A Small ACCOUNT GIVEN FORTH By one that hath been a Traveller For these 40 Years in the Good OLD WAY And as an Incouragement to the Weary to go forward I by Experience have found there is a Rest remains for all they that truly trusts in the Lord. Psalms 31.14 I trusted in thee O Lord and said thou art my God Psalms 31.24 All ye that trust in the Lord be strong he shall establish your Hearts S. B. Printed in the Year 1698. AS God by his Grace having inclined my Heart to be Merciful and I have had the Comfort of doing Good whilst I had an opportunity in the things as he in this Life is pleased to commit to my Care I have as in his sight walked in the uprightness of my Heart and as in those things partaining to this Life I have endeavoured to keep a good Conscience So in Love to all that may have the Reading of this small Book I am willing to give them an understanding as I have found where it is to be attained as Christ said There is but one good and that is God and as we come be guided by his good Spirit it will lead us into all things that are good without which we cannot inherit Eternal Life And whatever any may think of me who look with an evil Eye yet to my Friends that looks with an Impartial Eye it will be received as it is intended good will to all and to those remain a Friend S. B. The Fear of the Lord is the beginning of Wisdom A good understanding have all those that keep his Law AND as a Traveller to the good Land of Rest and Peace and having in measure attain'd thereunto by that Heavenly Guide Christ Jesus the true Light that hath been my Instructer and Helper without which I am nothing nor can do any thing as I ought to do I am made free to relate something of my attainment thereunto I was Born of good Parents Educated according to the Church of England and tho' Young Zealous therein yet could not my Immortal Soul be therewith satisfied but a desire was begotten in me to know the true God the which to attain I endeavoured the best way I could by Prayer and Fasting in secret not to be seen of any But God whose Eye saw me and my true desire therein knowing herein I was not safe tried me and by one thought which arose in my Heart concerning God which I could not help dashed all my Building to pieces and I thought my self the worst Creature living thus night and day I had great trouble within but resolv'd in the midst of all and made it my resolution to follow the thing that is good and that God that saw me though I saw not him I was by this often comforted and it became my Song Great are the Troubles of the Righteous but the Lord delivers out of them all and sometimes betwixt Hope and Fear I travelled from Twelve Years of Age to Eighteen about which time by Providence I was led into the North at which time by wonderful changes wrought in them by which they had the name given them called Quakers a People so contrary to my Education and the many strange Reports that were raised of them was rather frightful than desireable to me but that God that saw the great desire I had to know him the only true God and Jesus Christ his Son led the blind by a way I knew not and by one not called a Quaker but one true to the Church of England and a sufferer for King Charles the first I received a true Account of the Principles and good Lives of these People which in Simplicity of Heart was related to me of which I was made seriously to consider and in a short time felt a Power arise in my Heart and I said this is it I have waited for and with great Power it rent the Vail chased away my dark thoughts gave me some understanding of the Scriptures and I could say I have heard of thee and have read of the Wonders thou didst for the Children of Men but that was not mine but now by thy great Power and Change thou hast wrought in me I came to know thee O God and by this and in no other way can I be satisfied and that thou the Immortal God may'st have the Glory of thy own good Work which I never received of Man neither did I ever see or hear any of them called Quakers till three Years after or more but returned into my own Country North-Hampton-shire to my Relations and not long after came to London and made it my business and went secretly amongst all persuasions except Papists and Ranters to see if I could find any that had the sence to know God and his Son Jesus Christ within them But I could find no outward thing could give my Soul satisfaction neither then nor now and in that State I walked alone three Years but being at a Meeting in great Allhallows one Edw. Burroughs came in and stood up and spoke at which I with others was amazed having never seen nor heard any of them before but was resolved to hear him again but by the many strange reports raised of them I was afraid but I Prayed to the Lord my God in whom I trusted that I might not be deceived for he knew I had nothing in my Eye but to have a further manifestation of Him whom to know is Life Eternal of the which he resolved me and with Signs and Tokens of his Love confirmed me and I could and can say it was and is of God and is the Truth and proceeds from the same Rock from which all the Patriarchs Prophets and Apostles had their teaching Christ Jesus the Rock the Mystery hid from Ages and Generations is made known unto us of which Knowledge I have learn'd as they did who said what is to be known of God is manifest in them which is the Key of David which opens and shuts and gives the true Understanding of the Mystery of the Kingdom of Heaven and the true knowledge to all those who have in true Obedience submitted to his Yoke and their Wills subjected to his Will these shall find his saving Virtue of Life which Life being received and joyned too with all the Heart it will endow them with the Heavenly Virtue in Christ Jesus our High Priest and Captain of our Salvation And with Righteousness Peace and Joy in the Holy Spirit of God and those that willingly give up all they have unto him shall find in it more than they can believe or the Carnal Mind can apprehend for they knew what they said that the Carnal Mind knows not the things of God for they are Spiritually discerned and to be carnally minded is Death but to be spiritually minded is Life and Peace which is a certain Truth and according to the Holy Scriptures from which I desire neither from Them nor my Neighbour to
is able in his time to plead it tho' there may be evil doers amongst us If Christ had one in twelve that was not enough for the Jews and some that followed him to say he was not in the Truth because Judas betrayed him and Peter deny'd him and he in that Agony bearing our griefs Isa 53. to cry out My God my God why hast thou forsaken me all this must needs stumble the Eye that looked out but they remembred his promise and waited at Jerusalem for the fulfilling of it who said he would come and he did come which confirmed them and so it hath done us And now something to you my dear Children whom I never deck'd in the extreams of formality to make my self or you seem what you were not but this was and is my desire for you seek first the Kingdom of Heaven and the Righteousness thereof and all other things shall be added unto you be sure to Remember your Creator in the days of your Youth and you shall find the Comfort of it in your Old Age or at your Death when all the Glory of this World will stand you in no stead And though some of you have met with some Disappointments yet you shall find as I have done all things work together for good and bring you nearer to God which I have ever desired for you more than for Silver or Gold tho' therein some of you have had a blessing beyond my desire and my comfort is you all set your Faces Sion-ward and to your Parents have been Dutiful Loving and Obedient for which God will bless you as you continue in his Grace This is written by one that hath been called a Dissenting Quaker which I desire not to be from faithful Friends for I never knowingly dissented from the Truth but loved it and though in some things was not satisfied yet kept as near as I could in Word and Deed to hurt no one but endeavoured to answer a good Conscience towards God and all Men in which I have found him near to help me and the blessing to my Soul and Body and have a true Love to all the sincere in Heart by what name soever called And as through Dispensations and Administrations and Gifts which are all by the same Spirit God is pleased to give a further manifestation of Himself who is a Spirit in that way shews Himself to Man as he can receive him which was and is his great Love knowing how happy he is made by it and unhappy without it and God's great Condescension therein who seeks Man before Man seeks Him because he is good and would have Us be like unto Him and take delight in Us and we in Him and in this way he led all his faithful People before the Law and after which Law was given by Moses by Divine Inspiration many Years after some of those things were done which all had their signification and pointed at Christ Jesus coming in the Flesh who when come said before Abraham was I am and they in the Wilderness drank of the same Spiritual Rock which Rock is Christ the Messenger of God and of the New Covenant the Law written in the Heart unto Him must all come that will truly know the Interpretation of what 's contained in both Old and New Testament which was declared from the Spirit and Power of God in the true Seed and that were left to be profitable especially to the Man of God through Faith in Christ Jesus by which we may see as our Minds are turned to God the Examples of those that followed the Lord their God and there make a true spiritual Application and see how far we are come into the good work of God in the proving of our Hearts as Abraham Offered up Isaac so must every one offer up what God requires to manifest our love to God and for all such who by Faith walk God will provide himself a Sacrifice and so Jacob the wrestler with God sent from his Father's House to go into a strange Land and have no dependency on any outward or visible thing in this his Journey yet Travels on and the Sun sets night comes on on this Stone lays his head and thus rests on the faithfulness of God to him in all conditions and then is the ladder of true experience seen where the Angels of God ascend and descend at the foot abode and you will say God was here and I knew it not and here Jacob received his blessing to whom Children was given and there was a striving as by the best Mind and Spirit you shall find the eldest by Nature will seek to rule and strive against the beloved of the Father And Joseph the true born Son sold into Egypt to provide Corn for Jacob and his Sons but they must go down to fetch it and this is to be known in its time and season and the Scripture fulfilled and the spiritual meaning therein known As Saul the first King over Israel for stature and appearance Beautiful annointed of the Prophet to be King but God saw beyond outward appearances into the Heart and they that go out from God their strength their defence is gone and they shall become weak as Soul did and their Enemies prevail then contemtible David who by his Brethren dispised him God saw and by the Arm of God's strength had killed the Lyon and the Bear and in that Power by which he overcame the Latter by believing in the same Power he overcame the greatest of his Enemies and this made him King in Saul's stead though with him he had long Wars to Fight the Lord's Battle but Solomon by the true Wisdom of God must Build the House in whose Reign there is Peace and Safety and he shall Judge and give true Judgment betwixt the Mother and the Child and Christ's Kingdom Typified in Solomon's consists of Righteousness Peace and Joy which is very delightful and desirous because the satisfaction the Soul receives thereby and hath a true sight of the Love of God in all he doth is but to make his Creature Man happy which Love is so great it cannot be expressed for the which all those that have received it praise God and all that have not come out of themselves and seek the Kingdom of Christ not in words but in Truth that they may partake with thy Saints in Glory and thereby see the Emptiness and Vanity of this World whether it be Profession Pleasure Riches Honour the Excellency of this Excels them all And to all you sincere hearted as Cornelius was to whom Peter was sent who said I see of a Truth God is no respecter of Persons but amongst all that truly fears God and works Righteousness are therein accepted yet God was pleased by Peter to Preach and Testifie unto Jesus Christ as his anointed who was crucified and to his Resurection from the Dead Acts 10. that in and through him they might believe and receive the Gift of
borrow Words or a Profession but to have a right to them and be made one with them by the same Spirit of Jesus Christ the Lord of all our Mercies and as in him they lived moved and had their being who gave them forth he is so to the faithful this day and what I have heard and seen I declare that he is the true God And the Poor in Spirit receive the Kingdom of Heaven and see a nothingness and emptiness in themselves without a dayly supply from him and they are led and made to understand the Mystery of Election and Reprobation as in the two Seeds and Births the one elect and blessed of God before the World was if the mind of Man joyns to Christ who is God's Elect Isa 42. they are saved by him and Works out their Salvation with Fear and Trembling and this is the Elect and Corner-Stone Christ Jesus whom soever Builds thereon The Gates of Hell shall not prevail and will over turn overturn till he come whose right is to Reign and as unto this Elect and Precious Seed we Unite we are therein and thereby blesed of God this is not of our selves but the free Gift given of God by which we make our Calling and Election sure and in this we have learn'd to know the Reprobated and the Enemy of all Mankind that leads the mind from God into the Lust of the Eye the lust of the Flesh and the Pride of Life and all other Evils which if joined unto the Evil conceived in the mind brings Death and separates Man from God his Maker and here the strong Man keeps the House and by his Temptations therein prevails on Man to eat the forbidden Fruit by which he breaks the Law of God and falls under Condemnation from which State there is no coming nor the Figg-leaf Garment nor nothing without will cover but a turning to the blessed Appearance and Gift of God in the Soul and there find the Mystery Christ within the Hope of Glory who hath many Names and his Kingdom is compared to a little Leaven the lost Groat a grain of Mustard Seed and many other Parables and it is vailed from Man who is in the first nature of the Earth Earthly but revealed in the second Man who is the Lord from Heaven which gives us to know the first Man Adam a living Soul and the last Man Adam a quickning Spirit by which unless we be Born again of the true incorruptible Seed which enlightens us we cannot see the Kingdom of Heaven nor the Glory thereof which Man in the first Nature have strove to know but we must receive that knowledge by the ingrafted Word of God not in our will and time these things God gives as to know but being acquainted with his Mercies and the Temptations of the evil One as we may read and learn of Christ who left us an example as all true Travellers shall find in themselves him near in their best performances as I have seen and do see his approach and when I have heard or seen any on the high Mountains in their Imaginations who pretend they see all the World and their selves in conceit above all for which I have been grieved as well-knowing the danger of that State and willing I was to have advised them but knowing they was so highly set up in themselves my voice could not reach them calling that God which is not God taking the Name of the Lord God in Vain for which he will not hold them guiltless some of them having blown a loud Trumpet Jehu like saying Come and see my Zeal for the Lord of Hosts which I have been grieved to see in some both Men and Women and have lived to see divers fall which I well knew as they stood could not hold out to the end and many of Martha's Spirit I have seen and now do which runs and serves and cumbers themselves with striving to utter Words and have got the true Notion in their Heads but the true Seed hath not taken root downwards and those are they which are stumbling-Blocks who have been by some encouraged as I might have been but the Lord my God kept me out of that Temptation and many others not loving Hypocricy nor a feigned imitation whereby I might deceive others in what I was not truly to God who called me to take up the Cross to that which my Heart loved whether they were Idols of Silver or Gold or other things tho' useful yet if over-valued they fill the Heart of which there must be an emptying to make room for the Heavenly Jesus under whose Reign Israel shall safely possess their Souls in Peace and have the new Name given them and the White Stone which none knows nor can believe but those that have it and those are they that are come through great Tribulations and are washed with the Blood of the Lamb and all those of this Faith I dearly salute as being Children of one Father whose Voice I know from the Voice of a Stranger and I thank God who hath raised up the Poor in Spirit all that are therein gathered will out-last all other Notions and the Lord give Wisdom to them that have not as yet thereto attained to know the true Ministration and the right Season when they should and when they should not which in some hath been lacking which causes the weak to stumble and keeps out more than it brings in Thus have I given a short but true Account as I have passed through the Wilderness of this World and have seen many fall on the Right Hand and on the Left where also I might but have had for my preservation the cloud over me by day to keep me low that I might not be exalted neither by Visions Sights nor Revelations many have been hurt thereby and cast that on others which concerned themselves And as the cloud stood over me it kept me low from self-exaltation to know my self nothing but what I received from the God of all my Mercies and as I see the Cloud by day I also see the Pillar of Fire by Night which caused me to stand still and see the Salvation of God and the bright appearance of his Glory I am sorry for some that are backsliden and may say to them what have you or your Fathers found in the God of Jacob that you should depart from him But let all the strong will'd know little David who trusts not in Bow nor Sword but in the living God he by his Sling and smooth Stone shall hit the Head of those that defies the Armies of Israel's God And to all you workers of Iniquity who have charged us that we deny Christ Jesus come in the Flesh the Holy Scriptures and the Resurrection and say we are Heathens and Hereticks all which we know to be false and can appeal to God in the integrity of our Hearts therein and with him we can with Joy leave our Cause as well-knowing he