life to come And now therefore as a servant of the Lord God to you all who writes these things with tears unto you do I in his Name beseech you to be faithful and obedient quiet and peaceable children behaving your selves as Lambs or as new-born babes in his sight in this generation lest you should provoke him through your disobedience by being unfaithful and unquiet in his house and they that are or become so they must be excluded and shut out too among them that are without without love faith hope peace comfort and refreshment in the reprobate state where the rents schisms strivings divisions envyings and hatings are which are the fruits which they produce that go out from the Spirit in which love joy and everlasting peace is Therefore I exhort and beseech you all to walk together in this one Spirit to meet together to serve the Lord in this one Spirit that you may be like-minded that the fruits of it may abound in and among you plenteously to the glory of him that hath visited you with the day-spring from on high and hath opened a Fountain for you and hath prepared a Feast of fat things for you and withal a rest for your weary souls Wherefore faint not in the day of your adversity lest your Enemies vaunt themselves as if your God would not preserve you in unity love peace patience in which you had need to continue lest that the Enemy within or without should get an advantage against you which might easily be if prejudice should be permitted to have place in any of you one against another thereby might the Lord be provoked to jealousie against you And therefore above all things let brotherly love continue that through your love to the Father one to another to all men it may evidently appear that you are of your Father the Lord Iehovah who is love and who delights in love and mercy both which I â—ear him record he hath richly vouchsafed unto you my dearly beloved unto whom in his love I have writ this in brief which to that end I received from him and whâ—ch J have now finally communicated to you or rather the Spirit of the Lord through me his servant your dear and faithful brother in the one truth William Caton Greetings of strength in the holy life and salutations of endeared love to the rising seed of the invisible God every where as this may come A Salutation of Love from the motion of the Spirit of Life and Love sent to all that are of the Royal birth and are of the Seed immortal and of the Flock of God who in this his blessed and glorious day his Fold of Rest are come to know and are waiting to feel the same more and more to be read in the fear and wisdom of God All you tender Lambs who are gathered out of the World and its evil wayes and customs by the powerful Arm of the living God in that which is pure dwel low in the pure holy fear and your good Shepherds Fold you wil feel and therein do you abide and you wil be safe in the storms and from the terrors and affrightments of the wild Beasts of the field and the Wolves of the night wil not be able to come near your dwellings to enter your holy habitation nor to touch your Life for from them it wil be hid in God And Friends therein watch and wait and the good Shepherds voice you wil come to hear who speaks peace to all his Lambs and little ones that are of an upright heart who wait upon fear and trust in him and in so doing you wil also feel his Eternal Arm made bare for your salvation deliverance and defence And all you children of the Day of God which hath sprung from on High by which he hath visited and called unto you even by the good Word of his Grace by which he hath begotten you again and chosen you to be his Inheritance and generation which hath sprung up from the Seed of Life which the Father and Fountain of Love and Life hath shed abroad in this the day of his large kindness and rich mercy which in your hearts in measure you have felt Oh dear friends let the eye of your minds be alwayes fixed and fastened upon the same even upon that in which the God and Father of Mercies hath so exceeding largely extended himself unto you and in which he hath abundantly appeared in the manifestation of his loving kindness towards you in begetting you again which were strayed and in gathering you that were scattered afar off and lost from him and in raising you up to be a people to himself that were not his people and in begetting you to be his children that were sometimes strangers and in the alienation and all this hath he done for you of his own good wil in the riches of his free grace when there was no worthiness at all in you even when you were wallowing in your filth when you were in your blood no eye pittied you even that was the time of his Love Oh my dear Friends I say prize this his large Love and forget not those his benefits but dwel in the sence and feeling thereof so that from the virtue of his Love felt in your hearts you may receive daily strength and growth in the Heavenly Life of Righteousness and true Holiness that so the Image of your Heavenly Father you may come to bear more and more every day and may live walk and abide therein to his praise a chast peculiar people a chosen generation zealous of good works and hating the very appearance of evil that so you may be manifest unto all men that you are of the Houshold of Faith children of Truth and of the Family of the living God who are sitting in the Heavenly places in Christ and know and feel the Table of the Lord and are feeding together on the Bread of Life which comes down from above which the World are ignorant of and drinking of the Cup of Blessing in which you may feel and taste of the salvation of God to the comforting of your souls and gladding of your hearts by which you may be strengthened and enabled to do the Wil and Requirings of the Lord either in doing or in suffering Oh you dear Babes and tender Plants you that have felt of the sweetness of the Milk of the Breast of Consolation when you were ready to pine for want and have been watered with that which came from the everlasting Spring and Well of salvation in a time of great drought Oh dear hearts I say again abide in the feeling of the same that so you may always see and behold the hand of God's mighty power that he hath reached out unto you and watch thereto and wait therein to receive more and more of the Heavenly Virtue and dew from above that so you may grow as the Lillies and spread forth as
hearts the day-star is arisen walk in the Light thereof that you may be wise bold strong and valiant to follow the Captain of our salvation who is born King of the Iews for it s given to him to rule all Nations and to subdue the Kingdom of this World but not by carnal Weapons but by his invisible Arm of Power and Sword which proceeds out of his mouth whereby he wil utterly confound destroy and lay wast all that rebel and stand up against him Therefore my dear Friends let your Faith stand in the invisible Arm and Power of God and be you all of a sound mind be ye stedfast unmoveable rooted grounded and established in the living Truth and Righteousness of the God of all the Families of the Earth that you may not be moved shaken nor troubled in your minds at all these rumors of Wars and distress of Nations and perplexity and wrath which must come to pass upon this generation but lift up your heads and rejoice and let your eye be single alwaies looking to and following the Prince of Peace and be not of a doubtful mind for the Lord of Hosts is with us and the shout of a King is amongst us and although we have no helper in the earth neither can make use of any carnal weapons to defend or deliver our selves yet in the faith and patient suffering in and for the Lamb of God that was slain but now is alive and liveth for evermore in him we shall reign in victory life and dominion over all our Enemies within and without And my dear Friends you are called to a glorious freedom and liberty in the Spirit of Truth stand fast in it that you may keep your consciences void of offence in the sight of God in all things and if God requires one thing and man another obey God and fear not man who can but kil the body that your souls may live in the dominion of Gods truth and in it meet and wait and worship him and go not with the uncircumcised in hearts and ears for the uncurable stroke of the Lord is near to be executed upon them neither return back again into Egypt for the plagues pestilence and famine wil be multiplied amongst them til the Egyptians be confounded Therefore dear Friends keep your constant watch in the true Light of the Son of the living God that you may receive counsel wisdom and discerning in every motion and command whether it be of flesh or spirit for that which moveth in the fleshly part in your own particulars you must take up the Cross of Christ to in its fiâ—st motion and appearance and let true judgement pass upon it for if it proceed forth either in act or word it wil wound your Consciences and abuse the power of God and lead you into bondage again and that which commandeth to observe and do the thing conceived in the lust of the flesh from the fleshly birth either within or without you are not to obey for that wil lead to the second death but the motion command in the Spirit of Life you must in all things do and follow and in it you wil live have perfect peace and therefore because we are born of the Spirit and led by it the world wil persecute us therefore let every Souldier of Jesus Christ be contented with his portion which is tribulation in this World but be of good chear the Captain of our salvation hath overcome the World Therefore I say again in the Name fear and power of the Lord be you faithful unto death for he that shall come wil come crown you with everlasting Life And my dear Friends if it seemeth good in the sight of our God that all the dayes of our appointed â—ime in this life may be dayes of trouble persecution and affliction yet be of good comfort this wil be but for a moment and wil soon come to an end but the joy rest peace and glory which our God hath prepared for us as we love him and are faithful to him shall never have an end And so my dear Friends in the â—ear love obedience worship and service of the God and Father of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ for ever dwel and abide in it I am firmly united to you and in that Love Life and Truth of the living God I dearly salute and embrace you all and am as ful of love with you as I was when I began to write and whatsoever you suffer for your obedience to our God and keeping the commands of Christ whether spoiling of Goods imprisonment banishment or death it self I am resolved in the strength and power of God to partake with you From your faithful Friend in the patient suffering for the Testimony of a good Conscience in the high Gaol at Exon the 24 th of the tenth Month 1662. Christopher Bacon THE END
Three General EPISTLES FOR THE WHOLE BODY Oâ— FRIENDS 1 From William Caton 2 From R. Greenway 3 From Christopher Bacon Printed in the Yeer 1662. Three General Epistles c. Amsterdam the 15 th of the 11th Month 1662. MY dear Brethren and Beloved Sisters in the pure holy and heavenly Relation who are sons and daughters of one Father and heirs of one Kingdom begotten through the one Eternal Word of Life which lives and abides for ever With the salutation of my dearest love do I greet you all and with strong and vehement desires to the Lord do I wish that love and life joy and peace grace and mercy may be multiplied among you all to the filling of every of your earthen Vessels to the refreshing of every weary soul and to the making glad of every sorrowful heart among you I hope my dearly beloved you are not forgetful of the wonderful kind Love of our God which he manifested to us in the day of our visitation how he sought us out that were as lost sheep going astray that he might bring us unto himself who is the chief Shepherd and Bishop of our souls how he took us as perforce from our Lovers that our hearts and affections might be set upon him and that our souls might love him above all how he broke us that he might bind us up how he blinded us that he might make us see how he wounded us that he might heal us how he impoverished us that he might make us rich how he weakned us that he might make us strong and how he proved and cryed us as gold that is seven times tryed in the fire that we might finally become his Jewels though then we knew not whether that we should become Vessels of honor or dishonor And since that day of blessed Visitation how hath his endlesse love abounded towards us how plentifully hath his Wisdom and Power been manifested amongst us And what wonderful things have we seen him since bring to passe by the Arm of his Power not onely to our admiration but also to the astonishment of his Enemies And oh how hath he brought down Principalities and shaken powers inwardly and outwardly how hath he overturned overturned that which hath been exalted inwardly and outwardly that that which hath been abased might be exalted how hath he confounded the wisdom of the wise and brought the understanding of the Prudent to nothing how hath he scattered them that were gathered and not by him that he might gather that which was scattered from him Oh the Wonders that he hath wrought in the Earth they are innumerable And the noble acts that he hath done in the Earth who can declare them to the utmost Neverthelesse we will be speaking of them when thereunto moved by his spirit that we thereby may shew forth his praise who through his making us Witnesses of them hath made truly glad our hearts and souls which have cause to rejoice in him notwithstanding his trying of us with many tryals and his proving of us through many temptations and tribulations vvhich many have been exercised in and that divers manner of vvays Yet let us not faint nor let slip the confidence that vve have in him for as certain as vve have seen his Wonders in the Earth so certainly hath he vvrought several of them for good towards us and as certainly as he hath dealt gently and favourably vvith us so assuredly hath he loved us And as certainly as his glorious Work is begun in the Earth so assuredly will he make known his Name and Povver even unto the ends of the Earth And as certainly as his adversaries oppose him and his Truth so assuredly shall they be broken as the potsherds of the Earth and as certainly as his lambs and babes novv mourn and are affâ—cted so assuredly shall they rejoice and be comforted And as certainly as the Wicked are novv set up so assuredly shall they fall And as certainly as iniquity abounds so assuredly shall it have an end And as certainly as the name of the Lord is blasphemed and dishonored so assuredly shall it be glorified and exalted in the earth And as certainly as Gods Truth is now trampled upon and rejected by thousands so assuredly shall it be advanced and received by ten thousands and though my eye should not see the fulfilling of these things yet I will rejoice and do rejoice in the Testimony that J have that these things shall come to pass And my soul inviteth you my dear brethren and sisters to come and rejoice with me in the assurance which God giveth us of the certainty of these things which shal as certainly be fulfilled as it is certain that the things before mentioned are come to pass since the Lord omnipotent first visited us Wherefore my dearly beloved look not out at the present blackness and darkness which represents it self upon the face of the Earth by reason of the many clouds which hang over the Earth But look at the Day-star which is a risen in your hearts which precedes the sons of righteousness which though he yet seem to be darkned yet as certainly as the Lord Iehovah is in the highest Heavens so assuredly shall this Sun of Righteousness arise and shine gloriously in the hearts of the sons of men and then shall just Judgement be set up in the Earth and the Inhabitants thereof they shall learn righteousness then shal Wickedness and Oppression have an end Cruelty and Tyranny shall have no place and Deceit and Unrighteousness shall wither and the Works and Workers of iniquity shall go to decay And then shall the joyful song of deliverance be sung by the ransomed ones of the Lord then shall the voice of joy and gladness be heard in our Land then shall babes and sucklings learn the song of Zion and the sons and daughters of the Most High shall make a heavenly pleasant melody and great wil be the joy and delight of the Lords chosen even such as that their present sufferings shall not be worthy to be compared to the same Therefore O ye my suffering Friends be ye comforted be ye comforted of the Lord and comfort ye one another with the assurance which God hath given unto some of his servants of the certainty of these things coming to pass of which I believe some of you wil be eye-witnesses and partakers with the Saints in Light and my confidence is That neither principalities nor powers shall be able to deprive you thereof though they should be permitted to deprive you of your liberty of your estates and of the society of Friends And if your Heavenly Father should suffer such things to come to pass for the trial of your precious Faith be not ye therefore dejected as if you were altogether left comfortless and should so perpetually remain For I testifie unto you That our Heavenly Father hath reâ—erved enough in store not onely to comfort you withal in this life but also in the