made our usual Inquiry viz. who was worthy in the City and found some that tenderly and lovingly received us to whom we declared the Visitation of the Light and Love of God Among the rest was Dureus our Countryman a Man of Seventy Seven Years of Age who had learned in good Measure to forget his Learning School Divinity and Priest's Craft and for his approaches towards an inward Principle is reproachfully saluted by some with the honest Title of Quaker 't is much better than Papist Lutheran or Calvinist who are not only ignorant of but Enemies to Quaking and Trembling at the Word of the Lord as Moses and others did Upon the Sixth day of the same week about Noon we set out towards Franckfort having left several Books behind us which hath been our Practice in our Journey At Franckfort we Arrived the Second day about Noon being just a Week from Herwerden and having from thence and Cassel made known our intentions of coming to that City two considerable Persons came and met us about half a German Mile from the City informing us of several well affected in that Town upon which we told them the end of our coming and desired to have a Meeting with them in the Afternoon which we easily obtained at the House of a Merchant one of the two that met us The persons that resorted thither were generally People of considerable Note both of Calvinists and Lutherans and we can say they received us with gladness of Heart and embraced our Testimony with a broken and reverent Spirit thanking God for our coming amongst them and praying that he would prosper this work in our Hands this ingaged our hearts to make some longer stay in this City We therefore desired another Meeting the next day which they cheerfully assented to where several came that were not with us the day before and the Lord that sent us into the Land was with us and by his Power reached to them insomuch that they confessed to the Truth of our Testimony Of these Persons there were two Women one a Virgin the other a Widow both Noble of Birth who had a deep Sense of that power and presence of God that accompanied our Testimony and their hearts yearned strongly towards us the Virgin giving us a particular invitation to her House the next Morning where we had the most blessed Opportunity of the three for the Lord's power so eminently appeared that not only those that had been with us before were most effectually reacht but a certain Student residing in the House of a Lutheran Minister sent for by that Young Woman was broken to pieces and magnified that blessed power which appeared Also there accidentally came in a Doctor of Physick who unexpectedly was affected and confessed to the Truth praying God to prosper us This was the blessed Issue of our Visit to Franckfort But there is one thing more not unfit to be mentioned Among some of those that have Inclinations after God a fearful Spirit together with the shame of the Cross hath entred against which our Testimony in part striking we took Notice it was as Life to these noble Women for that was it as they told us which had long opprest them and obstructed the work of the Lord amongst them Therefore said the Young Virginour Quarters are free for you let all come that will come and lift up your Voices without fear for said she it will never be well with us till Persecution come and some of us be lodged in the Stadthouse that is the Prison We left the Peace of Jesus with them and the same Afternoon we departed out of that City being the fourth day of the week Here I writ an Epistle to the Churches of Jesus TO THE CHURCHES OF JESUS Throughout the WORLD Gathered and settled in his Eternal Light Power and Spirit to be one Holy Flock Family and Houshold to the Lord who hath Redeemed them from among all the Kindreds of the Earth Godly Zeal Wisdom Power Perseverance and Victory with all Heavenly Blessings be multiplied among you in the Name of the Lord. William Penn. Printed in the Year 1677. TO THE CHURCHES OF JESUS Throughout the VVORLD Gathered and settled in his Eternal Light Power and Spirit to be One Holy Flock Family and Houshold to the Lord c. Dear Friends and Brethren WHO have been visited with the Fatherly Visitation from on High and have received God's Eternal Word and Testament in your Hearts by which you have been gathered home to Christ Jesus the true Shepherd from all the Idol-Shepherds and their barren Mountains and unprofitable Hills where you have been scattered in the Dark and Gloomy Day of Apostacy and by hiâ— Light Spirit and Power have been convinced of Sin Righteousness and Judgment and can say The Prince of thiâ— World is judged by his Holy Righteous and powerful Appearance in you untâ— whom all Judgment in Heaven and Earth is committed who is the blessed Lamâ— of God the Light and Saviour of the World who is King of Salem and Prince of Peace My Soul loves you with everlasting Love even with the Love with which my God and your God my Father and your Father hath loved me and visited my Soul and your Souls in this do I dearly salute and embrace you all in this the day of the fullfilling of his glorious Promises to his Church in the Wilderness and Witnesses in Sack-cloth And O magmagnified be his Name and everlastingly praised and renowned be his holy Power and Arm by which he hath reached unto us and brought Salvation near us For he hath found us out and hath heard our Solitary Cries the deep and mournful Supplications of our bowed Spirits when we were as the â—ittle silly Dove without its Mate and â—he lonely Pelican in the Wilderness when we were ready to cry out Is â—here none to save is there none to help O when shall the Time and Times and half a Time be finisht when shall the One Thousand Two Hundred and Sixty Days be accomplisht and when shall the Abomination that stands in the Holy Place â—â—e cast out when shall the Captivity of the People be turned back O when shall Babylon come into Remembrance before God the Dragon Beast and False Prophet be cast into the Lake And when shall the Law go forth out of Sion and the Word of the Lord out of Jerusalem When shall Sion become the Joy and Jerusalem the Praise of the whole Earth And when shall the Earth be covered with the Knowledge of the Lord as the Waâ—ers cover the Sea Friends The Lord of Heaven and Earth hath heard our Cries and the full time is come yea the appointed time is come and the Voice of the Eâ—ernal Spirit in our Hearts hath been And Friends let it never pass out of our remembrance what our God hath done for us since he hath made us a People Hath any Weapon formed against us prospered hath he
where De Labadie's Company resideth it being strong upon my Spirit to give them a Visit We got thither about 5 and as we were walking over a Field to the House we met a young Man of that Company who conducted us in I askt for Ivon the Pastor and Anna Maria Schurmans Ivon presently came with his Co-pastor who received us very civilly however they seemed shy of letting me speak with A. M. S. objecting her Weakness Age taking Physick c. but putting them in mind how unhandsomely I was used at Herwerden six Years a-go by de Labadie their Father who though I came a great Journy to visit him and his People suffered me not to speak with them they presently complied and went in to let her know that such a Person desired to speak with her and quickly returned desiring me to come in But fore-seeing my time would be too short for my Message the Sun being near setting and having 2 English Miles of unknown way to our Lodging on foot desired them that they would give an Opportunity the next Morning which they readily complied with So I took my leave of them who in a Friendly manner brought us a little on our way That night a great weight was upon my Spirit and especially the next Morning yet my Faith was in the power of God and I had a plain sight that I should have a good service among them however I should clear my Conscience and my Peace should rest with me The next Morning I returned to them and John Claus along with me so soon as we came we were brought into A.M. Shurman's Chamber where also was with her one of the three Somerdikes This A. M. S. aforesaid is an ancient Maid above 60 Years of Age of great Note and Fame for Learning in Languages and Philosophy and hath obtained a considerable place among the most learned Men of this Age. The Somerdikes are Daughters to a Noble-man of the Hague people of great Breeding and Inheâ—â—â—ances These with several other Persons being affected with the zealous Declamation of de Labadie against the dead and formal Churches of the World and awakened to seek after a more spiritual Fellowship and Society separated themselves from the common Calvinist Churches and followed him in the way of a refined Independency They are a serious plain People and are come nearer to Friends as in Silence in Meetings Women-speaking Preaching by the Spirit Plainness in Garb and Furniture in their Houses than formerly and more than any other People I know With these two we had the Company of the two Pastors and a Doctor of Physick After some silence I proposed this Question to them What was it that induced them to separate from the common Way they formerly lived in I desired them that they would be pleased to be plain and open with me as to the ground of their separation for I came not to cavil but in the Christian Spirit to be informed Upon this Ivon the chief Pastoâ— gave us the History of de Labadie'â— Education how he was bred among the Jesuites and Deserted them and embraced the Protestant Religion and finally of his great Satisfaction with the Protestant Churches of France and that if God would not give them a purer Church they three would set down by themselves resolving never more to mix themselves among the Babylonish Assemblies of the World adding several solemn Appeals concerning the Simplicity and Integrity of their Hearts in these things Ivon having done A. M. Shurmans began in this manner I find my self constrained to add a short Testimony She told us of her former life of her pleasure in Learning and her love to the Religion she was brought up in but she confessed she knew not God or Christ all that while and though from a Child God had visited her at times yet she never felt such a powâ—rful Stroke as by the Ministry of de Labadie She saw her learning to be vanity and her Religion like a Body of Death she resolved to despise the Shame desert her former way of Living and Acquaintance and to join her self with this little Family that was retired out of the World among whom she desired to be found a living Sacrifice offer'd up entirely to the Lord. She spoke in a very serious and broken Sense not without some trembling These are but short hints of what she said After she had done One of the Somerdikes began in a very reverent and weighty frame of Mind and in a Sense that very well suited her Contempt of the World She told us how often she had mourned from her young Years because she did not know the Lord as she desired often saying within her self If God would make known to me his Way I would trample upon all the Pride and Glory of the World She earnestly exprest the frequent Anguish of Spirit she had because of the Deadness and Formality of the Christians she was bred among saying to her self O the Pride O the Lusts O the vain pleasures in which Christians live Can thiâ— be the way to Heaven Is this the way to Glory Are these followers of Christ O no! O God Where is thy little Flock Where is thy little Family that will live intirely to thee that will follow thee Make me one of that number and when the Servant of the Lord de Labadie came into Holland I among others had a curiosity to hear him and among several others was deeply affected by him He spoke the very Thoughts of my heart me-thought my heart was pricked when I heard him and I resolved by the grace of God to abandon all the Glory and Pride of this World to be one of those that should set down with him in a separation from the vain and dead Worships of this World I count my self happy that I ever met with him and these Pastors who seek not themselves but the Lord and we are a Family that live together in love of one Soul and one Spirit intirely given up to serve the Lord and this is the greatest Joy in the World After her du Lignon the other Pastor gave us also an account of his Inducement to embrace J. de Labadie but not so lively After him the Doctor of Physick that had been bred for a Priest but voluntarily refused that Calling exprest himself after this manner I can also bear my Testimony in the presence of God that tho I lived in as much Reputation at the University as any of my Collegues or Companions and was well reputed for Sobriety and Honesty yet I never felt such a living sense of God as when I heard the Servant of the Lord de Labadie adding The first Day I heard him I was so struck and affected that I can truly say through the good Grace of God and the Conduct of the Holy Spirit it was to me as the Day of my Salvation he did so lovingly touch my heart with the sense of the true
AN ACCOUNT OF W. Penn ' s TRAVAILS IN HOLLAND and GERMANY Anno MDCLXXVII For the Service of the Gospel of Christ by way of Journal Containing also Divers Letters and Epistles writ to several Great and Eminent Persons whilst there London Printed and Sold by T. Sowle near the Meeting-House in White-Hart-Court in Grace-Church-Street and at the Croked-Billet in Holy-well-lane near Shoreditch 1694. THE Preface to the Reader THis Ensuing Journal of my Travils in Holland and Germany in the Service of the Gospel of my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ was written for my own and some Relations and perticular Friends Satisfaction as the long time it hath lain silent doth show But a Copy that was found amongst the late Countess of Connaway's Papers falling into the Hands of a Person that much frequented that Family he was earnest with me both by himself and others to have leave to Publish it for a Common Good Which upon perusal I have found a willingness to comply with hoping that the Lord will make the Reading of it Effectual to some into whose Hands it may Fall as well those who have received a Dispensation of the same Ministry for Their Encouragement in their Publick Service for God as those who are under the same Ministry unto Zeal and Faithfulness For it is the Glorious Gospel-Day in which God is Exalting his Dear Son as Prophet Priest and King in the Hearts of his People Oh that the Nations would hear him their only Saving Health and Israels great Shepherd who takes care of his Sheep that hear his Voice and gives unto them that follow him in the daily Cross unto Regeneration Eternal Life And who hath sent and is sending forth his Servants to gather home the Sheep that are gone astray in all Nations that so there may be but One Shepherd and One Sheepfold according to the Glorious Promise made to these latter Times In which he would be the Teacher of his People himself For he is Teaching thousands by the Light Spirit and Grace of his Son Christ in whom he is well pleased To this God hath sent forth his Servants in this Day to turn all People as God's Call and Visitation to the Nations And blessed are all those that Hearken to this Testimony both Mediately and Immediately For God is awakening Men to the Knowledge of his Glory in the Face or Appearance of Christ by his Spirit in their Hearts and Consciences which reveal to Men the Father yea the deep things of God Oh that they would Hear and Fear and Learn the things that make for their Eternal Peace For if the Righteous scarcely are saved where O where shall they appear that neglect so great Salvation A Salvation that comes so neer them as to knock at the door of their Hearts that teaches them and trys their Reins and tells unto them their most inward Thoughts and brings a Time of Judgment over all their Words and Works This is Christ Jesus the Light of the World that was given of God for Salvation to the ends of the Earth He has Enlightned all and Shines to all and Calls all that they should see their Sins and be sorry for them and forsake them and take up his dayly Cross and follow him whom God hath given for an Example as well as a Propitiation for our Sins And none can know him to be their Propitiation that rejest him as their Example and Leader in their Lives and Conversations Wherefore Reader be Serious Inward and Inquisitive for thy Souls Sake What Faith hast thou One that over-comes the World or one that the Spirit of the World over-comes which is not the Faith of God's Elect without which we cannot please God For that Faith works by love Such a love to God as will not affend him but seeks his Glory through a most willing Obedience to his Holy Will Blessed are the Souls in which this love dwells For such have none in Heaven but God nor in the Earth in comparison of him As they receive all good from him so they resign all up to him and tho' it be through many Tribulations that they must attain the rest of God yet as nothing can seperate them from his love so neither can anything deprive them of their Reward in the End Wherefore Reader be thou perswaded to take thy Lot among that blessed Number if thou art not yet one of them Thou seest the way to that Divine Priviledge walk in it for the End Crowns all If one of that number that have chosen God for their Portion be Diligent Zealous and fervent in the Work and Service of God Redeem thy Time and Run thy Race with care and constancy looking to Jesus the Author that he may be the Finisher of thy Faith Remember who said there are many Mansions prepared for the Faithful Do we beleive and look for another World Let us not then live in this as if there were no other Let our Eyes be upon our better World and live here as Strangers that are but on our way to our Eternal Home that so we may Answer the End of God's Love by working out the Salvation of our own Souls by his Power with fear and Trembling knowing God will Judge all by Christ Jesus according to the Deeds done in the Body Reader this Journal is of a Religious Voyage and has some passages in it that may Engage thy Soul to Seriousness and let the see how Good God is to those that go of his Holy Errands May'st thou be heartily affected with this Testimony of his Love and Presence with his People and feel good desires raised in thee to serve the Lord also according to his blessed will in thy day that Peace thou may'st know to thy Soul when time here shall be no more I am Thy assured Friend in the best Things W. Penn. AN ACCOUNT OF MY JOURNEY INTO Holland and Germany BEING the First Day of the Week I left my Dear Wife and Family at Worminghurst in Sussex in the Fear and Love of God and came well to London that Night The next day I Emploied my self on Friends behalf that were in Sufferings till the Evening and then went to my own Mothers in Essex The next Morning I took my Journey to Colchester and met George Wats of London upon the Way who returned with me and came well to that Town that Evening We lodged at John Furly's the Elder but had a Blessed Meeting at Jonathan Furly's House that Night The next Morning early I left Colchester and came to Harwich about Nine accompanied with George Wats and John Furly the Elder William Tallcoat and J. Whiterly of Colchester where we found dear G. F. at J. Vanderwall's House with many more Friends After Dinner we went all to the Meeting where the Lord gave us a Blessed Earnest of his Love ' and Presence that should be with us in this Voyage for his overcoming refreshing Power did open all
admonish their Brother or Sister before they tell the Church and it is desired of all that before they publickly complain they so wait in the Power of God to feel if there is no more required of them to their Brother or Sister before they expose him or her to the Church Let this be weightily considered 8. And farther when the Church is told and the party admonisht by the Church again and again and he or she remain still unsensible or unreconciled let not final Judgment go forth against him or her till every one of the Meeting hath cleared his or her Conscience that if any thing be insisted upon any farther to visit such a Transgressour they may clear themselves if possibly the party may he reacht and saved and after all clear of the Blood of such an one Let the Judgments of Friends in the Power of God go forth against him or her as moved for the Lord's Honour and Glory's Sake that no reproach may come or rest upon God's Holy Name Truth and People 9. As much as possible can be let all Difference be ended by some honest Friends and trouble not the Monthly or Quarterly Meetings with them and if that will not doe proceed to your particular Monthly Meetings but if they be not there ended neither then take aside six honest Friends out of the Quarterly Meeting and let them hear and determine the matter and in case any Person or Persons be so obstinate as that they refuse the Sense and Love of Friends and will not comply with them then to proceed towards them according to the way of Truth in such Cases 10. That all such as behold their Brother or Sister in a Transgression go not in a Rough Light or upbraiding Spirit to reprove or admonish him or her but in the Power of the Lord and Spirit of the Lamb in the Wisdom and Love of the Truth which suffereth thereby to admonish such an Offender so may the Soul of such a Brother or Sister be seasonably and effectually reach'd unto and overcome and have cause to bless the Name of the Lord on their behalf and so a blessing may be rewarded into the Bosom of the Faithful and tender Brother or Sister that so admonisheth 11. And be it known unto all we cast out none from among us for if they go from the Light and Spirit and Power in which our Unity is they cast out themselves and it has been our way to admonish them that they may come to the Spirit and Light of God which they are gone from and so come into the Unity again Foâ— our Fellowship standeth in the Light that the World hateth and in the Spirit that the World grieveth vexeth and quencheth and if they will not hear our Admonitions the Light condemneth them and then goeth our Testimony out against them 12. That no Condemnation is to go farther than the Transgression is known and if he or she return and give forth a Condemnation against him or her self which is more desireable than that we should do it this is a Testimony of his or her Repentance and Resurrection before God his People and the whole World As David when Nathan came to admonish him Psalm 51. 13. That no Testimony by way of Condemnation be given forth against any Man or Woman whatever crime they commit before Admonition and till such time as they have had Gospel-order according to Christ's Doctrine 14. And if any Brother or Sister hear any Report of any Brother or Sister let him or her go to the Party and know the Truth of the Report and if true let the thing be judged if false go thou to the Reporter and let him or her be judged and if any should report it at a second or third hand without going to the party of whom the Report goeth let such be brought to Judgment for thou shalt neither raise nor suffer a false Report to lie upon my People saith the Lord for they are to be Holy as he is Holy and Just as he is Just 15. And if any Controversie or Weakness should appear in either Mens or Womens Meeting let it not be told out of your Meetings because such Speeches tend to the defaming of such Persons and Meetings and to the Hurt of the common Unity and Breach of the Heavenly Society and Previlege This is an account of what passed in that Meeting Next day notice being already given we had a large publick Meeting in which the sound of the everlasting Gospel Testament and Covenant went forth and the Meeting ended with a sweet and weighty Sense that Evening we had a more select meeting of Friends than the day before in which the Nature of Marriage and the practice of Friends relating to it and other things were very weightily and closely discoursed the Resolutions were these following 1. A Scruple concerning the Law of the Magistrate about Marriage being proposed and discoursed of in the fear of God among Friends in a Select Meeting it was the universal and unanimous sense of Friends that joining in Marriage is the work of the Lord only and not of Priest or Magistrate For 't is God's Ordinance and not Man's and therefore Friends cannot consent that they should join them together for we Marry none 't is the Lord's Work and we are but Witnesses 2. But yet if a Friend through tenderness have a desire that the Magistrate should know it before the Marriage be concluded they may publish the same after the thing hath by Friends been found clear and after the Marriage is performed in a publick Meeting of Friends and others according to the Holy Order and Practice of Friends in Truth throughout the World the manner of the holy Men and Women of old to go and carry a Copy of the Certificate to the Magistrate they are left to their freedom herein that if they please they may Register it But for Priests or Magistrates to marry or join any in that Relation it 's not according to Scripture and our Testimony and Practice have been alwaies against it It was God's work before the Fall and it 's God's work only in the Restoration 3. If any Friend have it upon him to reprint any Book already Printed and approved either in England or here they may do it upon their own Charges 4. It is also agreed that the care of reading and approving Books be laid upon some of every Meeting to the end no Book may be Publisht but in the Unity yet any other faithful Friends not so Nominated are not thereby excluded though in all these cases it is desired that all would avoid unnecessary Disputes about words which profit not but keep in the love that Edifieth 5. It is farther concluded that the general Stock of the Quarterly Meeting be not disposed of but by the consent of the Quarterly Meeting but if betwixt times there should be a pressing necessity concerning the Publick let that monthly Meeting where it
shall fall out lay down the Money and give in an Account at the next Quarterly Meeting in Order to their Relief if it appear that they are thereby overcharged and let all things be done without Favour Affection Relation or any respect to Persons even for the Lord's Sake and his blessed Everlasting Truth that God may bless and prosper his People And let all things be written down both as to your monthly and quarterly meeting Collections what you Receive what you Disburse that all may be fair and clear to the satisfaction of all that desire to see and Examine the Books And the Lord's Fear and Life and Power was over all in which the Lord God preserve his for ever The next day being the Seventh day of the Week was imploied in visiting of Friends and preparing our selves for a further Journey that is to say G. K. R. B. B. F. and My self Finding Letters here from the Friends of Dantzick complaining of their heavy Sufferings they underwent informing us also that the King of Poland was there asking advice about an Address to Him it fell upon me to write the following Letter in the Name of the Friends of Dantzick TO THE KING OF POLAND Great Prince ACtions of Justice Mercy and Truth are worthy of all Men but in a most excellent manner of the serious consideration of Kings and Princes We certain Inhabitants of the City of Dantzick have been long great Sufferers not for any Wickedness committed against the Royal Law of God or any Breach of those Civil Laws of this City that relate to the well Government of it in all Natural and Civil things but purely and only for the cause of our Tender Consciences towards God This severity being by us represented to the Magistrates of this City we could not as yet receive from them any Relief some expressing as if easing the Burthen of our Oppressions should give thee O King an occasion of Dissatisfaction against them who art our acknowleged Protector Being thus necessitated and in a manner driven to make this address unto Thee take it not amiss that we with that Humility and Patience that becometh the Servants and followers of Jesus and with all manner of Christian respect and sincerity of Mind briefly relate to Thee the most Fundamental Principles most surely believed by us which we hope Thou wilt believe deserve not those Punishments that are inflicted upon us as evil doers 1. We do reverently believe that there is one God and Father one Lord Jesus Christ and one Holy Spirit and these three are one Eph. 4.6 2. We believe the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament to have been given forth by Divine Inspiration and that they are profitable for Doctrine for Reproof for Correction for Instruction in Righteousness able to make the Man of God wise unto Salvation through Faith which is in Christ Jesus 2 Tim. 3.15 16. 3. That these Holy Scriptures are not to be understood but by the Discoveries Teachings and Operations of that Eternal Spirit from whence they came 4. We beleive that all Mankind through Disobedience to the Spirit of God are fallen short of the Glory of God and in that State are under Condemnation but that God out of his infinite Goodness and Kindness hath sent his Son a Light into the World that whosoever believeth and obeyeth this Light should not abide in Darkness but have the Light of Eternal Life 5. We believe this Gift of Light and Grace through Jesus Christ to be Vniversal and that there is not a Man or Woman upon Earth that hath not a sufficient measure of this Light and to whom this Grace hath not appeared to reprove their ungodly Works of Darkness and to lead them that obey it to Eternal Salvation And this is the great Condemnation of the World at this Day under all their great professions of God Christ Spirit and Scriptures that though Christ hath enlightned them yet they will not bring their Deeds to the Light but hate the Light and love their dark Customs and Practices rather than the Light because their Deeds are Evil. 6. We do believe in the Birth Life Doctrine Miracles Death Resurrection and Ascension of Jesus Christ our Lord and that he laid down his Life for the Vngodly not to continue so but that they should deny their Wickedness and Vngodliness and live Soberly Righteously and Godlikely in this present evil World as the Saints of old did that were redeemed from the Earth and sat in Heavenly places 7. We do believe that as the Devil through Man's Disobedience brought sin into Man's Heart so Christ Jesus through Man's Belief in and Obedience to his Holy Spirit Light and Grace cleanseth the Heart of Sin destroyeth the Works of the Devil finisheth Transgression and bringeth in everlasting Righteousness that as the Devil hath had his Kingdom of Darkness in Man so Christ may have his Kingdom of Light Life Righteousness Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost in the Heart of Man and not that Christ Jesus saveth Men from Wrath and not from-Sin for the Wages of Sin is Death in whose heart soever it liveth but the Gift of God is Eternal Life to all that believe and obey through Jesus Christ 8. We do believe that all true Ministry and Worship only stand in the experimental Sense Operations and Leadings of this Holy Light Spirit or Grace that is shed abroad in the Hearts of Men and Women to conduct them in the Holy way of Regeneration unto Life Eternal this was the Ancient Apostolical Doctrine they spoke what they had seen Tasted and Handled of the Word of God And this is our Faith Doctrine and Practice in this day And be not displeased with us O King we intreat thee if we give this for the reason of our absenting our selves from the publick and common Ministry or Worship Namely that we have no Taste or Relish no Sense or Evidence that their Ministry and Worship are Authorized and performed by the Apostolical Power and Spirit of Jesus but rather that they are the Inventions Studies and Powers of Man's Nature all which are but strange Fire and therefore cannot kindle a true and acceptable Sacrifice to God for it is not Man's Spirit and degenerate Nature Speaking and Professing the Words of God's Spirit that giveth acceptance with the Lord or adminstreth Heavenly Edification to Men nor can we believe that where Envy Passion Wrath Malice Persecution Envy and Strife Lusts Vanity Wantonness and Worldly Mindedness have such Sway and Power that the true Christian Spirit Life and Doctrine can be heartily received and followed And as this is the Reason in the sight and presence of that God that made Heaven and Earth and will Judge the Quick and Dead wherefore we cannot join in the common and publick Worship of these parts so doth the same Light and Spirit of God lay an Holy necessity upon us with a Meek and Quiet Spirit to come together after the
manner of the Ancient Christians that were the true Followers of Jesus and with Godly fear and a retired Mind to wait upon God and Meditate in his Holy Law of Life that he hath writ in our Hearts according to his New Covenant-Promise that he may Feed us Teach us Strengthen us and Comfort us in our inward Man and as by this Holy Spirit according to the Practice of the Churches of Old any are inclined or moved to Reprove Exhort Admonish Praise or Pray we are found exercised in these Holy Practices Now O Prince give us poor Christians leave to Expostulate with Thee Did Christ Jesus or his Holy Followers endeavour by Precept or Example to set up their Religion with a Carnal Sword Called he any Troops of Men or Angels to defend him Did he encourage Peter to dispute his escape with the Sword But did he not say put it up Or did he countenance his over zealous Disciples when they would have had Fire from Heaven to destroy those that were not of their Mind No but did not Christ rebuke them saying ye know not what Spirit ye are of And if it was neither Christ's Spirit nor their own Spirit that would have Fire from Heaven Oh! what is that Spirit that would kindlâ—â—ire on Earth to destroy such as peaceably dissent upon the account of Conscience if we may not wish that God would smite Men of other judgments because they differ from us in which there is no use of Carnal Weapons can we so far deceive our selves as to esteem our selves Christians and Followers of Christ whilst we incourage Men with Worldly Weapons to persecute such as dissent from us O King When did the true Religion Persecute When did the true Church offer Violence for Religion Were not her Weapons Prayers Tears and Patience Did not Jesus conquer by those Weapons and vanquish Cruelty by Suffering Can Clubs and Staves and Swords and Prisons and Banishments reach the Soul convert the Heart or convince the understanding of Man When did violence ever make a true Convert Or bodily punishments a sincere Christian This maketh void the end of Christ's coming which is to save Men's lives and not to â—estroy them to perswade them and noâ—â—o force them yea it robbeth God's Spiâ—it of its Office which is to convince the World that is the Sword by which the Ancient Christians overcame It was the Apostle's Testimony that their Weapons were not Carnal but Spiritual but the Practice of their pretended Successors proveth that there Weapons are not Spiritual but Carnal Suppose we are Tares as the true Wheat hath alwaies been called yet pluck us not up for Christ's Sake who saith Let the Tares and the Wheat grow together until the Harvest that is till the End of the World let God have his due as well as Caesar the judgment of Conscience belongeth to him and mistakes about Religion are best known to him And here give us leave to mind thee of a noble Saying of one of thy Ancestors Stephen King of Poland I am King of Men not of Consciences King of Bodies not of Souls and there have been found and still are among the Emperors Kings Princes and States of the World some that have had that noble Spirit of indulging their Conscientious dissenting Subjects and not only with Gamaliel and Gallio not to persecute but also eminently to protect and defend them from the Hatred and Violence of their Enemies Be not then less Noble than they consider how Quietly and Comfortably our Friends live under other Governments And indeed we conceive it to be the Prudence of the Kings and States of the World for if the wise Man say true The Glory of a Prince is in the Multitude of his People but this Practice saith No the Glory of a Prince is in the Conformity of the People to the Canons of the Clergy which seemeth to strike at all Civil Society which consisteth in Men of Virtue Parts Arts and Industry But let Men have never such excellent Abilities be never so Honest Peaceable and Industrious all which render them good and profitable Subjects to the Prince yet they must not live within their Native Country unless they will sacrifice the Peace of their Consciences by an Hypocritical Submission to the Canons and Fashions of the Church Is not this O Prince to set the Church above the State The Bishop above the King to waste and give away the Strength and Glory of a Kingdom O that thou mayest be wise even in thy Generation and use the Power that God hath given thee for God and Truth and Righteousness that therein thou mayest be like unto God who Peter telleth us Accepteth of all that fear him and work Righteousness throughout the World whose Sun shineth upon all whose Rain cometh upon all And least any should be so injurious to us as to render us Enemies to Civil Government Be it known unto thee O King that we Honour all Men in the Lord not with the vain invented Honours of this World but with the true and solid Honour that cometh from above but much more Kings and those whom God hath â—laced in Authority over us for we beâ—ieve Magistracy to be both Lawfull and â—sefull for the Terrifying of all Evil Doâ—rs and the Praise and Encouragement â—f those that do well The Premises duely Considered we â—ntreat thee O Prince to take our suffering Case into thy serious Regard and bâ— that Power and Influence thou hadst with the Magistrates of this City to recommend our suffering Condition to their serious Consideration that we may no longer lie under these not only Vnchristian but Vnnatural Severities but receive that speedy and effectual Relief which becometh Christian Magistrates to give to their own sober and Christian People The first day of the Week being come the Meeting began about the Eleventh Hour and held till about the Fourth Hour in the Afternoon There was a mighty Concourse of People from several places of this Country and that of several Perswasions Baptists Presbyterians Socinians Seekers c. and God was with his People and his Word of Life and Power of Wisdom and Strength covered them yea the hidden things both of Esau and Jacob the mystery both of Iniquity and Godliness were opened and declared in the Demonstration of the Eternal Spirit that day and O Blessed and Magnified be the Name of the Lord that hath not only not left himself but also his Servants not without a Witness Oh he is worthy to be Lov'd and Fear'd and Obey'd and Reverenced for ever The next day G.K. R.B. B.F. and my self having taken our leave of dear G.F. and Friends took Boat for Naerden where we Arrived about the Second Hour in the Afternoon and after having Eaten we took our leave of those Friends that had Accompanied us hither and begun our Journey in the common Post-waggon to Osnaburg where we came the Fourth day following in the Evening We past
and have beheld his Glory and confessed it to be the Glory of the only begotten Son of God and who by Obedience to his appearance are become the Children of Light and of the Day and as the First-Fruits to God after this long Night of Apostacy might for ever walk and dwell in his holy Covenant Christ Jesus the Light of the World because in him we have always Peace but out of him comes all the Trouble And whilst this heavenly Sense rested with me the Lord God that made me and called me by his Grace unto Salvation laid it upon me to visit you in an holy Exhortation And it is the Exhortation of my Life at this time in the earnest and fervent Motion of the Power and Spirit of Jesus to beseech you all who are turned to the Light of Christ that shineth in your Hearts and believe in it That you carefully and faithfully walk in it in the same Dread Awe and Fear in which you began that that holy Poverty of Spirit that is precious in the Eyes of the Lord and was in the Days of your first Love may dwell and rest with you that you may daily feel the same heavenly Hunger and Thirst the same Lowliness and Humility of Mind the same Zeal and Tenderness and the same Sincerity and Love unfeigned that God may fill you out of his heavenly Treasure with the Riches of Life and crown you with holy Victory and Dominion over the God and Spirit of this World That your Alpha may be your Omega and your Author your Finisher and your first Love your last Love that so none may make Shipwrack of Faith and of a good Conscience nor faint by the Way And as in this State we are kept in holy Watchfulness to God as in the beginning the Table which our heavenly Father spreads and the Blessings with which he compasseth us about shall not become a Snare unto us nor shall we turn the Grace and Mercies of the Lord into Wantonness but we shall eat and drink in an holy Fear apparel our selves in Fear buy and sell in Fear visit one another in Fear keep Meetings and there wait upon the Lord in Fear yea whatsoever we take in hand to do it shall be in the holy Fear of God and with an holy Tenderness of his Glory and Regard to the Prosperity of his Truth yea we shall deny our selves not only in the unlawful things but in the things that are even lawful to us for the Sake of the many Millions that are unconverted to God For my Friends and Brethren God hath laid upon us whom he hath honoured with the beginning of his great Work in the World the Care both of this Age and of the Ages to come that they may walk as they have us for Examples yea the Lord God hath chosen you to place his Name in you the Lord hath entrusted you with his Glory that you might hold it forth to all Nations and that the Generations unborn may call you Blessed Therefore let none be Treacherous to the Lord nor reward him Evil for Good nor betray his Cause directly by wilful Wickedness nor indirectly by Negligence and Unfaithfulness But be zealous and valiant for Truth on Earth let none be slothful or careless O remember the slothful Servant's State And let the loving-kindness of the Lord overcome every Soul to Faithfulness For with him are Riches and Honour and every good thing And whither should any go he hath the words of Eternal Life O let none loose their Testimony but hold it up for God let thy Gift be never so small thy Testimony never so little Through thy whole Conversation bear it for God and be true to what thou art convinced of And wait all upon the Lord that you may grow in your heavenly Testimony that Life may fill your Hearts your Houses and your Meetings that you may daily wait to know and to receive Power to do the Will of God on Earth as it is in Heaven And O! that the Cross of Jesus may be in high and honourable Esteem with every one that the Liberty of all may stand in the Cross which alone preserveth for it is the Power of God that crucifieth us to the World and the World to us And through Death way is made unto Life and Immortality which by this blessed Cross the Gospel the Power is brought to Light So shall the Seed of Life that God hath sown in our Hearts grow and in that Seed shall we all come to be Blessed unto whom God hath appointed the Dominion over us and it is good for all to live under the Holy Government of it for the Ways of it are the Ways of Pleasantness and all its Paths are Peace and all that are born of it can say Thy Scepter is a Scepter of Righteousness And O! That all Friends every where may continually bow unto his righteous Scepter and keep to his holy Law which is written in their Hearts that it may be a Light to their Feet and a Lanthorn to their Paths So shall they come to witness that holy Promise made good unto them That the Spirit which I have given unto him the Seed and the Words which I have put into his Mouth shall not depart from him nor from his Seed nor from his Seed's Seed unto all Generations Wherefore Friends redeem the Time because the Days are Evil God hath given you to see they are so and be ye separated more and more yea perfectly disentangled from the Cares of this World And be ye not cumbred with the many things but stand loose from the things that are seen which are Temporal And you that are Poor murmur not but be Patient and trust in the Lord and submit to his Providence and he will provide for you that which is convenient for you the Days of your appointed Time And you that are Rich keep in the Moderation and strive not to multiply earthly Treasure nor to heap up uncertain Riches to your selves but what God hath given you more than what is convenient for your own Use wait for his Wisdom to employ it for his Glory that you may be faithful Stewards of this World 's Mammon and the Lord God shall reward you into your Bosoms of the Riches of that Kingdom that shall never have an End O my Friends and Brethren whether Rich or Poor in Bonds or at Liberty in whatsoever State you are the Salutation of the universal Life of Jesus is to you And the Exhortation is to bow to what is made known unto you and in the Light by which ye have received in measure the Knowledg of God watch and wait diligently to the farther Revelation of the Mind and Will of God unto you that ye may be endued from on High with Power and Might in your inward Man to answer the call and requirings of the Lord that ye may be enabled to make known to the Nations what is the Riches
of the Glory of this blessed Mystery in the Gentiles which is Christ Jesus the Light of the World in you the Hope of Glory For this I have to tell you in the Vision of the Almighty that the Day of the breaking up of the Nations about you and of the sounding of the Gospel-Trumpet unto the Inhabitants of the Earth is just at the Door And they that are worthy who have kept their Habitation from the beginning and have dwelt in the Unity of the Faith that overcometh the World and have kept the Bond of Peace The Lord God will impower and spirit you to go forth with his Everlasting Word and Testament to awaken and gather Kindreds Languages and People to the Glory of the rising of the Gentiles Light who is God's Salvation unto the Ends of the Earth And I must tell you that there is a Breathing Hungering Seeking People solitarily scattered up and down this great Land of Germany where the Lord hath sent me and â— believe it is the like in other Nations And as the Lord hath laid it upon me with my Companions to seeâ— some of them out so have we founâ— several in divers Places And wâ— have had many blessed Opportunities amongst them wherein our Hearts have greatly rejoiced having been made deeply sensible of the Love of God towards them and of the great openness and tenderness of Spirit in them to receive the Testimony of Light and Life through us And we have a stedfast belief that the Lord will carry on his Work in this Land effectually and that he will raise up those that shall be as Ministers of his eternal Testament amongst them And O! our desire is that God would put it into the Hearts of many of his faithful Witnesses to visit the Inhabitants of this Country where God hath a great Seed of People to be gathered that his Work may go on in the Earth till the whole Earth be filled with his Glory And it is under the deep and weighty Sense of this approaching Work that the Lord God hath laid it upon me to write to you to wait for the farther pourings out of the Power and Spirit of the Lord that nothing that is Careless Sleepy Earthly or Exalted may get up whereby to displease the Lord and cause him to withdraw his sweet and preserving Presence from any that know him But let all keep the King of Righteousness his Peace and walk in the Steps of the Flocks of the Companions For Withering and Destruction shall come upon all such as desert the Camp of the Lord or with their murmuring Spirit disquiet the Heritage of God for they are greater Enemies to Sion's Glory and Jerusalem's Peace than the open Armies of the Aliens And it is a Warning to all that make mention of the Name of the Lord in this Dispensation he hath brought us to That they have a care how they let out their Minds in any wise to please the Lusts of the Eye the Lusts of the Flesh and the Pride of Life which are not of the Father but of this World lest any be exalted in a Liberty that maketh the Cross of Jesus of none effect and the Offence thereof to cease for such will become as Salt that hath lost its Savour and at last will be trod under the Feet of God and Men. For the Lord will withdraw his daily Presence and the Fountain will come to be sealed up and the Well of Salvation be stopped again Therefore as all would rejoice in the Joy of God's Salvation let them wait for the saving Power and dwell in it that knowing the Mystery of the Work of Regeneration Christ formed in them the Hope of their Glory they may be able in the motion of him that hath begotten them through Death to Life to go forth and declare the Way of Life and Salvation And all you that are young convinced of the Eternal Truth come into it and then you will feel the Virtue of it And so you will be Witnesses otherwise Vain Talkers Wells without Water Clouds without Rain for which State is reserved the Blackness of Darkness for ever Wherefore gird up the Loins of your Minds and be sober and tempt not God but receive the Day of your Visitation and walk worthy of so great Love and delight to retain God in your Knowledg and grieve not his Holy Spirit but join to it and be led by it that it may be an Earnest to you of an Eternal Inheritance And take up your daily Cross and follow Christ and not the Spirit of this World He was meek and lowly he was humble and plain he was few in Words but mighty in Deeds He loved not his Life unto Death even the reproachful Death of the Cross but laid down his Life and became of no Reputation and that for the Rebellious O the Height and the Depth the Length and the Breadth yea the Vnsearchableness of the Love of God in Christ Jesus Wherefore while it is to Day hearken to his Voice and harden not your Hearts and make no Bargains for your Self neither consult with Flesh and Blood But let the Lord be your Light and your Salvation let him be the Strength of your Life and the Length of your Days And this know assuredly that none ever trusted to the Lord and were confounded Wherefore hold up your Testimony for God as ye would enjoy the Increasings of his Life and Love And let your Light shine and confess him before the whole World Smother not his Appearance neither hide thy Candle God hath lighted in thee under a Bushel for Christ walketh among his Candlesticks of pure and tried Gold Wherefore set thy Light upon a Candlestick and shew forth thy good Conversation in Meekness and godly Fear that thou mayest become a good Example and others beholding thy good Works may glorify God But for the Rebellious the Fearful and the Unbelieving the Day hastens upon such that the things that belong to their Eternal Peace shall be hid from their Eyes for ever And all you my dear Friends and Brethren who are in Sufferings for the Testimony of Jesus and a good Conscience look up to Jesus the Author and Finisher of your Faith who for the Joy that was set before him endured the Cross and despised the Shame and is sat down at the Right Hand of the Father in the heavenly Place into which if you faint not you shall all be received after the Days of your Pilgrimage shall be at an End with a Well done good and faithful Servant And though these Afflictions seem not joyous but grievous for the present yet a far more exceeding weight of Glory stands at the Door Wherefore count it all Joy you fall into these Trials and persevere to the End knowing that he that shall come will come and will not tarry and that his Reward is with him Remember the Martyrs of Jesus that loved not their Lives to the Death for his
Name's-sake that had called them And Jesus himself that made a good Confession before Pontius Pilate who hath consecrated through his Blood a new and living Way for all that come unto God by him who is made a high Priest higher than the Heavens one that can be touched and moved and is daily touched and moved with our Weakness and Infirmity that through him we may be made strong in the Lord and more than Conquerors through him that hath loved us Wherefore let it not seem as if some strange thing had happened to you for all these things are for the Trial of your Faith which is more precious than the Gold that perisheth 'T is the old Quarrel Children of this World against the Children of the Lord those that are born after the Flesh warring against those that are born after the Spirit Cain against Abel the Old World against Noah Sodomites against Lot Hagar against Sarah Ishmael against Isaac Esau against Jacob Egyptians against Israelites the false Prophets against the true Prophets as Isaiah Jeremiah c. the Jews under the Profession of the Letter of the Law against Christ that came to fulfil the Law and all his spiritual Followers and Disciples And all the false Apostate Christians against the true and Spiriritual Christians and Martyrs of Jesus So your Conflict is for the Spiritual Appearance of Christ Jesus against those that profess him in Words but in Works and Conversations every day deny him doing Despight to the Spirit of Grace in themselves and those that are led by it But though Gog and Magog shall gather themselves together to lay waste the City of God yet the Lord hath determined their Destruction and he will bring it to pass Wherefore rejoyce O thou little Hill of God and clap thy Hands for Joy for he that is Faithful and True Just and Righteous and able to deliver thee dwells in the midst of thee Who will cause thee to grow and increase till thou becomest a great Mountain till thou becomest the Praise of the whole Earth and the whole Earth be filled with thy Glory And to you all who are the followers of the Lamb of God who was dead but is alive and lives for evermore who is risen in your Hearts as a bright shining Light and is leading you out of the Nature and Spirit of this World in the Path of Regeneration I have this to say by way of holy Encouragement unto you all the Lord God Eternal that was and is and is to come hath reserved for you the Glories of the last Days and if so be that the Followers and Martyrs of Jesus in Ages past when the Church was going into the Wilderness and his Witnesses into Sackcloth were notwithstanding so Noble and Valiant for the Truth on Earth that they loved not their Lives unto the Death and suffered joyfully the Spoiling of their Goods for the Testimony of Jesus how much more ought you all to be encouraged unto Faithfulness who are come to the Resurrection of the Day which shall never more be eclipsed in which the Bride-groom is to come to fetch you his Spouse out of the WILDERNESS to give you Beauty for Ashes and the Garment of Praise for the SPIRIT of HEAVINESS who will cover you with his Spirit and adorn you with his fine Linen the Righteousness of the Saints Lean upon his Breast for ever and know your joyning in an Everlasting Covenant with him that he may lift up the Light of his Countenance upon you and delight to do you Good that in blessing he may bless you increase you and multiply you in all spiritual Blessings now and for ever that to God through him you may live all the Days of your appointed Time to whom be Glory and Honour Praises and Thanksgivings in the Church throughout all Ages and for ever I am In the Faith Patience Tribulation and Hope of the Kingdom of Jesus your Friend and Brother William Penn. My Companions in the Labour and Travel of the Testimony of Jesus G. Keith and B. Furley salute you all in the Love of our God We have passed through several Cities of Germany and are now at Franckfort where the Lord hath given us Three blessed Opportunities with a serious and seeking People whereof as in other places of this Country many of them are Persons of great Worldly Quality Blessed be the Name of the Lord to whom be Glory be for ever W.P. Franckfort the 22d of the 6th Month 1677. The fifth Day we arrived by the way of Worms at Crisheim in the Paltzgrave's Country where we found to our great Joy a Meeting of tender and faithful People But it seems the Inspector of the Calvinists hath injoined the Vooght or chief Officer not to suffer any preaching to be among our Friends who poor Man fearing the Indignation of the Clergy came next Day to desire Friends not to suffer any preaching to be amongst them lest he should be turned out of his Place To whom we desired Friends to say that if he pleased he might apprehend us and carry us to the Prince before whom we should give an Account of our Testimony But blessed be the Lord we enjoyed our Meeting quietly and comfortably of which a Coachful from Worms made a part amongst whom was a Governour of the Country and one of the chief Lutheran Priests It came upon me in this Place to salute the Princess and Countess with this following Epistle A Salutation to Elizabeth Princess Palatine and Anna Maria dâ— Hornes Countess of Hornes at Herwerden in Germany My worthy Friends SUCH as I have such I give unto you the dear and tender Salutation of Light Life Peace and Salvation by Jesus Christ the blessed Lamb of God with the unspeakable Joy of which he hath replenished my Soul at this time that my Cup overfloweth which is the Reward of them that chearfully drink his Cup of Tribulations that love the Cross and triumph in all the Shame Reproaches and Contradictions of the World that do attend it My God take you by the Hand and gently lead you through all the Difficulties of Regeneration and as you have begun to know and love his sweet and tender Drawings so resign the whole Conduct of your Lives to him dispute not away the precious Sense that you have of him be it as small as a Grain of Mustard-seed which is the least of all Seeds there is Power in it if you do but believe to remove the greatest Mountains of Opposition O pretious is this Faith yea more pretious than the Glory and Honour of this World that perish It will give Courage go with Christ before Caiaphas and Pilate yea to bear his Cross without the Camp and to be crucified with him knowing that the Spirit of God and of Glory shall rest upon them to the Inheritors of this Faith is reserved the eternal Kingdom of Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost O be you of that little Flock unto whom
Jesus said Fear not for it is my Father's good pleasure to give you a Kingdom And to be of this Flock you must become as Sheep and to be as Sheep you must become harmless and to become harmless you must hear and follow the Lamb of God as he is that blessed Light which discovereth and condemneth all the unfruitful Works of Darkness and maketh harmless as a Dove which word All leaveth not one Piccadillo or Circumstance undiscovered or unjudged and the word Darkness taketh in the whole Night of Apostacy and the word Vnfruitful is a plain Judgment against all those dark Works Wherefore out of them all come and be you separated and God will give you a Crown of Life which shall never fade away O! the lowness and meanness of those Spirits that despise or neglect the Joys and Glories of Immortality for the sake of the things which are â—een that are but Temporal debasing â—he Nobility of their Souls abandoning the Government of the Divine Spirit and embracing with all ardency of Affection the sensual Pleasures of this Life but such as persevere therein shall not enter into God's Rest for ever But this is not all that hindereth and obstructeth in the holy Way of Blessedness for there is the World's Fear as well as the World's Joy that obstructeth many or else Christ had not said Fear not to his little Flock The Shame of the Cross is a Yoke too uneasy and a Burden too heavy for Flesh and Blood to bear 't is true but therefore shall Flesh and Blood never enter into the Kingdom of God And not to them that are born of the Flesh but to those that are born of the Spirit through the Word of Regeneration is appointed the Kingdom and that Throne which shall judg the twelve Tribes of Israel and all the World The Lord perfect what he hath begun in you and give you Dominion over the Love and Fear of this World And my Friends if you would profit in the Way of God despise noâ— the Day of small things in youâ— selves Know this that to desire anâ— sincerely to breathe after the Lord iâ— a blessed State you must seek beforâ— you find Do you believe make noâ— haste extinguish not those small Beginnings by an over-earnest or impatient desire of Victory God's time is the best time be you faithful and your Conflict shall end with Glory to God and the Reward of Peace to your own Souls Therefore love the Judgment and love the Fire start not aside neither flinch from the scorchings of it for it will purify and refine you as Gold seven times tried then cometh the Stamp and Seal of the Lord upon his own Vessel Holiness to him for ever which he never gave nor will give to reprobate Silver the state of the Religious Worshippers of the World And herein be comforted that Sion shall be redeemed through Judgment and her Converts through Righteousness and after the appointed time of Mourning is over the Lord will give Beauty for Ashes the Oil of Joy for Mourning and the Garment of Praise for the Spirit of Heaviness then shall you be able to say Who is he that condemneth us God hath justified us there is no Condemnation to us that are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit Wherefore my dear Friends walk not only not after the fleshly Lusts but also not after the fleshly Religions and Worships of the World for that that is not born of the Spirit is Flesh and all Flesh shall wither as the Grass and the Beauty of it shall fade away as the Flower of the Field before God's Sun that is risen and rising but the Word of the Lord in which is Life and that Life the Light of Men shall endure for ever and give Life Eternal to them that love and walk in the Light And I entreat you by the Love you have for Jesus have a care how you touch with fleshly Births or say Amen by Word or Practice to that which is not born of the Spirit for God is not to be found of that in your selves or others that calleth him Father and he hath never begotten it in them that Latitude and Conformity is not of God but secretly grieveth his Spirit and obstructeth the growth of the Soul in its Acquaintance and intimate Communion with the Lord. Without me saith Jesus you can do nothing and all that came before me are Thieves and Robbers If so O what are they that Pray Preach and Sing without Jesus and follow not him in those Duties but even in them crucify him O that I may find in you an Ear to hear and an Heart to perceive and embrace these Truths of Jesus And I can say I have great cause to hope and patiently to wait till the Salvation of God be further revealed to you and the whole Family with whom I must acknowledg I was abundantly refreshed and comforted in that God in measure made known the Riches of his Grace and Operation of his Celestial Power to you and his Witness shall dwell with you if we never see you more that God magnified his own Strength in our Weakness With him we leave our Travels affectionately recommending you to his holy Spirit of Grace that you may be conformed to the Image of his own dear Son who is able and ready to preserve you O stay your Minds upon him and he will keep you in perfect Peace and abide with you for ever The Almighty take you into his holy Protection now and for ever I am Your true Friend ready to serve you with fervent Love in the Will of God William Penn. My dear Companions G. K. and B.F. do with me give you the dear Salutation of unfeigned Love and those in the Family that love and desire to follow the Lord Jesus in Sincerity and Truth without wavering P. S. We are this Evening bound towards Manheim the Court of the Prince Palatine and travell'd about twelve English Miles on foot That Night we lodged at Franckenthall and goâ— the next Morning being the seventh Day of the Week to Manheim but were disappointed of our Design which was to speak with the Prince for he was gone the Day before to Heydelbâ—rgh his chief City about fifteen English Miles from that Place and considering that by reason of the Meeting next Day with Friends at Crisheim already appointed we could neither go forward nor stay till he returned and yet being not clear to come away as if we had never endeavoured to visit him it was upon me to write him this following Letter to let him know we had been there and briefly our End in coming To the Prince Elector Palatine of Heydelbergh Great Prince IT would seem strange that I both a Stranger and a Subject should use this freedom of Address to a Prince were he not one whose Actions shew him to be of a free Disposition and easy Access to all
would to God all Princes were of that mind But I have not chosen this way of Application I am driven to it by the disappointment thy absence from this Court gave me and the necessity I am under to expedite my Return And though I cannot so fully and consequently not so clearly express by Letter the Grounds inducing me to attempt this Visit yet this being all the way that is left me I shall declare them as well as I can In the first place I do with all sincere and Christian respect acknowledg and commend that Indulgence thou givest to all People professing Religion dissenting from the National Communion for it is in it self a most Natural Prudent and Christian thing Natural because it preserves Nature from being made a Sacrifice to the savage Fury of fallible yet proud Opinions out lawing Men of Parts Arts Industry and Honesty the grand Requisites of Humane Society and exposing them and their Families to utter Ruine for meer Nonconformity not to Religion but to Modes and Fashions in Religions Christian since the contrary expresly contradicteth both the Precept and Example of Christ who taught us to love Enemies not to abuse our Friends and triumph in the destruction of our harmless Neighbours He rebuked his Disciples when they called for Fire from Heaven upon Dissenters it may be Opposers Certainly then he never intended that they should kindle Fire on Earth to devour Men for Conscience And if Christ to whom all Power was given and his Apostles refused to employ Humane Force and Artifice so much as to conserve themselves 't is an Arrogancy every way indefensible in those that pretend to be their Followers that they assume an Authority to supercede controul and contradict the Precepts and Examples of Christ and his Apostles whose Kingdom not being of the nature of this ambitious violent World was not erected or maintained by those Weapons that are Carnal but Spiritual and Intellectual adequate to the Nature of the Soul and mighty through God to cast down the Strong-holds of Sin and every vain Imagination exalted in Man above the lowly meek Fear of God that ought to have the preeminence in the Hearts of the Sons of Men. Indulgence is Prudent in that it preserveth Concord No Kingdom divided against it self can stand It encourageth Arts Parts Industry to show and improve themselves which indeed are the Ornaments Strength and Wealth of a Countrey It encourageth People to transplant into this Land of Liberty where the Sweat of the Brow is not made the Forfeit of the Conscience And lastly it rendereth the Prince peculiarly Safe and Great Safe because all Interests for Interest-sake are bound to love and court him Great in that he is not govern'd or clogg'd with the Power of his Clergy which in most Countries is not only a Coordinate Power a kind of Duumvirateship in Government Imperium in Imperio at least an Eclipse to Monarchy but a Superior Power and rideth the Prince to their Designs holding the Helm of the Government and steering not by the Laws of Civil Freedom but certain Ecclesiastick Maxims of their own to the Maintenance and Enlargement of their Worldly Empire in their Church And all the Villany acted under the sacred peaceable and alluring Name of Christ his Ministry and Church though as remote from their Nature as the Wolf from the Sheep and the Pope from Peter The next thing I should have taken the liberty to have discours'd would have been this What Encouragement a Colony of vertuous and industrious Families might hope to receive from Thee in case they should transplant themselves into this Country which certainly in it self is very excellent respecting Taxes Oaths Arms c. Further to have represented the condition of some of our Friends and thy own Subjects who though they are liable to the same Tax as Mennists c. not by part the Case of other Dissenters yet the Vaught of the Town where they live came yesterday to forbid all preaching amongst them which implies a sort of Contradiction to the Indulgence given And in the last place for as much as all Men owe their Being to something greater than themselves to which 't is reasonable to believe they are accomptable from whence follow Rewards or Punishments I had an earnest desire to have spoken of the Nature of Truth Use Benefit and Reward of Religion and therein as to have discours'd what is Christian Religion in it self freed from those unreasonable Garbs some Men make it to wear so justly offensive to wise and thinking Men so to have proved the Principle and Life of the People in scorn called Quakers to have been sutable to the true Followers of Holy Jesus But as the Particulars would swell a Letter to a Book I shall take the Freedom to present thee upon my Return with some Tracts treating upon all these Subjects Prince my Soul is filled with Love and Respect to thee and thy Family I wish you all true and lasting Felicity and earnestly desire that you may never forget your Afflictions and in the remembrance of them be dehorted from those Lusts and Impieties which draw the Vengeance of Heaven upon the greatest Families on Earth that God may look upon you with the favourable Eye of his Providence And blessed is that Man whose God by profession is the Lord in reality viz. that is ruled and governed by the Lord and that lives in subjection to his Grace that having a Divine Sense of God in his Heart delights to retain that Sense and Knowledg of him and be meditating in his Noble Royal Law that converts the Soul to God and redeems Man from the sensual Pleasures of this World to the true Satisfaction of the Intellectual and Divine Life O the meanness and lowness of their Spirits that abandon themselves to the Government of Sense the animal Life thereby debasing their Natures rejecting the Divine Light that shineth in their Hearts saying Let us eat and drink for to morrow we shall die forgetting whence they are descended and not considering the Peace and Joy of the Vertuous I desire that the Lord would put it into thy Heart to think of thy latter End and with the Light of Christ in thy Conscience examine how it stands with thy Soul that thou mayest know and diligently watch to do those things that belong to thy eternal Peace One thing more give me leave to recommend to thee and that is to be very careful of inculcating generous free and righteous Principles into thy Son who is like to succeed thee that when thou art gone the Reputation of the Country may not sink by contrary Practices nor the People of divers Judgments now thy Subjects be disappointed distressed or ruined Which with sincere desires for thy temporal and eternal Good conclude this Thy unknown but sincere Friend William Penn. From Manheim 25th of 6th Mo. 1677. Which being done and having refreshed our selves we returned that night by the Rhine
with the Joy of his Salvation giving us to remember and to speak one unto another of his blessed Witnesses in the Days past who wandred up and down like poor Pilgrims and Strangers on the Earth their Eye being to a City in the Heavens whose Builder and Maker is God Betwixt nine and ten we reached the Walls of Duysburgh but the Gates were shut and there being no Houses without the Walls we laid us down together in a Field receiving both natural and spiritual Refreshment blessed be the Lord. About three in the Morning we rose sanctifying God in our hearts that had kept us that Night and walked till five often speaking one to another of the great and notable Day of the Lord dawning upon Germany and of several Places of that Land that were almost ripe unto Harvest Soon after the Clock had struck five they opened the Gates of the City and we had not long got to our Inn but it came upon me with a sweet yet fervent Power to visit this prosecuted Countess with a Salutation from the Love and Life of Jesus and to open unto her more plainly the Way of the Lord which I did in this following Epistle And then followeth a Letter to her Father the Graef of Bruch and Falckensteyn To the Countess of Falckensteyn and Bruch at Mulheim My dear Friend JESUS the Immaculate Lamb of God grieved and crucified by all the Workers of Iniquity illuminate thy Understanding bless and be with thy Spirit for ever Tho unknown yet art thou much beloved for the sake of thy Desires and Breathings of Soul after the living God The Report whereof from some in the same State hath made deep impressions of true Kindness upon my Spirit and raised in me a very singular and fervent inclination to visit thee and the rather because of that Suffering and Tribulation thou hast begun to endure for the sake of thy Zeal towards God my self having from my Childhood been both a Seeker after the Lord and a great Sufferer for that Cause from Parents Relations Companions and the Magistrates of this World the remembrance whereof hath so much the more endeared thy Condition unto me and my Soul hath often in the sweet Sense and Feeling of the holy Presence of God and the precious Life of his dear Son in my Heart with great tenderness implored his Divine Assistance unto thee that thou mayst both be illuminated to do and made willing to suffer for his Name 's sake that the Spirit of God and of Glory may rest upon thy Soul And truly I can say I felt the good Will of God his holy Care and heavenly Visitations of Love to extend unto thee But one thing more especially lay upon my Spirit to have communicated unto thee which made me the more pressing for an Opportunity to speak with thee and that was this That thou shouldest have a true right and distinct Knowledg of thy own State and what that is which hath visited thee and in what thy Faith Patience Hope and Salvation stand where to wait and how to find the Lord and distinguish between that which is born of God and that which is not both with respect to thy self in all the Motions and Conceptions of thy Heart and with respect to others in their Religious Worships and Performances to the end that thou mayest not be deceived about the things relating to God's Kingdom and thy Eternal Peace this is of greatest weight Now know certainly that which hath discovered unto thee the Vanities of this World the Emptiness and the Fading of all earthly Glory the Blessedness of the Righteous and the Joy of the World that is to come is the Light of Christ Jesus wherewith he hath enlightned thy Soul for in him was Life and that Life is the Light of Mankind John 1.4 9. Thus God promiseth by the Prophet Isaiah to give him viz. for a Light to lighten the Gentiles and for his Salvation to the ends of the Earth So that Christ the Light is God's Gift and eternal Life is hid in him yea all the Treasures of Wisdom and Knowledg who is the Light of the Gospel-Temple true Believers Rev. 21. And all that receive this Light into their Hearts and bring their Deed to it to see in what ground they are wrought whether in God or in the evil One and make this Blessed Light the Guide of their Life fearing with a holy Fear to do any thing that this Light manifests to be evil waiting and watching with a godly Care to be preserved blameless before the Lord I say all such become Children of Light and Witnesses of the Life of Jesus O blessed wilt thou be for ever if in the way of this Holy Light thy Mind walks to the end Let this that hath visited thee lead thee this Seed of Light and Life which is the Seed of the Kingdom yea 't is Christ the true and only Seed of God that visited my Soul even in my young Years that spread my Sins in order before me reproved me and brought godly Sorrow upon me making me often to weep in solitary Places saying within my Soul O that I knew the Lord as I ought to know him O that I served him as I ought to serve him yea often was there a great Concern upon my Spirit about my eternal State mournfully desiring that the Lord would give my Soul rest in the great Day of Trouble Now was all the Glory of the World as a Bubble yea nothing was dear to me that I might win Christ for the Love Friendship and Pleasure of this World was a Burden unto my Soul And in this seeking-state I was directed to the Testimony of Jesus in my own Conscience as the true shining Light giving me to discern the Thoughts and Intents of my own Heart and no fooner was I turned unto it but I found it to be that which from my Childhood had visited me though I distinctly knew it not and when I received it in the Love of it it shewed me all that ever I did and reproved all the unfruitful Works of Darkness judging me as a Man in the Flesh and laying Judgment to the Line and Righteousness to the Plummet in me And as by the brightness of his coming into my Soul he discovered the Man of Sin there upon his Throne so by the Breath of his Mouth which is the two-edged Sword of his Spirit he destroyeth his Power and Kingdom and having made me a Witness of that Death of the Cross he hath also made me Witness of his Resurrection So that in good measure my Soul can now say I am justified in the Spirit and though the State of Condemnation unto Death was glorious yet Justification unto Life was and is more glorious In this state of the new Man all is new behold new Heavens and a new Earth old things come to be done away the old Man with his Deeds put off Now new Thoughts new
Desires new Affections new Love new Friendship new Society new Kindred new Faith even that which overcometh this World through many Tribulations and new Hope even that living Hope that is founded upon true Experience which holds out all Storms and can see to the Glory that is invisible to carnal Eyes in the midst of the greatest Tempest Now 't is the same blessed Seed of Light Life and Grace that from God the Father is sown in thy Heart and hath moved and wrought there that Change which thou hast witnessed from the Spirit of this World turn to it watch in it that by it thou mayest be kept from all that it discovers to be contrary to God especially from thy self from thy own runnings willings and strivings for whatsoever is not born of the Spirit is Flesh and that inherits not the Kingdom of God and all that sow to it shall inherit Corruption By this thou wilt come to feel not only all Sin to be a Burden but all thy own Righteousness yea all Man's Righteousness to be a Burden Thou wilt see the difference betwixt the Duties and Prayers which thou begettest and the Duties and Prayers which in thy true silence from all self-activity of Mind the Lord begets in thee O that thou mightest know the Mystery of the new Birth and what that is that can truly call God Father even that that is begotten of him which liveth and breatheth and hath its Beginning and Being in that Life which is hid with Christ in God and by which it hath been quickened to the Knowledg and Worship of Christ and God and this thou shalt not fail to know and enjoy as thou patiently sufferest the Lord to work his own Work in thee by his own blessed Spirit And that which will give thee to savour and discern the right Motions and Conceptions Duties and Performances in thy self from the false will give thee to savour and discern that which is right in others from that which is false that which is of God from that which is of Man Have a Care of gathering of Sticks and kindling a Fire of thy own and then compassing thy self about the Sparks of the Fire which thou hast kindled for the end of this State is to lie down in Sorrow because the heavenly Fire is absent which maketh the Sacrifice acceptable yea the Lord may stir in thy Heart and thou mayest bring forth but he that gives to conceive he brings to the Birth and he giveth Power to bring forth for without Christ we can do nothing and blessed are they that stir not before the Angel moveth the Waters and go not before Christ but are led by him and that awaken not their Beloved till he please in whose Hand the Times and the Seasons are O blessed are they whose Eyes are opened to see him always present a God always nigh at Hand whose Hearts are stayed upon his holy Appearance in them and they are thereby translated into his Likeness whose Faith and Hope is in Christ in them the Hope of Glory My dear Friend weigh these Things with a serious retired sweet and tender frame of Spirit and the God that hath called me and thee by the Light of his dear Son open thy Understanding to perceive the Truth as it is in Jesus and what is the Mystery of the Fellowship of the Saints in Light So to the Lord I recommend thee the Watchman and Keeper of Israel the Lord be thy Strength and holy Comfort and speak Peace to thee and never leave thee nor forsake thee till he hath conducted thee through all Tribulations to his everlasting Kingdom of Rest and Glory O dear Heart be valiant and stay thy self upon Christ Jesus the Everlasting Rock and feel him a Fountain in thy Soul feel his Blood to cleanse and his Blood to drink and his Flesh to eat feed upon him for God hath given him for the Life of the World I had seen thee had not thy Father 's strange sort of severity hindred I confess I do not use to be so treated in my own Country where the Lord hath raised up many hundreds of Witnesses that he hath gathered out of all Sects and Professions to worship him not in their Spirits or Wills but in his Will Spirit and Truth and we are generally after much Affliction and Suffering in good Esteem even with the great Ones of this World And this let me add for thy particular Comfort that though I have been a Man of great Anguish and Sorrow because of the Scorn and Reproach that hath attended my separation from the World having been taught of Jesus to turn my back upon all the sake of that Glory that shall revealed yet to God's Honour I 〈◊〉 say it I have an hundred friends one yea God hath turned 〈◊〉 Hearts of my Enemies towarâ— me he hath fulfilled his Promiâ—â— to turn the Hearts of the Parenâ— unto the Children For my Parenâ— that once disowned me for this bleâ—sed Testimony 's sake of the Jewâ—â— Christian Circumcision and Baâ—tism inward against the fleshly Chrâ—stian have come to love me abovâ— all and have left me all thinkinâ— they could never do and leave enougâ— for me O how good is the Lorâ— yea the Ways of his Mercy aâ—â— even past finding out Wheresore my dear Friend truâ—â— in the Lord for ever and the Goâ— of Abraham Isaac and Jacob the Goâ— of the Prophets and of the Apostles the God of all the Holy Martyrs oâ— Jesus illuminate fortify and preservâ— thee stedfast that in the end thou mayest receive the Reward of Life and Eternal Salvation to whoâ— be Glory and to the Lamb thaâ— sits upon the Throne one God and one Lord blessed and magnified for ever and ever Amen Thy great and faithful Love for the blessed and holy Truth 's sake W. Penn. Duysburgh 13 th of 7 th Month S.N. 1677. P.S. My dear Brethren and Companions G K. and B F. with me salute thee in the dear Loâ—e of God The enclosed I received from a religious young Woman at Franckfort We have a blessed Opportunity in this Town with some that have a desire after the Lord in which we are abundantly comforted We have just now received thy Message and Salutation from H.S. which hath exceedingly refreshed and reviveâ— us for our trouble waâ— not foâ— our selves but for thee and wâ— hope our Love will not turn 〈◊〉 thy Disadvantage for we menâ—â—â—ned nothing of thy Name nor thâ— Name of any other Person onelâ— that we desired to speak with the Minister of Mulheim and that waâ— only to the Souldier The Lord made us a good Bed in the Fields and we were very well satisfâ—â—â— We are going this Afternoon out of the Town towards Wesel from thence to Cleve and thence to Herwerden the Lord willâ—â—â— sâ— farewell in the Lord. To the Graef or Earl of Bruck and Falckensteyn Friend I Wish thy Salvation and the Lord reward thee Good for the Evil that thou shewedst unto
Christian Worship Upon which I forsook the University and resolved to be one of this Family and this I can say in the fear of the Lord. P. Ivon concludeth This is what we have to say concerning the Work of God amongst us All this while I minded not so much their Words as I felt and had Unity with a measure of divine Sense that was upon them Certainly the Lord hath been amongst them yea I had a living Sense in my heart that somewhat of the Breath of Life had breathed upon them and though they were in great mixtures yet that God's love was towards them After some silence I began on this wise I come not to judge you but to visit you not to quarrel or dispute but to speak of the things of God's Kingdom and I have no prejudice but great love and regard in my heart towards you Wherefore hear me with Christian patience and tenderness I do confess and believe that God hath touched your hearts with his divine finger and that his work is amongst you that it was his Spirit that gave you a sight of the vanity and folly of this World and that hath made you sensible of the dead Religions that are in it 'T is this Sense I love and honour and I am so far from undervaluing or opposing this tender sense I feel upon you that this is it I am come to visit and you for the love of it And as for the reproaches that may attend you on the score of your separation with all the Reports that therefore go concerning you they are what I respect you for being well acquainted with the nature and practise of this World towards those that retire out of it Now since I have with patience and I can truly say with great satisfaction heard your account of your Experiences give me the like Christian freedome to tell you mine to the end you may have some sense of the Work of God in me For those who are come to any measure of a divine Sense they are as looking-glasses to each other seeing themselves in each other as face answereth face in a glass Here I began to let them know how and when the Lord first appeared unto me which was about the 12th Year of my Age Anno 1656. How at times betwixt that and 15 the Lord visited me and the divine Impressions he gave me of himself Of my Persecution at Oxford how the Lord sustained me in the midst of that hellish darkness and debauchery of my being banisht the College the bitter Usage I underwent when I returned to my Father whipping beating and turning out of doors in 1662 of the Lord's dealings with me in France and in the time of the great Plague in London In fine the deep sense he gave me of the Vanity of this World of the Irreligiousness of the Religions of it Then of my Mournful and Bitter Cries to him that he would show me his own way of Life and Salvation and my Resolutions to follow him whatever Reproaches or Sufferings should attend me and that with great reverence and brokenness of Spirit How after all this the glory of the world over-took me and I was even ready to give up my self unto it seeing no such thing as the Primitive Spirit and Church on the Earth and being ready to faint concerning my hope of the restitution of all things and that it was at this time that the Lord visited me with a certain sound and testimony of his eternal Word through one of those the World calls a Quaker I related to them the bitter Mockings and Scornings that fell upon me the Displeasure of my Parents the Invectiveness and Cruelty of the Priests the strangeness of all my Companions what a Sign and Wonder they made of me but above all that great Cross of resisting and watching against my own Inward vain Affections and Thoughts Here I had a fine opportunity to speak of the Mystery of Iniquity and Ungodliness in the Root and ground and to give them an account of the Power and Presence of God which attended us in our publick Testimonies and Sufferings after an indirect manner censuring their Weaknesses by declaring and commending the contrary practises among Friends too large to be here related And notwithstanding all my Sufferings and Tryals by Magistrates Parents Companions and above all from the Priests of the false Religions in the World the Lord hath preserved me to this day and hath given me an hundred fold in this World as well as the assurance of Life everlasting Informing them of the tenderness of my Father to me before and at his death and how through patience and long-suffering all opposition was conquered Then beginning my Exhortation unto them which was on this wise That therefore since God had given me and them a divine Sense of him our Eye might be to him and not to Man that we might come more into a silence of our selves and a growth into that heavenly Sense That this was the Work of the true Ministry not to keep People to themselves ever teaching them but to turn them to God the new Covenant-teacher and to Christ the great Gospel-teacher Thus John did and thought it no dishonour that they left him to go to Christ Behold the Lamb of God saith he that taketh away the Sins of the World And even John's Disciples left him to follow Christ Nay John testifies of himself That he was to decrease and Christ was to encrease Wherefore I prest them to have their eye to Christ that taketh away the Sin that is from Heaven heavenly to see that he increase in them Yea that henceforward they should know no Man after the Flesh no not Christ himself That their knowledge of and regard and fellowship one with another would stand in the Revelation of the Son of God in them which is God's great Prophet by whom God speaketh in these latter days And if their Ministers be true Ministers they will count it their glory to give way to Christ and that they decrease and Christ encrease that the instrument giveth way to him that useth it the Servant to the Lord which though it seemeth to detract from the Ministers yet it was and is the glory of a true Minister that God and Christ should be all in all and that his Will should be fulfilled For the day of the Lord God was come and all People must look to him for Salvation That all People must now come to keep God's great Sabbath to rest from meer Man and the Spirit of Man and all Men's thoughts words and works and that if they were true Believers they were at least entring into their rest I closely recommended that to them that they might not be of those that begin in the Spirit and end in the Flesh for that those that should do so and thereby break God's Sabbath-day should be stoned to death by the Stone which is cut out of the Mountain without hands yea
that should fall upon them as a Milstone and grind them to Powder Therefore let Christ have his honour let him preach and speak among you and in you and you in him and by him only to sigh groan pray preach sing and not otherwise least Death come over you for thereby the Apostacy came in by their going before Christ instead of Christ going before them And wait in the Light and Spirit of Judgment that hath visited you that all may be wrought out that is not born of God so will you come to be born of the incorruptible Seed of the Word of God that liveth and abideth for ever That you may be a holy Priâ—sthood that offers up a living Sacrifice with God's heavenly fire that God may have his honour in you all and through you all by Christ Jesus And turning my self towards the Somerdikes with a serious and tender Spirit I thus exprest my self That you should be Pilgrims in the Inheritance of your Father I have a deep and reverent sense of O that you might dwell with him for ever and exalt him that hath so visited you with whom are the Rewards of Eternal Blessedness So I left the blessing and peace of Jesus among them departing in the love and peace of God and I must needs say they were beyond expectation tender and respectfull to us all of them coming with us but the ancient A. M. S. who is not able to walk to the outward Door giving us their Hands in a friendly manner expressing their great satisfaction in our Visit and being come by the Porch and meeting several persons of the Family I was moved to turn about and to exhort them in the presence of the rest to keep to Christ that had given them a sense of the Spirit of this World and had raised desires in them to be delivered from it and to know no Man after the Flesh but to have their Fellowship in Christ Union and Communion with God and one with another that all their Worship and Performances might stand in him that he might be all in all desiring that the Lord might keep them in his fear all the days of their appointed time that so they might serve him in their generation in his own universal Spirit to his glory who is blessed for ever The two Pastors and the Doctor came with us a Field's length where we took Waggon and the chiefest of them took occasion to ask me If the Truth rose not first amongst a poor illiterate and simple sort of people I told him yes that was our comfort and that we owed it not to the Learning of this World Then said he let not the Learning of this World be used to defend that which the Spirit of God hath brought forth for Scholars now coming among you will be apt to mix School-learning amongst your simpler and purer Language and thereby obscure the brightness of the Testimony I told him it was good for us all to have a care of our own Spirits Words and Works confessing what he said had weight in it telling him it was our care to write and speak according to the divine Sense and no humane Invention The Lord comforted my Soul in this service yea all that is within me magnified his holy Name because of his blessed Presence that was with us O let my Soul trust in the Lord and confide in him for ever O let me dwell and abide with him that is faithfull and true and blessed for ever-more So in a very sober and serious manner we parted being about the 12th hour at noon This night about ten we got to Lippenhusen where there is a little Meeting of Friends being about 25 English Miles The next morning we had a blessed Meeting among Friends many of the World came in were very serious and well-affected one whereof was a Magistrate of the Place The Lord pleads his own Cause and crowns his own Testimony with his own Power There is like to be a fine Gathering in that place After Dinner we took Waggon for the City of Groningen where we arrived at eight at night being about 25 English Miles The next morning we had a Meeting among Friends of that City whether resorted both Collegiant and Calvinist Students who behaved themselves soberly the Lord's Power was over all and his Testimony stands When Meeting was ended they went out and as I was concluding an Exhortation to Friends came in a flock of Students to have had some Conference with us but having set the time of our leaving the City we recommended them to the Universal love of God promising them some Books of our Principles with which they exprest themselves satisfied and civilly parted from us After Dinner we took Boat for Delfzyl and came there about six at night The next morning about seven we took Boat for Embden which is about three Leagues On Board of that Vessel it came upon me to write a Letter to Friends in England concerning the present Separatists and their Spirit of Separation which hath several times been opened unto me and had remained some days upon my spirit The Letter followeth This came upon me in the Ship between Delfzyl and Embden upon the the 16th of the 7th Month 1677 to send amongst you To Friends every where concerning the present Separatists and their Spirit of Separation Friends and Brethren BY a mighty Hand and by an out-stretched Arm hath the Lord God everlasting gathered us to be a People and in his own Power and Life hath he preserved us a People unto this Day and praises be to his Eternal Name no weapon that hath yet been formed against us either from without or from within hath prospered Now this I say unto you and that in his Counsel that hath visited us whoever goeth out of the Unity with their Brethren are first gone out of Unity with the Power and Life of God in themselves in which the Unity of the Brethren standeth and the Member of the Body in the Unity standeth on the top of them and hath a Judgment against them unto which Judgment of both great and small amongst the living Family that in the Unity are preserved they must bow before they can come into the Unity again yea this they will readily do if they are come into Unity with the Life and Power of God in themselves which is the holy Root that beareth the Tree the Fruit and the Leaves all receiving Life and Virtue from it and thereby are nourished unto God's praise And let all have a care how they weaken that or bring that under their exaltation and high imagination that it is revealed against For I feel that unruly Spirit is tormented under the stroke and judgment of the Power and in its subtilty is seeking occasion against the Instruments by whom the Power gave it forth Let all have a care how they touch with this Spirit in those Workings for by
Meeting six years ago in this City and I remember the power had that operation upon them that I said to B F. and T R. then with me it will not be long before they will publickly own and bear testimony in this place and about three months after he came forth and she about a year after him and from their fidelity and integrity notwithstanding all the sore and bitter tempest of Persecution a fine Meeting sprang but at this day they are scattered being still sent away as fast as they return We visited his Mother's Family where we found three of his Sisters in the love of Truth his fourth Sister being also a Friend and is Wife of John Claus living at Amsterdam We had a little sweet comfortable Meeting with them After it returning to my lodging as I was writing to Doctor Andrews President of the Counsel of State who is reported to have been the Author of this cruelty to our Friends a burden came upon me my writing would not serve turn but I must go my self and in the fear and name of the Lord to plead the innocent and suffering cause of our Friends with him So away we went to his house he was at first astonished to see what manner of Men we were but after a little time he comported himself with more kindness than we expected at his hand I askt him if He and the Senate had not received a Letter in Latine from an English-man about two years since concerning their Severity towards the People called Quakers He told me he had I replyed I was the Man and I was constrained in Conscience to visit him on their behalf and I could not see how he being a Common-wealth's-man and 〈◊〉 Protestant could persecute I pleaded with the Unnaturalness the Iâ—christianity and Imprudence of such proceedings and prest â—ur Reasonâ— earnestly but tenderly upon him he assaulted us with several Objections but blessed be the Lord they were mostly fictitious and therefore easily removed and answered He also promised me That if I would write to the Senate a Remonstrance of the Case of our Friends and express my Request therein and inclose it to him he would both present it and get it to be read and make it appear that he was not so much our enemy as we lookt upon him to be I promised to send him some Books containing a Defence of our Principles which were accordingly put into the hands of Eliza. Haesbert to deliver him in my name Having taken our leave of the Old Woman and her Daughters and a Man-friend residing in that City and left the blessings and peace of our God amongst them We took Ship for Lier where we arrived the next morning thence we took Waggon for Bremen where we came safe through the Lord's goodness the next day where we met our Friends and Companions G. Keith and B. Burly who were come hither some hours before us from Amsterdam In this City there is a work of the Lord begun though yet obscurely We had a travel upon our spirits that the blessed and precious Truth of our dear Lord and Master might find a place to rest its foot upon to that purpose we wrote to two Ministers under some Suffering from their Brethren because of their great zeal against the formality and deadness of the so called reformed Churches This we sent by a Merchant who we formerly met at Herwerden With some difficulty we got to them but the person chiefly struck at was shy to speak with us his reason was this it was known that we were in Town and it was one of the accusations against him that he was a Fosterer of all the strange Religions that came through the Town Also he was then actually under Process and that the People that had heard of the innocency of his cause conceived a prejudice against our Name though it might be without cause he could not at present confer with us and said he was sorry for it with all his heart but what we should say to his Brother should be the same as if it been said to him to whom he referred us however I took hold of his Arm and said I have this Message to deliver to thee that I may disburden my self before the Lord which was this Mind that which hath touched thy heart let that guide thee do not thou order that consult not with Flesh and Blood how to maintain that cause which Flesh and Blood in thy enemies persecuteth thee for He answered rather than I will betray that cause or desert Christ by Gods strength they shall pull my flesh of my bones So he left us in his house and truely we had a good time with his Companion the other Minister about three hours testifying unto him that the day was come and coming in which the Lord would gather out of all Sects that stand in the oldness of the Letter into his own Holy Spirit Life and Power and in this the Unity of Faith and Bond of Peace should stand and therefore that he and all of them should have an eye to the principle of God that being turned to that they might speak from it and that therein they would Glorifie God and be edified So we parted leaving the man in a sensible and savoury frame We visited the Merchant twice and had a very good time with him the man is of a loving and simple Spirit and the Love of God opened our hearts to him often We also visited Doctor Johan Sophrony Cozack an odd Compositum of a man he had great and strange openings he hath writ several hundred tracts some of them are now printed at Amsterdam he is a great enemy to the Priests and in society with none of a merry yet of a rough disposition without any method or decency in his Cloaths Food Furniture and Entertainments he wants but three of fourscore yet of a wonderful Vigor and pregnancy we were twice with him and we have reason to think he was as loving to us as to any body and truly he did show at parting some serious and hearty kindness but we could fasten little upon him as to God's Power or any inward sense of us or our testimony yet we had little to object against what we had said nay some things were very extraordinary From him we went to Doctor Belingham an English Physitian a man of a lowly and tender spirit who received us in much love lamenting when we left him that he had no more time with us At the Inn we had frequent opportunity to declare the way of Truth and we must needs say we were heard with patience and Sobriety particularly of a Doctor of Law who lodged at the house and an ancient Man of Kiel in Holstein we left Books amongst them all and in the Love and Fear of God we took our leave of them on the fifth day after dinner and begun our journey towards Herwerden the Court of the Princess where
Man greatly prevalent with too many serious people in that Land cannot abide starteth at and runneth away from him howbeit the Lord enabled me to open the thing to him as that it was no plant of God's planting but a weed of Degeneracy and Apostacy a carnal and earthly Honour the effect feeder and pleaser of pride and of a vain mind that no advantage redounded to mankind by it and how could they that ought to do all to the glory of God use that vain and unprofitable custom which cannot be done to the glory of God I intreated him seriously to consider with himself the rise and end of it whence it came whom it pleased and what that was that was angry that it had it not I also told him of the sincere and serviceable respect which Truth substituteth in place thereof and exhorted him to Simplicity and Poverty of Spirit to believe that Jesus he professed to be his Saviour whose outside as well as Doctrine pleased not the Jews and so we parted he took his leave of the Princess and then of us with great Civility After he was gone the Princess desired us to withdraw to her Chamber and there we began our farewell Meeting the thing lay weighty upon me and that in the deep dread of the Lord and eternally magnified be the Name of the Lord that overshaddowed us with his Glory his heavenly breaking dissolving Power richly flowed amongst us and his ministring Angel of Life was in the midst of us Let my Soul never forget the Divine Sense that overwhelmed all at that blessed farewell I took of them much opened in me of the Hour of Christ's Temptation his Watchfulness Perseverance and Victory about the ten Virgins what the true Virgin was the true Oyl and Lamp what the Bride-groom his Door Chamber and Supper and in conclusion that torrent of heavenly melting Love that we were all deeply affected I fell on my Knees recommending them unto the Lord crying with strong Cries for their Preservation and beseeched the Lord's Presence with us and so ended After some pause I went to the Princess and took her by the hand which she received and embraced with great signs of a weighty kindness being much broken I spoke a few words apart to her and left the Blessing and Peace of Jesus with and upon her Then I went to the Countess and left a particular Exhortation with her who fervently beseeched me to remember and implore the Lord on her behalf From her I went to the French-woman and bid her be faithful and constant to that which she knew she was exceedingly broken and took an affectionate and reverent Leave of us Then I spoke to the rest and took leave severally of them my Companions did all the like They followed us to the outward Room and there it was upon me to step to the Countess and once more to speak to her and take my leave of her which she received and returned with great Sense Humility and Love So turning to them all my Heart and Eye to the Lord I prayed that the Fear Presence Love and Life of God with all heavenly Blessings might descend and rest with and upon them then and for ever Home we went for our Lodging clear'd the House exhorted the Family left Books and then took Waggon for Wesel about 200 English Miles from Herwerden we rid three Nights and Days without lying down on a Bed or sleeping otherwise than in the Waggon which was only covered with an old ragged Sheet the Company we had with us made Twelve in number which much streightned us they were often if not always Vain yea in their religious Songs which is the fashion of that Country especially by Night they call them Luther's Songs and sometimes Psalms We were forced often to reprove and testify against their Hypocrisy to be full of all vain and often prophane Talk one hour and sing Psalms to God the next we shewed them the Deceit and Abomination of it We passed through several great Towns by the way as Lipstad Ham c. many Discourses we had of Truth and the Religion and Worship that was truly Christian and all was very well they bore what we said But one thing was remarkable that may not be omitted I had not been six hours in the Waggon before an heavy weight and unusual oppression fell upon me yea it weighed me almost to the Grave that I could almost say My Soul was sad even unto Death I knew not at present the Ground of this Exercise it remained about 24 hours upon me then it opened in me that it was a travel for the Seed that it might arise over all in them I had left behind and that nothing might be lost but the Son of Perdition O the strong Cries and deep Agonies many Tears and sincere bowings and humblings of Soul before the Lord that this holy sense which was raised in them might be preserved alive in them and they for ever in it that they might grow and spread as heavenly Plants of Righteousness to the glory of the Name of the Lord. The Narrative from the 27th of the 7th Month inclusive to the 10th of the 8th Month exclusive is inserted in the following Letter to the Countess of Hornes beginning in P. 220. and ending with P. 244. For Anna Maria de Hornes stiled Countess of Hornes at Herwerden in Germany My dear Friend O That thou mayest for ever dwell in the sweet and tender Sense of that divine Love and Life which hath visited thy Soul affected and overcome thy heart O tell me hath it not sometimes raised thy Spirit above the World and fill'd thee with fervent and passionate desires yea holy resolution to follow Jesus thy blessed Saviour who hath given his most precious Blood for Thee that thou shouldest not live to thy self but to him that hath so dearly purchased thee O the Retired Humble Reverent Frame that I have beheld thee in when this blessed life hath drawn thee into it self and adorned and seasoned thee with its own heavenly Vertue beautifying thy very Countenance beyond all the vain and foolish Ornaments of the wanton Daughters of Sodom and Egypt for therein are Charms not known to the Children of this World O that this holy and chast Life may be always pretious with thee and that thou mayest be for ever chastly kept in the Love and Fellowship of it That out of this World's nature spirit and practice thou mayest be redeemed by him who is the Way the Truth and the Life who as thou watchest with thy holy vigilance will not only daily manifest the Devices of the Enemy to thee but save thee from him For Christ's work in thee is thy sanctification as it is in him his Father's Will as he said of old to his Disciples This is the Will of God even your Sanctification O my dearly beloved Friend â—e stedfast immoveable without wavering and work out thy great Salvation with fear
and trembling and lose not that sweet and precious Sense that the Lord hath begotten in thee it is soon lost at least weakened but hard to recover wherefore let not the Spirit of the World in any of its appearances vain Company unnecessary Discourse or Words or worldly Affairs prevail upon the civility of thy Nature for they will oppress the innocent Life and bring grievous weights and burdens upon thy Soul and prolong the coming of the Lord whom thou lookest for and put the Day of thy Redemption a far off O beware of this compliance Let me put thee in mind of that sensible resolution so frequently and so passionately repeated Il faut que je rompe Il faut que je rompe Ah this speaketh a weight this weight a sense and this sense a strong Conviction Now be assured that till Obedience be yielded to that present manifestation and conviction the good things desired and thirsted after can never be Enjoyed Wherefore my dear Friend be faithful and watch against the Workings oâ— the Spirit of this World in thy self that the Nature and Image of it in all things may be crucified that thou mayst know an entire Translation with holy Enoch and walk with God Jesus the holy Light is this Cross and Power of God that killeth and maketh alive and 〈◊〉 is the heavenly Vine too if thou abideâ—â— in him thou wilt bring forth fruit bâ—â— if thou abidest not in him thou wilt noâ— bring forth that fruit in which his heavenly Father only can be glorified O see what the mind dayly abideth in O my Soul is even ravisht with the sence of that holy and quiet habitation In me saith he you shall have peace but in the World trouble however be of good cheer I have overcome the world I am not of the World as if he had said I am not of the Worlds ways Worships Customs nor Fashions for what ever is of the nature and spirit of this World hath no part in me and as I am not of this World neither are you of this world for I have chosen you out of the world out of the invention out of the worships and fashions â—f the world you are to leave them all to come out of them all and live and walk as Pilgrims in the world that is strangers To what To the life and practice of the World not using but renouncing the vain Customs and Ceremonies yea the whole Conversation of the World remembring that the friendship of this World is Enmity with God and what if the World hate you it hated me first and the Disciple is not greater than his Master nor the Servant than his Lord if you were of the World the World would love you and not reproach and persecute you for the World loveth its own O my dear Friend mayst thou be perfectly sensible what it is not to be of this World But there is yet a farther mystery in these Words not discerned even of many in whom some tenderness and inquiry is begotten much less of the worldly Christians This World hath a false Earth and a false Heaven a false Foundation and a false Ioy not only gross Wickedness but Iniquity in a Mystery inwardly and outwardly The Whore false Prophet and Dragon and all their Off-spring are here concerned This is their World that must be burnt with fire that Christ is not of nor his true Disciples O the Light of Jesus discovereth it And he is that spiritual Solomon that giveth true judgment and that saveth the living Child the true Birth giving it to the right Mother and not to the false pretender And all that hear his voice and follow him shall receive true Light discerning and Judgment to whom all Judgment is given They shall know his Voice from Man's There are two Trees of differing Natures have contrary Fruits and Leaves the one is the Tree of Life that is Christ the other the Tree of Death and that is Satan the fruit of the one giveth life the fruit of the other bringeth Death the leaves of the first Heal the leaves of the last Poison many that discern the Tree cannot clearly distinguish the Branches And those that see many Arms and Branches cannot distinctly behold the fruit much less the leaves this cometh by the gradual Discoveries and Revelations of the Light of Jesus the Word of God as it is daily received and daily obeyed yea and that Word is the Ax and Sword of the Almighty to cut it down daily feel the strokes of this eternal searching Light and Word at the very root of this corrupt Tree this evil one and his corrupt Nature Works and Effects for which end Jesus Christ is come and therefore is called a Saviour which is little known in truth to the Christians of this World Ah my dear Friend thou knowest this Word yea thou hast felâ— it O hide it in thy heart Treasure it up it up in thy Soul and love it and abide with it for ever Alas Whether shouldst thou go This hath and is the the Word of Eternal Life daily therefore watch and wait that thou mayest be grafted more and more into it that thou mayest live and grow by the virtue and life of it and that it may grow in thy heart as it grew among the first Christians the holy followers of the persecuted Jesus and when it searcheth thy Wound and cutteth away thy dead flesh yea when it separateth between the Soul and the Spirit of this World and divideth between Joints and Marrow when it cutteth off the right hand and plucketh out the right eye O watch unto Prayer and pray that thou mayest endure O keep the holy patience of this pure and living Word and this very Word will keep thee in the hour of thy sharpest Trials and sorest Tribulations O all virtue is in it O 't is a tried Word a sure refuge the staff and strength of the Righteous in all Ages 'T was David's Teacher and Buckler a Light to his feet and a Lamhorn to his Paths Walk thou in the Light thereof and thou shalt not stumble in this word is life as in the root and this life is the Light of Men They that receive and love the Light of it will therein receive divine Life from it to live to God this is the bread of God that cometh from God and seedeth and leadeth up to God by this only that which is born of God liveth and is nourished this is that Carcass to which the wise Eagles gather see thou gatherest to no other nor feâ—dest on no other This is that hidden Manna that cometh from heaven that feedeth God's Israel the World hath a Manna but it perisheth but this endureth for ever for 't is not of Man nor from Man but immortal and from God hid from the knowledge of all the vain Christians in the World So that the Israel of God can say to the Children of this World and that in Truth and
Minister of the Gospel be at the beck of any Mortal living or give his Soul and Conscience to the time and appointment of another the thing in it self is utterly wrong and against the very Nature and Worship of the new and everlasting Covenant You had better meet to read the Scriptures the Book of Martyrs c. if you cannot sit and wait in silence upon the Lord till his Angel move upon your Hearts than to uphold such a formal limited and ceremonious Worship this is not the Way out of Babylon And I have a deep sense upon my Soul that if the Young Man strive beyond the talent God hath given him to answer his Office and fill up his Place and wait not for the pure and living Word of God in his Heart to open his Mouth but either studieth for his Sermons or speaketh his own Words he will be utterly ruined Wherefore O Dear Friend have a care thou art no Snare to him nor he to thee Man's Works smother and stifle the true life of Christ what have you to do but to look to Jesus the Author of the holy desires that are in you who himself hath visited you tempt not the Lord provoke not God what should any Man Preach from but Christ and what should he Preach people too but Christ in them the hope of Glory Consider nothing feedeth that which is born of God but that which cometh down from God even the Bread of God which is the Son of God which giveth his life for the World feel it and feed on it let none mock God nor grieve his eternal Spirit that is come to seal them up from the mouth of Man that hath deceived them that Jesus the anointing may teach them and abide with them for ever Be stedfast and immoveable and this will draw the Young Man near to the Lord and empty him of himself and purge away mixtures and then you will all come to the Divine Silence and when all Flesh is silent before the Lord then is it the Lord's time to Speak and if you will hear your Souls shall live O my Soul is in great pain that you may be all chastly preserved in that divine Sense begotten in your Hearts by the eternal Word of God that abideth for ever that nothing may ever be able to extinguish it But more especially thou my Dear Friend mayest be kept in faithfulness for the Lord is come very near to thee and thou must begin the Work the Lord God expecteth it at thy hand if one Sheep break through the rest will follow wherefore watch O watch that thou may'st be strengthned and confirmed and strengthen all that is begotten of God in that Family by thy weighty savoury and circumspect life O how is my Soul affected with thy present condition it is the fervent Supplication of my heart that thou may'st through the daily obedience of the Cross of Jesus conquer and shine as a bright and glorious Star in the Firmament of God's eternal Kingdom So let it be Lord Jesus Amen We tenderly yet freely spoke ouâ— hearts to him before we parted which done in God's love we tooâ— our leave of him and Dusseldorp and got that Night to Duysburgh being the third Day of the Week We first visited Dr. Mastricht a Maâ— of a good natural Temper but a rigid Calvinist I perceived by him that they held a Consultation about seeing us at Bruch but they all concluded it was best to decline meeting with us because of the Graef he being ready to fling our Name in reproach upon them in his displeasure and this would confirm him in his Jealousies of them This might excuse the Countess but by no means Kuper and if I had any sense Mastricht was there with them upon design to frustrate the hopes we had conceived of meeting with her We from thaâ— descended to other things of weightâ— and in love and peace parted From his House we returned to our Inn and after Supper we visited the Schult who with much civility and some tenderness received us his Sister also came to us and we had a good little Meeting with them and our God was with us and his pure and tender life appeared for our Justification and pleaded our innocent Cause in their Consciences and so we parted with them leaving our Master's Peace amongst them The next day we came to Wesel being the 4th day where we understood by Dr. Schuler that thy Sister desired that we would be so kind as to see her when we returned upon that we went and visited her she received us very kindly Thy Brother in Law 's two Sisters were present we stayed with them at least two Hours Many Questions she put to me which I was glad to have an Opportunity to Answer for it made way for a Meeting she intreated us to come again if we stayed and told us our Visit was very grateful to her adding That because we past 〈◊〉 by the last time she concluded wiâ—â— herself we had no hopes of her with more to that effect From thence we went to Dr. Schuler's who freely offered us his House for a Meeting next day and indeed the Man is bold after his manner The next day about Seven I writ a Billiet in French to thy Sister to inform her of the Meeting to begin about Eight She came and her two Sisters with her there was Rosendale Colonel Copius and his Wife and about three or four more and to our great Joy the Lord Almighty was with us and his holy Power reached their Hearts and the Doctor and Copius confessed to our Testimony The Meeting lasted about three Hours being done we took our leave of them in the Spirit of Jesus and so returned to our Inn. The Taylor all this while afraid of coming to our Inn or to the Doctor 's to the Meeting great Fears have overtaken him and the poor Man liveth but in a dry Land After Dinner we visited Copius and Rosendale and at Copius's we had a blessed broken Meeting he his Wife Rosendale his Wife and another Woman Wife to one Dr. Willick's Brother present they were extreamly affected and overcome by the Power of the Lord 't was like one of our Herwerden Meetings indeed much Tenderness was upon all their Spirits This done and having left Books both there and with thy Sister we left Wesel with Hearts full of Joy and Peace and let me say this That more kindness more openness we have scarcely found in all our Travels O that this blessed Sense may dwell with them A Seed there is in that place God will gather yea a noble People he will find out And I doubt not but there will be a good Meeting of Friends in that City before many Years go about my love is great to that place O how God is our dear Lord to us who helpeth our Infirmities and carrieth through all Opposition and feedeth us with his Divine Presence
that Night at Rotterdam and having the Hague to Visit by the way made our return at that time unpracticable however the Relation of the German concerning the good Inclinations of the great Man and his Wife their disdain of the World voluntary retreat from the Greatness and Glory of it rested strongly upon our Spirits This Person presently conducted us to the House of one who had formerly been a Doctor in the University and there left us To this Person both G. F. and my self were more than ordinarily open he was of a sweet yet quick wise yet very loving and tender Spirit there were few Strangers we felt greater love to He assented to every thing we said and truly his Understanding was very clear and open to the things that lay upon us to declare and express'd his firm Belief of great Revolutions at hand and that they should terminate in the setting up of the glorious Kingdom of Christ in the World What shall I say the Man felt our Spirits and therefore loved us and in the fresh sense of that love writ a Letter by us to a retired Pâ—rson at the Hague like himself which in several places of Germany was the way whereby we found out several of the retired People we visited After near two Hours time with him we took Waggon for the Hague leaving the Peace of God upon him The first thing we did there was to enquire out the Lady Overkirk a Person of a retired and religious Character separated from the publick Worship of that Country She was a home but her Husband with her being a great Man of the Army of another Disposition and Way of Living hindred our Access at that time The next Person we went to was a Judge at the Law of Chief Court of Justice in that Republick he received us with great Respect and a more than ordinary desire to know the truth of our Faith and Principles We declared of the things most surely believed amongst us in the Power and Love of God He made his Observations Objections and Queries upon several things we spake to whom we replied and explained all Mattters in question insomuch that he declared himself satisfied in our Confessions and his good Belief of us and our Principles We took a solemn and sensible leave of him and we felt the Witness reacht and his Spirit tendred which filled our hearts with dear love to him he brought us to his Street-door and there we parted From him we went to visit that Person for whom we had a Letter from the Dr. at Leyden but he was not at home We immediately took Waggon for Delft and from thence an Express-Boat for Rotterdam where we arrived well about Eight at Night The next day was mostly spent in visiting of Friends and the friendly People in that place which consisted of several Persons of worldly Note The next day being the first Day of the Week we had a large and blessed Meeting wherein the deep Mysteries of the Kingdom of Christ and Antichrist were declared in the power of an endless Life Several of divers Religions were there but no Disturbance and Contradiction but a profound Silence and reverent Attention were over the Meeting That Night I had a blessed Meeting at my Lodging with those Persons of Note that at sometimes visited our publick Meetings as at that day and have a Convincement upon them The Lord's Love Truth and Life preciously reached towards them and they were very sweetly affected Next day I bestowed in perfecting and correcting several publick Letters which I was moved to write both in my first and second Journey in Germany and after my return to these Low-Countries They are left behind to be Translated and Printed they are omitted here because they are large and likely to be â—ereafter printed in English The Titles whereof follow I. A Summons to Christendom in an earnest Expostulation with her to prepare for the great and notable Day of the Lord that is at the door II. To all those who are sensible of the Day of their Visitation and who have received the Call of the LORD by the Light and Spirit of his Son in their Hearts to partake of the great Salvation where-ever scattered throughout the World but more especially in the High and Low-Dutch Nations Faith Hope and Charity which over-come the World be multiplied among you III. To all those Professors of Christianity that are Externally separated from the visible Sects and Fellowships in the Christian World so called wherever hidden or scattered true Knowledge which is Life Eternal from God the Father by Christ Jesus IV. A tender Visitation in the Love of God that over-cometh the World to all People in the High and Low-Dutch Nations who hunger and thirst after Righteousness and desire to know and worship God in Truth and in Sincerity containing a plain Testimony to the Ancient and Apostolical Life Way and Worship that God is reviving and exalting in the Earth in his Spirit and Truth The sense of the serious retreat of this great Man we heard of at Leiden was so strong upon me that I could not see my self clear to leave the Country before I had given him a Visit I purposed therefore the next Morning to set forward to the Hague from thence to Leiden and so to Nortwyck I arrived there in the Evening with B F. A Sonnemans and M Sonnemans and immediately made known our coming and the end of it to him and his Wife by the means of the young German who was got thither before us to visit them An Invitation came to us all at our Inn and immediately we repaired to his House which was very stately and yet plain he presently came to us took us by the hand and bid us heartily welcome We immediately sate down and after some time of retirement I spoke something of what was upon me yet not before he had given us a sober and pathetical Account of his Life and of the present frame and disposition of his Spirit All this was in the absence of his Wife but so soon as I had finisht what was then upon me to speak of the Witness of God and of its Work in Man upon the occasion of the History he gave us of his 〈◊〉 he led us into another Room 〈◊〉 his Wife was he told her here were â—omâ— Christian Friends come to visâ—t her she saluted us very kindly We all sat down and after some â—â—â—ence the heavenly Power of God did in a living and tender manner open their States and Conditions to me and opened my Mouth to them the substance of my Testimony was to this purpose That Death reigned from Adam to Moses Moses was till the Prophets the Prophets till John and John till Christ What Christ's day was how few see this day and whilst People are talking of being in Christ under Grace and not under the Law Death reigneth over them and they are
thee in his keeping that thou mayest not loose but keep in that Divine Sense which by his Eternal Word he hath begotten in thee Receive dear Princess my sincere and Christian Salutation Grace Mercy Peace be multiplied among you all that love the Lord Jesus Thy Business I shall follow with all the diligence and discretion I can and by the first give tâ—ee an Account after it shall please the Lord to bring me safe to London All my Brethren are well and present thee with their dear love and the rest that love Jesus the Light of the World in thy Family Thou hast taught me to forget thou art a Princess and therefore I use this freedom and to that of God in thee am I manifest and I know my integrity Give if thou pleasest the Salutation of my dear Love to A.M. de Hornes with the inclosed Dear Princess do not hinder but help her that may be required of her which considering thy Circumstances may not yet be required of thee Let her stand free and her freedom will make the passage easie unto thee Accept what I say I intreat thee in that pure and heavenly love and respect in which I write so plainly to thee Farewell my Dear Friend and the Lord be with thee I am more than I can say Thy Great Lover and Respectful Friend W.P. I referr thee to the Inclosed for Passages We visited Giltall and Hooftman and they us they were at one or two of the Meetings at Amsterdam Vale in aeternum For ANNA MARIA de Hornes stiled Countess of Hornes Jesus be with thy Spirit Amen BEloved and much Esteemed for the sake of that love which is raised in thy Heart to the Eternal Truth of God the increase of which I earnestly desire that thou mayst be more than Conqueror through the powerful Workings of that divine Love in thy Soul which casteth out all fear and overcometh the World In this eternal Love it is that I love thee and would be loved of thee blessed are they that hold their fellowship in it It is Pure Harmless Patient Fervent and Constant In fine it cometh from God and leadeth all that receive it to God indeed it is God and they that live in God live in Love If we keep and abide in him that hath visited us we shall always feel his love as a fountain and Wonderful are the Effects of it O it can lay down its Life for its Friend it will break through all Difficulty and hath Power to conquer Death and the Grave This transcendeth the Friendship of the World and the Vain-glorious Honours of the Courts of this World O this kindness is inviolable our purest Faith worketh by this Love O the Tenderness of that Soul in which this Love liveth and hath place the Humility and Compassion that always keeps it Company and who can lively enough describe the lovely Image it giveth the attracting and engaging Conversation it hath but it is discerned and greatly valued by the Children of Love who are born of it which all the Children of Light are What shall I say it is the great Command and keepeth all the Commands Love pure and undefiled it fulfilleth the Law and Gospel too Blessed are they that feel any of this Love shed abroad in their Hearts with this Love it is that God loved us and by the Power of this Love Christ Jesus hath died for us Yea 't is this Love that quickeneth us to Jesus that enflameeth our Souls with pure and ardent Love to him and Zeal for him Yea 't is this holy Love that forsaketh Father and Mother Sister and Brother Husband Wife and Children House and Land Liberty and Life for the sake of Jesus that leaveth the Dead to bury the Dead and followeth Jesus in the narrow Way of Regeneration that can trust him in the Winds and in the Earthquakes in the Fire and in the Waters yea when the Floods come in even unto the Soul this despondeth not neither murmureth and as it cannot despair so it never presumeth yea it can triumphantly say What shall be able to separate me from the Love of God that is in Christ Jesus Shall Principalities or Powers Things present or Things to come Shall Life or Death O no neither Time nor Mortality My Dear Friend let this noble Plant of Paradise grow in thy Heart wait upon the Lord that he would Water it and Shine upon it and make an Hedge about it that thy whole Heart may be replenished with the heavenly increase and fruits of it O that thou mayst grow in thy inner Man in Wisdom Strength and a pure Understanding in favour with God and with all People that are in the same Nature and Image for the World only loveth its own I hoped not to have been so quick upon my last long Letter but God's pure Love that hath redeemed me from the Earth and the earthly Nature and Spirit moved fervently upon my Spirit to Visit thee once more before I leave this Land I deferr'd it to this Extremity and being not clear to go hence I send thee my Christian Salutation in this pure Love that many Waters cannot quench distance cannot make it forget nor can time wear it out My Soul reverently boweth before the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ that it would please him to preserve thee Fear him and thou needest not fear for the Angel of the Lord encampeth about those that trust in his Name The Angel of his Eternal Presence guard thee that none of the Enemies of thy Soul's Peace may ever prevail against thee Perseverance and Victory be thy Portion in this World and a Crown of endless Glory be thy Reward in that which is to come Amen Since my last being the next day after the Date thereof we had a meeting with Galenus Abrahams and his Company for they are the most virulent and obstinate Opposers of Truth in that Land the success thou mayst perhaps see suddenly in Print and therefore I may defer the Narrative only in general our Dear Lord our Staff and Strength was with us and Truth reigned over all That Night we went to Leyden where we visited some Thence next day to the Hague where also we had a little Meeting O the Lust and Pride of that place thou camest into my Mind as I walked in the Streets and I said â—n my self Well she hath chosen the better part O be faithful and the Lord will give thee an eternal Recompence Thence we came to Rotterdam where the Lord hath given us several heavenly Opportunities in Private and Publick We are now come to the Briel and wait our Passage the Lord Jesus be with you that stay and with us that go that in him we may live and abide for ever Salute me to my French Friend bid her be Constant I wish thy Servants felicity but thine as mine own God Almighty overshadow thee hide thee under his Pavillion be thy Shield Rock and
not only long beheld with a grieved Eye the many Abominations and gross Impieties that reign therein the Lusts Pleasures Wantonness Drunkenness Whoredoms Oaths Blasphemies Envy Treachery and Persecution of the Just but for some time I have had a deep Sense that the Overflowing Scourge of God's Wrath and Indignation was just ready to break out upon the People Confusion Amazement and Misery The Weight of which hath caused me to Cry within my self Who shall Save us Who shall Deliver us Is there none to stay the Stroke to blunt the Edge to stop the Fury and intercede for the People and mediate for this poor Land that the Lord may not utterly depart and take his Glory and his Name from it and make it a Desolation for the Wild Beasts of the Field and Fowls of the Air a Land of Judgment and not of Promise of Curses and not of Blessings My Friends whilst the Sense of this Distress that is coming as a Dreadful Visitation from the Hand of the Displeased God upon this Ungodly Land to Stain its Glory Bring down its Pride and Punish its Forgetfulness of the Lord and his many Deliverances lay so Heavy upon my Spirit the Lord presented before me all the Truly Conscientious and Well-inclined People in these Nations and more especially You his Despised but Chosen Generation for whose sake he would yet have Mercy And in the midst of his Judgments This I received for you from the Lord as his Holy Will and Counsel and it often sprung in my Heart with a very Fresh and Strong Life TO THY TENTS O ISRAEL TO THY TENTS O ISRAEL God is thy TENT To thy God O Israel PREPARE O Friends to stand in this Day before the LORD that is in the first place for ye shall also have your Exercise Yea Great is that Work which we have to do for the Lord by his Powerful but very Peaceable Spirit for God will by all these Hurries Confusions and Vexations that are at the Door drive People from their False Gods and bring them home to HIMSELF He will throw down Wickedness and establish Righteousness he will waste Sin but Truth shall grow He will debase the Mountain of Empty Profession but the Mountain of his Holiness shall be Exalted He hath determined to raise up and renown the Seed of Light Life and Truth in the Hearts of People Holy Patience Meekness Wisdom Love Faith Purity and Perseverance so much wanting in the World shall be seen to dwell in it and only to come from it And my witness is that ye are the People through whom this Heavenly Seed of Righteousness must Clearly and Stedfastly so shine unto others in these Uneven and Rough Times that are Come and Coming as that your Heavenly Father may be Glorified by you Wherefore in the Name of the Lord be ye all dis-incumbred of the World and discharged of the Cares of it Fly as for your Lives from the Snares therein and get you into your Watch-Tower the NAME of the LORD Which is not a Dead Name or a meer Literal Name but a Living Spiritual and very Powerful Name A Strong Tower indeed yea an Invincible Fortress where dwell ye with God and in him who speaketh Peace to his Children and ordains Quietness for them that trust in him He will make you to lie down Safely even then when Darkness and Confusion shall be thick about you yea ye shall live in the Fire that will Consume the Stubble of the World and your Garments shall not be so much as Singed for the Son of God whom the Flames as well as Winds and Seas obey will be in the Midst of you Next Friends this know We are the People above all others that must stand in the Gap and Pray for the putting away of the Wrath so as that this Land be not made an Utter Desolation and God expects it at our Hands PREPARE ye therefore to Meet and Sanctifie the Lord in his Coming and Judgments Why stand any of you Gazing Let none Gaze or Look out I beseech you that is the Enemy's Work to weaken you within but be ye Retired be ye Centered in the Eternal One and Meditate upon the Lord and his Living Pure Law that ye may be Wise in Heart and travel in Spirit for this Poor Land and that for Enemies as well as Friends The Lord is ready to hear you for this people when ye are ready to Intercede and I testifie Abraham is amongst you God's Friend and his Just Lot too yea Jacob that Prevailed and One that is Greater than them all JESUS the Lamb of God whose Blood speaketh better things than that of Abel in whom is the Mediation and Attonement Be therefore encouraged to wait upon the Lord and to bow before him and humbly to Meditate in the Life of JESUS with him I know he will put it into your Hearts so to do if ye wait upon him For he will not cast off this Land as he did Sodom he hath a Right Seed a Noble People in it that he hath and yet will gather many Sheep there be not yet of our Fold whom he will bring in and the foul Weather and the Storms will but help to drive them Home to JESUS the Living and True Witness and Light within that he whom God hath ordained to Reign may be Great in them And Lastly my Dear Friends and Brethren by how much this Day draws Nigh by so much the more do ye Stand loose in your Affections to the World but faâ—t in the Faith And Assemble your selves together and let God Arise in you and his Power and Spirit of Life among you that ye may not only Wrestle but in the End Prevail That it may be seen that SALVATION is of the Jews the Jews Inward in Spirit and in Truth And truly the time hastens that Ten shall take hold of the Skirt of such a Jew and they shall be saved But Wo to the Hypocrite in that Day the Formalist the Jew Outward the Circumcision in the Flesh and Fleshly Christian that cannot Resist the Temptations of this World the Temporizer one that Runs with the Tide he will be Divided For there will be more Tides more Interests on Foot at once than One wherefore Perplexity will take hold on him his Policy will be Confounded He will not know what to do to be Safe nor what to Joyn with this Double-minded Man will be Unstable in his Counsels and in his Actions his Sandy Foundation will be Shaken Therefore as I said Wo to the Hypocrite and to the Covetous Man too for his Gods will fail him the Thief the Moth and Rust will invade his Baggs and surprise his Treasure his Anguish will be Great in this Day But my Dear Brethren as the Power and Spirit of our Lord God will Preserve and Establish us if we Sincerely and Entirely confide therein and that above our Sollicitation or Need of Carnal Consultations or Contrivances which we have