mind the drawing of the Father by his holy Spirit to his Son But they that do mind the drawings of the good Spirit of the Father to his Son the Spirit doth give them Understanding to know God and Jesus Christ which is Eternal Life And then they do know that Jesus Christ is the Way the Truth and the Life and that none can come unto God but by and through his Son Jesus Christ who is their Shepherd to feed them at his Pastures and Springs of Life and his Sheep do know his holy Voice in whom there was no sin and in whose mouth there was no guile and an Hireling they will not hear for he careth not for the Sheep for they are not the Hireling's but Christ's who hath laid down his Life for his Sheep And he that robs and steals his Neighbour's Words and climeth up another way and entereth not by the Door he is a Thief and a Robber But Christ is the Door into his Sheepfold for his Sheep to enter in by And so they know that Christ is the Bishop of their Souls to see that they do not go astray from God nor out of his Pastures of Life And they do know that Christ is their Mediator and makes their Peace with God And they do know that Christ is their High-Priest made higher than the Heavens and hath died for their sins and doth cleanse them with his Blood and is risen for their Justification and is able to the utmost to save all that come to God by him Gooses the 6th Month 1687. G. F. Before I left this place I writ another Paper the Scope whereof was to shew by many Instances taken out of the holy Scriptures That the Kingdom of God which most People talk of at a distance and refer altogether to another life is in some measure to be known and entred into in this life but that none can know an Entrance thereinto but such as are Regenerated and Born again Of that Paper the following is a Copy CHrist saith Except a Man be born again he cannot see the Kingdom of God John 3.3 That which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit ver 6. So Except a Man be born of Water and of the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God ver 5. And John writing to the seven Churches in Asia calls himself their Brother and Companion in Tribulation and in the Kingdom and Patience of Jesus Christ Rev. 1.9 Here you may see that John was in the Kingdom so he was born again for he did not only see the Kingdom but was in it And John saith Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the Sons of God therefore the World knoweth us not because it knew him not 1 John 3.1 And Beloved now are we the Sons of God ver 2. And If ye know that he is Righteous ye know that every one that doth Righteousness is born of him Chap. 2.29 And Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin for his Seed remaineth in him and he cannot sin because he is born of God Ch. 3.9 Again John saith Let us love one another for love is of God and every one that loveth is born of God and knoweth God He that loveth not knoweth not God for God is love Ch. 4.7 8. Again Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God Ch. 5.1 And
harmless and separate from Sinners and is a Priest made higher than the Heavens This is the Priest that gives power to all that receive him to become the Sons and Daughters of God And Jerusalem that is above is the Mother of all the Sons and Daughters of God which is free but Jerusalem that is below is in bondage with her Children And they that are the Children of Jerusalem that is above do not look down at Jerusalem that is below but they look at Jerusalem that is above which is their Mother Christ said Neither at Outward Jerusalem nor in the Mountain of Samaria should God be worshipped but God should be worshipped in Spirit and in Truth for he is a Spirit and such he seeks to worship him John 4. This is the Worship that Christ set up above Sixteen hundred years ago And therefore the Idolatrous Jews must never think to Offer their outward Offerings and Sacrifices nor set up their outward Worship at Jerusalem in the holy Land of Canaan more For Christ by the Offering up of himself once for all for the Sins of the whole World hath ended all the Jews Offerings and changed the Priesthood and the Law by which it was made and hath blotted out the Hand-writing of Ordinances which commanded both Priests and Offerings and triumphed over them And so he is the Offering and Sacrifice of all the Children of the New Testament and New Covenant and heavenly new Jerusalem that is above and he is their Prophet that openeth to them and Shepherd that feeds them and Bishop that oversees them and Priest that died for their Sins and is risen for their Justification and sanctifies them and presents them to God So he is the one Mediator betwixt God and Man even the Man Christ Jesus Kingston the 9th of the 10th Month 1687. G. F. Guilford After this I went from Kingston to Guilford to visit Friends there and stay'd three days with them and had a large and very good Meeting there on the First-day of the Week After which I came back to Kingston again Kingston and tarried there about Two Weeks longer visiting the Friends and having Meetings amongst them both at their Publick Meeting-house and in their Families Many things I writ while I was now at Kingston amongst which the following Paper was one GOD so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him shall not perish mark not perish but have everlasting life John 3.16 And again he saith He that believeth on the Son of God hath mark hath everlasting Life ver 36. So these Believers have Everlasting Life while they are upon the Earth And he that believeth on Christ is not condemned but he that believeth not is condemned already and the wrath of God abideth on him And He that heareth Christ 's word and believeth on God that sent him hath mark hath everlasting life and shall not come into Condemnation but is passed from death the death in the first Adam to life the life in Christ the second Adam John 5.24 And that Meat which Christ doth give endureth unto Everlasting Life as in John 6.27 And the Water that Christ doth give shall be in him that drinks it a Well of water springing up into everlasting life John 4.14 Christ said to the Jews Search the Scriptures for in them ye think ye have eternal life and they are they which testifie of me And ye will not come to me that ye might have life John 5.39 40. Here ye may see the Eternal Life is to be found in Christ and not in the Scriptures which testifie of him the Life Christ's Sheep that hear his Voice and know and follow him he gives unto them Eternal Life and they shall not perish neither shall any pluck them out of his hand They shall not pluck Christ's Sheep to whom he hath given Eternal life out of his Eternal hand Christ said to Martha I am the Resurrection and the Life he that believeth in me though he were dead mark though he were dead yet shall he live mark live though he were dead and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die Believest thou this Martha said Yea Lord John 25.26 This is the true and substantial Belief which they that do believe shall not perish but have Everlasting life John saith This is the Record That God hath given to us Eternal Life and this Life is in his Son 1 John 5.11 The Life was manifested and we saith he have seen it and bear witness and shew unto you that Eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested unto us 1 John 1.2 So these were the Believers that had Eternal Life in the Son of God and shewed it unto others He that hath the Son hath life saith John and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life 1 John 5.12 Christ saith Every one that hath forsaken Houses or Brethren or Sisters or Father or Mother or Wife or Children or Lands for my Names sake shall receive an hundred fold and shall inherit everlasting life Matth. 19.29 And the Wicked that do not receive Christ shall go into everlasting punishment but the Righteous into everlasting life And the true Servants of God have their fruits unto holiness and their End is everlasting life For the Wages of Sin is death but the Gift of God is everlasting life through Jesus Christ our Lord. And such have a Building of God an House not made with hands eternal in the Heavens Therefore I desire that God's People may endure all things that they may obtain this Salvation which is in Christ Jesus with Eternal Glory a Glory which is Eternal For Christ being made perfect became the Author of Eternal Salvation to all them that obey him And this Eternal Salvation is above an External Salvation for they come to receive an Eternal Inheritance and live in the possession of the everlasting Gospel of Joy Comfort Peace and Salvation having eternal and everlasting life in Christ Jesus which shall never die Kingston the 6th of the 11th Month 1687. G. F. Another Paper I writ there Concerning the Stone spoken of by Daniel Chap. 2. which became a great Mountain and filled the whole Earth shewing that thereby was set forth the Kingdom and Power of Christ WHen Christ the Stone that became a great Mountain and filled the whole Earth had broke to pieces the Head of Gold and the Breast of Silver and the Belly of Brass and the Legs of Iron and the Feet part Iron part Clay which were the four Monarchies to wit the Babylonian and Mede the Persian the Grecian and the Roman and had ended the outward Jews Typical Kingdom Daniel saith In the days of these Kings shall the God of Heaven set up a Kingdom which shall never be destroyed Dan. 2.44 Christ saith All Power is given unto me in Heaven and in Earth Matth. 28.18 And he saith My Kingdom is not of this
it to try you for he upholds all things in Heaven and Earth by the Word of his Power All things were made by Christ and by him all things do consist mark consist whether they be Visibles or Invisibles c. So he hath power over all for all Power in Heaven and Earth is given to him and to you that have received him he hath given Power to become the Sons and Daughters of God so living Members of Christ the living Head and grafted into him in whom ye have Eternal Life And Christ the Seed reigns and his Power is over all who bruises the Serpent's Head and destroys the Devil and his Works and was before he was And so all of you live and walk in Christ Jesus so that nothing may be between you and God but Christ in whom ye have Salvation Life Rest and Peace with God As for the passages of Truth in this Land and abroad I do hear that in Holland and Germany and there-aways Friends are in Love Vnity and Peace And in Jamaica Barbados Mevis Antego Maryland and New-England I hear nothing but Friends are in Vnity and Peace The Lord preserve them all out of the World in which there is Trouble in Christ Jesus in whom there is Peace Life Love and Vnity Amen So my Love in the Lord Jesus Christ to all Friends every where in your Land as though I named them London the 10th of the 11th Month 1690. G. F. THus Reader hast thou had some Account of the Life and Travels Labours Sufferings and Manifold Trials and Exercises of this holy Man of God from his Youth to almost the time of his Death Of which himself kept a Journal out of which the foregoing Sheets were transcribed It remains that an Account be added of the Time Place and Manner of his Death and Burial Which were thus The next day after he had written the foregoing Epistle to Friends in Ireland be went to the Meeting at Gracious-street which was large it being on the First-day of the Week And the Lord enabled him to preach the Truth fully and effectually opening many deep and weighty things with great Power and Clearness After which having Prayed and the Meeting being ended he went to Henry Gouldney 's a Friend's House in Whitehart-Court near the Meeting house and some Friends going with him thither he told them He thought he felt the Cold strike to his heart as he came out of the Meeting yet added I am glad I was here Now I am clear I am fully clear As soon as those Friends that were with him were withdrawn he lay down upon a Bed as he sometimes used to do through Weariness after a Meeting but soon rose again and in a little time lay down again complaining still of Cold. And his Strength sensibly decaying he was fain soon after to go into Bed where he lay in much Contentment and Peace and very sensible to the Last And as in the whole Course of his Life his Spirit in the universal Love of God was set and bent for the exalting of Truth and Righteousness and the making known the Way thereof to the Nations and Peoples afar off so now in the time of his outward Weakness his Mind was intent upon and as it were wholly taken up with that And some particular Friends he sent for to whom he exprest his Mind and Desire for the Spreading Friends Books and Truth thereby in the World and through the Nations thereof Divers Friends came to visit him in his Ilness unto some of whom he said All is well The Seed of God reigns over all and over Death it self And though said he I am weak in Body yet the Power of God is over all and the Seed reigns over all disorderly Spirits Thus lying in an heavenly frame of Mind his Spirit wholly exercised towards the Lord he grew weaker and weaker in his natural Strength and on the Third day of that Week between the hours of Nine and Ten in the Evening he quietly departed this Life in Peace and sweetly fell asleep in the Lord whose blessed Truth he had livingly and powerfully preached in the Meeting but two days before Thus ended he his Days in his faithful Testimony in perfect Love and Vnity with his Brethren and in Peace and Good-will to all Men on the 13th day of the 11th Month 1690. being then in the 67th year of his Age. Vpon the 16th day of the same Month being the sixth of the Week and the Day appointed for his Funeral a very great Concourse of Friends and other People of divers sorts Assembled together at the Meeting-house in White-Hart-Court near Gracious-street about the middle time of the day in order to attend his Body to the Grave The Meeting was held about two hours with great and heavenly Solemnity manifestly attended with the Lord's blessed Presence and glorious Power in which divers living Testimonies were given from a lively Remembrance and Sense of the blessed Ministry of this Dear and Ancient Servant of the Lord his early Entring into the Lord's Work at the breaking forth of this Gospel-day his innocent Life long and great Travels and unwearied Labours of Love in the Everlasting Gospel for the turning and gathering many Thousands from Darkness to the Light of Christ Jesus the Foundation of true Faith his manifold Sufferings Afflictions and Oppositions which he met withal for his faithful Testimony both from his open Adversaries and from false Brethren and his Preservations Deliverances and Dominion in out of and over them all by the Power of God To whom the Glory and Honour always was by him and is and always ought to be by all Ascribed After the Meeting was ended his Body was born by Friends and accompanied by very great Numbers of Friends and other People to Friends Burying-Ground near Bunhill-Fields where after a solemn Waiting upon the Lord and several living Testimonies borne recommending the Company to the Guidance and Protection of that Divine Spirit and Power by which this holy Man of God had been raised up furnished supported and preserved to the end of his Day his Body was decently committed to the Earth but his Memorial shall Remain and be Everlastingly Blessed among the Righteous An Epistle of Dear George Fox's which was writ with his own Hand and left Sealed up with this Superscription viz. Not to be opened before the Time which after his Decease being opened was thought meet to be printed being as followeth Viz. For the Yearly and Second-Days-Meeting in London and to all the Children of God in all Places in the World By and from G. F. This for all the Children of God every where that are led by his Spirit and do walk in his Light in which they have Life and Unity and Fellowship with the Father and the Son and one with another KEep all your Meetings in the Name of the Lord Jesus that be gathered in his Name by his Light Grace Truth Power and Spirit
worship God in Spirit and in Truth which Christ set up above Sixteen hundred years since So all Men and Women must come to the Spirit and Truth in their hearts by which they must know the God of Truth who is a Spirit and then in the Spirit and Truth they will Worship him and know what and who they Worship And also the Lord is come to bring his People off all the World's Temples that with the Spirit they may know â—â—at their Bodies are the Temples of the Holy Ghost And the Lord is come to bring his People off all the World's Crosses and Pictures and Images and Likenesses to know that the Power of God is the Cross of Christ which Crucifies them to the World and brings them up into the Likeness and Image of God as Man and Woman was in before they fell and so to Christ that never fell And this Work of Christ must all know in their hearts by the Light of Christ Jesus who is the true Light that lighteth every Man that cometh into the World It is called the Light in Man and Woman and the Life in Christ the Word and Christ saith Believe in the Light that ye may become Children of the Light And the Light lets you see all your Evil Actions that you have done and committed and your ungodly Ways you have walked in and your ungodly Words and Thoughts and now if you do hate this Light and love the Darkness and the Prince of it more than this Light which is the Life in Christ the Prince of Life and will not come to it because your Deeds be Evil and it will reprove you Christ tells you This Light is your Condemnation And then what is all your Profession good for when you remain under the Condemnation of the true Light in which you should believe and so become Children of Light and out of Condemnation And therefore every one must believe in the Light if they do receive Christ Jesus and as many as receives him he gives them Power to become the Sons of God So he that hath the Son of God hath Life and they that have not the Son of God have not Life and then if you have not Life what good doth all your Profession of the Scriptures from Genesis to Revelations do you any more than the Jews Scribes and Pharisees that would not receive Christ the Life upon whom God brought his overflowing Scourge And therefore do you take heed of that for your Strength will be no better than theirs if you have not God and Christ's supporting Power when God's Scourge comes upon you and you are filled with Horrours and Fears But my desires are that you may all Repent even from the Highest to the Lowest and not grieve nor quench nor vex nor rebel against God's good Spirit in you nor walk despitefully against the Spirit of Grace nor turn from it unto Wantonness which would teach you and bring your Salvation Which if you do how can you escape the over-flowing Scourge of the Almighty and the Wrath of the Lamb But my desires are that you may all obey God's good Spirit of Truth which will lead you out of all Evil into all Truth and reprove you for your Righteousness and for your own Judgment and Sin c. and it will bring you to cleave to that which is good and forsake that which is evil and to turn to the Lord who will receive you in his Mercy and Kindness By which Means you may escape the over-flowing Scourge in the Day of Vengeance which dreadful Day is coming upon all Evil-doers And this as a Warning to you both for your Temporal and Eternal Good and for you to Read it in your Assemblies and your Priests to Read it in their Churches so that all People may hear and fear as you will Answer it at the Terrible and Dreadful Day of Judgment Amsterdam the 19th of the 7th Month 1677. G. F. For the Embassadors that are Met to Treat for Peace at the City of Nimmeguen in the States Dominions To pag. 448 CHrist Jesus saith Blessed are the Peace-makers for they shall be called the Children of God Matth. 5.9 so all Christian men are to forsake Evil and do Good and seek Peace and follow it if they will love Life and see good Days 1 Pet. 3.11 for God hath called all true Christians unto Peace 1 Cor. 7. and therefore all Christians ought to follow this Peace which God calls them to and they should let the Peace of God rule in all their Hearts which is above the Peace of this World that is so soon broken For the Apostle Commands the Christians to let the Peace of God rule in their Hearts to which all Christians should be subject Now the Practice of this should be among Christians that profess Christianity and this Peace is above that which Christ takes from the Earth Rev. 6. which is the Peace of the Wicked And the Apostle saith to the Christians Be at Peace among your selves 1 Thess 5. Now all Christians should obey this Command and be at Peace among themselves and not in Wars and Strife And further the Apostle exhorts the Christians to keep the Vnity of the Spirit in the Bond of Peace so this Vnity and this Bond of Peace should be kept and not be broken by all that bears that Noble Name Christian and they should keep the Unity of the Spirit of Christ in the Bond of the Prince of Princes and King of Kings and Lord of Lords Peace which is the Duty of all true Christians to keep In which they may honour Christ in bringing forth the Fruits of Peace which is Love and Charity For the Apostle tells you The fruits of the good Spirit is Love Joy and Peace Long-suffering Gentleness Goodness c. Gal. 5. And the Apostle exhorts the Christians and saith If it be possible as much as lieth in you live peaceable with all Men and this should be the Endeavour of all Christians For it is no honour to Christ that Christians should war and destroy one another that do profess the Name of Christ who saith He came to save Mens lives and not to destroy them For Christians have Enemies enough abroad without them and therefore they should Love one another as Christ commands who saith By this ye shall be known to be my Disciples if ye Love one another For Christians are commanded to love Enemies therefore much more one another And Christ saith As the Father hath loved me so I have loved you Continue ye in my Love John 15.8 and By this shall all Men know that ye are my Disciples if ye Love one another John 13.35 But if Christians do war and destroy one another this will make both Jews Turks Tartars and Heathens to say That you are not Disciples of Christ. And therefore as you love God and Christ and Christianity and its Peace All make Peace as far as you have power among Christians that
and Mortality put off yet we believe he has a Building with God Eternally in the Heavens and is entred into Rest as a Reward to those great Labours hard Sufferings and sore Trials he patiently endured for God and his Truth Of which Truth he was made an Able Minister and One if not the First Promulgator of it in our Age who though of no great Literature nor seeming much Learned as to the outward being hid from the Wisdom of this World yet he had the Tongue of the Learned and could speak a Word in due Season to the Conditions and Capacities of most especially to them that were weary and wanted Soul's Rest being deep in the Divine Mysteries of the Kingdom of God And the Word of Life and Salvation through him reached unto many Souls whereby many were Convinced of their great Duty of inward Retiring to Wait upon God and as they became diligent in the Performance of that Service were also raised up to be Preachers of the same Everlasting Gospel of Peace and Glad Tidings to others who are as Seals to his Ministry both in this and other Nations and may possibly give a more full Account thereof Howbeit we knowing his unwearied Diligence not Sparing but Spending himself in the Work and Service whereunto he was Chosen and Called of God could not but give this short Testimony of his Faithfulness therein and likewise of his tender Love and Care towards us who as a tender Father to Children in which Capacity we stood being so Related unto him he never failed to give us his wholesome Counsel and Advice And not only so but as a Father in Christ he took Care of the whole Family and Houshold of Faith which the Lord had made him an Eminent Overseer of and endued him with such an Excellent Spirit of Wisdom and Vnderstanding to propose and direct Helps and Advantages to the Well-ordering and Establishing of Affairs and Government in the Church as now are found very serviceable thereunto and have greatly disappointed and prevented the false loose and libertine Spirit in some who to their own Confusion have endeavoured by Separation and Division to disturb the Church's Peace And although many of that sort have at sundry times shot their poisonous Darts at him publickly in Print and privately other ways yet he has been always preserved by the Heavenly Power of God out of the Reach of their Envy and all Perils and Difficulties that attended on their Account Who as a Fixed Star in the Firmament of God's Power did constantly abide and held his Integrity to the last being of a sweet savoury Life and as to Conversation kept his Garments clean And though outwardly dead yet liveth and his Memory is right precious unto us as it is and will be to all that abide in the Love of Truth and have not declined the Way of it For he was one of the Lord's Worthies Valiant for the Truth upon Earth not turning his Back in the Day of Battle but his Bow still abiding in its Strength he through many Hardships brought Gladness and Refreshment to Israel's Camp being assisted by the Might of that Power that always put the Armies of Aliens and Enemies to Flight And now having finished his Course is removed from us into a Glorious State of Immortality and Bliss and is gathered unto the Lord as a Shock of Corn in its full Season and to that Habitation of Safety where the Wicked cease from troubling and the Weary be at Rest John Rous. William Meade Thomas Lower William Ingram Daniel Abraham Abraham Morrice Margaret Rous. Sarah Meade Mary Lower Susanna Ingram Rachel Abraham Isabel Morrice An Epistle by Way of Testimony to Friends and Brethren of the Monthly and Quarterly Meetings in England Wales and elsewhere concerning the Decease of our Faithful Brother GEORGE FOX From our Second-Days Morning Meeting in London the 26th of the 11th Month 1690. DEar and truly beloved Friends Brethren and Sisters in Christ Jesus our Blessed Lord and Saviour we sincerely and tenderly salute you all in his free and tender Love wherewith he hath graciously visited us and largely shed it abroad in our Hearts and Souls to our own unspeakable Comfort and Consolation and towards his whole Heritage and Royal Off-spring blessed be his pure and powerful Name for Evermore And our Souls do truly and fervently desire and breathe unto the God of all our Mercies that you all may be preserved and kept truly faithful and diligent in his Work and Service according to your Heavenly Calling and Endowments with his Light Grace and Truth unto the End of your Days as being livingly engaged thereby all your appointed Time to serve him and to wait till your Change come That none may neglect that true Improvement of your Times and Talents that God has afforded you here for your Eternal Advantage hereafter in that Inheritance and Life Immortal that never fades away And that the whole Flock and Heritage of Christ Jesus which he has purchased and bought for himself with a Price incorruptible may always be so preserved in his own pure Love and Life as to grow increase and prosper in the same and thereby be kept in Love Vnity and Peace with one another as becomes his true and faithful Followers is that which our very Hearts and Souls desire being often truly comforted and enlarged in the living sense and feeling of the Encrease and Aboundings thereof among faithful Friends and Brethren And Dear Brethren and Sisters unto this our Tender Salutation We are concerned in Brotherly Love and true Tender-heartedness to add and impart unto you some Account of the Decease of our Dear and Elder Brother in Christ namely his and his Church's true and faithful Servant and Minister George Fox whom it hath pleased the Lord to take unto himself as he hath divers others of his faithful Servants and Ministers of late Time who have faithfully served out their Generation and finished their Testimony and Course with Joy and Peace Howbeit O Dear Brethren and Friends that so many Worthies in Israel and serviceable Instruments in the Lord's Hand are of late taken away and removed from us so soon one after another appears a Dispensation that deeply and sorrowfully affects us and many more whose Hearts are upright and tender toward God and one to another in the Truth The Consideration of the Depth Weight and Meaning thereof is very weighty upon our Spirits though their precious Life and Testimony lives with us as being of that same Body united to one Head even Christ Jesus in which we still and hope ever shall have secret Comfort and Union with them whom the Lord has removed and taken to himself out of their Earthly Tabernacles and Houses into their Heavenly and Everlasting Mansions This our said Dear Brother George Fox was enabled by the Lord's Power to Preach the Truth fully and effectually in our Publick Meeting in White-Hart-Court by Grace-Church-street London on the Eleventh
that our Fellowship stood In this we desired to have a Sense one of another acted towards one another and all Men in Love Faithfulness and Fear In the feeling of the Motions of this Principle we drew near to the Lord and waited to be prepared by it that we might feel those Drawings and Movings before we approached the Lord in Prayer or open'd our Mouths in Ministry And in our Beginning and Ending with this stood our Comfort Service and Edification And as we run faster or fell short we made Burthens for our selves to bear our Services finding in our selves a Rebuke instead of an Acceptance and in lieu of Well done who has required this at your Hands In that day we were an Exercised People our very Countenances and Deportment declared it Care for others was then much upon us as well as for our selves especially the Young Convinced Often had we the Burthen of the Word of the Lord to our Neighbours Relations and Acquaintance and sometimes Strangers also We were in Travail for one anothers Preservation Not seeking but shunning Occasions of any Coldness or Misunderstanding treating one another as those that believed and felt God present Which kept our Conversation Innocent Serious and Weighty guarding our selves against the Cares and Friendships of the World We held the Truth in the Spirit of it and not in our own Spirits or after our own Wills and Affections They were bowed and brought into Subjection in so much that it was visible to them that knew us we did not think our selves at our own Dispose to go where we List or say or do what we List or when we List Our Liberty stood in the Liberty of the Spirit of Truth and no Pleasure no Profit no Fear no Favour could draw us from this retired strict and watchful Frame We were so far from seeking occasions of Company that we avoided them what we could persuing our own Business with Moderation instead of medling with other Peoples Vnnecessarily Our Words were Few and Savoury our Looks Composed and Weighty and our whole Deportment very Observable True it is that this Retired and strict sort of Life from the Liberty of the Conversation of the World exposed us to the Censures of many as Humourists Conceited and Self-righteous Persons c. But it was our Preservation from many Snares to which others were continually exposed by the Prevalency of the lust of the Eye the lust of the Flesh and the Pride of Life that wanted no Occasions or Temptations to excite them abroad in the Converse of the World I cannot forget the Humility and Chast Zeal of that Day Oh! how Constant at Meetings how Retired in them how firm to Truth 's Life as well as Truth 's Principles and how Entire and Vnited in our Communion as indeed became those that profess One Head even Christ Jesus the Lord. This being the Testimony and Example the Man of God before mentioned was sent to Declare and Leave amongst us and we having Embraced the same as the Merciful Visitation of God to us the Word of Exhortation at this time is that we continue to be found in the Way of this Testimony with all Zeal and Integrity and so much the more by how much the Day draweth near And First as to you my Beloved and much Honoured Brethren in Christ that are in the Exercise of the Ministry Oh feel Life in the Ministry Let Life be your Commission your Well-spring and Treasury in all such Occasions else you well know there can be no begetting to God since nothing can quicken or make People alive to God but the life of God And it must be a Ministry in and from Life that enlivens any People to God We have seen the Fruit of all other Ministrys by the few that are turned from the Evil of their Ways It is not our Parts or Memory the repetition of former Openings in our own will and time that will do God's Work A dry Doctrinal Ministry however sound in Words can reach but the Ear and is but a Dream at the Best There is another Soundness that is soundest of all viz. Christ the power of God This is the Key of David that Opens and none Shuts and Shuts and none can Open as the Oil to the Lamp and the Soul to the Body so is that to the best of Words Which made Christ to say My Words they are Spirit and they are Life that is they are from Life and therefore they make you alive that receive them If the Disciples that had lived with Jesus were to stay at Jerusalem till they received it so must we wait to receive before we Minister if we will turn People from Darkness to Light and from Satan's power to God I fervently bow my Knees to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ that you may always be like minded that you may ever wait Reverently for the coming and opening of the Word of Life and tend upon it in your Ministry and Service that you may serve God in his Spirit And be it little or be it much it is well for much is not too much and the least is enough if from the motion of God's Spirit and without it verily never so little is too much because to no profit For it is the Spirit of the Lord immediately or through the Ministry of his Servants that teacheth his People to profit and to be sure so far as we take him along with us in our Services so far we are profitable and no farther For if it be the Lord that must work all things in us and for our selves much more is it the Lord that must work in us for the Conversion of others If therefore it was once a Cross to us to Speak though the Lord required it at our Hands let it never be so to be silent when he does not It is one of the most dreadful Sayings in the Book of God That he that adds to the Words of the Prophecy of this Book God will add the Plagues written in this Book To keep back the Counsel of God is as Terrible for he that takes away from the Words of the Prophecy of this Book God shall take away his part out of the Book of Life And truly it has great Caution in it to those that use the Name of the Lord to be well assured the Lord Speaks that they may not be found of the Number of those that add to the Words of the Testimony of Prophecy which the Lord giveth them to bear nor yet to mince or diminish the same both being so very offensive to God Wherefore Brethren let us be careful neither to out-go our Guide nor yet loiter behind him since he that makes Haste may miss his Way and he that stays behind loose his Guide For even those that have Received the Word of the Lord had need wait for Wisdom that they may see how to divide the Word aright which plainly implieth that it
is possible for one that hath received the Word of the Lord to miss in the Division and Application of it which must come from an Impatiency of Spirit and a Self-working which makes an unsound and dangerous Mixture and will hardly beget a right minded living People to God I am earnest in this above all other Considerations as to publick Brethren well knowing how much it concerns the present and future State and preservation of the Church of Christ Jesus that has been gathered and built up by a Living and Powerful Ministry that the Ministry be held preserved and continued in the Manifestations Motions and Supplies of the same Life and Power from time to time And where ever it is observed that any one does Minister more from Gifts and Parts than Life and Power though they have an Inlightned and Doctrinal Vnderstanding let them in time be advised and admonished for their Preservation because insensibly such will come to depend upon a Self-sufficiency to forsake Christ the living Fountain and to hew out unto themselves Cisterns that will hold no living Waters and by degrees draw others from waiting upon the Gift of God in themselves and to feel it in others in order to their Strength and Refreshment to wait upon them and to turn from God to Man again and so to make Shipwrack of the Faith once delivered to the Saints and of a good Conscience towards God which are only kept by that Divine Gift of life that begat the one and awaken'd and sanctified the other in the Beginning Nor is it enough that we have known the Divine Gift and in it have reached to the Spirits in Prison and been the Instruments of the Convincing of others of the way of God if we keep not as low and poor in our selves and as depending upon the Lord as ever since no Memory no Repetitions of former Openings Revelations or Enjoyments will bring a Soul to God or afford Bread to the Hungry or Water to the Thirsty unless Life go with what we say and that must be waited for O that we may have no other Fountain Treasury or Dependence that none may presume at any rate to Act of themselves for God! Because they have long acted from God that we may not supply want of waiting with our own Wisdom or think that we may take less Care and more liberty in speaking than formerly and that where we do not feel the Lord by his Power to open us and enlarge us whatever be the Expectation of the People or has been our Customary Supply and Character we may not exceed or fill up the time with our own I hope we shall ever Remember who it was that said Of your selves you can do nothing our sufficiency is in Him And if we are not to speak our own Words or take Thought what we should say to Men in our Defence when exposed for our Testimony surely we ought to speak none of our own Words or take Thought what we shall say in our Testimony and Ministry in the Name of the Lord to the Souls of the People for then of all Times and of all other Occasions should it be fulfilled in us for it is not you that speak but the Spirit of my Father that speaketh in you And indeed the Ministry of the Spirit must and does keep its Analogy and Agreement with the Birth of the Spirit that as no Man can Inherit the Kingdom of God unless he be born of the Spirit so no Ministery can beget a Soul to God but that which is from the Spirit For this as I said before the Disciples waited before they went forth and in this our Elder Brethren and Messengers of God in our Day waited visited and reached to us And having begun in the Spirit let none ever hope or seek to be made perfect in the Flesh For what is the Flesh to the Spirit or the Chaff to the Wheat And if we keep in the Spirit we shall keep in the Vnity of it which is the ground of true Fellowship For by Drinking into that one Spirit we are made one People to God and by it we are continued in the Vnity of the Faith and the Bond of Peace No Envying no Bitterness no Strife can have place with us We shall watch always for Good and not for Evil over one another and rejoice exceedingly and not begrudge at one anothers increase in the Riches of the Grace with which God replenisheth his Faithful Servants And Brethren as to you is committed the Dispensation of the Oracles of God which give you frequent Opportunities and great Place with the People among whom you Travail I beseech you that you would not think it sufficient to declare the Word of Life in their Assemblies however Edifying and Comfortable such opportunities may be to you and them But as was the Practice of the Man of God before mentioned in great Measure when among us inquire the State of the several Churches you Visit who among them are Afflicted or Sick who are Tempted if any are Vnfaithful or Obstinate and endeavour to Issue those things in the Wisdom and Power of God which will be a glorious Crown upon your Ministry As that prepares your way in the Hearts of the People to receive you as Men of God so it gives you Credit with them to do them good by your Advice in other Respects The Afflicted will be Comforted by you the Tempted Strengthened the Sick Refreshed the Vnfaithful Convicted and Restored and such as are Obstinate Softned and fitted for Reconciliation which is Clenching the Nail and applying and Fastning the general Testimony by that particular Care of the several Branches of it in reference to them more immediately concerned in it For though Good and Wise Men and Elders too may reside in such places who are of Worth and Importance in the general and in other Places yet it does not always follow that they may have the Room they deserve in the hearts of the People they live among or some particular occasion may make it unfit for him or them to use that Authority But you that Travail as God's Messengers if they receive you in the Greater shall they refuse you in the Less And if they own the general Testimony can they withstand the particular Application of it in their own Cases Thus ye will shew your selves Workmen indeed and carry your Business before you to the praise of his Name that hath called you from Darkness to Light that you might turn others from Satan's Power unto God and his Kingdom which is within And Oh that there were more of such Faithful Labourers in the Vineyard of the Lord Never more need since the day of God! Wherefore I cannot but Cry and Call aloud to you that have been long Professors of the Truth and know the Truth in the convincing Power of it and have had a sober Conversation among Men yet content your selves only to know Truth for your selves
to go to Meetings and Exercise an ordinary Charity in the Church and an honest Behaviour in the World and limit your selves within those Bounds feeling little or no concern upon your Spirits for the Glory of the Lord in the prospirity of his Truth in the Earth more than to be glad that others succeed in such Service Arise ye in the Name and Power of the Lord Jesus Behold how white the Fields are unto Harvest in this and other Nations and how few Able and Faithful Labourers there are to work therein Your Country Folks Neighbours and Kindred want to know the Lord and his Truth and to Walk in it Does nothing lie at your Door upon their Account Search and see and loose no time I beseech you for the Lord is at Hand I do not Judge you there is one that Judgeth all Men and his Judgment is true You have mightily increased in your outward Substance may you equally increase in your inward Riches and do good with both while you have a day to do Good Your Enemies would once have taken what you had from you for his Names Sake in whom you have believed wherefore he has given you much of the World in the Face of your Enemies But Oh let it be your Servant and not your Master your Diversion rather than your Business Let the Lord be chiefly in your Eye and ponder your Ways and see if God has nothing more for you to do and if you find your selves short in your Account with him then wait for his Preparation and be ready to receive the word of Command and be not weary of well doing when you have put your Hand to the Plow and assuredly you shall Reap if you faint not the Fruit of your Heavenly Labour in God's Everlasting Kingdom And you Young Convinced Ones be you Entreated and Exhorted to a Diligent and Chast waiting upon God in the way of his Blessed Manifestation and appearance of himself to you Look not out but within Let not anothers Liberty be your Snare Neither Act by Imitation but Sense and Feeling of God's Power in your selves Crush not the tender Buddings of it in your Souls nor over run in your desires and your warmness of Affections the Holy and Gentle Motions of It. Remember it is a still Voice that Speaks to us in this Day and that it is not to be heard in the Noises and Hurries of the Mind but is distinctly understood in a retired Frame Jesus loved and chose out Solitudes often going to Mountains to Gardens and Sea-sides to avoid Crowds and Hurries to shew his Disciples it was good to be Solitary and sit loose to the World Two Enemies lie near your States Imagination and Liberty but the plain practical Living Holy Truth that has convinced you will preserve you if you mind it in your selves and bring all Thoughts Imaginations and Affections to the Test of it to see if they are wrought in God or of the Enemy or your own selves So will a true Tast Discerning and Judgment be preserved to you of what you should do and leave undone And in your diligence and Faithfulness in this way you will come to inherit Substance and Christ the Eternal Wisdom will fill your Treasury And when you are Converted as well as Convinced then confirm your Brethren and be ready to every good Word and Work that the Lord shall call you to that you may be to his Praise who has chosen you to be partakers with the Saints in Light of a Kingdom that cannot be shaken an Inheritance incorruptible in Eternal Habitations And now as for you that are the Children of God's People a Great Concern is upon my Spirit for your good and often are my Knees Bowed to the God of your Fathers for you that you may come to be partakers of the same Divine Life and Power that has been the Glory of this Day that a Generation you may be to God an Holy Nation and a Peculiar People Zealous of Good Works when all our Heads are laid in the Dust Oh you Young Men and Women let it not suffice you that you are the Children of the People of the Lord you must also be born again if you will inherit the Kingdom of God Your Fathers are but such after the Flesh and could but beget you into the likeness of the first Adam but you must be begotten into the likeness of the second Adam by a Spiritual Generation And therefore look carefully about you Oh ye Children of the Children of God Consider your Standing and see what you are in Relation to this Divine Kindred Family and Birth Have you obeyed the Light and received and walked in the Spirit that is the incorruptible Seed of the Word and Kingdom of God of which you must be born again God is no respecter of Persons The Father cannot save or answer for the Child the Child for the Father but in the Sin thou Sinnest thou shalt die and in the Righteousness thou doest through Christ Jesus thou shalt live for it is the Willing and Obedient that shall eat the Good of the Land Be not deceived God is not mocked such as all Nations and People Sow such they shall reap at the hand of the just God And then your many and great Priviledges above the Children of other People will add weight in the scale against you if you choose not the way of the Lord. For you have had Line upon Line and Precept upon Precept and not only good Doctrine but good Example and which is more you have been turned to and acquainted with a Principle in your selves which others have been ignorant of and you know you may be as Good as you please without the Fear of Frowns and Blows or being turned out of doors and forsaken of Father and Mother for God's Sake and his Holy Religion as has been the Case of some of your Fathers in the day they first entred into this Holy Path And if you after hearing and seeing the Wonders that God has wrought in the deliverance and perservation of them through a Sea of Troubles and the manifold Temporal as well as spiritual Blessings that he has filled them with in the sight of their Enemies you should neglect and turn your backs upon so great and so near a Salvation you would not only be most ungreatful Children to God and them but must expect that God will call the Children of those that knew him not to take the Crown out of your Hands and that your lot will be a dreadful Judgment at the hand of the Lord. But Oh that it may never be so with any of you The Lord forbid saith my Soul Wherefore Oh ye Young Men and Women look to the Rock of your Fathers chuse the God of your Fathers There is no other God but him no other Light but his no other Grace but his nor Spirit but his to Convince you Quicken and Comfort you to Lead Guide and
their way and did no harm Lancaster The time for the Sessions at Lancaster being come I went to Lancaster with Judge Fell who on the way told me He had never had such a Matter brought before him before and he could not well tell what to do in the Business I told him when Paul was brought before the Rulers and the Jews and Priests came down to Accuse him and laid many false things to his Charge Paul stood still all that while And when they had done Festus the Governour and King Agrippa beckned to him to speak for himself which Paul did and cleared himself of all those false Accusations And so he might do by me Being come to Lancaster and Justice Sawrey and Justice Thompson having granted a Warrant to apprehend me though I was not apprehended by it Lancaster Sessions yet hearing of it I appeared at the Sessions where there appeared against me about Forty Priests These had chosen one Marshal Priest of Lancaster to be their Orator and had provided one young Priest and two Priests Sons to bear Witness against me who had sworn before-hand that I had spoken Blasphemy When the Justices were set they heard all that the Priests and their Witnesses could say and charge against me their Orator Marshal sitting by and explaining their Sayings for them But the Witnesses were so Confounded that they discovered themselves to be false Witnesses For when the Court had Examined one of the Witnesses upon Oath 1652. Lancaster Sessions and then began to Examin another of them he was at such loss he could not Answer directly but said the other could say it Which made the Justices say to him Have you sworn it and given it in already upon your Oath and now say That he can say it It seems you did not hear those words spoken your self though you have sworn it There were then in Court several People who had been at that Meeting wherein the Witnesses swore I spake those blasphemous Words which the Priests accused me of and these being Men of Integrity and Reputation in the Country did declare and affirm in Court That the Oath which the Witnesses had taken against me was altogether false and that no such Words as they had sworn against me were spoken by me at that Meeting For indeed most of the serious Men of that side of the County that were then at the Sessions had been at that Meeting and had heard me both at that Meeting and at other Meetings also This was taken notice of by Colonel VVest who being a Justice of the Peace was then upon the Bench and having long been weak in Body blessed the Lord and said The Lord had healed him that day adding That he never saw so many sober People and good Faces together in all his Life And then turning himself to me he said in the open Sessions George If thou hast any thing to say to the People thou may'st freely declare it And I was moved of the Lord to speak and as soon as I began Priest Marshal the Orator for the rest of the Priests went his way That which I was moved to declare was this That the Holy Scriptures were given forth by the Spirit of God and all People must first come to the Spirit of God in themselves by which they might know God and Christ of whom the Prophets and the Apostles learnt and by the same Spirit know the Holy Scriptures for as the Spirit of God was in them that gave forth the Scriptures so the same Spirit of God must be in all them that come to know and understand the Scriptures By which Spirit they might have Fellowship with the Son and with the Father and with the Scriptures and with one another And without this Spirit they can know neither God nor Christ nor the Scriptures nor have right Fellowship one with another I had no sooner spoken these Words but about half a dozen Priests that stood behind my Back burst out into a passion and one of them whose Name was Jackus amongst other things that he spake against the Truth said That the Spirit and the Letter were inseparable I replied Then every one that hath the Letter hath the Spirit and they might buy the Spirit with the Letter of the Scriptures This plain discovery of Darkness in the Priest moved Judge Fell and Colonel VVest to Reprove them openly and tell them That according to that Position they might carry the Spirit in their Pockets as they did the Scriptures Upon this the Priests being Confounded and put to silence rusht out in a Rage against the Justices because they could not have their bloody Ends upon me So the Justices seeing the Witnesses did not agree and perceiving that they were brought to Answer the Priests Envy and finding that all their Evidences were not sufficient in Law to make good their Charge against me they discharged me And after Judge Fell had spoken to Justice Sawrey and Justice Thompson concerning the VVarrant they had given forth against me and shewed them the Errors thereof He and Colonel West granted a Supersedeas to stop the Execution thereof Thus was I cleared in open Sessions of all those lying Accusations which the malicious Priests had laid to my Charge And Multitudes of People praised God that day for it was a joyful Day to many There was Justice Benson out of Westmorland who was Convinced and Major Ripan that was Mayor of the Town of Lancaster who was Convinced also It was a day of Everlasting Salvation to hundreds of People for the Lord Jesus Christ the Way to the Father and the free Teacher was exalted and set up and his Everlasting Gospel was preached and the Word of Eternal Life was declared over the heads of the Priests and all such Money-Preachers For the Lord opened many Mouths that Day to speak his Word to the Priests and several friendly People and Professors reproved the Priests in their Inns and in the Streets so that they fell like an old rotten House and the Cry was among the People That the Quakers had got the day and the Priests were fallen Many People were Convinced that day amongst whom Thomas Briggs was one who before had been averse from Friends and Truth insomuch that discoursing on a time with John Lawson a Friend concerning Perfection Thomas Briggs said to him Dost thou hold Perfection and therewithal lift up his Hand to have given the Friend a Box on the Ear. But this Thomas Briggs being Convinced of the Truth that day declared against his own Priest Jackus and afterwards became a faithful Minister of the Gospel and stood so to the End of his Days When the Sessions were over James Naylor who was present thereat gave a brief Account of the Proceedings thereof in a Letter which soon after he writ to Friends which is here added for the Reader 's further satisfaction in this Matter DEar Friends and Brethren in the Lord Jesus Christ my
Rejoyce in Iniquity but leads to Repent of it So this is the WORD OF THE LORD GOD to you all Friends every where abroad scattered Know the Power of God in one another and in that Rejoyce for then you Rejoyce in the Cross of Christ who is not of the World which Cross is the Power of God to all them that are saved So you that know the Power and feel the Power you feel the Cross of Christ you feel the Gospel which is the Power of God unto Salvation to every one that believeth Now he that believes in the Light believes in the Everlasting Covenant in the one Offering comes to the Life of the Prophets and Moses comes to see Christ the Hope the Mystery which Hope perisheth not but lets you see the Hope that perisheth which is not that Mystery and the Expectation in that perishing Hope fades And where this never-failing Hope is witnessed the Lord comes to be sanctified in the Heart and you come to the Beginning to Christ the Hope which perisheth not but the other Hope and the other Expectation that perisheth So all of you know the perishing of the Other and the failing of the Expectation therein and know that which perisheth not that you may be ready to give a Reason of this Hope with Meekness and Fear to every Man that asketh you Christ the Hope the Mystery that perisheth not the End of all perishing things the End of all changeable things the End of the decaying Covenant the End of that which waxeth old and doth decay the End of the first Covenant of Moses and of the Prophets the Righteousness of God Christ Jesus the Son his Throne ye will know Heirs with him ye will be who makes his Children Kings and Priests to him and brings them to know his Throne and his Power There is no Justification out of the Light out of Christ Justification is in the Light in Christ Here is the Doer of the Will of God here 's the Entring into the Kingdom He that believes in the Light becomes a Child of Light and here the Wisdom is received that is justified of her Children Here believing in the Light you shall not abide in Darkness but shall have the Light of Life and come every one to witness the Light that shines in your Hearts which Light will give you the Light of the Knowledge of the Glory of God in the Face of Jesus Christ With which Light you will see him reign who is the Prince of Life and of Peace which Light turns from him that is out of the Truth and abode not in it where the true Peace is not Friends Be not hasty For he that believes in the Light makes not Haste Here the Grace is received by which you come to be saved the Election is known which obtains the Promise The Will is seen that wills the Mind is known that runs which obtains not but stops and dulls Now that with the Light being seen and judged and stopt the Patience is here known which obtains the Crown and the Immortality is come to Light So all they now that act contrary to the Light and do not believe in it they do not come to Justification And all Friends if you go from the Light from wanting to have the Promise of God fulfilled to the Seed whereby you may know Christ Reign you thereby bring on your selves Changable Garments and come to wear the Changable Garments and the strange Flesh which leads to Adultery which the Law goes upon which shuts out of the Kingdom And out of this Will doth proceed the Work or Building that is for the Fire whereby you may come to suffer Less Therefore the Light love which doth that Condemn and receive the Power from the Lord with which you stand over that and do it Condemn feeling and seeing that which gives you the Victory over the World and to see out of Time to before Time And again Friends Know Abraham that must obey the Voice of Sarah that bears Seed which casts forth the Bond-woman and her Son Do not go forth there will the Wildness lodge Know that which bears the Wild Son and its Mother who is not Sarah for the Promise is to the Seed not of many but one which Seed is Christ And this Seed now you come to witness stand on the Top of all yea on the Head of the Serpent And so all as I said before who this come to feel and witness ceme to the Beginning and this to all the Seed of God the Church that it you all may come to know where there is no blemish nor spot nor Wrinkle nor any such thing which is that which is purchased by the Blood of Jesus and to the Father presented out of all that does defile which is the Pillar and Ground of Truth And none comes to this but such who come to the Light which doth come from Christ who purchased this Church They who go from the Light are shut out and condemned though they profess all the Scriptures declared forth from it Therefore walk in the Light that you may have Fellowship with the Son and with the Father and come all to witness his Image and his Power and his Law which is his Light which hath converted your Souls and brought them to submit to the higher Power above that which is out of the Truth that you may know here the Mercy and Truth and the Faith that works by Love which Christ is the Author of who lighteth every one of you which Faith gives the Victory Now that which gives the Victory is perfect and that which the Ministers of God received from God is that which is perfect and that which they are to Minister is for the perfecting of the Saints till they all come in the Unity of the Faith unto a Perfect Man So this is the Word of the Lord God to you all every one in the Measure of Life Wait that with it all your Minds may be guided up to the Father of Life the Father of Spirits all to receive Power from him and Wisdom that with it you may be ordered to his Glory to whom be all Glory for ever All keep in the Light and Life that judgeth down that which is contrary to the Light and Life So the Lord God Almighty be with you all And keep your Meetings every where being guided by that of God by that you may see the Lord God among you even him who lighteth every Man that cometh into the World by whom the World was made that Men that be come into the World might believe He that believeth not the Light condemns him He that believeth cometh out of Condemnation So this Light which lighteth every Man that cometh into the World which they that hate it stumble at this is the Light of Men. All Friends that speak abroad see that it be in the Life of God for that begets to God the Fruits of that shall never
the Rider hath on his own who perhaps hath a Ring in his Ear too and so go to Horse-racing to spoil the Creatures Oh these are Gentlemen indeed these are bred up Gentlemen these are brave Fellows and they must take their Recreation for Pleasures are lawful And these in their Sports set up their Shouts like unto the wild Asses they are like unto the Kine or Beasts when they are put to Grass Lowing when they are full And here is the Glorying of them before-mentioned but it is in the Flesh not in the Lord These are bad Christians and shew that they are gluttoned with the Creatures and then the Flesh rejoiceth And here is bad breeding of Youth and young Women who are carried away with the Vanities of the Mind in their own Inventions Pride Arrogancy Lust Gluttony Vncleanness so Eat and Drink and rise up to Play This is the Generation which God is not well pleased withall but their Eyes are full of Adultery who cannot cease from Evil. These be they that live in Pleasures upon Earth These be they who are dead while they live who glory not in the Lord but in the Flesh These be they that be from the Life that the Scriptures were given forth from who live in the Fashions and Vanities of the World out of Truth 's Adorning in the Devil 's Adorning who is out of the Truth and not in the Adorning of the Lord which is a meek and quiet Spirit which is with the Lord of great price But this Ornament and this Adorning is not put on by them that be adorned and have the Ornament of him that is out of the Truth and that is not accepted with the Lord which is accepted in their Eye G. F. Moreover it came upon me about this time from the Lord to write a short Paper and send forth as An Exhortation and Warning to the Pope and all Kings and Rulers in Europe a Copy of which here follows Friends YE Heads and Rulers and Kings and Nobles of all sorts Be not bitter nor hasty in persecuting the Lambs of Christ neither turn your selves against the Visitation of God and his tender Love and Mercies from on high who sent to visit you lest the Lord's Hand Arm and Power take hold swiftly upon you which is now stretched over the World that is turned against Kings and shall turn Wise Men backward and will bring off their Crowns to the Dust and lay them low and level with the Earth God and Christ will be King who gives Crowns to whomsoever obey his Will and this is the Age wherein the Lord God of Heaven and Earth is staining the Pride of Man and defacing his Glory So you that profess Christ and do not love your Enemies but on the contrary do shut up and Imprison them who are his Friends these be Marks that you be out of his Life and do not love Christ who do not the things he commands The day of the Lord's Wrath is kindling and his Fire is going forth to burn up the Wicked which will leave neither Root nor Branch They that have lost their Habitation with God be out of the Spirit that gave forth the Scriptures and from the Light that Jesus Christ hath enlightned them withall and so from the true Foundation Therefore be swift to hear and slow to speak and slower to persecute For the Lord is bringing his People to himself from off all the World's Ways to Christ the Way and from off all the World's Churches to the Church which is in God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ and from off all the World's Teachers to teach his People himself by his Spirit and from off all the World's Images into the Image of himself and from their Likenesses into his own Likeness and from off all the World's Crosses of Stone or Wood into his Power which is the Cross of Christ For all these Images and Crosses and Likenesses are among them that are Apostatized from the Image of God the Power of God which is the Cross of Christ which now fathoms the World and is throwing down that which is contrary to it which Power of God never changes Let this go to the Kings of France and of Spain and to the Pope for them to prove all things and to hold that which is good And first to prove that they have not quenched the Spirit for the mighty Day of the Lord is come and coming upon all Wickedness and Ungodliness and Unrighteousness of Men who will plead with all Flesh by Fire and by Sword And the Truth and the Crown of Glory and the Scepter of Righteousness over all shall be exalted which shall Answer that of God in every one upon the Earth tho' they be from it Christ is come a Light into the World and doth enlighten every one that cometh into the World that all through him might believe He that feeleth the Light that Christ hath enlightened him withal he feeleth Christ in his Mind and the Cross of Christ which is the Power of God and he shall not need to have a Cross of Wood or Stone to put him in mind of Christ or of his Cross which is the Power of God manifest in the inward Parts G. F. Besides this I was moved to write a Letter to the Protector so called To warn him of the mighty Work the Lord hath to do in the Nations and shaking of them and to beware of his own Wit Craft Subtilty and Policy or seeking any By-Ends to himself There was about this time an Order for the Trying of Ministers so called and for Approving or Ejecting them out of their Places or Benefices whereupon I writ a Paper To the Justices and other Commissioners who were appointed to that Work Of which Paper the Copy here follows Friends YOU that be Justices and in Commission to Try Ministers who have so long been in the Vine-yard of God now see whether they be such as are mentioned in the Scriptures whom the Prophets Christ and the Apostles did Dis-approve of And if they be such as they Dis-approved then see how ye can stand Approved in the sight of God to let such go into his Vine-yard and Approve of them who will admire your Persons because of Advantage and if you do not give them advantage they will not admire your Persons Such Jude speaks of See if they be not such as teach for filthy Lucre for the love of Money Covetous such as love themselves who have a Form of Godliness but deny the Power from such the Apostle bids Turn away The Apostle said Their Mouths should be stopped who served not the Lord Jesus but their own Bellies being Evil Beasts slow Bellies who mind Earthly Things Paul gave Timothy an Order to Try Ministers by He said They must not be Covetous nor given to Wine nor filthy Lucre nor a Novice lest being lifted up into Pride they fall into the Condemnation of the Devil These he was to
have not considered the handy-works of the Lord but have destroyed them nor have regarded the way of the Lord but have had plenty of the Creatures and have therewith fatted up your selves and forgot the Lord and his way O let Shame cover your Faces here upon Earth Come ye that are given to Pleasures and spend your Time and Days in Sports and Idleness and Fulness your Fruits declare the Sins of Sodom yet you will make a Talk of my Name and of my Saints Words But I behold you afar off saith the Lord you are Proud and Lofty you are bad Patterns and bad Examples that be full and rich and Idle who say Others are Idle that cannot maintain your Lusts Oh! the unrighteous Ballances that are among People Oh the Iniquity in Measuring Oh the Oppression in Ruling and Governing Therefore because of these things my Hand shall come upon you saith the Lord. For the Oppression is entred into the Ears of the Lord who gives Rest to the wearied to the burdened to the oppressed who feeds the Hungry and cloaths the Naked who brings the Mighty from their Seats and beats the Lofty to Ground and makes the Haughty to bend Come saith the Lord ye Mockers and Scorners and Rebellious ones light and wild People vain and heady you have had your Day of Joy you have Scoffed you have Mocked and derided my Messengers and my Ambassadors who have preached in your Streets and cried in your Synagogues and Temples a Day of Trembling and Lamentation shall on you come when you are not aware I 'le take away your Pride and your Height I 'le shake you as a Leaf and bring you to be as Men distracted I 'le distract you and make you that you shall not trust one another in the Earth who have joined hand in hand against my Servants in the Truth I 'le smite you with Terrors and bring Frets and Fears upon you the Cup of my Indignation and Fury shall you drink Where will you appear when Repentance is hid from your Eyes when prophane Esau your Father it set before you and Ishmael and Cain wild and envious whose Fruits declare the Stock Come ye proud Priests who have eaten up the Fat of the Nation who by Violence have taken other Men's Goods whose Envy hath slain many whose Wickedness and Darkness hath abounded and whose Vnrighteousness daily appears Your Fruits every day declare it in summoning up by Writs and Subpoena's from most parts of the Nation for Wages and Tithes such as you do no work for Oh the Abominable Vnrighteousness how is the State of Man lost that these things they do not take to Heart to feel them What havock is made in most parts of the Nation with such And all ye Priests and Teachers who are railing and brawling in the Pulpit setting People at variance one against another Haters and Hateful provoking People to Hate one another here is the Seed of Enmity seen which you have sown and are sowing whose Seed must be bruised by the Seed of the Woman which a top of your Heads is set G. F. This Year came out the Oath of Abjuration by which many Friends suffered and several Friends went to speak with the Protector about it but he began to harden And Sufferings increasing upon Friends by reason that envious Magistrates made use of that Oath as a Snare to catch Friends in who they knew could not swear at all I was moved to write to the Protector about it and other suffering Friends as followeth THE Magistrate is not to bear the Sword in vain which ought to be a Terror to the Evil-doers but the Magistrate that doth bear the Sword in vain as he is not a Terror to the Evil-doers so he is not a Praise to them that do well Now hath God raised up a People by his Power whom People Priests and Magistrates who are out of the Fear of God scornfully call Quakers who do cry against Drunkenness for Drunkards destroy God's Creatures and do cry against Oaths for because of Oaths the Land mourns and they Drunkards and Swearers to whom the Magistrate's Sword should be a Terror are we see at liberty but for crying against such many are cast into Prison and for crying against their Pride and Filthiness their deceitful Merchandize in Markets their Cozening and their Cheating their Excess and Naughtiness their playing at Bouls and Shovel-boards at Cards and at Dice and their other vain and wanton Pleasures for who live in Pleasures are dead while they live and who live in Wantonness kill the Just This we know by the Spirit of God which gave forth the Scriptures which God the Father hath given to us and hath placed his Righteous Law in our Hearts which Law is a Terror to Evil-doers and answers that which is of God in every Man's Conscience They which act contrary to the Measure of God's Spirit in every Man's Conscience cast the Law of God behind their Backs and walk despitefully against the Spirit of Grace The Magistrate's Sword we see is born in vain whilst the Evil-doers are at Liberty to do Evil and they that cry against such are for so doing punished by the Magistrate who hath turned his Sword backward against the Lord. And now the Wicked one fenceth himself and persecutes the Innocent as Vagabonds and Wanderers for crying against Sin and against Vnrighteousness and Vngodliness openly in the Markets and in the High-ways or as Railers because they tell them what Judgment will follow them that follow such Practices And here they that depart from Iniquity are become a Prey and few lay it to heart But God will thresh the Mountains and beat the Hills and cleave the Rocks and cast into his Press which is trodden without the City and will bathe his Sword in the Blood of the Wicked and Vnrighteous So they that have drunk the Cup of Abominations an hard Cup have you to drink you who are the Enemies of God and of you he will be avenged who be his Enemies Now ye in whom something of God is remaining consider If the Sword was not born in vain but turned against the Evil-doers then the Righteous would not suffer and be cast into Holes Dungeons Corners and Prisons and Houses of Correction as Peace-Breakers for crying against Sin openly as they are commanded of the Lord and for crying against the Covetousness of the Priests and their false Worships who exact Money now of poor People whom they do no work for Oh! where will you appear in the Day of the Lord or how will you stand in the Day of his righteous Judgment How many Jails and Houses of Correction are now made Places to put the Lambs of Christ in for following him and obeying his Commands which are too many to mention The Royal Law of Christ To do as ye would be done by is trodden down under foot So that Men can profess him in Words and Talk but Crucify him wheresoever he appears
of the Synagogues when they came to speak Judge your selves what an Antichristian Spirit you have Never talk of defending Truth with that which is against Truth For are you not setting up the Rabble of the World against it Do they not Join with you with Swords and Staves against it And is this the Life of Christians Is not this the Life of Error and of the Evil Seeds-man Surely ye would find Work enough if ye were in the Fear of the Lord to turn your Swords against the Prophaneness the Oaths and Wickedness that is in your Streets and High-ways How do they ring like Sodom and give a sound like Gomorrah But they are become a Prey in this your Age that Reprove in your Gate Sin Wickedness and Prophaneness They are become your By-word Against them your Councils are gathered and them you cast into Prison and hale them out of your Synagogues and cast them likewise into Prison that write against it and speak against it and set your Guards to stop and hinder any from Visiting them whom you cast into Prison and give them the Names of Vagabonds and Wanderers Was ever the like heard in the days of the Heathen against the Apostles who witnessed the Gospel Did they set Guards and Watches in every Town in every City to take the Disciples the Brethren the Believers that heard that the Apostles were cast into Prison and came to see what they wanted Shew ye not as much Rage and Fury now in your Age as was in those that were in that Age And how can you talk of the Gospel and of defending the Gospel when you are setting Guards and Watches against it and are defending that which stands against it and the Lambs of Christ are almost torn to pieces amongst you who are like Wolves for the Lord hath now sent his Lambs amongst Wolves And have not you profest the words of Christ and of the Prophets and Apostles as the Jews had long profest the Scriptures the words of Moses and of the Prophets that prophesied of Christ that was to come and stood against him when he was come as you do in this Day of his Reign and in this Day of his glorious Gospel who are persecuting the Messengers of it imprisoning them persecuting them in your Streets and High-ways and now setting up your VVatches against them who bring you the glad Tidings of Peace to your Souls whose Feet are beautiful a Top of the Mountains Mark a Top of the Mountains that against which the Mountains rage and swell but God will make them to melt the Sun is risen which will make them to melt And God will cleave the Rocks and Mountains asunder and make the Hills to bow perpetually for his Son he will exalt and his Glory he will give to him and not to another Therefore be awakened ye Rulers of the Earth and take Counsel of the Lord and take not Counsel together against him Make not your Bonds strong and set not your selves in Battel against him for ye will be found but as Briers and Thorns before him which the Fire shall consume Therefore be awakened all ye that be Talkers of the Scripture and that gather your selves together by your Multitudes and Meetings and have had your Teachers but not having the Spirit that gave forth the Scriptures the Lord God of Glory the Father of Spirits will scatter you all your Bonds will not hold you together who are out of the Spirit which is the Bond of Peace The Threshing Instrument is gone forth which will beat the Hills to pieces Sion is risen to Thresh out of the holy Mountain is the Trumpet sounded Stand not up against the Lord for all Nations are with the Lord as the Drop of a Bucket He that measures the VVaters in the hollow of his Hand and weighs the Earth in Scales the Lord of Hosts is his Name who is now risen and rising to plead the Cause of the Innocent who is exalting his Son and bringing his Sheep to him Now are they seen and known that feed upon wind that are lifted up given up to believe Lies who report and say Report and we will report it Now are they seen who have a Form of Godliness but the Power is denied by them so Christ is denied the Power it self is denied for Christ is the Power of God And the Power being denied by you that have a Form of Godliness that have the words of the Scriptures the Gospel is denied for the Gospel is the Power of God And thus it is among you that have the Knowledge and VVisdom that is sensual earthly and devilish Doth it not appear so Let your Gaols and VVatches witness your Fruits in every Town Your VVisdom is earthly sensual and Devillish so you have a Knowledge and VVisdom but not that which is from above for that is pure and gentle and so is not your knowledge But to know Christ is Life Eternal Now your Fruits have manifested that you are not of this and so out of the Power of God which is the Cross of Christ For you are found in the VVorld out of the Power of God out of the Cross of Christ persecuting So that which doth persecute and send forth VVritings and Decrees to stop all and take up all and set VVatches and prepare Bonds to stint the Lord to Imprison and persecute and suffer none to go to visit them This shews you are not Christians but stand against a Christian's Life which is to love your Enemies Where is your Heaping up Coles of Fire your Love to your Enemies who are thus persecuting your Friends He came to his own and his own received him not Here is a turning the Sword against the Just. Do you shew here a Christian's Life or your selves Christians who are filling your Gaols with the Christians in the Spirit you that be in the Letter in Shadows as the Jews in the Letter did put the Jews in the Spirit into Prison Is not this the Fruit in our Days of the Christians in the Letter to put the Christians in the Spirit into Prison And doth not this shew that your Decrees which you have sent forth proceed from Death who thus Act against the Life and them that be in it which the Scriptures were given forth from Is it not here as it was with Saul when he went to persecute to hale to Prison and bind all that he could find calling upon that Name who were Christians in the Life the Spirit such as now you are persecuting because they are in the Life though you profess their Words Are not your Decrees gone forth from the same Spirit of Envy against the same Spirit of Christ they were in Is it not manifest to all that fear God and to the sober-minded and honest-hearted People that see your Practices your Decrees your Letters to stop to molest to hinder to Imprison them that are moved of the Lord to do his Will or to go to
tread over them in that which lets you see to the VVorlds End and the utmost Parts of the Earth Reign and Rule with Christ whose Scepter and Throne is now set up whose Dominion is over all to the Ends of the Earth whose Dominion is an everlasting Dominion Throne an everlasting Throne Kingdom an everlasting Kingdom Power above all Powers Therefore this is the Word of the Lord God to you all Keep in the wisdom of God that spreads over all the Earth the wisdom of the Creation that is Pure from Above not destructive For now shall Salvation go out of Zion to Judge the Mount of Esau and now shall the Law go forth from Jerusalem to Answer the Principle of God in all to hew down all Inventors and Inventions For all the Princes of the Earth is but as Air to the Power of the Lord God which you are in and have tasted of Therefore Live in it that is the Word of the Lord God to you all and do not Abuse it And keep down and Low and take heed of false Joys that will Change Bring all into the Worship of God Plow up the fallow Ground thresh and get out the Corn that the Seed the Wheat may be gathered into the Barn that to the Beginning all People may come to Christ that was before the VVorld was made For the Chaff is come upon the VVheat by Transgression he that treadeth it out is out of Transgression and fathoms Transgression and puts a difference between the precious and the vile and can pick out the Wheat from the Tares and gather into the Garner so brings to the lively Hope the Immortal Soul into God out of which it came And none worships God but who comes to the Principle of God which they have transgressed and none are plowed up but who comes to the Principle of God in him that he hath transgressed then he doth service to God then is the planting and the watering and the Increase from God cometh So the Ministers of the Spirit must minister to the Spirit that is in Prison which hath been in Captivity in every one that with the Spirit of Christ People may be led out of Captivity up to God the Father of Spirits and do service to him and to have Vnity with him with the Scriptures and one with another And this is the Word of the Lord God to you all and a Charge to you all in the presence of the living God Be Patterns be Examples in all Countries Places Islands Nations where-ever you come that your Carriage and Life may preach among all sorts of People and to them then you will come to walk Chearfully over the World Answering that of God in every one whereby in them ye may be a Blessing and make the Witness of God in them to bless you Then to the Lord God you will be a sweet Savour and a Blessing Spare no Deceit lay the Sword upon it go over it Keep your selves clear of the Bloods of all Men either by Word or Writing or Speaking and keep your selves clean that you may stand in your Throne and every one have his Lot and stand in the Lot in the Ancient of Days And so the Blessing of the Lord be with you and keep you over all the Idolatrous Worships and Worshippers let them know the Living God for Teachings Churches Worships must be thrown down with the power of the Lord God set up by Man's earthy Vnderstanding Knowledge and Wills For this all must be thrown down with that which gave forth Scripture and who be in that Reigns over it all That is the Word of the Lord God to you all In that is God Worshipped that brings to declare his Will and brings to the Church in God the Ground and Pillar of Truth for now is the mighty Day of the Lord appeared and the Arrows of the Almighty gone forth which shall stick in the Hearts of the Wicked Now will I Arise saith the Lord God Almighty to trample and Thunder down Deceit which hath long reigned and stained the Earth Now will I have my Glory out of every one The Lord God Almighty over all in his Strength and Power you keep to his Glory that you may come to Answer that of God in every one in the World Proclaim the mighty Day of the Lord of Fire and Sword who will be worshipped in Spirit and in Truth and keep in the Life and Power of the Lord God that the Inhabitants of the Earth may tremble before you That the Lord God's Power and Majesty may be Admired among the Hypocrites and Heathens and ye in the Wisdom Dread Life Terror and Dominion Preserved to his Glory that nothing may Rule or Reign but Power and Life it self and in the Wisdom of God ye may be preserved in it And this is the Word of the Lord God to you all and the Call is now Out of Transgression the Spirit bids Come and the Call is now from all false Worships and Gods and from all Inventions and dead Works to serve the living God and the Call to Repentance to the Amendment of Life whereby Righteousness may be brought forth which shall go throughout the Earth Therefore ye that be Chosen and Faithful which are with the Lamb go through your Work faithfully and in the Strength and Power of the Lord and be obedient to the Power for that will save you out of the Hands of unreasonable Men and preserve you over the World to himself hereby you may live in the Kingdom that stands in Power which hath no end where glory and life is For Tho. Mounts G. F. After the Assize the Sheriff with some Souldiers came to guard a Woman to Execution that was sentenced to die and we had a great deal of Discourse with them One of them wickedly said That Christ was as passionate a Man as any that lived upon the Earth for which wicked Saying we rebuked him Another time we asked the Jailer what Doings there were at the Sessions and he said Small Matters only about Thirty for Bastardy We thought it very strange that they who professed themselves Christians should make small Matters of such things But this Jailer was very bad himself and I often admonished him to Sobriety but he would Abuse People that came to Visit us Edward Pyot had a Cheese sent him from Bristol from his Wife and the Jailer took the Cheese from him and carried it to the Mayor to search it for Treasonable Letters as he said And though they found no Treason in the Cheese they kept it from us This Gaoler might have been made Rich if he had carried himself Civilly but he sought his own Ruin Which soon after came upon him For the next Year he was turned out of his Place and for some wickedness was cast into the Jail himself and there begged of our Friends And for some Vnruliness in his Carriage he was by the succeeding Jailer put into Doomsdale and
Seeds-man him that sows to this flesh of which nothing but Corruption is reaped as the Countries Towns Cities and Villages make manifest But the Ministers of the Spirit who sow to the Spirit come to reap Life Eternal These discern the other Seeds-man who sows to the flesh and of the flesh reaps Corruption For the Day hath manifested each Seeds-man and what is reaped from each is seen Glory be to the Lord God for ever The Ministers of the Spirit which be born of the Spirit Sons and Daughters which have the Spirit poured forth upon them and witness the promise of God fulfilled in them by the Spirit of God preach and minister to the Spirit in Prison in every one in the sight of God the Father of Spirits God's Hand is turned against you all that have destroyed God's Creatures upon your Lust And God's Hand is turned against you that have wronged by unjust Dealing and defrauded and have oppressed the Poor and have respected the Persons of the Proud such as be in gay Apparel and lend not your Ear to the Cry of the Poor The Lord's Hand and Arm against you all is turned and his righteous Judgment and Justice upon you all will be accomplished and repayed who shall have a Reward every one according to your Works Oh the Abomination and hypocritical Profession that is upon the Earth where God and Christ Faith Hope the holy Spirit and Truth is professed but the fear of God and the Faith that purifies and gives Victory over the World not lived in Doth it not appear that the Wisdom that rules in all those whom the Seeds-man that sows to the flesh sows for and who are born of the Flesh is from below earthly sensual and devillish and their Understanding brutish and their knowledge natural as the brute Beasts For Men and Women in that state have not patience to speak one to the other of the Scriptures without much Corruption and Flesh appearing yet they have a feigned Humility a Will-worship and Righteousness of Self but they own not the Light which lighteth every Man that cometh into the World Christ Jesus the Righteousness of God Which Light being owned Self and the Righteousness of Self comes to be denied Here is the Humility that is contrary to the Light and that is below and feigned Here is the Wisdom that is from below earthly sensual and devillish for People can scarce speak one to another without destroying one another prisoning and persecuting one another when they speak of the Scriptures Now this is the Devillish Wisdom murdering and destroying This is not the Wisdom that is from above which is pure and peaceable gentle and easie to be intreated full of Mercy and good Fruits Here all may read each Seeds-man which hath each Wisdom He that sows to the Flesh and is born of that hath the wisdom that is earthly sensual and devillish He that sows to the Spirit a Minister of the Spirit hath the Wisdom from above which is pure which is peaceable which is gentle which is easie to be intreated the Wisdom by which all things were made and created Now is each Wisdom discovered and each Seeds-man the Day which is the Light hath discovered them G. F. As the fore-going Paper was sent forth amongst the World's People to let them see from whence their Imprisoning and Persecuting Cruelty and violent Dealing sprang so I was also moved to give forth the following Epistle to Friends to stir them up to be bold and valiant for the Truth and to encourage them in their Sufferings for it ALL Friends and Brethren every where Now is the Day of your Trial and now is the Time for you to be Valiant and to 〈◊〉 that the Testimony of the Lord doth not fall For now is the Day of Exercise of your Gifts of your Patience and of your Faith Now is the Time to be armed with Patience with the Light and with Righteousness and with the Helmet of Salvation And now is the Trial of the Slothful Servant who hides his Talent and will judge Christ hard Now happy are they that can say The Earth is the Lord's and the Fulness thereof and he gives the Increase And therefore who takes it from you Is it not the Lord still that suffers it For the Lord can trie you as he did Job whom he made Rich whom he made Poor and whom he made Rich again who still kept his Integrity in all Conditions So learn Paul's Lesson In all Stateâ— to be content And have his Faith That nothing is able to separate us from the Love of God which we have in Christ Jesus Therefore be Rich in Life and in Grace which will endure ye who are Heirs of Life and born of the Womb of Eternity that Noble Birth that cannot stoop to that that is born in Sin and conceived in Iniquity who are better bred and born whose Religion is from God above all the Religions that are from below and who walk by Faith by that which God hath given you and not by that which Men make who walk by Sight from the Mass-book to the Directory Such are subject to stumble and fall who walk by Sight and not by Faith Therefore mind him that destroys the Original of Sin the Devil and his Works and cuts off the Entail of Satan viz. Sin who would have by Entail an Inheritance of Sin in Men and Women from Generation to Generation and pleads for it by all his Lawyers and Counsellors For though the Law did not cut it off which made nothing perfect yet Christ being come destroys the Devil and his Works and cuts off the Entail of Sin This angers all the Devil's Lawâ—ers and Counsellors that Satan shall not hold Sin by Entail in thy Garden in thy Field in thy Temple thy Tabernacle So keep your Tabernacles that there ye may see the Glory of the Lord appear at the Doors thereof And be faithful for ye see what the Worthies and Valiants of the Lord did attain unto by Faith Enoch by Faith was translated Noah by Faith was preserved over the Waters in his Ark Abraham by Faith forsook his Father's House and Religion and all the Religions of the World Isaac and Jacob by Faith followed his Steps And see how Samuel and other of the Lord's Prophets with David by Faith were preserved to God over God's Enemies And Daniel and the Three Children by Faith escaped the Lions and the Fire and preserved their Worship clean and by it were kept over the Worships of the World And the Apostles by Faith travelled up and down the World and were preserved from all the Religions of the World and hâ—ld forth the pure Religion to the dark World which they had received from above from God for the Way they walked in and the Worship they performed and taught was received from above from God and from Christ Jesus and likewise their Fellowship was received from above which is in the Gospel that is
Everlasting And in this neither Powers Principalities nor Thrones Dominions nor Angels nor things present nor things to come nor Heights nor Depths nor Death Mockings nor spoiling of Goods nor Prisons nor Fetters were able to separate them from the Love of God which they had in Christ Jesus And Friends Quench not the Spirit nor despise Prophesying where it moves neither hinder the Babes and Sucklings from crying Hosannah for out of their Mouths will God ordain Strength There were some in Christ's Day that were against such whom he reproved And there were some in Moses his Day who would have stopt the Prophets in the Camp whom Moses reproved and said in Way of Incouragement to them Would God that all the Lord's People were Prophets So I say now to you Therefore ye that stop it in your selves do not quench it in others neither in Babe nor Suckling for the Lord hears the Cries of the Needy and the Sighs and Groans of the Poor Judge not that nor the Sighs and Groans of the Spirit which cannot be uttered lest ye judge Prayer for Prayer as well lies in Sighs and Groans to the Lord as otherwise So let not the Sons and Daughters nor the Hand-maidens be stopt in their Prophesyings nor the Young-men in their Visions nor the Old-men in their Dreams but let the Lord be glorified in and through all who is over all God blessed for ever So that every one may improve their Talents and every one exercise their Gifts and every one speak as the Spirit gives them Vtterance Thus every one may minister as he hath received the Grace as a good Steward to him that hath given it him so that all Plants may bud and bring forth Fruit to the glory of God for the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every one to profit withal So see that every one hath profited in heavenly things Male and Female look into your own Vineyards and see what Fruit ye bear to God look into your own Houses see how they are decked and trimmed and see what Odors Mirrh and Frankincense ye have therein and what a Smell and Savour ye have to ascend to God that he may be glorified So bring your Deeds all to the Light which ye are taught to believe in by Christ your Head the heavenly Man and see how they are wrought in God And every Male and Female let Christ dwell in your Hearts by Faith Christ in the Male and in the Female and let your Mouths be opened to the Glory of God the Father that he may rule and reign in you We must not have Christ Jesus the Lord of Life put any more in a Stable amongst the Horses and Asses but he must now have the best Chamber the Heart and the rude debauched Spirit must be turned out Therefore let him reign whose Right it is who was conceived by the Holy Ghost by which Holy Ghost ye call him Lord in which Holy Ghost ye pray and by which Holy Ghost ye have Comfort and Fellowship with the Son and with the Father Therefore know the Triumph in it and in God and his Power which the Devil is out of and in the Seed which is first and last the beginning and ending the Top-and Corner-stone in which is my Love to you and in which I rest Your Friend G. F. POSTSCRIPT And Friends be careful how ye set your feet among the tender Plants that are springing up out of God's Earth lest ye do tread upon them and hurt them and bruise them or crush them in God's Vineyard Now after I had tarried two first-Days at Swarthmore and had visited Friends in their Meetings thereabouts I passed from thence into Westmorland visiting Friends Meetings there Westmorland till I came to John Audland's where there was a general Meeting The Night before I had a vision of a desperate Creature that was coming to destroy me but I got Victory over it And the next Day in the Meeting-time there came one Otway with some rude fellows with him and he rode round about the Meeting with his Sword or Rapier and would fain have gotten in through the Friends to me but the Meeting being great the Friends stood thick so that he could not easily come at me Then when he had rid about several Times raging and found he could not get in being limited by the Lord's Power he at length went away It was a glorious Meeting and ended peaceable and the Lord 's everlasting Power came over all But this wild Man went home and became distracted and not long after died I sent a Paper to John Blaykling to read to him while he lay ill shewing him his wickedness and he did acknowledge something of it Going from hence I went through Kendal Kendal where a Warrant had long lain to apprehend me and the Constables seeing me ran to fetch their Warrant as I was riding through the Town but before they could come with it I was gone past the Town and so escaped their Hands I travelled on Northwards visiting Friends Meetings as I went till I came to Strickland-head where I had a great Meeting Strickland head And most of the Gentry of that Country being gathered to an Horse-Race not far off from the Meeting I was moved to go and declare the Truth unto them 1657. Strickland head and a Chief-Constable that was there did also admonish them Our Meeting was quiet and the Lord was with us and by his Word and Power Friends were settled in the Eternal Truth Cumberland From hence we passed into Cumberland where we had many precious living Meetings And after we had travelled through to Gilsland Gilsland Carlisle and had a Meeting there we came to Carlisle where they had used to put Friends out of the Town but there came a great Flood while we were there that they could not put us out of the Town so we had a Meeting there on the first-Day After which we passed through the Country to Abby-holm Abbey-holm and had a little Meeting there This is a Place where I told Friends long before there would a great People come forth to the Lord which hath since come to pass and a large Meeting there is gathered to the Lord in those Parts Langlands I passed from hence to a general Meeting at Langlands in Cumberland which was very large for most of the People had so forsaken the Priests that the Steeple-houses in some places stood empty And John Wilkinson a Preacher that I have often named before who had three Steeple-houses had so few Hearers lest that giving over preaching in the Steeple-houses he first set up a Meeting in his House and preached there to them that were left Afterwards he set up a silent Meeting like Friends to which came a few for most of his Hearers were come off to Friends Thus he held on till he had not past half a Dozen left the rest still forsaking him and
in the Power and Spirit which they were in that gave them forth That was to be turned away from by them that came into the Power and Spirit which they were in that gave forth the Scriptures Seventhly They that sit down in the heavenly Places in Christ Jesus these sit down in him that never fell nor never changed Here is the safe sitting for all his Elect his Church his Spiritual Members of which he is the living Head his living Stones the Houshold of Faith of which House he is the Corner-stone that stands and abides all Weathers For as the Apostle said He hath quickned us who were dead in Sins and Trespasses c. and made us to sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus that in the Ages to come he might shew the exceeding Riches of his Grace in his Kindness towards us through Jesus Christ. Now the Ages are come that his Kindness and exceeding Riches towards us through Jesus Christ is truly manifested in us as it was in the Apostles days even in us who have been dead in Sins and Trespasses as they were but now are quickned and made alive and made to sit together in the heavenly Places in Christ Jesus the First and the Last by whom all things were created who is ascended above all and is over all and whose glorious presence is now known And all that sit down here in Christ Jesus they see where all other People sit and in what So the Promise of God being to the Seed which is one Christ Jesus every Man and Woman must come to witness this Seed Christ in them that they may be Heirs of the Promise and inheriting that they will inherit Substance These things were largely declared of and the state of the Church and the state of the false Church since the Apostles days opened and how the true Church fled into the Wilderness and the state of the false Prophets which Christ said should come and John saw were come and how all the World wondred after them and how they had filled the World with false Doctrines Ways Worships and Religions and how the Everlasting Gospel was now preached again to all Nations Kindreds Tongues and People for all Nations Kindreds Tongues and People had drunk the Whore's Cup and she was over them and sate upon them And in this Night of Apostacy the pure Religion and Worship in Spirit which was in the Apostles days and the way of Life and living Faith and the Power and Holy Ghost were lost but now they came to be set up again by Christ Jesus and his Messengers and Ministers of the Gospel as in the Apostles days For as Christ sent his Disciples to go and preach the Gospel into all the World and after that the false Prophets and Antichrists went over the World and preached their false Doctrines and Traditions and Heathenish and Jewish Rudiments So now again the Everlasting Gospel must be preached to all Nations and to every Creature that they may come into the pure Religion to worship God in the Spirit and Truth and may know Christ Jesus their Way to God and him to be the Author of their Faith and may receive the Gospel from Heaven and not from Men in which Gospel received from Heaven is the Heavenly Fellowship which is a Mystery to all the Fellowships in the World Now after these things had been largely opened with many other things concerning Christ Jesus and his Kingdom and the People were turned to the divine Light of Christ and his Spirit by which they might come both to know God and Christ and the Scriptures and to have Fellowship with them and one with another in the same Spirit I was moved to declare and open divers other things to those Friends who had received a part of the Ministry concerning the Exercise of their Spiritual Gifts in the Church Which being taken in writing by one that was present was after this manner Friends TAke heed of destroying that which ye have begotten for that which destroys goes out and is the Cast-away And though that be true yea and may be the pure Truth which such an one speaks yet if he doth not remain in that and live in that in his own particular but goes out the same which he is gone out from cometh over him So that that calms the Spirits and cools the Spirits that goes over the World and brings to the Father to inherit the Life Eternal and reaches to the Spirits in Prison in all Therefore in the living immoveable Word of the Lord God dwell and in the Renown thereof and remain on the Foundation that is pure and that is sure for whosoever goes out from the Pure and Ministers not in and from that he comes to an End and doth not remain though he may have had a Time and may have been serviceable for a Time while he lived in the Thing And take heed of many Words but what reacheth to the Life that settles in the Life That which cometh from the Life and is received from God that reacheth to the Life and settles others in the Life For the Work is not now as it was at first but the Work now is to settle and stay in the Life For as Friends have been led to minister in the Power and the Power hath gone through so that there hath grown an Vnderstanding among both People of the World and Friends so Friends must be kept in the Life which is pure that with that they may answer the pure Life of God in others For if Friends do not live in the pure Life which they speak of to answer the Life in those that they speak to the other part steps in and so there comes up an Outward Acquaintance and he lets that come over him But as every one is kept living in the Life of God over all that which is contrary they are in their places then they do not lay Hands on any suddenly which is the Danger now for if any one do he may lose his Discerning and may lay Hands on the wrong Part and so let the Deceit come too near him and the Deceit will steal over so that it will be an hard thing for him to get it down There is no one strikes his Fellow-servants but first he is gone from the pure in his own particular for when he goeth from the Light he is enlightned withal then he strikes and then he hath his Reward the Light which he is gone from Christ he comes and gives him his Reward This is the state of the evil Servants the boisterous and the hasty and rash beget nothing to God but the Life which doth reach the Life is that which begets to God Now when all are settled in the Life they are in that which remains for ever and what is received there is received from the Lord and what one receiveth from the Lord he keepeth and so he sitteth still and cool and quiet in his
the Jailer went to wait on him after he was come back from London he was very blank and down and asked how I did pretending that he would find a way to set me at Liberty But having overshot himself in his Mittimus by ordering me to be kept Prisoner till I should be delivered by the King or Parliament he had put it out of his Power to Release me if he would He was the more down also upon reading a Letter which I sent him For when he was in the height of his Rage and Threats against me and thought to ingratiate himself into the King's Favour by Imprisoning me I was moved to write to him and put him in mind How fierce he had been against the King and his Party though now he would be thought zealous for the King And among other Passages in my Letter I called to his remembrance how when he held Lancaster-Castle for the Parliament against the King he was so rough and fierce against those that favoured the King that he said He would leave them neither Dog nor Cat if they did not bring him in Provision to his Castle I asked him also Whose great Bucks-Horns those were that were in his House and where he had both them and the Wainscot that he Ceiled his House withal Had he them not from Hornby-Castle About this time Ann Curtis of Reading came to see me and understanding how I stood Committed it was upon her also to go to the King about it For her Father who had been Sheriff of Bristol was hanged near his own Door for endeavouring to bring the King in Upon which Consideration she had some hopes that the King might hear her on my behalf Accordingly when she returned to London she and Margaret Fell went to the King together Who when he understood whose Daughter she was received her kindly And her Request to him being To send for me up and hear the Cause himself he promised her he would and commanded his Secretary to send down an Order for the bringing me up But when they came to the Secretary for the Order he being no Friend to us said It was not in his Power but that he must go according to Law and I must be brought up by an Habeas Corpus before the Judges So he writ to the Judge of the King's-Bench signifying That it was the King's Pleasure that I should be sent for up by an Habeas Corpus Accordingly a Writ was sent down and delivered to the Sheriff but because it was directed to the Chancellor of Lancaster the Sheriff put it off to him On the other hand the Chancellor would not make the Warrant upon it but said the Sheriff must do that At length both Chancellor and Sheriff were got together But being both Enemies to Truth they sought occasion for Delay and found they said an Error in the Writ which was that being directed to the Chancellor it said Geo. Fox in Prison under YOVR Custody whereas the Prison I was in was not they said in the Chancellor's Custody but in the Sheriff's So the Word YOVR should have been HIS Upon this they Returned the Writ to London again only to have that one Word altered When it was altered and came down again the Sheriff refused to carry me up unless I would Seal a Writing to him and become bound and pay for the Sealing and the Charge of carrying me up Which I denied telling them I would not Seal any thing to them nor be Bound So the matter rested a while and I continued in Prison Mean while the Assize came on But inasmuch as there was a Writ come down for removing me up I was not brought before the Judge At the Assize many People came to see me and I was moved to speak out at the Jail-Window to them and shew them How uncertain their Religion was and that every sort that had been uppermost persecuted the rest For when Popery was uppermost People had been persecuted for not following the Mass and they that did hold up the Mass cried then It was the Higher Power and People must be subject to the Higher Power Afterwards they that held up the Common-Prayer persecuted others for not following that and they said It was the Higher Power then also and we must be subject to that Since that the Presbyterians and Independents cried each of them We must be subject to the Higher Power and submit to the Directory of the one and the Church-Faith of the other Thus all like the Apostate-Jews have cried Help Men of Israel against the True Christians So People might see how uncertain they are of their Religions But I directed them to Christ Jesus that they might be built upon him the Rock and Foundation that changeth not Much on this wise I declared to them and they were quiet and very attentive Afterwards I gave forth a little Paper concerning True Religion as followeth TRue Religion is the True Rule and right way of serving God And Religion is a pure Stream of Righteousness flowing from the Image of God and is the Life and Power of God planted in the Heart and Mind by the Law of Life in the Heart which bringeth the Soul Mind Spirit and Body to be Conformable to God the Father of Spirits and to Christ so that they come to have Fellowship with the Father and the Son and with all his Holy Angels and Saints And this Religion is pure from Above undefiled before God and is to visit the Fatherless and Widows and Strangers and keeps from the Spots of the World So this Religion is above all the defiled spotted Religions in the World that keep not themselves from Defilement and Spots but are Impure and below and spotted whose Fatherless and Widows and Strangers do beg up and down the Streets G. F. Soon after this I gave forth another Paper against Persecution as followeth THe Papists Common-Prayer-Men Presbyterians Independents and Baptists persecute one another about their Inventions which they have invented their Mass their Common-Prayer their Directory their Church-Faith which they have made and framed their Inventions and Handy-works and not for the Truth For they know not what Spirit they be of who persecute and would have Mens Lives destroyed about Church-Worship and Religion as saith Christ who also said He came not to destroy Men's Lives but to save them Now they that know not what Spirit they be of but will persecute and destroy Men's Lives and not save them we cannot trust our Bodies Souls nor Spirits into their hands They know not what Spirit they be of themselves and therefore they are not fit to be trusted with others They would destroy by a Law as the Disciples once would have done by Prayer who would have commanded Fire to come down from Heaven to destroy them that would not receive Christ But Christ rebukes them and tells them They did not know what Spirit they were of And if they did not know what Spirit they
I had not been long at Swarthmore e're a Concern came upon me to visit the Churches of Christ in London and elsewhere by an Epistle which was as followeth Dear Friends TO whom is my Love in the heavenly Seed in whom all Nations are blessed Oh keep all in this Seed in which ye are blessed and in which Abraham and all the Faithful were blessed without the Deeds of the Law for the Promise was and is to and with the Seed and not with the Law of the First Covenant In this Seed all Nations and ye are blessed which bruiseth the Head of the Seed that brought the Curse and separated between Man and God This is the Seed which reconciles you to God and this is the Seed in which ye are blessed both in Temporals and Spirituals through which ye have an Inheritance among the Sanctified that cannot be defiled neither can any defiled thing enter into its Possession for all defilements are out of this Seed This is that which leavens up into a New Lump and bruiseth the Head of the Wicked Seed that leavens into the Old Lump upon whom the Sun of Righteousness goes down and sets but never goes down and sets to them that walk in the Seed in which all Nations are blessed by which Seed they are brought up to God which puts down that Seed which separated betwixt them and God so that there comes to be nothing betwixt them and God Now all my Dear Friends my desires are that ye may all be Valiant in this heavenly Seed for God and his Truth upon the Earth and spread it abroad answering that of God in all that with it the Minds of People may be turned towards the Lord that he may come to be known and served and worshipped and that ye may all be the Salt of the Earth to make the unseasoned savoury And in the Name of Jesus keep your Meetings who are gathered into it in whose Name ye have Salvation he being in the midst of you whose Name is above every Name under the whole Heaven And so ye have a Prophet and Bishop Shepherd Priest and Counsellor above all the Counsellors and Priests Bishops Prophets and Shepherds under the whole Heaven to exercise his Offices among you in your Meetings that are gathered in his Name For Christ's Meeting and Gathering is above all the Meetings and Gatherings under the whole Heaven And his Body his Church and he the Head of it is above all the Bodies and Churches and Heads under the whole Heaven And the Faith that Christ is the Author of and the Worship that he hath set up and his Fellowship in the Gospel is above all Historical Faiths and the Faith 's that Man hath made together with their Worships and Fellowships under the whole Heaven And now Dear Friends keep your Men and Womens-Meetings in the Power of God the Gospel the Authority of them which brings Life and Immortality to Light in you and this Gospel the Power of God will preserve you in Life and in Immortality which hath brought it to Light in you that ye may see over him that hath darkned and kept from the knowledge of the things of God for it is he and his Instruments which hath darkned you from Life and Immortality that would throw down your Men and Womens-Meetings which were set up in the Power of God the Gospel and would darken you again from this Life and Immortality which the Gospel hath brought to Light and will preserve you in as your Faith stands in this Power of God the Gospel in which every one sees your Work and Service for God And every Heir in the Power of God the Gospel hath right to this Authority which is not of Man nor by Man which Gospel the Power of God is everlasting an everlasting Order an everlasting Fellowship and in the Gospel is everlasting Joy Comfort and Peace which will out-last all those Joys Comforts and Peaces that will have an end and that Spirit also that opposes its Order and the glorious Fellowship Peace and Comfort in it And My Dear Friends my desire is that ye may keep in the Unity of the Spirit that baptizes you all into one Body which Christ is the heavenly and spiritual Head of so that ye may see and bear witness to your heavenly and spiritual Head and so all drink into the One Spirit Which all People upon the Earth are not like to do while they grieve quench and rebel against it nor to be baptized into one Body and to keep the Unity of the Spirit which is the Bond of Peace yea the King of Kings and Lord of Lords his Peace which it is the duty of all true Christians to keep who are inwardly united to Christ So with my Love to you all in the everlasting Seed Swarthmore the 26th of the 7th Month 1678. G. F. There were about this time several Friends in Prison for bearing Testimony to the Truth To whom I was moved to write a few Lines to comfort strengthen and encourage them in their Sufferings having a true sense of their Sufferings upon my spirit and a sympathizing with them therein And that which I writ was after this manner My Dear Friends WHO are Sufferers for the Lord Jesus sake and for the Testimony of his Truth the Lord God Almighty with his Power uphold you and support you in all your Trials and Sufferings and give you Patience and Content in his Will that yâ— may stand valiant for Christ and his Truth upon the Earth over the persecuting and destroying Spirit which makes to suffer in Christ who bruises his Head in whom ye have both Election and Salvation And for God's Elect sake the Lord hath done much from the Foundation of the World as may be seen throughout the Scriptures of Truth and they that touch them touch the Apple of God's Eye they are so tender to him And therefore it is good for all God's suffering Children to trust in the Lord and to wait upon him for they shall be as Mount Sion that cannot be removed from Christ their Rock and Salvation who is the Foundation of all the Elect of God of the Prophets and the Apostles and of God's People now and to the End Glory to the Lord and the Lamb over all Remember my dear Love to all Friends and do not think the time long for all Time is in the Father's hand his Power And therefore keep the Word of Patience and exercise that Gift and the Lord strengthen you in your Sufferings in his holy Spirit of Faith Amen Swarthmore the 5th of the 12th Month 1678. G. F. I abode in the North at this time above a year having Service for the Lord amongst Friends there and being much taken up in writing Books and Papers some in Defence of Truth in Answer to Books published by Adversaries and some for the opening the Principles and Doctrines of Truth to the World that they might come to have a
Weapons which Faith is Victory or gives Victory by which ye lay hold on Eternal Life and have access unto God who will render to every man according to his Deeds to them who by patient continuing in well-doing seek for glory and honour and immortality Eternal Life but unto them that are contentious and do not obey the Truth but obey unrighteousness indignation and wrath Tribulation and Anguish upon every soul of man that doth evil but glory honour and peace to every man that worketh good Christ said to his Disciples If the world hate you ye know that it hated me before it hated you If ye were of the world the world would love it's own but because ye are not of the world but I have chosen you out of the world therefore the world hateth you And If they have persecuted me they will also persecute you And John in his general Epistle to the Church saith Marvel not my Brethren if the world hate you We know that we have passed from death to life because we love the Brethren And Christ in his Prayer to his Father saith of his Followers As thou hast sent me into the world even so have I also sent them iâ— the world And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them that they may be one even as we are one And therefore all ye that know God and Jesus Christ whom to know is Eternal Life and are Partakers of his Glory keep the Testimony of Jesus and be valiant for his Truth upon Earth that ye may be all settled upon Christ the Rock and Foundation Dolston the 3d of the 8th Month 1682. G. F. I made but little stay at Dolston but returned again to London London where I continued most part of the Winter labouring in the Service of Truth amongst Friends Save that I was a little while at Kingston in the Tenth Month this Year where I writ a Book Kingston setting forth The state of the Birth Temporal and the Birth Spiritual And the Duty and State of a Child Youth Young Men Aged Men and Fathers in the Truth c. But I staid not long at Kingston neither for the heat of Persecution still continuing I felt my Service to be most at London London where our Meetings were for the most part disturbed and broken up or Friends were forced to Meet without Doors being kept out of their Meeting-Houses by the Officers Yet sometimes beyond expectation we got a quiet and peaceable Meeting in the Houses One time I was minded to have gone a mile or two out of Town to visit a Friend that was not well But hearing that the King had sent to the Mayor to put the Laws in Execution against Dissenters and that the Magistrates thereupon intended to Nail up the Meeting-house-doors I had not freedom to go out of Town but was moved to go to the Meeting at Gracious-street And notwithstanding all the Threats a great Meeting it was and very quiet and the Glory of the Lord shone over all The same Week I went to the Meeting at the Peel in John's Street and the Sessions were holden the same day at Hicks's hall Peel-Meet I went to the Peel in the Morning and William Mead being to appear at the Sessions for not going to the Steeple-house-worship he came once or twice from Hicks's hall to me at the Peel which some Ill-minded-people observing went and Informed the Justices at the Bench that he was gone to a Meeting at the Peel Whereupon the Justices sent a Messenger to see if there were a Meeting but this being in the Forenoon there was no Meeting there then and so the Messenger when he had looked about went back and told them Then others Informed the Justices that there would be a Meeting there about three or four in the Afternoon Whereupon they sent for the Chief Constable and asked him Why he suffered a Meeting to be at the Peel so nigh him He told them He did not know of any Meeting there They asked him How he could but know it and live so nigh it He said He was never there in his life 1682. London and did not know that there was a Meeting there They would have perswaded him that he must needs know of it but he standing stedfast in the denial of it they said They should take order to have it look'd after in the Afternoon But a multitude of Business coming before them at the Sessions when Dinner-time came they hasted to their Dinner without giving order And when they came to the Bench again after Dinner the Lord put it out of their Minds so that they sent no Officer and so the Meeting was quiet beginning and ending in peace and a blessed Meeting we had the Lord's Presence being preciously amongst us Many Friends had a concern upon their minds when they saw me come into the Meeting lest I should have been taken But I was freely given up to suffer if it was the Lord's Will before I went into the Meeting and had nothing in my mind concerning it but the Lord's Glory And I do believe the Lord put it out of their minds that they should not send to break up our Meeting that day Yet the First-day after three or four Justices as I heard came to the Peel and put Friends out of their Meeting there and kept them out and inquired for William Mead but he was not there Grac. Meet That day I was moved to go to Gracious-street-Meeting and it was expected that the Officers would come to break up the Meeting or keep Friends out and many hundreds of People came to see what would be done to us But the Officers came not and so we were in peace and quietness and many of the People that came to look on staid all the time and a glorious precious Meeting we had for the Lord's Presence was plentifully amongst us and his Power came over all Glory to his Name for ever who is over all I had seen the Mayor's printed Speech for putting the Laws in Execution against Dissenters and it was much in my mind that we should draw up a Paper to send to the Mayor and Aldermen to clear our selves from being such as those Laws were made against and to set forth our peaceable Behaviour both towards the King and the Government Accordingly a Paper was drawn up and signed and delivered to the Mayor and Copies thereof to the Aldermen and to the Bishop of London also And they generally took it kindly and were Civil to the Friends that delivered it About this time I was moved to write the few Lines following to Friends Dear Friends FEel the Power of God in you all and over all and by it let all your hearts be united to one another and to the Lord God who hath gathered you to himself by his Power and Spirit to be a People to serve and worship him So that you may all strive to Excel
Dolston I made some stay at the Widow Stots and there I writ an Epistle to Friends 1683. Dolston declaring the Word of the Lord unto them which Epistle being then printed may be read amongst my other printed Books I came from Dolston to London London and the next day was sent for in haste to my Son Rouse's at Kingston Kingston whose daughter Margaret lay very sick and had a desire to see me I tarried now at Kingston about a week and then returned to London London where I continued for the most part of the Winter and the Spring following until the General Meeting in the Year 1684. save that I went once as far as Enfield to visit Friends thereabouts And in this time I ceased not to labour in the Work of the Lord being frequent at Meetings and visiting Friends that were Prisoners or that were sick and in writing Books for the spreading of Truth and opening the Understandings of People to receive it The Yearly-Meeting was in the Third Month and a blessed weighty Meeting it was wherein Friends were sweetly refreshed together for the Lord was with us Yearly Meeting and opened his heavenly Treasures amongst us And though it was a time of great difficulty and danger by reason of Informers and persecuting Magistrates yet the Lord was a Defence and Place of Safety to his People Now had I drawings in Spirit to go into Holland to visit the Seed of God in those Provinces And as soon as the Yearly Meeting was over and most of the Country-Friends gone out of Town I prepared for my Journey There went with me from London Alexander Parker George Watts and Nathaniel Brassey who also had drawings into that Country We took Coach on the 31th of the Third Month 84. and got to Colchester that night Colchester The next day being the First-day of the Week we went to the Meeting there and though there was no notice given of my coming thither yet our being there was presently spread over the Town and in several places in the Country at seven and ten Miles distance so that abundance of Friends came in double-horsed which made the Meeting very Large I had a Concern and Travel in my mind lest this great Gathering should have stirred up the Town and been more than the Magistrates could well bear but it was very quiet and peaceable and a glorious Meeting we had to the settling and stablishing of Friends both in Town and Country for the Lord's Power was over all blessed be his Name for ever Truly the Lord's Power and Presence was beyond words for I was but Weak to go into a Meeting and my Face by reason of a Cold I had taken was sore but God was strong and manifested his strength in us and with us and all was well the Lord have the Glory for evermore for his supporting Power After the Meeting there came I think above an hundred Friends of the Town and Country to see me at John Furley's and very glad we were to see one another and greatly refreshed we were together being filled with the Love and Riches of the Lord blessed be his Name for ever 1684. Colchester We tarried at Colchester two days more which we spent in visiting Friends there both at their Meetings for Business and at their Houses Then early in the Morning on the Fourth-day of the Week Harwich we took Coach for Harwich where we met with William Bingley and Samuel Waldenfield who also went over with us About the eighth hour at night we went on board the Pacquet-Boat of which one Richard Gray was Master but by reason of Contrary Winds it was the first hour in the morning before we sailed We had a very good Passage and about the fifth hour in the Afternoon next day we landed at the Briel in Holland HOLLAND Briel and there we stay'd that night Early next morning we went to Rotterdam Rotterdam where we abode some days The next day after we came to Rotterdam one Wilbert Frouzen a Burgomaster and Kinsman of Aarent Sunneman's hearing that I was there Invited me to his Country-house having a desire to speak with me about some business relating to Aarent Sunneman's Daughters I took George Watts with me and a Brother of Aarent Sunneman's had us thither The Burgomaster received us very kindly and was very glad to see me and entring into discourse about his Kinsman's Daughters I found he was apprehensive that their Father being dead and having left them considerable Portions they might be stollen and married to their disadvantage Wherefore I told him That it was our Principle and Practice that none should Marry amongst us unless they had a Certificate of the Consent of their Relations or Guardians for it was our Christian Care to watch over and look after all young People that came among us especially those whose natural Relations were dead And as for his Kinsman's Daughters we should take care that nothing should be offered to them but what should be agreeable to Truth and Righteousness and that they might be preserved in the Fear of God according to their Father's Mind This seem'd to give him great satisfaction While I was with him there came many great People to me and I exhorted them all to keep in the Fear of God and to mind his good Spirit in them to keep their Minds to the Lord. After I had stay'd two or three hours and had had discourse with him of several things I took my leave of him and he very friendly set me to Rotterdam in his Chariot The next day being the First-day of the Week we were at the Meeting at Rotterdam which was pretty large and we de-declared to the People by an Interpreter The day following one Alderman Gaul came to speak with me and with him I and the other Friends had much discourse about Religious Matters wherewith he seemed to be well satisfied and was very Tender Several other Persons of Account intended to have come to speak with me that day but being hindred by extraordinary business as I understood they came not Amsterdam We went next day from Rotterdam to Amsterdam where we had a large and very precious Meeting And in the Afternoon I was at another Meeting with the Friends there about Business There is a Yearly-Meeting at Amsterdam for the Friends of Holland and Germany c. 1684. Amsterdam which begun now on the Eighth day of the Fourth Month and ended on the Twelfth Here we had a fine Opportunity of seeing Friends from divers parts and of being refreshed together in the Love of God And after this Meeting before the Friends that came out of the several Provinces were gone we had a Meeting with some particular Friends about the Places and Countries into which we who came out of England in the Work of the Ministry were to travel and to understand who among them were suitable Persons to go along
him ye are happy and his Blessings will rest upon you God Almighty keep and preserve you all his true Believers in Christ your Rest and Peace this day Amen London the 18th of the 12th Month 1684 5. G. F. About a Month after this I got a little out of London visiting Friends first at South-street then at Ford-Green and Enfield where I had Meetings South-street Ford-green Enfield Waltham-Abbey Enfield Edmunton side and afterwards I went to Waltham-Abbey and was at the Meeting there on a First-day which was very large and peaceable Then returning through Friends at Enfield and about Edmunton-side I came back to London in the Third Month to Advise with and Assist Friends in laying Friends Sufferings before the Parliament then sitting and we drew up a short Account of our Sufferings which we caused to be printed and spread amongst the Parliament-men London Yearly-Meeting The Yearly-Meeting now coming on I was much concerned for the Friends that came up to it out of the Countries lest they should meet with any Trouble or Disturbance in their Passages up or down and the rather for that about this time there began to be great bustles in the Nation upon the Duke of Monmouth's landing in the West But the Lord according to his wonted goodness was graciously pleased to preserve and keep Friends in safety and gave us a blessed Opportunity to Meet together in peace and quietness and accompanied our Meeting with his living refreshing Presence blessed for ever be his holy Name Now considering the Hurries and Bustles that were in the Nation it came upon me at the Close of this Meeting to write a few Lines to Friends to Caution all to keep out of the Spirit of the World in which the Trouble is and to dwell in the peaceable Truth Wherefore I writ as followeth Dear Friends and Brethren WHom the Lord hath called and chosen in Christ Jesus your Life and Salvation in whom ye have all rest and peace with God The Lord God by his mighty Power which is over all hath preserved you and supported you to this day to be a peculiar holy People to himself so that by his Eternal Spirit and Power ye might be all preserved and kept out of the World for in the World is the Trouble And now in this great Day of the Lord God Almighty he is shaking the Heavens and the Earth of outward Professions and their Elements are in a heat and their Sun and their Moon are darkened and the Stars falling and the Mountains and Hills shaking and tottering as it was among the Jews in the Day of Christ's appearing And therefore all Dear Friends and Brethren dwell in the Seed Christ Jesus who is the Rock and Foundation 1685. London that cannot be shaken that ye may see with the Light and Spirit of Christ that ye are the fixed Stars in the â—irmament of God's Power and in this his Power and Light you 'l see over all the wandring Stars and Clouds without water and Trees without fruit And that which may be shaken will be shaken as will all they that are wandred from the Firmament of God's Power Now Dear Friends and Brethren you that are redeemed from the Death and Fall of Adam by Christ the second Adam in him ye have Life Rest and Peace for Christ saith In me ye shall have Peace but in the World Trouble And the Apostle saith They that believe are entred into their Rest namely Christ who hath overcome the World who bruiseth the Serpent's Head and destroys the Devil and his Works and fulfils the Types Figures and Shadows of the Old Testament and the Prophets In whom the Promises are Yea and Amen who is the First and Last Beginning and Ending Yea and Amen who is the eternal Rest So keep and walk in Christ your Rest every one that have received him your Eternal Rest And now Dear Friends and Brethren whatever Bustlings and Trouble or Tumults or Outrages Quarrels and Strife should arise and be in the World keep out of them all and concern not your selves with them but keep in the Lord's Power and peaceable Truth that is over all such things in which Power ye seek the peace and good of all men And live in the Love which God hath shed abroad in your hearts through Christ Jesus in which Love nothing is able to separate you from God and Christ neither outward Sufferings Persecutions nor any outward thing that is below and without nor to hinder or break your heavenly Fellowship in the Light and Gospel and Spirit of Christ nor your holy Communion in the Holy Ghost that proceeds from the Father and the Son which leads you into all Truth And in this Holy Ghost in which is your holy Communion that proceeds from the Father and the Son you have fellowship with the Father and the Son and communion and fellowship one with another And this is it which links and joins Christ's Church or Body together to him the heavenly and spiritual Head and in Unity in his Spirit which is the Bond of Peace of all his Church and living Members in whom they have Eternal and Everlasting Rest and Peace in Christ and with God everlasting who is to be blessed and praised for ever Amen Now Dear Friends forsake not the Assembling of your selves together who are gathered in the Name of Jesus who is your Prophet that God has raised up in the New Testament to be heard in all things who opens to you and no man can shut and shuts and no man can open Who is your Priest made higher than the Heavens by the Power of an endless Life by him you are made a Royal Priesthood to offer up to God spiritual Sacrifice Who is the Bishop of your Souls to oversee you that ye do not go astray from God Who is the good Shepherd that hath laid down his Life for his Sheep and they hear his voice and follow him and he gives to them eternal Life And now Dear Friends and Brethren abide in Christ the Vine that ye may bring forth fruit to the glory of God And as every one hath received Christ walk in him who is not of the World that lies in wickedness so that ye may be preserved out of the Vain Fashions and Customs of the World which satisfie the Lust of the Eye the Lust of the Flesh and the Pride of Life which are not of the Father but are of the World that passes away And who joins to that which is not of the Father or encourages it draws the mind from God the Fathâ—r and the Lord Jesus Christ. And therefore Let Christ rule in your hearts that your Minds Souls and Spirits may be kept and preserved out of the Vanities of the World both in their words ways and actions so that ye may be a peculiar People zealous of good works serving the Lord God through Jesus Christ in whom is life and may be a peculiar People to
amongst other Services that I found there one was to assist Friends in drawing up Testimony to Clear our Friends from being concerned in the late Rebellion in the West and from all Plots against the Government Which accordingly we did and delivered them to the Chief-Justice who was then to go down into the West with Commission to Try Prisoners I tarried some time in London visiting Meetings and labouring among Friends in the Service of Truth But finding my Health much impaired for want of fresh Air I went a little way out of Town to Charles Bathurst's Country-house at Epping-Forrest Epping-Forrest where I stay'd a few days And while I was there it came upon me to write the following Epistle to Friends Dear Friends WHO are called chosen and faithful in this Day of Trial 1685. Epping-Forest and Temptations and Sufferings whom the Lord by his right Hand hath upholden in all your Sufferings and some to Death for the Lord and his Truths sake Christ saith Be of good cheer I have overcome the World In me ye have peace but in the World ye have trouble The Children of the Seed which be Heirs of the Kingdom know this is true And though ye have Trials by false Brethren Judasses and Sons of Perdition that are got into the Temple of God and exalted above all that is called God whom the Lord will destroy with the breath of his Mouth and the brightness of his Coming And though ye be Tried by Powers or Principalities yet there is nothing able to separate you from the Love of God which ye have in Christ Jesus In that Love dwell which bears all things and fulfils the Law in which edifie one another and be courteous and kind and humble for to such God giveth his Grace plentifully and such he teacheth And pray in the Holy Ghost which proceeds from the Father and the Son and in it keep your holy Communion and Unity in the Spirit the Bond of Peace which is the King of Kings heavenly Peace In that you are all bound to good behaviour and keeping Peace among your selves and seeking the Peace of all men and shewing forth the heavenly gentle and peaceable Wisdom to all men in Righteousness and Truth answering the good in all People in all your Lives and Conversations for the Lord is glorified in your bringing forth spiritual fruit that ye may eye and behold the Lord in all your actions that the Blessings of the Lord ye may all feel to rest upon you Whether ye be the Lord's Prisoners for his Name and Truth 's sake or at Liberty in all things labour to be Content for that is a Continual Feast and let no Trouble move you then ye will be as Mount Sion that cannot be removed And in all things exercise the Word of Patience which Word will sanctifie all things to you And study to be Quiet and do the Lord's business that he requires of you and your own in Truth and Righteousness and whatsoever ye do let it be done to the praise and glory of God in the Name of Jesus Christ All they that do make God's People to suffer they make the Seed to suffer in their own particulars and Imprison the Just there And such will not visit the Seed in themselves but cast it into Prison in Others and not visit it in Prison You may read that Christ saith Such must go into Everlasting Punishment That is a sad punishment and prison And all such as are become Apostates and Backsliders that do crucifie to themselves Christ afresh and put him to open shame and trample under feet the blood of the Son of God by which they were cleansed and then come to be Vnclean such grieve vex and quench and rebel against the Spirit of God in themselves and then such rebel against them that walk in the Spirit of God Such are Vnfaithful to God and Man and are Enemies to every good Work and Service of God But their End will be according to their works who are like unto the Earth that hath often received Rain but brings forth Briars and Thorns which are to be rejected and are for the fire Therefore Dear Friends in all your Sufferings feel the Lord's Eternal Arm and Power which hath upheld you and supported you to this day and will to the end as your Faith stands in it and as you are settled upon the Rock and Foundation Christ Jesus that cannot be removed in whom ye have life and peace with God And so the Lord God Almighty in him give you Dominion and preserve and keep you all to his Glory that in all your Sufferings ye may feel his presence and that when ye have finished your Testimony ye may receive the Crown of Glory which God hath laid up for them that fear and serve him Amen The 15th of the 7th Month 1685. G. F. Having spent about a week at this time among Friends in the Country London I returned to London Where I continued about Two Months visiting Friends Meetings and labouring to get Relief for Friends from their Sufferings which yet lay heavy upon them in many parts of the Nation Several Papers also I writ relating to the Service of Truth one of which was concerning Order in the Church of God which some that were gone out of the Unity of Friends did much oppose And that was as followeth AMong all Societies or Families or Nations of People in the World they have among them some sort of Order There was the Order of Aaron in the Old Testament and there was the Order of Melchizedeck before that after whose Order Christ Jesus came and he did not despise that Order So God is a God of Order in his whole Creation and in his Church And all the Believers in the Light the Life in Christ that do pass from death to life they are in the Order of the holy Spirit Power Light Life and Government of Christ Jesus of the Increase whereof there is no End And this is a Mystery to all those disorderly People who have written and printed so much against Orders which the Lord's Power and Spirit hath brought forth among his People And you that cry so much against Orders is it not manifest that you are gone into a Land of Darkness thick as darkness it self and of the shadow of death into disorder and where the Light is as Darkness And is not this your Condition seen by all them that live and walk in the Truth and whose Conversations are according to the Gospel of Life and Salvation The Devil Satan Dragon and the first and second Beast 1685. London and the Whore and false Prophets and their Worshippers and Followers all these are out of the Truth and abode not in it nor in the Order of it And the Truth is over them all In Salem is God's Tabernacle a peaceable Tabernacle and his Tabernacle is in Shiloh And these are far beyond the Tabernacles of Ham Psal
Holy and glorifie your Father which is in Heaven for he is glorified in your bringing forth good Fruits as ye abide in Christ the Vine in this his day of Life Power and Light thas shines over all And therefore all you that believe in the Light walk in the Light as Children of the Light and of Christ's everlasting Day that in the Light ye may have Fellowship with the Father and the Son and one with another keeping in the Unity of his holy Spirit in the Bond of his holy Peace in his Church that he is Head of And my desire is that God's Wisdom every where may be justified of her Children and that it may be shewed forth in Meekness and in the Fear of the Lord in this his Day Amen G. F. By that time the Yearly-Meeting was over I was very much wearied and spent wherefore about a Week after the Meeting I got out of Town to a Friend's House a little beyond Edmunton Edmunton South-street Winchmore-hill Berry-street where and at Southstreet I abode some time and had Meetings amongst Friends there and at Winchmore-hill and Berry-street And having my mind continually exercised in the Things of God the sense of his Infinite Goodness and Mercy to Mankind in visiting them after they had transgressed and rebelled against him and providing a Way and Means for their Return to him again was very much upon me And in the Opening of the Spirit of Truth I writ the following Paper on that Subject GOD who made all Men and Women 1687. Berry-street though they have transgressed his Commands and Laws and rebelled against him and hated his Light and grieved his Spirit and walked despitefully against his Spirit of Grace yet God who is merciful would have all to be saved and come to the knowledge of the Truth And all that come to the Knowledge of the Truth must know it in their inward parts I say the Grace and Truth which comes by Jesus all that do know and find do know and find it in their hearts and inward parts And such do find the hidden Man of the heart and the Pearl and the Leaven and the lost piece of Silver and the Kingdom of Heaven within For until all come to the Light and Truth in their hearts they have been strangers to these things in Adam in the Fall from the Image of God and his Light Power and Spirit and Kingdom But Christ that never fell brings Man and Woman again that follow him to know these things and to know the Truth him the Saviour and brings them into his Image and his everlasting Kingdom The Devil who is out of the Truth tempted Man and Woman to disobey God and so drew them into the Fall from the Truth So it is the Devil that hath stopped Mens Eyes and Ears and Hearts from the Truth who is called The God of the World who hath blinded the Eyes of Infidels or Heathen But Christ who bruises the Serpent's Head and destroys the Devil and his Works doth open Men's Hearts and Eyes and Ears who is their Saviour and Redeemer and giveth Life Eternal to his People that obey him and his Truth Blessed be the Lord for ever through Jesus Christ who hath tasted death for all Men to bring them out of the death of Adam and is a Propitiation for the sins of the whole World and gave himself a Ransome for all to be testified of in due time For as by Adam's transgression and disobedience Death and Condemnation came upon all Men so by Christ's Obedience unto Death Justification of Life is come upon all Men and He that believeth in Christ hath eternal life but he that doth not is condemned already But God would have all Men to be saved and come unto the knowledge of the Truth as it is in Jesus who is their Saviour and in him there is no Condemnation G. F. After I had been a while here I went to a Monthly-Meeting at Enfield and from thence with some Friends to Hartford Enfield Hartford where I stay'd three or four days visiting Friends both at their Publick Meetings on the First-day of the Week and at their Quarterly-Meetings both of Men and Women and good Service for the Lord I had amongst them Then passing from thence to Waltham-Abby I had a very good Meeting with Friends there Waltham-Abbey and the next day went from thence to another place to compose a Difference which for want of a right Understanding of each other had happened between some Friends I returned to Waltham that night 1687. Waltham Essex Gooses Wanstead Barking Gooses and the next day went with some Friends to Gooses which is William Mead's House in Essex Here I stay'd some Weeks yet was not Idle but often visited the Meetings thereabouts as at Wanstead Barking and at John Hardings And betwixt Meeting and Meeting I writ many things for spreading of Truth and for the opening Peoples Understandings to receive it One was a Paper proving from the Scriptures that People must Repent before they can receive the Gospel and the holy Spirit and the Kingdom of God or be baptized And this was it JOhn the Baptist came Preaching in the Wilderness of Judea saying Repent ye for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand Matth. 3.2 And when John the Baptist was cast into Prison Mark says That Jesus came into Galilee preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom of God and saying The time is fulfilled and the Kingdom of God is at hand Repent ye and believe the Gospel Mark 1.14 15. Matthew also says From that time Jesus began to preach and to say Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand Matth. 4.17 And when Christ sent forth his Twelve Disciples two and two they went out and preached that Men should Repent Mark 6.12 Christ said to the Jews Except ye Repent ye shall all likewise perish Luke 13.3 5. And when the Publicans and Sinners came to hear Christ and the Pharisees and Scribes murmured saying This Man receiveth sinners and eateth with them Luke 15.1 2. Christ reproved them by a Parable and then told them Joy shall be in Heaven over one sinner that Repenteth more than over ninety and nine just persons which need no Repentance ver 7. And adds There is Joy in the presence of the Angels of God over one sinner that Repenteth ver 10. And Christ after he was Risen said unto his Disciples That Repentance and Remission of sins should be preached in his Name among all Nations beginning at Jerusalem Luke 24.47 Peter said unto the Jews Repent and be baptized every one of you in the Name of Jesus Christ for the Remission of sins and ye shall receive the Gift of the Holy Ghost Acts 2.38 And Paul said The times of this Ignorance God winked at but now commandeth all Men every where to Repent Acts 17.30 Simon Magus was called to Repentance if he had regarded it Acts 8.22 And the Apostle Paul did
Whatsoever is born of God overcometh the World and this is the Victory that overcometh the World even our Faith ver 4. Were not these that were Born of God in the Kingdom of God And seeing John says Every one that doth Righteousness is born of God do not such see the Kingdom of God that stands in Righteousness and enter into it Peter in his first general Epistle to the Church of Christ saith As new-born Babes desire the sincere Milk of the Word that ye may grow thereby 1 Pet. 2.2 And he tells them they were a Chosen Generation a Royal Priesthood an holy Nation a peculiar People that they should shew forth the praises of him who had called them out of darkness into his marvellous light ver 9. And that as lively stones they were built up a spiritual house an holy Priesthood to offer up spiritual Sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ ver 5. Did not these New-born Babes these lively Stones spiritual Houshold Royal Priesthood holy Nation and chosen Generation who were called out of darkness into Christ's marvellous light see and enter into his holy Kingdom being Heirs of the same who were Born again not of corruptible Seed but of incorruptible by the Word of God which liveth and abideth for ever 1 Pet. 1.23 And had not such an Entrance ministred to them into the everlasting Kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ James in his general Epistle to the Church of Christ saith Hath not God chosen the poor of this World rich in Faith and Heirs of the Kingdom which he hath promised to them that love him James 2.5 The Apostle Paul saith God sent forth his Son made of a Woman c. to redeem them that were under the Law that we might receive the Adoption of Sons And because ye are Sons God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts crying Abba Father Wherefore thou art no more a Servant but a Son and if a Son then an Heir of God through Christ Gal. 4.4 5 6 7. The same Apostle saith As many as are led by the Spirit of God they are the Sons of God And tells the Saints at Rome Ye have received the Spirit of Adoption whereby we cry Abba Father The Spirit it self beareth witness with our spirit that we are the Children of God And if Children then Heirs Heirs of God and Joint-heirs with Christ if so be we suffer with him that we may be also glorified together namely with Christ Rom. 8.14 15 16 17. Now seeing they are the Sons of God that are led by the Spirit of God and the Spirit beareth witness unto their Spirit that they are the Children of God and Heirs of God and Joint-heirs with Christ Are not all these Children of God Heirs of the righteous glorious Kingdom of God and do they not see it and enter into it The Lord saith in Hosea 1.10 Where it was said unto them Ye are not my People there it shall be said unto them Ye are the Sons of the living God Did not this relate to the Gospel-days of the New Covenant see Rom. 9.26 And what the Lord said by the Prophet Jeremiah Ch. 31.1 the Apostle applies to the Gospel-days and says Be ye separate saith the Lord and touch not the Unclean thing and I will receive you and will be a Father unto you and ye shall be my Sons and Daughters saith the Lord Almighty 2 Cor. 6.18 Are not these the Children that see and enter into the righteous Kingdom of God that seperate from that which is Vnclean and touch it not The Lord saith also by Isaiah I will say to the North Give up and to the South Keep not back Bring my Sons from far and my Daughters from the ends of the Earth Isa 43 6. Then doth not he bring them to his Kingdom of Glory that stands in Righteousness and Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost And the Lord said to Job When the Morning-stars sang together and all the Sons of God shouted for Joy Job 38.7 Where did these Sons of God shout for joy Was it not in his Kingdom of Glory Christ saith The least in the Kingdom of God is greater than John Luke 7.28 And in Chap. 16.16 he says The Law and the Prophets were until John since that time viz. since the Law and the Prophets and John the Kingdom of God is preached and every Man presseth into it The good Seed are the Children of the Kingdom Matth. 13.38 And the righteous shall shine forth as the Sun in the Kingdom of their Father ver 43. And Christ said unto his Disciples Vnto you it is given to know the Mysteries of the Kingdom of God Mark 4.11 And Christ lifted up his Eyes upon his Disciples and said Blessed be ye poor for yours is the Kingdom of God Luke 6.20 And the Apostles preached the Kingdom of God These were Born again that saw and knew the Kingdom of God preached it Christ said to his Disciples Fear not little Flock for it is your Fathers good pleasure to give you the Kingdom Luke 12.32 And I appoint to you a Kingdom said Christ as my Father hath appointed to me Chap. 22.29 The Lord said He that overcometh shall Inherit all things and I will be his God and he shall be my Son Rev. 21.7 And John saith I have written unto you Young men because ye are strong and the Word of God abideth in you and ye have overcome the wicked One 1 John 2.14 And Christ by whom are all things is said To bring many Sons to Glory Hebr. 2.10 Christ said Wo unto you Scribes and Pharisees Hypocrites for ye shut up the Kingdom of Heaven against Men for ye neither go in your selves neither suffer ye them that are entring to goin Matth. 23.13 He also said Wo unto you Lawyers for ye have taken away the Key of Knowledge ye entred not in your selves and them that were entring in ye hindred Luke 11.52 Christ gives unto his Children the Keys of the Kingdom his Spirit but the Scribes and the Pharisees and the Lawyers great Professors who were erred from the Spirit like the great Professors in our Age that scoff at the Spirit and draw People from the Spirit of God within these shut up the Kingdom from Men and draw People from the Key of Knowledge and the Key of the Kingdom For no Man knows the things of God but by the Spirit of God for the Things of God are spiritually discerned So the Spirit is the Key by which the Kingdom of God and the Things of God are revealed and discerned and known according to 1 Cor. 2.10 11 13 14. The Apostle names some in his Epistle to the Colossians and says These are my Fellow-workers unto the Kingdom of God Col. 4.11 And he tells that Church that God hath delivered us from the power of darkness and hath translated us into the Kingdom of his dear Son Chap. 1.13 So ye may see these
were born again that were translated into the Kingdom of Christ and were Fellow-workers unto the Kingdom of God Christ exhorts his Disciples to Love and to do Good that they might be the Children of their Father which is in Heaven Matth. 5.45 And he bids them be perfect even as their Father which is in Heaven is perfect ver 48. And the Apostle saith to the Church at Philippi That ye may be blameless and harmless the Sons of God without Rebuke in the midst of a crooked and perverse Nation amongst whom ye shine as Lights in the World holding forth the Word of Life c. Phil. 2.15 16. And writing to the Church of the Thessalonians he puts them in mind how he had exhorted them That they would Walk worthy of God who had called them into his Kingdom and Glory 1 Thess 2.12 The Lord had promised by the Prophet Joel that he would Pour out his Spirit upon all Flesh and that Sons and Daughters should Prophesie Old men should dream Dreams and Young-men see Visions Joel 2.28 Now the Cause that Sons and Daughters Hand-maids Servants Young-men and Old men have not these heavenly Visions Dreams and Prophecies is because they are Erred from the Spirit of God which he poureth upon them but as many as are led by the Spirit of God are the Sons of God John saith Christ was the True Light which lighteth every Man that cometh into the World John 1.9 And that As many as received him to them gave he power to become the Sons of God ver 12. which were born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of God ver 13. Now the Reason why People do not become the Sons of God is because they do not receive Christ The Jews the great Professors which had the Promises Prophecies Figures and Shadows of him they would not receive him when he came And now the Priests and high Professors of Christ they are so far from receiving the Light of Christ and believing in it that they have hated the Light and scoff at it calling it a Natural Conscience and some have called it Jack in the Lanthorn Such are not like to become the Sons of God nor to see the glorious Kingdom of Christ which stands in Righteousness Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost For the Light that shines in the heart gives the Light of the Knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ Jesus And they that do not receive Christ Jesus but hate his Light which is the Life in him and yet profess him in words such neither know the Children of the Light nor true Fellowship in the Light nor the Kingdom of God that stands in Righteousness Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost but by the Light they are condemned And this is the Condemnation that Light is come into the World and Men love Darkness rather than Light because their deeds are evil For every one that doth evil hateth the Light neither cometh to the Light lest his deeds should be reproved John 3.19 20. But the Children of the Light that walk in the Light they come to heavenly Jerusalem and to the City of the living God and to the innumerable Company of Angels and to the general Assembly and Church of the First born that are written in Heaven and can sing Hallelujah Gooses the 2d of the 7th Month 1687. G. F Having now been somewhat more than a quarter of a Year in the Country London I returned to London somewhat better in health than formerly having received much benefit by the Country-Air And it being now a time of General Liberty and great Openness amongst the People I had much Service for the Lord in the City being almost daily at Publick Meetings and frequently taken up in Visiting Friends that were sick and in other Services of the Church I continued at London about Three Months and then finding my strength much spent with continual labouring in the Work of the Lord and my Body much stopped for want of fresh Air Kingston I went down to my Son Rouse's by Kingston where I abode some time and visited Friends at Kingston While I was there it came upon me to write a Paper concerning the Jews shewing How by their Disobedience and Rebellion they lost the holy City and Land By which Example the prosest Christians may see what they are to Expect if they continue to disobey and provoke the Lord. Of that Paper the Copy here followeth THE Lord gave the Jews in the Old Testament the Land of Canaan and they built the Temple at Jerusalem to worship in and it was called The Holy Temple and Jerusalem was called The Holy City and Canaan The Holy Land But when the Jews rebelled against the good Spirit which God gave them to instruct them and rebelled against his Law 1687. Kingston and set up Idols and Images and defiled the Land and the City the Lord sent his Prophets to Cry against them and to bring them back again to his Spirit and to his Law and so to God to serve and worship him that they might not worship Images and Idols the works of their own hands But instead of hearkening to God's Prophets they persecuted them and at last killed his Son Christ Jesus and persecuted his Apostles But Christ told the Jews that both their City and Temple should be laid Waste and they should be scattered over all Nations And it was so when Titus the Roman Emperour came and took Jerusalem and destroyed the City and Temple which was a Day of Vengeance upon the Jews for all their Idolatries and their Wickedness and for the Innocent blood they had shed both in City and Country And they were driven out of their own City and Land and scattered over all Nations And the Jews had never power to get the â—and since nor to build Jerusalem nor the Temple But the Turk hath both the Land of Canaan and that which is called The City Jerusalem Now the Turk neither makes Images nor Worships Images And so it is a just Hand of the Lord that he should be over the persecuting Idolatrous Jews so that they cannot defile the Land of Canaan now with Images and Idols for the Turk hath it who neither makes Images nor Idols nor worships them And the Jews must never hope believe nor expect that ever they shall go again into the Land of Canaan to set up an outward Worship at Jerusalem and there for their Priests to offer outward Sacrifices of Rams Sheep and Heifers c. for Burnt-Offerings for Christ the one Offering hath offered himself once for all and by this one Offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified And Christ hath changed the Priesthood of Aaron that offered Sacrifices which was made after the power of a Carnal Commandment but Christ was made after the power of an endless Life a Priest for ever who was holy and
time amongst Friends thereabouts and had Meetings at all those places Then being a little refreshed with being in the Country I went back to London where I tarried labouring in the Work of the Ministry till the middle of the Ninth Month at which time I went down with my Son Mead to his House in Essex and abode there all the Winter Essex Gooses During which time I stirred not much abroad unless it were sometimes to the Meeting to which that Family belonged which was about half a Mile from thence but I had Meetings often in the House with the Family and those Friends that came thither Many things also I writ while I was there some of which follow here One was an Epistle to the Quarterly and Yearly-Meetings of Friends in Pensylvania New-England Virginia Maryland the Jerseys Carolina and other Plantations in America And it was thus MY Dear Friends and Brethren in the Lord Jesus Christ who by believing in his Light are become Children of his Light and of his Day my desires are that you may all walk in his Light and in his Day and keep the Feast of Christ our Passover who is sacrificed for us not with Old Leaven neither with the Leaven of Malice and Wickedness but let all that be purged out that ye may be a New Lump keeping the Feast of Christ our Passover with the unleavened Bread of Sincerity and Truth Therefore let no leavened Bread be found in your Houses nor in your Meetings nor in the Camp of God or Houshold of Faith which are the Houshold of Christ But all that sour old Leaven which makes Peoples hearts sour and to burn one against another all that must be purged out of the Camp of God and kept out For the Feast of Christ our Passover must be kept in the New Covenant with his heavenly unleavened Bread of Life The Jews in the Old Testament their Feast was kept with outward unleavened Bread And now in the New Testament in the Gospel-Day our Feast is to be kept with the heavenly unleavened Bread of Sincerity and Truth Therefore Friends I desire you seriously to consider and to keep this Feast which the Apostle directed the Church of Christ to keep Do not you see Christendom 1689. Gooses so called keep their Feasts with the leavened Bread of Malice and Wickedness which makes them so sour and their hearts to burn one against another that they have destroyed and do destroy one another about Religion Therefore all live in the love of God which keeps above the love of the World so that none of your Hearts may be choaked or surfeited with these outward Things or with the Cares of the World which will pass away But mind ye the World and the Life that is without end that ye may be heirs of it And Friends you should strive to Excel all both Professor and Prophane both in Morality Humanity and Christianity Modesty Sobriety and Moderation and in a good godly righteous Life and Conversation shewing forth the Fruits of the Spirit of God and that you are the Children of the living God and Children of the Light and of the Day and not of the Night And serve God in Newness of Life for it is the Life and a living and walking in the Truth that must Answer the Witness of God in all People that they seeing your good Works may glorifie our Father which is in Heaven Therefore be valiant for God's holy pure Truth and spread it abroad among both Professors and Profane and the Indians And you should write over once a year from all your Yearly-Meetings to the Yearly-Meeting here concerning your Diligence in the Truth and of its spreading and of Peoples receiving it both Professors and Profane and the Indians and concerning the Peace of the Church of Christ amongst your selves For blessed be the Lord Truth doth get ground in these Parts and many are made very loving to Friends and the Lord's Power and Seed is over all In which God Almighty keep all his People to his Glory Amen Gooses the 28th of the 11th Month 1689. G. F. While I was in the City I had a Concern upon my Spirit with respect to a Twofold Danger that attended some who profest Truth one was of Young Peoples running into the Fashions of the World and the other was of Old Peoples going into the Earth And that Concern coming now again weightily upon me I was moved to give forth the following Paper as a Reproof to such and an Exhortation and Warning to all Friends to beware of and keep out of those Snares To all that do Profess the Truth of God MY desires are that you may walk in Humility in it For when the Lord first called me forth he let me see That Young People grew up together in Vanity and the Fashions of the World and Old People went downwards into the Earth raking it together and to both these I was to be a stranger And now Friends I do see too many Young People that do profess the Truth 1690. Gooses do grow up into the Fashions of the World and too many Parents indulge them And amongst the Elder some are growing downwards and raking after the Earth Therefore take heed that you are not making your Graves while you are Alive outwardly and loading your selves with thick Clay Hab. â— 6 For if you have not power over the Earthly Spirit and that which leadeth into a Vain Mind and the Fashions of the World and into the Earth though you have often had the Rain fall upon your Fields you will but bring forth Thistles Briars and Thorns which is for the Fire And such will become brittle peevish fretful Spirits that will not abide the heavenly Doctrine and the Admonitions Exhortations and Reproofs of the Holy Ghost or heavenly Spirit of God which would bring you to be Conformable to the Death of Christ and to his Image that ye might have Fellowship with him in his Resurrection And therefore it is good for all to bow to the Name of Jesus their Saviour and that all may Confess him to the Glory of God the Father For I have had a Concern upon me in a sense of the Danger of Young Peoples going into the Fashions of the World and Old Peoples going into the Earth and many going into a loose and false Liberty till at last they go quite out into the Spirit of the World as some have done Such their House hath been built upon the Sand on the Sea shore not upon Christ the Rock that they are so soon in the World again under a pretence of Liberty of Conscience But it is not a pure Conscience nor in the Spirit of God nor in Christ Jesus for in the Liberty in the Spirit there is the Vnity which is the Bond of Peace and all are one in Christ Jesus in whom is the true Liberty And this is not of the World for He is not of the World And
and Vnity and in him they are strong and in a full Perswasion and in him who is the First and Last they are in a heavenly Resolution and Confidence for God's Everlasting Honour and Glory Amen From him who is Translated into the Kingdom of his Dear Son with all his Saints a heavenly Salutation And salute ye one another with a holy Kiss of Charity that never faileth G. F. Ford Green the 25th of the 9th Month 1690. Another Epistle I writ soon after more particularly to the Friends in the Ministry that were gone into America which was thus DEar Friends and Brethren that are Ministers and Exhorters and Admonishers that are gone into America and the Islands there-aways Stir up the Gift of God in you and the pure Mind and improve your Talents that ye may be the Light of the World a City set upon an Hill that cannot be hid and let your Light shine among the Indians and the Blacks and the Whites that ye may answer the Truth in them and bring them to their Standard and Ensign that God hath set up Christ Jesus For from the Rising of the Sun to the Going down of the same God's Name shall be great among the Gentiles and in every Temple or sanctified Heart Incense shall be offered up to God's Name And have Salt in your selves that ye may be the Salt of the Earth that ye may salt it that it may be preserved from Corruption and Putrefaction so that all Sacrifices offered up to the Lord may be salted and seasoned and be a good Savour to God And all grow in the Faith and Grace of Christ that ye may not be like Dwarfs for a Dwarf shall not come near to Offer upon God's Altar though he may eat of God's Bread that he may grow by it And Friends Be not negligent but keep up your Negroes-Meetings and your Family-Meetings and have Meetings with the Indian Kings 1690. Tottenham and their Councils and Subjects every where and with others and bring them all to the Baptizing and Circumcising Spirit by which they may know God and serve and worship him And all take heed of sitting down in the Earth and having your Minds in the earthly Things Coveting and Striving for the Earth for to be carnally minded brings death and Covetousness is Idolatry There is too much Strife and Contention about that Idol which makes too many go out of the Sense and Fear of God so that some have lost Morality and Humanity and the true Christian Charity O therefore be awakened to Righteousness and keep awakened for the Enemy soweth his Tares while Men and Women sleep in Carelesness and Security Therefore so many slothful Ones go in their filthy Rags and have not the fine Linnen the Righteousness of Christ but are stragling and plowing with their Ox and their Ass in their woollen and linnen Garments mixt Stuff feeding upon Torn food and that dieth of it self and drinking of the dregs of their old Bottle and eating the sour leavened Bread which makes their hearts burn one against another But all are to keep the Feast of Christ our Passover with the unleavened Bread of Sincerity and Truth And this unleavened Bread of Life from Heaven makes all Hearts and Souls glad and joyful and lightsome and cheerful to serve and love God and to love and serve one another in the peaceable Truth and to keep in the Vnity of God's Spirit which is the Bond of the Lord of Lords and the King of all Kings his Peace In this Love and Peace God Almighty keep and preserve all his People and make them valiant for his Truth upon the Earth to spread it abroad both in Doctrine and good Life and Conversation Amen All the Members of Christ have need one of another For the Foot hath need of the Hand and the Hand hath need of the Foot The Ear hath need of the Eye and the Eye of the Ear. So that all the Members are serviceable in the Body which Christ is the Head of and the Head sees their Service Therefore let none despise the least Member And have a Care to keep down that greedy earthly Mind that raveneth and coveteth after the Riches and Things of this World lest ye fall into the low Region like the Gentiles or Heathen and so lose the Kingdom of God that is Everlasting But seek that first and God knows what things ye have need of who takes care for all both in Heaven and in the Earth Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable Gifts both Temporal and Spiritual Tottenham the 11th of the 10th Month 1690. G. F. Not long after this I returned to London and was almost daily with Friends at Meetings 1690. London And when I had been near Two Weeks in Town The sense of the great Hardships and sore Sufferings that Friends had been and were under in Ireland coming with great weight upon me I was moved to write the following Epistle as a Word of Consolation unto them DEar Friends and Brethren in the Lord Jesus Christ whom the Lord by his Eternal Arm and Power hath upheld through your great Sufferings Exercises Trials and Hardships more I believe then can be uttered up and down that Nation which I am very sensible of and the rest of the faithful Friends that have been Partakers with you in your Sufferings and cannot but suffer with the Lord's People that suffer And my Confidence hath been in the Lord that he would and will support you in all your Sufferings and that he would preserve all the Faithful in his Wisdom that they would give no just Occasion to one nor other to make them suffer And therefore if that you did suffer wrongfully or unjustly the righteous God would assist you and uphold you and reward them according to their Works that opprest or wronged you And now my desire is unto the Lord that in the same holy and heavenly Wisdom of God ye may all be preserved to the End of your days to the Glory of God minding God Almighty's supporting Hand and Power who is God Al-sufficient to strengthen help and refresh in time of Need. And let none forget the Lord's Mercies and Kindnesses which endure for ever but always live in the sense of them And truly Friends when I consider the thing It is the great Mercy of the Lord that ye have not been all swallowed up seeing with what Spirits ye have been compassed about But the Lord carrieth his Lambs in his Arms and they are as tender to him as the Apple of his Eye And his Power is his Hedge about his Vineyard of heavenly Plants And therefore it is good for all his Children to be given up to the Lord with their Minds and Souls Hearts and Spirits who is a faithful Keeper that never slumbers nor sleeps but is able to preserve and keep you and to save to the utmost and none can hurt so much as an hair of your Heads except he suffer
the Reformed Churches from the Papists Jews and Heathen and the Scriptures to be your Rule and are Professors of the New Covenant where do you prove out of the Scriptures of the New Testament that the Apostles and the Primitive Church practised or forced any such thing or that Christ and his Apostles gave any such Command to the Churches that they should practise and observe any such Days Let us see where this Command is written For did not the Apostle say unto the Galatians in the fourth Chapter But now after that ye have known God or rather ye are known of God how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly Elements whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage Ye observe Days and Months and Times and Years I am afraid of you lest I have bestowed upon you Labour in vain And in the Third of Galatians it is said O foolish Galatians who hath bewitched you that you should not obey the Truth c. And in Galatians the Fifth the Apostle exhorts them to stand fast in the Liberty wherewith Christ had made them free and moreover said Be not entangled again with the Yoke of Bondage Now doth not this manifest that there were some Teachers that were drawing the Church of the Galatians into these beggarly Elements and bringing them again into Bondage in observing of Days Months Times and Years for it was the Apostle's Work to bring them out of those Bondages and beggarly Elements and therefore when they were going back again into observing Days Months Times and Years he was afraid that he had bestowed his Labour upon them in vain and he Exhorts them to stand fast in the Liberty wherewith Christ Jesus hath made them free and not to be entangled again with the Yoke of Bondage and Again signifies That they had been once entangled with that Yoke of Bondage and beggarly Elements But O! how are People called Christians since the Apostles Days gone again under this Yoke of Bondage and these beggarly Elements in observing Days Months Times and Years let their practice declare Nay do not both Papists and Protestants force People to observe Days Months and Times c. And therefore is not the Apostle's Labour and Travel bestowed upon Christendom in vain which was to bring People from under such beggarly Elements and that Yoke of Bondage which the Law did require to stand fast in the Liberty wherewith Christ hath made them free and not to be entangled again with the Yoke of Bondage So it was and is Christ that hath made and doth make his People free from these things and beggarly Elements And therefore they that are Redeemed are to stand fast in that Liberty wherewith Christ hath made them free And this Liberty which all true Christians are to stand fast in they are made free by Christ and not by Man for Man with out the Spirit and Mind of Christ seeks to force and compel Christ's Followers and such as he hath made free from the Yoke of Bondage to outward things that the Law commanded and to the observing of Days Months Times Feasts and Years such weak beggarly Elements them that know God or are known of God and Christ are to stand fast in their Liberty and not come under nor be entangled with the Yoke of Bondage of such things again seeing he hath made them free For they that are in such things and would force others to them are gone from that which gives them the knowledge of God and have not stood fast in the Liberty wherewith Christ makes free And now concerning Prayer we do not read that ever Christ or his Apostles did Compel by force any to Fast or Pray and make a Law to strain the Goods of such as would not observe Days to fast and pray with them But Christ taught them how they should pray and be distinct from the Hypocrites and Christ's words are as followeth When thou prayest thou shalt not be as the Hypocrites are for they love to stand praying in the Synagogues and in the Corners of the Streets that they may be seen of Men c. But when thou prayest enter into thy Closet and when thou hast shut thy door pray to thy Father which is in secret and thy Father that seeth in secret will Reward thee openly But when you pray use not vain Repetitions as the Heathen do for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking Be not ye therefore like them for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of before ye ask him c. So as the Apostles and Saints did so do we we pray in secret and we pray in publick as the Spirit gives us utterance which helps our Infirmities as it did the Apostles and true Christians and after this manner we pray for our selves and pray for all Men both high and low Concerning Fasting Christ saith Moreover when ye fast be not as the Hypocrites of a sad Countenance for they disfigure their Faces that they may appear unto Men to fast But when thou fastest anoint thy Head and wash thy face that thou appear not unto Men to fast 1677. Harlingen in Frietzland but unto thy Father which is in secret and thy Father which seeth in secret shall Reward thee openly And likewise you may see in Isaiah the 58th what the true Fast is the Lord requires where it is said to the Prophet Cry aloud and spare not lift up thy Voice like a Trumpet and shew my People their Transgression and the House of Jacob their sins yet they seek me daily and delight to know my ways as a Nation that did Righteousness and forsook not the Ordinance of their God they ask of me the Ordinances of Justice they take delight in approaching to God Wherefore have we fasted say they and thou seest not wherefore have we afflicted our Soul and thou takest no knowledge Behold in the day of your Fast ye find pleasure and exact all your Labours Behold ye fast for strife and debate and to smite with the Fist of Wickedness ye shall not fast as ye do this day to make your Voice to be heard on high Is it such a Fast that I have chosen A day for a Man to afflict his Soul Is it to bow down his Head as a Bull-rush and to spread Sackcloth and Ashes under him Wilt thou call this a Fast and an acceptable Day to the Lord Is not this the Fast that I have chosen saith the Lord To loose the Bands of Wickedness to undo the heavy Burdens and to let the Oppressed go free and that ye break every Yoke ' So this Fast that the Lord requires is not to lay Yokes and Oppress and lay Heavy Burdens and to make fast the Bands of Wickedness but to loose and to break such things And further Concerning the true Fast the Lord requires Is it not to deal thy Bread to the Hungry and that thou bring the Poor that are cast out to thy