by Doctrine and Practice that holy Truth he professed and was a Preacher of and made full proofs of his Ministry in many Lands and Countries and at the great City of London where he was made Instrumental to the Good and Comfort Refreshment and Edification of many and was Valiant there as in other places in the time of Trials Sufferings Storms and Persecution And he was also a great Incourager of the Good in Young and Old and as a tender Father and loving Brother to those who were young in their Testimonies for the Truth and would rather help a Young Branch to strengthen it in its growth than to bruise or hurt it in any measure This short Testimony we Dedicate to his Memorial that shall be had in Everlasting Remembrance for his Name is Written in the Lamb's Book of Life where none can blot it out Our Brother our Friend and our beloved Companion in the Heavenly Fellowship with whom some of us have some-times Travelled in England and Ireland upon divers Services for the Truth 's sake and Blessed was our Labour of Love together He was an Apostle among the Chnrches of Christ and he is a fixed and bright Star in the Firmament of God's Heavenly Power and Kingdom for ever O Friends you that knew him know the Loss of him in the Church of Christ with other Faithful Brethren since departed worthy of double honor concerning which sad Providence we have this to say to you It points plainly to us the Evil that is to come upon the Wicked and Unfaithful and the great Calamities that are at the Door The Lord fit us all for them that we may find an Interest and Sanctuary in the Truth above the Reach of this Evil World which they will want that do not prefer it above the chiefest Ioy. London the 10th of the 11th Month 1690 1. Stephen Crisp. Charles Marshall William Bingley John Field Francis Stamper Jasper Batt William Penn. Benjamin Antrobus John Vaughton Benjamin Bangs Samuel Waldenfield John Butcher A Testimony of several Friends in Ireland in whose Hearts it sprung and who gave it forth in the behalf of our Dear Brother Iohn Burnyeat AS for our Dear Friend and Worthy Brother in the Lord John Burnyeat late of Dublin deceased whom some of us have known many years we have this Testimony in the Truth concerning him viz. That he has been steadfast in the Lord's Work an able Minister of the Gospel and faithful Lobourer who had a Word in Season to Minister to the several Conditions of Friends and People dividing the Word aright a Strengthener of the Weak and a free Feeder of Christ's Lambs and Sheep with the Food he had freely received to the Comforting many His Testimony for the Power of Truth and Righteousness was clear many were Convinced by him His Conversation was so heavenly and becoming the Principle of Truth he was a Preacher of that we know no one that can truly Charge him with any thing that might spot his Profession or Ministry He was a Man excellently well qualified for the Work whereunto he was called of God the Lord having endued him with a large Measure of his Spirit He had great Openings and Discoveries of the Mysteries of God's Kingdom he had also the Tongue of the Learned and was fitted for every good Word and Work the Lord employed him in His Qualifications were beyond many and thô little in himself yet in the Lord a Mighty Man of Valour In all times of Suffering and Exercise he failed not to be in the Front he was a Valiant in Israel and a Pillar in the House of God He did Sympathise with the Afflicted seeking the good of others and above all the Honour and Prosperity of Truth was in his Eye When he took his Wife amongst us how Careful and Circumspect was he of Truth 's Honour and the Concord and Unity of Friends and Brethren And where he came among Friends he would not be Idle but did often Visit the Sick and Comfort those that were in Distress or Affliction For indeed he was a true Servant to all honest Friends as well the Poor as Rich and would freely Administer of his outward Substance to such as stood in need He was meek and gentle and of a healing Spirit and it was the unspeakable Love and Mercy of God to us in this Nation and particularly this City of Dublin to order his outward Abode and Settlement amongst us By whom many were Convinced of the Truth and turned from the Evil of their Ways and the Peace of the Church the Unity and Fellowship of Friends Increased He was one of the Archers of Israel who could shoot to an Hairs-breadth to the wounding of the Hairy Scalp of the Wicked one and the putting of the Lord's Enemies to Silence He was a Messenger of Glad Tidings and directed us to the blessed Light that God had caused to shine in our Hearts when we were Strangers to it yea then did it Appear as a Witness for the Lord against all Ungodly Practices It was a Day of Glad Tidings to many when the Lord made him one of his Trumpets to us to sound his Gospel to the reaching God's Witness in our Hearts Oh! that it may not be forgotten by any of us who have been turned to God! He had a true Love for all Tender-Hearted Friends and travelled for their Growth and Prosperity in the blessed Truth not only in these Three Nations but also in the Western Islands and America to the turning many to the blessed Way of Life and Salvation as by following Accounts will appear He was a true Pattern of Godliness and Piety in an humble meek and in-offensive Conversation Apt to Teach Ready to give heavenly Advice and Instruction a good Example in all things An Early Comer to Meetings and a diligent Waiter therein Many times he would sit a pretty while in Silence not being forward to speak Reverently waiting upon the Opening of the heavenly Life like the good Housholder spoken of to bring forth of his Treasury things both New and Old He was deeply Experienced in the Work and Service of the Lord and was a great Comfort and Support to many in their great Sufferings and hard Exercises and did mightily Strengthen and Encourage Friends in their several places of Abode Twice during the late Troubles he visited Friends in Munster and in this Province of Lynster unto whom he was very open and had large Meetings for in many places the World's Teachers were fled and left their Flocks Many times in the Publick Meetings he would bear a faithful plain and clear Testimony against Superstition and Idolatry and against that Loose Wicked Blasphemous and Unclean Spirit that many gave up to be led by As soon as the way was open to the North he visited Friends there Now after the Death of his Wife he had some Intentions to go for England and sent his Son thither but seeing the Troubles of Wars coming
old as may be read Isa. 1. and Isa. 66. 3. where the Lord told Iudah their killing an Ox their sacrificing a Lamb their offering an Oblation and burning Incense was as the slaying of a Man cutting off a Dogs neck offering Swines blood blessing an Idol And thus we saw for want of Righteousness and keeping the Commandments of the Lord and forsaking of our own ways and that which was evil our Religion was loathed by the Lord and we rejected in all our doings and left in desolation and barrenness for whatever we might pretend that true saying must stand A good Tree cannot bring forth bad fruit nor a bad Tree good fruit the Tree is known by its fruit And thus things opened wonderfully in us and we saw not only common sins which all consess so to be though they live in them but also the hypocrisie and sinfulness of the Professors of Religion even in their Religion which was performed out of the true Spirit of Grace and Life which in the Mystery is the Salt that every Gospel Sacrifice is to be seasoned withal according to the Example in the Figure and therefore were we commanded to withdraw and be separated in our Worship and wait to have our Hearts sanctified and the Spirit of our Minds renewed that we might come before him with prepared Vessels for we soon learned to see this that it must be true in the Substance as in the Figure all the Vessels of the Tabernacle was to be sanctified consecrated or made holy and therefore did we come out from among such in their Worship that lived in Uncleanness and pleaded for Sin which made unholy and met together and waited together in silence may be some times not a word in our Meetings for Months but every one that was faithful waiting upon the living Word in our own Hearts to know Sanctification thereby and a through cleansing and renewing of our Hearts and inward Man and being cleansed and made meet we came to have a great delight in waiting upon the Word in our Hearts for the Milk thereof which Peter speaks of 1 Pet. 2. 2. in our so waiting we did receive the Milk or Vertue thereof and grew thereby and was sed with the heavenly Food that rightly nourished our Souls and so we came to receive more and more of the Spirit of Grace and Life from Christ our Saviour who is full of it in whom the Fulness dwells and in the Power thereof we did worship the Father who is a Spirit and waited upon the Teachings of his Grace in our Hearts and he taught us thereby to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts and to live righteously godlily and soberly in this present evil World And so we came to know the true Teacher which the Saints of old did witness as saith the Apostle Titus 2. 12. and therefore wanted not a Teacher nor true Divine Instructions though we had left the Hireling-Priests and also other high-flown Notionists and sat down together in silence for that was our desire to have all Flesh silenc'd before the Lord and his Power both in our own Hearts and from without And as we thus came into true silence and inward stilness we began to hear the Voice of him who said he was the Resurrection and the Life and he said unto us Live and gave unto our Souls Life and this holy Gift which he hath given has been in us as a Well springing up unto eternal Life according to his promise and therefore hath it been our delight all along to wait upon it and draw nigh with our Spirits unto it both in our Meetings and also at other Times that we might both be taught and saved by it for by it the Saints were saved through Faith c. as Paul wrote unto them Ephes. 2. 8. Now from the Year 1653. as before hinted in which Year I was convinced of the blessed Truth and Way of Life Eternal unto the Year 1657. I was not much concerned abroad in Travels upon the account of the Truth save only to visit Friends that were Prisoners for the Truths Testimony but being mostly at home following my outward Calling I was very diligent to keep to our Meetings being given up in my Heart thereunto for I found great delight therein and many times when one Meeting was over and I at my outward Labour in which I was very diligent also I did in my Spirit long for the next Meeting-day that I might get to the Meeting to wait upon the Lord with the rest of his People And I can also with safety say that when I was there I was not sloathful but in true diligence set my Heart to wait upon the Lord for a Visitation from him by the Revelation of his Power in my Soul and as I waited in the Diligence Patience and Faith I can say this for the Lord and on his behalf with many more Witnesses we did not wait in vain he suffered not our Expectation to fail everlasting Glory and Honour and Praise to his worthy and honourable Name for ever The very remembrance of his Goodness and glorious Power in those days revealed and renewed overcomes my Soul And so then in diligence waiting and the Lord so in mercy visiting by his power in our Hearts my Soul was daily more and more affected with the Glory and Excellency and Sweetness of it and with the holy Dread with which it filled my Heart for that became pleasant and then my Spirit was bent to keep near unto it and to dwell in that holy Fear which the Father thereby placed in my Heart And then I came to see what David exhorted unto in the Second Psalm when he bid the Kings and Judges of the Earth be wise and. learned and further said Serve the Lord with fear and rejoyce with trembling O the bowings of my Soul O the pleasant dread that dwelt upon my Spirit and the reverent tremblings that came over my Heart which filled it with living Joy as with marrow and fatness And then could I say in my heart with David will wash my hands in innocency and compass thine Altar O Lord. O the pleasant drawing near unto the Altar of the Lord and that not unprepared by many whose Hearts were filled and their Souls and Spirits anointed with the true anointing from the holy One which Iohn speaks off in his first Epistle which is the substance of what was figured out in that Ointment Moses was commanded to make Exod. 30. 25. which all the Vessels of the Tabernacle were to be anointed withal Now when my Heart was thus fitted filled and furnished as it was many a time in our holy Assemblies with many more I know that sat under the same dread and power with me for our Temple and Tabernacle in which we worshipped that were Children of the New Ierusalem was but one even the Lord God and the Lamb as Iohn saw Rev. 21 22. And so it was in this Power that we sat
Truth Exalted IN THE WRITINGS OF THAT Eminent and Faithful Servant of CHRIST Iohn Burnyeat COLLECTED Into this Ensuing Volume as a MEMORIAL to his Faithful Labours in and for the TRUTH Prov. 10. 7. The Memory of the Iust is Blessed Psal. 112. 6. The Righteous shall be had in Everlasting Remembrance LONDON Printed for Thomas Northcott in George-Yard in Lumbard-Street 1691. THE PREFACE TO THE READER READER AS the Tree is known by its Fruits so I desire thee to Taste of these which are here presented to thee with a Serious and Unprejudiced Mind which are but Some of the Many Testimonies of the Love and Labour of the Deceased Author for the General Good of Mankind and particular Edification of the Churches of Christ that are Gathered in our Day by the Eternal Spirit in and among whom he was a Faithful Able and Successful Labourer The End of Books is the End of Preaching viz. Informing the Inquirer Stirring up the Careless Stopping the Gainsayer and Comforting and Building up those whose Faces are turned already Sion-ward and that are Attended with many Exercises in their Iourney to Everlasting Habitations And as the End is the same so where the Servants of Christ cannot come Books may that are the Testimony of their Care and Ministry for others They remain also with us and are a Memorial of those that writ them when they are Gathered to their Fathers and by them the Living often Converse with the Dead who yet Die not but Live in their Labours in the Children they beget to God in their Writings they leave behind them as Pledges of their Love and Care for the Flock and in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus with the Spirits of the Just To whom and to God the Judge of all the Dispensation of our Day has brought Thousands Blessed be his Eternal Name for ever These following Writings I Recommend the more Earnestly and Pleasingly to thy Solemn Perusal Serious Reader because they are very little Controversial they chiefly Refer to Practice to an Holy and Divine Life and Walking with God The First is an Account of his own Convincement the Path he trod-in to Peace with God out of a Wicked World where the Heavenly Call found him It is Sweet Lively Instructive and Perswading to others to Try as he did and to Embrace the Holy Truth Then follows a Relation of his Travels and Ministry in these Nations and beyond the Seas as Luke presented the Churches with the Acts or Travels of the Apostles in their Infancy A Pleasant and Seasoning Lecture both for the Young who love to hear of Voyages to Excite them to seek the Lord his Way and Kingdom and to Journey towards the New and Heavenly Ierusalem and to Quicken those more Aged to shake off their Dust the Earth that is too Apt to Contract and Stick upon them in the Daily Attention they give to their Temporal Affairs and to Lift up their Eyes and see the Fields how White they are to Harvest and how few Labourers there are to Take it in and what need there is of an Holy Care and Oversight of those that are already Gathered especially Considering how many Eminent Ones of late are Taken from us His Next Writings are Epistles of divers sorts to several Places and upon different Occasions containing Divine Truths and Strong Perswasives to Faithfulness Love Holiness and Perseverance in the Way of God Revealed to them in the Light of Iesus Christ the Great Light of the World that Enlightens every one that comes into the World Those that have any Spiritual Savour will Taste a Sweet Savour in them and God will Witness to them as he is wont to do to the Labours and Writings of his Servants in the Hearts of those that with Seriousness shall peruse them His last Two Tracts in this Book saving Two Epistles that by coming too late are misplaced are in Defense of the Truth against some Opposers of it and the only Controversy in the Book The Soundness of his Answers and Moderation of his Spirit in delivering of them are no small Commendation to the Truth he defends whose Faithful Servant he was for it shews the Power it had over him how well he knew what he writ and that he was not only a Professor but a Possessor of the Living and Saving Faith that was once deliver'd to the Saints and is now again Restored by the Operation of the same Holy Spirit I shall Conclude with saying That as the Author was one of the Most-Eminent of the Second Stock of Ministers the Lord Anointed and Sent forth in this his Glorious Day and was so Generally Witnessed in his Services in the Hearts of his People It is tenderly hoped that those who loved him will prize his Remaining Testimonies and be Good Examples to their Families in Reading such Edifying Labours of the Brethren that their Children and Servants may be brought up and Instructed in the Religious Tradition of our Day according to the Testimony of the Blessed Truth in the Inward Parts Unto which they are all left and the holy Teachings and Guidings of it and Thou Reader likewise that leads into the Way of Holiness and into the Path of Endless Peace ON IOHN BURNYE AT ' s Book GO Little Book speak out the Praise Of him that did thy Author Raise An Eminent Apostle of our Days May He that Blest him Bless thee too That thou the Way of Truth may shew To the Vain Gentile and Benighted Iew Thee Who spake through him can speak by And make thy Readers Hear and See The Saving Truths of thy Divinity A TESTIMONY Concerning the Life and Death OF OUR Dear Friend and Brother in the Lord John Burnyeat HE was a faithful Friend and Brother and an able Minister of Christ Jesus who freely preacht the Everlasting Gospel and laboured to keep it without Charge who was a True Apostle of Iesus Christ and preacht him Freely both by Sea and Land He received the Truth in 1653. in Cumberland and died in the Lord in Ireland in the Year 1690. after he had stood those great Troubles Storms and Trials there and was a great Strength to Friends in the time of their late great Sufferings He stood it out when many were Ruined and fled to England for Succour and remained till after King William came in and King James went out of Ireland And then he went up and down Visiting Friends Meetings that were gathered in the Name of Jesus And after he had intended to come for England but there he died in the Lord and is Blessed and Rests from his Labours and his Works follow him He travelled and Preacht the Gospel in Ireland Scotland Barbadoes Virginia Maryland New-Jerseys Long-Island Road-Island and up and down in New-England and had many Disputes with many Priests and Professors that opposed the Truth but the Lord gave him Dominion over all and to stop the Mouths of the Gainsayers and he turned many to the Lord
and was a Peace-maker and he preacht in his Life and Conversation as well as his Words And he travelled with me from Maryland through the Wilderness and through many Rivers and Desperate Bogs where they said never English Man nor Horse had Travelled before where we lay out at Nights and sometimes in Indian Houses and many times were very hard put to it for Provisions but the Lord by his Eternal Arm and Power did support us and carry us through all Dangers Blessed be his Name for ever And he was an Elder and a Pillar in the House of God and the Name of the Righteous shall be had in Everlasting Remembrance but the Name of the Wicked will Rot. He was a Man Endued much with the Wisdom of God and in it had a Care of the Welfare of the Church of Christ to keep in Peace out of Strife and Contention and laboured with the Apostates and Back-sliders to turn them to Christ and his peaceable Truth So that they might Study to be Quiet and keep in the Unity of the Spirit which is the Bond of the King of Kings and Lord of Lord's Peace And much more I might write concerning our Dear Brother in the Lord I knowing him very well and his Travels and Service in the Lord's Power and Truth and so doth the Church of Christ among whom he will be missed But he is gone to his Rest and the Lord by his Eternal Arm and Power is able to Raise up others in his place The 13th of the 9th Month 1690. G. F. The Testimony of Friends in Cumberland COncerning that Faitful Servant of the Lord John Burnyeat belonging formerly to Pardsay-Meeting in Cumberland he was born at Crabtreebeck in the Parish of Lows-water in the said County his Parents were of good Repute and his Education was according to his Parentage The Lord visited him in his young and tender Years and inclined his heart after good things whereupon he gave himself to Reading the Scriptures that thereby he might be informed of those things that made for his Soul's Peace and going from one Man to another who were counted Men of Experience yet found no true Satisfaction until it pleased the Lord to send his Ministers to turn his Mind to the Invisible Word of Life which he gladly received into his heart and came to Wait in Humiliation to feel the Operation of it So that he was brought forth Early in the Day of the breaking forth of God's Light and Power in our Age when it pleased God to Visit many People in divers Nations of the World and to make known his Everlasting Truth in the North-Country which Day of Light and Truth and Grace many waited for and were in a readiness to Receive with Ioy and Gladness of Heart amongst whom this our Dear Friend J. B. being called by Grace to the Knowledge of the Lord his Truth and Power and receiving the same in Love Faith and Obedience he came to Witness the Effectual working thereof to his Sanctification and so became a Vessel of Honour fitted for his Master's Use even Christ and learned to Rule his own House well in washing first the Inside and the Outside appearing clean also Then his Light began to shine before Men to the Glory of God that called him And this being first done in him and for him to his particular peace and satisfaction in the Lord 's Eternal Truth then the Lord opened his Mouth in a few words in much tenderness which tended greatly to the comforting of his People he always being careful to wait for the Motion of the Word and to keep close with it whereby he grew in his Gift and was drawn forth to visit Friends in this County where we dearly loved him He was faithful in the discharge of his Duty when called to give Testimony against the Hireling-Priests in the Steeple-Houses to gather People from the Mouths of those Greedy Shepheards that feed themselves and not the Flock and did not profit the People at all And for these things he suffer'd Imprisonment a long time under a severe Goaler in a close nasty place For the Lord sent him forth in his joyful opening Power and Spirit to preach glad Tidings of Salvation by Christ Iesus sometimes to the Spirits in Prison and to them coming out of Prison and entring into the Glorious Liberty of the Sons of God and to them who walked stedfastly in that Glorious pure Liberty he that hath an Ear to hear let him hear whereby he was a blessed Instrument in the Hand of the Lord both for Convincing and Converting to God and for the Refreshing Comforting and Strengthening of them in the Faith Grace and Truth that they might be built on the Rock Christ the Foundation for all the Chosen of God in him throughout all Generations that Man might answer the End for which he was made even to Glorify God who is worthy of Glory and Praise for ever He was a Man of an Excellent Spirit and of deep Experience in the things of God and Mysteries of his Kingdom which were richly made manifest unto him And it was his Delight to be Meditating therein whereby his Experience was daily increased unto the Conclusion of his Days He was a Man tender of God's Glory and Earnestly sought the spreading and propagating of the Truth The Lord made his Travels successful and he saw the Fruit of his Labour and the Lord blessed him with the Fruits of his holy Spirit whereby he became well qualified for the Work of the Ministry a Nursing Father lending a hand of help to the feeble of the Flock and comforting the Mourners in Sion For his Doctrine did drop as the Dew and his Speech as the small Rain He was a Pattern of Righteousness to the Young Generation over whom he was very Tender and to the Aged he could give Counsel so that God made him a strong Pillar in his Church and cloathed him with Divine Wisdom that he was capable of speaking a Word in Season to all which was as a Nail fastned in a sure place He was one of the Lord's Worthies in his day of a quick Sight and clear Discerning of a strong Arm and skilful Hand whose Bow abode in strength and carried the Arrows to the Mark aimed at like as the Men of Benjamin that could sling Stones to a Hair's breadth so he fixed Judgment upon the head of the Transgressor And his Arrows returned not in vain particularly against that Wicked Spirit of Separation where-ever he met with it He was often concerned in Testimony against those that profess the Truth and Way of God and yet did incline to suit themselves to the vain Fashions and Customs of the World as Inlets to a wrong Spirit and became evil Precedents to others especially Young People that are too much employed in their Minds with foolish Dresses and Fashions that never knew the weighty Work of Truth and Power of God in their Hearts to work a Change
on and that many Afflictions and Exercises would attend us and that many People being possest with great Fears fled for England at which time many Testimonies came from Friends of sundry Meetings for all to mind the Lord's preserving Power and not to let Fears take hold of them as it did of others who knew not the Lord Our Dear Friend though he had an Opportunity had no Freedom to go for England but gave himself up to stay with Friends here and bear a part of the Sufferings that might attend us In which time he was a pretious Instrument in the Lord's Hand for the Comforting his People in the time of great Afflictions and Calamities for he was a Chearful Encourager of us He was a Dear Friend a True Brother a Diligent Over-seer and Tender Father a Perfect and Upright Man in his day who feared God and eschewed evil And though he sought the Salvation of all yet could not bear with Deceitful Men and Evil Workers who profest the Truth yet brought Dishonour to it against such he had a Iust Indignation and Godly Zeal Oh! the Remembrance of his Fatherly Care over God's Heritage in keeping things in good Order is not to be forgotten For his Care was great that the Professors of Truth might walk answerable to it in a Chast Life and Blameless Conversation And in all his Travels into whose House he entred he was Content with what things were set before him were they never so mean which was great Satisfaction to many poor honest Friends amongst whom his Lot was cast He would not usurp Authority over his Brethren but was of a healing Spirit and Lamb-like Nature and of a good Report in all his Travels Our Dear Friend and Brother did greatly delight to Read the Holy Scriptures and would often and with great Earnestness Advise Friends frequently to read the same and the Young and Tender in years more especially as also Friends Books wherein the Principles of Truth were Treated of that so none might be Ignorant of the Principles of the true Christian Religion now again preached and clearly held forth He was at our Province-Meeting at Rosean-Allies a little before his Decease where he bore a Living Fresh Testimony amongst Friends to our great Comfort and Exhorted Friends to Faithfulness From thence he went to Montroth and had a Meeting there and from thence to Ballinakill and had a Meeting there So he came to the Monthly-Meeting at New-Garden where many heard him bear a living sweet Testimony in the Opening of the Word of Life to the Refreshing of their Souls After Meeting he came home with our Friend John Watson to his House and feeling himself not well took his Bed and was visited with a Fever and continued sick for the space of Twelve days All which time he was preserved in his Senses and in a sweet Frame of Spirit and did often say he was sine at Ease and quiet in his Spirit The Lord did Attend him with his heavenly Power and Presence to his Comfort and our great Satisfaction He said to John Watson That he ever loved the Lord and the Lord loved him from his Youth and that he felt his Love He was wonderfully preserved in a sensible Condition to the Last and on the Eleventh day of the Seventh Month 1690 about Two of the Clock in the Afternoon he quietly and peaceably Departed this Life about the 59th Year of his Age and is gone to his Rest with the Lord and his Works follow him And as he honoured the Lord in his Day so he was honoured with the Company of many Antient Friends from several Parts of our Province to Accompany him to his Grave at New-Garden where he was Decently Interred the Fourteenth day of the same Month and there we had a good Meeting to the great satisfaction of many Friends and others And now surely If David did well in Sorrowing for Absolom we have Reason greatly to Lament the Loss of so Dear Tender and Upright-hearted a Friend whose Labour and Travel was great both in Body and Spirit faithfully to serve the Lord his Church and People and to Exalt his Glorious Name and propagate his Living Truth in the Earth and to preserve Unity and Peace in the Churches of Christ. But believing 't is the Lord's Will that 's done concerning him in a Holy and Reverend Resignation and Submission thereunto we ought to be Content knowing 't is his unspeakable Gain to be Absent from the Body and at home with Christ. And thus Dear Friends We that yet remain do see how the Lord is pleased to Remove from among us many of our Antient Friends and Faithful Labourers in the Gospel of Peace who have been serviceable in this Day for the Gathering and Confirming of many in the Truth that we may walk therein And Friends we that are yet behind are the more immediately concerned for to Labour in the Heavenly Gift of his Divine Grace the Lord in his Love hath bestowed upon us that so we may come up in this Gospel-day to succeed them that are gone before us to their Rest in the Lord in bearing a Faithful Testimony to the blessed Truth that our Memorial may live to Ages to come as this our Dear Friend and Elder Brother's doth amongst God's People this day who having Faithfully finisht his Course here in great Patience and an humble and holy Subjection to the Will of God hath now received a Crown of Immortal Glory which is laid up for all the Faithful Followers of the Lamb and Lovers of the Appearance of our Lord Jesus Christ To whom and the Father through him be Glory and Honour both now and for ever Amen Dated in Dublin the 22th of the Second Month 1691. Anthony Sharp Roger Roberts Amos Strettel John Watson Henry Hillary John Haukes An Account of John Burnyeat's Convincement Together with a Iournal of his Travels IN the Year 1653. it pleased the Lord in his Love and Mercy to send his faithful Servant George Fox with others of his faithful Servants and Messengers of the Gospel of Peace and Glad-tidings whom he furnished with the eternal power of his Word in the wisdom and power of which he proclaimed the Day of the Lord unto us in this County of Cumberland and the Northern Parts of England and discovered the right Path of Life unto thousands that was in Error seeking the Lord but knew not where to find him nor how to come acquainted with him although he was not far from us But this blessed man G. F. one of a thousand may many say and chosen before many thousands was sent amongst us in the power of the most High filled with the strength of his Word in the wisdom whereof he directed thousands unto the Light and Appearance of Christ Jesus their Saviour in their own hearts that he might come to know him and the Glory of the Father through him in his Appearance and so come to believe in him with the
So Robert Lodge and I became concerned in one Work Service and Travel together and were truly united in Spirit in the Unity of the Faith and Life of Christ in which blessed Unity and Fellowship of the Gospel of the Son of God we laboured and travelled in that Nation of Ireland for Twelve Months after we met together not often parting but sometimes we were moved to part for the Service's sake for a little time and came together again and the Lord gave us sweet Concord and Peace in all our Travels for I do not remember that we ever were angry or grieved one at the other in all that time And so we went down to Londonderry together and when we came there were soon discovered what we were and then the People were unwilling to receive us or let us have Lodging for our Money We were at their great Steeple-house on the first day and had a large time among the People to declare the Truth but at last the Major sent his Officers who would not suffer us to stay any longer but forced us out of the City and down to the Boat and commanded the Boat-man to carry us over and not to bring us back again So being clear we took our Journey towards Coalraine and then to the Grange and so to Antrim and so up to Lorgan and so through Friends in the North. And then after some time we took our Journey into the South and did travel through a great part of the Nation as to Dublin Mountmeleck and to Arthlone and Galloway Limmerick Cork and Bandon and so through the South and again into the North. And thus we spent our time with diligent Labour and hard Travel often in cold hunger and hardships in that County which then was in many Parts uninhabited And in Prison several times once in Armagh once in Dublin twice in Cork besides other Abuses we received from many because of our Testimony which we had to bear for the Lord in their Towns and in their Steeple-houses and against their Hireling-Priests which sought their Rewards and loved the Wages of Unrighteousness like Baalam and worse then he forces it from the People like the Sons of Eli whose Sin was very great 1 Sam. 2. 16 17. And thus having travelled and laboured in the Gospel together for Twelve Months and many being Convinced and gathered to the Truth we were clear of our Service there and in the Seventh Month 1660. we took shipping at Carrickfergus and intended for Whitehaven in England but by contrary Wind were driven to Kirkowbry in Scotland and from thence came over Land into Cumberland and to Cockermouth and then I again returned to my outward Calling and followed that and kept diligently to Meetings for it was still my Delight so to do and there to be diligent in waiting upon the Lord for I always found that therein I received an increase of Strength Life and Wisdom from the Lord. And as I found any motion upon me from the Lord to go to any Meeting abroad either in our Country or any other I went and cleared my self as the Lord gave Ability and so did return again to my Calling and so to our own Meeting where I did delight to wait in Silence upon the Lord for I loved that much because I found an inward growth thereby through the Teachings and Openings of his Spirit in my Heart and when something did open in me for that end to speak in our Meeting I gave up for the most part sometimes ready to quench through backwardness but that was hurtful but I grew over it by degrees and increased in Faith and holy Confidence more and more Now from the Seventh Month 1660. unto about the First or Second Month 1662. I was very much at home at my Calling and then I was moved of the Lord to go to London to see George Fox and others of the Elders and to acquaint him with what was upon me from the Lord to go to America which came weightily upon me in Ireland when I was there so that I had a great travel in Spirit and deep Exercise in Mind before I gave up But when I had given up in belief that it was the Word of the Lord and so gone through it in my Spirit and submitted unto his Will the weight and exercise was removed and I with my former Openness again restored into my Service and no more of that remained but a remembrance of the Prophecy or Opening which I had received and Faith in the Word which I was satisfied was sure for ever And therein I rested as to that matter until the time aforesaid that it came upon me to go and and acquaint G. F. as also Ed. Burrough who were then at London and Richard Hubberthorn for I loved to have the Counsel and Countenance of my elder Brethren who were in Christ before me And then I did return through Yorkshire home and had some Meetings as I came along and stayed at home but a little time and was moved to go again into Yorkshire and went through divers Meetings to visit Friends And being as I thought clear to return home I came to Rippon to see some Friends that were then Prisoners for meeting together to worship God and going into Prison to see them and in the Love of God speaking some words of Exhortation unto them the Goaler took me and had me to a House in the Town where the Major and the Chancellor and several of the Aldermen were together and there the Chancellor chiefly took in hand to examine me and sought to ensnare me that he might get occasion to Commit me to Prison And first he would have my going to Prison to my Friends to have been an Offence but I pleaded in so doing I had broken no Law Then he said I spoke in Prison I answered There was no Law that forbid us to speak to our Friends when we came to visit them Then he asked me when I was at Church and when I took the Sacrament according to the Laws of England I answered I knew no Law I had broken nor no evil I had done to any man if any man had evil against me let him bear witness of the evil Then he began to be in a rage and said He would have an Answer e're we had done c. But when he could not get an Advantage that way he reached for a Book and asked me if I would take the Oath of Allegiance and Supremacy And when I answered Not in Contempt to the King or his Authority but in Obedience to Christ's Command I could not swear Then he commanded the Clerk to write a Mittimus and sent me to the Prison to the rest of my Friends who were four and twenty before and there I was kept Prisoner fourteen Weeks And because when we sate down to wait upon the Lord for we fate down once every day together and many times Friends with us that came to see us
I spake something in Exhortation unto Friends and prayed unto the Lord as he enlarged my Heart that we might be comforted and edified together the Magistrates were offended and sent the Under-Goaler to take me away and put me in the Dungeon from among my Fellow-Prisoners who came at three several times and every time haled me from my knees when I was at Prayer and put me in the Dungeon a little dark Room where I was one time two days and nights another time three days and nights and the last time seven days and nights There was a Bowling-Alley before the Prison-door where several of the Magistrates and others did use to come to their Game and hearing my voice were offended and so sent to take me away So after fourteen Weeks I was set at liberty and in some little time I had freedom to return home and then did as at other times follow my outward Calling and kept to our Meetings at home but when I was moved to go forth to visit Friends sometimes in our own Country and sometimes into Yorkshire and Bishoprick and would sometimes be Two Months away or thereabouts and then return home to my Calling or Trade and so thus continued till about the fore-end of Summer in the Year 1664. And then that which had been opened unto me four years before began again to arise in my Heart in that Word which lives for ever and the living motion of it began to press upon my Spirit towards the fulfilling thereof and then I saw the Time drew near and the Season was coming upon me wherein the Lord would have me go and fulfil his Word that I had yielded unto in Spirit so long ago And then I began to prepare and set my Heart to leave all things behind and give up all things else that I might follow him and so his Power wrought my Spirit into a right frame that I could easily leave all things and then he gave me time to settle and order my outward Concerns and leave all things clear And then that Summer I took shipping for Ireland and passed through most Friends and did visit them And about the Seventh Month 1664. I took shipping at Galloway in Ireland for the Barbadoes and was seven weeks and two days in sailing to the Barbadoes and I stayed there about three or four Months and did visit Friends and travelled and laboured in the Work of the Gospel both for the Confirmation of those that were gathered and for the gathering of others unto the Truth that they might partake with us of the like precious Faith And there I met with many that had been hurt by Iohn Parrot and carried away with his Imaginations who lead out of the Power and from the true Cross into high Notions and vain Conceits and so into a fleshly Liberty and ease therein from the true Spiritual Travel and right Exercise both in Spirit and outwardly pretending to be against Forms and under that pretence led out of the faithful and diligent practice which Friends had been gathered into as to their meeting together and waiting upon the Lord counting that a Form which he did lead into a slight of and so caused many both there and in Virginia and other places to neglect or in a great measure to forsake the Assembling of themselves together contrary to Friends practice and the Counsel and Advice of the faithful Labourers who first laboured amongst us as also contrary to the Advice of the Apostle Hebr. 10. 25. And also he in his new Notion led many to keep on their Hats in the time of Prayer when any Friend prayed and condemned our reverend practice of putting off our Hats at such times and so in many things led such as were taken with his Notion out of true Order into Loosness and such a Liberty that the Cross in most things was laid down by them and their own Wills followed and Truth 's Testimony let fall But he ran out of the Truth so far at last that many began to see him and what his Spirit led to and so came to see their own loss and returned back unto their first love and the Power of the Lord went over that dark Spirit with all the vain Imaginations they had been led into thereby and so Friends were gathered into their former Unity Now because of the prevalency of this Spirit I had the greater travel and exercise among Friends in that Island and in other places of America both in withstanding such as were high and hard and also to gather back and preserve such as had in some measure been betrayed and yet were more innocent and tender And so when I had travelled and laboured as I said before about three or four Months in that Island and was clear I took shipping for Maryland about the latter end of the first Month and landed there about the latter end of the second Month 1665. and so I travelled and laboured in the Work of the Gospel in that Province that Summer and large Meetings we had and the Lord's Power was with us and Friends greatly comforted and several Convinced But a sore Exercise I had with one Tho. Thurston and a Party he drew after him for a while so that both I and faithful Friends were greatly grieved not only with his Wickedness but also his Opposition that he made against us and the Disturbance that he brought upon us in our Meetings and great was the exercise and travel that was upon my Spirit both Day and Night both upon the Truth 's account that suffered by him and also for the People that were betrayed by him to their hurt who were under a great mistake But through much labour and travel in the Lord's Wisdom and Power that both I and other faithful Friends of that Province had to search things out and to clear things to their Understandings both as to what related to the Truth and also Matter of Fact which he was guilty of it pleased the Lord so to assist us and bless our endeavours in manifesting the Wickedness and Wrongness of the Heart and Spirit of the Man that most of the People came to see him and in the love of God to be restored into the Unity of the Truth again to our great comfort Truth 's honour and their Everlasting happiness But he himself was lost as to the Truth and became a Vagabond and Fugitive as to his Spiritual Condition and little otherwise as to the outward So in the Winter following I went down to Virginia and when I came there Friends there the greatest part of them were led aside by Iohn Parrot who had led them into his Notions as before is related and they had quite forsaken their Meetings and did not meet together once in a Year and had lost the very form and language of the Truth many of them and were become loose and careless and much one with the World in many things so that the Cross of
Christ for which they had suffered was shunned by them and so Sufferings escaped and they got into outward ease For they had endured very great Sufferings for their Meetings and did stand faithful therein till he came among them and preached up this Notion of his by which he judged Friends Practice and Testimony in the Truth and for the Truth to be but forms and so pretending to live above such things drew them from their Zeal for the Truth and their Testimony therein so far that they avoided every thing that might occasion Sufferings And thus they being seduced or bewitched as the Galatians were into a fleshly Liberty the Offence of the Cross ceased and the Power was lost and when I came there it was hard to get a Meeting among them And much Discourse I had with some of the chief of them and through much labour and travel with them and among them to maintain the Principles of Truth and our Testimony and Practice therein I obtained a Meeting and the Lord's Power was with us and amongst us and several were revived and refreshed and through the Lord's goodness and his renewed Visitations raised up into a Service of Life and in time came to see over the wiles of the Enemy So after some time I returned again to Maryland and did pass through Friends and visited their Meetings and in the first Month came again to Virginia and did visit them and so returned again to Maryland and landed at New-York in the fourth Month 1666. and spent some time there amongst Friends in going through their Meetings And then took shipping for Road-Island in New-England and there spent some time in visiting Friends and their Meetings where I had a comfortable Service And about the latter end of the sixth Month I took my Journey towards Sandwich and when I was clear there I took my Journey by Plymouth to Tewkesbury and so to Marshfield and Cittuate and so on to Boston and did visit Friends and had Meetings And from Boston to Salem and so on to Piscatoway And when I was clear there I returned back through the Meetings and came to Hampton Salem Boston Cittuate Marshfield and so by Tewkesbury and Plymouth to Sandwich and from thence through the Woods to Ponigantsit and from thence over unto Road Island And after some time spent there I took shipping for Long-Island to visit Friends in those parts and when I was clear I returned again to Road-Island in the Winter and stayed for some time for there was no going off the Island unto the Main the Snow was so deep And about the latter end of the first Month I took shipping for the Barbadoes and landed there in the second Month 1667. and did spend that Summer there and had blessed and comfortable Service among Friends large and full Meetings and the Lord's Power and Presence was with us and several gathered into the Love of the Truth And in the seventh Month I took shipping for Bristol in England and after we had been Ten Weeks at the Sea except one day or two being beat off the Coast with an Easterly Storm and kept out at Sea in a great Tempest for the most part of two Weeks at last we got into Milford-Haven and there I landed about the 27 th of the ninth Month 1667. and so did go up too Haverfordwest in Pembrokeshire in Wales where I met with a Meeting of Friends the same day and at that time I stayed four Weeks in that County and had many blessed Meetings And then being clear I took my Journey towards Swanzey and did visit Friends there and so came up towards Cardiff and so on into Monmouthshire and after I had visited Friends there I passed over the Water and came to Bristol and did stay there some Meetings and so up into Glocestershire and Barkshire and so up to London and stayed there some time And after I was clear of that City I was moved to return again into Barkshire and Glocestershire and so to Bristol and so over into South-Wales and down to Pembrokeshire all along visiting Friends and had blessed Service And then when I was clear of those Parts I was moved to return again up through the Meetings in South-Wales and to Glocester and and through Glocestershire and Barkshire into Buckinghamshire and so up to London and spent some time there that Summer in the Year 1668. And after that I went over into Surry to see George Fox who then was travelling among Friends in those Parts to assist Friends in the setling of their mens-Meetings and also to stir them up to visit such as were fallen away from the Truth and drawn back and to see if they could be restored and brought again to a sense of the Love of God and so to Salvation and Life which Work did prove very effectual for the gaining of many So after I had been a little with him and at Horsham with some Friends that went from London with me to visit some Friends that were Prisoners there for the Truth 's Testimony I returned back again to London and so took my Journey for the North of England through Hartfordshire and Huntingtonshire and then strait down into Yorkshire and spent some time in visiting the Meetings about Knaisborrough Netherdale Massom Thirsk and there-aways and then was moved to go down towards Crake and Malton and so on to Killam and Burlington Scarborough and Whitby and on into Cleveland and so over into Bishoprick And after some time spent there I came over Stanmore and so into Cumberland and came home to see my Friends and Relations and stayed but about a Week or a few days more and then took my Journey for London to the yearly Meeting that then was appointed to be about the beginning of the tenth Month and so was there about a Week or two and then I took my Journey again into the West through Barkshire and Glocestershire and so over into South-Wales down as far as Pembrokeshire visiting the Meetings and serving the Lord and his People with faithfulness in the labours and travels of the Gospel of Christ Jesus And when I was clear of those Parts I returned back again through South-Wales up to Bristol and so up through the Counties visiting the Churches and so up to London that Spring in the Year 1669. and stayed about two Months time in and about the City And then I was moved again to go into Buckinghamshire and so through the Country visiting Meetings in divers places till I came to Bristol and was at Bristol about the 25 th of the fifth Month 1669. And from thence I went over into Wales again and did pass through South-Wales as far as Pembrokeshire and from thence I took my Journey through the Mountains towards North-Wales and did visit Friends in Radnorshire and from thence came down to Shrewsbury and so on into Cheshire and so through Lancashire and Westmoreland home into Cumberland and stayed there a little and
from the Town and we hired one and so began our Journey early next Morning to travel through that Country which now is called New Iersey and we did suppose that we travelled that day near forty Miles And at the Evening we got to a few Indian Wigwams that is their Houses for we saw no Man nor Woman House nor Dwelling that day for there dwelt no English in that Country then We lodged that Night in an Indian Wigwam and lay upon the Ground as themselves did and next day we travelled through several of their Towns and they were kind to us and helped us over the Creeks with their Canowes and we made our Horses swim at the sides of the Canowes and so travelled on And towards the Evening we got to an Indian Town and when we had put our Horses to Grass we went up to the King's House who received us kindly and shewed us very civil Respect But alas he was so poorly provided having got so little that Day that most of us could neither get to eat nor drink in his Wigwam but it was because he had it not So we lay as well as he that was upon the Ground only a Matt under us and a piece of Wood or any such thing under our Heads So next Morning early we took Horse and travelled through several Indian Towns and that day at Night we lodged in the Woods And so the next day being the fourth day we got to an English Plantation to a Town called Middle-Town in East-Iersey where there was a Plantation of English and several Friends and so we came down with a Friend to his House near the Water-side and he carried us over in his Boat and our Horses also to Long-Island And we got to Friends at Gravesand that Evening and next day we took our Journey to Flushing on Long-Island And the next day being the seventh day of the Week we took our Journey to Oyster-Bay and came there that Evening and several Friends from Gravesand and Flushing with us for the next day their Half-years-Meeting did begin which was the cause of our so hard travelling And besides we did understand that those that had been so troublesome the Half-years-Meeting before when I was there in opposing the Order of Truth and reflecting so upon G. F. would then be an Exercise to Friends therefore George Fox did endeavour the more to get to the Meeting Which we did very seasonably and it was of great Service to the Truth and great Comfort to Friends for they were greatly under when we were come and some of the chief of them began to fawn upon G. F. So we had our Meetings very comfortably first and second days publick for Worship third day for our Mens and Womens-Meetings for Business about the Affairs of the Church as usually before Then on the fourth day we had a Meeting with those dissatisfied People for G. F. would not suffer the Service of our Men and Womens-Meetings to be hindered by such a matter And so on the fourth day as many Friends as had a desire to be there did come and the Lord's Power went over them and Friends were much satisfied And he that was the chief Instigator of that Mischief to wit George Dennis who came from London and his Wife not being well owned there by Friends he now began to disown the matter and would have cast it upon others and have willingly appeared clear to G. F. but that I did prove under his own Hand that he was a chief Actor at the Half-years-Meeting before and read the Book in our Meeting whether we would or no. And so things being fastened upon him the Lord's Power went over his deceitful Spirit and they were all bowed and the Truth exalted over all Glory to the Lord for ever Amen Then after this we stayed a little upon the Island and did go back to have some Meetings and returned again to Oyster-Bay and there set Sail for Road-Island the 29 th of the third Month and arrived at Road-Island the thirtieth of the same and there stayed till the Yearly-Meeting which began the eighth day of the fourth Month which was the sixth day of the next Week following and at that General Meeting there were many Friends from most Places in New-England where Friends dwelt and abundance of other People came into our Publick Meetings And we had Meetings for eight days together every day a Meeting some publick and others Men and Womens-Meetings for setling the Affairs of the Churches in the Order of the Truth that all things might be kept sweet clean and well And when all was over and the Service of the Meetings finished I took my Journey Eastward to go through the Meetings in the Eastern Parts of New-England and with me went Iohn Cartwright and George Pattison and several other Friends to accompany us and we left G. F. upon the Island and he went to Providence and the Narraganset Country So we took our Journey towards Sandwich where we had a blessed Meeting and were comforted and richly refreshed in the blessed Presence of the Lord 's holy and blessed Power that was with us and did open and enlarge our hearts And when we had spent some time with Friends there we left them and travelled on by Plymouth and Duxbury and had a Meeting at Marshfield and another at Scituate and the Lord was blessedly with us And at Scituate some of the Elders of their Church came to our Meeting where were abundance of People in an Orchard and stood up and made opposition so I ceased speaking to the People and joyned with them in Dispute But the People were so displeased at the Interruption they made that they signified their dislike and would have them have stayed till I had done upon which they said they would forbear then and come again So they went away and after their own Meeting was over they came again and several Friends stayed with me and a great Company of People came with them And then we went into our Meeting-house which before would not hold the Multitude and there began to Dispute and after some time spent they always endeavouring to make Friends appear to be in the Errour I said unto them before the People If I must be disputed with as an Heretick and your Church esteemed as a true Church I am willing we should come to the Rule Christ hath left and thereby be tried and that is by our Fruits and if you can prove the Fruits of your Church to be agreeable to the Fruits of any antient true Christian Church I shall yield otherwise I must hold my Testimony against it as a false Church c. But they were mighty unwilling to joyn with me in that Discourse But I urged the proof of our Practice by Scripture especially in such a great Point as that and so went on to reckon up the Fruits of their Church which was to fine and take away Goods for not coming to
when we partly pressed that they would answer little but held back some of them who like Diotrephes of old who loved to have the Pre-eminence and so withstood the Apostle did keep off in their Minds being of that Spirit I wrote of before in Virginia who pretended to be against Forms And while we sate waiting upon the Lord and staying to see what they would come to and George Pattison labouring to bring them to a Sense of the Service and so to come into the Practice and they not being willing to say any thing my Spirit being very low the Word of the Lord came unto me and the dread of his Power fell upon me so that after some time I opened my Mouth with a Lamentation and said I was sorry or grieved that I had that to say that I must declare unto them and that was That while they stood in that Spirit they were in they could not act in Unity with the Body in honour to the Head c. and therefore after that our Exhortation was unto them to Condemn that Spirit by which they had been led aside and wait for the Universal Spirit of Life or to this effect and so we left them and they were greatly concerned So the next day we had a publick Meeting amongst them and after meeting came away towards Boston Then their Consciences being troubled we had to do with several of the Chief of them who laboured to have Reversed that I had spoken and said It was very hard c. But I told them I could not do it the Power had sealed it and it must stand it was they must come to Repentance and Condemn that Spirit which had deceived or to that effect And so we left it upon them according to the Word of the Lord And since some of them have seen it and Condemned that Spirit and given a Testimony in writing against it blessed be the Lord who shews Mercy and restores out of the Snares of Satan And so being clear of all those Parts we came away strait to Road-Island and there we met with G. F. who was preparing to go Westward towards Long-Island So he went away and Robert Withers Iames Lancaster and George Pattison with him And from Long-Island they went over to East-Iersey and so over Land back again to Maryland and Iohn Stubbs and I were left at Road-Island Iohn Cartwright we left at Piscattaway he went further Eastward and after some time came to Iohn Stubbs and me at Road-Island I. S. and I went up to Providence had a Meeting there and as we returned we had a Meeting at Warwick where none had been before and several were Convinced and did own the Truth And there we had to do with one Gorton and his Company who were by other People there called Gortonians but they called themselves Generalists They were of Opinion All should be saved But they were in reality Ranters for in our Discourse they would maintain and say No Creaturely Actions could be Sin and would have no Whoredom nor Drunkenness nor the like to be Sin but what was spiritual the Outward action was but creaturely And thus in their filthy unclean Spirits they like the old Ranters made merry over the reproof of God's Spirit So from thence we came down again to Road-Island and there we spent some time and had a long Dispute with one Roger Williams that sent us a Challenge from Providence with fourteen Propositions as he called them but they were Charges and he engaged to maintain them against all Comers the first Seaven to be disputed on at Road-Island and the latter Seven at Providence We spent in Dispute with him three days at Road-Island but he could not make any proof of his Charges to the satisfaction of the Auditory for there was a great Congregation every day it would be tedious here to insert the Discourse if I were able but I cannot remember it There is a Book in Manuscript of what was taken in Short-hand of the Discourse at that present besides there is a Book in print entituled New-England-Fire-Brand quenched c. which is an Answer to a Book of the said R. Williams which gives some relation of some part of the Dispute to which I refer the Reader William Edmondson came from Virginia and was also with us at the same Dispute W. E. and I. Stubbs went up to Providence and spent one day with him there about the latter Seven and so cleared themselves to the People and came away when they had done with him So after some time together upon the Island Iohn Stubbs and I went over with several Friends that did accompany us to Narraganset and there we had a Meeting the four and twentieth of the sixth Month at one Richard Smith's and next day took our Journey towards Hartford We came first to New-London and from thence to Norwich and so to Hartford and stayed there one day and several of the Professors came in to us to Dispute with us And the next day we rode to a Town called Westfield near thirty Miles which was within the Massachuset's Colony And there was a Man and his Wife that received us and we appointed a Meeting But when they heard of it some of their Officers came to us and commanded that we should have no Meeting and so affrighted the People that none durst come to us We had a little Discourse with their Officers or Elders that came to us but they would not stay but cried out against our Religion We asked them If they knew our Principles that they so condemned Some of them answered and said Nay they knew them not nor did not desire to know them We asked them How they could judge of them and withal told them They were such as the Scripture did speak of who spoke evil of the things they knew not and they were confounded and went away and so scared the People that none durst come near us So we came away to Hartford again on the sixth day of the Week and on the seventh day several came to us and discoursed with us and we desired that we might speak with the Priest and they had promised that we should but when we desired him to come he or they for him made an Excuse he could not that day come from his Study So the next day being the first day of the Week we did go to their Meeting and the Fore-noon stayed without till they had done And when they had done and came forth we spoke to the People but they got away as if they had been afraid of us and none would stay So we returned to the Inn and stayed there till the After-noon And then we did go into their Meeting-house and stayed till the Priest had done And then I stood up and called unto the People and desired their patience a little to hear I had a word of Exhortation to them and so began to speak But immediately the Sexton came to
then I took my Journey into the Country and went down into Buckinghamshire through their Meetings and so on into Oxfordshire to Worcestershire and Glocestershire and to Bristol and then back again and so through to Shrewsbury and on as far as Wrexham in Wales visiting the Churches of Christ and the good Presence of the Lord in his heavenly Power accompanying we were often refreshed and sweetly comforted together to his Praise and our Joy who is our God for evermore And so from Wrexham in North-Wales I took my Journey with Iohn ap Iohn who accompanied me towards South Wales and we did visit Friends and had many Meetings as we went along in Montgomeryshire Merionethshire and Cardiganshire and so we passed on by the West-Sea into Pembrokeshire and there visited the Lord's People and spent some time amongst them there And then we took our Journey through Carmarthenshire to Swanzey and having a Meeting or two we passed on towards Cardiff visiting Friends in Glamorganshire and then into Monmouthshire and having visited Friends in that County we parted he returned home and I passed over the Water into Glocestershire and so to Bristol And so continued travelling through several Counties visiting the Churches and so to London spent some time there and then went down into Essex and visited Friends in that Country and returned again to London to the Yearly-Meeting in the Year 1675. And from London I took my Journey to Hartford and so down Northward with Iohn Graves and Iames Hall to York and there we parted And I went from York to Malton and so to Scarborough and Whitby and through Friends in Cleveland and so to Stockdon in Bishoprick visiting Friends and having many pretious Meetings And then passed through several Meetings in that County and being clear I then took my Journey for Cumberland and being there I with several Brethren was desired to come over into Westmorland to a Meeting appointed by Friends at their Quarterly-Meeting in Westmorland which was to be at Powbank So I went thither against the day appointed with Iohn Graves Iohn Tiffin Hugh Tickell and Thomas Laithes where we met with several Brethren that were come out of Yorkshire at the request of the aforesaid Quarterly-Meeting And upon that occasion many Friends of Westmorland were come together who when we were sate together in the Meeting did present unto us several Disorders in many things that were contrary to the Truth by which they had been grieved and sorely exercised for a long time in their Monthly and Quarterly-Meetings so that the Spirits of a lose Company were set at liberty and so much born up and countenanced by Iohn Story and Iohn Wilkinson that the blessed Order of the Truth brought forth amongst us by the Power of God was greatly slighted and endeavoured to be trodden under by that lose Company being thus encouraged by these two men that looked upon themselves to be Elders and so like Diotrephes loved to have the Pre-eminence which brought great grief upon the honest and simple-minded So we hearing what Friends had to say in that matter and observing what was charged and proved we desired Friends to give us another Meeting and let I. S. and I. W. be sent to and desired to meet us that we might hear them face to face although they had been desired from the Quarterly-Meeting and several others to come to this Meeting so appointed by the Quarterly-Meeting and had refused and withal sent us a Letter denying to come and disowning our Meeting Nevertheless we were willing to have another Meeting which Friends of Westmorland freely assented unto and so it was appointed at Milthrop the next day And we to wit six or more of Cumberland and Yorkshire Friends did our selves go to them as Messengers and did intreat them to go with us to the Meeting that we might hear them and the Friends of Westmorland that were agrieved face to face concerning those things that were in charge against them but they were so high and so obstinate that they slighted us all or any Advice we could give And so after some hours discourse with them in which we throughly saw their Spirits to be wrong we left them and went to the Meeting appointed at Milthrop where Friends were waiting for us And after we were setled a little in the Meeting we gave an acccount how we had endeavoured to perswade them to come through all entreaty we could but could not prevail And so we gave a hearing a second time to the Friends and then we of Yorkshire and Cumberland with-drew and amongst our selves viewed the whole matter for it was in writing and opened our Hearts one unto another And waiting upon the Lord there fell a Weighty Concern upon us for the Truth 's sake and the blessed Order thereof with our holy Testimony we had been raised up into which by them had been slighted and scorned and reproached So that we could not pass it by but in the Power of the Lord God that was dreadful amongst us gave Iudgment against that Spirit that was grown so high and lose and fleshly as thus to undervalue the Testimony of God and the bringings forth of his holy Power in the Churches of Christ that thereby all might be kept sweet clear and in good Order And when we had cleared our selves in the rising and springing of the Word of Life and drawn up our Testimony in writing we gave it unto Friends there and so departed Of the Iudgment given I shall say no more here because it is in writing in many places So I went over to Swarthmore and stayed a Meeting there and then returned into Cumberland and stayed there some Weeks and visited Friends And being clear I returned again to Swarthmore in order to go over the Sands towards Wales which was before me And when I was at Swarthmore I was moved to go over first into Westmorland to visit the Meetings there So I went over to Sedber and had a Meeting there and then had a Meeting at Grayrigg and then came to Kendall where I met with Robert Lodge and so we had a blessed Meeting there And the next day we were at Preston-Meeting and then I was clear of that County And so after a little time took my Journey into Wales through Lancashire and Cheshire and so coming to Iohn ap Iohns near Wrexham in North-Wales he did go along with me And in the first place we went to a Quarterly-Meeting that was at Deloberon at Charles Lloyds for two Counties viz. Merionethshire and Mongomeryshire and had a blessed Service for the Truth there among Friends And then went down into Merionethshire and visited the Meetings and then to Mehuntleth and had a Meeting And then returned up into Radnorshire and visited the Meetings there in that County And then took our Journey through Brecknockshire and Carmarthenshire into Pembrokeshire where we spent some time amongst Friends and had several pretious Meetings And being clear
we took our Journey towards Swanzey and Cardiff and had several pretious Meetings in Glamorganshire and then went over into Monmouthshire And after we had visited Friends Iohn went with me to the Ferry and stayed to see me take Boat and then returned And I went that same day to Bristol and stayed some Meetings there And then went down into Somersetshire and did visit Friends there and had many blessed Meetings And returned back to Bristol and stayed some Meetings there And then went up into Wiltshire and so into Glocestershire and through Barkshire and into Oxfordshire and so into Worcestershire as far as Worcester and visited Friends and had many pretious Meetings through those Counties And from Worcester returned again down through Glocestershire and had several Meetings And came again to Bristol and from thence took my Journey through several Counties visiting Friends And so came to London and stayed there some time in the Service and Work of the Gospel And being clear I took my Journey for the North and did not make much stay at any place till I came into Cumberland And the reason of my so travelling was because of a Meeting that was agreed upon by Friends to be at Draw-well in Sedber-Parish about the former Difference that had been heard at Powbank that was among Friends in Westmorland chiefly occasioned by the aforesaid Iohn Story and I. Wilkinson and a lose sort of People that they did countenance in a Liberty that the Truth would not allow and therefore could not be born with by such tender Friends as were zealous for the Truth who kept their first love and therein delighted to uphold that Antient Testimony for the Lord against the Priests and their Tithes Hire and Maintenance with other things that were to be born Witness against through Sufferings as also for Meeting together to worship God which from the beginning had been our practice against such there being divers Statutes with Penalties upon us for so doing for fear of which the aforesaid I. S. and I. W. with such as had let in the same fear through fleshly Reasoning did shrink and hide and so let fall the Nobility of that Testimony which we had received and were raised up to stand for in the beginning And so because of a failure in divers things and a pleading for a Liberty from under the exercise of the Cross that the Offence thereof might cease the Faithful became concerned to stand up against that Spirit that thus was like to weaken or overthrow the Faith and Testimony of many through its subtil Workings in and through divers who like them the Apostle writes against in his Epistle to the Galatians that to avoid Persecution endeavoured to bring the Believers under Circumcision that so the Offence of the Cross might cease or Sufferings for the Gospel might be avoided Now this Difference still continuing and they abiding obstinate and not willing to receive Advice nor bear the Iudgment in the Truth placed upon them Friends in condescension to see if they could be gained appointed a Meeting at Draw-well near Sedber that they might have another opportunity and be heard what they could further say And then the Matters were fully gone through before many antient faithful Brethren that were there then assembled who spent four days in hearing and going through the Matters relating to that Difference that was then occasioned through their Opposition to the blessed Order of the Truth who withstood Friends godly Care for the Preservation of the Dominion thereof in Righteousness And when all things were heard and gone through by the Brethren the Iudgment was again given in the Power of the Lord upon that Spirit that they had let in whereby they had been led into a Separation and Division and Opposition to the Truth and the holy Order and Testimony thereof and they in the same Power and Love with great Bowels and Tenderness sought to return back again unto that Spirit of Love and Peace wherein the Unity and Fellowship of the true Body doth consist But alas many of them would not be wrought upon nor prevailed with but in that hardness the Enemy had wrought their Hearts into did persist until they became open Enemies to the Truth and the faithful Witnesses of it even to the Writing and Printing publickly against them and what the Truth doth lead into and so are become such as the Apostles write of that greatly withstood their words and slighted them of which both Paul Peter Iohn and Iude write This Meeting at Draw-well was in the second Month 1676. From thence after Friends had done what could be done at that time with holy Endeavours for the reconciling and gathering into the Heavenly Unity and making up of the Breach I returned again into Cumberland with several Brethren to wit I. T. I. B. Hugh Tickhill Thomas Laythes Iohn Steel and so spent a little time in Cumberland and then I took my Journey with Iohn Tiffin towards London And in our Journey we came into Westmorland to visit Friends there where we met with some of those with whom we had to do at Draw-well and then they were grown hard through resisting the Counsel of the Lord and had set up a Separate Meeting and so run into the Self-Separation and grown more into the Enmity and stronger in the Opposition through Resisting the love of God that so richly was reached forth unto them in the Heavenly Bowels that by the Power of the Lord Jesus Christ were opened in the Brethren at the aforesaid Meeting at Draw-well For then did the Power of the Eternal God in great Majesty appear and in a weighty Dread was Iudgment set and sealed upon that Spirit by which they had been betrayed and by the same Power and Word of Life was a Door opened unto them that had been betrayed and an entrance in the same set before them and they with much brokenness and tenderness in the Power of Love were sought to return and be reconciled unto God and unto his People But this great Visitation by them being rejected they grew harder and harder until they grew many of them as before said Enemies unto the Cross of Christ and so withered as to their Spiritual State and so did become as some of old whom the Apostle wrote of as Trees twice dead and pluckt up by the Roots And then from Westmorland I went over into Yorkshire had a Meeting at Sedber and went through the Dales to Massom and visited Friends there-aways And then I. T. and I with Robert Lodge took our Journey to York and from thence towards London visiting Friends by the way and so came to the Yearly Metting in the Year 1676. where there were many faithful Brethren assembled together there from most Parts of the Nation Amongst many things of Concern relating to the Truth and the Churches of Christ that Division in Westmorland was laid before the Meeting and how they were hardened and had set
receive and enjoy them with a Blessing and in true Comfort and also be a Blessing and a Comfort in his place unto all concern'd This is the Happiness and Advantage that is to be witnessed through the Working and Indwelling of that Eternal Power which God Almighty has Revealed in the Hearts of his People in this Day as there is a faithful Minding of and Subjection unto it in the true Love of it And sure many there are which if they knew the comfortable Effects of it would not abide under its Condemnation as they do But it is as it was said of old They will not believe though a Man should tell it unto them Dublin the 6th of the 11th Month 1688. The Account of the Death of my dear Wife will be come to hand before this which is no small Exercise to me But though my Loss be great in having her Remov'd from me yet I believe it is her Gain For she has been under great Weakness and Exercise of Body a long time however this I can say she bore her Exercise beyond Expectation and told some Friends She believed she was kept the longer because I was so unwilling to give her up And I must confess it was hard that it could not easily be got to and that for several Reasons but when I saw that it must be so I was made willing for her Exercises took hold of my Spirit The Morning of that day she did depart she said to me She was afraid her Passage would be hard I told her I did hope not She was under a great Exercise of Pain but bore it with wonderful quietness and sate under it as one waiting for Deliverance and very sensibly spake to me a little before her Departure So she went away like a Lamb without so much as a Groan We lived Comfortably together her Nature was Good Kind and Courteous she was Merciful very Confiderate and of a good Understanding she will be greatly missed in this place for Friends had a good Love and Esteem for her and I have Experience and know that many who seemingly might exceed in Appearance will come far behind Dublin the 7th of the 12th Month 1688. We are pretty quiet here at present but Peoples Hearts are like the troubled Waters no stay nor settlement cannot tell what way to go to be satisfied or quiet in their Minds only they that know the Truth may rest there and be quiet under the Covering of it otherwise it would be mighty uneasie I did intend for Cumberland but at present Friends could not well bear my going away neither have I freedom in my self So I rest in my place waiting the Time and Season for it Dublin the 13th of the 3d Month 1689. Our Half-Years-Meeting is over where were Assembled many Friends and Brethren from divers Parts of the Nation according to our usual manner We enjoy our Meetings peaceably and quiet generally over the Nation and in most Places our Meetings are large and many People come in and all People have their Liberty in the Free Exercise of their Consciences in Matters of Religion And as for Friends and Truth they are in good Esteem both with High and Low The Lord's Care and Mercy over us hath been largely manifest and Friends do learn great Experience of the Preservation of the mighty Arm of the Lord in this Great Day of Trial which is upon this Nation yet to our Joy and Comfort Friends are carried over it in the Faith of the Son of God and have been preserved miraculously even beyond our Expectation in several places where their Trials have been very great and the Dan gers as to appearance dreadful yet Friends have kept to their Habitations trusting in the Lord and following their lawful Concerns and Business At this Half-Years-Meeting our Hearts were made more than ordinarily glad to see one anothers Faces in such a time as this and the Lord's Power and Presence was with us that Crowns our Meetings And in the sense and sweetness of the same are the most of our Friends and Brethren this Day gone towards their outward Beings in the Peace of God and in great Love and Unity which did pretiously abound amongst us in this our Meeting throughout all our Concerns and Affairs The fourth day next I am intended to go into the Country towards our Province Meeting and do think to visit Friends e're I return Wexford the 5th Month 1689. I have had a very comfortable Journey among Friends and for the most part very large Meetings beyond my Expectation and very peaceable viz. On the third day at Tipperary and fourth day at Iohn Fennels But at Tipperary I had like to have been got hold of by the Rapperies and lost my Mare but I got away and escaped and rode back into the Town Last first day we had a very large Meeting at Edward Goodings it was their Monthly Meeting This day we have a Meeting here to morrow at Samuel Watson's and the fifth day at the Meeting that belongs to Lambs-Town I think Carloe-Monthly-Meeting is next first day I intend to be there Dublin the 12th of the 8th Month 1689 Friends as far as I can have account are in the General pretty well in Health and at Liberty and our Meetings quiet and peaceable and so are all others for ought I know But many in the Country under Sufferings as in respect to the Loss of their Goods by reason of the Wars this Land is greatly attended with However our Friends their Eye is to the Lord who doubtless suffers not all these things to come to pass without a Cause but to be a Chastisement for the sinfulness of the Children of Men. O! that all would take warning to keep out of that which provokes him to Displeasure that his Hand might be removed And truly that which is our Comfort and Stay in the midst of all is the holy Presence of his Power that attends our Meetings from the Evidence of which we receive our Satisfaction that the Lord is well-pleased with us And this is that which bears up our Spirits in the time of Exercise Dublin the 25th of the first Month 1690. I had the Opportunity this last Winter to go through Friends both in Leinster and Munster which was a great Satisfaction both to me and them Friends are generally well and our Meetings are full and we enjoy them in quietness as formerly and the Lord's Presence is with us to our great Comfort which is valued by all that are rightly sensible of it as a great Mercy Dublin the 21th of the 6th Month 1690. I have been visiting Friends in the North and had an acceptable and comfortable Season amongst them and found them very chearful It is still to be lamented that Sin and Wickedness should so abound but the Lord doubtless will plead with all that grieve him in his own way and time though he be Long-suffering And therefore it will be our Happiness to
a striving that may hurt the unity that should be kept in the Light and hath sometimes grown into a Heat which hath set some Spirits against one another which should have been one and kept in the Unity where the love and comfort is And so all watching in the Light and waiting to feel the healing Power and Life in your Souls there will be a sweetness and Heavenly oiliness over your Hearts in which you will have a delight one in another and in one anothers good and this will help you all and so the strong comforted in the innocent and reverent care of the weak and the weak comforted in the Love Care Gentleness and Kindness of such that are strong And this preserves as a pleasant Family to the Honour of the great Lord and Father And so then shall you see how he will delight in you and appear among you and enrich you and bless you every one with a Portion from himself out of his Heavenly Bounty and Divine rich Treasure that none will want Bread nor refreshing Wine to nourish you in the inward Man but the holy Gift in you will be as a Well springing up unto Eternal Life And so you dear suffering Children of the Lord God Allmighty my Heart and Soul most dearly salutes you all and in the Love of God I have Unity with you in your blessed Testimony for which you suffer in which the God of all Grace and Truth comfort your Hearts and bear up your Heads over all your Hardships and deep Sufferings which as I understand are renewed and increased upon you That through him for whom you suffer who is your God and the great Lord of Heaven and Earth you may be strong to endure and abide to the end to his Glory and Honour who is over all and Worthy of all Blessed for ever Amen London the 20th of the 3d Monh 1682. From your Friend and Brother in that which shall out-live all Hardship in which we have believed J. B. A Copy of an Epistle written to Friends at Bristol in the time of their Sufferings Dear Friends UNTO you whom God hath Visited in his Love and Mercy and unto whom he hath shewed Kindness through his Son our Saviour whom he hath given for Salvation unto the Ends of the Earth unto you I say doth the real Love of my Heart reach forth and for you in my Heart there Dwels a Care that as God in the exceeding Riches of his Love and Mercy hath Visited you and called you to be Saints through the Sanctification of the Word and Purifying through Faith that you being made Holy might become Heirs of Eternal Life through his Son Christ Jesus and of that Eternal Kingdom into which no Unholy thing must Enter And now being you are called with this Holy Calling thus to be Heirs through Faith in the Seed in whom the Election and Heirship doth stand for ever do you all mind the Heavenly Rule and Government of this Holy Seed in all your Hearts that your Spirits may be kept in their Places in Subjection and Reverence unto him whom the Father hath Anointed and whose Spirit the Father hath sent forth into your Hearts to lead you into all Truth even into him who said I am the Truth in whom the Fulness Dwells that you might be in him that is True even in the Son in whom the Heirship is That so you may be Heirs yea joint-Heirs with him that is True and Holy for ever And now my Friends being the Lord in Mercy hath called you unto this high and honourable Calling to be Saints and Heirs in Christ mind your Calling and what you are called unto and be careful to keep in him and walk in him as you have received him and to sit together in him in Heavenly places as the Saints of Old did for the Heavenly Places are in him the safe dwelling and he is the Way and in him is the safe Walking and therefore did the Apostle exhort the Saints to Walk in him as they had received him Now my dear Friends all learn to know what it is to walk in Christ the Power and Righteousness of God and then your steps will be sure For he is the Light and Day where there is no occasion of stumbling And you are to mind your Sitting together in Heavenly places in Christ not a-sunder not out of the Unity but together in him who is but one in all and holds all in Oneness in Life and Fellowship that abide in him For he cannot be divided his Coat was without Seam that was the Figure and so is his Spirit that is the Covering of his Body now which he hath Purchased with his own Blood it hath no Division or Seam in it but is One although it differs in Manifestation or Gifts as to degree or operation because of the many Offices proper to the distinct Members of one and the same Body whereof Christ is the Head yet the Life through the whole Body by which every Member is supplied with ability to answer its place is but One and thereby is the Body kept in Unity For the Life doth rule the Members of the true Body and therefore that Member that goes from under the Government of the Life must needs Die Death comes over it and the Power of Death rules it and hence comes the Breach of Unity and the Discord and the Strife and the Contention And therefore let all your Hearts be kept in the Sense of the true Life and Power of God and in subjection thereunto in true Love Lowliness of Mind and Humility of Spirit and then in this right frame of Spirit you will be ready to serve one another in Love and not to rule over one another in Lordship for that is not proper no nor it is not Natural unto the Living Members of the Living Body unto whom Christ is the Head and over whom he Rules And so dear Friends you all keeping in the Power and that ruling in your Hearts that keeps tender and lowly you will be full of an holy Care and the living Zeal for the Lord's honour and for the preservation of his People in Righteousness that the Truth may be kept a top and Righteousness Lived in by all that do make a Profession of that honourable Name and Truth in which we have believed and through which we have been Saved and Sanctified and made holy and then will Unity Love and Peace spring and grow among you and you will be a Joy and Comfort one unto another and strengthners and helpers one of another in this great Work and Day of God And thus the Faithful keeping their Places and their Care in every Meeting and minding the Order and Government of Truth in themselves to be kept in Humility and the holy Tenderness in their own Hearts there will be that Sweetness and peaceable Reverence that will be Savoury and Comely in the Eyes of all And in and under the Government
of this peaceable Spirit you Living and Walking you may then come to be rightly concerned to God's glory in the Blessed Order which the Truth hath led into and by the Power of God is now set up in the Churches of Christ for the keeping of all out and down that are unclean unruly and unholy and preserving of the Camp of God in that Purity that is proper for it that he that is holy may delight to dwell there and abide in the midst thereof And dear Friends all you that keep your habitations in the Lord's Power neglect not your Gifts received from Christ but be you all concerned in your places and according to your abilities for the Honour of Truth that every thing that would bring Dishonour to that worthy name by which ye have been called and give Occasion of stumbling unto the weak may be removed in the Wisdom of God or at least by the tender power of God Judged out from among you that the Camp may be kept clean and Righteousness may run down and the glory of the Lord break forth upon you and you therein may shine to his Praise and Glory for ever more Dear Friends I also was willing to let you know that our Meeting this year at London was very quiet and peaceable and blessed Unity and comfortable Fellowship in the Power and Love of God was Witnessed among us and we gathered up in that together into that care and concern which the state of the Churches of Christ in this trying day did require For many of our Friends in divers places of this Nation are under great Sufferings for their Testimony But otherwise the Truth doth prevail and gain upon many Hearts and through these Tryals God will Magnifie his Power in the end and Crown his People with Dominion for through Sufferings will the Lamb and his Humble and Faithful Followers have the Victory We had also account from divers Countries of the Prosperity of Truth and the State of Friends at the Yearly Meeting now lately over as Holland and the Country that way and from Ireland and Scotland and so had an account in Letters to the Yearly Meeting of the state of things and the affairs of Truth to our great Comfort And therefore it is desired that if the Lord should so order that we may Meet together as hitherto we have done and intend if he permit to do that you in America would endeavour to send over against that time from your several Countries an account of the Prosperity of Truth and how it is among you as to the Affairs thereof that at that Meeting Friends may have an account from you as we have from other Parts And for this end it was desired by Dear G. F. whom many of you know hath a general Care upon him for the good of the whole Body that at your Half-years-Meeting in the latter part of the year you might draw up an Epistle which might be sent to be at London at the Yearly Meeting every year and so from your Half-years-Meeting in every place there may be an account given yearly which will be a refreshment and comfort to Friends And therefore it is desired that if this come in time to your Half-years-Meeting you would be mindful of it and answer the desire of Friends and let Copies of this be sent to Virginia Maryland Pensylvania and New-Iersey and to Long-Island and Road-Island and to Sandwich and where there may be a Service or to Scituate if the Half-years-Meeting be there and to Barbadoes or the Leeward-Islands So with my Love to you all in that wherein all the Faithful have Fellowship I conclude and remain Your Friend and Brother in the Truth I. B. Hartford the 19th of the 4th Month 1682. An Epistle to Friends of Bristol Directed to C. J. Dear C. J. IN that everlasting Truth and Seed of Life through which the God of Truth hath reached us and visited us is the living Love and true endeared Affection of my Heart and Spirit Richly and Sweetly let forth and extended unto thee with thy dear Wife and your Children as also unto the Faithful and true-Hearted to the Lord in that City who in this Trying day are given up unto God both to Do and Suffer for his Name 's sake My Soul I can still say is deeply Affected with your Suffering state and be sure you are many times livingly in my Remembrance and that in the near Approaches of my Spirit unto the Lord for in that in which the access and the true drawing nigh unto him is experienced do you live upon my Heart and are brought very often into my view together with your Suffering State under which it is the Pleasure of your Heavenly Father to Try you and to prove your Faith and Confidence and to let you know the preciousness thereof in the time of need And now my dearly Beloved see all of you that you keep in the Faith that gives the Victory and truly saves and defends and know that ancient saying true for ever The very hairs of your Head are all numbered and not one shall fall to the ground without your Father's Providence And therefore let your Eyes be unto him both for Salvation and Preservation and know that he both can and will deliver when he sees good for you know him that is the living God that reigns and will reign over all and in due time make all know that he can do whatsoever he pleaseth in Heaven and in the Earth And therefore mind your acquaintance with him and your knowledg of him in that which may be known of him in your Hearts and your Unity with his Life in your Souls that you may all feel the Peace thereof and the Holy Spring therein which Man by all his Cruelty cannot reach to put a stop unto But when they that seek to destroy you and to take all Comfort from you have done all they can this Spring being open in your Hearts you have Comfort Peace and Joy that they neither know of nor can keep from you Oh! you dear Suffering Children and tender Babes of the Almighty who are called unto this day and hour of Temptation or Trial how doth my Soul Love you how is my very Heart's Love let forth unto you at this time as at many other times The Lord the God of Strength be with you and strengthen and fill your tender Souls with the Glory of his Life and the sweetness of his Presence that your Spirits with gladness may Praise him in the midst of all these Exercises with which you are compassed And now my dear Friends you being so in my Heart with a living Sense of your Trials that are upon you methinks I see the Wall with which the God of Israel doth compass you about over which the Adversary cannot shoot an Arrow tho his Boasting may be great what he will do as of Old it was Oh! happy are they that abide within the compass of it
God that ye may reign in the dominion of the same over all the evil Lusts of the Flesh which would arise in your hearts to war against the Spirit of Holiness and so would hinder your Sanctification This of a truth Friends you ought to take heed unto even the Spirit of Holiness and Power of the Lord our God which in this latter Age he hath largely manifested for to sanctifie his People that so your hearts may be kept clean and preserved according to Christ's Command out of the surfeiting with the Cares of this Life and from being overcome with and drowned in the Pleasures and Vanities of this World that you may never lose the excellency and glory of these heavenly things which God the Father in the bountifulness of his loving kindness hath been pleased to manifest with which all the glory of this present World is not to be compared And so my Dear Friends you that feel the Lord and his goodness in your hearts Walk Circumspectly as before him with Reverence and Godly Fear in the holy Awe that you may not provoke him at any time nor grieve his holy Spirit by which you are Sealed but with tenderness of heart and pureness of mind wait upon him at all times So will your Peace spring up as a River and your Righteousness be multiplied as the Waves of the Sea and so over all the choaking Cares of this Life and drowning Pleasures of this present vain World you will be preserved to have a being in the power of that life which is without end In which as there is a dwelling faithfully you will all grow and increase in the dominion over all hurtful Lusts that war against the Soul in your own particulars And also there will be a growing over all hurtful Spirits that have entred since the beginning whose Life is in the Fall and not in the pure Redemption nor in the redeeming Power that brings out of the Fall And so to the Lord God Friends be ye all faithful in your places that you may be a blessing in your Generation in those Countries and Places where ye dwell that the Nations may be seasoned that your savory life may sweeten the People And Friends have an eye to the Glory of God and the Honour of his Truth in all your undertakings I even command you in his fear it being upon me by his Spirit that the Lord's name may not be blasphemed among the Heathen through your unfaithfulness For truly my love being great towards you I am jealous over you with a godly jealousie and therefore am constrained to use great plainness as having a sense of your state And therefore be ye provoked unto Love and to good Works in a faithful obedience and serving of the power for it s in that that all accepted And lay aside all Wrath and Clamour and evil Speaking with all bitterness and receive with meekness the ingrafted Word which is able to save your Souls And in the power of that dwell and it will divide aright between the Pretious and the Vile and so will cut off all that is not of God not regarding what may be professed where the living vertue is wanting This pure living Word is your Preserver that keep faithful in it and will keep you from all deceiveableness and lying Spirits which are not of the Father but of the World and from the God of the same in the dark power beguiling the unstable Soul through his lying Signs and Wonders in the power of darkness without living vertue And this Word which you have received will live in your hearts and minister daily of its own vertue into your Souls for their refreshment if you keep faithful unto the same But if the Thorny Cares of this life and the choaking Pleasures of this vain World take root and place in your hearts then the freshness is lost the issue of living vertue is stopt the ministring word and power is with-drawn the Fountain again is sealed up and the dry Winds and the scorching heat comes and dries up and causes to wither the green Blade before the Corn comes to perfection So that the harvest and time of gathering never comes Therefore O my Friends be faithful unto the Lord and be not drawn aside from the stedfastness of the Gospel neither on the one hand nor on the other but step in the straight path of Life Peace and Salvation which the Lord hath prepared for your feet that the Weak may be strengthned and the Lame recovered and none turned out of the way For truly there is much upon you I feel it in this matter even you that feel the Lord in any measure that you all be vigilant and diligent in your places that you may be a strength unto the Weak And therefore am I moved once more to warn you now you even you that know the Lord To take heed unto the power of the Lord God in your hearts and with that keep down the earthly worldly Spirit that so you live over it in the Spirit and Power of the Lord may draw more unto you or else I feel it you will not only be guilty of your own Blood but the Blood of others also which stumble at your unfaithfulness who have been call'd and accounted as the first Fruits unto God and unto the Lamb in those parts of the World in this blessed day of the Lord in which he hath appeared and gathered by his power and also doth preserve and nourish by the vertue of the same all that he hath gathered whose trust and confidence is in him And so My Friends this may give you to understand that I am safely arrived in England and am perfectly well every way And Friends here are generally well Meetings very large and the Truth in good esteem among many People who are not yet of us And great openness in all places where I have been in the hearts of all People and great desires to hear the Truth for it is of good Report This from Me who remain Your Friend and Brother J. B. The END 1671. In our going down to Virginia we were in great danger and had like to have been Castaway with a North-west Storm 1672. 1673. 1674. 1675. 1676. * * The Earl of Arran This was Amos Strettel's Marriage As at large may be seen in George Bishop's two Books entituled New-England judged * * Iohn Smith Witness Thomas Smith Iohn Kelson Thomas Cole