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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	worship_n	worship_v	zeal_n	149	3	8.6577	4	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A33498	The books and divers epistles of the faithful servant of the Lord Josiah Coale collected and published, as it was desired by him the day of his departure out of this life.	Coale, Josiah, 1632?-1668.; Coale, Josiah, 1632?-1668. Collection of the several books of Josiah Coale.; Coale, Josiah, 1632?-1668. Whore unvailed.; Coale, Josiah, 1632?-1668. Vindication of the light within.; Parker, Alexander, 1628-1689.; Whitehead, George, 1636?-1723.; Penn, William, 1644-1718.	1671 (1671)	Wing C4751_PARTIAL; Wing C4760A_PARTIAL_CANCELLED; ESTC R23397	193,793	414

Performances without the Inward Leadings of the Spirit of the Lord and in this Antichristian-spirit by which they have been exercised in the aforesaid Idolatrous Abominations they have been Killing Destroying and Devouring one another about those things which are their own Inventions set up in their own Wills which they would have all to conform to and have long imposed it one upon another by Penal Laws and thereby have enforced many who fear'd Man more then God to conform contrary to what they were perswaded in their own Consciences to worship the Image set up by them yet a Remnant there was alwayes whom God preserved and rais'd up by his Power to stand faithful Witnesses against their Idolatrous Worships and Traditions whose Blood this antichristian-Antichristian-spirit in the Beast and false Prophet that carries the Whore hath always drunk and many Faithful Martyrs of Jesus in times past have seal'd their Testimony against this false Church of Apostate Christians in which this Antichristian spirit rules even with their very Lives though they did not see nor understand the things that are now seen and understood by many yet blessed be the Lord they were by his Power and Spirit so furnished and sustained and so filled with Love to God and his Cause and with Zeal against the false Church and her Antichristian Impositions and Idolatries that they loved not their Lives unto death but laid down their Lives with Chearfulness as a Testimony against them and so through Faith have obtained a Good Report amongst us who are now following the Lamb in the same Foot-steps of the Flock And so my Beloved Friends Seeing that now in fulness of time God hath rais'd us up by his Power according to his Purpose and Determination and Fore-knowledge to be faithful Witnesses for his Name and Truth and to the Power of his Appearance in our Hearts and to bear Testimony against the aforesaid Superstitions and and Idolatrous Impositions which are practis'd at this day amongst them that know not the only true and living God nor Jesus Christ whom he hath sent a Light into the World I say my Friends These things are sufficient to engage our Hearts unto the Lord follow him unto the end through all Trials and Exercises of what nature or kind soever that for the future may come upon us for our Testimonies sake For my Friends We know right well that God hath not been wanting unto us in any Tryal or State whatsoever if we have not been wanting in or Obedience unto him but hath been alwayes present with us and hath oft caus'd his Love to abound unto us and in us being shed abroad in our hearts by his good Spirit so that for joy of Heart we could even sing Praises to the Name of the Lord in the midst of our Sufferings and Afflictions so that we have no Cause to be discourag'd at the Sufferings which attend us nor at the Threats and Frowns of Wicked Men who hate and persecute us without a just Cause but we have rather great Cause of encouragement to persevere and go on bearing forth our Testimony for the Lord through all Sufferings if it be Death it self knowing the Reward thereof to be so exceeding great and having this Confidence in our selves That none of these things shall be able to move us nor to seperate us from the Love of God which we have in Christ Jesus Nay but rather shall confirm us for as the Apostle said It is an evident Token to us of Salvation but to our Adversaries of Perdition and that of God And so my Beloved Friends You who are already Exil'd and sent into forreign Parts of the World for your Testimony 's sake I doubt not but you experimentally know in an especial manner the Largeness of the Extent of God's Love unto his People in a Suffering Condition you having been in measure exercis'd therein beyond many others though I doubt not but have the Testimony of God's Holy Spirit that many are as freely given up in the same Faith for the same Testimony to partake with you outwardly of the same Sufferings as they do inwardly sympathize with you therein if the Lord see it meet for the Honour of his Name so to suffer them to be exercised Yet nevertheless All who have been and are faithful to God in their Places have and do enjoy so much of the Peace and Presence of God as is fully satisfactory unto them so that in the Unity of the Spirit of Life which from God we have receiv'd and by which we are seperated from the World and its Wayes and Works of Darkness and by which we are rais'd up to be faithful and true Witnesses for God and against the Traditions of men by which they have made void God's Commandments I say in this Spirit we do sympathize and partake with you both in Suffering and in Rejoycing and have a real Sence upon our hearts and spirits of your Estate and we are not unmindful of you but do heartily pray That Grace Health Mercy and Peace together with all Spiritual Blessings in Christ our Lord may be continually multiplied and encreased amongst you that the Aboundings thereof you may know unto your great Consolation that so being thereby watered and refreshed you may grow in the Grace of God and in the Knowledge of our Lord Jesus and may feel his Life to encrease in you and so to strengthen you that you thereby may be able to teach others also and to instruct them in the Way of Life and Salvation that so your Sufferings and Exilement may make for the Furtherance of the Gospel of God and for the spreading of his Blessed Glorious Truth through the Nations and for the gathering into it them who are yet afar off from God and Strangers unto him that so the Witness of God in all Consciences being answer'd by you both in Life Conversation and Doctrine you may be a good savour unto God both in them that believe and also in them that perish that the Justification of Life in the Spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ you may all feel and witness and that will be your alone Satisfaction in all Conditions and therein my Love doth dearly salute you all And in this my Dear Friends pray one for another and walk together in Love and be of one Mind and Practice in all things that appertain to the Worship of God and to your Testimony for Him and against the World and its Wayes and Worships and live in Peace one with another and build up one another in your most precious Faith and watch over one another in the Spirit of Love and Meekness and let there be no Straightness nor Strangeness one towards another but be Open-hearted and Tender one to another And if any thing appear amongst any of you which tends to the Hurt of any Particular or to the Truth in general in the Spirit of Meekness let it be spoken to them and in the same Spirit let

the Name of the Lord and for God that the Spirit of Christ doth not nor never did admit or allow of persecution or of destroying mens lives about Worship and Faith towards God neither are any of them true Christians whatsoever they profess that are found so doing For it is not a bare profession of Christ and of zeal for his cause and crying up Ordinances c. that makes people true Christians or that gives them acceptance with God or will make them well-pleasing unto God But that which makes a man a true Christian is his obedience unto that Spirit which baptizeth into the true Faith by which Righteousness is wrought Heb. 11.33 and into Christ who is the Author of faith and will bring him to have the mind of Christ as the true Christians had and will make him partaker of his divine nature and will teach him to live soberly righteously and godly in this present World and to do to all men as he would they should do unto him which is according to the Law and Prophets that Christ came to fulfil And indeed there is nothing that can bring a man into this true Christian state but only the working and operation of the Spirit of Christ in his inward parts which all ought to obey and submit unto For the persecuting Jews who were uncircumcised in heart and ears and did alwaies resist the holy Ghost they professed as great Zeal for God and his Cause as the Apostate Christians now do and they look'd for the coming of the Messiah of whom all the Prophets prophesied and professed they would Adore him and Reverence him c. and said That if they had been in the dayes of their Fathers they would not have slain the Prophets Mat. 23.31 who prophesied of the coming of Christ and so they had seemingly a great Zeal for God and his Truth But alas a Murdering spirit was found in them for notwithstanding they professed That they would not have kill'd the Prophets yet they kill'd the Son who was the end of the Prophets And although the Prophets signified the Time when Dan. 9.24 and the Place where the Messiah should be born Mic. 5.2 yet when he was come according to the Prophets which they profest these Professing Jews would not own him nor receive him John 1.11 because he reprov'd their Hypocrisie and their Murdering spirit John 8.40 but they Crucified and Slew Him And this is the very State of the Apostate Christians this day For who is there now amongst them but will profess as great Love to Christ as the Jews in Christ's dayes did to the Prophets who prophesied of him and who is there now among'st them but will say Had we been in Pilate's dayes 〈◊〉 would not have crucified Christ nor delivered him up to be crucified as the Jews said of the Prophets yet notwithstanding their so saying they do as the Jews did for now in this day of his spiritual appearance which they profess they look for and expect they are found persecuting of him in his Members under the sam̄e pretence that the Jews persecuted him in their day viz. as a Blasphemer c. And so the Persecutors were in all ages blinded by the godd of the World who was a murtherer from the beginning and though they could see the iniquities of their fathers and predecessors in persecuting and killing the Prophets yet the envy of their hearts was such that they could not see their own iniquities in persecuting and slaying the Son who was greater than the Servants whom their fathers slew so as I said before it is not a profession of Christ and his Ordinances or zeal for his cause that makes people true Christians neither is God Worshipped upon any of those mountains where the persecuting and destroying one another is but the Worship of God consisteth in obedience to that Spirit of Truth which condemns all those works of darkness and cruelty and in his own Mountain of Holiness where nothing hurts nor destroys Isa 11.9 And such is the Father now seeking to worship him that will worship him there and is now gathering his Sheep from off the barren Mountains upon which the Whore sits where they have been scattered in the dark and cloudy day of Anchrist's reign and where the Wars and Fightings are even to his own Holy Mountain where they shall learn war no more Isa 2.4 And this is the work that the Envious and Murtherous one opposeth and bestirs himself with all his force and might in his Instruments of Cruelty and Men of War arming of them with all kind 〈◊〉 weapons that possibly he can form to fight against this Appearance and Work of God for so it hath been that since we who are reproachfully called Quakers were raised up to be a people to bear Testimony for the Name of the Lord and of the working of his Spirit and Power we have alwayes been even as a Butt for all the Archers of Babylon even from every Mountain to shoot at and our sufferings have not been only in our persons and estates as the spoyling of our goods and scourgings and cruel mockings and imprisonments many unto death as this Nation to her anguish must be made to know but even all sorts of Babylons Merchants or they that trades in every part of her or within her Subburbs have oft made it their business to write and print against us endeavouring thereby as much as in them lay to render us odious to our own Nation and to Nations about us under pretence that we were Papists and Jesuits and that we propagated Jesuitical Principles c. but they being almost if not altogether weary of that work finding it to be to no purpose for the truth which we profess hath still got ground and flourisheth through all these things now at last the Papists or Jesuits themselves who I perceive have a secret hope of a day once more in this Nation they begin to put out their heads and to print against us and so both Protestants and Papists even every head and horn of the Beast after whom the whole World wonders are found pushing against the Lamb and the Saints Rev. 17.14 For of late a certain Pamphlet accidentally came to my hands written by a perfect Roman Catholick who subscribed his name A. S. in which he seems to shew himself sensible of the great distractions that are throughout the whole Christendom about the true way of worship and concerning the true Church and first states a Question viz. which is this Church c. and afterwards makes it his business to prove the Church of Rome to be this true Church and that by divers Arguments by him stated in a Syllogistical manner And I also finding the Author of the aforesaid Pamphlet therein smiting at the People of God called Quakers and endeavouring to render them odious by affirming they are led by a deluding spirit c. I found my self somewhat concerned to return a brief reply

to his chief Arguments therein produced by which he hath in vain endeavour'd to accomplish the aforesaid work by him undertaken A. S. His first Argument produced to prove the Church of Rome to be the true Church consisteth of nine particulars as followeth viz. That is the true Church and no other which is one Holy Catholick and Apostolick Church Which is visible infallible inerrable in which is power of miracles out of which none can be saved But the Roman Pontificial that is to say the Faithful People dispersed all the World over in communion with the high Priest Bishop or Pope of Rome is such and no other Therefore the Roman Pontificial alone is the true Church Reply To which I reply that the true Church of which Christ alone is Head and Supreme Governour is in it self one holy Apostolick Church c. I shall not go about to deny But as touching that grand Question by A. S. stated before his Argument here inserted viz. which is this Church c. I answer this is a thing indeed disputable amongst many yea amongst many thousands yet not at all questionable nor yet doubtful unto me for I am well satisfied therein and in all other things that appertain to the way of Life and Salvation but that the Church of Rome is the true Church as A. S. affirmeth and by his many Arguments hath endeavoured to prove I do not acknowledge but deny and doubt not but I shall in this short ensuing Treatise prove the contrary to the Satisfaction of every judicious Reader First Although the true Church of which Christ is in visible Head is one yet the oneness of the Church of Rome is not a sufficient Argument to prove her to be the true Church for wherein doth her oneness consist farther then in Idolatry Superstition Murther and such like abominations of which much might be mentioned which was never practised by the true Church in the Apostles dayes but in these things the Church of Rome is one Witness her Worshipping Idols or Images bowing to that she calls her Altars and the rest of her Supestitious Ceremonies witness the Killing Burning or Drinking the Blood of so many Thousands as she hath done for many hundred yeares past as the whole Christendom full well knows therefore the Church of Rome is not the true Church Secondly And consider was not the company of Priests one in Hosea's dayes who murthered in the way by consent whom the Prophet compared to troops of Robbers Hos 6.9 And is not the Church of Rome one as they were for hath not she murthered many by consent of most of her members in the way that she is in consider these things But then A. S. saith That she is one in matters of Faith and governed by one invisible Head Christ and by one visible Head the Pope the true Successor of Peter c. and therefore she is the true Church Answ 1. I answer that she is perfectly united in matters of Faith I utterly deny witness the History of the Counsel of Trent which copiously relates the Divisions and Contradictions amongst them there about matters of Faith But admit that it were so that she were one in matters of Faith that doth not prove her to be the true Church unless she could prove her Faith to be the true Faith by which righteousness is wrought Heb. 11.13 And which is made perfect by works of righteousness James 2.22 But the Faith of the Church of Rome is not the true Faith as her works of unrighteousness before mentioned clearly make manifest therefore the Church of Rome is not the true Church Secondly That the Church of Rome is governed by one invisible Head Christ that I also deny and her fruits before mentioned and that which I shall hereafter mention sufficiently declares the contrary and as Christ said to the Jews If you were of Abraham you would do the works of Abraham but now you go about to kill me thus did not Abraham So say I of the Church of Rome If she were governed by the one invisible Head Christ as the true Church was then she would have the mind of Christ who came not to destroy mens lives but to save them as the true Church had 1 Corinth 2.16 but she hath not the mind of Christ Witness her destroying the lives of many not onely of those that believe not but of those that believe Therefore she is not governed by the invisible Head Christ and consequently is not the true Church but the Whore that drinks the blood of the Saints Thirdly But that the Church of Rome is governed by her visible Head the Pope I shall not go about to contradict for although that proves her to be one in subjection to the Pope yet it doth not prove her to be the true Church because Christ never ordained a visible Head to his Church but that the Pope is the true Successor of Peter as A. S. affirms that I do deny and it remains for him to prove it or for some of his Servant to do it for him for after Peter was converted he never gave consent to the murthering of any as the Pope hath done many Therefore he is not the true Successor of Peter 2. That the true Chu ch is holy or as A. S. saith the spotless Body of Christ that I do acknowledg but the Church of Rome of which the Pope is visible head is not holy nor the spotless Body of Christ 1. For the spotless Body of Christ the true Church was baptized with the holy Ghost and with fire the Spirit of Judgment and of burning and thereby her filth and her spots were purged away from her and she was washed from Idolatry and covetousness c. as the Apostles testified 1 Cor. 6.11 and thereby she was fitted for Gods Kingdom and was made to sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus and had the mind of Christ 1 Cor. 2.16 who came not to destroy mens lives c. Luk. 9.56 But the Church of Rome is not washed from Idolatry nor free from Murther as her worshipping of Idols or Images doth testifie and as her killing and destroying about Religion and Worship beareth witness which the Spirit of Christ never allowed of not the spotless Body of Christ never practised Therefore the Church of Rome is not holy nor the spotless Body of Christ And as to that affirmation of A. S. in the third Number of his first Chapter viz. Every man as he is Regenerated in Christ and a member of his body is holy and a Saint though as he is the Son of Adam be is a lyar and a sinner Answ To this I answer That the most part of all the Sectaries in the World will joyn with him in that particular therefore he need not so much cry against them but the True Church will not own that Doctrine neither can I own it because it is the Doctrine of Devils and the Spirit of God testifies against

nor stood in his Counsel therefore have they not profitted the people nor turned them from the evil of their wayes neither are they brought to the knowledge of the Truth by which Freedom and Redemption is witnessed So their Preaching is vain and their Faith is vain and they remain in their sins which separates them from God and are dead while they live and are unrestored and unreconciled and have no assurance of their eternal wel-being And when any comes into a serious Consideration and unto a true sence of the sad state they are in and how they have lived and spent their time all their Life long Then Judgment and Wrath Condemnation and Pangs and the Sorrows of Hell conpasseth them about and then seeing themselves in the perishing state are even at their wits end yet these things they consider not in the time of their prosperity Wherefore all people every where who desire to come out of these Distractions and Confusions and Hurryings and Contentions about Faith and Worship and Ordinances and out of the Pollutions which the World lives in and to come into the Spiritual Worship which is in the Spirit and in the Truth To you I say that is the Spirit of Truth in you all in which God will be worshipped which reproves you of sin in your hearts and as you come into obedience to that it will bring you into the Spiritual Worship For the Spiritual Worship consisteth in Obedience to the Spirit and this is the everlasting Ordinance of God viz. Christ the Light the quickening Spirit for him hath God ordained of old to all that believe and work Righteousness for Salvation So all being exercised in the Light and with the quickning Spirit here you are exercised in the Ordinance of God and here the living Substance is known in which the Shadows Types and Figures end And here the Hand-writing of Ordinances is blotted out And here the Law ends which was contained in Ordinances mark that in Christ the everlasting Ordinance Concerning FAITH ANd the Living FAITH which gives the Saints victory over the World this cometh by hearing of the Word which is nigh unto you all even in your hearts and in your mouthes and as every one comes to hear and obey it you will thereby be begotten in the Faith which was once delivered to the Saints by which they wrought Righteousness and that is the Faith which giveth victory over the World and which worketh by love for the purifying of the Conscience from dead works to serve the living God and without this Faith it is impossible to please God for whatsoever is not of Faith is sin So search your selves and see whether you are in this Faith yea or nay or whether your Faith be not a dead Faith For that which doth not lead to work righteousness is a dead faith for as the body without the spirit is dead so faith without works is dead also yet by works only there is none justified and faith without works is dead for the Faith of Abraham wrought with works and by works Faith is made perfect So let not any deceive themselves with a fained faith or framed in the imagination for that is a vain faith and not able to save you Also beware that your Faith towards God be not taught by the Precepts of men for that will stand you in no stead neither will it give you victory over the Pollutions of the World nor purifie your hearts from sin Wherefore mind the Word which is nigh by the hearing of which Faith cometh even the Living Faith by which the Just live which was once delivered to the Saints and which we earnestly content for Concerning HOPE ANd the living Hope which maketh not ashamed but puryfieth the heart even as God is pure This is not witnessed nor known but through the tribulation patience in the experimental working and operation of the Spirit of Life in the inward parts and Word of Life For by the Word of God which lives and abides for ever are we begotten again unto a lively Hope which we have for an anchor both sure and stedfast in all our Tryals and tossings and hurryings which we meet withal in the World and amongst the hypocritical Professors thereof whose Hope will perish in the day when the Wrath of God is revealed from Heaven upon all who hold the Truth in unrighteousness But he whose Hope is begotten by the operation of the Word and Spirit of Life even he it is that purifies himself even as God is pure So all who desire the Way of Life to knowe and to walk in the Path of Peace which the Worker of Iniquity knows not I say unto you all it is in the midst of the Paths of Judgment which Christ the Light the wisdom of God leads unto So every one the light in your own Consciences minde wherewith Christ Jesus the Son of the Fathers love hath enlightened you and as you Wait in it you will finde it checking and reproving you for sin and iniquity in the secret of your hearts and Consciences and as every one comes to be guided by this Light which is the way it will be an infallible guide unto you to lead you in the way of Righteousness and in the midst of the paths of Judgment and the worker of iniquity you will see judged in your own particulars daily and the Prince of this World will come to be cast out as you dwell in the Judgment and this is the way whereby Sion comes to be redeemed Wherefore dwell in that which judgeth the man of sin in your own particulars and joyn not to that Nature which would lead to work iniquity or unrighteousness but joyn to that which in your own particulars judgeth it and here the Cross you will know which the whole World are Strangers to and then the Old man will come to be weakened and to be put off with his deeds that the New man be put on which is created in Righteousness and true Holiness but this work is not wrought nor effected but though many Combats Trials and great Tribulations which formerly you were not acquainted with while you were lead captive at the Devils will and followed his lusts and the strong man armed kept the house then all was at peace but when the stronger is come the other must be bound and a spoil of his goods must be made and his heritage must be laid waste for the coming of the second Adam Christ Jesus the Light of the World is not to send Peace on Earth but a Sword and then you will hear of Wars and rumors of Wars see then that ye be not troubled for these are but the beginning of sorrow but the end is not yet So as every one are exercised with the Spirit of Truth in your own particulars which reproves you of sin this will lead you into all truth and to work Righteousness and will bring you to fulfil the Royal Law and

Reader that these things testified of him are true as many living Witnesses can seal to the same look over his own Writings and read over his several Epistles written to the Churches at several times and upon several Occasions which are gathered together and presented to thy vew and if thou hast any true spiritual sence in thee thou wilt feel and discern that such sweet and pleasant Streams must needs flow from a sweet and good Fountain knowing that one Fountain doth not send forth sweet and bitter Water therefore the Streams being sweet the Fountain or Well from whence they spring is sweet also and he having drunk deep draughts of the Water that Christ gives it became in him a Well of Living Water springing up into Eternal Life according to the saying of Christ our Saviour Whosoever shall drink of the Water that I give it shall be in him a Well of Living Water springing up into Eternal Life And that this was true in him is attested unto by one who had large experience of his Integrity and Holy Zeal for God who has been often in travels with him and still is a Labourer in the Lord's Vine-yard desiring and praying to Almighty God that the scattered Sheep may be gathered into the Fold of the good Shepherd That so there may be one Sheep-Fold and one Shepherd A. P. A TESTIMONY Concerning Josiah Coale AS concerning our dear Friend and Brother Josiah Coale I having had a certain knowledge of him and his Life from that Conversation we had many times together in the Service of the Lord and living Society of the Holy Spirit I have this Testimony to give of him That he was a Man indued with an heavenly and effectual Gift and therein was enlarged and increas'd as a Reward upon him after his sore Travels and Labour in the Gospel beyond Seas and he had a real love and estimation of his Brethren in the Service and Work of the Lord and delighted in their Fellowship and Communion being often refresht thereby His faithfulness was manifested to God and to his People amongst whom he laboured he was freely given up to improve his Gift in the Heavenly Calling wherewith he was called to spend and to be spent for the Gospel's sake wherein he had his reward counting nothing too dear of Life Relation or Estate to resign up in and for that Service wherein he manifested both his Commission and Power to be of God and not of man for the gathering out of Darkness false Wayes and Worships emty Professions and vain Traditions of men into the Light and Living way of Truth that therein they might serve and worship God in Spirit which admits of no confidence in the Flesh nor products thereof He was a Man of a tender spirit having a reverent esteem of his faithful Brethren and elders in the Truth and he had a tender care to preserve Unity and Brotherly Love as also the sence he had of his reward made him chearful in his Service and fervent in spirit and zealous in his Testimonies against all false and deceitful spirits which slight and dis-esteem Truth and lead into Apostacy from the Unity and Fellowship of the Gospel whose wayes do not tend to Peace but Strife and Self-separation He fervently preached the Cross of Christ and prest the necessity of obedience through it and unto watchfulness in the fear of God He preached Faith in the Power of God and the Righteousness thereof not to stand in the wisdom of man nor in lifeless Professions or traditional Opinions nor yet to consist in self acting and voluntary humility but in Spirit and Life from which living Obedience and Righteousness naturally spring by which Testimony and Preaching he was instrumental to affect the Hearts of many with the excellency of the Truth as it is in Jesus and turn many thereunto even from Darkness unto Light and from Satan's Power to God that they might both receive Remission of sin and Possession of Life Eternal And as he had freely received of Christ so he freely gave and as he was freely given up to spend and to be spent for the Lord so he spared not of his outward Substance in his Service his care being such to cut off occasions from such as seek them and so to keep the Gospel without charge as that he many times would not use his power and freedom which Christ allowed his Ministers in that case as mentioned in Luke Chap. 10. Verse 7. but with the Apostle Paul debased himself that he might not prove chargable to the Churches and indeed he went much a warfare at his own charges giving freely up both his Liberty and Life for the promotion of the Gospel of Truth both in this and other Nations through many Hazards and difficulties particularly of late years in this City of London wherein the blessed effects of his Labours Travels and Sufferings are felt and known by many And as he lived in and by the Faith of God's Elect so with him to live was Christ and to dye a Gain who being outwardly spent for the Gospel sake was inwardly renewed by the Vertue of the same whereby having conquered Death and the Grave he chearfully embraced his Dissolution and changed for a full and perpetual Injoyment of that Joy and Reward of Life and Glory which he had long an Earnest and Evidence of in himself and in the fulness of which his Soul now rests and lives for evermore Yea his life is felt in the heavenly Society and though he being dead yet speaketh in him in whom he died who is his Resurrection and Life for evermore G. W. A Short TETIMONY OF The Life Death and Ministry of that Faithfull Servant of the LORD Josiah Coale THough I knew him not from the beginning yet I knew him in that which hath neither beginning of Dayes nor end of Life which is the Eternal Power of God that by which he was separated from the World and made an able powerful and faithful Minister of the everlasting Gospel of Christ Jesus our Lord and which in all Travels Trials and Sufferings that did attend him made him more then Conqueror to the glorifying of the Name of the Lord in the sight of his Enemies and to the replenishing of his Soul with Divine Consolations In the Eternal Light I knew him and had often and sweet Fellowship with him therein to my great refreshment even in the gloomy and dark day of my early and deep Exercises and though he was a man free in his disposition and ready to help all through the tenderness of his spirit yet was he indued with sound Judgment to the discerning of spirits and giving no liberty to the Flesh but was dreadful in his Testimony against the Life Glory and Customes of the World being redeemed therefrom and made a Witness through Judgment of that pure Spirit of Glory which was before the World began which vails and darkens the beauty of Flesh and gathers into

the Cause of God in the Prisons of London Hartford c. This is a Salutation of my Love and Life MY dearly beloved Friends who are oft brought into my Remembrance and presented before me by the Spirit of the Lord with whom my Life is and unto whom the Love of my soul doth even flow forth and extend it self in the Vertue of that Life which is Infinite and Eternal and in the Spirit of Supplication my soul is daily pour'd forth unto the Lord before the Throne of his Majesty on your behalfs Beseeching and Desiring That he will so furnish and arm you with the whole Armour of his own Righteousness that you may be entire wanting nothing and that you may be enabled to stand and hold out unto the End in this day of Battel and Tryal and that as Valiant Souldiers of the Lamb you may endure all Hardships as seeing him present in the midst of you who is Invisible in the Faith of the Answer whereof I dearly salute you all And dear Friends in this you may all be enboldned and in this Consideration your Heads may be lifted up above all Sufferings even in the midst of them that the Cause in which you are engag'd and for which you suffer is a Righteous Cause of which we have the Witness or Testimony in our own Consciences and a more certain Witness cannot be and this Witness doth testifie That our Cause is the Cause of God who hath call'd us out of Darkness into his marvelous Light and hath made choice of us to bear Testimony to and stand Witnesses for his Name and Truth in this Day of his Spiritual Appearance and Manifestation or Revelation of the Son of his Love whose quickening Spirit we have receiv'd by which we are seperated from the World and by which we have been and still are constrain'd to bear Testimony against all Oppression and Cruelty and against all the Unrighteousness of this sinful World for which Cause these Sufferings come upon us and attend us But blessed be the Lord who hath call'd us with so Honorable a Calling and accounted us worthy to suffer for so Honourable a Cause as Our Testimony for his Blessed Name and Truth the Reward thereof which is great will be certain unto all who are found Faithful unto the End Wherefore my dear Friends towards whom my Bowels of Love even earn and my Life and Soul reacheth as you may feel who are sensible of Life I say unto you all in the Name and Fear of the Lord Lift up your Heads over and above all Sufferings both present and to come I say in the Faith look over them all unto him who is invisible who will out-last them all who alone hath Immortallity and dwells in the Light whose Presence is certainly with you and amongst you and will be so continu'd as you walk and continue with him in his Everlasting Covenant of Light in which he dwells Wherefore let your Life Delight and Habitation be in him for my Friends you whose Hearts are upright unto God know right well that the Lord hath not been at any time wanting unto you in any Exercise of what nature or kind soever in time past the consideration of which is a sufficient Encouragement to every one to cast their Care upon him and to resign up themselves unto him who takes Care for them And if the Enemy be permitted so far to prevail as to execute his Decrees made against us yet in this may we be all satisfied that it shall certainly work for good unto us in the End and shall make for the furtherance of the Glorious Gospel of Peace and for the Exaltation of the Worthy Name of the Lord by which we are call'd wherefore in Contentedness with the Will of the Lord in all states let every one rest resign'd up unto him and in the Gift of his own Spirit wait upon him to receive daily Refreshment from his Presence that you may be Water'd Refreshed and Consolated from day to day that so you may grow in his Grace and be kept fresh and living in his precious Truth to shine forth in the beauty thereof And let it be your great Care above all things to keep in the Enjoyment and Feeling of the Peace and Love of God in your own Hearts and in that you will have Content in all Conditions and live in Love and in Peace one with another and have perfect Charity amongst your selves and whatsoever tends to the contrary let it be condemned by the Light in the rise of it And bear with and for one another and watch over one another in Love and therein exhort one another and build up one another in the most precious Faith which gives you Victory over the World and over all the Persecuting Powers of Darkness and be a Strength and a Refreshing and a Comfort one unto another in your Persecuted Suffering State and Condition And God Almighty keep you all and refresh your hearts daily with his Love and renew your strength with the vertue of his Life that none may be weary nor faint in your Minds but that all may endure with Patience and Valour and Boldness and Courage in the Lamb's Spirit unto the End that in the End you may be Crown'd with the Crown of Immortal Life and Glory which never fades away which is the Daily-Prayer of him who dearly and entirely loves you all who are of an Upright Heart by which Love I was constrain'd to salute you all at this time with these few Lines and so rest in it From my outward Beeing near Bristol this 20th of the 1st Moneth 1665. Your Dear and truly Loving Friend and Brother Josiah Coale A Salutation of Love From the Spirit of Life Unto all Friends of TRUTH Who are in Exilement or Sentenc'd to Exilement for the Exercise of their Pure Consciences in the Service and Worship of God MY beloved Friends Brethren and Sisters who are expos'd to Exilement from the Land of your Nativity for the sake of your Testimony to the blessed Truth of God and who have been and are content to suffer the loss of all that were dear unto you in this present World for the sake of the Lord Jesus Christ and rather then to betray that blessed Testimony which God had committed unto you to bear for his Name and who have sufficiently manifested your fidelity unto the Lord and his blessed Truth even in the view of the whole World as a Witness against their False Antichristian and Idolatrous Worships which God by his Power will certainly throw down and bring to nought and who have bore Testimony in Faithfulness in and by your Submissiveness to an Exil'd Estate against that Antichristian spirit of Persecution which Raigns and Rules in the Hearts of all the Apostate False Christians whose Worship standeth in Subjection to the Precepts and Commandments of Men and in Bowing to Stocks and Stones and to the Works of Men's Hands and in other Outward

to rule and reign according to his promise made by the Mouths of his Prophets in Ages past to which Nations must bow and bend and become Subject I tell you plainly and truly that if this be your expectations which your proceedings gives me cause to believe it is you will certainly fail therein And God will assuredly frustrate these your expectations and by this very way and means that you take to suppress and root out the People of God from having a Beeing amongst you even thereby you will provoke the Lord to root out you if you persist therein Wherefore beware lest that which you think and expect to bring upon the People of God be by the hand of God brought upon your selves For be it known unto you the Lord God Almighty is with his People of a truth whom you have turned your Sword and Power against and what is done unto them he certainly taketh as done unto himself And in as much as you go about to suppress his people or to limit them in the exercise of their Consciences towards God you therein are found Fighters against God and thereby you go about to stop and hinder the Work of God which will be as hard for you to do as it was for Saul to Kick against the Pricks of the Witness of God in his own Conscience Wherefore consider these things and remember that many Warnings and tender Visitations of Love the Lord hath sent unto you in times past which you have little regarded hitherto but go on exercising Cruelty towards the people of God And now at this time also I am moved and it is upon my heart by the Spirit of the Lord to lay these things before you and to tell you in plainness what the Lord will do and bring to pass in despite of all that you can do who seek to oppose him For notwithstanding the many Laws and Decrees which you have made or shall make yet the Work of the Lord which he hath certainly begun that shall go on and increase and the Truth must flourish and prosper and spread forth it self and the Kingdoms of the World must become the Kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ according to his Promise and they that will not bow unto his Thorne and Government who is KING of Kings whose right it is to rule in the Consciences of people and to bear the Government there and to exercise them in matters of worship towards God but will seek to stop to limit him in his Government there even such must and shall be broken by him and bruised under by his Eternal Power the Lord hath said and spoken it and it must come to pass Wherefore Friends be you once more warned That you meddle no more with the Consciences of people so as to go about to limit them in matters relating to the Service of God for it s not the place of a civil Magistrate to meddle or have to do with those things but leave them free in those things to do as they are perswaded in their own Consciences by the Light of the Spirit of the Lord for you cannot give an account unto God for them if they do amiss but they must all and so must you also give an account unto God every one for himself and this is just and equal that in things of this nature every one should be left to the exercise of the Spirit of the Lord in his own heart because that Spiritual Worship consisteth in obedience to the Spirit of God and you your selves would not be willing to be prohibited from or denyed of this liberty but I dare say you would look upon it to be a very great Oppression unto you to be restrained by any civil Power or Government from that which by the Spirit and Power of God you were perswaded in your Consciences you ought to do and you could not but judge that those who should go about to lay or impose such a restriction upon you did do unto you as they themselves would not be done by and so you might well conclude that it were unrighteousness in them so to do Wherefore if you seriously consider whether this unrighteousness and Oppression be not found in you I know you cannot but lay your hands upon your mouths and confess Guilty So let my Counsel be at this time received by you and take my Advice as from one that hath received the Counsel of the Lord and in Measure knows the Mind of the Lord by the revelation of his Spirit as touching this matter that is this Shake your selves out of these cruel practises of persecuting about Religion and Worship and lay aside these cruel Impositions which are and have been laid upon the People of God by reason whereof many who are dear unto the Lord have suffer'd very greatly some the loss of their Liberties and some the loss of their Lives occasion'd through being thrust together in noisom Holes and Prisons and others are obnoxious to exilement from their Wives and Children and from their Native Country and dearest Relations and no evil at all justly charged against any of these for which these cruel Sufferings are inflicted upon them 't is only for Worshipping God in Spirit that these Sufferings are sustain'd by them that is the greatest Charge that hath been by you at all prov'd against them And for these things sake the Lord's Controversie is certainly great with you and while you continue in these things through which you have provoked the Lord to Anger His Wrath will not be appeased towards you neither can your Government be establisht in Safety nor you cannot establish your selves in Safety and Security for Fear will surprize you while you go on in these Practises because of the Guilt that is upon your Consciences and although we cannot neither do we desire to make outward opposition against you by Plottings and Insurrections c. Out of which things God Almighty hath redeem'd us and hath brought us into his Covenant of Peace and unto his Mountain of Holiness where nothing hurts nor destroys Yet we know that the Lord is with us and is on our side and takes our part and will plead our Cause and Fight for us and He is stronger then you all and his Power is above yours and our Trust and Confidence is in him alone and not in the Arm of Flesh and it s in vain for you to strive against him or to oppose or resist him for he will in the end be too hard for you and will break you to pieces as a Potters Vessel of Clay except you Repent And now Friends there is but one only Way by which you may or can possibly escape and prevent the Dreadful Judgments of the Lord or by which his Anger may be appeas'd which is kindled against you and that is this To Humble your selves before the Lord and to Repent of the Evil of your Doings and to loose the Bands of Iniquity and

provoked to visit thee with these his just and sore Judgments Oh England England what Lamentation shall I take up for thee for whom the Lord hath done so great things not only in giving of thee such fulness of temporal blessings and benefits for the end before expressed which thou hast abused as herein is signified But over and above all this he manifested his Eternal Power in the midst of thee and thereby wrought Miraculously in the hearts of a Remnant of thy Inhabitants to whom he made known the Mysterious Way which the Vulterous eye never saw which leads to Life and Salvation and whom he made choice of to be a kind of first fruits unto himself in these latter dayes and whom he separated from the aforesaid abominations in which thou art yet involv'd and raised them up to be examples of Holiness and Righteousness and Godliness of Conversation and to bear Testimony and cry against thy unrighteous and ungodly Wayes and also put into their hearts by his Spirit to tell of his Power which he had Revealed in them and to proclaim his mighty Day at hand in which he would Judge the Inhabitants of the Land in Righteousness and also he warned us to warn thy Inhabitants to Repent and we cryed aloud in thy Streets in thy Steeple houses and in thy Markets as thy Inhabitants well know and we told them of the dreadfull Day of Gods Judgments at hand to come upon all who lived and continued in the aforesaid abominations that so they might have returned to the Lord and have come to walk in the light of his Son wherewith they were enlightned that so thereby they might have been led out of the aforesaid abominations and Works of Darkness and so have escaped the Judgments threatned But instead of harkning to the voice of Wisdom which cry'd in the Streets thy Inhabitants rejected her counsel and despised all her reproofs and despitefully used the Messengers of the Lord whom he sent unto thee and cast them into Holes and Prisons in which they have outwardly perished whose righteous blood yet lies at thy Doors which God will certainly take vengeance for And so far hast thou been O England from taking Warning or Example by those whom God thus raised up within thy Borders and sent to Warn thee that even thy Rulers with the advice and counsel of thy Chief Priests and Prophets have made divers Laws and Decrees by which they have endeavour'd to stop and limit this Work of the Almighty which by his mighty Power he has begun in the hearts of his Remnant which he hath raised up to be a peculier People unto himself within thy Borders And as though all thy afore-said Abominations were too little and that thou mightst yet add thereunto how have thy Rulers abused the Power which God committed to them and intrusted them withall in tolerating all those Licencious Practises which daily have abounded in thy Streets and in suffering the Wicked and Evil-doers to go unpunished and in turning their Sword against the Innocent and to Persecute the harmless People of the Lord for the exercise of their pure Consciences towards him in matters relating to his Worship and in taking upon them to Lord over the Consciences of men the Seat of God have they not herein greatly abused the Power committed to them and intruded into the Prerogative of God Oh great Presumption and Usurpation indeed a Sin which shall not go unpunished by the Judge But Oh that they had hearkned and taken Warning in time that so they might have been Healed but now it will go hard with many of them for God will certainly be Avenged for this thing For is it not Justice in him to Dis-throne such who would thrust themselves into his Throne and so Presumptiously to entrench upon his Prerogative Again consider How many and great have the Sufferings been that have been sustained by us whom God raised up in the midst of thee Oh England to bear Testimony unto his Name and against thy Traditional Worships and dead Forms and out-side Professions with the rest of thy Abominations even by reason of the Laws and Decrees which thy Rulers have made against us and sometimes without them also and how oft have we been thrust together into noisome Prisons and have suffered all kind of abuses as Socking Stoning Whiping knocking down some Killed in the Streets and Steeple-houses and in our Peaceable Meetings where we were gathered only to Worship God in Spirit and thus evilly hast thou requited the Lord and his People for his and their love and good will unto thee that thou hast accounted them not worthy to have a being within thy Borders but in thy Decrees made against them thou hast designed their Exilement and Extirpation from amongst thine Inhabitants although according to the Law of God and Nature we and those whom thy Rulers have already Banished and exposed to the hardships and difficulties which the Seas and forraign Countrys affords have as just a right as themselves here to have continued in the Land of our Nativity and to have enjoyed the Liberty of their Consciences in the Service and Worship of God together with all other Temporal benefits and comforts which God had afforded unto them as Wives Children and Estates c. And thy Rulers shall one Day know that it s as great unrighteousness in them to Prison Persecute and Banish us for the Exercises of our Consciences towards God as they can conceive it would be for others to Prison Banish and Persecute them for the exercise of their Consciences if the Lord should bring them under wherefore let them consider whether or no they do by us as themselves would be done by and whether they are not found Transgressors of the Law of Christ Well but all this is but as a hint of what might be mentioned of the Abominations that is found in thee Oh England yet hereby thou mayest perceive whether or no thy Sins doth not exceed the Sins of Sodom whom God Destroyed in his displeasure and whether thy Iniquities doth not surmount the Iniquities of Gomorrah Certainly if Gods Witness may arise and Answer me in the Consciences of thy Inhabitants it will make them confess they do and what then canst thou expect from the hand of the Lord as a just reward of all these thy Abominations surely thou canst not miss of all the Judgments that have been pronounced by the Spirit of the Lord through his Servants in thy Streets Steeple-houses and Markets and to thy Rulers both by Word and Writing for they must and will unavoidably come upon thee and then thou shalt know that the Lord spoke by his Servants whom thou slightedst and that the most high Rules in the Kingdoms of men and will execute Justice and Judgment and Righteousness in the Earth and then also thou shalt know and confess that God gave thee time to Repent and to put away the evil of thy doings from before him