which he doubts not but we will make good upon occasion Thou in answer say'st Thou knowest our Practice well enough Which if true and if so bad as thou endeavourest to make People believe of us why hast thou brought none of them to make good thy Charges against us And as for our Principles thou say'st Thou never heard'st we had any Then thou must needs be ignorant of our Way and Religion And therefore in thy speaking evil of it thou speakest evil of things thou understandest not and so art of that Generation spoken of 2 Pet. 2. 12. And as for our Faith and Principles they have been published to the World both by Words and Writing they have not been hid in a corner so that any that had a mind to concern themselves against us and yet as wise Men would not judge without an understanding lest like thee they should speak evil of the things they did not understand might easily be informed what our Principles are However we are a People that believe in the Lord Iesus Christ and that the Father sent him into the World to lay down his Life a Ransom for all Men that whosoever believeth in him shall not perish but have Eternal Life That he was Crucified without the Gates of Ierusalem and so became a Propitiation for the Sins of the whole World And that after he had suffered and was buried God the Father Raised him again by his Eternal Spirit after which he shewed himself unto many Witnesses and then Ascended into Heaven and is Glorified with the Father with that Glory he had with him before the World was made And we further believe that he is the Light of the World and that he ought to be followed according to his own words Iohn 8. 12. and That he lighteth every Man that cometh into the World according to Iohn 1. 9. and that this Light wherewith he lighteth every Man all ought to believe in that they may be Children of the Light according to Iohn 12. 36. And so we believe in his spiritual Appearance according to his Promise who said He would pray the Father and he should send them another Comforter even the Spirit of Truth according to Iohn 14. 16 17. and this was his own Spirit for he is the Truth and of this the Saints were Witnesses as the Apostle saith Gal. 4. 6. And because ye are Sons God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your Hearts crying Abba Father And thus was Christ in the Saints the Hope of Glory according to Col. 1. 7. And thus believing and witnessing the Truth of the Scripture we wait upon God for his Spirit that we may worship him therein according to the Institution of his Son Christ Jesus as in Iohn 4. 23 24. and that we may pray with the Spirit and sing with it according to 1 Cor. 14. 15. For the Apostle exhorted the Saints To be filled mith the Spirit Eph. 5. 18. and the Saints were to Pray in the Holy Ghost Jude 20. So our Faith stands in the Power of God which is that the Apostle laboured that the Saints Faith might stand in as thou may'st see 1 Corinth 2. 5. believing that there shall be a Resurrection both of the just and unjust they that have done good unto the Resurrection of Life and they that have done evil unto the Resurrection of Damnation according to Iohn 5. 29. Here we have given thee some account in short of our Faith Principles and Practice and proved them to be according to the Scripture whereby thou may'st see if Prejudice and Self-Interest do not blind thine Eye that Robert Lacky in turning from thy Teaching to Christ the true Light and his Teaching according to God's Promise under the New Covenant who said They shall be all taught of the Lord which according to our Principle we direct People to wait for it 's no unsafe way to Heaven nor as thou falsly accusest us a pursuing such ways as are directly contrary to holy Scripture which thou in some measure promisest thou wilt make appear but hast it yet to do Thou say'st Because thou art fully satisfied we cannot make this out therefore thou wilt shew him how he has incurred not only the Displeasure of God for the present but the Damnation of his Soul hereafter unless he repent and return by this his departure from the Religion he was bred in Ans. Thou may'st see thy Satisfaction is without ground as also thy confident presumption in thy passing such a Sentence upon him concerning his present and Eternal Estate And surely thy Iudgment herein is groundless rash and vain as all may see who have any true Christian understanding and discerning and do but observe what is brought forth under your Teaching in your Religion For we understand no Reason thou assignest for thy Iudgment but His leaving of your Religion which we have before proved he had good reason so to do And therefore neither he nor any other need be afraid of thy Threatning upon this account because from what is before written it is clear that there are great Defects in the Principles and Exercise of the Religion he was bred in if he was bred in yours and so not according to Christ's Institution as may be seen if compared with the Scripture and that there are no such Defects in the Religion he now embraceth but proved in the Principles and Exercise of it to be of Christ's Institution according to the Scripture And herein thy Challenge we have answered and endeavoured to make it appear both to thee and him according to thy demand But if thou hatest to be Informed it shall lie at thy own door and thou shalt answer for it thy self So it is plain he may have changed out of a Principle of Conscience and pure Love to God and his Soul and not out of Interest Humour Passion or Prejudice as thou seemest to accuse him And as for thy Assuring him upon thy Word that it is not for any temporal advantage that thou seekest to reduce him but only in love to his Soul as thou hast to all Mens as thou say'st Ans. We think he hath no reason to believe that thou and the rest of your Clergy have such a Love to the Souls of all Men as to be the only Reason of your coming amongst them to be their Teachers for your Practice which is a surer evidence than your Words speaks the quite contrary in that you do leave any People where you are to go to another place for an Augmentation and higher Preferment So that it 's evident it is not the good of People's Souls nor the Glory of God that chiefly moves you in this concern what-ever may be pretended to And so to the Consciences and Understandings of Wise Men we refer these things to be considered of with our Hearts desire to God for you all that he would open your Understandings and let you see the Errour of you Ways and
keeping our Meetings and not forsaking the assembling our selves together as the manner of some was of old whose Example the Apostle exhorted the Saints not to follow the Lord's Power still continued with us and was renewed daily in our Meetings by the Openings of which our Understandings was still more enlarged into the Mysteries of Life and hidden things of God so that many through the favour of God grew in their Gifts and had their Mouths opened and so became Instruments in the Lord's hand to bear witness unto the World of the Day of the Lord that was broken forth again even of the great and notable Day that Ioel had prophesied of and Peter bore witness unto and also they were sent to bear witness against the World and its evil Deeds with all the false Religions with which Mankind had covered themselves withal in the Darkness and Apostasie which had spread over them and now was seen and discovered by the Light and Day of God And thus the Truth grew and the Faithful in it and many was turned unto God and his Name and Fame and Glory and Power spread abroad and the Enemies Work and Kingdom was discovered and struck at by the Lamb and his Followers which made him begin to rage and stir up his Instruments to oppose the Lord's Work and with all subtilty to hinder People from following the Lamb or believing in his Light and so with Pen and Tongue and Hands also the Beast and his Followers began to war and to whipping and scourging and prisoning and spoiling of Goods with reproaching belying and slandering the way of Truth and all that they could do to hinder the Exaltation of the Kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ blaspheming his Light and his Power calling his Light natural insufficient false Guide with many reproachful Names and calling his Power Diabolical and the operation and blessed work of it which was both to the renewing of the Spirit of the Mind and also to the reformation of the Conversation from Debauchery Wickedness Unrighteousness and Witchcraft even like them of old who said Christ cast out Devils by Beelzebub the Prince thereof But by this time they that kept faithful to the Lord and his Light and Spirit in their Hearts who had come forth through the deep Tribulation as before related was confirmed setled and satisfied and in the Life that was manifested established in which they saw over Death and all mens profession in it and where they were and what they sed upon that cried out so against the Light and Power of Christ that was thus with us and wrought thus in us in our Meetings and how they were but mocking at the same that those mocked at spoken of in the second of the Acts when they thought the Apostles were full of new Wine and so drunk for the high Professors of our days being ignorant of the Holy Ghost through their resisting of it blasphemed the Life and Power and in the Death at the best did but feed upon the Tree of Knowledge For this I still right-well remember that in my waiting upon the Lord in the deep Distress and weighty Judgment that was upon my Soul to see if he would appear and break through and open and give relief from under that which kept me down as Bars of Iron that I could not arise nor asscend nor have access although out of the Deep I cried unto him for deliverance I say I can remember that in the first notable inbreaking of the Power of God upon my Soul or pouring forth of the Holy Ghost upon me the first opening in the same unto me thereby was a true discovery of the Tree of Knowledge in the Mystery upon which I saw I had been feeding and all the Carnal Professors of Religion and how we had made a Profession of that which we had no possession of but our Souls in the Death feeding upon the Talk of that which the Saints of old did enjoy and then I saw there was no getting to the Tree of Life that our Souls might be healed by the Leaves of it and so feed upon the Fruit thereof that we might live for ever But as there was a coming under the wounding slaying Sword that Christ brings by which the Life of the Old man comes to be destroyed who would still live in sin and serve that and yet profess Faith in Christ and to be his Servant which is impossible according to Christ's own saying No man can serve two Masters c. Matth. 6. 24. and therefore I saw there was no remedy either I must be buried by that fiery Baptism of Christ's with him into Death or else there could be no rising with him into newness of Life there might be a rising into newness of Profession Notion and Words but that would not do it was newness of Life I must come to the other I had tried over and over I saw I must dye with him or be planted with him in the likeness of his Death that is dye unto sin if ever I came to be planted with him in the likeness of his Resurrection and so live unto God according to Romans the sixth Then when things thus opened in me I clearly saw we had all been deceived thinking while we did live in the Flesh and after the Flesh and so in the Death feeding upon the Tree of Knowledge which was forbidden for Food we might make such a Profession as might bring us to reap Life everlasting but I soon saw such as a man lived after such as a man sowed such should he reap and not what a man professed or what he talked of and then I was willing to bow to the Cross and come under the fiery Baptism of the Spirit and let that which was consumable be destroyed that my Soul might be saved and come to possess that which would endure and abide and could not be shaken Thus were the Heavens shaken also as well as the Earth that that which was not shakeable might remain according to Hebr. 12. 27. and so that which condemned the evil Fruits of the Flesh as they were owned by us so to be in our Profession both in our loose Conversation and also in the desires of our Hearts and fleshly Lusts that therein sprang unto the Judgment of which we did assent even so did that same Light and true Witness discover and condemn our fleshly Profession of Religion in that same Nature and Mind which brought forth Evil or in which Evil did dwell and Rule and so came our Heaven to be shaken and our Covering and Garment to be taken away and we left comfortless and naked destitute and without a Habitation and then we saw our sacrificing and our sinning to be alike in the sight of God for our Prayers was rejected and all loathed because both was done in one Nature and from one and the same Seed and corrupt Heart and therefore it came to be with us as with Iudah of
me for weighty was the Dread and Majesty of the Power of the Word of Life that lived and as a Fire burned in my Heart that I could not stay And when the first day of the Week came in Obedience unto the word of the Lord I went to Aspetry the Place which the Lord set before me to speak to one Warwick a Priest who when I came was preaching in their Bell-house who soon after I came in with a Friend with me began to put forth some subtil Questions to provoke us to speak that he might have an opportunity to cause us to be haled out and sent to Prison but I resolved not to mind his Temptation but to wait upon the Lord and when he could not prevail with his Questions to get his end upon us he spoke to the Constable to put us forth who answering bid him go on and said They do not disturb us c. Then the Priest went on with his Sermon and finished And when he had done I began to speak to the People and the Priest he got away and the People hurried me out and kept me and the Priest asunder so that I got not to speak to him that Fore-noon So I came away with my Friend and thought to have returned home but immediately after I was got out of the Town the wrath and displeasure of the Lord in his Word sprung dreadfully in my Heart and a dreadful Cry was in me from the same Cursed is he that doth the Work of the Lord negligently c. And then I saw how I had let in a Fear upon me in which I had shunned the Priest and spared him for fear I should be sent to Prison for speaking to him the Law being such at that day That whosoever did disturb a Minister as they termed it should be sent to Prison c. And when I found out my Weakness in this that I had spoke to the People and spared the Priest that I was sent to cry against then was I sore afraid and my Heart filled with horrour and a sore cry in me still Cursed is he that doth the Work of the Lord negligently c. then I knew not what to do for the wrath of God was upon me and another Cry from the same Word was sounded in my Heart saying Babylon hath sinned all ye that bend the Bow shoot at her spare no Arrows for she hath sinned c. Now when it was thus with me and I saw that I had not been faithful but had mist my Service after I had come so far as the Common above Plumland I sate me down and there I mourned before the Lord whom I had so grieved and humbly desired of the Lord that he would but grant me liberty to go again to clear my self that I might come into Peace with him again and then let Life or Liberty outwards go I did not value So waiting upon him in this humble bowed frame of Spirit the Word of Life rose in me again and opened my Heart and sealed to me I might go Then I arose with boldness and went with speed till I came there at the Worship house and the Priest was preaching again in the After-noon and I went in and stood before him till he had done and then was my Heart filled with Peace and I resolved in the Name of the Lord not to spare but speak the Word of the Lord faithfully whatever I might suffer for it for in comparison thereof I valued neither Life nor Liberty So when he had done I spoke unto him what the Lord put in my Mouth He immediately got away and gave me no Answer But I followed him so quick and cried out after him so that he turned again to me in the Grave-yard and then I did clear my Conscience to him and a great Dispute we had for I did not spare him At last he went away and would stay no longer Then I spoke to the People and did clear my Conscience amongst them and then I came away in peace and my Heart was filled with unspeakable Joy and my Soul with Gladness Then I saw it was good to be faithful unto the Lord and to trust in him and to obey his Voice and then I came to feel and see more and more the woful and dreadful state that the Priests and Hirelings were in who for their own earthly gain made Merchandise of People although they were defended by the Laws of Men yet I found the Laws of God they were in the transgression of and so were in Cain's Corah's and Baalam's way in Envy and Gainsayers of the Truth and Lovers of the Wages of Unrighteousness and so such as Peter and Iude wrote of 2 Peter 2. 15. and Iude cried Wo against Iude 10 11 12. Then some time after I was moved by the Spirit of the Lord to go to Lorton to speak to one Fogoe a Priest who was preaching to the People in their Worship-house and I stayed till he had done and there he did affirm in his preaching to the People that both he and they was without the Life of both the Law and the Gospel And then I spoke to him and questioned him what he had to preach or to pray that was without the Life of both Law and Gospel But after a few words he fell into a rage and stirred up the People and they fell upon me and haled me out of the House and did beat me and the Priest did threaten to put me in the Stocks So I came away and that day two Weeks I was moved to go again to speak to the same Priest at Louswater the Parish where I did then dwell and when I came in the People beginning to look at me and take notice the Priest bid them let me alone if I would be quiet he would discourse with me when he had done So I stood still and quiet waiting upon the Lord the Priest he prepared to go to Prayer but when he saw that I did not put off my Hat for I could not so do because I could not joyn with him in his dead lifeless Prayers Then instead of going to Prayer he fell a railing against me and said I should not stand there in that posture At last I spoke to him and did ask him What he had to pray with that was without the Life of both Law and Gospel But he continued calling out to the People to take me away so that at last my Father being there and displeased with me for troubling their Minister came himself and haled me out of the House and was very angry with me Then I stayed in the Grave-yard till the Priest and People came out and then I got to him and spoke to him again but he soon began to be in a rage and to threaten me with the Stocks and got away And then I cleared my Conscience to the People of what I had to say and so came away in great peace with the Lord.
hath a good place amongst sober People Though the Professors who shrink and hide we are informed do rail against Friends they do seem as if they were given up to hardness of heart and so set in their blindness and hardness as to go on till the Rod come upon them For they do not lay any thing so to heart as thereby to be brought off from the evil Errour of their hard and prejudiced Minds It doth appear that they envy Friends good and are offended that we do not flie into holes as they do But as for Friends they are very cheerful and we have had a very blessed Season and kept in Unity Peace and Concord in our Meetings and Concerns and the Lord 's good Presence pretiously with us to our Comfort and Consolation And blessed be the Lord he is not wanting unto us both to sanctifie our hearts and also to fill them with his Spiritual Mercies and to Contribute of his other Mercies and Blessings whereby he may make our days pleasant unto us that with Gladness and Joy of Soul we may serve and praise him who is worthy for ever Amen! Dublin the 4th of the 6th Month 1685. Yesterday I came home having been through the South-end of the Nation and between six and seven weeks away and have had a very comfortable Journey amongst Friends and peaceable Blessed be the Lord for his Mercies towards us Dublin the 6th of the 7th Month 1685. I am glad to hear that things are so still and quiet in England and that Friends have some little breathing time of ease from their sharp persecution It is the Lords mercy towards us but our Innocency is that which must speak for us and if we loose that our defence would depart from us and then there would be none to fly unto for vain is all help from below Therefore it will be our happiness to rest quiet with our Faith in him for he is able to preserve who promist them of old he would give them favour in the eyes of the King of Babilon And it had been their safety to have trusted in his word but in their taking of their own way they brought Ruin upon themselves and so will all do now whose eye is not unto the Lord to stay their minds upon him but look out to follow their own Contrivances I know the Truth will keep out of all such things if Friends be careful to keep under the Conduct thereof But if fleshly Reasonings prevail in the Unbelief then the Eye goes out and the Mind into the haste so the Patience and Long Suffering is lost and the Hope and Faith let fall Then the Creature can neither trust in the Lord nor stay rightly for his Time and Season Our Meetings are very quiet and peaceable which is a Mercy we greatly value and our Hearts in the Lord's Truth are at rest and that 's our Comfort Both there and here and where-ever we are it will be our place to be prepared for Sufferings that 's likely to be our Portion for the Truth And it is but as it has been of old If any will live Godly in Christ Iesus he must suffer Persecution I am ready to go out of Town to visit Friends in the County of Wicklow Dublin the 19th of the 7th Month 1685. I am sorry that so much Occasion of Offence should be given to some Friends here by some that take Liberty there viz. at London by running back into such things as the Truth Condemns and so to be Encouragers of Pride and Vanity that will grow too fast to the drawing down of the Displeasure of the Lord upon Man And therefore I would have Friends to stand in that which is plain and keep to the Cross in their Trades and Dealings and Cloaths and in all things that they may remain standing Witnesses for God in Righteousness against Pride and all the Vanity of the World for therein will stand our Safety for ever I desire that we may live up to the Truth in all Things that the Blessing may attend us And indeed we had need to be Circumspect For every Lawful Thing is not Expedient because there may be an unlawful Liberty strengthened thereby The Lord keep us all in his Wisdom truly Lowly and Humble that we may still honour him in all things and remain a People through our Day to his Glory For if upon us in our Day we let the Spirit of the World prevail to the overthrowing of our own Testimony what Example and Footsteps shall we leave to them that come after us I am full and could say much for my Heart is concerned to hear them who themselves are not so good as they ought to be strengthen themselves by bad Examples For though some may be slow to mind that which is good so as to learn Good from the Example thereof yet they are quick to take Encouragement from the Contrary Dublin The 18th of the 9th Month. We have had a comfortable Season this Half-Years-Meeting quiet and peaceable and in Love and Unity among our selves so that we have cause to be truly thankful unto the Lord for that Mercy amongst all other Mercies we Enjoy from his blessed Hand Dublin the 29th of the fourth Month 1686. Though the World be full of Tumults Disquietness and Amazements yet blessed be the God of our Salvation who hath brought us into a Degree of that Rest which the Distresses that are from below cannot Reach So that there is something known to Retire unto for a Sanctuary that the World knows not neither can the Destroyer come into it Therefore our Safety is always to keep our Interest therein that we may have our Priviledge unto our Mansion there and so rest in the Time of Trouble where no Hurter nor Destroyer can come The Lord's Power is to be admired loved and believed in for ever who gives us blessed Seasons and Calms and Quiets It 's true for ever the Winds and Seas must obey him blessed are all that put their Trust in him Fears and Restlesness doth possess the Hearts of many but for our parts we have an Eye unto the Lord and know he hath a hand in ordering of or suffering all things for Ends best known unto himself and therein we Rest. And I desire that the Lord by the Indwelling of his Power in our Souls may still so keep and preserve us in that Simplicity and Godly Sincerity wherein we may always know one another and be a Comfort one unto another in the plainness and simplicity of that blessed Truth that saves and sanctifies from all Unrighteousness and Unites unto God and brings into near Fellowship one with another For this is that which sanctifies fits and prepares the Heart of Man for every good Vertue and settles and composes his Nature not only for heavenly Mercies and that he may receive and enjoy them but also for his Station in this World and the Enjoyment of Temporal Favours that he may
wear out because that life and power which is eternal is known and that love which changes not is injoyed in which I am one with you and remain Your Brother in the Covenant where Sin is blotted out and Everlasting Righteousness is brought forth in which we worship the Father acceptably I. Burnyeat Barbadoes the 30th of the 11th Month 1670. Dear Friends I Have had a great Exercise upon my Spirit concerning this late Observation of a Day or Fast which was set forth and pretended unto and seeing the pride and vanity that people was in not like true Mourners and Fasters and such as would have the Iudgment removed and also seeing the bitter Cruelty that appeared as a part of the fruits of it and furthermore seeing the difference that did seem to appear in Friends minds about the owning or not owning of it by submitting unto their Requirings or doing to the contrary as a testimony against it after I had passed under a deep Exercise in Spirit for some time at last the Lord God by his Eternal Word raised up my Spirit in the zeal thereof and did smite against all such Mockeries and then in a heavenly Revelation my Understanding being opened and closing with the Word he shewed unto me that it was to be Witnessed against by all that stood in the Testimony of God and that those that would weaken the Spirits of any in their Testimony in this or other things wherein Friends have a Testimony for God it was plainly shewed me from the Lord how they would draw a vail over the pure in themselves and in others and in a cowardly underly Spirit by the corrupted sallen wisdom would put the Candle that God hath lighted under a Bushel or under a Bed and so cover it for a while until at last it would be put out so that we like other Professors at last by this Spirit would be led to yield to any thing rather than suffer and so then the offence of the Cross might cease And then also there was another thing which had been very long under my consideration of which I was not hasty to judge or meddle wherein Friends have somewhat differed but at this time was not minded by me because of the other that was upon me But when the Lord had cleared the other to me he brought up this also before my mind which is about Sending Men Horse and Arms to the Training Trooping or Playing which is folly as to us for which many that could not send have suffered the spoiling of their Goods And the Lord then plainly satisfied me that it was his Testimony wherein Friends were to stand and that they that bore another Testimony either in words or action it was from that Spirit and in that Wisdom that would put a bushel over the lighted Candle and by degrees would put it out and would lead us to crouch to the Spirit of the World until its large wing of Darkness would over-shadow us and become our Covering and then we should be like others that have lost their Testimony And then when the Lord had thus done oh how my Soul was filled with heavenly divine love towards all the willing Sufferers for the Lord's Testimony So that I can say it was with me as it was with Deborah when she said her heart was towards the Governours of Israel who offered themselves willingly among the people and then I could not but praise the Lord. And so this is the Testimony that the Lord did put into my heart which I am moved of him to give forth for the comfort and satisfaction of all that desire to serve the Lord in their Generation and to keep their Consciences pure and their Garments unspotted And therefore Friends keep in the first for he is the last and shall stand when all others shall fail And reason not with flesh and blood but wait for the power that it may open you and as you are kept open thereby the wonderful things of God in it will be made known unto you and the depths of Satan will be seen also and there will be a growing in righteousness For in the power is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith by which the just lives which cannot be witnessed where the Testimony is let fall and the Light covered and the Talent laid in the earth though it may be tied in a white Napkin of fair Profession For the Gift or Talent is neither to be hid in the Earth nor bound by any in any thing but to have its liberty until by its own power all be subjected unto it self that God may be all in us all This is the Testimony that I am to leave with you in these matters and so being eased in Spirit in the lasting love of God I remain Your Brother Iohn Burnyeat Salem in New-England the 30th of the 4th Month 1671. Dear and Well-beloved YOU whom the Lord hath called to believe and to be partakers of his Divine Nature and of his manifold Mercies that through the strength thereof you might bear witness to his Name and testifie to his Truth in your Day for which the God of Wisdom suffers you to be tried and your faith to be proved as it hath been his way in all Ages for the proof of his people that their hearts might be tried and their Love appear how weighty it is to him that hath loved them whereby the Glory of the Truth and the Excellency of it might be made manifest And now my Friends this is your day and hour of your Trial wherein the Lord by you I believe shall be honour'd and you rewarded with that good Reward which shall out-ballance all the present Sufferings unto which the Glory of the present World is not to be compared And though from you it is my Lot to be separated and so in the like kind not to suffer among you yet I cannot say but that I suffer with you for my Spirit is not without a feeling of your sufferings O! you dear Lambs of the Shepherd's fold is it so that the Wolf seeks to devour and is the Lion and devouring Bear let loose that would snatch up the Lambs Fear not though in his Mouth We have a Shepherd that will deliver and like David will save from the power of the Destroyer so that your Life shall not come under his power For God is on Israel's side to preserve though they would swallow up quick And therefore let your Trust be in the Arm of his strength for ever and you shall know that he is able to make up all to you again Dearly beloved My very Heart and Soul salutes you all in the Reach of that Life which by nothing that is visible can be stopped and in the sense and enjoyment of that I am spiritually with you wherein I may say I do partake with you both of the Sufferings and Tribulations and also of the Ioy and Consolation that abounds in your