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before the Lord and were sought out and blessed by Israel's true Shepherd Old Jerusalem with her Children grew out of Date and the New Jerusalem into Request the Mother of the Sons of the Gospel-Day Wherefore no more at Old Jerusalem nor at the Mountain of Samaria will God be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-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
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
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
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
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
thither before me And when I came there I found James Lancaster speaking under a Yew-Tree which was so full of People that I feared they would break it down I looked about for a place to stand upon to speak unto the People for they lay all up and down like People at a Leaguer But after a while that I was discovered a Professor came to me and asked If I would not go into the Church I seeing there was no place abroad convenient to speak to the People from told him Yes Whereupon the People rushed in so that when I came in the House and Pulpit was so full of People that I had much ado to get in and they that could not get in stood abroad about the VValls 1653. A Meeting near Cockermouth When the People were settled I stood up upon a Seat And the Lord opened my Mouth to declare his Everlasting Truth and his Everlasting Day and to lay open all their Teachers and their Rudiments Traditions and Inventions that they had been in in the Night of Apostacy since the Apostles days And I turned them to Christ the true Teacher and to the true Spiritual VVorship directing them where to find the Spirit and Truth that they might Worship God therein I opened Christ's Parables unto them and directed them to the Spirit of God in themselves that would open the Scriptures unto them And I shewed them how all might come to know their Saviour and sit under his Teaching and come to be Heirs of the Kingdom of God and know both God's and Christ's Voice by which they might discover all the false Shepherds and Teachers they had been under and be gathered to the true Shepherd Priest Bishop and Prophet Christ Jesus whom God commanded all to hear So when I had largely declared the VVord of Life unto them for about the space of three Hours I walked forth from amongst the People and the People passed away very well satisfied Among the rest a Professor followed me praising and commending me and his Words were like a Thistle to me At last I turned about and bid him Fear the Lord Whereupon one Priest Larkham of Cockermouth for several Priests were got together on the Way who came after the Meeting was done said to me Sir why do you judge so you must not judge said he But I turned to him and said Friend dost not thou discern an Exhortation from a Judgment for I admonished him to fear God and dost thou say I judge him So this Priest and I falling into Discourse I manifested him to be amongst the false Prophets and covetous Hirelings And several People being moved to speak unto them he and two other of the Priests soon got away When they were gone John VVilkinson who was Preacher of that Parish and of two other Parishes in Cumberland began to dispute against his own Conscience for several hours till the People generally turned against him for he thought to have Tired me out but the Lord's Power tired him out and the Lord's Truth came over him and them all And Many hundreds were Convinced that day and received the Lord Jesus Christ and his free Teaching with Gladness of whom some have died in the Truth and many stand there faithful Witnesses thereof The Souldiers also were Convinced and their VVives and continued with me till the First-day Cockermouth On the First-day I went to the Steeple-house at Cockermouth where Priest Larkham lived And when the Priest had done I began to speak and the People began to be Rude but the Souldiers told them We had broken no Law and then they were quiet Then I turned me to the Priest and laid him open among the false Prophets and Hirelings At which word the Priest went his way and said He calls me Hireling which was true enough and all the People knew it Then some of the Great Men of the Town came to me and said Sir We have no learned Men to dispute with you I told them I came not to dispute but to declare the way of Salvation to them and the way of Everlasting Life And so I declared largely the way of Life and Truth to them 1652. Brigham and directed them to Christ their Teacher that had died for them and bought them with his Blood When I had done I passed away about Two Miles to another great Steeple-house of said John Wilkinson's called Brigham where the People having been at the other Meeting were mightily affected and would have put my Horse into the Steeple-house-Yard but I said No the Priest claims that have him to an Inn. When I came into the Steeple-house-Yard I saw the People coming in great Companies as to a Fair and abundance were already gathered in the Lanes and about the Steeple-house I was very Thirsty and walked about a quarter of a Mile to a Brook where I got some Water and refreshed my Self And as I came up again I met the said Wilkinson who as I passed by him said Sir will you preach to day If you will said he I will not Oppose you in Word or Thought I replied Oppose if thou wilt I have something to speak to the People And said I thou carried'st thy self foolishly the other day and spakest against thy Conscience and Reason insomuch that thy Hearers cried out against thee So I left him and went on for he saw it was in vain to Oppose the People were so affected with the Lord's Truth When I came into the Steeple-house-Yard a Professor came to me and asked If I would not go into the Church as he called it And I seeing no convenient Place abroad to stand to speak unto the People from went in and stood up in a Seat after the People were settled The Priest came in also but did not go up to his Pulpit So the Lord opened my Mouth and I declared his Everlasting Truth and Word of Life to the People directing them to the Spirit of God in themselves by which they might know God and Christ and the Scriptures and come to have heavenly Fellowship in the Spirit And I declared to them that Every one that cometh into the World was enlightened by Christ the Life by which Light they might see their Sins and Christ who was come to save them from their Sins and died for them And if they came to walk in this Light they might therein see Christ to be the Author of their Faith and the Finisher thereof their Shepherd to feed them their Priest to teach them and their great Prophet to open divine Mysteries unto them and to be always present with them I opened also unto them in the Openings of the Lord the first Covenant shewing them the Figures and the Substance of those Figures and so bringing them on to Christ the New Covenant I also manifested unto them that there had been a Night of Apostacy since the Apostles days but that now the Everlasting Gospel was preached again which brought
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-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
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
and to God's Spirit and to the Grace and Truth in your hearts that comes by Jesus Christ that with it ye may search your hearts And so do not grieve nor vex nor quench God's good Spirit in your hearts and walk not despitefully against the Spirit of Grace nor turn from it into Wantonness and yet make a Profession of God and Christ in Words 1677. Amsterdam when your hearts are afar off and living in Pleasures and wantonly upon the Earth sporting your selves killing the Just and Crucifying to your selves Christ afresh and putting him to open shame And so dishonouring God and Christ and Christianity and making a Profession and a Trade of the Scriptures keeping People always Learning that they may be always paying Therefore Cease from Man whose Breath is in his Nostrils and look unto the Lord all ye ends of the Earth and be saved for the Lord God of Heaven and Earth is come to teach his People himself by his Light Spirit Grace and Truth and to bring them off all the World's Teachers And God hath raised up Christ Jesus his Prophet whom People should hear and saith This is my beloved Son hear ye him and Christ saith Learn of me I am the Way the Truth and the Life and no Man comes to the Father but by me And there is no Salvation by any other Name under the whole Heaven but by the Name of Jesus who saith I am the good Shepherd and have laid down my Life for my Sheep and my Sheep hear my voice and follow me and will not follow the Hireling For Christ feeds them in the Pastures of Life that will never wither And God hath anointed Christ Jesus to preach if you will hear him and God hath given Christ for a Counsellor and a Leader if you will be Led and Counselled by him and God hath given Christ for a Bishop to Oversee you and a King to Rule you if you will be Overseen and Ruled by him And you that will not have Christ to Rule over you who never sinned nor Guile was found in his Mouth you may read his Sentence in the New Testament upon such And is not Christ a sufficient Teacher whose Blood was shed for you and tasted Death for every Man And doth not Christ say to his Ministers Freely ye have received freely give And the Apostle saith We covet no Man's Gold Silver or Apparel but Laboured with their Hands and kept the Gospel without Charge Have they that are called Ministers amongst you done the same and kept this Command of Christ Jesus Let them be Examined and Examine themselves And have you not trimmed your Outsides but look within with the Light and Spirit of Christ Jesus and see if your Insides be not black and foul For Christ Jesus who doth Enlighten every Man that cometh into the World with the Life in himself who is the Word he saith Believe in the Light that ye may become Children of the Light and with the Light ye may see all the Evil Deeds ye have done and all your ungodly Deeds that ye have acted and committed and all your ungodly Words you have spoken and all your ungodly Thoughts ye think that ye may turn from them and turn to Christ from whence the Light comes who is your Saviour and Redeemer who hath given you a Light to see your Sin and how that you are dead in Adam that with the same Light you may see Christ the quickening Spirit who makes you alive to God and saves you from your sin But if you hate the Light which is the Life in Christ the Prince of Life and Love the Darkness and the Prince of Darkness more than the Light or the Life in Christ whose Deeds be Evil and because it will Reprove you Christ tells you This Light will be your Condemnation John 3. And therefore be Warned now in your Day and while you have Time turn to the Lord and do not quench the Spirit of the Father by which he draws to his Son nor hate the Light of Christ for if you do you hate the Life in Christ and so remain under Condemnation from God and Christ with the Light who now speaks to his People by his Son as he did in the Apostles Days so the same God that was the Speaker by the Prophets to the Fathers and Speaker to Adam and Eve in Paradise And happy had Adam and Eve and the Jews and all Christians been if they had kept to this Speaker and not have followed the Serpent that false Speaker and his Instruments And now God is the true Speaker by his Son who bruises the Head of the Serpent the false Teacher who is the Head of all false Ways and false Prophets and false Churches and false Religions and Worships And so God and Christ is bringing People to the pure and undefiled Religion that will keep them from the Spots of the World and into the new and living Way Christ Jesus and to the Church in God which Christ is the Head of as he was in the Apostles Days and to worship God in the Spirit and Truth which Worship Christ set up above Sixteen hundred years since And therefore must all People come to the Grace and Spirit of Truth in their own hearts to know the God of Truth who is a Spirit and in the Spirit and Truth to worship and serve and honour and glorifie the Living God who is over all and Worthy of all Blessed for evermore Amen And ye Magistrates and Officers read this in all your Assemblies and cause all your Priests to read it in their Churches that they and you and all People may hear and fear the God of Heaven as you will Answer it at the Great and Terrible Day of Judgment and Vengeance of the Lord God Almighty And this is in Love to your Souls and for your Temporal and Eternal Good Amsterdam the 19th of the 7th Month 1677. G. F. 1677. Harlingen in Friezland An Epistle concerning true Fasting true Prayer true Honour and against Persecution and for the true Liberty in Christ Jesus To pag. 438 and that all may have a care that the Apostle hath not bestowed his Labour in vain upon you in your observing of Days Months Times Feasts and Years and of coming under the beggarly Elements and the Yoke of Bondage again and of bringing and forcing People into them WHere did ever Christ or his Apostles Command any Believers or Christians to observe Holy-Days or Feast-Days and let us see where it is written in the Scriptures of the New Testament in the Four Evangelists or the Epistles or the Revelation that ever Christ or his Apostles gave the Christians any such Command that they should observe the Time called Christmas or a Day for Christ's Birth or that they should observe the Time called Easter or Whitsuntide or Peter or Paul's or Mark or Luke's Days or any other Saints Day Now you that profess your selves to be
Rock and Sanctuary and by thee we have leaped over a Wall and by thee we have run through a Troop and by thee we have put the Armies of the Aliens to Flight these People had Right to say it And as God had delivered their Souls of the warisom Burthens of Sin and Vanity and enriched their poverty of Spirit and satisfied their great Hungar and Thirst after Eternal Righteousness and filled them with the Good Things of his own House and made them Stewards of his Manifold Gifts so they went forth to all Quarters of these Nations to Declare to the Inhabitants thereof what God had done for them what they had found and where and how they had found it viz. The way to Peace with God Inviting them to come and see and taste for themselves the Truth of what they Declared unto them And as their Testimony was to the Principle of God in Man the precious Pearl and Leven of the Kingdom as the only blessed means appointed of God to Quicken Convince and Sanctifie Man so they opened to them what it was in it self and what it was given to them for How they might know it from their own Spirit and that of the Subtil appearance of the Evil one and what it would do for all those whose minds are turned off from the Vanity of the World and its Lifeless ways and Teachers and ad-hear to this blessed Light in themselves which discovers and condemns Sin in all its appearances and shows how to overcome it if minded and obeyed in its holy Manifestations and Convictions Giving Power to such to Avoid and Resist those things that do not please God and to grow Strong in Love Faith and Good Works That so Man whom Sin hath made as a Wilderness over-run with Briers and Thorns might become as the Garden of God cultivated by his divine Power and replenisht with the most Virtuous and Beautiful Plants of God's own Right Hand Planting to his Eternal Praise But these Experimental Preachers of Glad Tydings of God's Truth and Kingdom could not run when they List or Pray or Preach when they Pleased But as the Christ their Redeemer prepared and moved them by his own Blessed Spirit for which they waited in their Services and Meetings and Spoak as that gave them utterance and which was as those having Authority and not like the Dreaming Dry and formal Pharisees And so it plainly appeared to the serious Minded whose Spiritual Eye the Lord Jesus had in any measure opened so that to one was given the Word of Exhortation to another the Word of Reproof to another the Word of Consolation and all by the same Spirit and in the good Order thereof to the Convincing and Edifying of many And truly they waxed Strong and Bold through Faithfulness and by the Power and Spirit of the Lord Jesus became very Fruitful thousands in a short time being turned to the Truth through their Testimony in Ministry and Sufferings insomuch as in most Counties and many of the considerable Towns of England Meetings were settled and daily there were added such as should be saved For they were Diligent to Plant and to Water and the Lord blessed their Labours with an Exceeding great Increase notwithstanding all the opposition made to their blessed Progress by false Rumors Calumnies and bitter Persecutions not only from the Powers of the Earth but from every one that listed to injure and abuse them So that they seemed indeed to be as poor Sheep appointed to the Slaughter and as a People killed all the Day long It were fitter for a Volumn than a Preface but so much as to repeat the Contents of their cruel Sufferings from Professors as well as from Prophaine and from Magistrates as well as the Rabble that it may well be said of this abused and despised People they went forth Weeping and sowed in Tears bearing Testimony to the Precious Seed the Seed of the Kingdom which stands not in Words the Finest the Highest that Man's Wit can use but in Power the Power of Christ Jesus to whom God the Father hath given all Power in Heaven and in Earth that he might rule Angels above and Men below who impowred them as their Work witnesseth by the many that were turned through their Ministry from Darkness to the Light and out of the Broad into the Narrow Way bringing People to a Weighty Serious and God-like Conversation the Practice of that Doctrine which they Taught And as without this Secret Divine Power there is no Quickning and Regenerating of dead Souls so the want of this Generating and begetting Power and Life is the Cause of the little Fruit that the many Ministrys that have been and are in the World bring forth O that both Ministers and People were sensible of this My Soul is often troubled for them and Sorrow and Mourning compass me about for their Sakes O! that they were Wise O! that they would consider and lay to Heart the things that truly and substantially make for their lasting Peace Two things are to be briefly toucht upon the Doctrine they Taught and the Example they lead among all People I have already toucht upon their Fundamental Principle which is as the Corner stone of their Fabrick And to speak eminently and properly their Characteristick or main distinguishing Point or Principle viz. the Light of Christ within as God's Gift for Man's Salvation This I say is as the Root of the goodly Tree of Doctrines that grew and branched out from it which I shall now mention in their Natural and Experimental Order First Repentance from dead Works to serve the Living God Which comprehends three Operations First a sight of Sin Secondly A Sense and Godly Sorrow for it Thirdly An Amendment for the Time to come This was the Repentance they preached and pressed and a Natural result from the Principle they turned all People unto For of Light came Sight and of Sight came Sense and Sorrow and of Sense and Sorrow came Amentment of Life Which Doctrine of Repentance leads to Justification that is Forgiveness of the Sins that are past through Christ the alone Propitiation and the Sanctification or Purgation of the Soul from the defiling Nature and Habits of sin present which is justification in the compleat Sense of that Word comprehending both justification from the Guilt of the Sins that are past as if they had never been commited through the Love and Mercy of God in Christ Jesus and the Creatures being made inwardly just through the Cleansing and Sanctifying Power and Spirit of Christ revealed in the Soul which is commonly called Sanctification .. From hence sprang a Second Doctrine they were led to declare as the Mark of the Price of the High Calling of all true Christians viz. Perfection from sin according to the Scriptures of Truth which testifie it to be the end of Christ's coming and the Nature of his Kingdom and for which his Spirit was given But they never held a Perfection
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
But be thou warned O Land of great Profession to receive him into thy Heart Behold at that Door it is he hath stood so long Knocking but thou wilt yet have none of him Oh! be thou awakned least Jerusalem's Judgments do swiftly overtake thee because of Jerusalems Sins that abound in thee For she abounded in Formality but made void the Weighty things of God's Law as thou daily doest She withstood the Son of God in the Flesh and thou resisteth the Son of God in the Spirit He would have gathered her as an Hen gathereth her Chickens under her Wings and she would not so would he have gathered thee out of thy Life-less Profession and have brought thee to inherit Substance to have known his Power and Kingdom for which he often knockt within by his Grace and Spirit and without by his Servants and Witnesses but thou wouldest not be gathered But on the Contrary as Jerusalem of old persecuted the Manifestation of the Son of God in the Flesh and Crucified him and Whipt and Imprisoned his Servants so hast thou O Land Crucified to thy self afresh the Lord of Life and Glory and done dispite to his Spirit of Grace slighting the Fatherly Visitation and persecuting the blessed Dispensers of it by thy Laws and Magistrates though they have Early and Late pleaded with thee in the Power and Spirit of the Lord in Love and Meekness that thou mightest know the Lord and serve him and become the Glory of all Lands But thou hast Evilly entreated and requited them Thou hast set at naught all their Counsel and would have none of their Reproof as thou shouldest have done Their appearance was too Straight and their qualifications were to Mean for thee to receive them who like the Jews of Old that cryed Is not this the Carpenters Son and are not his Brethren among us which of the Scribes of the Learned the Orthodox believe in him Prophesying their fall in a year or two and making and executing of severe Laws to bring it to pass by endeavouring to terrifie them out of their Holy way or distroying them for abiding Faithful to it But thou hast seen how many Governments that rise against them and determined their Downfal have been overturned and extinguished and that they are still preserved and become a great and a considerable People among the Middle sort of thy numerous Inhabitants And notwithstanding the many difficulties without and within which they have Laboured under since the Lord God Eternal first gathered them they are an encreasing People the Lord still adding unto them in divers Parts such as shall be saved if they persevere to the End And to thee were they and are they lifted up as a Standard and as a City set upon a Hill and to the Nations round about thee that in their Light thou may'st come to see Light even in Christ Jesus the Light of the World and therefore thy Light and Life too if thou wouldst but turn from thy many evil ways and receive and obey it For in the Light of the Lamb must the Nations of them that are saved walk as the Scriptures Testify Remember O Nation of great Profession How the Lord has waited upon thee since the Days of Reformation and the many Mercies and Judgments with which he has pleaded with Thee and awake and arise out of thy deep Sleep and yet hear his Word in thy Heart that thou may'st live Let not this thy day of Visitation pass over thy Head nor neglect thou so great Salvation as is this which is come to thy House Oh England For why should'st thou die Oh Land that God desires to Bless Be assured it is he that has been in the mid'st of this People in the mid'st of thee and no Delusion as thy mistaken Teachers have made thee believe And this thou shalt find by their Marks and Fruits if thou wilt consider them in the Spirit of Moderation For I. They were changed Men themselves before they went about to change others Their Hearts were rent as well as their Garments and they knew the Power and Work of God upon them And this was seen by the great Alteration it made and their stricter Course of Life and more Godly Conversation that immediately followed upon it II. They went not forth or Preached in their own Time or Will but in the Will of God and Spoke not their own studdied Matter but as they were opened and moved of his Spirit with which they were well acquainted in their own Conversion which cannot be exprest to Carnal Men so as to give them any intelligible account for to such it is as Christ said like the blowing of the Wind which no Man knows whence it cometh or whether it goeth Yet this Proof and Seal went along with their Ministry that many were turned from their Life-less Professions and the Evil of their Ways to the knowledge of God and an Holy Life as thousands can witness And as they Freely received what they had to say from the Lord so they Freely administred it to others III. The Bent and Stress of their Ministry was Conversion to God Regeneration and Holiness not Schemes of Doctrines and Verbal Creeds or new Forms of Worship but a leaving off in Religion the Superfluous and reducing the Ceremonious and Formal part and pressing earnestly the Substantial the Necessary and Proffitable part as all upon a serious Reflection must and do accknowledge IV. They directed People to a Principle by which all that they asserted Preached and Exhorted others to might be wrought in them and known through Experience to them to be true which is a high and distinguishing Mark of the Truth of their Ministry both that they knew what they said and were not afraid of coming to the Test For as they were bold from Certainty so they required Conformity upon no Humane Authority but upon Conviction and the Conviction of this Principle which they asserted was in them that they Preached unto and unto that directed them that they might examine and prove the Reaality of those things which they had affirmed of it and its Manifestation and Work in Man And this is more than the many Ministries in the World pretend to They declare of Religion say many things true in words of God Christ and the Spirit of Holiness and Heaven that all Men should Repent and mend their Lives or they will go to Hell c. but which of them all pretend to speak of their own Knowledge and Experience Or ever directed Men to a Divine Principle or Agent placed of God in Man to help him and how to know it and wait to feel its Power to work that good and accceptable Will of God in them Some of them indeed have Spoke of the Spirit and the Operations of it to Sanctification and Performance of Worship to God but where and how to find it and wait in it to perform was yet as a Mistery reserved for this further degree of
naturally led into So that what is an evil to One is so to All and what is Vertuous Honest and of good Report to One is so to All from the Sense and Savour of the one Vniversal Principle which is common to all and which the disaffected profess to be the Root of all True Christian Fellowship and that Spirit into which the People of God drink and come to be Spiritually Minded and of one Heart and one Soul Some weakly mistook good Order in the Government of Church Affairs for Discipline in Worship and that it was so prest or recommended by Him and other Brethren And they were ready to reflect the same things that Dissenters had very reasonably objected upon the National Churches that have coercively pressed Conformity to their Respective Creeds and Worships Whereas these things related wholly to Conversation and the Outward and as I may say Civil part of the Church that Men should walk up to the Principles of their Belief and not be wanting in Care and Charity But though some have stumbled and fallen through Mistakes and an unreasonable Obstinancy even to a Prejudice yet blessed be God the Generality have returned to their First Love and seen the Work of the Enemy that looses no Opportunity or Advantage by which he may check or hinder the Work of God and disquiet the Peace of his Church and chill the Love of his People to the Truth and one to another and there is hope of divers that are yet at a Distance In all these Occasions though there was no Person the Discontented struck so sharply at as this Good Man he bore all their Weakness and Prejudice and returned not Reflection for Reflection but forgave them their weak and bitter Speeches praying for them that they might have a Sense of their hurt and see the Subtilty of the Enemy to Rend and Devide and return into their First Love that thought no Ill. And truly I must say that though God had visibly cloathed him with a Divine Preference and Authority and indeed his very Presence exprest a Religious Majesty yet he never abused it but held his Place in the Church of God with great Meakness and a most engaging Humility and Moderation For upon all Occasions like his blessed Master he was a Servant to all holding and exercising his Eldership in the Invisible Power that had gathered them with Reverence to the Head and Care over the Body And was received only in that Spirit and Power of Christ as the First and Chief Elder in this Age who as he was therefore worthy of double Honour so for the same Reason it was given by the Faithful of this day because his Authority was inward and not outward and that he got it and kept it by the Love of God and Power of an Endless Life I write my Knowledge and not Report and my Witness is True having been with him for Weeks and Months together on divers Occasions and those of the nearest and most exercising Nature and that by Night and by Day by Sea and by Land in this and in Foreign Countrys And I can say I never saw him out of his Place or not a Match for every Service or Occasion For in all things he acquitted himself like a Man yea a strong Man a New and Heavenly minded Man A Divine and a Naturalist and all of God Almighty's making I have been surprised at his Questions and Answers in Natural things that whilst he was Ignorant of useless and Sophistical Science he had in him the Foundation of useful and commendable Knowledge and cherisht it every where Civil beyond all Forms of Breeding in his Behaviour Very Temperate eating Little and sleeping Less though a Bulky Person Thus he Lived and Sojourned among us and as he lived so he died feeling the same Eternal Power that had raised and preserved him in his last Moments So full of assurance was he that he Triumpht over Death and so even to the last as if Death were hardly worth Notice or a Mention Recommending to some with him the Dispatch and Dispersion of an Epistle just before Written to the Churches of Christ throughout the World and his own Books but above all Friends and of all Friends those in Ireland and America twice over Saying mind poor Friends in Ireland and America And to some that came in and enquired how he found himself he answered Never heed the Lord's Power is over all Weakness and Death the Seed reigns Blessed be the Lord Which was about Four or Five Hours before his Departure out of this World He was at the great Meeting near Lombard-street on the First day of the Week and it was the Third following about Ten at Night when he left us being at the House of H. Goldney in the same Court. In a good Old Age he went after having lived to see his Childrens Children to many Generations in the Truth He had the Comfort of a short Illness and the Blessing of a clear Sense to the last and we may truly say with a Man of God of Old that being Dead he yet Speaketh and though absent in Body he is Present in Spirit neither Time nor Place being able to interrupt the Communion of Saints or dissolve the Fellowships of the Spirits of the Just His Works praise him because they are to the Praise of him that worked by him for which his Memorial is and shall be Blessed I have done as to this part of my Preface when I have left this short Epitaph to his Name Many Sons have done virtuously in this Day but Dear George thou Excellest them All. And now Friends you that profess to walk in the way this Blessed Man was sent of God to turn us into suffer I beseech you the word of Exhortation as well Fathers as Children and Elders as Young Men. The Glory of this Day and Foundation of the Hope that has not made us ashamed since we were a People you know is that Blessed Principle of Light and Life of Christ which we Profess and Direct all People to as the great Instrument and Agent of Man's Conversion to God It was by this we were first Touched and effectually enlightned as to our Inward State which put us upon the Consideration of our Latter End causing us to set the Lord before our Eyes and to Number our Days that we might apply our Hearts to Wisdom In that Day we judged not after the Sight of the Eye or after the Hearing of the Ear but according to the Light and Sense this Blessed Principle gave us we judged and acted in reference to Things and Persons our selves and others yea towards God our Maker For being quickned by it in our Inward Man we could easily discern the difference of things and feel what was Right and what was Wrong and what was Fit and what not both in reference to Religion and Civil Concerns That being the ground of the Fellowship of all Saints it was in
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
Preserve you to God's Everlasting Kingdom So will you be Possessors as well as Professors of the Truth embracing it not only by Education but Judgment and Conviction from a Sense begotten in your Souls through the operation of the Eternal Spirit and Power of God in your hearts by which you may come to be the Seed of Abraham through Faith and the circumcision not made with Hands and so heirs of the promise made to the Fathers of an Incorruptible Crown That as I said before a Generation you may be to God holding up the Profession of the blessed Truth in the Life and Power of it For Formality in Religion is Nauseous to God and good Men and the more so where any Form or Appearance has been new and peculiar and begun and practised upon a Principle with an Uncommon Zeal and Strictness Therefore I say for you to fall flat and formal and continue the profession without that Salt and Savour by which it is come to obtain a good Report among Men is not to answer God's Love nor your Parents Care nor the mind of Truth in your selves nor in those that are without who tho' they will not obey the Truth have Sight and Sense enough to see if they do that make a Profession of it For where the Divine Virtue of it is not felt in the Soul and waited for and lived in imperfections will quickly break out and shew themselves and detect the Unfaithfulness of such Persons and that their insides are not seasoned with the Nature of that holy Principle which they profess Wherefore Dear Children let met intreat you to shut your Eyes at the Temptations and Allurements of this low and perishing World and not suffer your affections to be captivated by those Lusts and Vanities that your Fathers for Truths Sake long since turned their Backs upon But as you believe it to be the Truth receive it into your Hearts that you may become the Children of God So that it may never be said of you as the Evangelist Writes of the Jews of his time That Christ the true Light came to his own but his own received him not but to as many as received him to them he gave Power to become the Children of God which were born not of Blood nor of the Will of the Flesh nor of the Will of Man but of God A most close and comprehensive Passage to this occasion You exactly and peculiarly answer to those professing Jews in that you bear the Name of God's People by being the Children and wearing of the Form of God's People So that he by his Light in you may be said to come to his own and if you obey it not but turn your Back upon it and walk after the Vanities of your Minds you will be of those that receive him not which I pray God may never be your Case and Judgment but that you may be throughly sensible of the many and great Obligations you lie under to the Lord for his Love and your Parents for their Care And with all your Heart and all your Soul and all your Strength turn to the Lord to his Gift and Spirit in you and hear his Voice and obey it that you may Seal to the Testimony of your Fathers by the Truth and Evidence of your own Experience that your Childrens Children may bless you and the Lord for you as those that delivered a faithful Example as well as Record of the Truth of God unto them So will the Gray Hairs of your Dear Parents yet alive go down to the Grave with Joy to see you the posterity of Truth as well as theirs and that not only their Natures but Spirit shall live in you when they are gone I shall conclude this Preface with a few Words to those that are not of our Communion into whose hands this may come especially those of our own Nation Friends As you are the Sons and Daughters of Adam and my Brethren after the Flesh often and earnest have been my Desires and Prayers to God on your behalf that you may come to know him that has Made you to be your Redeemer and Restorer to the Image that through Sin you have lost by the power and Spirit of his Son Jesus Christ whom he hath given for the Light and Life of the World And Oh that you who are called Christians would receive him into your Heart for there it is you want him and at that Door he stands knocking that you should let him in but you do not open to him You are full of other Guests so that a Manger is his Lot among you Now as well as of Old Yet you are full of Profession as were the Jews when he came among them who knew him not but rejected and evilly intreated him So that if you come not to the Possession and Experience of what you profess all your Formality in Religion will stand you in no stead in the Day of God's Judgment I beseech you ponder with your selves your Eternal Condition and see what Title what Ground and Foundation you have for your Christianity If more than a Profession and an Historical Belief of the Gospel Have you known the Baptism of Fire and the Holy Ghost and the Fan of Christ that winnows away the Chaff The Carnal Lusts and Affections That Divine Leven of the Kingdom that being received Levens the whole Lump of Man sanctifying him throughout in Body Soul and Spirit If this be not the Ground of your Confidence you are in a Miserable Estate You will say perhaps that though you are Sinners and live in the daily Commission of Sin and are not Santified as I have been Speaking yet you have Faith in Christ who has borne the Curse for you and in him you are Compleat by Faith his Righteousness being imputed to you But my Friends let me intreat you not to deceive your selves in so Important a Point as is that of your Immortal Souls If you have true Faith in Christ your Faith will make you Clean it will Sanctifie you for the Saints Faith was their Victory By this they over came Sin within and Sinful Men without And if thou art in Christ thou walkest not after the Flesh but after the Spirit whose Fruits are Manifest Yea thou art a New Creature New Made New Fashioned after God's Will and Mold Old things are done away and behold all things are become New New Love Desires Will Affections and Practices It is not any longer Thou that livest Thou Disobedient Carnal Worldly One but it is Christ that liveth in thee and to live is Christ and to die is thy Eternal Gain because thou art assured That thy Corruptible shall put on Incorruption and thy Mortal Immortality and that thou hast a Glorious House Eternal in the Heavens that will never wax Old or pass away All this follows being in Christ as Heat follows Fire and Light the Sun Therefore have a Care how you presume to Rely upon such a
And how I in the Seed came forth and what the Promise was to Yet it was so with me that there seemed to be Two Pleading in me and Questionings arose in my Mind about Gifts and Prophecies and I was tempted again to Despair as if I had sinned against the Holy Ghost And I was in great Perplexity and Trouble for many Days Yet I gave up my self to the Lord still And one day when I had been walking solitarily abroad and was come home I was taken up in the Love of God so that I could not but admire the greatness of his Love And while I was in that Condition it was opened unto me by the Eternal Light and Power and I therein clearly saw That all was done and to be done in and by Christ and how he conquers and destroys this Tempter the Devil and all his Works and is a top of him And that all these Troubles were good for me and Temptations for the Trial of my Faith which Christ had given me And the Lord opened me that I saw through all these Troubles and Temptations My living Faith was raised that I saw All was done by Christ the Life and my Belief was in him And when at any time my Condition was vailed my secret Belief was stayed firm and Hope underneath held me as an Anchor in the bottom of the Sea and Anchored my Immortal Soul to its Bishop causing it to swim above the Sea the World where all the raging Waves foul Weather Tempests and Temptations are But oh then did I see my Troubles Trials and Temptations more than ever I had done As the Light appeared all appeared that is out of the Light Darkness Death Temptations the Vnrighteous the Vngodly all was manifest and seen in the Light Then after this there did a pure Fire appear in me Then I saw how he sate as a Refiner's Fire and as the Fuller's Sope. And then the Spiritual Discerning came into me by which I did discern my own Thoughts Groans and Sighs and what it was that did vail me and what it was that did open me And that which could not abide in the Patience nor endure the Fire in the Light I found to be the Groans of the Flesh that could not give up to the Will of God which had vailed me and that could not be patient in all Trials Troubles and Anguishes and Perplexities and could not give up Self to die by the Cross the Power of God that the Living and Quickned might follow him and that that which would cloud and vail from the Presence of Christ that which the Sword of the Spirit cuts down and which must die might not be kept alive And I discern'd the Groans of the Spirit which did open me and made Intercession to God In which Spirit is the true Waiting upon God for the Redemption of the Body and of the whole Creation And by this true Spirit in which the true Sighing is I saw over the false Sighings and Groanings And by this Invisible Spirit I discerned all the false Hearing and the false Seeing and the false Smelling which was a top above the Spirit quenching and grieving it and that all they that were there were in Confusion and Deceit where the false Asking and Praying is in Deceit and a top in that Nature and Tongue that takes Gods holy Name in vain and wallows in the Egyptian Sea and asketh but hath not for they hate his Light and resist the Holy Ghost and turn the Grace into Wantonness and rebel against the Spirit and are erred from the Faith they should ask in and from the Spirit they should pray by He that knoweth these things in the true Spirit can witness them The divine Light of Christ manifesteth all things and the spiritual Fire tryeth all things and severeth all things Several things did I then see as the Lord opened them to me For he shewed me that which can live in his holy Refining Fire and that can live to God under his Law And he made me sensible how the Law and the Prophets were until John and how the least in the Everlasting Kingdom of God is greater than John The pure and perfect Law of God is over the Flesh to keep it and its Works which are not perfect under by the perfect Law And the Law of God that is perfect answers the perfect Principle of God in every one And this Law the Jews and the Prophets and John were to perform and do None knows the Giver of this Law but by the Spirit of God neither can any truly read it or hear its Voice but by the Spirit of God He that can receive it let him John who was the greatest Prophet that was born of a Woman did bear Witness to the Light which Christ the Great heavenly Prophet hath Enlightned every Man that cometh into the World withal that they might believe in it and become the Children of Light and so have the Light of Life and not come into Condemnation For the true Belief stands in the Light that condemns all Evil and the Devil who is the Prince of Darkness who would draw out of the Light into Condemnation And they that walk in this Light come to the Mountain of the House of God established above all Mountains and to God's Teaching who will teach them his ways These things were opened to me in the Light And I saw the Mountains burning up and the Rubbish and the rough and crooked Ways and Places made smooth and plain that the Lord might come into his Tabernacle These things are to be found in Man's Heart But to speak of these things being within seemed strange to the rough and crooked and mountainous Ones Yet the Lord saith O Earth hear the Word of the Lord The Law of the Spirit crosseth the fleshly Mind Spirit and Will which lives in Disobedience and doth not keep within the Law of the Spirit And I saw this Law was the pure Love of God which was upon me and which I must go through though I was troubled while I was under it For I could not be dead to the Law but through the Law which did judge and condemn that which is to be condemned I saw many talked of the Law who had never known the Law to be their School-master And many talked of the Gospel of Christ who had never known Life and Immortality brought to Light in them by it You that have been under that School-master and the Condemnation of it know these things for tho' the Lord in that day opened these things unto me in secret they have since been published by his Eternal Spirit as on the House top And as you are brought into the Law and through the Law to be dead to it and witness the Righteousness of the Law fulfilled in you ye will afterwards come to know what it is to be brought into the Faith and through Faith from under the Law And abiding in the Faith which Christ
Friends in several Places were then gathered to Gods Teaching by his Light Spirit and Power For the Lord's Power brake forth daily more and more wonderfullly Now was I come up in Spirit through the flaming Sword into the Paradise of God All things were New and all the Creation gave another Smell unto me than before beyond what Words can utter I knew nothing 1648. Mansfield but Pureness and Innocency and Righteousness being renewed up into the Image of God by Christ Jesus so that I say I was come up to the State of Adam which he was in before he fell The Creation was opened to me And it was shewed me how all things had their Names given them according to their Nature and Vertue And I was at a stand in my Mind whether I should practise Physick for the good of Mankind seeing the Nature and Vertues of the Creatures were so opened to me by the Lord. But I was immediately taken up in Spirit to see into another or more stedfast State than Adam's in Innocency even into a State in Christ Jesus that should never fall And the Lord shewed me that such as were faithful to him in the Power and Light of Christ should come up into that State in which Adam was before he fell In which the admirable Works of the Creation and the Vertues thereof may be known through the Openings of that divine Word of Wisdom and Power by which they were made Great things did the Lord lead me into and wonderful Depths were opened unto me beyond what can by Words be declared But as People come into subjection to the Spirit of God and grow up in the Image and Power of the Almighty they may receive the Word of Wisdom that opens all things and come to know the hidden Vnity in the Eternal Being Thus traveled I on in the Lord's Service as the Lord led me And when I came to Nottingham Notingham Leicestershire Clauson Vale of Beavor the mighty Power of God was there among Friends From thence I went to Clauson in Leicestershire in the Vale of Beavor and the mighty Power of God was there also in several Towns and Villages where Friends were gathered While I was there the Lord opened to me Three Things relating to those Three great Professions in the World Physick Divinity so called and Law And he shewed me that the Physicians and Doctors of Physick were out of the Wisdom of God by which the Creatures were made and so knew not the Vertues of the Creatures because they were out of the Word of Wisdom by which they were made And he shewed me that the Priests were out of the true Faith which Christ is the Author of the Faith which purifies and gives Victory and brings People to have Access to God by which they please God Which Mystery of Faith is held in a pure Conscience He shewed me also that the Lawyers were out of the Equity and out of the true Justice and out of the Law of God which went over the first Transgression and over all Sin and answered the Spirit of God that was grieved and transgressed in Man And that these three the Physicians the Priests and the Lawyers ruled the World out of the Wisdom out of the Faith and out of the Equity and Law of God the one pretending the Cure of the Body the other the Cure of the Soul and the third the Property of the People But I saw they were all out out of the Wisdom out of the Faith out of the Equity and perfect Law of God And as the Lord opened these things unto me I felt his Power went forth over all by which all might be Reformed if they would receive and bow unto it The Priests might be Reformed and brought into the true Faith which was the Gift of God The Lawyers might be Reformed and brought into the Law of God 1648. Vale of Beavor which answers that of God that is transgressed in every one and brings to love one's Neighbour as himself This lets Man see If he wrongs his Neighbour he wrongs himself and this teaches him To do unto others as he would they should do unto him The Physicians might be Reformed and brought into the Wisdom of God by whick all things were made and Created that they might receive a right Knowledge of the Creatures and understand the Virtues of them which the Word of Wisdom by which they were made and are upheld hath given them Abundance was opened concerning these things how all lay out of the Wisdom of God and out of the Righteousness and Holiness that Man at the first was made in But as all believe in the Light and walk in the Light which Christ hath enlightned every Man that cometh into the World withal and so become Children of the Light and of the Day of Christ in his Day all things are seen Visible and Invisible by the Divine Light of Christ the Spiritual Heavenly Man by whom all things were made and Created Then I saw concerning the Priests that although they stood in the Deceit and acted by the dark Power which both they and their People were kept under yet they were not the greatest Deceivers spoken of in the Scriptures For these were not come so far as many of them had come But the Lord opened to me who the greatest Deceivers were and how far they might come even such as came as far as Cain to hear the Voice of God and such as came out of Egypt and through the Red Sea and to praise God on the Banks of the Sea-shore such as could speak by Experience of God's Miracles and Wonders such as were come as far as Corah and Dathan and their Company such as came as far as Balaam who could speak the Word of the Lord who heard his Voice and knew it and knew his Spirit and could see the Star of Jacob and the goodliness of Israel's Tent the Second Birth which no Enchantment could prevail against These that could speak so much of their Experiences of God and yet turned from the Spirit and the Word and went into the Gainsaying These were and would be the great Deceivers far beyond the Priests Likewise among the Christians such as should preach in Christ's Name and should work Miracles cast out Devils and go as far as a Cain a Core and a Balaam in the Gospel-times These were and would be the great Deceivers they that could speak some Experiences of Christ and God but lived not in the Life These were they that led the World after them who got the Form of Godliness but denyed the Power who inwardly ravened from the Spirit and brought People into the Form but persecuted them that were in the Power as Cain did and ran greedily after the Error of Balaam through Covetousness loving the Wages of Unrighteousness as Balaam did These Followers of Cain Core and Balaam have brought the World since the Apostles Days to be like a Sea
And such as these I saw might deceive now as they had in former Ages But it is impossible for them to deceive the Elect who were chosen in Christ who was before the World began and before Deceiver was Though others may be deceived in their Openings and Prophecies not keeping their Minds to the Lord Jesus Christ who doth Open and Reveal to his And I saw the State of those both Priests and People who in reading the Scriptures cry out much against Cain Esau and Judas and other wicked Men of former Times mentioned in the Holy Scriptures but do not see the Nature of Cain of Esau of Judas and those Others in themselves And these said It was They They They that were the bad People putting it off from themselves But when some of these came with the Light and Spirit of Truth to see into themselves then they came to say I I I it is I my self that have been the Ishmael and the Esau c. For then they came to see the Nature of wild Ishmael in themselves the Nature of Cain of Esau of Corah of Balaam and of the Son of Perdition in themselves sitting above all that is called God in them So I saw it was the fallen Man that was got up into the Scriptures and was finding Fault with those before-mentioned and with the back-sliding Jews calling them the sturdy Oaks and tall Cedars and fat Bulls of Bashan wild Heifers Vipers Serpents c. And charging them that it was They that closed their Eyes and stopped their Ears and hardned their Hearts and were dull of Hearing And that it was They that hated the Light and rebelled against it and that quenched the Spirit and vexed and grieved it and walked despightfully against the Spirit of Grace and turned the Grace of God into Wantonness And that it was They that resisted the Holy Ghost and They that got the Form of Godliness and turned against the Power And that They were the inwardly Ravening Wolves that had got the Sheep's Cloathing And that They were the Wells without Water and Clouds without Rain and Trees without Fruit c. But when these who were so much taken up with finding Fault with others and thought themselves clear from these Things came to look into themselves and with the Light of Christ throughly to search themselves they might see enough of this in themselves and then the Cry could not be It is He or They as before but I and We are found in these Conditions I saw also how People Read the Scriptures without a right Sense of them and without duly applying them to their own States For when they read that Death reigned from Adam to Moses and that the Law and the Prophets were until John and that the least in the Kingdom is greater than John they read these things without them and applyed them to others without them and the Things were true of others without them but they did not turn in to find the Truth of these things in themselves But as these things came to be opened in me I saw Death reigned over them from Adam to Moses from the Entrance into Trangression till they came to the Ministration of Condemnation which restrains People from Sin that brings Death Then when the Ministration of Moses is passed through the Ministry of the Prophets comes to be read and understood which reaches through the Figures Types and Shadows unto John the greatest Prophet born of a Woman whose Ministration prepares the Way of the Lord by bringing down the exalted Mountains and making strait Paths And as this Ministration is passed through an Entrance comes to be known into the Everlasting Kingdom So I saw plainly that none could read Moses aright without Moses's Spirit by which Moses saw how Man was in the Image of God in Paradice and how he fell and how Death came over him and how all Men have been under this Death And I saw how Moses received the pure Law that went over all Transgressors and how the clean Beasts which were Figures and Types were offered up when the People were come into the righteous Law that went over the first Transgression And both Moses and the Prophets saw through the Types and Figures and beyond them and saw Christ the great Prophet that was to come to fulfil them And I saw that none could read John's Words aright and with a true Understanding of them but in and with the same Divine Spirit by which John spake them and by his burning shining Light which is sent from God For by that Spirit their Crooked Natures might be made strait and their Rough Natures smooth and the Exacter and violent Doer in them might be thrown out And they that had been Hypocrites might come to bring forth Fruits meet for Repentance and their Mountain of Sin and Earthliness might be laid low in them and their Valley exalted in them that there might be a Way prepared for the Lord in them And then the least in the Kingdom is greater than John But all must first know the Voice crying in their Wilderness in their Hearts which through Transgression were become as a Wilderness Thus I saw it was an easie matter to say Death reigned from Adam to Moses and That the Law and the Prophets were until John and That the least in the Kingdom is greater than John But none could know how Death reigned from Adam to Moses c. but by the same Holy Spirit which Moses and the Prophets and John were in They could not know the Spiritual Meaning of Moses the Prophets and John's Words nor see their Path and Travels much less see through them and to the end of them into the Kingdom unless they had the Spirit and Light of Jesus Nor could they know the Words of Christ and of his Apostles without his Spirit But as Man comes through by the Spirit and Power of God to Christ who fulfills the Types Figures Shadows Promises and Prophecies that were of him and is led by the Holy Ghost into the Truth and Substance of the Scriptures sitting down in him who is the Author and End of them then are they read and understood with profit and great Delight Moreover the Lord God let me see when I was brought up into his Image in Righteousness and Holiness and into the Paradise of God the State How Adam was made a Living Soul And also the Stature of Christ the Mystery that had been hid from Ages and Generations Which things are hard to be uttered and cannot be born by many For of all the Sects in Christendom so called that I discoursed withal I found none that could bear to be told that any should come to Adam's Perfection into that Image of God and Righteousness and Holiness that Adam was in before he fell to be so clear and pure without Sin as he was Therefore how should they be able to bear being told that any should grow up to the Measure of
Heathenish Fables and from Mens Inventions and windy Doctrines by which they blowed the People about this way and the other way from Sect to Sect and all their beggarly Rudiments with their Schools and Colledges for making Ministers of Christ who are indeed Ministers of their own making but not of Christ's And all their Images and Crosses and Sprinkling of Infants with all their Holy-days so called and all their vain Traditions which they had gotten up since the Apostles Days which the Lord's Power was against And in the Dread and Authority thereof was I moved to declare against them all and against all that Preached and not freely as being such as had not Received freely from Christ Moreover when the Lord sent me forth into the World he forbad me To put off my Hat to any High or Low And I was required to Thee and Thou all Men and Women without any respect to Rich or Poor Great or Small And as I traveled up and down I was not to bid People Good Morrow or Good Evening neither might I Bow or Scrape with my Leg to any one And this made the Sects and Professions to rage But the Lord's Power carried me over all to his Glory and many came to be turned to God in a little time For the heavenly Day of the Lord sprang from on high and brake forth apace by the Light of which many came to see where they were But oh the Rage that then was in the Priests Magistrates Professors and People of all sorts but especially in Priests and Professors For tho' Thou to a single Person was according to their own Learning their Accidence and Grammar Rules and according to the Bible yet they could not bear to hear it And the Hat-Honour because I could not put off my Hat to them it set them all into a Rage But the Lord shewed me that it was an Honour below which he would lay in the Dust and stain it an Honour which proud Flesh looked for but sought not the Honour which came from God only That it was an Honour invented by Men in the Fall and in the Alienation from God who were offended if it were not given them and yet would be looked upon themselves as Saints Church-members and great Christians But Christ saith How can ye believe who receive Honour one of another and seek not the Honour that cometh from God only And I saith Christ receive not Honour of Men Shewing that Men have an Honour which Men will receive and give but Christ will have none of it This is the Honour which Christ will not receive and which must be laid in the Dust Oh! the Rage and Scorn the Heat and Fury that arose Oh! the Blows Punchings Beatings and Imprisonments that we underwent for not putting off our Hats to Men For that soon tried all Mens Patience and Sobriety what it was Some had their Hats violently pluck'd off and thrown away so that they quite lost them The bad Language and evil Vsage we received on this Account is hard to be expressed besides the Danger we were sometimes in of losing our Lives for this Matter and that by the great Professors of Christianity who thereby discovered that they were not true Believers And though it was but a small thing in the Eye of Man yet a wonderful Confusion it brought among all Professors and Priests But blessed be the Lord many came to see the Vanity of that Custom of putting off the Hat to Men and felt the weight of Truth 's Testimony against it About this time I was sorely exercised in going to their Courts to cry for Justice and in speaking and writing to Judges and Justices to do Justly and in warning such as kept publick Houses for Entertainment that they should not let People have more Drink than would do them good And in testifying against their Wakes or Feasts their May-Games Sports Plays and Shews which trained up People to Vanity and Loosness and led them from the fear of God and the Days they had set forth for Holy-days were usually the times wherein they most dishonoured God by these things In Fairs also and in Markets I was made to declare against their deceitful Merchandize and Cheating and Cozening warning all to deal Justly and to speak the Truth and to let their Yea be yea and their Nay be nay and to do unto others as they would have others do unto them And fore-warning them of the Great and Terrible Day of the Lord which would come upon them all I was moved also to Cry against all sorts of Musick and against the Mountebanes playing Tricks on their Stages for they burdened the pure Life and stirred up Peoples Minds to Vanity I was much exercised too with Schoolmasters and School-mistresses warning them to teach their Children Sobriety in the fear of the Lord that they might not be nursed and trained up in Lightness Vanity and Wantonness Likewise I was made to warn Masters and Mistresses Fathers and Mothers in private Families to take care that their Children and Servants might be trained up in the fear of the Lord and that they themselves should be therein Examples and Patterns of Sobriety and Vertue to them For I saw that as the Jews were to teach their Children the Law of God and the Old Covenant and to train them up in it and their Servants yea the very Strangers were to keep the Sabbath amongst them and be Circumcised before they might eat of their Sacrifices so all Christians and all that made a Profession of Christianity ought to Train up their Children and Servants in the New Covenant of Light Christ Jesus who is God's Salvation to the Ends of the Earth that all may know their Salvation And they ought to train them up in the Law of Life the Law of the Spirit the Law of Love and of Faith that they might be made free from the Law of Sin and Death And all Christians ought to be Circumcised by the Spirit which puts off the Body of the Sins of the Flesh that they may come to Eat of the heavenly Sacrifice Christ Jesus that true spiritual Food which none can rightly feed upon but they that are Circumcised by the Spirit Likewise I was Exercised about the Star-Gazers who drew Peoples Minds from Christ the bright and the Morning-Star and from the Sun of Righteousness by whom the Sun and Moon and Stars and all things else were made who is the Wisdom of God and from whom the right Knowledge of all things is received But the black Earthly Spirit of the Priest wounded my Life And when I heard the Bell toll to call People together to the Steeple-house it struck at my Life For it was just like a Market-Bell to gather People together 1649. Vale of Beavor that the Priest might set forth his Ware to Sale O the Vast Sums of Money that are gotten by the Trade they make of selling the Scriptures and by their Preaching
of Blood running down the Streets and the Market-Place appeared like a Pool of Blood Now when I had declared what was upon me and felt my self Clear I went out of the Town in Peace and returning to the Shepherds gave them some Money and took my Shoos of them again But the Fire of the Lord was so in my Feet and all over me 1651. Lichfield that I did not matter to put on my Shoos any more and was at a stand whether I should or no till I felt freedom from the Lord so to do and then after I had washed my Feet I put on my Shoes again After this a deep Consideration came upon me Why or for what reason I should be sent to Cry against that City and call it THE BLOODY CITY For though the Parliament had the Minster one while and the King another while and much Blood had been shed in the Town during the Wars between them yet that was no more than had befallen many other Places But afterwards I came to understand that in the Emperor Diocletian's Time a Thousand Christians were Martyred in Lichfield So I was to go without my Shoos through the Channel of their Blood and into the Pool of their Blood in the Market-Place that I might Raise up the Memorial of the Blood of those Martyrs which had been shed above a Thousand Years before and lay Cold in their Streets So the Sense of this Blood was upon me and I obeyed the Word of the Lord. Ancient Records testify how many of the Christian Britains suffered there And much I could write of the Sense I had of the Blood of the Martyrs that hath been shed in this Nation for the Name of Christ both under the Ten Persecutions and since but I leave it to the Lord and to his Book out of which all shall be Judged For his Book is a most certain true Record and his Spirit a true Recorder Then passed I up and down through the Countries having Meetings amongst friendly People in many Places But my Relations were offended at me Nottinghamshire Mansfield Darbyshire Yorkshire Doncaster Balby Wakefield So after some Time I came into Nottinghamshire again and to Mansfield and went into Darbyshire visiting Friends Then passing into Yorkshire I preached Repentance through Doncaster and several other Places and after came to Balby where Richard Farnsworth and several others were convinced So traveling through the Countries to several Places preaching Repentance and the Word of Life to the People I came into the Parts about Wakefield where James Naylor lived and he and Thomas Goodyear came to me and were both Convinced and received the Truth William Dewsbury also and his Wife with many more came to me who were Convinced and received the Truth From thence I passed through the Country towards Captain Pursloe's house by Selby Selby and visited one John Leek who had been to visit me in Darby-Prison and was Convinced I had an Horse but was fain to leave him not knowing what to do with him for I was moved to go to many great Houses to admonish and exhort the People to turn to the Lord Thus passing on Beverly I was moved of the Lord to go to Beverly-Steeple-house which was then a Place of high Profession And being very Wet with Rain I went first to an Inn and as soon as I came to the Door a Young-woman of the House came to the Door and said What! is it you Come in said she as if she had known me before for the Lord's Power bowed their Hearts So I refreshed my self and went to Bed And in the Morning my Cloaths being still wet I got ready and having paid for what I had had in the Inn I went up to the Steeple-house where was a Man preaching And when he had done I was moved to speak to him and to the People in the mighty Power of God and turned them to their Teacher Christ Jesus 1651. Yorkshire And the Power of the Lord was so strong that it struck a mighty Dread amongst the People And the Major came down to me and spake a few Words to me but none of them had any Power to meddle with me So I passed away out of the Town And in the Afternoon went to another Steeple-house about Two Miles off And when the Priest had done I was moved to speak to him and to the People very largely shewing them the Way of Life and Truth and the Ground of Election and Reprobation The Priest said he was but a Child and could not dispute with me I told him I did not come to dispute but to hold forth the Word of Life and Truth unto them that they might all know the One Seed which the Promise of God was to both in the Male and in the Female Here the People were very loving and would have had me come again on a Week-day and preach among them But I directed them to their Teacher Christ Jesus and so passed away and the next Day went to Crantsick Crantsick to Captain Pursloe's who accompanied me to Justice Hotham's This Justice Hotham was a pretty tender Man one that had had some Experiences of God's Workings in his Heart After I had had some Discourse with him of the things of God he took me into his Closet where sitting together he told me he had known that Principle these Ten Years and was glad that the Lord did now publish it abroad to the People After a while there came a Priest to visit him with whom also I had some Discourse concerning Truth But his Mouth was quickly stopt for he was nothing but a Notionist and not in Possession of what he talked of While I was here there came a Great Woman of Beverly to speak with Justice Hotham about some Business and in Discourse she told him That the last Sabbath-day as she called it there was an Angel or Spirit came into the Church at Beverly and spake the wonderful things of God to the astonishment of all that were there And when it had done it passed away and they did not know whence it came nor whither it went But it astonished all both Priest Professors and Magistrates of the Town This Relation Justice Hotham gave me afterwards and then I gave him an Account how I had been that Day at Beverly-Steeple-house and had declared Truth to the Priest and People there There was in the County thereabouts some Noted Priests and Doctors that Justice Hotham had acquaintance with and he would fain have them speak with me and offered to send for them under pretence of some Business he had with them but I wish'd him not to do so Now when the First Day of the Week was come Justice Hotham walked out with me into the Fields and then Captain Pursloe coming up after us Justice Hotham left us and returned home but Captain Pursloe went with me into the Steeple-house And when the Priest had done I spake to
again he would have my Life or I should have his adding that he would give his Head if I was not knockt down within a Month. By this Friends suspected his intent was in desiring me to walk with him alone either to have Thrust me down from off the Cliff or to have done me some other Mischief And that when he saw himself frustrated in that by my having one with me that made him rage so But I feared neither his Prophecies nor his Threats for I feared God Almighty But some Friends through their Affection to me feared much that this Priest would do me some Mischief or set on Others to do it Yet after some Years this very Scotch Priest and his Wise also came to be Convinced of the Truth and about Twelve Years after this I was at their House After this there came another Priest to a Meeting where I was one that was in Repute above all the Priests in the Country and as I was speaking in the Meeting That the Gospel was the Power of God and how it brought Life and Immortality to Light in Men and so was turning People from Darkness to the Light this high-flown Priest said The Gospel was Mortal I told him The true Minister said The Gospel was the Power of God and would he make the Power of God Mortal Upon that the other Priest Philip Scafe that was Convinced and had felt the Immortal Power of God in himself took him up and reproved him and so a great Dispute arose between them the Convinced Priest holding that the Gospel was Immortal and the other Priest holding that it was Mortal But the Lord's Power was too hard for this Opposing Priest and stopp'd his Mouth And many People were Convinced seeing the Darkness that was in the Opposing Priest and the Light that was in the Convinced Priest Then another Priest sent to have a Dispute with me and Friends went with me to the House where he was But when he understood we were come he slipt out of the House and hid himself under an Hâ—dge The People went to seek him and found him but could not get him to come to us Then I went to a Steeple-house hard by there where the Priest and People were in a great rage This Priest had threatned Friends what he would do but when I came there he would not stand but fled for the Lord's Power came over him and them Yea the Lord 's Everlasting Power was over the World and did reach to the Hearts of People and made both Priests and Professors tremble It shook the earthly and airy Spirit in which they held their Profession of Religion and Worship ☞ so that it was a dreadful thing unto them when it was told them The Man in Leathern Breeches is come At the hearing thereof the Priests in many Places would get out of the way they were so struck with the dread of the Eternal Power of God and Fear surprized the Hypocrites Whitby Scarborough Wowls Malton From this Place we passed to Whitby and Scarborough where we had some Service for the Lord and there are large Meetings settled there since From thence I passed over the Wowls to Malton where we had great Meetings as we had also at the Towns thereabouts At one of those Towns there was a Priest sent me a Challenge to dispute with me But when I came he would not come sorth So I had a good Opportunity with the People and the Lord's Power seized upon them And one who had been a Wild drunken Man was reached therewith so that he came to me as lowly as a Lamb though he and his Companions had before sent for Drink 1651. Yorkshire to make the rude People drunk on purpose that they might abuse us So when the Priest would not come forth I was moved to go to the Steeple-house there and the Priest was Confounded and the Lord's Power came over all On the First-day following there came one of the highest Independent-Professors a Woman who had let in such a Prejudice against me that she said before she came She could willingly have gone to see me hang'd But when she came she was Convinc'd and remains a Friend Then I turned to Malton again Malton and very great Meetings there were to which several People more would have come but durst not for fear of their Relations for it was thought a strange thing then to preach in Houses and not go to the Church as they call'd it so that I was much desired to go and speak in the Steeple-houses One of the Priests writ to me and invited me to preach in his Steeple-house calling me his Brother Another Priest a noted Man kept a Lecture there Now the Lord had shewed me while I was in Darby-Prison That I should speak in Steeple-houses to gather People from thence and a Concern sometimes would come upon my Mind about the Pulpits that the Priests lolled in For the Steeple-houses and Pulpits were offensiâ—e to my Mind because both Priests and People called them the Hâ—use of God and Idolized them reckoning that God dwelt there in the outward House whereas they should have looked for God and Christ to dwell in their Hearts and their Bodies to be made the Temples of God for the Apostle said God dwelleth not in Temples made with Hands But by reason of the People's Idolizing those Places it was counted an heinous thing to declare against them Now when I came into the Steeple-house there were not passing Eleven Hearers and the Priest was preaching to them But after it was known in the Town that I was in the Steeple-house it was soon filled with People When the Priest that preacht that day had â—one he sent the other Priest that had Invited me thither to bring me up into the Pulpit but I sent back Word to him that I needed not to go into the Pulpit Then he sent to me again desiring me to go up into it for he said it was a better Place and there I might be seen of the People I sent him Word again I could be seen and heard well enough where I was and that I came not there to hold up such Places nor their Maintenance and Trade Upon my saying so they began to be angry and said These False Prophets were to come in the last Times Their saying so grieved many of the People and some began to murmur at it Whereupon I stood up and desired all to be quiet and stepping upon an High Seat I declared unto them the Marks of the false Prophets and shewed That they were already come and set the true Prophets and Christ and his Apostles over them and manifested these to be out of the Steps of the true Prophets and of Christ and his Apostles And I directed the People to their Inward Teacher Christ Jesus who would turn them from the Darkness to the Light And having opened divers Scriptures to them I directed them to the Spirit
Priests came up to me and I warned them to Repent One of them said I was Mad and so they turned away But many People were Convinced there that day and were glad at the hearing of the Truth declared and received it with Joy Amongst these was one called Captain Ward who received the Truth in the love of it and lived and dyed in it Westmorland Firbank-Chappel The next First-day I came to Firbank-Chappel in Westmorland where Francis Howgill before named and one John Audland had been preaching in the Morning The Chappel was full of People so that many could not get in And Francis Howgill said He thought I lookt into the Chappel and his Spirit was ready to fail the Lord's Power did so surprize him But I did not look in They made haste and had quickly done at that time and they and some of the People went to their Dinners but abundance stay'd till they came again Now John Blakelin and others came to me and desired me not to Reprove them publickly for they were not Parish-Teachers but pretty Tender Men. I could not tell them whether I should or no though I had not at that time any Drawings to declare publickly against them but I said They must leave me to the Lord's Movings So while the others were gone to Dinner I went to a Brook and got me a little Water and then came and sate down on the Top of a Rock hard by the Chappel In the Afternoon the People gathered about me with several of their Preachers it was judged there were above a Thousand People amongst whom I declared God's everlasting Truth and Word of Life freely and largely for about the space of three Hours directing all to the Spirit of God in themselves that they might be turned from the Darkness to the Light and believe in it that they might become the Children of it and might be turned from the Power of Satan which they had been under unto God and by the Spirit of Truth might be led into all Truth and sensibly understand the words of the Prophets and of Christ and of the Apostles and might all come to know Christ to be their Teacher to instruct them their Counsellor to direct them their Shepherd to feed them their Bishop to oversee them and their Prophet to open divine Mysteries to them and might know their Bodies to be prepared sanctified and made fit Temples for God and Christ to dwell in And in the openings of the heavenly Life I opened unto them the Prophets and the Figures and Shadows and directed them to Christ the Substance 1652. Westmorland Firbank-Chappel Then I opened the Parables and Sayings of Christ and things that had been long hid shewing the intent and scope of the Apostles Writings how that their Epistles were written to the Elect. And when I had opened that State I shewed also the State of the Apostacy that hath been since the Apostles days how the Priests have gotten the Scripture but are not in that Spirit which gave them forth and have put them into Chapter and Verse to make a Trade of the Holy Mens Words And how that the Teachers and Priests now are found in the steps of the false Prophets Chief Priests Scribes and Pharisees of old and are such as the true Prophets Christ and his Apostles cried against and so are judged and condemned by the Spirit of the true Prophets and of Christ and of his Apostles and that none who was in that Spirit and guided by it now could own them Now there were many old People who went into the Chappel and looked out at the Windows thinking it a strange thing to see a Man preach on an Hill or Mountain and not in their Church as they called it whereupon I was moved to open to the People That the Steeple-house and the Ground whereon it stood was no more holy than that Mountain and that those Temples which they called the dreadful Houses of God were not set up by the Command of God and of Christ nor their Priests called as Aaron's Priesthood was nor their Tithes appointed by God as those amongst the Jews were but that Christ was come who ended both the Temple and its Worship and the Priests and their Tithes and all now should hearken unto him for he said Learn of me and God said of him This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased hear ye him So I declared unto them that the Lord God had sent me to preach the Everlasting Gospel and Word of Life amongst them and to bring them off from all these Temples Tithes Priests and Rudiments of the World which had gotten up since the Apostles days and had been set up by such as had erred from the Spirit and Power that the Apostles were in Very largely was I opened at this Meeting and the Lord 's Convincing Power accompanied my Ministry and reached home unto the Hearts of the People whereby many were Convinced that day and all the Teachers of that Congregation who were many were Convinced of God's everlasting Truth that day After the Meeting was over I went to John Audland's and from thence to Preston-Patrick-Chappel Preston-Patrick-Chappel where a great Meeting was appointed to which I went and had a large opportunity amongst the People to preach the Everlasting Gospel to them opening to them as to others on the like occasion that the End of my coming into that Place was not to hold it up no more than the Apostles going into the Jewish Synagogues and Temple was to uphold those But to bring them off from all such things as the Apostles brought the Saints of old from off the Jewish Temple and Aaron's Priesthood that they might come to witness their Bodies to be the Temples of God and Christ in them to be their Teacher 1652. Kendal From this Place I went to Kendal where a Meeting was appointed in the Town-Hall in which I declared the Word of Life amongst the People shewing them How they might come to the saving knowledge of Christ and to have a right Understanding of the Holy Scriptures and opening to them what it was that would lead them into the way of Reconciliation with God and what would be their Condemnation After the Meeting I stay'd a while in the Town and several were Convinced there and many appeared loving One whose Name was Cock met me in the Street and would have given me a Roll of Tobacco for People then were much given to smoking Tobacco I accepted his love but did not receive the Tobacco Under-barrow From thence I went to Vnder-barrow to one Miles Bateman's and several People going along with me great Reasonings I had with them especially with Edward Burrough At Night the Priest came and many Professors to the House and a great deal of Disputing I had with them Supper being provided for the Priest and the rest of the Company I had not freedom to eat with them
are too many and large to be inserted in this Place Now after I had cleared my Conscience at that Time to the Priests and People in those Parts near Swarthmore I went again into Westmorland Westmorland And a Company of Men with Pikes and Staves laid wait for me at a Bridge in the Way and they light on some Friends but missed me Afterwards they came to the Meeting with their Pikes and Staves But Justice Benson being there and many considerable People besides they were prevented from doing that Mischief they intended So they went away in a great Rage but did not hurt any Body 1652. Grayrigg I went from the Meeting to Grayrigge and had a Meeting there at Alexander Dixon's House where the Priest who was a Baptist and a Chappel-Priest came to the Meeting to oppose but the Lord Confounded him by his Power And some of the Priest's People tumbled down some Milk-Pales which stood upon the Side of the House the House being much crowded whereupon the Priest after he and his Company were gone away raised a Slander That the Devil frighted him and took away a Side of the House while he was in the Meeting And though this was an apparent and known Falshood yet it served the Priests and Professors to feed on for a while And so shameless they were that they Printed it in a Book Another Time this Priest came to another Meeting and fell to Jangling First he said The Scriptures were the Word of God I told him They were the Words of God but not Christ who is the Word and bid him prove by Scripture what he said Then he said It was not the Scripture that was the Word and setting his Foot upon the Bible he said It was but Copies bound up together Many unsavory Words came from him But after he was gone we had a blessed Meeting and the Lord's Power and Presence was preciously manifested and felt among us Soon after he sent me a Challenge to meet him at Kendal I sent him Word He need not go so far as Kendal for I would meet him in his own Parish So the Hour being set we Met and abundance of rude People were gathered there together besides the baptized People who were his own Members and they had intended to have done Mischief that Day but God prevented them Now when we were Met I declared the Day of the Lord to them and directed them to Christ Jesus Then the Priest out with his Bible and said It was the VVord of God I told him it was the VVords of God but not God the VVord His Answer was He would prove the Scriptures to be the God before all the People So I let him go on having a Man there that could take down in writing both what he said and what I said And when he could not prove it for I kept him to Scripture-Proof Chapter and Verse for it the People gnashed their Teeth for Anger and said He would have me anon But in going about to prove that one Error he run into many And when at length he saw he could not prove it then he said He would prove it a God So he toiled himself afresh till he sweat again but could not Prove what he had Affirmed And he and his Company were full of wrath For I kept his Assertions on the Head of him and them all and told them I owned what the Scriptures said of themselves namely That they were the Words of God but Christ was the Word So the Lord's Power came over all and they being confounded went away and the Lord disappointed their mischievous Intentions against me and Friends were established in Christ and many of the Priests Followers saw the Folly of their Teacher After this as I came through the Country visiting Friends Priest Bennet of Cartmel sent a Challenge to dispute with me Whereupon I came to his Steeple-house on the First-Day and there found him Preaching When he had done I spake to him and his People but the Priest would not stand the Trial but went his Way After he was gone I had a great deal of Discourse with the People And when I was come forth into the Steeple-house-yard and was discoursing further with the Professors and declaring Truth unto them One of them set his foot behind me and Two of them ran against my Breast and threw me down backwards against a Grave-stone wickedly and maliciously seeking to have spoiled me But I got up again and was moved of the Lord to speak to them Then I went up to the Priest's House and desired him to come forth that I might discourse with him seeing he had Challenged me But he would not at all come out or be seen So the Lord's Power came over them all which was greatly manifested at that Time There was amongst the Priest's Hearers one Richard Roper one of the bitterest Professors the Priest had and he was very fierce and hot in his Contention but afterwards he came to be Convinced of God's Eternal Truth and became a Minister thereof and continued faithful to his Death It was now about the beginning of the Year 1653 when I returned to Swarthmore And going to a Meeting at Gleeston Swarthmore a Professor there challenged a Dispute with me Whereupon I went to the House where he was and called him to come forth but the Lord's Power was over him so that he durst not meddle Then I departed thence and went and visited the Meetings of Friends in Lancashire Lancashire and so came back to Swarthmore again Swarthmore And great Openings I had from the Lord not only of Divine and Spiritual Matters but also of Outward Things relating to the Civil Government For being one Day in Swarthmore-Hall when Judge Fell and Justice Benson were talking of the News in the News-Book and of the Parliament that then was sitting which was called the Long-Parliament I was moved to tell them That before that Day Two Weeks the Parliament should be broken up and the Speaker pluck'd out of his Chair And that Day Two Weeks Justice Benson coming thither again told Judge Fell That now he saw George was a true Prophet for Oliver had broken up the Parliament by that Time About this Time I was in a Fast for about Ten Days my Spirit being greatly exercised on Truth 's behalf for James Milner and Richard Myer went out into Imaginations and a Company followed them This James Milner and some of his Company had true Openings at the first but getting up into Pride and Exaltation of Spirit they run out from Truth I was sent for to them and was moved of the Lord to go and shew them their Goings forth And they came to see their Folly and Condemned it and came into the Way of Truth again After some Time I went to a Meeting at Arn-side Arnside where Richard Myer was Now he had been long Lame of one of his Arms And I was moved
Debate Did your Hearts never burn within you Did you never come to question your Conditions Are you wholly given up to do the Devil's Lusts to Persecute Where is your Loving Enemies Where is your Entertaining Strangers Where is your Overcoming Evil with Good Where are your Teachers that can stop the Mouths of Gain-sayers and can convince Gain-sayers and such as oppose themselves Have you no Ministers of the Spirit no Soldiers with Spiritual Weapons displaying Christ's Colours But all the Dragon 's the Murderer's the Persecutor's Arm of Flesh Cain's Weapons Chief Priests taking Counsel Judas and the Multitude with Swords and Staves Sodom's Company raging about Lot's House like the Priests and Princes against Jeremiah like the Dragon Beast and great Whore and the false Church which John saw should cast into Prison and Kill and Persecute Whose Weapons are you bearing doth not the false Church the VVhore make Merchandize of Cattel Corn VVine and Oil even to the very Souls of Men And hath not all this been since the true Church went into the Wilderness Read Revelations the 12th with the 18th Do you not read and see what a Spirit you are of and what a bottomless Pit you are in And have not you dishonoured the Place of Justice and Authority What! turned your Sword backward like Mad-Men who are a Praise to the Evil-Doer and would be a Terror to the Good with all Force and Might to stop the way of Justice Doth not the Lord think you behold your Actions How many have you wronged how many have you Imprisoned and Persecuted and put out of your Synagogues Are you they that must fulfil the Prophecy of Christ Matth 23. John 16. Read the Scriptures and see how unlike you are to the Prophets Christ and his Apostles and what a Visage you have like unto them that persecuted the Prophets Christ and the Apostles You are found in their Steps wrestling with Flesh and Blood and not with Principalities and Powers and Spiritual Wickedness And your Teachers imprisoning and persecuting for outward things you being their Executioners the like whereof hath not been in all the Nations The Havock that hath been made the spoiling of the Goods of People taking away their Oxen and fatted Beeves their Sheep Corn Wool and Houshold-Goods and giving them to the Priests that have done no Work for them More like Moss-Troopers than Ministers of the Gospel they take them from Friends suing them in your Courts and fining them because they will not break the Commands of Christ that is because they will not Swear And thus you Act against them that do not lift up an Hand against you and as much as you turn against them you turn against Christ But he is risen that will plead their Cause and you cannot be hid for your Works are come to Light and the End of your Ministry is seen what it is for for Means And ye have dishonoured the Truth the Gospel and are they that make it Chargeable You have lost your Glory you have dishonoured your selves Persecution was ever blind and mad Read the Apostle what he saith of himself when he was in your Nature Exaltation and Pride and your lifting up your selves hath brought you to this not being humble and not doing Justice and not loving Mercy And when such as have beaten been and bruised by your Rude Company to whom you are a Praise and Encouragement have come and laid things before you that you might have done Justice preserved and kept Peace you as knowing they could not swear have put an Oath to them And this hath been your Trick and Cover that ye might not do Justice to the Just but by this means have gone on still further to Encourage the Evil-Doer But the Lord sees your Hearts If ye were not Men past feeling ye would fear and tremble before him the God of the whole Earth who is risen and will stain your Glory and marr your Pride and deface your Beauty and lay it in the dust Though for a Time you may swell in your Pride and glory in your Shame and make a mock of God's Messengers who for Reproving Sin in the Gate are become your Prey you will feel the heavy hand of God and his Judgments at the last This is from a Lover of the Truth and of Righteousness and of your Souls but a Witness against all such as make a Trade of the Prophets Christ's and the Apostles Words and are found in the Steps of them that persecuted the Prophets Christ's and the Apostles Life who will persecute them that will not hold you up and put into your Mouths and give you Means Tithes were before the Law and Tithes were in the Law but Tithes since the Days of the Apostles have been only since the false Church got up Now Christ who is come to end the Law and to end War Redeems Men out of the Tenths and out of the Nines also The Redeemed of the Lord shall reign upon the Earth and know the Election which was before the World began Since the days of the Apostles Tithes have been set up by the Papists and by them that went forth from the Apostles into the World so set up by the false Church that made Merchandize of People since the true Church went into the Wilderness But now is the Judgment of the great Whore come and the Beast and false Prophet the Old Dragon shall be taken and cast into the Fire and the Lamb and his Saints shall have the Victory And now is Christ come who will make War in Righteousness and destroy with the Sword of his Mouth all these Inventers and Inventions that have got up and been set up since the Days of the Apostles and since the true Church went into the Wilderness And the everlasting Gospel which is the Power of God shall be preached again to all Nations and Kindreds and Tongues in this the Lamb's Day before whom you shall appear to Judgment and you have no way to Escape For he hath appeared who is the First and the Last the Beginning and the Ending the Alpha and the Omega He that was Dead is alive again and lives for evermore I mentioned before That Gervase Benson and Anthony Pearson though they had been Justices of the Peace were not permitted to come to me in the Prison whereupon they jointly wrote a Letter to the Magistrates Priests and People at Carlisle concerning my Imprisonment And thus it was HIM who is called George Fox who is persecuted by Rulers and Magistrates by Justices by Priests and by People and who suffers Imprisonment of his Body at this present as a Blasphemer and an Heretick and a Seducer him do we witness who in measure are made Partakers of the same Life which lives in him to be a Minister of the Eternal Word of God by whom the everlasting Gospel is preached by the powerful Preaching whereof the Eternal Father of the Saints hath opened the Blind Eyes hath
at our Meeting in the Orchard As I was going along into the Orchard the People told me That Paul Gwin the rude jangling Baptist was going to the Meeting But I bid them Never heed It was nothing to me who went to it When I was come into the Orchard I stood upon the Stone that Friends used to stand on when they spake and I was moved of the Lord to put off my Hat and to stand a pretty while and let the People look at me for some Thousands of People were there While I thus stood silent this Rude Baptist began to find Fault with my Hair but I said nothing to him Then he run on into Words and at last Ye wise men of of Bristol said he I strange at you that you will stand here and hear a Man speak and affirm that which he cannot make good Then the Lord opened my Mouth for as yet I had not spoken a Word And I asked the People Whether they ever heard me speak before or ever saw me before And I bid them ' Take notice what kind of Man this was amongst them that should so Impudently say That I spake and Affirmed that which I could not make good and yet neither he nor they ever heard me or saw me before Therefore that was a lying envious malicious Spirit that spake in him and it was of the Devil and not of God Therefore I charged him in the Dread and Power of the Lord to be silent And the Mighty Power of God came over him and all his Company And then a glorious peaceable Meeting we had and the Word of Life was divided amongst them and they were turned from the Darkness to the Light and to Jesus their Saviour And the Scriptures were largely opened to them and the Traditions and Rudiments and ways 1656. Bristol and Doctrines of Men were laid open before the People which they had been in and they were turned to the Light of Christ that with it they might see them and see him to lead them out of them I opened also to them the Types and Figures and Shadows of Christ in the time of the Law and shewed them That Christ was come and had ended the Types and Shadows and Tithes and Oaths and put down Swearing and had set up Yea and Nay instead of it and a free Ministry for he was now come to Teach People himself and his heavenly Day was springing from on high So for many hours did I declare the Word of Life amongst them in the Eternal Power of God that by him they might come up into the Beginning and be Reconciled to him And having turned them to the Spirit of God in themselves that would lead into all Truth I was moved to pray in the mighty Power of God and the Lord's Power came over all But when I had done this Fellow began to babble again and John Audland was moved to bid him Repent and fear God So his own People and Followers being ashamed of him he passed away and never came again to disturb the Meeting And the Meeting brake up quietly and the Lord's Power and Glory shined over all a blessed Day it was and the Lord had the Praise After a while this Paul Gwin went beyond the Seas and many Years after I met with him again at Barbado's of which in its Place From Bristol we returned to Edward Pyot's where we had a great Meeting and the Lord's Power was over all and Truth was declared and spread abroad and many were turned to Christ Jesus their Life their Prophet to teach them their Shepherd to feed them and their Bishop to oversee them After the Meeting was done I had some Reasoning with some Professors and the Lord's Truth and Power came over them Slattenford From Edward Pyot's we passed to Slattenford where we had a very large Meeting Edward Pyot and another Friend being still with me and a great turning of People there was to the Lord Jesus Christ their Teacher and People were glad that they were brought to know their Way and their free Teacher and their Saviour Christ Jesus Wiltshire On the First-day following we went to Nathaniel Crips his House who had been a Justice of Peace in Wiltshire where it was supposed there were between Two and Three Thousand People at a Meeting and all was quiet And the mighty Power of God was manifest and People were turned to the Grace and Truth in their Hearts that came by Jesus Christ which would Teach them to deny all Vngodliness and wordly Lusts and to live soberly and godly in this present world So that every Man and Woman might know the Grace of God which had appeared to all Men and which was saving and sufficient to bring their Salvation This was to be their Teacher the Grace of God which would teach them how to live what to do and what to deny and would season their Words and establish their Hearts And this was a free Teacher to every one of them so that they might come to be Heirs of this Grace and of Christ by whom it came who hath ended the Prophets and the Priests that took Tithes and the Jewish Temple And as for these Hireling-Priests that take Tithes now 1656. Wiltshire and their Temples which Priests were made aâ— Schools and Colledges of Man's setting up and not by Christ they with all their Inventions were to be denied For the Apostles denied the true Priesthood and Temple which God had commanded after Christ had put an End thereto So the Scriptures and the Truths therein contained were largely opened and the People turned to the Spirit of God in their Hearts that by it they might be led into all Truth and understand the Scriptures and know God and Christ and come to have Unity with them and one with another in the same Spirit And the People went away generally satisfied and were glad that they were turned to Christ Jesus their Teacher and Saviour The next day we went from thence to Marlborough Marleborough where we had a little Meeting And the Sessions being in that Town that day they were granting forth a Warrant to send for me But one Justice Stooks being at the Sessions stopt them telling them There was a Meeting at his House yesterday at which were several Thousands So the Warrant was stopt and our Meeting was quiet and several received Christ Jesus their Teacher and came into the New Covenant and abode in it From hence we went to Newberry where we had a large Newberry blessed Meeting and several were Convinced there Thence we passed on to Reading where we had a large Reading precious Meeting in the Lord's Power amongst the Plants of God and many of the World came in and were reached and added to the Meeting and all was quiet and the Lord's Power was over all Kingston upon Thames We went from Reading to Kingston upon Thames where a few came in to
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
me but went their Way in a Rage When I came into the House Friends were very glad to see them so confounded and that I had escaped them Next day I passed from thence and after I had visited Friends in several places as I went I came to London the Lord's Power accompanying me and bearing me up in his Service London I had not been long come to London before I heard that a Jesuit who came over with an Embassador from Spain had challenged all the Quakers to dispute with them at the Earl of Newport's House whereupon some Friends let him know That we would meet him Then he sent us word He would meet with Twelve of the Wisest Learned-Men we had A while after he sent us word He would meet with but Six and after that he sent us word again He would have but Three to come We hast'ned what we could lest for all his great Boast he should put it quite off at last When we were come to the House I bid Nicholas Bond and Edward Burrough go up and enter the Discourse with him and I would walk a while in the Yard and then come up after them I advised them to state this Question to him Whether or no the Church of Rome as it now stood was not degenerated from the true Church which was in the Primitive Times from the Life and Doctrine and from the Power and Spirit that they were in They stated the Question accordingly and the Jesuit affirmed That the Church of Rome now was in the Virginity and Purity of the Primitive Church By this time I was come to them Then we asked him Whether they had the Holy Ghost poured out upon them as the Apostles had and he said No. Then said I If ye have not the same Holy Ghost poured forth upon you and the same Power and Spirit that the Apostles had then ye are degenerated from the Power and Spirit which the Primitive Church was in So there needed little more to be said to that Then I asked him What Scripture they had for setting up Cloisters for Nuns Abbies and Monasteries for Men and for all their several Orders and for their Praying by Beads and to Images and for making Crosses and for forbidding of Meats and Marriages and for putting People to Death for Religion If said I ye are in the Practice of the Primitive Church 1658. London in its Purity and Virginity then let us see by Scriptures where-ever they practised any such things For it was agreed on both hands that both he and we should make good by Scriptures what we said Then he told us of a written Word and an unwritten Word I asked him What he called his unwritten Word He said The written Word is the Scriptures and the unwritten Word is that which the Apostles spake by Word of Mouth which said he are all those Traditions that we practise Ibid him Prove that by Scripture Then he brought that Scripture where the Apostle says 2 Thess 2.5 When I was with you I told you these things That is said he I told you of Nunneries and Monasteries and of putting to death for Religion and of Praying by Beads and to Images and all the rest of the Practices of the Church of Rome which he said was the unwritten Word of the Apostles which they told then and have since been continued down by Tradition unto these Times Then I desired him to read that Scripture again that he might see how he had perverted the Apostle's Words for that which the Apostle there tells the Thessalonians he had told them before is not an unwritten Word but is there written down namely That the Man of Sin the Son of Perdition shall be revealed before that great and terrible Day of Christ which he was writing of should come so this was not telling them any of those things that the Church of Rome practises In like manner the Apostle in the third Chapter of that Epistle tells the Church of some disorderly Persons he heard were amongst them busie-bodies who did not work at all concerning whom he had commanded them by his unwritten Word when he was among them that if any would not work neither should he eat which now he commands them again in his written Words in this Epistle 2 Thess 3. So this Scripture afforded no Proof for their invented Traditions and he had no other Scripture-Proof to offer Therefore I told him This was another Degeneration of their Church into such Inventions and Traditions as the Apostles and primitive Saints never practised After this he came to his Sacrament of the Altar beginning at the Paschal Lamb and the Shew-bread and so came to the Words of Christ This is my Body and to what the Apostle writ of it to the Corinthians Concluding That after the Priest had Consecrated the Bread and Wine it was Immortal and Divine and he that received it received the whole Christ I followed him through the Scriptures he brought till I came to Christ's Words and the Apostle's and I shewed him That the same Apostle told the Corinthians after they had taken Bread and VVine in Remembrance of Christ's Death that they were Reprobates if Christ was not in them But if the Bread they ate was Christ he must of necessity be in them after they had eaten it Besides if this Bread and this VVine which the Corinthians ate and drank was Christ's Body then how hath Christ a Body in Heaven I observed to him also That both the Disciples at the Supper and the Corinthians afterwards were to eat the Bread and drink the VVine in Remembrance of Christ and to shew forth his Death till he come which plainly proves the Bread and VVine which they took was not his Body For if it had been his Real Body that they ate then he had been Come and was then there present and it had been improper to have done such a thing in Remembrance of him if he had been then present with them as he must have been if that Bread and VVine which they ate and drank had been his Real Body Then as to those Words of Christ This is my Body I told him Christ calls himself a Vine and a Door and is called in Scripture a Rock Is Christ therefore an outward Rock Door or Vine O said the Jesuit Those words are to be interpreted So said I are those words of Christ This is my Body Now having stopt his Mouth as to Argument I made the Jesuit a Proposal thus That seeing he said The Bread and VVine was Immortal and Divine and the very Christ and that whosoever received it received the whole Christ Let a Meeting be Appointed between some of them whom the Pope and his Cardinals should Appoint and some of us and let a Bottle of VVine and Loaf of Bread be brought and divided each into two Parts and let them Consecrate which of those Parts they would And then set the Consecrated and the
make Havock of Ship and Goods with the World but rather that ye do run to save the Men and the Goods for them and so deny your selves and do unto them as ye would they should do unto you G. F. This Paper had a good Service among People 1660. And Friends have endeavoured much to save the Lives of the Men in times of Wracks and to preserve the Ships and Goods for them And when some that have suffered Shipwrack have been almost dead and starved some Friends have taken them to their Houses to succour them and recover them which is an Act to be practised by all true Christians Now turned I back again from the Lands-End and after I had had many precious and blessed living Meetings in Cornwall several Eminent People being Convinced in that County whom neither Priests nor Magistrates by spoiling Goods or Imprisonments could make to forsake their Shepherd the Lord Jesus Christ that had bought them and all Friends who were turned to Christ their Teacher and Saviour being setled in Peace and Quietness upon him their Fundation we left them unto the Lord Jesus Christ's Teaching and Ordering fresh and green and Thomas Lower who had accompanied me through all that County brought me over Horse-Bridge into Devonshire again Devonshire And after several Meetings up and down in Devonshire we came into Somersetshire where we had divers large and peaceable Meetings Somersetshire and so passing through the County visiting Friends till we came to Bristol 1660. Bristol I came into Bristol on the Seventh Day of the Week and the Day before the Souldiers came with their Muskets into the Meeting and were exceeding rude beating and striking Friends with their Muskets and drove them out of the Orchard in a great Rage threatning what they would do if Friends came there again For the Mayor and the Commander of the Souldiers had it seems combined together to make a Disturbance amongst Friends Now when I came to Bristol and Friends told me what a Rage there was in the Town how they were threatned by both the Mayor and Souldiers and how unruly the Souldiers had been to Friends the day before I sent for several Friends as George Bishop Thomas Gouldney Thomas Speed and Edward Pyot and desired them to go to the Mayor and Aldermen and desire them seeing he and they had broke up our Meetings to let Friends have the Town-Hall to Meet in and for the use of it Friends would give them Twenty Pounds a Year to be distributed amongst the Poor and when the Mayor and Aldermen had business to do in it Friends would not Meet in it but only on the First Days Those Friends were astonished at this and said The Mayor and Aldermen would think that they were Mad But I said Nay for they should offer them a considerable Benefit to the Poor And it was upon me from the Lord to bid them Go and at last they Consented and went though in the Cross to their own Wills When they had laid the thing before the Mayor it came so over him that he said For his part he could consent to it but he was but one And he told Friends of another Great Hall they might have but that they did not accept of it being inconvenient So Friends came away leaving the Mayor in a very loving Frame towards them For they felt the Lord's Power had come over him When they came back I spake to them to go also to the Colonel that Commanded the Souldiers and lay before him the rude Carriage of his Souldiers how they came Armed amongst naked innnocent People who were waiting upon and worshipping the Lord But they were backward to go to him Next Morning being the First Day of the Week we went to the Meeting in the Orchard where the Souldiers had so lately been so rude And after I had declared the Truth a pretty while in the Meeting there came in many rude Souldiers and People some with Drawn Swords The In-keepers had made some of them drunk and one of them had bound himself with an Oath to cut down and kill the Man that spoke So he came pressing in through all the Crowd of People to within two Yards of me and stopt at those Four Friends before-mentioned who should have gone to the Colonel as I would have had them and fell a jangling with them On a sudden I saw his Sword was put up and gone For the Lord's Power came over all and chained him and the rest and we had a blessed Meeting and the Lord 's Everlasting Power and Presence was felt amongst us On the Day following those Four Friends went and spake with the Colonel and he sent for the Souldiers and Cut and Slasht some of them before the Friends Faces Which when I heard of I blamed the Friends for letting him do so and also for that they did not go on the Seventh Day as I would have had them which might have prevented this Cutting of the Souldiers and the Trouble they gave at our Meeting But thus the Lord's Power came over all those persecuting bloody Minds and the Meeting there was settled in Peace for a good while after without Disturbance I had then also a General Meeting at Edw. Pyot's near Bristol at which it was judged there were divers Thousands of People For besides Friends from many parts thereabouts some of the Baptists and Independents with their Teachers came to it and very many of the sober People of Bristol insomuch that the People that staid behind said The City looked naked there were so many gone out of it to this Meeting It was a very quiet Meeting and many glorious Truths were opened to the People and the Lord Jesus Christ was set up who was the End of all Figures and Shadows and the Law and the first Covenant And it was declared to the People how that all Figures and Shadows were given to Man after Man fell and how that all the Rudiments and Inventions of Men which have been set up in Christendom many of which were Jewish and Heathenish Ceremonies were not set up by the Command of Christ and all Images and Likenesses Man has made to himself or for himself whether of things in Heaven or things in Earth have been since he lost the Image and Likeness of God which God made him in But now Christ was come to Redeem Translate Convert and Regenerate Man out of all these things that he hath set up in the Fall and out of the true Types Figures and Shadows also and out of Death and Darkness up into the Light and Life and Image and Likeness of God again which Man and Woman were in before they fell Therefore all now should come and all might come to receive Christ Jesus the Substance by his Light Spirit Grace and Faith and should live and walk in him the Redeemer and Saviour And whereas we had had a great deal of work with the Priests and
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
be put to him and that he would refuse to Swear But when the Assize came and the Oath was tendered him he desired Time to consider of it and that being granted him till the next Assize he got leave to go to London before the Assize came again and came no more back but staid at London till the Plague brake forth and there both he and his Wife were Cut off He was a very Wicked Man and the Judgments of God came upon him For he had published a very wicked Book against Friends full of Lies and Blasphemies the Occasion of which was this Whilst he was in Lancaster-Castle he challenged Friends to have a Dispute with them Whereupon I got leave of the Jailer to go up to them And entring into Discourse with him he affirmed That some Men never had the Spirit of God and that the true Light which enlightneth every one that cometh into the world is natural For Proof of his first Assertion he instanced Balaam affirming That Balaam had not the Spirit of God I affirmed and proved That Balaam had the Spirit of God and that Wicked Men have the Spirit of God else how could they quench it and vex it and grieve it and resist the Holy Ghost like the stiff-necked Jews To his Second Assertion I answered That the true Light which enlightneth every Man that cometh into the World was the Life in the Word and that was Divine and Eternal and not Natural And he might as well say that the Word was Natural as that the Life in the Word was Natural And Wicked Men were enlightned by this Light else how could they hate it Now it is expresly said that they did hate it And the Reason given why they did hate it was because their Deeds were evil and they would not come to it because it reproved them and that must needs be in them that reproved them Besides that Light could not be the Scriptures of the New-Testament for it was testified of before any part of the New-Testament was written So it must be the Divine Light which is the Life in Christ the Word before Scriptures were And the Grace of God which brought Salvation had appeared unto all Men and taught the Saints but they that turned it into Wantonness and walked despitefully against the Spirit of Grace were the Wicked Again the Spirit of Truth the Holy Ghost the Comforter which leads the Disciples of Christ into all Truth the same should Reprove the World of Sin of Righteousness and of Judgment and of their Vnbelief So the Wicked World had it to reprove them and the true Disciples and Learners of Christ that believed in the Light as Christ commands they had it to lead them But the World that did not believe in the Light though they were lighted but hated the Light which they should have believed in and loved the Darkness rather than it this World had a Righteousness and a Judgment which the Holy Ghost reproved them for as well as for their Vnbelief So having proved that the Good and the Bad were enlightned and that the Grace of God had appeared unto them all and that all had the Spirit of God else they could not vex and grieve it I told Major Wiggan The least Babe there might see him and presently stood up one Richard Cubham and proved him an Anti-christ and a Deceiver by Scripture Then the Jailer had me away to my Prison again And afterwards Wiggan wrote a Book of this Dispute and put in abundance of abominable Lies But his Book was soon Answered in Print and he himself not long after was cut off as afore is said This Wiggan was poor and while he was a Prisoner at Lancaster he sent into the Country and got Money gathered for Relief of the Poor People of God in Prison and many People gave freely thinking it had been for Vs when-as indeed it was for himself But when we heard of it we laid it upon him and writ also into the Country that ' Friends might let the People know the Truth of the Matter that it was not our manner to have Collections made for us and that those Collections were only for Wiggan and another a drunken Preacher of his Society who would be so drunk that once he lost his Britches After this it came upon me to write a Paper to the Judges and other Magistrates concerning their Giving Evil Words and Nick-names to such as were brought before them And that which I writ was after this manner and thus directed To all you that be Judges or other Officers whatsoever in the whole World who profess your selves to be Christians Friends HErein and by reading the Scriptures ye may see both your own Words and Carriage and the Words Carriage and Practice of both Jews and Heathens and of the great King of Kings the great Law-giver and Judge of the whole World First For the Words and Carriage of the Jews when such as were worthy of Death were brought before such as were Rulers amongst them When Achan had taken the Babylonish Garment and the two hundred Shekels of Silver and the Wedge of Gold of Fifty Shekels weight and Joshua who was then Judge of Israel had by the Lot found him out he did not say unto him Sirrah nor You Rascal Knave Rogue as some that are called Christian Magistrates are too apt to do But Joshua said unto Achan My Son Mark his clean Language and Savoury Expression and gracious Words My Son said he give I pray thee Glory to the Lord God of Israel and make Confession unto him and tell me now what thou hast done hide it not from me Then Achan confessed that he had sinned against the Lord God of Israel and thus and thus he had done And then Joshua the Judge said Why hast thou troubled Israel The Lord shall trouble thee this day and they stoned him and his with Stones and burnt his Goods with Fire But there was no unsavoury Word given to him that we read of though he was worthy of Death Josh 7. So when the Man that gathered Sticks upon the Sabbath-day was taken and brought before Moses the Judge in Israel and put in Ward until the Mind of the Lord was known concerning him We read not of any reviling Language given him but the Lord said to Moses and Moses to the People The Man shall surely be put to Death Numb 15.35 So likewise in the Rebellion of Corah Dathan and Abiram where Moses called them to Trial he did not Sirrah them or mis-call them but said to Corah and the rest Hear I pray you ye Sons of Levi Numb 16.8 And when he gave the Sentence against them he said If these Men die the common Death of all Men c. He did not say If these Rascals or Knaves as many that profess themselves Christians will now do When Elihu spake to Job who was a Judge and to his Friends and said Let me not I pray you
out of the Truth for the Good will Overcome the Evil and the Light Darkness and the Life Death and Vertue Vice and Righteousness Vnrighteousness The False Prophet cannot overcome the True but the True Prophet Christ will overcome all the False So be Faithful and live in that which doth not think the time long G. F. But after some time it pleased the Lord to allay the Heat of this Violent Persecution and I felt in Spirit an overcoming of the Spirits of those Men-Eaters that had stirred it up and carried it on to that Height of Cruelty though I was outwardly very Weak And I plainly felt and those Friends that were with me and that came to Visit me saw and took notice that as the Persecution Ceased I came from under the Travels and Sufferings that had lain with such Weight upon me So that towards the Spring I began to Recover and to walk up and down beyond the Expectation of many who did not think I could ever have gone abroad again I had been so exceeding Weak through the Travel and Exercise that was upon my Spirit Whilst I was under this Spiritual Travel and Suffering the State of the City New Jerusalem which comes down out of Heaven was opened to me which some Carnal-minded People had looked upon to be like an outward City or Town that had dropt out of the Elements But I saw the Beauty and Glory of it the Length the Breadth and the Height thereof all in Compleat Proportion And I saw that all who are within the Light of Christ and in his Faith which he is the Author of and in the Spirit the Holy Ghost which Christ and the Holy Prophets and Apostles were in and within the Grace and Truth and within the Power of God that was before the Devil was which was the Walls of the City such are within the City such are Members of this City and have right to Eat of the Tree of Life which yields her Fruit every Month and whose Leaves are for the healing of the Nations But they that are out of the Grace out of the Truth out of the Light Spirit and Power of God such as Resist the Holy Ghost quench vex and grieve the Spirit of God and hate the Light and turn the Grace of God into Wantonness and do Despight to the Spirit of Grace such as have erred from the Faith and made Ship-wrack of it and of a Good Conscience and abuse the Power of God and despise Prophesying Revelation and Inspiration these are the Dogs and Vnbelievers that are without the City And these make up the great City Babylon Confusion and her Cage the Power of Darkness and the Evil Spirit of Error surround and cover them over And in this great City Babylon are the False Prophets in the false Power and false Spirit and the Beast in the Dragon's Power and the Whore that is gone a Whoring from the Spirit of God and from Christ her Husband But the Lord's Power is over all this Power of Darkness Cage Whore Beast Dragon False Prophets and their Worshippers who are for the Lake which burns with Fire Many things more did I see concerning the Heavenly City the New Jerusalem which are hard to be uttered and would be hard to be received But in short This Holy City is within the Light and all that are within the Light are within the City the Gates whereof stand open all the Day for there is no Night there that all may come in and Christ's Blood being shed for every Man and he tasted Death for every Man and enlightneth every Man that cometh into the World and his Grace that brings Salvation having appeared to all Men there is no Place or Language but there his Voice may be heard The Christians in the Primitive Times were called by Christ A City set upon an Hill and they were also called The Light of the World and The Salt of the Earth But when the Christians lost the Light and Salt and Power of God then they came to be trodden under foot like unsavoury Salt Even as the Jews who while they kept the Law of God were kept above all Nations but when they turned their Backs on God and his Law then were they trodden under foot of other Nations So Adam and Eve while they obeyed God were kept in his Image and in the Paradise of God in Dominion over all the Works of God's Hands but when they disobeyed God they lost the Image of God the Righteousness and the Holiness in which they were made they lost their Dominion and were driven out of Paradise and so fell under the dark Power of Satan and came under the Chains of Darkness But the Promise of God was That the Seed of the Woman Christ Jesus should bruise the Serpents Head should break his Power and Authority which had led into Captivity and had held Man in it So Christ who is the First and Last sets Man free and is the Resurrection of the Just and Vnjust the Judge of the Quick and Dead and they that are in him are invested with everlasting Rest and Peace out of all the Labours and Travels and Miseries of Adam in the Fall So he is sufficient and of Ability to Restore Man up into the State that Man was in before he fell and not into that State only but up into that State also that never fell even to himself I had also in this time a great Exercise and Travel of Spirit upon me concerning the Powers and Rulers of these Nations from the sense I had of the many tender Visitations and faithful Warnings that had been given them and of their great Abuse thereof who had refused to hear and had rejected the Counsel of the Lord. And though I knew Friends would be Clear of their Blood yet I could not but Mourn over them and gave forth these few Lines following concerning them WE have given them a Visitation and have faithfully Warned them and have declared to them our Innocency and Vprightness and that we never did any Hurt to the King nor to any of his People We have nothing in our Hearts but Love and Good-will to him and his People and desire their Eternal Welfare But if they will not hear then the Day of Judgment and of Sorrow of Torment and Misery and sudden Destruction will come from the Lord upon them that have been the Cause of the Sufferings of many Thousands simple innocent harmless People that have done them no hurt nor have had any Ill Will towards him or them but have desired their Eternal Good for the Eternal Truth 's sake Destruction will come upon them that turn the Sword backward Therefore do not blind your Eyes the Lord will bring swift Destruction and Misery upon you Surely he will do it and will relieve his Innocent People who have groaned for Deliverance from under your Oppression and have also groaned for your Deliverance out of Wickedness Blessed be
is a Change of the Nature of the Mind and of the Heart and of the Spirit and Affections which have been below which come to be set above and so receive the things that are from Above and have the Conversation in Heaven above not that Conversation which is according to the Power of the Prince of the Air that now rules in the Disobedient So all be faithful This is the Word of the Lord God unto you all See that Godliness do flow and Holiness and Righteousness and Truth and Vertue and the Fruits of the Good Spirit over the Bad and its Fruits that ye may answer that which is of God in all for your Heavenly Father is glorified in that you bear and bring forth much Fruit to God Therefore ye who are Plants of his planting and his Trees of Righteousness see that every Tree be full of Fruit. And all keep in the true Humility and in the true Love of God which doth edify his Body that the true Nourishment from the Head the Refreshings and Springs and Rivers of Water and Bread of Life may be plenteously known and felt amongst you that so Praises may ascend to God So all be faithful to the Lord God and just and true in all your Dealings and Doings with end towards Men. And be not negligent in your Men's Meetings to admonish and to exhort and to reprove in the Spirit of Love and of Meekness and to seek that which is lost and to bring back again that which hath been driven away So let all Minds and Spirits and Souls and Hearts be bended down under the Yoke of Christ Jesus the Power of God Much I could write but am Weak and have been very Weak mostly since I left you and Burdens and Travels I have been under and gone through many ways but it is well And the Lord Almighty knows my Work which he hath sent me forth to do by his everlasting Arm and Power which is from Everlasting to Everlasting blessed be his Holy Name which I am in and in which my Love is to you all G. F. After I had recovered so much Strength that I was able to go abroad and had been a little amongst Friends I went to visit the Governour at his House Lewis Morice Thomas Rouse and some other Friends being with me And indeed he received us very Civilly and treated us very kindly making us Dine with him and keeping us most part of the Day before he let us go away Bridge-Town The same Week I went down to the Bridge-Town where I had not been before save as I passed through it when I first came into the Island There was to be a General Meeting of Friends that Week and the Visit I had newly made to the Governour and kind Reception I had with him being generally known to the Officers both Civil and Military there came many of them to this Meeting from most parts of the Island and those not of the meanest Rank divers of them being Judges or Justices Colonels or Captains so that a very great Meeting we had both of Friends and others The Lord 's Blessed Power was plentifully with us in this Meeting And although I was somewhat straitned for Time three other Friends having spoken before me yet the Lord opened things through me to the general and great Satisfaction of them that were present Col. Lewis Morice came to this Meeting and with him a Neighbour of his a Judge in the Country whose Name was Ralph Fretwell who was very well satisfied with the Meeting and received the Truth After the Meeting I went home with Lewis Morice to his House that Night being about Nine or Ten Miles going part of the way by Boat the rest on Horse-back This place where Lewis Morice his Plantation was I thought to be the finest Air of the Island The next day Thomas Briggs and William Edmundson came thither to see me they intending to leave the Island the day following and to go upon the Lord's Service to Antego and Mevis Lewis Morice went with them and at Antego they had several good Meetings to which there was a great Resort of People and many were Convinced there at that time But when they had finished their Service there and went thence to Mevis the Governour of Mevis who was an old Persecutor sent Souldiers on Board the Vessel to stop them from coming on Shore and would not suffer them to Land Wherefore after Friends of the Place had been on Board the Vessel and with them and they had been sweetly Refreshed together in feeling the Lord's Power and Presence amongst them they returned to Antego again Where having staid a while longer they came back again to Barbados Thomas Brigges being very Weak and Ill. Of the other Friends that came over with me from England James Lancaster John Cartwright and Geo. Pattison were gone some time before to Jamaica and others to other places so that few remained in Barbados with me Yet we had many great and precious Meetings both for Worship and for the Affairs of the Church to the former of which many of the World came At one of these Meetings there came amongst others one Col. Lyne a sober Person who was so very well satisfied with what I declared that he afterward said Now I can gainsay such as I have heard speak evil of you who say you do not own Christ nor that he died whereas I perceive you exalt Christ in all his Offices beyond what I have ever heard before This Man observing one to take in Writing the Heads of what I delivered desired him to let him have a Copy of it and afterward staid another day with us before he went away so great a Love was raised in him to the Truth And indeed a very great Convincement there was in most parts of the Island which made the Priests and some Professors fret and rage Our Meetings were very large and full and free from disturbance from the Government though the envious Priests and Professors endeavoured to stir up the Magistrates against us And when they found they could not prevail that way some of them that were Baptists came to the Meeting at the Town which was very large and full of People of several Ranks and Qualities A great Company came also with them and they brought with them a malicious slanderous Paper written by John Pennyman with which they made a great Noise But the Lord gave me Wisdom and Vtterance to Answer their Cavils So that the Auditory generally received Satisfaction and those quarrelsome Professors lost ground by their coming When they had wearied themselves with Clamour they went away but the People staying the Meeting was continued and the things they cavilled about were further opened and cleared and the Life and Power of God came over all But the Rage and Envy in our Adversaries did not cease but they endavoured to defame Friends with many false and scandalous Reports which they spread
abroad through the Island Whereupon I with some other Friends drew up a Paper to go forth in the Name of the People called Quakers for the clearing Truth and Friends from those false Reports It was directed thus For the Governour of Barbados with his Council and Assembly and all others in Power both Civil and Military in this Island from the People called Quakers WHereas many scandalous Lies and Slanders have been cast upon us to render us odious as that We do deny God and Christ Jesus and the Scriptures of Truth c. This is to Inform you that all our Books and Declarations which for these many Years have been published to the World do clearly testifie the contrary Yet notwithstanding for your Satisfaction we do now plainly and sincerely declare That we do Own and Believe in God the only-Wise Omnipotent and Everlasting God who is the Creator of all things both in Heaven and in the Earth and the Preserver of all that he hath made who is God over all blessed for ever To whom be all Honour and Glory Dominion Praise and Thanksgiving both now and for evermore And we do Own and Believe in Jesus Christ his beloved and only begotten Son in whom he is well-pleased Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost and born of the Virgin Mary in whom we have Redemption through his Blood even the Forgiveness of Sins Who is the Express Image of the Invisible God the First-born of every Creature by whom were all things created that are in Heaven and that are in Earth visible and invisible whether they be Thrones or Dominions or Principalities or Powers All things were created by him And we do Own and Believe that he was made a Sacrifice for Sin who knew no Sin neither was Guile found in his Mouth And that he was Crucified for us in the Flesh without the Gates of Jerusalem and that he was Buried and Rose again the Third Day by the Power of his Father for our Justification And we do Believe that he Ascended up into Heaven and now sitteth at the Right Hand of God This Jesus who was the Foundation of the Holy Prophets and Apostles is our Foundation and we do believe that there is no other Foundation to be laid but that which is laid even Christ Jesus who we believe tasted Death for every Man and shed his Blood for all Men and is the Propitiation for our Sins and not for ours only but also for the Sins of the whole World According as John the Baptist testified of him when he said Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the Sins of the World Joh. 1.29 We believe that he alone is our Redeemer and Saviour even the Captain of our Salvation who saves us from Sin as well as from Hell and the Wrath to come and destroys the Devil and his Works who is the Seed of the Woman that bruises the Serpent's Head to wit Christ Jesus the Alpha and Omega the First and the Last That he is as the Scriptures of Truth say of him our Wisdom and Righteousness Justification and Redemption neither is there Salvation in any other for there is no other Name under Heaven given among Men whereby we may be saved It is he alone who is the Shepherd and Bishop of our Souls He it is who is our Prophet whom Moses long since testified of saying A Prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your Brethren like unto me him shall ye hear in all things whatsoever he shall say unto you And it shall come to pass that every Soul that will not hear that Prophet shall be destroyed from among the People Acts 2.22 23. He it is that is now Come and hath given us an Vnderstanding that we may know him that is true and he rules in our Hearts by his Law of Love and of Life and makes us free from the Law of Sin and Death and we have no Life but by him for he is the quickning Spirit the Second Adam the Lord from Heaven by whose Blood we are cleansed and our Consciences sprinkled from Dead Works to serve the Living God And he is our Mediator that makes Peace and Reconciliation between God offended and us offending he being the Oath of God the New Covenant of Light Life Grace and Peace the Author and Finisher of our Faith Now this Lord Jesus Christ the Heavenly Man the Emanuel God with us we all own and believe in him whom the High-Priest raged against and said he had spoken Blasphemy whom the Priests and the Elders of the Jews took Counsel together against and put to Death the same whom Judas betrayed for Thirty Pieces of Silver which the Priests gave him as a Reward for his Treason who also gave large Money to the Souldiers to broach an Horrible Lie namely That his Disciples came and stole him away by Night whilst they slept And after he was Risen from the Dead the History of the Acts of the Apostles sets forth how the Chief-Priests and Elders persecuted the Disciples of this Jesus for Preaching Christ and his Resurrection This we say is that Lord Jesus Christ whom we own to be our Life and Salvation And as concerning the Holy Scriptures we do believe That they were given forth by the Holy Spirit of God through the Holy Men of God who as the Scripture it self declares 2 Pet. 1.21 spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost We believe they are to be Read Believed and Fulfilled He that fulfils them is Christ and they are profitable for Doctrine for Reproof for Correction and for Instruction in Righteousness that the Man of God may be perfect throughly furnished unto all good Works 2 Tim. 3.16 and are able to make wise unto Salvation through Faith in Christ Jesus And we do believe that the Holy Scriptures are the Words of God for it s said in Exod. 20.1 God spake all these Words saying c. meaning the Ten Commandments given forth upon Mount Sinai And in Rev. 22.18 saith John I testifie to every man that heareth the Words of the Prophecy of this Book If any man addeth unto these and if any Man shall take away from the Words of the Book of this Prophecy not the Word c. So in Luke 1.20 Because thou believest not my Words And so in John 5.47 and John 15.7 John 14.23 John 12.47 So that we call the Holy Scriptures as Christ and the Apostles called them and Holy Men of God called them viz. the Words of God Another Slander and Lye they have cast upon us namely That we should teach the Negroes to Rebell A thing we utterly abhor and detest in our Hearts the Lord knows it who is the Searcher of all Hearts and knows all things and so can witness and testifie for us that this is a most Abominable Vntruth For that which we have spoken and declared to them is To exhort and admonish them to be sober and to fear God and
Labour in the Lord to turn all to But some that professed Truth and had made a great Shew therein being gone from the Simplicity of the Gospel into Jangling Division and a Spirit of Separation endeavoured to discourage Friends especially the Women from their Godly Care and Watchfulness in the Church over one another in the Truth opposing their Meetings which in the Power of the Lord were set up for that End and Service Wherefore I was moved of the Lord to write the following Epistle and send it forth among Friends for the discovering of that Spirit by which those Opposers were acted and its Work and Way in and by which it wrought and to warn Friends of it that they might not be betrayed by it ALL my Dear Friends Live in the Seed of Peace Christ Jesus in whom ye have all Life And that Spirit that comes amongst you to raise up Strife is out of Christ for it is the Spirit that is not easie to be intreated nor gentle so not of the Wisdom of God which is justified of her Children And so they that follow that Spirit are none of Wisdom's Children Now there is a Spirit that hath made a Separation and has been against Men and Womens-Meetings yet has set up one of their own whom they have given Power to and that none shall sit amongst them but whom they give Power to but shall be looked upon as Vsurpers of Authority Now this Spirit and its Work is not of God though it has made some Jumble amongst some and the Path it may travel in is through the earthly Affections or the Vnestablished or Apostates But all that are in the Life and Spirit and Light and Grace and Truth and the Power of God bar it out and such as sit under their own Vine Christ Jesus and are grafted into him have no need of their Exhortation or Counsel for the true Believers are entred into their Rest And therefore all keep in the Gospel of Peace and they that be Heirs of the Kingdom and of it keep in your Possession of it Now some that are of this Spirit have said to me They see no Service in Womens-Meetings My Answer is and hath been to them and such If they be blind and without Sight they should not oppose others for there is none Imposes any thing upon them for God never received the Blind for a Sacrifice neither can his People But Christ has enlightned all and to as many as receive him he gives Power to become the Sons of God And such as be Heirs of his Power and of his Gospel which brings Life and Immortality to Light they can see over him that has darkned them and all such do keep the Order of the Gospel the Power of God and their Meetings in it which preserves them in Life and in Immortality And all these do see the great Service of the Mens and of the Womens-Meetings in the Order of the Gospel which is the Power of God For they are Meet-helps in this Power which is the Authority of their Meetings And now I say to all you that be against Womens-Meetings or the Mens and say You see no Service for the Womens-Meetings and oppose them you are therein out of the Power of God and his Spirit you live not in For God saw a Service for the Assemblies of the Women in the Time of the Law about those things that appertained to his Worship and Service and to the holy things of his Tabernacle and so do they in the same Spirit see now their Service in the Gospel many things in those Meetings being more proper for the Women to see into than the Men and they in the Power and Wisdom of God may inform the Men of such things as are not proper for them and the Men may inform the Women of such things as are not proper for them as Meet helps each unto another For in the Time of the Law by the Law of God the Women were to Offer as well as the Men and so in the Time of the Gospel much more are they to Offer their Spiritual Sacrifices for they are all called both Men and Women a Royal Priesthood and they are of the Houshold of Faith and they are the Living Stones that make up the Spiritual Building which Christ is the Head of and are to be encouraged in their Labour in the Gospel For all things that they do both Men and Women are to be done in the Power of God And all such as see no Service for these Womens-Meetings or the Mens but do oppose them and make Strife amongst Friends are in the same Spirit of the World that is against and forbids our other Meetings and are in the same Spirit of the World that hath been and is against Womens Speaking in Meetings and says They must be silent c. though the same Apostle commands That Men should keep Silence as well as the Women if there were not an Interpreter And therefore all Friends you may see that the Spirit of the World hath entred such Opposers though they come under another Colour for They would not have us to Meet at all And These are against the Womens-Meetings and some of them against the Men's also and say They see no Service for them Then they may hold their Tongues and not oppose them that do see their Service for God in these Meetings Therefore all you that feel the Power of God and your Service for God as aforesaid in them you Men and Women keep your Meetings in the Power of God the Authority of them as they were settled in it and then ye will be preserved both over this Spirit that opposes them and over the Spirit of the World that opposes your other Meetings For it is all one in the Ground and would bring you into Bondage For such are out of the Peaceable Gospel who oppose its Order and out of the Faith that Works by Love and out of the Wisdom that is gentle and easie and peaceable c. and out of the Kingdom that stands in Peace and Joy Therefore keep over that Spirit that sows Discord or Dissension and would draw you from your Habitation and Possession in the Order of the Gospel For it is the same Spirit that deceived Adam and Eve by which they lost their Habitation in the Righteousness and Holiness and their Dominion and so that Spirit got over them and so it would get over you One while it will tell you It sees no Service for your Meetings and another time Oppose you But I say This is the blind Spirit which is out of the Power of God and which the Power of God is over And therefore keep in the Power that ye may stand up for your Liberty in Christ Jesus Males and Females Heirs of him and of his Gospel and his Order and so stand up for your Liberty in the Gospel and in the Faith which Christ Jesus hath been the Author of for
Friends in all the United Provinces of Holland and in Embden the Palatinat Hamborough Frederick-stadt Dantzick and other places in and about Germany which Friends were very glad of and it hath been of great service to Truth Next day an Exercise came upon me concerning that deceitful Spirit which wrought in some amongst Friends to make Divisions in the Church and the Care of the Churches being upon me I was moved to Write a few Lines to warn Friends of it as followeth ALL Friends keep over that Spirit of Separation and Division in the peaceable Truth and in the Seed of Life which will wear it all out and out-last it For the Lamb will have the Victory over all the Spirits of Strife as it hath had since the beginning and they will Wither as others have done but all that do keep in the Seed which is always green shall never Wither as Friends have been to this day kept And if any have gone out and backslidden and thrown off the Cross and are grown loose and full and are gone into Strife and Contention with their Earthly Spirits and therein plead for a liberty this Spirit taketh with loose earthly Spirits and cries Imposition to such as do admonish them to come to the Life Light and Spirit and Power of God that they may be alive and may live again with the Living And then upon this Admonishment their Spirits do arise into Contention and Strife and a Separation turning against the Living in their loose earthly Spirits which would have the Name of Truth but is not in the Nature of it but is for Eternal Judgment of the living Seed And this is it which doth deceive but it is judged by that which doth undeceive and save Amsterdam in Holland the 5th of the 6th Month 1677. G. F. This being the First-day of the Week we had a very large Meeting again there coming to it a great Concourse of People of several Opinions as Baptists Seekers Socinians Brownists and some of the Collegians Robert Barclay George Keith William Pen and I did all severally declare the Everlasting Truth among them opening the Estate of Man in the Fall and shewing by what way Man and Woman may come into the Restoration by Christ Jesus And indeed the Mystery of Iniquity and the Mystery of Godliness were very plainly laid open and the Meeting ended quietly and well The day following George Keith Robert Barclay and William Penn leaving me and some other Friends at Amsterdam set forward on their Journey towards Germany where they Travelled many hundred Miles and had good Service for the Lord Benjamin Furly going with them and Interpreting That day and the next I stayed at Amsterdam visiting the Friends and assisting them in some businesses concerning their Meetings And there came Three Baptists to discourse with me unto whom I opened things to their satisfaction and they parted from me in kindness I writ a Letter also to the Princess Elizabeth which Isabel Yeomans delivered to her when George Keith's Wife and she went to visit her Princess Elizabeth I Have heard of thy Tenderness towards the Lord and his holy Truth by some Friends that have visited thee and also by some of thy Letters which I have seen which indeed is a great thing for a Person of thy quality to have such a tender mind after the Lord and his precious Truth seeing so many are swallowed up with Voluptuousness and the Pleasures of this World and yet all make an outward Profession of God and Christ one way or other but without any deep Inward sense and feeling of him For it is not many mighty nor wise of the World that can become fools for Christ's sake or can become low in the humility of Christ Jesus from their mighty state through which they might Receive a mightier Estate and a mightier Kingdom through the Inward holy Spirit and the Divine Light and Power of God and a mightier Wisdom which is from above pure and peaceable which Wisdom is above that which is below that is earthly sensual and devillish by which men destroy one another yea about their Religions Ways and Worships and Churches but this they have not from God nor Christ But the Wisdom which is from above by which all things was made and created which the holy fear of God in the heart is the beginning of that keeps the heart clean And by and with this Wisdom are all God's Children to be ordered and with it come to order all things to God's glory So this is the Wisdom that is Justified of her Children And in this fear of God and Wisdom my desire is that thou may be preserved to God's glory For the Lord is come to teach his People himself and to set up his Ensign that the Nations may flow unto it And there hath been an Apostacy since the Apostles days from the Divine Light of Christ which should have given them the Light of the Knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ Jesus and likewise from the holy Spirit which would have Lead them into all Truth and therefore have People set up so many Leaders without them to give them Knowledge and also from the holy and precious Faith which Jesus Christ is the Author and Finisher of which Faith purifies the heart and gives victory over that which separates from God through which Faith they have access to God and in which Faith they please God the Mystery of which Faith is held in a pure Conscience And also from the Gospel which was preached in the Apostle's days which Gospel is the Power of God which brings Life and Immortality to Light in Man and Woman by which People should have seen over the Devil that has darkned them and before he was which Gospel will preserve all them that receive it in Life and in Immortality For the Eyes of People have been after Men and not after the Lord who doth write his Law in the hearts and puts it into the minds of all the Children of the New Covenant of Light Life and Grace through which they all come to know the Lord from the Least to the Greatest So that the Knowledge of the Lord may cover the Earth as the Waters doth the Sea And this Work of the Lord is a beginning again as it was in the Apostles days that People shall come to receive an Vnction in them again from the holy One by which they shall know all things and shall not need any man to teach them but as the Anointing doth teach them and also to know what the Righteousness of faith speaks the Word nigh in the heart and mouth to obey it and to do it which was the Word of Faith the Apostles preached Which is now received and preached again which is the duty of all true Christians to receive And so now People are coming out of the Apostacy to the Light of Christ and his Spirit and to receive Faith from him and not
business upon them they were hindred from doing the good they would so that the Sufferings upon Friends were Continued But that which added much to the Grief and Exercise of Friends was that some who made a Profession of the same Truth with us being gone from the Simplicity of the Gospel into a fleshly Liberty and labouring to draw others after them did Oppose the Order and Discipline which God by his Power had set up and established in his Church and made a great noise and clamour against Prescriptions Whereby they easily drew after them such as were loosly Inclined and desired a broader Way than the Path of Truth to walk in Some also that were more simple but young in Truth or weak in Judgment were apt to be betrayed by them not knowing the Depths of Satan in these Wiles For whose sakes I was moved to write the following Paper for the undeceiving the Deceived and the opening the Understandings of the Weak in this matter ALL you that do deny Prescriptions without distinction you may as well deny all the Scriptures which were given forth by the Power and Spirit of God For do not they prescribe how men should Walk both to God and Man both in the Old Testament and in the New Yea from the very first Promise of Christ in Genesis what People ought to believe and trust in and all along till ye come to the Prophets Did not the Lord prescribe to his People both by the Fathers and then by his Prophets did he not prescribe to the People how they should Walk though they turned against the Prophets in the Old Covenant for declaring or prescribing to them the Way how they might Walk to please God and keep in favour with him And then after in the days of Christ did not he prescribe and teach how People should walk and believe And after him the Apostles did not they prescribe unto People how they might come to believe and receive the Gospel and the Kingdom of God directing unto that which would give them the Knowledge of God and how they should walk in the New-Covenant in the days of the Gospel and by what way they should come to the holy City And did not the Apostles send forth their Decrees by faithful Chosen Men them that had hazarded their Lives for Christ's sake to the Churches by which they were established And so you that deny Prescriptions given forth by the Power and Spirit of God do thereby oppose the Spirit that gave them forth in all the holy Men of God And were there not some all along in the days of Moses and in the days of the Prophets and in the days of Christ and in the days of his Apostles who did withstand that which they gave forth from the Spirit of God And hath there not been the same since the days of the Apostles And how many have risen since Truth appeared to oppose the Order which stands in the Power and Spirit of God who are but in the same Spirit which hath opposed the Spirit of God all along from the beginning And see what Names or Titles the Spirit of God gave that Opposing Spirit in the Old Covenant and also in the New which is the same now as was for after the Lord had given forth the Old Covenant there were some among themselves that did Oppose which were worse than publick Enemies And likewise after in the days of the New Covenant in the Gospel-times you may see what sort did Oppose both Christ and the Apostles after they came to some Sights of the Truth and how they turned against Christ and his Apostles And see what Liberty they pleaded for and ran into in the Apostles days who could not abide the Cross the Yoke of Jesus And therefore we see the same rough and high Spirit cries now for Liberty which the Power and Spirit of Christ cannot give and cries Imposition and yet is Imposing and cries Liberty of Conscience and yet is opposing Liberty of Conscience And cries against Prescriptions and yet is prescribing both in Words and Writing So with the Everlasting Power and Spirit of God this Spirit is fathomed its Rise Beginning and End and it is Judged And this Spirit cries We must not judge Conscience we must not judge Matters of Faith and we must not judge the Spirits nor Religions c. Yes They that be in the pure Spirit and Power of God which the Apostles were in they Judge of Conscience whether it be a seared Conscience or a tender Conscience They Judge of Faith whether it be a dead one or a living one They Judge of Religion whether it be vain or pure or undefiled They Judge of Spirits and try them whether they be of God or no They Judge of Hope whether it be of Hypocrites or the true Hope that purifies even as God is pure They Judge of Belief whether it be that which is born of God and overcometh the World or that which runs into the Spirit of the World which lusts to Envy and doth not overcome the World And they Judge of Worships whether they be Will-worships and the Worship of the Beast and Dragon or the Worship of God in Spirit and in Truth They Judge of Angels whether they be fallen or them that keep their Habitation And they Judge the World that grieves and quenches the Spirit and hates the Light and turns the Grace of God into wantonness and resists the Holy Ghost They Judge of the Hearts Ears and Lips which are Circumcised and which are Uncircumcised They Judge of Ministers and Apostles and Messengers whether they be of Satan or of Christ They judge of Differences in outward things in the Church or elsewhere yea the least Member of the Church hath Power to Judge of such things having the One true Measure and true Weight to weigh things and measure things withal without respect to Persons And this Judgment is given and all these things are done by the same Power and Spirit the Apostles were in And also such can Judge of Election and Reprobation and who keep their Habitation and who not And who are Jews and who are of the Synagogue of Satan And who are in the Doctrine of Christ and who are in the Doctrines of Devils And who prescribes and declares things from the Power and Spirit of God to preserve all in the Power and Spirit of God and who prescribes and declares things from a loose Spirit to let all loose from under the Yoke of Christ the Power of God into Loosness and Liberty And likewise can Judge and Discern who brings People into the Possession of the Gospel of Light and Life over Death and Darkness and into the Truth where the Devil cannot get in and who brings them into the Possession of Death and Darkness out of the glorious Liberty of the Gospel and of Jesus Christ and his Faith and Truth and Spirit and Light and Grace For there is no true Liberty but in
that and that Liberty answers the Grace the Truth the Light the Spirit the Faith the Gospel of Christ in every Man and Woman and is the Yoke to the Contrary in every Man and Woman And that makes it rage and swell and puff up for that is restless and unruly and out of patience and is ready to curse his God and that which reigns over him because it hath not its Will And it works with all Subtilty and Evasion with its restless Spirit to get in and defile the minds of the Simple and to make Rapes upon the Virgin Minds But as they receive the heavenly Wisdom by which all things were made which Wisdom is above that Spirit through this Wisdom they will be preserved over that Spirit And Christ hath given Judgment to his Saints in his Church though he be Judge of all and the Saints in the Power and Spirit of God had and have Power to Judge of Words and Manners of Lives and Conversations and Growths and States from a Child to a Father in the Truth and to whom they are a Savour of Death and to whom they are a Savour of Life And who serve the Lord Jesus Christ and preach him and who preach themselves and serve themselves And who Talk of the Light and of Faith and of the Gospel and of Hope and of Grace and preach such things and in their Works and Lives deny them all and God and Christ and preach up Liberty from that in themselves to that in Others which should be under the Yoke and Cross of Christ the Power of God And so the Saints in the Power and Spirit of Christ can discern and distinguish who serves God and Christ and who serves him not and so can put a distinction between the Prophane and the Holy But such as have lost their Eye-salve and their Sight is grown dim lose this Judgment Discerning and Distinction in the Church of Christ and such come to be spewed out of Christ's mouth except they Repent and if not they come to Corrupt the Earth and burden it that it Vomits them out of it And therefore all are Exhorted to keep in the Power and Spirit of Christ Jesus and in the Word of Life and the Wisdom of God which is above that that is below in which they may keep their heavenly Understandings and heavenly Discernings and so set the heavenly Spiritual Judgment over that which is for Judgment which dishonours God which leads into loose and false Liberty out of the Unity which stands in the heavenly Spirit which brings into Conformity and to be Conformable to the Image of the Son of God and his Gospel the Power of God which was before the Devil was and his Truth which the Devil is out of in which all are of one Mind Heart and Soul and come to drink into one Spirit being baptized into one Spirit and so into one Body which Christ is the Head of and so keep one Fellowship in the Spirit and Unity in the Spirit which is the Bond of Peace the Prince of Princes Peace And they that Cry so much against Judging and are afraid of Judgment whether they be Apostates Professors or Prophane they are the Most-judging with their censorious false Spirits and Judgment and yet cannot bear the true Judgment of the Spirit of God nor stand in his Judgment This hath been manifest from the beginning they having the false Measures and the false Weights for none have the true Measure and the true Weight but who keep in the Light Power and Spirit of Christ And now there is a loose Spirit that cries for Liberty and against Prescriptions and yet is prescribing ways both by Words and Writings And the same Spirit cries against Judging and would not be Judged and yet is Judging with a wrong Spirit And this is given forth in Reproof to that Spirit London the 9th of the 4th Month 1678. G. F. When I had finished what Service I had for the Lord at this time here I left London and went towards Hartford visiting Friends and having several Meetings in the way At Hartford I stay'd several days having much Service for the Lord there both amongst Friends in their Meetings and in Conferences with such as having let in evil surmisings and jealousies concerning Friends stood in Opposition to the Order of Truth And in Answering some Books that had been written against Truth and Friends And while I was here it came upon me to write a few Lines and send them abroad amongst Friends as followeth Dear Friends LET the holy Seed of Life reign over Death and the unholy Seed in you all that in the holy Seed of the Kingdom ye may all feel the everlasting holy Peace with God through Christ Jesus your Saviour and sit down in him your Life and glorious Rest the holy Rock and Foundation that standeth sure over all from Everlasting to Everlasting in whom all the fulness of Blessedness is so that ye may glory in him that liveth for evermore Amen! Who is your Eternal Joy Life and Happiness through whom you have Peace with God 1678. Hartford Which holy Seed bruiseth the Head of the Serpent and will out-live all his Wrath and Rage Malice and Envy who was before He and It was and remains when He and It is gone into the fire that burns with brimstone The Seed Christ will reign and so will ye as ye do live and walk in him and sit down in Christ and build up one another in the Love of God Hartford the 10 of the 5th Month 1678. G. F. Next day a fresh Exercise came upon me with respect to those unruly and disorderly Spirits which were gone out from us and were labouring to draw others after them into a false Liberty And in the sense I had of the hurt and mischief these might do where they were given way to I was moved to write a few Lines to Warn Friends of them as followeth All Friends KEep in the tender Life of the Lamb over that unruly puffed up and swelling Spirit whose work is for Strife Contention and Division drawing into Loosness and false Liberty under a pretence of Conscience and dangerous to the Spoiling of Youth They that do encourage them will be guilty of their Destruction and set up a sturdy Will instead of Conscience in their Rage and Passion which will quench the universal Spirit in themselves and in every Man and Woman and so that Spirit shall not have the Liberty in themselves nor in Others and so shut up the Kingdom of Heaven in themselves and also in Others And so a loose Spirit getting up under a pretence of Liberty of Conscience or a stubborn Will making a Profession of the Words of Truth in a Form without Power all Loosness and Vileness will be sheltered and covered under this pretence which is for Eternal Judgment for that doth dishonour God Therefore keep to the tender Spirit of God in all humility that
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
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
fine Opportunity to open the Way of Truth amongst them After I was come to London London I was moved to write the following Paper concerning that Spirit which had led some who profest Truth into Strife and Division and to oppose the Way and Work of the Lord. Friends YOU that do keep your habitations in the Truth that is over all do see that it is the same Spirit that doth lead the Backsliders and Apostates now from the Spiritual Fellowship and Unity of God's People and the Church of Christ that led out Adam and Eve from God and the Jews from God and his Law to Rebel against his Spirit and so to turn against God and his Prophets And this Spirit was the same that was in the World which was got into the Jews when they were gone from the Spirit of God and then they turned against God and his Prophets and against Christ and his Apostles And that Spirit led them to be as bad as Pilate or worse The Enmity or Adversary was got within them against the Truth and them that walked in it and the Spirit of the Lord so that they killed and destroyed the Just. And this was the Spirit of the Devil the Destroyer who would seek not only to destroy the Truth but the Order of it and them that walk in it when true Christianity was planted among the Possessors of the Light 1681. London Grace and Truth and the Gospel-holy Faith and Spirit and they did enjoy Christ in their hearts But when some did begin to Err from the Spirit and Faith and hate the Light and disobey the Gospel and to turn the Grace of God into Wantonness and walk despitefully against the Spirit of Grace and turn from the Truth and Crucifie to themselves Christ afresh and put him to open shame These were they that let in the Spirit of the World who held the Form of Godliness but denied the Power thereof which troubled the Churches in the Apostles days And when the Spirit of Satan had got into such they were more troublesome to the Church than the open Persecutors that were without And these got into the Assemblies to deceive the hearts of the Simple having the good Words and fair Speeches and Sheep's-Cloathing Paul Peter John Jude and James had much to do with such and to keep them from troubling the Church of Christ For they are out of the Light Power and Spirit and therefore the Apostles of Christ did exhort the Saints to keep to the Word of Life within and to the Anointing and to the Grace and Truth and holy Spirit in their hearts This foul Spirit will profess all the Scriptures in words but by the Spirit of God which is holy that Spirit is tried and its fruits And so the Apostates went from the Power and Spirit of God and turned against the Prophets and the Martyrs of Jesus and became the Whore whose Cup all Nations drunk of And the Dragon with his Tail threw down many of the Stars and would have devoured the Woman with his Flood but the Woman the true Church was preserved and the Gates of Hell cannot prevail against her And then the Dragon made war with her Seed So the Dragon and the Whore and Beast and false Prophets all made war against the Lamb and the Saints but the Lamb and the Saints will overcome them all and will have the Victory And now the Everlasting Gospel is preached again to all Nations Tongues and Peoples and many are gathered into the Gospel the Power of God and are turned to the Light which is the Life in Christ and are grafted into him and are come to walk in the Order of the New Covenant of Light and Life in the Gospel of Peace and Salvation The same Spirit that opposed the Apostles and the Churches in their days opposes now yea it is the same that opposed Christ and disdained him that disdaineth God's Servants now And the same that did oppose the Prophets and rebelled against Moses opposes and rebels against God's Servants and People now And it is the same dark blind and disobedient faithless wilful jealous Spirit that doth persecute some with the Hands and others with the Tongue And it is the same Spirit of Enmity the Adversary and Destroyer that tempted Adam and Eve to disobey God and did deceive them which deceived the Jews and tempted them and deceived all those that went from the Church in the Apostles days And it is the same Spirit that is now going about sometimes like a roaring Lion sometimes like a twisting Serpent to tempt and to deceive 1682. London and to devour having the fair Speeches and good Words and Sheeps-Cloathing in a Form of Godliness and in pretence of the Light and Liberty but denies the Power thereof and inwardly are ravening Wolves and if it were possible they would deceive the very Elect. But the Elect are in the Covenant of Light and Life and in the Power of God over them and in Christ who will grind them to pieces and will slay all his Enemies with his spiritual Sword who will not have him to rule over or in them In Christ all his People have Rest and Peace who is their Sanctuary over all Storms and Tempests And in Christ the Sanctuary no Deceiver nor Destroyer can come for he is a place of sweet Rest and Safety Hallelujah Praise the Lord for his Sanctuary Amen G. F. Sufferings continuing still hard upon Friends at London I found my Service lay mostly here Wherefore I went but a little out of Town and not far being frequent at the most publick Meetings to encourage Friends both by Word and Example to stand fast in the Testimony to which God had called them And at other times I went about from house to house visiting those Friends that had their Goods taken away for their Testimony to Truth And because the wicked Informers were grown very audacious by reason that they had too much Countenance and Encouragement from some Justices who trusting wholly to their Information proceeded against Friends without hearing them whereby many Friends were made to suffer not only contrary to Right but even contrary to Law also I advised with some Friends about it and we drew up a Paper which was afterwards delivered to most of the Magistrates in and about the City which was as followeth WHereas some Informers have obtained Warrants of some Justices of Peace and have Convicted many of us without hearing us or once Summoning us to Appear before them by which proceedings many have had their Goods seized and taken away being generally fined Ten Pounds a piece for an unknown Speaker and some of those Persons so fined have not been that day at the Meetings they were fined for and the Speaker notwithstanding hath himself been fined for the same Meeting the same day the others were fined for the unknown Speaker By which the Justices may see the Wickedness of these Informers by whose false
Oaths we have been Convicted for an unknown Preacher when the Preacher hath been both known and fined And also in their swearing such Persons to have been at such a Meeting such a day when indeed they whom they have so sworn against have not been at that Meeting that day By which proceedings several Families of the King 's peaceable Subjects are like to be ruined if there be not a speedy stop put thereunto Therefore we do both hope and desire that you who are the King's Justices for the time to come when any Informers shall come to any of you with an Information against any of us will Summon such as are Accused to Appear before you and hear us and our Accusers face to face that so none for the time to come may suffer for that they are not guilty of For Pilate the Governour heard Christ and his Accusers face to face before he Condemned him John 19. And the Council and Chief Priests heard Stephen and his Accusers with the Witnesses that were brought against him face to face before they Condemned him Acts 7. The Roman Captain heard Paul and his Accusers face to face Acts 23. And Felix the Governour heard Paul and Ananias the High Priest and the Elders that accused Paul face to face Acts 24. And when the High Priests and Chief of the Jews accused Paul to Festus he heard Paul and his Accusers and them that witnessed against him face to face Acts 25. Doth the Law of God or did the Roman Law or doth the Law of the Land judge any man before he and his Accusers and they that Witness against him be heard face to face This somewhat moderated the Justices and after this several Friends that had been Illegally prosecuted and fined entred their Appeals upon Trial whereof they were Acquitted and the Informers Cast which was a great discouragement to the Informers and some Relief to Friends A little before the time came for the Chusing new Sheriffs for the City they who stood to be Chosen desiring our Friends to give their Voices for them I writ a few Lines tending to discover what Spirit they were of and how they stood affected to true Liberty and it was by way of Inquiry thus DO any here in London who stand to be Chosen Sheriffs own That Christ that was Crucified without the Gates of Jerusalem to be the Light of the World that doth Inlighten every Man that cometh into the World who saith Believe in the Light that ye may become Children of the Light And is any of you against persecuting People for their Religion and Worship of God in Spirit and Truth as Christ commandeth For Christ said I am not of this World nor my Kingdom And therefore he doth not uphold his spiritual Worship and pure Religion with worldly and carnal Weapons And Christ said Swear not at all And his Apostle James saith the same But will not you force us to swear and so to break Christ's and his Apostle's Commands in putting Oaths to us And Christ saith to his Apostles Freely ye have received freely give Will not you force us to give Tithes and Maintenance to such Teachers as we know God hath not sent Shall we be free to serve and worship God and keep his and his Son's Commands if we give our Voices freely for you for we are unwilling to give our Voices for such as will Imprison and persecute us and spoil our Goods But whatever they were that stood to be Chosen I observed there was a Heat and Strife in the Spirits of the People that were to Choose wherefore I writ a few Lines to be spread amongst them directed thus To the People who are Choosing Sheriffs in London People ALL keep in the gentle and peaceable Wisdom of God which is above that that is earthly sensual and devillish And live in that Love of God that is not puffed up nor is unseemly which envieth not but beareth and endureth all things And in this Love ye will seek the good and peace of all men and the hurt of no man Keep out of all heats and be not hot-headed but be cool and gentle that your Christian Moderation may appear to all men for the Lord is at hand who beholds all mens words thoughts and actions and will reward every one according to their works And what every man soweth that shall he reap Now had I some Inclination to have gone into the Country to a Meeting But hearing that there would be a Bussle at our Meetings and feeling a great disquietness in Peoples spirits in the City about Choosing Sheriffs it was upon me to stay in the City and go to the Meeting in Gracious-street upon the First-day of the Week William Penn went with me and spake in the Meeting Grac-Meâ—â— and while he was declaring the Truth to the People a Constable came in with his great Staff and bid him give over and come down but William Penn held on declaring Truth in the Power of God After a while the Constable drew back and when William Penn had done I stood up and declared to the People the Everlasting Gospel which was preached in the Apostles days and to Abraham and which the Church in the Apostles days did receive and came to be Heirs of This Gospel I declared was sent from Heaven by the holy Ghost in the Apostles days and is so now and was not of man neither by man but by the Revelation of the Holy Ghost And now this Gospel is preached again as John saw and said it should be to all Nations Tongues and Peoples and all People now are to hear Christ the Prophet in this his Gospel of the New Covenant For as Moses said Like unto me will God raise up a Prophet and him shall ye hear in all things so said I this Prophet Christ is come and all the Jews in spirit the true believing Christians in the Light who have the Law of God written in their hearts and put into their minds are to hear Christ in his Gospel New Testament and New Covenant which is the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus who bruises the Serpent's head which is the head of Enmity and makes free from the Law of Sin and Death And I shewed that all whom Christ quickens and makes alive he makes them to sit together in the heavenly places in himself So that they do not wander up and down like the Fool 's eye in the Corners of the Earth nor are their Eyes abroad in the World to sit down in the World 's invented Seats of Religion but they sit together in him as the Saints did in the Apostles days and so Christ was and is their Treasure of Wisdom Life Knowledge and Salvation Now as I was thus speaking two Constables came in with their great Staves and bid me give over speaking and come down But I feeling the Power of the Lord with me spake on therein both to the Constables
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
were many loose Spirits there yet they were bound down by the Power and Spirit of the Lord that they could not get up to make disturbance About this time I was moved to write the following Epistle Friends and Brethren WHO have received the peaceable Truth let the fruits of its peaceableness and of your quiet Spirit appear in all your Meetings and in all your Words and Actions for he that inhabits Eternity dwells with an humble heart and he gives Grace to the humble and resisteth the proud Heaven is his Throne and the Earth ye walk upon is his Foot-stool happy are ye that see and know him that is Invisible And now Friends ☞ Let all things be done in your Meetings and otherways in Love without strife or vain-glory For Love fulfils the Law and Love overcomes and edifies the Body of Christ and builds it up and there is neither Self nor Envy in Love neither is it pufft up but abides and bears all things So see that this Love of God have the sway in you all and over you all Christ saith Blessed are the Poor in Spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven Blessed are they that mourn for they shall be comforted Blessed are the Meek for they shall inherit the Earth Blessed are they that do hunger and thirst after Righteousness for they shall be filled Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain Mercy Blessed are the Pure in heart for they shall see God Blessed are the Peace makers for they shall be called the Children of God Blessed are they that are Persecuted for Righteousness sake for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you and shall say all manner of evil against you falsly for my sake rejoice and be exceeding glad for great is your reward in Heaven For so persecuted they the Prophets which were before you Now Friends here is a great deal in these words And all must be in these States and Conditions if they have these Blessings And the Children of God are Peace-makers and strive to make Peace in the Truth and to live in Peace with all men if it be possible So live in the Peace and the Good-will to all men which Good-will is both for their Sanctification and Salvation And Friends consider The Wisdom of God which is from above is pure peaceable and gentle and easie to be entreated full of mercy and good fruits without Partiality and without Hypocrisie And now Dear Friends let this pure peaceable gentle Wisdom that is from above that is easie to be entreated 1683. London and is full of mercy and good fruits be exercised and practised in all the true Churches of Christ so that Wisdom may be justified of her Children For the Works of the Flesh or fleshly Spirit are Hatred Variance Wrath Strife Envyings Drunkenness Revilings Adultery Fornication Lasciviousness Uncleanness c. and they which do such things shall not inherit the Kingdom of God But the Fruits of the Spirit of God are Love Joy Peace Long-suffering Gentleness Goodness Faith Meekness Temperance c. And so Dear Friends and Brethren strive to exceed one another and all People upon the Earth in Humility in Meekness in Gentleness in Temperance in Love and in Patience in Pureness and in Mercy and then ye will shew forth the Fruits of the Spirit of God and of his heavenly Wisdom that is from above And in this Wisdom will be justified of her Children and ye will be the Salt of the Earth and the Light of the World set on an Hill that cannot be hid and your Moderation will appear to all men And be ye just and righteous and faithful and true in all your Words Dealings and Conversations so that ye may answer the Truth in all People For Christ saith his Father is glorified by such as bring forth Fruits when men do see their good Works for he that doth Righteousness is accepted with God And he that dwells in Love dwells in God for Love is his Habitation And let that be the Habitation of every one that hath received the Truth for if it be not such do not dwell in God let them profess what they will And therefore my desire is that all you who have received Christ the Seed which bruises the Serpent's head may walk in him your Sanctuary Life and Salvation your Rest and Peace Amen London the 14th of the 6th Month 1683. G. F. I continued yet at London labouring in the Work and Service of the Lord both in Meetings and out sometimes visiting the Friends that were in Prison for the Testimony of Jesus encouraging them in their Sufferings and exhorting them to stand faithful and stedfast in the Testimony which the Lord had committed to them to bear sometimes also visiting those that were sick and weak in Body or troubled in Mind helping to bear their Spirits up from sinking under their Infirmities Sometimes our Meetings were quiet and peaceable sometimes they were disturbed and broken up by the Officers One First-day it was upon me to go to the Meeting at the Savoy Sav. Meet and it was a large Meeting for many Professors and sober People were there And the Lord opened many precious weighty things in me to the People which I declared amongst them and directed them to the Spirit of God in themselves which the Lord had given them a measure of that all by the Spirit might understand the Scriptures which were given forth from the Spirit of God And that by the Spirit of God they might know God and Christ whom God hath sent whom to know was Eternal Life And that by the Spirit they might all come into Christ and know him to be their Sanctuary who destroys the Devil the Destroyer and his works and bruises the Serpent's head For Christ was a Sanctuary to them to whom he was a Saviour whom he saved from the Destroyer And Christ did baptize them with the holy Ghost and with Fire and did thorowly purge his floor and burn up their Chaff with unquenchable fire that is Sin and Corruption which is got into Man and Woman by their Transgression But Christ gathereth his Wheat into his Garner So all that are baptized with Christ's Baptism their Wheat is in God's Garner and no Spoiler can get into God's Garner to meddle with the Wheat there though they may be permitted to meddle with the outward Goods c. Now as I was speaking in the power of the Lord and the People were greatly affected therewith on a sudden the Constables with the rude People came in like a Sea and one of the Constables said to me Come down and he laid hands on me I asked him Art thou a Christian We are Christians He had hold on my hand and was very fierce to pluck me down but I stood still and spake a few words to the People desiring of the Lord that the Blessings of God might rest upon them all
said You have nothing to do with us to build an House unto our God Ezra 4.2 3. So here ye may see that God's People refused their building with them and their sacrifice And Solomon saith The Sacrifice of the Wicked is an Abomination to the Lord Prov. 15.8 See also Isa 1.11 and chap. 66.3 Solomon also saith Better is a dry Morsel and quietness therewith than an house full of Sacrifices with strife Prov. 17.1 Now let all People Consider what Good your house full of Sacrifices doth with strife when a dry Morsel and Quietness therewith is better And Consider all People If ye live in Wickedness your Sacrifice is an Abomination to the Lord. Again Solomon speaking of the Sacrifice of Fools saith They consider not that they do evil Eccles 5.1 Fools are such as do not walk in the Spirit of God or begin in the Spirit and end in the Flesh like the foolish Galatians for the Spirit of God is the Spirit of Wisdom and Understanding and cannot Join with the Sacrifices of the Dead nor of the Fools nor of the Wicked whose Sacrifice is Abominable who grieve and quench the Spirit of God by which Spirit of God the Spiritual and Righteous offer up Spiritual Sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ The Apostle Paul saith he was the Minister of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles ministring the Gospel of God that the offering up of the Gentiles might be acceptable being sanctified by the Holy Ghost Rom. 15.16 So ye may see that all the acceptable Offerings and Sacrifices to God must be sanctified by the Holy Ghost The same Apostle saith to the Corinthians Ye are bought with a price therefore glorifie God in your Body and in your Spirit which are God's 1 Cor. 6.20 And to the Romans he saith I beseech you Brethren by the Mercies of God that you present your Bodies a living Sacrifice holy acceptable unto God which is your reasonable Service Rom. 12.1 Now this is the duty of all true Christians Peter also saith in his general Epistle to the Church of Christ Ye also as lively stones are built up a spiritual house an holy Priest-hood to offer up spiritual Sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ 1 Pet. 2.5 So every Man and Woman must come to the Spirit of God in their own hearts if they do offer up spiritual Sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ For as Christ saith Every Sacrifice shall be salted with salt Mark 9.49 And in the Old Testament ye may see All their outward Offerings they were to season them with salt Levit. 2.13 a Type and Figure of Christ who gave himself for us an Offering and a Sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savour Ephes 5.2 Therefore all his People must be baptized with the Holy Ghost and with Fire that they may be salted with Fire and every Sacrifice salted with salt with the Spirit of Grace that is poured upon all so that they may offer up this spiritual Sacrifice acceptable to God by Jesus Christ Samuel said to King Saul Hath the Lord as great delight in Burnt-offerings and Sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord behold to obey is better than Sacrifice and to hearken than the fat of Rams 1 Sam. 15.22 So ye may see All Offerings and Sacrifices are nothing if there be not an hearkening to the Lord in his Spirit and an obeying of his voice And Christ told the Jews that were outward Sacrificers that he would have Mercy and not Sacrifice and bid them Go and learn what that meaneth Matth. 9.13 Gooses the 28th of the 2d Month 1687. G. F. The beginning of the Third Month I returned to London London Yearly-Meeting and continued there till after the Yearly-Meeting which began on the sixteenth of the same and was very large Friends having more freedom to come up out of the Countries to it by reason of the general Toleration and Liberty now granted The Meeting lasted several days and at the Close thereof it was upon me to write the following Lines to be dispersed amongst Friends every where as A Word of Counsel and Caution to them to walk circumspectly in this time of Liberty Dear Friends and Brethren in the Lord Jesus Christ THE Lord by his Eternal Arm and Power having supported you in all your Sufferings and great spoiling of Goods and tedious Imprisonments only for serving and worshipping the living God that made you who gave up Wife and Children and Goods and suffered the spoil of them and Imprisonment for his Truth and Name 's sake And now the Lord by his Infinite Power and Mercy having been pleased to open the King's heart towards you by which you are set at Liberty from the Gaols and the Spoilers of your Goods are stopt whereby ye may follow your Callings and Husbandry and confess Christ Jesus and call him Lord by the Holy Ghost in your Assemblies and Meetings without being cast into Gaols or having your Goods spoiled And now Dear Brethren a great Concern lies upon me from the Lord to Write unto you That none may abuse this Liberty nor the Mercies of the Lord but prize them for there is great danger in time of Liberty of getting up and getting into Ease and Looseness and false Liberty And now seeing that ye have not the outward Persecutors to War withal in sufferings with the spiritual Weapons keep down that which would not be subject to Christ that he the Holy One may reign in your hearts So that your Lives Conversations and Words may preach Righteousness and Truth 1687. London Yearly-Meeting That ye may all shew forth good Ensamples of true Believers in Christ in Vertue and Holiness Answering that which may be known of God in all People that ye are the Sons and Daughters of God Standing fast in that righteous holy Liberty in Christ that just and holy One that has made you free over the loose or false shunning the occasions of vain Disputes and foolish Questions of Men of corrupt Minds For the Serpent was the first Questioner of Eve who drew her and Adam out of the Truth Therefore as ye have received Christ all Live and Walk in him who bruises the Serpent's Head who is your safe Sanctuary in whom ye have Election Reconciliation and Peace with God And therefore live in the Peace which ye have from Christ which is not of this World and be at peace one with another and seek the peace of all Men in Christ Jesus for blessed are the Peace-makers And labour to exercise a good Conscience towards God in obedience to him in what he requires and in doing to all Men the thing that is just and honest in your Conversations and Words giving no Offence to Jew nor Gentile nor to the Church of God So that ye may be as a City set on God's Sion-Hill which cannot be hid and may be Lights to the dark World that they may see your good Fruits and Works Righteous and
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
together in the Name of Jesus and Serving and Worshipping God their Creator No they must not Breathe in their Natural Air neither Natural nor Spiritual in your Dominions I pray where had you these Commands from neither from Christ nor his Apostles And do not you profess the Scriptures of the New Testament to be your Rule but I pray you what Scripture have you for this your practice It is good for you to be Humble and do Justly and love Mercy and Call home your Banished and Love them and Cherish them yea though they were your Enemies you are to obey the Command of Christ and Love them I wonder how you and your Wives and Families can sleep quietly in your Beds that do such Cruel Actions without thinking the Lord may do to you the same Yout cannot be without Sense and Feeling except you be given over to Reprobation without Sense and Feeling and your Consciences seared with a hot Iron But Christian Charity doth hope that you are not all in that state but that there may be some Relenting or Consideration of your Actions among some of you either according to the Law of God or his Gospel From him that desires your Temporal and Eternal Good and Salvation and not Destruction Amen Middlesex the 28th of the 2d Month 1688. G. F. Peter Thou may'st Translate this into High-Dutch and send them and you may print it if you will and spread it abroad and Translate that part of the Letter that is to Friends into High-Dutch and send to them Having stay'd in the Country about Three Weeks 1689. London Yearly-Meeting I return'd to London a little before the Yearly-Meeting which was in the Third Month this Year and was a very Solemn Weighty Meeting the Lord as formerly visiting his People and honouring the Assembly with his glorious Presence to the great Satisfaction and Comfort of Friends After the Business of the Meeting was over it was upon me to add a few Lines to the Epistle which went from the Meeting to Friends after this manner Dear Friends and Brethren WHO have known the Lord's Eternal Arm and Power that hath preserved you upon the heavenly Rock and Foundation and hath built your House upon it you have known many Winds Tempests and Storms that have risen out of that Sea where the Beast rose and many raging Storms that have risen by Apostates of several sorts but the Seed that bruises the Serpent's head and is the Foundation of God's People stands sure And therefore Dear Friends and Brethren though there be great Shakings in the World the Lord's Power is over all and his Kingdom cannot be shaken And therefore all ye Children of God Children of the Light and Heirs of his Kingdom a Joyful Peaceable Habitation keep in keeping out of all the Heats Contentions and Disputes about things below And Lay hand on no man nor no thing suddenly lest they should be puffed up with that which fades and so come to loss but mind the Lord's Power that keeps open your heavenly Eye to see things present and to come and in that ye will see and handle the Word of Life And Dear Friends every where Have power over your own Spirits As God hath blessed you with his Outward things have a care of Trusting in them or falling into Difference one with another about these Outward Things that are below which will pass away But all live in the Love of God and in that live in peace with God and one with another And follow the Works of Charity and overcome the Evil with the Good to all For what Good have all the Tinklers done with their Cymbals and sounding Brass They always bred Confusion and never did Good in any Age Tinkling with their Cymbals and sounding with their Brass to draw out the Simple to follow them And therefore it is good for all the Children of God to keep in their Possessions of Life and in the Love of God that is Everlasting And as for all the Tumults of the World and the Apostates from the Truth the Lord's Power is over them all and Christ reigns and the Lord saith No Weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper Isa 54.17 And now Friends you are not unsensible how many Weapons have been formed against us who are the Sons and Daughters of God and the Lord hath restrained them according to his Promise they have not prospered And the Lord said Every Tongue that shall rise up in Judgment against thee thou shalt Condemn so God hath given such a Power to his Children to Condemn all the Tongues that shall rise up in Judgment against them and this is the Heritage of the Servants of the Lord Their Righteousness is of me saith the Lord. And you are not unsensible of the many Tongues that have risen up against us in Judgment yea of Apostates and Prophane But in and with the Truth and the Power of God according to the Promise of God Every Tongue that riseth against thee thou shalt Condemn So it is not one Tongue only thou shalt Condemn but Every Tongue that shall rise up in Judgment against thee thou shalt Condemn So the Lord giveth this Power to his Servants and Children to judge the Evil Tongues and he doth restrain the Weapons formed against them so that they shall not prosper against his Children that he hath begotten Praises and Honour be to his holy Name for ever Amen G. F. Soon after this Meeting was over the Yearly Meeting began at York which because of the Largeness of that County and for the Conveniency of Friends in the Northern parts had for some Years been held there And inasmuch as there had been some Hurt done in that place as some Division made there by some that were gone out of the Vnity of Friends It was upon me to write a few Lines to Friends of that Meeting to Exhort them to keep in the pure heavenly Love which brings into and keeps in the true Unity And that which I writ was thus Dear Friends and Brethren in Christ Jesus WHom the Lord by his Eternal Arm and Power hath preserved to this day all walk in the Power and Spirit of God that is over all in Love and Vnity For Love overcomes and builds up and unites all the Members of Christ to him the Head for Love keeps out of all strife and is of God And Love and Charity never fails but keeps the Mind above all outward things or strife about outward things and is that which overcomes Evil and casts out all false Fears And it is of God and unites all the hearts of his People together in the heavenly Joy Concord and Unity The God of Love preserve you all and settle and establish you in Christ Jesus your Life and Salvation in whom ye have all Peace with God And so Walk in him that ye may be ordered in his peaceable heavenly Wisdom to the Glory of God and the Comfort one of another
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
by which you will feel his blessed and refreshing Presence among you and in you to your Comfort and God's Glory And now all Friends All your Meetings both Mens and Womens Monthly and Quarterly and Yearly c. were set up by the Power and Spirit and Wisdom of God and in them you do know that you have felt both his Power and Spirit and Wisdom and blessed refreshing Presence among you and in you to his Praise and Glory and your Comfort So that you have been a City set on a Hill that cannot be hid And although many loose and unruly Spirits have risen betimes to Oppose you and them both in Print and other ways but you have seen how they have come to Nought and the Lord hath blasted them and brought their Deeds to Light and made them Manifest to be the Trees without Fruit and Wells without Water and Wandering Stars from the Firmament of God's Power and the Raging Waves of the Sea casting up their Mire and Dirt And many of them are like the Dog turn'd to his Old Vomit and the Sow that was washed turned again to the Mire And this hath been the Condition of many God knoweth and his People And therefore all to stand Stedfast in Christ Jesus your Head in whom you are all one Male and Female and know his Government and of the Encrease of his Government and Peace there shall be no End but there will be an End of the Devil 's and of all them that be out of Christ and do Oppose it and him whose Judgment doth not linger and their Damnation doth not slumber And therefore in God and Christ's Light Life Spirit and Power live and walk that is over all and the Seed of it in Love and in Innocency and Simplicity and in Righteousness and Holiness dwell and in his Power and Holy Ghost in which God's Kingdom doth stand All Children of New and Heavenly Jerusalem that is from above and is free with all her Holy Spiritual Children To her keep your Eyes And as for this Spirit of Rebellion and Opposition that hath risen formerly and lately it is out of the Kingdom of God and Heavenly Jerusalem and is for Judgment and Condemnation with all its Books Words and Works And therefore Friends are to live and walk in the Power and Spirit of God that is over it and in the Seed that will bruise and break it to pieces In which Seed you have Joy and Peace with God and Power and Authority to Judge it and your Unity is in the Power and Spirit of God that doth Judge it and all God's Witnesses in his Tabernacle go out against it and always have and will And let no Man live to Self but to the Lord as they will die in him and seek the Peace of the Church of Christ and the Peace of all Men in him for Blessed are the Peace-makers And dwell in the pure peaceable Heavenly Wisdom of God that is Gentle and Easie to be entreated that is full of Mercy all striving to be of one Mind Heart Soul and Judgment in Christ having his Mind and Spirit dwelling in you building up one another in the Love of God which doth edifie the Body of Christ his Church who is the holy Head thereof So Glory to God through Christ in this Age and all other Ages who is the Rock and Foundation and the Emanuel God with us Amen over all the Beginning and the Ending in him Live and Walk in whom you have Life Eternal in whom you will feel me and I you All Children of New Jerusalem that descends from above the Holy City which the Lord and the Lamb is the Light thereof and is the Temple in it they are born again of the Spirit So Jerusalem that is above is the Mother of them that are born of the Spirit And so they that come and are come to Heavenly Jerusalem are them that receive Christ and he giveth them Power to become the Sons of God and are born again of the Spirit So Jerusalem that is their Mother And such do come to Heavenly Mount Sion and the innumerable Company of Angels and to the Spirits of just Men made perfect and are come to the Church of the Living God written in Heaven and have the Name of God and the City of God written upon them So here is a New Mother that bringeth forth a Heavenly and a Spiritual Generation There is no Schism nor Division nor Contention nor Strife in Heavenly Jerusalem nor in the Body of Christ which is made up of living Stones a Spiritual House And Christ is not divided for in him there is Peace Christ saith In me you have Peace And he is from above and not of this World but in the World below in the Spirit of it there is Trouble therefore keep in Christ and walk in him Amen G. F. And Jerusalem was the Mother of all the true Christians before the Apostacy and since the outward Christians are broken into many Sects and they have gotten many Mothers But all they that are come out of the Apostacy by the Power and Spirit of Christ Jerusalem that is above is their Mother and none below her who doth nourish all her Spiritual Children Read at the Yearly-Meeting in London 1691. G. F. Reader please to note That these following Papers and Epistles some of which being mention'd in the Journal page 452 c. and there omitted are found meet to be here inserted and are as followeth A Warning to the Magistrates and People of the City of Oldenborg Friends HAve you not seen and felt the Judgments of God upon your City the Lord sending Lightning from Heaven Amsterdam that destroy'd and burnt it And as I passed thorow your City on a First-day of the Week which you call your Sabbath To pag. 448 I saw some drinking and Soldiers playing at Shuffle-board and others with their Shops open and Trading when they should have been Waiting upon God and Worshipping him And your People were light and vain without any sense of God's Judgments or Repentance O therefore Repent lest the All-seeing God who sees all your Actions and is over all do bring swift Judgment upon you in his Wrath and Fury and Indignation And so Repent and lay away all manner of Evil and Wickedness and Ungodliness and Vnrighteousness for the Day of the Lord will come upon all that do Evil and the Workers of Iniquity and this mighty Day of the Lord will find them all out and will burn as an Oven and burn up all the Proud and Wicked and neither leave them Root nor Branch And therefore all ye Magistrates Priests and People search in your selves to find out the Cause and what Wickedness and Evil it has been you have Committed that has brought the Wrath and Vengeance and Judgments of God upon you and upon your City in burning of it And therefore all Return and come to the Light of Christ in your hearts
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
House When thou seest the Naked that thou cover him and that thou hide not thy self from thy own Flesh Do you keep this true Fast Then shall thy Light break forth as the Morning and thine Health shall spring forth speedily and thy Righteousness shall go before thee the Glory of the Lord shall be thy Re-reward Then shalt thou call and the Lord shall Answer thou shalt cry and he shall say here I am If thou take away from the midst of thee the Yokes the putting forth of the Finger and speaking Vanity And if thou draw out thy Soul to the Hungry and satisfie the afflicted Soul then shall thy Light arise out of obscurity and thy Darkness be as the Noon-day And the Lord shall guide thee continually and satisfie thy Soul in drought and make fat thy Bones and thou shalt be like a watered Garden and like a Spring of Water whose Waters fail not c. Now here is the practice of the true Fast the Lord requires of his People and they that observe this Fast the Lord saith When they call he will Answer And you may see what glorious and happy Comforts they do receive from the Lord that keep this true Fast but such as fast for Strife and Debate and smite with the fists of Wickedness to make their Voices to be heard on high and afflict their Souls for a day and bow down their Head as a Bull-rush and looses not the Bands of Wickedness and does not undo every heavy Burden and break off every Yoke and let the Oppressed go free and does not deal his Bread to the Hungry and clothe the Naked and bring the Poor to his House but hides himself from his own Flesh and cloaths not the Naked Such Fasts and Fasters the Lord doth not accept neither hath he chosen them But these appear to Men with their disfigured Faces and hanging down their Heads as a Bull-rush for a Day like the Hypocrites to fast as Christ speaks of in Matth. 6. And is it not the Command of Christ that in their Fast they should not appear unto Men to Fast And now you that would force us to shut up our Shops on Fasting-days or for a Day does not this Fast appear to Men and is not this the Fast that the Lord saith in Isaiah he doth not accept for he saith Is this the Fast that I have chosen a Day for a Man to afflict his Soul and bow down his Head as a Bull-rush c. Wilt thou call this a Fast and an acceptable Day to the Lord Isai 58. And therefore all God's People are to keep the true Fast of the Lord from Debate and Strife and the Fists of Wickedness and that Fast that breaks the Bands of Wickedness and undoes every heavy Burden and breaks every Yoke and lets the Oppressed go free and deals Bread to the Hungry and cloaths the Naked and brings the Poor that are cast out to his own House So every one that keeps this true Fast their Health shall grow and when they Call the Lord will hear them and the Lord will be their Guide continually and satisfie their Souls in drought and make their Bones fat and shall be like a watered Garden and like a Spring of Water whose Waters fail not Now you that keep not this true Fast when you call upon the Lord on your own Fasting-days does the Lord Answer you and say Here I am doth the Lord guide you continually and is your Bones made fat by him and your Souls satisfied in drought and are you like a watered Garden and like a Spring whose Waters fail not But you that keep not this true Fast do you not want these Waters which fail not so your Souls are not satisfied in drought but your Bones are lean and you hear not the Voice of the Lord who saith Here I am and so you lose the Heritage of Jacob and ride not upon the High-places there but come under And therefore every Man and Woman shut your hearts against all manner of Evil whatsoever and trade not with Babylon's Merchants of Confusion but keep the Supernatural Day of Christ that is sprung from on high that is by believing and walking in the Light of Christ and being grafted into him and this will bring you to the true Fast from feeding upon any Evil and to the true praying in the Spirit as Christ and the Apostles have taught which Fruits of the Spirit is Love c. which Birth of the Spirit is not a persecuting Birth But he that is born of the Flesh will persecute him that is born of the Spirit because he will not follow the Birth of the Flesh with its weak beggarly Elements that entangles with its Yoke of Bondage and its observing of Days Months Times Fasts Feasts and Years which the Birth of the Spirit is to stand fast against in the Liberty wherewith Christ hath made it free And do you not know that the very Turks keep their Sabbath on the Sixth Day and the Jews upon the Seventh Day and the Christians meet together on the First Day of the Week And that Day which the Turks keep the Jews and Christians Shops are open and that Day the Jews keep Christians and Turks Shops are open and the First-Days that the Christians keep both Jews and Turks Shops are open and so the Turk does not force the Jews nor the Christians to shut up their Shops on their Meeting-Days but lets them have their Liberty in the Turks Country And where do you read that ever the Turks forced any Christians to observe any of their Holy-Days or Fasts or Feasts And if not should not Christians be beyond the Turks in giving Liberty to all tender Consciences to serve God seeing Christ and the Apostles command not nor force People to observe Holy-Days or Times or Months or Years but should Pray always in the Spirit and Fast always from Strife and Debate from all manner of Sin and Evil and that will keep down the Fist of Wickedness and the Bond of Iniquity c. And why should not People that be of a tender Conscience have their Liberty to exercise their Consciences towards God that they may have a good Conscience always towards God and Man to that which God requires and to do unto all Men as they would have them to do unto them and to love their Neighbours as themselves seeing that there are so many debauched evil and seared Consciences as with an hot Iron have the Liberty in their loose Lives and Conversations and in their loose Words whose Tongues are at Liberty to Swear and Curse and their Spirits are at Liberty in Drunkenness and Uncleanness So let the Magistrates look and see how this evil seared Conscience hath its Liberty to be Exercised in all manner of evil things yea all Christendom over which is a great shame and dishonour to God and Christ and Christianity yea and Humanity And therefore why should not God's People have
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
therefore all are to stand fast in him as they have received him for in him there is peace who is the Prince of Peace but in the World there is Trouble For the Spirit of the World is a Troublesome Spirit but the Spirit of Christ is a Peaceable Spirit and in it God Almighty preserve all the Faithful Amen Gooses the 1st of the 2d Month 1690. G. F. Another Paper that I writ while I was here was concerning the Ensign which Isaiah prophesied the Lord should set up for the Gentiles which I shewed was Christ. Of that Paper this which follows is a Copy THE Lord saith They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy Mountain for the Earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the Waters cover the Sea Isa 11.9 And in that day there shall be a Root of Jesse which shall stand for an Ensign of the People to it shall the Gentiles seek and his Rest shall be glorious ver 10. And he shall reign over the Gentiles and in him shall the Gentiles trust Rom. 15.12 This Ensign is Christ which was prophesied of by the Prophet which Prophecy the Apostle who was a Minister to the Gentiles sheweth was fulfilled in the New Testament And in this Day of Christ Isaiah saith The Lord shall set his hand again the second time to Recover the Remnant of his People which shall be left from Assyria and from Egypt c. And he shall set up an Ensign for the Nations and shall assemble the Outcasts of Israel and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four Corners of the Earth ver 11 12. This is in the Day of Christ and his Gospel of Life and Salvation which is preached to every Creature under Heaven who Enlighteneth every Man that cometh into the World both Jews and Gentiles that by his heavenly divine Light they may see Christ their Ensign and Captain of their Salvation So Christ is one Ensign both to the Jews and Gentiles And Isaiah saith The Redeemer shall come to Sion c. Isa 59.20 And This is my Covenant with them saith the Lord my Spirit that is upon thee to wit Christ and my Words which I have put in thy Mouth shall not depart out of thy Mouth nor out of the Mouth of thy Seed nor out of the Mouth of thy Seed's Seed saith the Lord from hence-forth and for ever ver 21. Arise shine for thy Light is come and the Glory of the Lord is risen upon thee Chap. 60.1 And the Gentiles shall come to thy Light ver 3. And the abundance of the Sea shall be converted unto thee ver 5. the Sea is the World The Lord shall be thy everlasting Light ver 20. And Thou shalt call thy Walls Salvation and thy Gates Praise ver 18. And the Lord saith I will make the place of my Feet glorious ver 13. Heaven is his Throne and Earth is his Footstool Chap 66.1 And he that puts his trust in me saith the Lord shall possess the Land and shall inherit my holy Mountain Chap. 57.13 Which Mountain is Established above all the Mountains and Hills Isa 2.2 The Lord saith speaking of Christ I have put my Spirit upon him he shall bring forth Judgment to the Gentiles Isa 42.1 And he saith of him I will give thee for a Covenant of the People for a Light of the Gentiles To open the blind Eyes to bring out the Prisoners from the Prison and them that sit in Darkness out of the Prison-house I am the Lord that is my Name and my Glory will I not give to another neither my Praise to graven Images ver 6 7 8. So Christ the Light is come and the Glory of the Lord is risen and the Gentiles are come to the Light of Christ and this Prophesie of Isaiah concerning Christ many of the Gentiles witness fulfilled that Salvation is come to the Gentiles Rom. 11.11 And God gave his Glory to his Son And Christ saith The Glory which thou gavest me I have given them namely his Believers and Followers that they may be one even as we are one John 17.22 Now here you may see how the Promises and Prophecies are fulfilled in Christ Jesus whom God hath given for an Ensign both to the Jews and Gentiles and the Captain of their Salvation and he doth enlighten every one that cometh into the World that with his heavenly divine Light they might see Christ the Lord from Heaven their Captain and Ensign and trust in him who is their Conqueror who bruises the Serpent's head and destroys the Devil and his Works And Christ and his Followers overcome the Dragon Beast and false Prophet And therefore all Jews Gentiles and Christians that come to believe in Christ are to stand to their Ensign Christ who is also the Captain of their Salvation who is above all Ensigns and Captains below For he is from above and therefore all are to trust in him for he is certain and able to save to the utmost c. and is the same Ensign and Captain to day as he was yesterday and so for ever the First and Last the Beginning and Ending and Lord of all Lords and King of all Kings upon the Earth and there is nothing certain to be trusted in below Christ Jesus who is from above You see in the Scriptures there were many Ways and Religions among the Heathen as there were many Sects among the Jews when Christ came And now there are many Sects or Religions among the Christians who believe from the Scriptures that he is come as the Jews believed he was to come But they that close their Eyes and stop their Ears to the Light of Christ they are not like to see Christ who hath enlightened them to be their Ensign and the Captain of their Salvation that see not with the heavenly Eye nor hear with the heavenly Ear to see and hear their heavenly Ensign and Captain of their Salvation to convert them and heal them that they might follow him and be of his holy Camp and be his heavenly Soldiers to whom he gives spiritual Arms and Armour the Helmet of Salvation the Breast-plate of Righteousness the Armour of Light and the Shield of Faith which will quench all the fiery Darts of Satan and give Victory and the Sword of the Spirit the Word of God which shall cut and hammer down and burn up all the Strong holds of Satan Also he cloatheth his Soldiers with fine Linnen white and clean his Righteousness and shooeth them with the everlasting Gospel of Peace the Power of God which Cloths and Shooes will never wax Old And all that are shod with the Everlasting Gospel the Power of God they will never wax Old but will stand all Storms and Tempests in the World And they that are shod with the Gospel the Power of God can in it tread upon Serpents Vipers and Scorpions and all the venemous Beasts upon the Earth and all the Thorns Briars Brambles