their way and did no harm Lancaster The time for the Sessions at Lancaster being come I went to Lancaster with Judge Fell who on the way told me He had never had such a Matter brought before him before and he could not well tell what to do in the Business I told him when Paul was brought before the Rulers and the Jews and Priests came down to Accuse him and laid many false things to his Charge Paul stood still all that while And when they had done Festus the Governour and King Agrippa beckned to him to speak for himself which Paul did and cleared himself of all those false Accusations And so he might do by me Being come to Lancaster and Justice Sawrey and Justice Thompson having granted a Warrant to apprehend me though I was not apprehended by it Lancaster Sessions yet hearing of it I appeared at the Sessions where there appeared against me about Forty Priests These had chosen one Marshal Priest of Lancaster to be their Orator and had provided one young Priest and two Priests Sons to bear Witness against me who had sworn before-hand that I had spoken Blasphemy When the Justices were set they heard all that the Priests and their Witnesses could say and charge against me their Orator Marshal sitting by and explaining their Sayings for them But the Witnesses were so Confounded that they discovered themselves to be false Witnesses For when the Court had Examined one of the Witnesses upon Oath 1652. Lancaster Sessions and then began to Examin another of them he was at such loss he could not Answer directly but said the other could say it Which made the Justices say to him Have you sworn it and given it in already upon your Oath and now say That he can say it It seems you did not hear those words spoken your self though you have sworn it There were then in Court several People who had been at that Meeting wherein the Witnesses swore I spake those blasphemous Words which the Priests accused me of and these being Men of Integrity and Reputation in the Country did declare and affirm in Court That the Oath which the Witnesses had taken against me was altogether false and that no such Words as they had sworn against me were spoken by me at that Meeting For indeed most of the serious Men of that side of the County that were then at the Sessions had been at that Meeting and had heard me both at that Meeting and at other Meetings also This was taken notice of by Colonel VVest who being a Justice of the Peace was then upon the Bench and having long been weak in Body blessed the Lord and said The Lord had healed him that day adding That he never saw so many sober People and good Faces together in all his Life And then turning himself to me he said in the open Sessions George If thou hast any thing to say to the People thou may'st freely declare it And I was moved of the Lord to speak and as soon as I began Priest Marshal the Orator for the rest of the Priests went his way That which I was moved to declare was this That the Holy Scriptures were given forth by the Spirit of God and all People must first come to the Spirit of God in themselves by which they might know God and Christ of whom the Prophets and the Apostles learnt and by the same Spirit know the Holy Scriptures for as the Spirit of God was in them that gave forth the Scriptures so the same Spirit of God must be in all them that come to know and understand the Scriptures By which Spirit they might have Fellowship with the Son and with the Father and with the Scriptures and with one another And without this Spirit they can know neither God nor Christ nor the Scriptures nor have right Fellowship one with another I had no sooner spoken these Words but about half a dozen Priests that stood behind my Back burst out into a passion and one of them whose Name was Jackus amongst other things that he spake against the Truth said That the Spirit and the Letter were inseparable I replied Then every one that hath the Letter hath the Spirit and they might buy the Spirit with the Letter of the Scriptures This plain discovery of Darkness in the Priest moved Judge Fell and Colonel VVest to Reprove them openly and tell them That according to that Position they might carry the Spirit in their Pockets as they did the Scriptures Upon this the Priests being Confounded and put to silence rusht out in a Rage against the Justices because they could not have their bloody Ends upon me So the Justices seeing the Witnesses did not agree and perceiving that they were brought to Answer the Priests Envy and finding that all their Evidences were not sufficient in Law to make good their Charge against me they discharged me And after Judge Fell had spoken to Justice Sawrey and Justice Thompson concerning the VVarrant they had given forth against me and shewed them the Errors thereof He and Colonel West granted a Supersedeas to stop the Execution thereof Thus was I cleared in open Sessions of all those lying Accusations which the malicious Priests had laid to my Charge And Multitudes of People praised God that day for it was a joyful Day to many There was Justice Benson out of Westmorland who was Convinced and Major Ripan that was Mayor of the Town of Lancaster who was Convinced also It was a day of Everlasting Salvation to hundreds of People for the Lord Jesus Christ the Way to the Father and the free Teacher was exalted and set up and his Everlasting Gospel was preached and the Word of Eternal Life was declared over the heads of the Priests and all such Money-Preachers For the Lord opened many Mouths that Day to speak his Word to the Priests and several friendly People and Professors reproved the Priests in their Inns and in the Streets so that they fell like an old rotten House and the Cry was among the People That the Quakers had got the day and the Priests were fallen Many People were Convinced that day amongst whom Thomas Briggs was one who before had been averse from Friends and Truth insomuch that discoursing on a time with John Lawson a Friend concerning Perfection Thomas Briggs said to him Dost thou hold Perfection and therewithal lift up his Hand to have given the Friend a Box on the Ear. But this Thomas Briggs being Convinced of the Truth that day declared against his own Priest Jackus and afterwards became a faithful Minister of the Gospel and stood so to the End of his Days When the Sessions were over James Naylor who was present thereat gave a brief Account of the Proceedings thereof in a Letter which soon after he writ to Friends which is here added for the Reader 's further satisfaction in this Matter DEar Friends and Brethren in the Lord Jesus Christ my dear Love unto you all desiring you may be kept stedfast in the Lord Jesus Christ and in the power of his Love boldly to witness forth the Truth as it is revealed in you by the mighty working of the Father To him alone be everlasting Praise and Honour for evermore Dear Friends the
Lord doth much manifest his Love and Power in these Parts Upon the second day of the last Week my Brother George and I were at Lancaster There were abundance of Friends from all parts and a great sort which sided with the Priests giving out They now hoped to see a stop put to that great Work which had gone on so fast and with such Power that their Kingdom is much shaken We were called before Judge Fell Colonel West Justice Sawrey c. to Answer what was charged against George There were Three Witnesses to Eight Particulars but they were much Confused in themselves which gave much Light to the Truth whereby the Justices did plainly see that it was Envy and they divers times told them so One of the Witnesses was a young Priest who Confessed He had not meddled had not another Priest sent for him and set him on Work The other VVitnesses were two Priests Sons It was proved there by many that heard one of them say If he had power he would make George deny his Profession and that he would take away his Life This was a single VVitness to one of the greatest Vntruths that was charged against George And the Justices told him That they saw because he could not take away his Life he went about to take away his Liberty There was one Priest chosen out of the whole number as an Orator to plead against us who spared no pains to shew forth his Envy against the Truth And when he could not prevail he went down in a Rage and there came up a Pack of them into the Room among whom was one Jacus George was then speaking in the Room one of the Justices having wished him if he had any thing to say he would speak at which the said Priest Jacus was in such a Rage that he brake forth into many high Expressions against the Truth spoken by my dear Brother George amongst which this was one That the Letter and the Spirit were inseparable Hereupon the Justices stood up and bid him prove that before he went any further Then he seeing himself caught would have denied it and when he could not get off so the rest of the Priests would have helped him to a Meaning for his VVords But the Justices would admit no other Meaning than the plain sense of the VVords but told him He had laid down a Position and it was fit he should prove it pressing the Matter close upon him Whereupon the Priests being put to silence went down in a greater Rage than before and some of them after they were gone down being asked what they had done Lyed and said They could not get into the Room thereby to hide their Shame and keep the People in blindness The Justices Judge Fell and Colonel VVest were much Convinced of the Truth and did set up Justice and Equity and have much silenced the Rage of the People Many bitter Spirits were at Lancaster to see the Event but went home and cried The Priests had lost the day Everlasting Praises be to him who fought the Batttel for us who is our King for ever There were Others called who the VVitnesses confessed were in the Room when the things charged on George were said to have been spoken but they all as one Man denied that any such Words were spoken Which gave much Light to the Justices and they durst trust what they witnessed for they said they knew many of them to be honest Men. There was a VVarrant granted out against us at Appleby but Justice Benson told them It was not according to Law and so it ceased As I hear he is a faithful Man to the Truth The Priests began to preach against the Justices and said They were not to meddle in these things but to end Controversy betwixt Neighbour and Neighbour They are not pleased with the Law because it is not in the Statute to Imprison us as the Priest that pleaded against us said The Justices bid him Go put it into the Statute if he could he said It should want no will of his They are much afraid that they shall loose all They are much discontented in these parts and some of them cry All is gone Dear Friends dwell in Patience and wait upon the Lord who will do his own VVork Look not at Man in the VVork nor at Man who opposeth the VVork but rest in the Will of the Lord that so ye may be furnished with Patience both to do and to suffer what ye shall be called unto that your End in all things may be his Praise And take up his Cross freely which keeps low the fleshly Man that Christ may be set up and honoured in all things and so the Light advanced in you and the Judgment set up which must give Sentence against all that opposeth the Truth That the Captivity may be led Captive and the Prisoner set free to seek the Lord that Righteousness may rule in you and Peace and Joy may dwell in you wherein consisteth the Kingdom of the Father to whom be all Praise for ever Dear Friends Meet often together and take heed of what Exalteth it self above its Brother but keep low and serve one another in Love for the Lord's sake Let all Friends know how it is with us that God may have the Praise of all Written from Kellet the 30th Day of the 8th Month 1652. J. N. At this Time I was in a Fast and was not to Eat until this Work of God which then lay weighty upon me was accomplished But the Lord's Power was wonderfully set over all and gave Truth and Friends Dominion therein over all to his Glory And his Gospel was freely preached that Day over the Heads of about Forty Hireling-Priests I stayed Two or Three Days afterwards in Lancaster and had some Meetings there And the rude and baser sort of People plotted together to have drawn me out of the House and to have thrown me over Lancaster-Bridge but the Lord prevented them Then they invented another Mischief which was this After a Meeting at Lancaster they brought down a distracted Man and another with him with Bundles of Birchen-Rods bound together like Besoms with which they should have whipped me But I was moved to speak to them iâ— the Lord 's mighty Power which chained down the distracted Man and the other also and made them calm and quiet Then I biâ— him throw his Rods into the Fire and burn them and he did so Thus the Lord's Power being over them they departed quietly But the Priests fretting to see themselves overthrown at the Sessions at Lancaster got some of the Envious Justices to join with them and at the
Power of God and we are Heirs of Christ who have inherited him and his Everlasting Kingdom and do possess the Power of an Endless Life Knowing this our Portion and Inheritance this is to take off all Jealousies out of your Minds and out of the Minds of all People concerning us That all Plots and Conspiracies Plotters and Conspirators against the King and all Aiders or Assisters thereunto we always did and do utterly deny to be any of us or to be of the Fellowship of the Gospel or to be of Christ's Kingdom or to be his Servants For Christ said His Kingdom was not of this World if it were his Servants would fight And therefore he bid Peter Put up his Sword for said he he that taketh the Sword shall perish by the Sword Here is the Faith and Patience of the Saints to bear and suffer all things knowing as we know that Vengeance is the Lord's and he will repay it to them that hurt his People and that do wrong to the Innocent Therefore cannot we avenge but suffer for his Name 's sake And we do know that the Lord will judge the World in Righteousness according to their Deeds and that when every one shall give an Account to him of the Deeds done in the Body then will the Lord give every Man according to his Works whether they be Good or whether they be Evil. Christ saith he came not to destroy Men's Lives And when his Disciples would have had Fire to come down from Heaven to have consumed them that did not receive him he told them They knew not what Spirit they were of that would have Mens Lives destroyed and therefore he rebuked them and told them That he came not to destroy Men's Lives but to save them Now we are of Christ's Mind who is the great Prophet whom all ought to hear in all things who saith to his If they strike thee on one Cheek turn the other and render to no Man Evil for Evil. This Doctrine of his have we learned and do not only confess him in Words but follow his Doctrine and therefore have and do we suffer all manner of Reproaches Scandals and Slanders and spoiling of Goods Buffetings and Whippings Stripes and Imprisonments for these many years and can say The Lord forgive them that have thus served us and lay not these things to their Charge And we know that the Jews outward Sword by which they cut down the Heathen outwardly was a Type of the inward Sword of the Spirit which cuts down the inward Heathen the raging Nature in People And the Blood of Bulls Lambs Rams and other Offerings and that Priesthood that offered them together with other things in the Law were Types of Christ the one Offering and of his Blood who is the Everlasting Priest and Covenant Christ our Life and Way to God and who is the great Prophet and Shepherd that looks to his Flock and the Head of his Church and the great Bishop of our Souls whom we witness come and he doth oversee and keep his Flock For in Adam in the Fall we know the striving quarrelling unpeaceable Spirits are in the Enmity one with another and not in Peace But in Christ Jesus the Second Adam that never fell is Peace Rest and Life And the Doctrine of Christ who never sinned is to love one another and who be in this Doctrine hurt no man in which we are in Christ who is our Life Therefore it is well for you to distinguish betwixt the Precious and the Vile between them that fear God and serve him and them that do not and to put a difference between the Innocent and the Guilty and between him that is Holy and Pure and the Ungodly and Prophane for they that do not so bring Troubles Burdens and Sorrows upon themselves And this we write in Love to your Souls that ye may consider these things for they that hate Enemies and hate one another we cannot say they are of God nor in Christ's Doctrine but are Opposers of it And such as wrestle with Flesh and Blood with Carnal Weapons are gone into the Flesh out of the Spirit They are not in our Fellowship in the Spirit in which is the Bond of Peace neither are they of Vs nor have we Vnity with them in their fleshly state and with their Carnal Weapons For our Unity and Fellowship stands in the Gospel which is the Power of God before the Devil was the Liar and the Murderer the Man-slayer and the Envious Man Now Christ's Mind and his Doctrine being to save Men's Lives we who are of Christ's Mind are out of and above these things And our desire is 1664. Lancaster Castle that in the Fear of the Lord ye may all Live that in that ye may all receive God's Wisdom by which all things were created that by it all may be ordered to God's Glory This is from them that love all your Souls and seek your Eternal Good Being now a Prisoner in Lancaster Castle a deep sense came upon me of a Day of sore Trial and Exercise that was come and coming upon all that had been high in Profession of Religion And I was moved to give forth the following Paper as a Warning unto such NOw is the Day that every one's Faith and Love to God and Christ will be Tried and who are Redeemed out of the Earth and who are in the Earth will be manifested and who is their Master they serve and whether they will run to the Mountains to Cover them Now will it appear who are the Stony Ground who are the Thorny Ground and who are the High-way-Ground in whom the Fowls of the Air take away the Seed and the Thorns and Cares of the World Choke and the Heat of Persecution scorches and burns up your green Blade For the Day trieth all things Therefore let not such as forsake Truth for saving the Earth say that your Brother Priest only serveth not the Lord Jesus Christ but his own Belly and mindeth Earthly things for such themselves also do the same and do hug and embrace Self and not the Lord. Now it will be made manifest who is every ones God and Christ and Saviour and their Love will be manifest whether it be of the World or the Love of God for if it be the Love of the World it is Enmity and the Enmity will manifest it self what it is and the Day will Try every Spirit and his Fruits Therefore all my dear Friends In the Everlasting Seed of God live that is over all the House of Adam and his Works in the Fall and so dwelling in the Seed Christ that never fell in him you all have Vertue and Life and Peace and through him ye will overcome all that is in the Fall G. F. I writ also another Short Epistle to Friends to Warn them to keep out of that Spirit that wrought in John Perrot and his Company against the Truth Dear Friends DWell in
got a little Cheary and over it Many Friends and some considerable Persons of the World have been with me I tired out my Body much when amongst you in England it is the Lord's Power that helps me Therefore I desire you all to prize the Power of the Lord and his Truth I was but a Weak Man in Body when I came away from you after I had been in my great Travel amongst you but after that it struck all back again into my Body which was not well settled after so sore Travels in England And then was I so tired at Sea that I could not rest and have had little or no Stomach a long time Since I came into this Island my Life hath been very much burdened But I hope if the Lord give me Strength to manage his Work I shall work throughly and bring things that have been out of Course into better Order So Dear Friends live all in the peaceable Truth and in the Love of it serving the Lord in Newness of Life For glorious Things and precious Truths have been manifested among you plentifully and to you the Riches of the Kingdom have been reached I have been almost a Month in this Island but have not been able to go abroad or ride out only very lately I rid out twice a Quarter of a Mile at a time which wearied me much and almost tired me My Love in the Truth is to you all G. F. Now because I was not yet well able to Travel the Friends of the Island concluded to have their Men's-Meeting and their Womens-Meeting for the Service of the Church at Thomas Rous's where I lay by which means I was present amongst them at each of their Meetings and had very good Service for the Lord in both For they had need of Information in many things and divers Disorders were crept in for want of Care and Watchfulness Wherefore I exhorted them more especially at the Mens-Meeting to be watchful and careful with respect to Marriages to prevent Friends Marrying in near Kindreds and also to prevent over-hasty proceedings toward Second Marriages after the Death of a former Husband or Wife advising that a decent Regard were had in such Cases to the Memory of the Deceased Husband or Wife And as to Friends Children marrying too young as at Thirteen or Fourteen Years of Age I shewed them the Unfitness thereof and the Inconveniences and Hurts that attend such Childish Marriages And I admonished them all to purge the Floor throughly and to sweep their Houses very clean that nothing might remain that would defile And that all should take care that nothing be spoken out of their Meetings to the blemishing or defaming one of another Likewise concerning Registring of Marriages Births and Burials I advised them to keep Exact Records of each in distinct Books for that only use and also to Record in a Book for that purpose the Condemnations of such as went out from Truth into Disorderly Practices and the Repentance and Restoration of such of them as returned again Also I recommended to their Care the providing of convenient Burying Places for Friends which in some parts were yet wanting Some Directions also I gave them concerning Wills and the Ordering of Legacies left by Friends for publick Vses and other things relating to the Affairs of the Church Then as to their Blacks or Negro's I desired them to endeavour to train them up in the Fear of God as well them that were bought with their Money as them that were born in their Families that all might come to the Knowledge of the Lord that so with Joshua they might every Master of a Family say As for me and my House we will serve the Lord. I desired them also that they would cause their Overseers to deal mildly and gently with their Negro's and not use Cruelty towards them as the manner of some hath been and is And that after certain Years of Servitude they would make them free Many sweet and precious things were opened in these Meetings by the Spirit and in the Power of the Lord to the edifying confirming and building up of Friends both in the Faith and holy Order of the Gospel After these Meetings were over the Vessel that was bound for England not being yet gone I was moved to write another Epistle to Friends there the Copy whereof here follows DEar Friends and Brethren to whom is my Love in that which never changeth but remains in Glory which is over all the Top and Corner-stone In this all have Peace and Life as ye dwell in the blessed Seed wherein all is blest over that which brought the Curse where all Shortness and Narrowness of Spirit is and Brittleness and Peevishness is Therefore keep the Holy Order of the Gospel and keep in this blessed Seed where all may be kept in Temperance in Patience in Love in Meekness in Righteousness and Holiness and in Peace in which the Lord may be seen amongst you and no ways dishonoured but glorified by you all And so in all your Meetings in Cities Towns and Countries Mens-Meetings Womens-Meetings and others let Righteousness slow among you and the Holy Truth be uppermost and the pure Spirit your Guide and Leader and the holy Wisdom your Orderer that is pure and gentle and from above and easie to be entreated So keep in the Religion that keeps from the Spots of the World which is pure and undefiled in God's Sight And keep in the pure and holy Worship in which the pure and holy God is worshipped to wit in the Spirit and in the Truth which the Devil is out of who is the Author of all Vnholiness and of dishonouring of God So be all tender of God's Glory and tender of his Honour and of his blessed and holy Name in which ye are gathered And all who do profess the Truth see that ye Walk in it and in Righteousness and Godliness and Holiness For Holiness becomes the House of God the Houshold of Faith And that which becomes God's House God loves for he loves Righteousness and that is the Ornament which becomes his House and all his Family Therefore see that Righteousness do run down in all your Assemblies and that it flow to drive away all the Vnrighteousness This preserves your Peace with God for in Righteousness ye have all Peace with the righteous God of Peace and one with another And so every one that bears the Name of the Anointed that high Title of being a Christian named after the Heavenly Man see that ye be in the Divine Nature and made conformable unto his Image even the Image of the Heavenly Divine Man who was before that Image which Adam and Eve got in the Fall from the Devil So that in none of you that fallen Image may appear or be seen but his Image and you made Conformable unto him Here Translation is shewed forth in Life and Conversation not in Words only yea and Conversion and Repentance which
to set forth the Way whereby Man and Woman might come into that happy Estate again The Priest an ancient grave Man stood up just as I had done speaking and putting off his Hat said I pray God to prosper and confirm that Doctrine for it is Truth and I have nothing against it He would willingly have stay'd longer until the Meeting had been ended but being a Parish-Priest and to preach that Evening he could not stay longer the time for his own Worship being come Wherefore when he had made Confession to the Truth he hastned away that he might come to the Meeting again and did come it seems to the Meeting-place but the Meeting was ended first After Meeting we went to Hessel Jacobs where I had a Meeting with Friends and the Doctor of Physick came thither to discourse with William Penn who had a good opportunity to open Truth to him By this Doctor the Priest sent his Love to me wishing him to tell me that he had left Preaching that Evening half an hour sooner than he used to do that he might have come to our Meeting again 1677. Harlingen to have heard more of that good Doctrine I heard afterwards that his Hearers questioned him for what he had said in our Meeting and that he standing by his words they had Complained of him for it to the other Priests of the City who called him to Account about it but the Result I could not learn Early next Morning William Penn taking John Claus with him passed from Harlingen for Leuwarden where he had appointed a Meeting intending after that to Travel into some other parts of Germany to visit a tender People there I with those Friends that were with me Amsterdam took Ship the same day for Amsterdam where we arrived a little after Midnight but the Gates being shut we lay on Board till Morning then went to Gertrude Dirick Nieson's where many Friends came to see us being glad of our safe Return Next day feeling a Concern upon my mind with relation to those seducing Spirits that made Division among Friends and being sensible that they endeavoured to insinuate themselves into the affectionate part I was moved to write a few Lines to Friends concerning them as followeth ALL these that do set up themselves in the Affections of the People set up themselves and the Affections of the People and not Christ But Friends your peaceable Habitation in the Truth which is Everlasting and changes not will out-last all the Habitations of those that be out of the Truth although they be never so full of words And so they that be so keen for J. S. and J. W. let them take them and the Separation And you that have given your Testimony against that Spirit stand in your Testimony till they Answer by Condemnation And do not strive nor make Bargains with that which is out of the Truth nor save that alive to be a Sacrifice for God which should be slain lest you lose your Kingdom Amsterdam the 14th day of the 7th Month 1677. G. F. On the First-day of the Week following I was at Friends Meeting at Amsterdam to which many People came and were very civil and attentive hearing Truth declared several hours and John Roeloffs Interpreted for me Before this time several of the Friends that came over with me were returned to England again as Robert Barclay George Keith's Wife and others and now my Daughter Yeomans went back also so that I was now left alone at Amsterdam And while I was here it came upon me to visit my suffering Friends at Dantzick with a few Lines to encourage and strengthen them in their Sufferings as followeth Dear Friends TO whom is my Love in the Lord's Truth that is over all 1677. Amsterdam and by which all God's People are made free Men and Women being thereby set free from him that is out of the Truth that walking in the Truth they may Answer the Witness of God in all People which Truth all must come to if they be made free Therefore be faithful unto what the Lord manifests and makes known unto you I am glad that the Lord hath Witnesses in that City to stand for his Glory and Name and to stand up for Christ Jesus the great Prophet whom God hath raised up who is to be heard in all things so that ye need none of the Prophets which men have raised up Therefore stand faithful to Christ Jesus your Shepherd that he may feed you and hear his voice and follow him who has laid down his Life for you but follow none of the Shepherds and Hirelings that are made by men though they be angry because ye will not follow them to their dry and barren Mountains who have been and are the Thieves Persecutors and Robbers that Clime up another way than by Christ So set up Christ to be your Counsellor and Leader and then ye will have no need of any of the Counsellors and Leaders of the World for Christ is sufficient whom God has given you And also set up Christ Jesus to be your Bishop and Overseer who is sufficient to Oversee you that ye go not astray from God by which ye may see over all the Hireling-Overseers made by men which do keep the People that they do not go astray from the Rudiments and Formalities Fashions and Customs of the World which hath been and is their Work And I am glad that ye are come to own Christ Jesus your High-Priest who is holy and harmless and separate from Sinners and made higher than the Heavens as the Church and the Apostle did own him in their days Hebr. 7. who is the High-Priest over the houshold of Faith which Faith Jesus Christ is the Author and Finisher of and this do all the Children of the New Covenant witness who walk in the new and living Way And therefore my desire is that ye all may be stedfast whether in Bonds or out in the Faith of Christ Jesus which is the Gift of God by which Faith all the Valiants overcame the Devil and all their Enemies in which Faith they had Victory and Access to God and in that was their Unity which Mystery of Faith is held in a pure Conscience hidden from the World And I do believe that your Imprisonments and Sufferings in that Place will be for Good in the end as it hath been in other Places ye standing faithful to the Lord who is All-sufficient For your Sufferings and Trials will Try their Teachers and Religions Churches and Worships and make manifest what Birth they are of even that which persecutes him that is born of the Spirit for ye know that there is no Salvation by any other Name under the whole Heaven but by the Name of Jesus and therefore it is time to leave them when there is no Salvation by or in any of them Now Friends I desire that you would take a List of the Names of all those Persons
that belong to the King of Poland and where they do live and how ye may send Books or Epistles to them and keep a Correspondence with them and also the Name of the Bishop or Cardinal that I heard was with you And if ye can get any of them that belong to the King that are his Attendants to come and visit the Prisoners that they may Inform the King of their Cruel Sufferings Also I desire you to get as many Books of mine as you can dispose of that set forth your Sufferings and the Cruelty of the Magistrates of Dantzick and give them to the King and his Council and Attendants and his Bishops And some of the Women may speak to the Queen if they can that she may signifie to the King their Cruel Sufferings and especially some of the Sufferers Wives if there be any of a Capacity to do it You may likewise give his Attendants any other Friends Books and what Books ye lack send for them to Amsterdam where ye may be furnished with them to Answer every tender Desirer and Inquiring mind after the Lord. So let all your Minds be bended with the Lord's Power to spread his Truth abroad and where ye hear of any or have any Correspondence in outward Trading with any sober People far or near send them Books that their Understandings may be opened after the Lord. So the Lord God Almighty preserve you and to his Protection in his Eternal Power do I Commend you all in Bonds or at Liberty with my Love to you in the Everlasting Seed of God Christ Jesus who bruises the Head of the Serpent that make you to suffer But Christ is over him and will be when he is gone who is First and Last over all from Everlasting to Everlasting in whom ye have both Life Knowledge Wisdom and Salvation and through him live to the Praise and Glory of God who is blessed for evermore Amen Amsterdam the 18th of the 7th Month 1677. English stile G. F. The next day being the Fourth day of the Week and 19th of the Month I had a large Meeting at Amsterdam many Professors being at it and Truth was largely opened to them in the demonstration of the heavenly Power The day following I went by Boat from Amsterdam Waterland Landsmeer many Friends going with me to Landsmeer in Waterland a Town in which they say there are above an hundred Bridges where I had a very good Meeting to which several Professors came And after the Meeting I returned with Friends to Amsterdam again Amsterdam where I stay'd with Friends till the First-day following and went to their Meeting which was large for many Professors of several sorts were at it and heard the Truth declared with great Attention I tarried amongst Friends there next day and in the night following had a great Exercise upon my Spirit concerning that loose Spirit that was run out into Strife and Contention among Friends and had drawn some after it into Division and Separation the way work and end whereof the Lord opened to me wherefore feeling the Motion of Life upon me I got up in the Morning and wrote the following Epistle to Friends My Dear Friends KEep your First Love in the Truth and Power and Seed of Life in Christ Jesus for this last night as I was lying in my Bed at Amsterdam I had a great Travel in the holy Seed of Life and Peace and my Spirit was troubled with that Spirit of Strife and Separation I saw it was a Destroying Spirit and did seek not only to get over the Seed but to destroy it and to Eat out the minds of People from it by Strife and Contention and under pretence of standing for the Antient Truth its work is to root it out and destroy the Appearance of it to set up it self And it is a Creeping Spirit seeking whom it can get into and what it cannot do it self it stirreth up others to do and setteth up their Spirits on float with the dark Wisdom to destroy the Simple And this Spirit is managed by the Prince of the Air and leadeth some to do such things which they would have been ashamed to have done as men which doth Unman them and they would not have suffered them if they had kept to the tender Principle of God which leadeth to Peace And it is a despising backbiting and a secret-whispering Spirit and a Sower of Dissension and a taker of advantage of all prejudiced Spirits that are disobedient to their first Principle and Love of Truth and begetteth into hatred so it begetteth all into that Spirit whose work is to destroy both the Good within and the good Order without Nay it would if it could destroy the Government of Christ and the Order of the Gospel to set up its own Will and Spirit which is not of God and under pretence of crying down Man are setting up Man and are gathering into a Separation of disobedient Men who float above their Conditions And this Spirit which neither liveth in the Truth nor its Order but opposeth them that do I cannot express it as I do see it and its work whose end will be accordingly And therefore Friends I am to warn you all that have not lost your Simplicity not to touch it nor to have any Vnity with it lest you be defiled and lose your Conditions of your Eternal Estate and your Everlasting Portion and that your Inward man which is after God may be preserved and Christ may reign in all your hearts And they that are joined with them it will be very hard for them ever to come down to Truth in themselves and to see their own Conditions and to have that Spirit of Strife and Contention which eateth as a Canker to be brought down in them which is carnal and slayeth the tender Babe which was once begotten in themselves and the Philistine is got up in them that stoppeth the Wells and Springs and maketh a great Busle and are crying up Men and pleading for them instead of Christ And so Friends strive not with them but let them take them that cry them up and keep you to the Lord Jesus Christ with his Light that cometh from him that he may be your Lord and ye in him may be all in Vnity in one Light Life Power and Dominion in Christ your Head And so the God of Peace and Power preserve you all in Christ Jesus your Saviour and out of and from that mischievous Spirit which is idle and slothful as to the Work of the Power and Spirit and Light of God and Christ and its very Act is that which worketh strife and disturbance against the Peace of the Church of Christ and thinks in its wilfulness and stubbornness and unruliness to set up it self and in that to have peace but Destruction will be the end of it and it is sealed for the Fire and Eternal Judgment And therefore let Christ the Seed be the Head and
the Inhabitants of the City of Hamborough I writ also an Epistle to the Ambassadors that were treating a Peace at Nimmeguen To the Magistrates and Priests of Embden I writ a Book shewing them their Vnchristian Practices in persecuting Friends And several other Books I writ there in Answer to Priests and others of Hamborough Dantzick and other places to Clear the Truth and Friends from their false Charges and Slanders After some time George Keith and William Penn came back from Germany to Amsterdam and had a Dispute with one Galenus Abrahams one of the most noted Baptists in Holland at which many Professors were present But not having time to finish the Dispute then they met again two days after and the Baptist was much Confounded and Truth gained ground Between these Two Disputes we had a very great Meeting at Friends Meeting-Place at which many hundreds of the World's People were and some of high Rank in the World's Account for there was an Earl and a Lord and divers other Eminent Persons who all behaved themselves very Civilly But when the Meeting was ended some Priests began to make some Opposition which when William Penn understood he stood up again and answered them to the great satisfaction of the People who were much affected with the several Testimonies that they had heard declared And after the Meeting several of them came to Gertrude's where we were with whom George Keith had much Discourse in Latin Having now finished our Service at Amsterdam we took Leave of the Friends there and passed by Wagon to Leyden Leyden which is about 25 Miles where we stayed a day or two seeking out and visiting some tender People that we heard of there We met there with a German who was partly Convinced and he Informed us of an Eminent Man that was inquiring after Truth Some sought him out and visited him and found him a Serious Man and I spake to him and he owned the Truth William Penn and Benjamin Furly went to visit another Great Man that lived a little out of Leyden who they said had been General to the King of Denmark's Forces and he and his wife were very loving to them and heard the Truth with Joy From Leyden we went to the Hague Hague where the Prince of Orange then kept his Court and we visited one of the Judges of Holland with whom we had pretty much Discourse He was a Wise Tender man and put many Objections and Queries to us which when we had answered he was satisfied and parted with us in much Love Then leaving the Hague we went to Delft and from thence that night to Rotterdam Delft Rotterdam where we stay'd several days and had several Meetings there While I was here I gave forth a Book for the Jews with whom when I was at Amsterdam I had a desire to have had some Discourse but they would not Here also I reviewed several other Books and Papers which I had given forth before and were now Transcribed And now finding our Spirits Clear of the Service which the Lord had given us to do in Holland we took Leave of Friends of Rotterdam and passed by Boat to the Briel in order to take Passage that day in the Packet-Boat for England several Friends of Rotterdam accompanying us and some of Amsterdam who were come to see us again before we left Holland But the Packet-Boat not coming in till night we were fain to lodge that night at the Briel and next day being the One and twentieth of the Eighth Month and the First-day of the Week we went on Board and set Sail about the Tenth hour viz. William Penn George Keith and I and Gertrude Dirick Nieson with her Children We were in all about sixty Passengers and had a long and hazardous Passage for the Winds were contrary to us and the Weather stormy the Boat also very leaky insomuch that we were fain to have two Plumps continually going both day and night so that it was thought there was twice as much Water plumped out as the Vessel would have held But the Lord who is able to make the stormy Winds to cease and the Raging Waves of the Sea to be calm yea to raise them and stop them at his pleasure he alone did preserve us praised be his Name for ever Though our Passage was hard yet we had a fine time and good Service for Truth on Board among the Passengers some of whom were a sort of great Folks and they were very kind and loving 1677. Harwich We arrived at Harwich on the 23th of the 8th Month at night having been Two Nights and almost Three Days at Sea Next Morning William Penn and George Keith took Horse for Colchester but I stay'd and had a Meeting at Harwich and there being no Colchester-Coach there and the Post-masters Wife being Unreasonable in her Demands for a Coach and deceiving us of it also after we had hired it we went to a Friend's House about a mile and an half off in the Country and hired his Wagon which we bedded well with Straw and rode in it to Colchester Colchester I stay'd in Colchester till the First-day of the Week having a desire to be at Friends Meeting there that day and a very large and weighty Meeting it was for Friends hearing of my Return from Holland flocked in thither from several parts of the Country and many of the Towns People coming in also it was thought there were about a Thousand People at the Meeting and all was peaceable Then having stay'd a day or two longer at Colchester having Service amongst the Friends there I travelled through Essex Essex Halsted Braintree Felsted Saling â—helmsford London visiting Friends at Halsted Braintree Felsted and Saling and having Meetings with them At Chelmsford I had a Meeting in the Evening and there being many Friends Prisoners they got liberty and came to the Meeting and we were well refreshed together in the Lord. Next day being the 9th of the 9th Month I got to London where Friends received me with great Joy and on the First-day following went to Gracious-street Meeting where the Lord visited us with his refreshing Presence and the Glory of the Lord surrounded the Meeting praised be the Lord After I had been a little while in London I writ the following Letter to my Wife whom though I had written to her several times out of Holland I had not written to since I came into England Dear Heart TO whom is my Love and to the Children and to all the rest of Friends in the Lord's Truth Power and Seed that is over all Glory to the Lord and blessed be his Name for ever beyond all words who hath carried me through and over many Trials and Dangers in his Eternal Power I have been Twice at Gracious-street-Meeting and though the opposite Spirits were there yet all was quiet and the Dew of Heaven fell upon the People and the Glory of the Lord
in it you may know that ye are all Members of one another and all have an Office in the Church of Christ and all these living Members know one another in the Spirit and not in the Flesh So here is no Man ruling over the Woman as Adam did over Eve in the Fall but Christ the Spiritual Man among and over his Spiritual Members which are edified in the heavenly Love that is shed in their heart from God where all strife ceases Hartford the 11th of the 5th Month 1678. G. F. I went from Hartford to a Meeting at Rabley-Heath about six miles from thence 1678. Rabley-Heath Stevenage Bâ—ldock Hi chin Ashwel Bedfordshire Huntington Ives and after the Meeting to Edward Crouch's of Stevenage from whence next day I went to Baldock where I had a Meeting that Evening and after that had Meetings at Hitchin and Ashwell Then passing through some part of Bedfordshire where I had a Meeting or two I went on to Huntington in which County I stayed several days having many Meetings and much Service amongst Friends labouring to Convince Gain-sayers and to Confirm and Strengthen Friends in the Way and Work of the Lord. At Ives in Huntingtonshire George Whitehead came to me and travelled with me in the Work of the Lord for five or six days in that County and in some part of Northamptonshire Northamptonshire Leicestershire Great Bowden Sâ—dâ—ington Wigston Knighton Leicester Sileby Swannington c. Leicester and leaving me in Great Bowden in Leicestershire he went on towards Westmorland whither he was travelling I stay'd longer in Leicestershire visiting Friends at Saddington Wigston Knighton Leicester Sileby Swannington and divers other places where I had very precious Meetings and very good Service amongst Friends and other People for there was great Openness and many weighty and excellent Truths did the Lord give me to open amongst them At Leicester I went to the Jail to visit the Friends that were in Prison there for the Testimony of Jesus with whom I spent some time encouraging them in the Lord to persevere stedfastly and faithfully in their Testimony and not to be Weary of Suffering for his sake And when I had taken my leave of the Friends I spake with the Jailer desiring him to be kind to them and let them have what Liberty he could to visit their Families sometimes After I had been in Leicestershire I had a Meeting or two in Warwickshire and then went into Staffordshire Warwickshire Staffordshire where I had several sweet and opening Meetings both for gathering into Truth and establishing therein And while I was in Staffordshire I was moved to give forth the following Paper DEar Friends of the Quarterly and Monthly Meetings every where My desire is that ye may all strive to be of one Mind in the Lord's Power and Truth which is peaceable into which Strife and Enmity cannot come and also in the Wisdom of God which is pure peaceable and easie to be intreated which is above that that is below that is Earthly Devilish and Sensual and that with and in this heavenly Wisdom that is peaceable and easie to be entreated you may be all ordered and do what ye do to God's Glory And Dear friends if there should happen at any time any thing that tends to strife dispute or contention in your Monthly or Quarterly Meetings let it be Referr'd to half a dozen or such alike number to debate and end out of your Meeting as it was at first so that all your Monthly and Quarterly Meetings may be kept peaceable And then they may Inform the Meeting what they have done so that the Weak and Youth amongst you may not be hurt through hearing of Strife or Contention in your Meetings 1678. Staffordshire where no Strife or Contention ought to be but all to go on and determine things in one Mind in the Power of God the Gospel-Order in which Gospel of Peace ye will preserve the Peace of all your Meetings And if any Man or Woman have any thing against any one let them speak to one another and end it betwixt themselves and if they cannot so end it let them take two or three to end it And in case they determin it not let it be laid before the Church and then let half a dozen or such a number out of your Monthly or Quarterly Meeting hear it and finally end it without Respect of Persons And let all Prejudice be laid aside and buried and also all Shortness one towards another and let Love which is not puffed up and envies not and seeks not her own but bears all things rule sway and have the Dominion in all your Meetings for that doth edifie the Body which Christ is the Head of and this will sway all sounding Brass and tinkling Cymbals Now this Love will suffer long and is kind and will keep down that which will vaunt it self or be puffed up or behave it self unseemly or is easily provoked It hath a sway over all such Fruits which are not of the Spirit the Fruit of which is Love c. And that with this holy Spirit ye may all be baptized into one Body and so be made all to drink into one Spirit in which Spirit ye will have Unity in which is the Bond of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords his Peace And they that dwell in Love they dwell in God for God is Love Therefore let every one keep his Dwelling-place and his Habitation So with my Love to you in Christ Jesus the everlasting Seed which is over all Staffordshire the 20th of the 6th Month 1678. G. F. Darbyshire Moniash Yorkshire Hill Out of Staffordshire I went to visit John Gratton at Moniash in Darbyshire with whom I tarried one night and went next day to William Shaws of the Hill in Yorkshire where I appointed a Meeting to be on the First-day of the Week following Many Friends out of Darbyshire and from several Meetings in Yorkshire came to this Meeting and a precious comfortable opening Meeting it was wherein was opened the blessed Estate that Man was in before he fell the Means by which he fell the miserable Condition into which he fell and the right Way of coming out of it into a happy State again by Christ the promised Seed After this I spent about two Weeks in Yorkshire travelling from place to place amongst Friends in the Lord's Service and many heavenly Meetings I had in that County Then visiting Robert Widders at Kellet in Lancashire Lancashire Kellet Westmorland Arnside Swarthmore I passed to Arnside in Westmorland where I had a precious living Meeting in the Lord's blessed Power to the great Satisfaction and Comfort of Friends who came from divers parts to it The next day I went to Swarthmore and it being the Meeting-day there I had a sweet opportunity with Friends our hearts being opened in the Love of God 1678. Swarthmore and his blessed Life flowing amongst us
I had not been long at Swarthmore e're a Concern came upon me to visit the Churches of Christ in London and elsewhere by an Epistle which was as followeth Dear Friends TO whom is my Love in the heavenly Seed in whom all Nations are blessed Oh keep all in this Seed in which ye are blessed and in which Abraham and all the Faithful were blessed without the Deeds of the Law for the Promise was and is to and with the Seed and not with the Law of the First Covenant In this Seed all Nations and ye are blessed which bruiseth the Head of the Seed that brought the Curse and separated between Man and God This is the Seed which reconciles you to God and this is the Seed in which ye are blessed both in Temporals and Spirituals through which ye have an Inheritance among the Sanctified that cannot be defiled neither can any defiled thing enter into its Possession for all defilements are out of this Seed This is that which leavens up into a New Lump and bruiseth the Head of the Wicked Seed that leavens into the Old Lump upon whom the Sun of Righteousness goes down and sets but never goes down and sets to them that walk in the Seed in which all Nations are blessed by which Seed they are brought up to God which puts down that Seed which separated betwixt them and God so that there comes to be nothing betwixt them and God Now all my Dear Friends my desires are that ye may all be Valiant in this heavenly Seed for God and his Truth upon the Earth and spread it abroad answering that of God in all that with it the Minds of People may be turned towards the Lord that he may come to be known and served and worshipped and that ye may all be the Salt of the Earth to make the unseasoned savoury And in the Name of Jesus keep your Meetings who are gathered into it in whose Name ye have Salvation he being in the midst of you whose Name is above every Name under the whole Heaven And so ye have a Prophet and Bishop Shepherd Priest and Counsellor above all the Counsellors and Priests Bishops Prophets and Shepherds under the whole Heaven to exercise his Offices among you in your Meetings that are gathered in his Name For Christ's Meeting and Gathering is above all the Meetings and Gatherings under the whole Heaven And his Body his Church and he the Head of it is above all the Bodies and Churches and Heads under the whole Heaven And the Faith that Christ is the Author of and the Worship that he hath set up and his Fellowship in the Gospel is above all Historical Faiths and the Faith 's that Man hath made together with their Worships and Fellowships under the whole Heaven And now Dear Friends keep your Men and Womens-Meetings in the Power of God the Gospel the Authority of them which brings Life and Immortality to Light in you and this Gospel the Power of God will preserve you in Life and in Immortality which hath brought it to Light in you that ye may see over him that hath darkned and kept from the knowledge of the things of God for it is he and his Instruments which hath darkned you from Life and Immortality that would throw down your Men and Womens-Meetings which were set up in the Power of God the Gospel and would darken you again from this Life and Immortality which the Gospel hath brought to Light and will preserve you in as your Faith stands in this Power of God the Gospel in which every one sees your Work and Service for God And every Heir in the Power of God the Gospel hath right to this Authority which is not of Man nor by Man which Gospel the Power of God is everlasting an everlasting Order an everlasting Fellowship and in the Gospel is everlasting Joy Comfort and Peace which will out-last all those Joys Comforts and Peaces that will have an end and that Spirit also that opposes its Order and the glorious Fellowship Peace and Comfort in it And My Dear Friends my desire is that ye may keep in the Unity of the Spirit that baptizes you all into one Body which Christ is the heavenly and spiritual Head of so that ye may see and bear witness to your heavenly and spiritual Head and so all drink into the One Spirit Which all People upon the Earth are not like to do while they grieve quench and rebel against it nor to be baptized into one Body and to keep the Unity of the Spirit which is the Bond of Peace yea the King of Kings and Lord of Lords his Peace which it is the duty of all true Christians to keep who are inwardly united to Christ So with my Love to you all in the everlasting Seed Swarthmore the 26th of the 7th Month 1678. G. F. There were about this time several Friends in Prison for bearing Testimony to the Truth To whom I was moved to write a few Lines to comfort strengthen and encourage them in their Sufferings having a true sense of their Sufferings upon my spirit and a sympathizing with them therein And that which I writ was after this manner My Dear Friends WHO are Sufferers for the Lord Jesus sake and for the Testimony of his Truth the Lord God Almighty with his Power uphold you and support you in all your Trials and Sufferings and give you Patience and Content in his Will that yâ— may stand valiant for Christ and his Truth upon the Earth over the persecuting and destroying Spirit which makes to suffer in Christ who bruises his Head in whom ye have both Election and Salvation And for God's Elect sake the Lord hath done much from the Foundation of the World as may be seen throughout the Scriptures of Truth and they that touch them touch the Apple of God's Eye they are so tender to him And therefore it is good for all God's suffering Children to trust in the Lord and to wait upon him for they shall be as Mount Sion that cannot be removed from Christ their Rock and Salvation who is the Foundation of all the Elect of God of the Prophets and the Apostles and of God's People now and to the End Glory to the Lord and the Lamb over all Remember my dear Love to all Friends and do not think the time long for all Time is in the Father's hand his Power And therefore keep the Word of Patience and exercise that Gift and the Lord strengthen you in your Sufferings in his holy Spirit of Faith Amen Swarthmore the 5th of the 12th Month 1678. G. F. I abode in the North at this time above a year having Service for the Lord amongst Friends there and being much taken up in writing Books and Papers some in Defence of Truth in Answer to Books published by Adversaries and some for the opening the Principles and Doctrines of Truth to the World that they might come to have a
all your Sacrifices will be a sweet savour to the Lord and ye will be as the Lilies and Roses and Garden of God which gives a sweet smell unto him Whose Garden is preserved by his Power that is the Hedge that hedges out all the unruly and unsavoury and the Destroyers and Hurters of the Vines Buds and Plants and God's tender Blade which springs up from his Seed of Life who waters it with his heavenly Water and Word of Life every moment that they may grow and be fruitful that so he may have a pleasant and fruitful Garden And so here all are kept fresh and green being watered every moment with the everlasting holy Water of Life from the Lord the Fountain So my dear Friends my desire is that this heavenly Seed that bruises down the Head of the Serpent both within and without may be all your Crowns and Lifes and ye in him one another's Crown and Joy to the praise of the Lord God over all blessed for evermore This holy Seed will out-last and wear out all that which the evil Seed since the Fall of Man hath brought forth and set up And as every one hath received Christ Jesus the Lord so walk in him in the Humility which he teaches and shun the occasions of Strife vain Janglings and Disputings with Men of Corrupt Minds who are destitute of the Truth for the Truth is peaceable and the Gospel is a peaceable Habitation in the Power of God which was before the Devil was and his Wisdom is peaceable and gentle c. And his Kingdom stands in Peace Oh! his Glory shines over all his Works And in Christ Jesus ye will have Peace who is not of the World yea a Peace that the World cannot take away for the Peace which ye have from him was before the World was and will be when it is gone So they are not like to take his Peace away from his People This keeps all in that which is weighty and substantial over all Chaff and will be when it is gone Glory to the Lord God over all for ever and ever Amen! And now My dear Friends the Lord doth require more of you than he doth of other People because he hath committed more to you He requires Fruits of his Spirit and of the Light and of the Gospel and of the Grace and of the Truth for herein is he glorified as Christ said in your bringing forth much Fruit Fruits of Righteousness â—liness Godliness Vertue Truth and Purity so that ye may answer that which is of God in all People And be ye valiant for his everlasting glorious Gospel in God's holy Spirit and Truth keeping in the Vnity and in the holy Spirit Light and Life which is over Death and Darkness and was before Death and Darkness was In this Spirit ye have the Bond of Peace which cannot be broken except ye go from the Spirit and then ye loose this Unity and Bond of Peace which ye have from the Prince of Peace The World also does expect more from Friends than from other People because you profess more Therefore you should be more Just than Others in your Words and Dealings and more Righteous Holy and Pure in your Lives and Conversations so that your Lives and Conversations may preach For the Worlds Tongues and Mouths have preached long enough but their Lives and Conversations have denied what their Tongues have professed and declared And Dear Friends strive to excel one another in Vertue and that ye may grow in Love that excellent Way which unites all to Christ and God And that all may stand up for God's Glory and mind that which concerns the Lord's Honour and Glory that in no wise his Power may be abused nor his Name evil spoken of by any evil Talkers or Walkers but that in all things God may be honoured and ye may glorifie him in your Bodies Souls and Spirits the little time ye have to live So my Love to you all in the holy Seed of Life that reigns over all and is the First and Last in whom ye all have Life and Salvation and your Election and Peace with God through Jesus Christ who destroys him that hath been betwixt you and God so that nothing may be betwixt you and the Lord but Christ Jesus Amen My Life and Love is to you all and amongst you all And the Lord God Almighty by his mighty Power by which he hath preserved all his People unto this day preserve and keep you all in his power and peaceable holy Truth in Unity and Fellowship one with another and with the Son and the Father Amen The 24th of the 3d Month 1679. G. F. Divers other Epistles and Papers I writ unto Friends during my stay in the North One whereof was in a few Lines To Encourage Friends to be bold and valiant for the Truth which the Lord had called them to bear witness to and it was thus worded Dear Friends ALL be Valiant for the Lord's Truth upon the Earth which the Serpent Satan and the Devil is out of and in the Truth keep him out in which you all have Peace and Life and Vnity with God and his Son and one with another And let the Love of God fill all your hearts that in it ye may build up one another and edifie one another in the Light Life and holy Spirit and Power of God the glorious comfortable Gospel of Christ the heavenly Man who is your Lord and Saviour who will fill all your Bottles and Vessels with his heavenly Wine and Water of Life and cloath you with his heavenly Cloathing his fine Linnen that never waxeth old And will arm you with his heavenly Weapons and Armour that ye may stand faithful Witnesses for God and his Son who is come and hath given you an understanding to know him and ye are in him And so walk in him in whom ye all have Life and Salvation and Peace with God So my Love to you all in the Lord Jesus Christ in whom I have laboured and God Almighty in his eternal Power and Wisdom preserve you all to his Glory Amen Swarthmore the 29th of the 10th Month 1679. G. F. The next day having a sense upon me how some that had received the Truth and had Openings thereof for want of keeping low had run out there-from I was moved to give forth the following Epistle as a Warning and Exhortation to all to dwell in Humility My Dear Friends VVHom the Lord in his tender Mercies hath visited with the Day-spring from on high and hath opened you to confess and bow to his Name keep low in your minds and learn of Christ who teacheth you Humility and to keep in it so that in no wise ye that be younger be exalted or puffed up or conceited through your Openings and by that means lose your Conditions by being carried up into Presumption and then fall into Despair and so abuse the Power of God For it was the Apostles care
him ye are happy and his Blessings will rest upon you God Almighty keep and preserve you all his true Believers in Christ your Rest and Peace this day Amen London the 18th of the 12th Month 1684 5. G. F. About a Month after this I got a little out of London visiting Friends first at South-street then at Ford-Green and Enfield where I had Meetings South-street Ford-green Enfield Waltham-Abbey Enfield Edmunton side and afterwards I went to Waltham-Abbey and was at the Meeting there on a First-day which was very large and peaceable Then returning through Friends at Enfield and about Edmunton-side I came back to London in the Third Month to Advise with and Assist Friends in laying Friends Sufferings before the Parliament then sitting and we drew up a short Account of our Sufferings which we caused to be printed and spread amongst the Parliament-men London Yearly-Meeting The Yearly-Meeting now coming on I was much concerned for the Friends that came up to it out of the Countries lest they should meet with any Trouble or Disturbance in their Passages up or down and the rather for that about this time there began to be great bustles in the Nation upon the Duke of Monmouth's landing in the West But the Lord according to his wonted goodness was graciously pleased to preserve and keep Friends in safety and gave us a blessed Opportunity to Meet together in peace and quietness and accompanied our Meeting with his living refreshing Presence blessed for ever be his holy Name Now considering the Hurries and Bustles that were in the Nation it came upon me at the Close of this Meeting to write a few Lines to Friends to Caution all to keep out of the Spirit of the World in which the Trouble is and to dwell in the peaceable Truth Wherefore I writ as followeth Dear Friends and Brethren WHom the Lord hath called and chosen in Christ Jesus your Life and Salvation in whom ye have all rest and peace with God The Lord God by his mighty Power which is over all hath preserved you and supported you to this day to be a peculiar holy People to himself so that by his Eternal Spirit and Power ye might be all preserved and kept out of the World for in the World is the Trouble And now in this great Day of the Lord God Almighty he is shaking the Heavens and the Earth of outward Professions and their Elements are in a heat and their Sun and their Moon are darkened and the Stars falling and the Mountains and Hills shaking and tottering as it was among the Jews in the Day of Christ's appearing And therefore all Dear Friends and Brethren dwell in the Seed Christ Jesus who is the Rock and Foundation 1685. London that cannot be shaken that ye may see with the Light and Spirit of Christ that ye are the fixed Stars in the â—irmament of God's Power and in this his Power and Light you 'l see over all the wandring Stars and Clouds without water and Trees without fruit And that which may be shaken will be shaken as will all they that are wandred from the Firmament of God's Power Now Dear Friends and Brethren you that are redeemed from the Death and Fall of Adam by Christ the second Adam in him ye have Life Rest and Peace for Christ saith In me ye shall have Peace but in the World Trouble And the Apostle saith They that believe are entred into their Rest namely Christ who hath overcome the World who bruiseth the Serpent's Head and destroys the Devil and his Works and fulfils the Types Figures and Shadows of the Old Testament and the Prophets In whom the Promises are Yea and Amen who is the First and Last Beginning and Ending Yea and Amen who is the eternal Rest So keep and walk in Christ your Rest every one that have received him your Eternal Rest And now Dear Friends and Brethren whatever Bustlings and Trouble or Tumults or Outrages Quarrels and Strife should arise and be in the World keep out of them all and concern not your selves with them but keep in the Lord's Power and peaceable Truth that is over all such things in which Power ye seek the peace and good of all men And live in the Love which God hath shed abroad in your hearts through Christ Jesus in which Love nothing is able to separate you from God and Christ neither outward Sufferings Persecutions nor any outward thing that is below and without nor to hinder or break your heavenly Fellowship in the Light and Gospel and Spirit of Christ nor your holy Communion in the Holy Ghost that proceeds from the Father and the Son which leads you into all Truth And in this Holy Ghost in which is your holy Communion that proceeds from the Father and the Son you have fellowship with the Father and the Son and communion and fellowship one with another And this is it which links and joins Christ's Church or Body together to him the heavenly and spiritual Head and in Unity in his Spirit which is the Bond of Peace of all his Church and living Members in whom they have Eternal and Everlasting Rest and Peace in Christ and with God everlasting who is to be blessed and praised for ever Amen Now Dear Friends forsake not the Assembling of your selves together who are gathered in the Name of Jesus who is your Prophet that God has raised up in the New Testament to be heard in all things who opens to you and no man can shut and shuts and no man can open Who is your Priest made higher than the Heavens by the Power of an endless Life by him you are made a Royal Priesthood to offer up to God spiritual Sacrifice Who is the Bishop of your Souls to oversee you that ye do not go astray from God Who is the good Shepherd that hath laid down his Life for his Sheep and they hear his voice and follow him and he gives to them eternal Life And now Dear Friends and Brethren abide in Christ the Vine that ye may bring forth fruit to the glory of God And as every one hath received Christ walk in him who is not of the World that lies in wickedness so that ye may be preserved out of the Vain Fashions and Customs of the World which satisfie the Lust of the Eye the Lust of the Flesh and the Pride of Life which are not of the Father but are of the World that passes away And who joins to that which is not of the Father or encourages it draws the mind from God the Fathâ—r and the Lord Jesus Christ. And therefore Let Christ rule in your hearts that your Minds Souls and Spirits may be kept and preserved out of the Vanities of the World both in their words ways and actions so that ye may be a peculiar People zealous of good works serving the Lord God through Jesus Christ in whom is life and may be a peculiar People to
amongst other Services that I found there one was to assist Friends in drawing up Testimony to Clear our Friends from being concerned in the late Rebellion in the West and from all Plots against the Government Which accordingly we did and delivered them to the Chief-Justice who was then to go down into the West with Commission to Try Prisoners I tarried some time in London visiting Meetings and labouring among Friends in the Service of Truth But finding my Health much impaired for want of fresh Air I went a little way out of Town to Charles Bathurst's Country-house at Epping-Forrest Epping-Forrest where I stay'd a few days And while I was there it came upon me to write the following Epistle to Friends Dear Friends WHO are called chosen and faithful in this Day of Trial 1685. Epping-Forest and Temptations and Sufferings whom the Lord by his right Hand hath upholden in all your Sufferings and some to Death for the Lord and his Truths sake Christ saith Be of good cheer I have overcome the World In me ye have peace but in the World ye have trouble The Children of the Seed which be Heirs of the Kingdom know this is true And though ye have Trials by false Brethren Judasses and Sons of Perdition that are got into the Temple of God and exalted above all that is called God whom the Lord will destroy with the breath of his Mouth and the brightness of his Coming And though ye be Tried by Powers or Principalities yet there is nothing able to separate you from the Love of God which ye have in Christ Jesus In that Love dwell which bears all things and fulfils the Law in which edifie one another and be courteous and kind and humble for to such God giveth his Grace plentifully and such he teacheth And pray in the Holy Ghost which proceeds from the Father and the Son and in it keep your holy Communion and Unity in the Spirit the Bond of Peace which is the King of Kings heavenly Peace In that you are all bound to good behaviour and keeping Peace among your selves and seeking the Peace of all men and shewing forth the heavenly gentle and peaceable Wisdom to all men in Righteousness and Truth answering the good in all People in all your Lives and Conversations for the Lord is glorified in your bringing forth spiritual fruit that ye may eye and behold the Lord in all your actions that the Blessings of the Lord ye may all feel to rest upon you Whether ye be the Lord's Prisoners for his Name and Truth 's sake or at Liberty in all things labour to be Content for that is a Continual Feast and let no Trouble move you then ye will be as Mount Sion that cannot be removed And in all things exercise the Word of Patience which Word will sanctifie all things to you And study to be Quiet and do the Lord's business that he requires of you and your own in Truth and Righteousness and whatsoever ye do let it be done to the praise and glory of God in the Name of Jesus Christ All they that do make God's People to suffer they make the Seed to suffer in their own particulars and Imprison the Just there And such will not visit the Seed in themselves but cast it into Prison in Others and not visit it in Prison You may read that Christ saith Such must go into Everlasting Punishment That is a sad punishment and prison And all such as are become Apostates and Backsliders that do crucifie to themselves Christ afresh and put him to open shame and trample under feet the blood of the Son of God by which they were cleansed and then come to be Vnclean such grieve vex and quench and rebel against the Spirit of God in themselves and then such rebel against them that walk in the Spirit of God Such are Vnfaithful to God and Man and are Enemies to every good Work and Service of God But their End will be according to their works who are like unto the Earth that hath often received Rain but brings forth Briars and Thorns which are to be rejected and are for the fire Therefore Dear Friends in all your Sufferings feel the Lord's Eternal Arm and Power which hath upheld you and supported you to this day and will to the end as your Faith stands in it and as you are settled upon the Rock and Foundation Christ Jesus that cannot be removed in whom ye have life and peace with God And so the Lord God Almighty in him give you Dominion and preserve and keep you all to his Glory that in all your Sufferings ye may feel his presence and that when ye have finished your Testimony ye may receive the Crown of Glory which God hath laid up for them that fear and serve him Amen The 15th of the 7th Month 1685. G. F. Having spent about a week at this time among Friends in the Country London I returned to London Where I continued about Two Months visiting Friends Meetings and labouring to get Relief for Friends from their Sufferings which yet lay heavy upon them in many parts of the Nation Several Papers also I writ relating to the Service of Truth one of which was concerning Order in the Church of God which some that were gone out of the Unity of Friends did much oppose And that was as followeth AMong all Societies or Families or Nations of People in the World they have among them some sort of Order There was the Order of Aaron in the Old Testament and there was the Order of Melchizedeck before that after whose Order Christ Jesus came and he did not despise that Order So God is a God of Order in his whole Creation and in his Church And all the Believers in the Light the Life in Christ that do pass from death to life they are in the Order of the holy Spirit Power Light Life and Government of Christ Jesus of the Increase whereof there is no End And this is a Mystery to all those disorderly People who have written and printed so much against Orders which the Lord's Power and Spirit hath brought forth among his People And you that cry so much against Orders is it not manifest that you are gone into a Land of Darkness thick as darkness it self and of the shadow of death into disorder and where the Light is as Darkness And is not this your Condition seen by all them that live and walk in the Truth and whose Conversations are according to the Gospel of Life and Salvation The Devil Satan Dragon and the first and second Beast 1685. London and the Whore and false Prophets and their Worshippers and Followers all these are out of the Truth and abode not in it nor in the Order of it And the Truth is over them all In Salem is God's Tabernacle a peaceable Tabernacle and his Tabernacle is in Shiloh And these are far beyond the Tabernacles of Ham Psal
Members of Christ Jesus of which he is the Spiritual Head Rock and Foundation And in the midst of his Church of living Members Christ exercises his Spiritual Prophetical Office to open to them the Mysteries of his Kingdom And is a Spiritual Bishop to oversee them that they do not go astray from the living God that made them and a Shepherd that feeds them with Bread and Water of Life from Heaven and none is able to pluck his Sheep out of his hands and he is a Priest that died for them and sanctifieth them and presents them to God who ruleth in their Hearts by the Divine Faith which he is the Author and Finisher of And his living Members do praise God through Jesus Christ in whom they have Life and Salvation who reconciles them to God that they can say they have Peace with God through Jesus Christ and so praise God through him that was dead and is alive again and reigns over all and liveth for evermore blessed for ever Hallelujah Amen! Greet one another with an holy Kiss of Charity and this Kiss of Charity is above all the Kisses of the World for Love and Charity beareth all things believeth all things hopeth all things and endures all things It envieth not and Charity vaunteth not it self nor is puffed up nor doth it behave it self unseemly It rejoices not in Iniquity but rejoices in the Truth And Charity is not easily provoked and thinks no Evil but suffereth long and is kind And Charity never faileth I say Greet one another with this holy Kiss of Charity and Peace be with you all that are in Christ Jesus your Life and Salvation The 30th of the 3d Month 1686. G. F. I remained for the most part of this Year in London save that sometimes I got out to Bednal-Green for a Night or two Bednal-Green Enfield Chiswick and some times went as far as Enfield and thereabouts amongst Friends and once or twice to Chiswick where an Ancient Friend had set up a School for the Educating of Friends Children in all which places I found Service for the Lord. London And when I was at London I spent my time amongst Friends either in Publick Meetings as the Lord drew me or visiting Friends that were not well and in looking after the Sufferings of Friends For though very many Friends were released out of Prisons yet some remained Prisoners still for Tithes c. and Sufferings of several sorts lay heavy yet on Friends in many places Yet inasmuch as many Friends that had been Prisoners were now set at Liberty I felt a Concern upon me that none might look too much at Man but might Eye the Lord therein from whom deliverance comes Wherefore I writ an Epistle to Friends and sent it abroad to be read amongst them as followeth Friends THE Lord by his Eternal Power hath opened the heart of the King to open the Prison-doors by which about Fifteen or Sixteen hundred are set at Liberty and hath given a Check to the Informers so that in many places our Meetings are pretty quiet So my desires are that both Liberty and Sufferings all may be sanctified to his People and Friends may prize the Mercies of the Lord in all things and to him be thankful who stilleth the Raging Waves of the Seas and allayeth the Storms and Tempests and maketh a Calm And therefore it is good to trust in the Lord and cast your Care upon him who careth for you For when ye were in your Gaols and Prisons Then the Lord did by his Eternal Arm and Power uphold you and sanctified them to you and unto some he made them as a Sanctuary and tried his People as in a Furnace of Affliction both in Prisons and spoiling of Goods And in all this the Lord was with his People and taught them to know that The Earth is the Lord's and the Fulness thereof 1686. London and that he was in all places who crowneth the year with his goodness Psal 65. Therefore let all God's People be diligent and careful to keep the Camp of God holy pure and clean and to serve God and Christ and one another in the glorious peaceable Gospel of Life and Salvation which Glory shines over God's Camp and his great Prophet and Bishop and Shepherd is among or in the midst of them exercising his heavenly Offices in them so that you his People may Rejoice in Christ Jesus through whom you have Peace with God For he that destroyeth the Devil and his Work and bruises the Serpent's Head is all God's Peoples heavenly Foundation and Rock to build upon which was the holy Prophets and Apostles Rock in days past and is now a Rock of our Ages which Rock and Foundation of God standeth sure And upon this the Lord God establish all his People Amen London the 25th of the 7th Month 1686. G. F. Divers other Epistles and Papers relating to Friends and Truth I writ this Year whereof one was by way of Exhortation to Friends to keep in Vnity in the Truth in which there is no Division nor Separation And thus it was DEar Friends and Brethren in the Lord Jesus Christ in whom ye have all Peace and Life and in him there is no Division nor Schism nor Rent nor Strife nor Separation for Christ is not divided and there can be no Separation in the Truth nor in the Light Grace Faith and Holy Ghost but Unity and Fellowship and Communion For the Devil was the first that went out of the Truth and separated from it and tempted Man and Woman to disobey God and to go from the Truth into a false Liberty to do that which God forbad And so it is the Serpent now that leads Men and Women into a false Liberty even the God of the World from which Man and Woman must be separated by the Truth that Christ the Truth may make them free and then they are free indeed And then they are to stand fast in that Liberty in which Christ hath made them free and in him as I said before there is no Division nor Schism nor Rent nor Separation but Peace and Life and Reconciliation to God and to one another So that in Christ Male and Female are all one for whether they be Male or Female Jew or Gentile Bond or Free they are all one in Christ And there can be no Schism Rent or Division in him nor in the Worship of God in his holy Spirit and Truth nor in the pure and undefiled Religion that keeps from the Spots of the World nor in the Love of God that beareth and endureth all things nor in the Word of God's Grace for it is pure and endureth for ever Many you see have lost the Word of Patience and the Word of Wisdom that is pure and peaceable and gentle and easie to be intreated Then they run into the Wisdom that is below that is earthly sensual and devilish and very uneasie to be intreated And they
I was hardly able to stay in a Meeting the whole Time thereof and often after a Meeting was fain to lye down upon a Bed Yet did not my Weakness of Body take me off from the Service of the Lord but I continued to labour in Meetings and out of Meetings in the work of the Lord as the Lord gave me Opportunity and Ability I had not been long in London before a great Weight came upon me and a sight the Lord gave me of the great Bustles and Troubles Revolution and Change which soon after came to pass In the sense whereof and in the movings of the Spirit of the Lord I writ a few Lines as A general Epistle to Friends to fore-warn them of the approaching Storm 1688. London that they might all retire to the Lord in whom safety is That Epistle was as followeth ALL my Dear Friends and Brethren every where who have received the Lord Jesus Christ and he has given you power to become his Sons and Daughters In him ye have both life and peace and in his Everlasting Kingdom that is a stablished Kingdom and cannot be shaken but is over all the World and stands in his Power and in Righteousness and Joy in the Holy Ghost into which no unrighteousness nor the foul unclean Spirit of the Devil in his Instruments can enter And therefore Dear Friends and Brethren every one in the Faith of Jesus that he is the Author and Finisher of stand in his Power who has all power in Heaven and Earth given to him and will Rule the Nations with his Rod of Iron and dash them to pieces like a Potter's vessel that are not Subject and Obedient to his Power Whose Voice will shake the Heavens and the Earth that that which may be shaken may be Removed and that which cannot be shaken may Appear And stand in him and all things shall work together for good to them that love him And now Dear Friends and Brethren though these Waves and Storms and Tempests be in the World yet you may all appear the harmless and innocent Lambs of Christ walking in his peaceable Truth and keeping in the Word of Power and Wisdom and Patience and this Word will keep you in the Day of Trials and Temptations that will come upon the whole World to Try them that dwell upon the Earth For the Word of God was before the World and all things were made by it It is a Tried Word which gave all God's People in all Ages Wisdom Power and Patience And therefore let your dwelling and walking be in Christ Jesus who is called The Word of God and in his Power which is over all And set your Affections on things that are above where Christ sits at the right hand of God mark on those things which are above where Christ sits and not those things that are below which will change and pass away And blessed be the Lord God who by his Eternal Arm and Power hath gathered a People to himself and by his Eternal Arm and Power hath preserved his Faithful to himself through many Troubles Trials and Temptations His Power and Seed Christ is over all and in him ye have life and peace with God Therefore in him all stand and see your Salvation who is First and Last and the Amen God Almighty preserve and keep you all in him your Ark and Sanctuary for in him you are safe over all Floods Storms and Tempests for he was before they were and will be when they are all gone London the 17th of the 8th Month 1688. G. F. About this time great Exercise and Weights came upon me as hath usually done before great Revolutions and Changes of Government and my strength departed from me so that I reeled and was ready to fall as I went along the Streets And at length I could not go abroad at all I was so Weak for a pretty while till I felt the Power of the Lord to spring over all and had received an Assurance from him that he would preserve his faithful People to himself through all In the time that I kept in I writ a Paper shewing How Moses as a Servant was faithful in all his House in the Old Testament and Christ as a Son is over his House in the New Testament THE House of Israel was called God's Vineyard in Isa 5.7 and all the Israelites were called the House of Israel Israel signifies A Prince with God and a Prevailer with Men Gen. 32.28 And when Peter did preach Christ to the House of Israel he said Let all the House of Israel know assuredly that God hath made the same Jesus whom ye have crucified both Lord and Christ Acts 2.36 So they were all called the House of Israel And it is said Moses was faithful in all his House to wit this House of Israel as a Servant for a Testimony of those things which were to be spoken after But Christ as a Son over his own House which House are we if we hold fast the Confidence and the Rejoycing of the hope firm unto the end Hebr. 3.5 6. Here it is manifest that Moses was faithful in all his house as a Servant viz. in the house of Israel in the Old Testament but Christ Jesus the Son of God is over his house in his New Testament and Covenant and all his true Believers are of his House The Apostle tells the Ephesians who were the Church of Christ They were Fellow-Citizens with the Saints and of the Houshold of God Eph. 2.19 And the Saints are called The Houshold of Faith Gal. 6.10 And Peter in his general Epistle tells the Church of Christ They were a Chosen Generation a Royal Priesthood a holy Nation a peculiar People 1 Pet. 2.9 And that as lively Stones they were built up a spiritual House an holy Priesthood to offer up spiritual Sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ ver 5. And the Apostle saith to the Church of Christ at Corinth If our earthly House of this Tabernacle were dissolved we have a building of God an house not made with hands eternal in the Heavens 2 Cor. 5.1 And Christ said to his Disciples Let not your hearts be troubled ye believe in God believe also in me In my Father's house are many Mansions a Mansion is a Dwelling or Abiding-place If it were not so I would have told you I go to prepare a place for you And if I go and prepare a place for you I will come again and receive you unto my self that where I am there ye may be also John 14.1 2 3. The Psalmist saith Those that be planted in the House of the Lord shall flourish in the Courts of our God They shall bring forth fruit in old Age they shall be fat and flourishing Psal 92.13 14. And again Holiness becomes thine house O Lord for ever Psal 93.5 Isaiah also said by way of Prophecy It shall come to pass in the last days that the Mountain of the Lord's
and Mortality put off yet we believe he has a Building with God Eternally in the Heavens and is entred into Rest as a Reward to those great Labours hard Sufferings and sore Trials he patiently endured for God and his Truth Of which Truth he was made an Able Minister and One if not the First Promulgator of it in our Age who though of no great Literature nor seeming much Learned as to the outward being hid from the Wisdom of this World yet he had the Tongue of the Learned and could speak a Word in due Season to the Conditions and Capacities of most especially to them that were weary and wanted Soul's Rest being deep in the Divine Mysteries of the Kingdom of God And the Word of Life and Salvation through him reached unto many Souls whereby many were Convinced of their great Duty of inward Retiring to Wait upon God and as they became diligent in the Performance of that Service were also raised up to be Preachers of the same Everlasting Gospel of Peace and Glad Tidings to others who are as Seals to his Ministry both in this and other Nations and may possibly give a more full Account thereof Howbeit we knowing his unwearied Diligence not Sparing but Spending himself in the Work and Service whereunto he was Chosen and Called of God could not but give this short Testimony of his Faithfulness therein and likewise of his tender Love and Care towards us who as a tender Father to Children in which Capacity we stood being so Related unto him he never failed to give us his wholesome Counsel and Advice And not only so but as a Father in Christ he took Care of the whole Family and Houshold of Faith which the Lord had made him an Eminent Overseer of and endued him with such an Excellent Spirit of Wisdom and Vnderstanding to propose and direct Helps and Advantages to the Well-ordering and Establishing of Affairs and Government in the Church as now are found very serviceable thereunto and have greatly disappointed and prevented the false loose and libertine Spirit in some who to their own Confusion have endeavoured by Separation and Division to disturb the Church's Peace And although many of that sort have at sundry times shot their poisonous Darts at him publickly in Print and privately other ways yet he has been always preserved by the Heavenly Power of God out of the Reach of their Envy and all Perils and Difficulties that attended on their Account Who as a Fixed Star in the Firmament of God's Power did constantly abide and held his Integrity to the last being of a sweet savoury Life and as to Conversation kept his Garments clean And though outwardly dead yet liveth and his Memory is right precious unto us as it is and will be to all that abide in the Love of Truth and have not declined the Way of it For he was one of the Lord's Worthies Valiant for the Truth upon Earth not turning his Back in the Day of Battle but his Bow still abiding in its Strength he through many Hardships brought Gladness and Refreshment to Israel's Camp being assisted by the Might of that Power that always put the Armies of Aliens and Enemies to Flight And now having finished his Course is removed from us into a Glorious State of Immortality and Bliss and is gathered unto the Lord as a Shock of Corn in its full Season and to that Habitation of Safety where the Wicked cease from troubling and the Weary be at Rest John Rous. William Meade Thomas Lower William Ingram Daniel Abraham Abraham Morrice Margaret Rous. Sarah Meade Mary Lower Susanna Ingram Rachel Abraham Isabel Morrice An Epistle by Way of Testimony to Friends and Brethren of the Monthly and Quarterly Meetings in England Wales and elsewhere concerning the Decease of our Faithful Brother GEORGE FOX From our Second-Days Morning Meeting in London the 26th of the 11th Month 1690. DEar and truly beloved Friends Brethren and Sisters in Christ Jesus our Blessed Lord and Saviour we sincerely and tenderly salute you all in his free and tender Love wherewith he hath graciously visited us and largely shed it abroad in our Hearts and Souls to our own unspeakable Comfort and Consolation and towards his whole Heritage and Royal Off-spring blessed be his pure and powerful Name for Evermore And our Souls do truly and fervently desire and breathe unto the God of all our Mercies that you all may be preserved and kept truly faithful and diligent in his Work and Service according to your Heavenly Calling and Endowments with his Light Grace and Truth unto the End of your Days as being livingly engaged thereby all your appointed Time to serve him and to wait till your Change come That none may neglect that true Improvement of your Times and Talents that God has afforded you here for your Eternal Advantage hereafter in that Inheritance and Life Immortal that never fades away And that the whole Flock and Heritage of Christ Jesus which he has purchased and bought for himself with a Price incorruptible may always be so preserved in his own pure Love and Life as to grow increase and prosper in the same and thereby be kept in Love Vnity and Peace with one another as becomes his true and faithful Followers is that which our very Hearts and Souls desire being often truly comforted and enlarged in the living sense and feeling of the Encrease and Aboundings thereof among faithful Friends and Brethren And Dear Brethren and Sisters unto this our Tender Salutation We are concerned in Brotherly Love and true Tender-heartedness to add and impart unto you some Account of the Decease of our Dear and Elder Brother in Christ namely his and his Church's true and faithful Servant and Minister George Fox whom it hath pleased the Lord to take unto himself as he hath divers others of his faithful Servants and Ministers of late Time who have faithfully served out their Generation and finished their Testimony and Course with Joy and Peace Howbeit O Dear Brethren and Friends that so many Worthies in Israel and serviceable Instruments in the Lord's Hand are of late taken away and removed from us so soon one after another appears a Dispensation that deeply and sorrowfully affects us and many more whose Hearts are upright and tender toward God and one to another in the Truth The Consideration of the Depth Weight and Meaning thereof is very weighty upon our Spirits though their precious Life and Testimony lives with us as being of that same Body united to one Head even Christ Jesus in which we still and hope ever shall have secret Comfort and Union with them whom the Lord has removed and taken to himself out of their Earthly Tabernacles and Houses into their Heavenly and Everlasting Mansions This our said Dear Brother George Fox was enabled by the Lord's Power to Preach the Truth fully and effectually in our Publick Meeting in White-Hart-Court by Grace-Church-street London on the Eleventh
Preserve you to God's Everlasting Kingdom So will you be Possessors as well as Professors of the Truth embracing it not only by Education but Judgment and Conviction from a Sense begotten in your Souls through the operation of the Eternal Spirit and Power of God in your hearts by which you may come to be the Seed of Abraham through Faith and the circumcision not made with Hands and so heirs of the promise made to the Fathers of an Incorruptible Crown That as I said before a Generation you may be to God holding up the Profession of the blessed Truth in the Life and Power of it For Formality in Religion is Nauseous to God and good Men and the more so where any Form or Appearance has been new and peculiar and begun and practised upon a Principle with an Uncommon Zeal and Strictness Therefore I say for you to fall flat and formal and continue the profession without that Salt and Savour by which it is come to obtain a good Report among Men is not to answer God's Love nor your Parents Care nor the mind of Truth in your selves nor in those that are without who tho' they will not obey the Truth have Sight and Sense enough to see if they do that make a Profession of it For where the Divine Virtue of it is not felt in the Soul and waited for and lived in imperfections will quickly break out and shew themselves and detect the Unfaithfulness of such Persons and that their insides are not seasoned with the Nature of that holy Principle which they profess Wherefore Dear Children let met intreat you to shut your Eyes at the Temptations and Allurements of this low and perishing World and not suffer your affections to be captivated by those Lusts and Vanities that your Fathers for Truths Sake long since turned their Backs upon But as you believe it to be the Truth receive it into your Hearts that you may become the Children of God So that it may never be said of you as the Evangelist Writes of the Jews of his time That Christ the true Light came to his own but his own received him not but to as many as received him to them he gave Power to become the Children of God which were born not of Blood nor of the Will of the Flesh nor of the Will of Man but of God A most close and comprehensive Passage to this occasion You exactly and peculiarly answer to those professing Jews in that you bear the Name of God's People by being the Children and wearing of the Form of God's People So that he by his Light in you may be said to come to his own and if you obey it not but turn your Back upon it and walk after the Vanities of your Minds you will be of those that receive him not which I pray God may never be your Case and Judgment but that you may be throughly sensible of the many and great Obligations you lie under to the Lord for his Love and your Parents for their Care And with all your Heart and all your Soul and all your Strength turn to the Lord to his Gift and Spirit in you and hear his Voice and obey it that you may Seal to the Testimony of your Fathers by the Truth and Evidence of your own Experience that your Childrens Children may bless you and the Lord for you as those that delivered a faithful Example as well as Record of the Truth of God unto them So will the Gray Hairs of your Dear Parents yet alive go down to the Grave with Joy to see you the posterity of Truth as well as theirs and that not only their Natures but Spirit shall live in you when they are gone I shall conclude this Preface with a few Words to those that are not of our Communion into whose hands this may come especially those of our own Nation Friends As you are the Sons and Daughters of Adam and my Brethren after the Flesh often and earnest have been my Desires and Prayers to God on your behalf that you may come to know him that has Made you to be your Redeemer and Restorer to the Image that through Sin you have lost by the power and Spirit of his Son Jesus Christ whom he hath given for the Light and Life of the World And Oh that you who are called Christians would receive him into your Heart for there it is you want him and at that Door he stands knocking that you should let him in but you do not open to him You are full of other Guests so that a Manger is his Lot among you Now as well as of Old Yet you are full of Profession as were the Jews when he came among them who knew him not but rejected and evilly intreated him So that if you come not to the Possession and Experience of what you profess all your Formality in Religion will stand you in no stead in the Day of God's Judgment I beseech you ponder with your selves your Eternal Condition and see what Title what Ground and Foundation you have for your Christianity If more than a Profession and an Historical Belief of the Gospel Have you known the Baptism of Fire and the Holy Ghost and the Fan of Christ that winnows away the Chaff The Carnal Lusts and Affections That Divine Leven of the Kingdom that being received Levens the whole Lump of Man sanctifying him throughout in Body Soul and Spirit If this be not the Ground of your Confidence you are in a Miserable Estate You will say perhaps that though you are Sinners and live in the daily Commission of Sin and are not Santified as I have been Speaking yet you have Faith in Christ who has borne the Curse for you and in him you are Compleat by Faith his Righteousness being imputed to you But my Friends let me intreat you not to deceive your selves in so Important a Point as is that of your Immortal Souls If you have true Faith in Christ your Faith will make you Clean it will Sanctifie you for the Saints Faith was their Victory By this they over came Sin within and Sinful Men without And if thou art in Christ thou walkest not after the Flesh but after the Spirit whose Fruits are Manifest Yea thou art a New Creature New Made New Fashioned after God's Will and Mold Old things are done away and behold all things are become New New Love Desires Will Affections and Practices It is not any longer Thou that livest Thou Disobedient Carnal Worldly One but it is Christ that liveth in thee and to live is Christ and to die is thy Eternal Gain because thou art assured That thy Corruptible shall put on Incorruption and thy Mortal Immortality and that thou hast a Glorious House Eternal in the Heavens that will never wax Old or pass away All this follows being in Christ as Heat follows Fire and Light the Sun Therefore have a Care how you presume to Rely upon such a
and see if they could get a full Discharge for her that she might enjoy her Estate and Liberty without Molestation This was somewhat difficult at first to get but by diligent Attendance on it they at length obtained it the King giving Command to one called Sir John Otway to signifie his Pleasure therein by Letter to the Sheriff and others concerned therein in the Country Which Letter Sarah Fell going down with her Brother and Sister Rous carried with her to Lancaster and by them I writ to my Wife as followeth My Dear Heart in the Truth and Life that changeth not IT was upon me that Mary Lower and Sarah should go to the King concerning thy Imprisonment and to Kirby that the Power of the Lord might appear over them all in thy Deliverance They went and then they thought to have come down but it was upon me to stay them a little longer that they might follow the Business till it was Effected which it now is and is here sent down The late Declaration of mine hath been very serviceable People being generally satisfied with it So no more but my Love in the Holy Seed G. F. The Declaration here mentioned was a Printed Sheet writ upon occasion of a New Persecution stirred up For by that time I was got back out of Leicestershire to London a fresh Storm was Risen occasioned as it was thought by that Tumultuous Meeting in a Steeple-house in Wiltshire or Gloucestershire mentioned a little before where a Contest happening between a Presbyterian-Priest and the Priest of the Parish with their Hearers on either side the Common-Prayer-Book was Cut to pieces and other great Disorders committed 1670. London From which it was said some Members of Parliament took Advantage to get that Act passed against Seditious Conventicles which soon after came forth and was turned against us who of all People were free from Sedition and Tumult Whereupon I writ the Declaration before mentioned shewing from the Preamble and Terms of the said Act That we were not such a People nor our Meetings such Meetings as were described in that Act. Beside that Declaration I writ also another short Paper on the occasion of that Act against Meetings opening our Case to the Magistrates as followeth O Friends Consider this Act which limits us to Five that but Five may Meet Is this To do as ye would be done by Would ye be so served your selves We own Christ Jesus as well as you both his Coming Death and Resurrection and if we be Contrary-minded to you in some things is not this the Apostle's Exhortation to Wait till God hath Revealed it Doth not he say What is not of Faith is Sin And seeing we have not Faith in things which ye would have us to do would it not be Sin in us if we should do contrary to our Faith And why should any Man have Power â—ver any other Man's Faith seeing Christ is the Author of it When the Apostles did preach in the Name of Jesus and great Multitudes heard them and the Rulers forbad them to speak any more in that Name did not they bid them Judge Whether it were better to obey God or Man Would not this Act have taken hold of the Twelve Apostles and Seventy Disciples for they Met often together And if there had been an Act or Law made then That not above Five should have met with Christ would not that have been an hindring him from Meeting with his Disciples And do ye think that he who is the Wisdom of God or his Disciples would have obeyed it If such a Law had been made in the Apostles days That not above Five might have met together who had been different-minded from either the Jews or the Gentiles Do ye think the Churches of Christ at Corinth Philippi Ephesus Thessalonica or the rest of the Gathered Churches would have Obeyed it O therefore consider For we are Christians and partake of the Nature and Life of Christ. And strive not to Limit the Holy One for God's Power cannot be limited and is not to be quenched And do unto all men as ye would have them do unto you for that is the Law and the Prophets This is from those who wish you all well and desire your Everlasting Good and Prosperity who are called Quakers who seek the Peace and Good of all People though they do Afflict us and cause us to suffer G. F. Now as I had endeavoured to soften the Magistrates and to take off the Sharpness of their Edge in the Execution of the Act so it was upon me to write a few Lines to Friends To strengthen and encourage them to stand fast in their Testimony and bear with Christian Patience and Content the Suffering that was coming upon them This I did in the following Epistle ALL my Dear Friends Keep in the Faith of God above all outward things and in his Power that hath given you Dominion over all The same Power of God is still with you to deliver you as formerly for God and his Power is the same and his Seed is over all and before all and will be when that which makes to suffer is gone And so be of good Faith in that which Changeth not for whatsoever any doth against the Truth it will come upon themselves and fall as a Milstone on their Heads And if so be that the Lord do suffer you to be Tried let all be given up and look at the Lord and his Power which is over the whole World and will be when the World is gone And in the Lord's Power and Truth Rejoice Friends over that which makes to suffer in the Seed which was before it was for the Life and Truth and the Power of God is over all And all keep in that and if ye do suffer in that it is to the Lord. Friends the Lord hath blessed you in Outward Things and now the Lord may Try you Whether your Minds be in the Outward Things or with the Lord that gave you them Therefore keep in the Seed by which all Outward Things were made and which is over them all What! shall not I pray and speak to God with my Face towards Heavenly Jerusalem according to my wonted Time And let not any one 's Dalilah shave his Head lest such lose their Strength neither Rest in its Lap lest the Philistines be upon you For your Rest is in Christ Jesus therefore Rest not in any thing else London the 12th of the 2d Month 1670. G. F. On the First Day of the Week next after the Act came in force I went to the Meeting at Grace-Church-Street Gracious-Street-Meeting where I expected the Storm was most likely to begin When I came there I found the Street full of People and a Guard set to keep Friends out of their Meeting-house I went thereupon to the other Passage that goes out of Lombard-Street and there also I found a Guard but the Court was full of People
to love their Masters and Mistresses and to be faithful and diligent in their Master's Service and Business and then their Masters and Overseers would love them and deal kindly and gently with them And that they should not beat their Wives nor the Wives their Husbands neither should the Men have many Wives And that they should not Steal nor be Drunk nor commit Adultery nor Fornication nor Curse nor Swear nor Lie nor give bad Words to one another nor to any one else For there is something in them that tells them they should not practise those nor any other Evils But if they notwithstanding should do them then we let them know There are but Two Ways the one that leads to Heaven where the Righteous go and the other that leads to Hell where the Wicked and Debauched Whoremongers and Adulterers Murderers and Liars go To the one the Lord will say Come ye Blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the World but to the other he will say Depart ye Cursed into everlasting Fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels So the Wicked go into everlasting Punishment but the Righteous into Life Eternal Matth. 25. Now consider Friends It is no Transgression for a Master of a Family to instruct his Family himself or for some others to do it in his behalf but rather it is a very great Duty incumbent upon them Abraham and Joshua did so of the first we read the Lord said Gen. 18.19 I know that Abraham will command his Children and his Houshold after him and they shall keep the Way of the Lord to do Justice and Judgment that the Lord may bring upon Abraham the things that he hath spoken of him And the latter we read said Josh 24.15 Chuse ye this day whom ye will serve But as for me and my House we will serve the Lord. We do declare that we do esteem it a Duty incumbent on us to Pray with and for to Teach Instruct and Admonish those in and belonging to our Families this being a Command of the Lord the Disobedience whereunto will provoke the Lord's Displeasure as may be seen in Jer. 10.25 Pour out thy Fury upon the Heathen that know thee not and upon the Families that call not upon thy Name Now Negroes Tawnies Indians make up a very great part of the Families in this Island for whom an Account will be required by him who comes to Judge both Quick and Dead at the great Day of Judgment when every one shall be Rewarded according to the Deeds done in the Body whether they be good or whether they be evil At that Day I say of the Resurrection both of the Good and of the Bad of the Just and the Vnjust when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from Heaven with his mighty Angels in flaming Fire taking Vengeance on them that know not God and obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ who shall be punished with everlasting Destruction from the Presence of the Lord and from the Glory of his Power when he shall come to be glorified in his Saints and admired in all them that believe in that day 2 Thess 1.8 c. See also 2 Pet. 3.3 c. This wicked Slander of our endeavouring to make the Negroes Rebell our Adversaries took occasion to raise from our having had some Meetings with and amongst the Negroes For both I and other Friends had several Meetings with them in several Plantations wherein we exhorted them to Justice Sobriety Temperance Chastity and Piety and to be subject to their Masters and Governours Which was altogether contrary to what our envious Adversaries maliciously suggested against us As I had been to visit the Governour as soon as I was well able after I came thither so sometime after when I was at Thomas Rouse's the Governour came thither to see me carrying himself very courteously Having now been Three Months or more in Barbados and in that time having visited Friends throughly settled Meetings and dispatched that Service for which the Lord brought me thither I felt my Spirit clear of that Island and Drawings to Jamaica Which when I had communicated to Friends I acquainted the Governour also and divers of his Council That I intended shortly to leave the Island and go to Jamaica which I did that as my Coming thither was open and publick so my Departure also might be But before I left the Island I writ the following Letter to my Wife that she might understand both how it was with me and how I proceeded in my Travels My Dear Heart TO whom is my Love and to all the Children in the Seed of Life that changeth not but is over all blessed be the Lord for ever I have gone under great Sufferings in my Body and Spirit beyond Words but the God of Heaven be praised his Truth is over all I am now well and if the Lord permit within a few days I pass from Barbados towards Jamaica and I do think to stay but little there I desire that ye may be all kept free in the Seed of Life out of all Cumbrances Friends are generally well Remember me to Friends that enquire after me So no more but my Love in the Seed and Life that changeth not Barbados the 6th of the 11th Month 1671. G. F. I set Sail from Barbados to Jamaica on the Eighth Day of the Eleventh Month 1671. Robert Widders William Edmundson At Sea Solomon Eccles and Elizabeth Hooton going with me James Lancaster John Cartwright and George Pattison were gone thither some time before and Thomas Briggs and John Stubbs remained yet longer in Barbados with whom were John Rouse and William Baily We had a quick and easie Passage to Jamaica JAMAICA where we met with our Friends James Lancaster John Cartwright and George Pattison again who had been labouring there in the Service of Truth into which we forthwith entred with them travelling up and down through the Island which is large And a brave Country it is though the People are many of them debauched and wicked We had much Service there for there was a great Convincement 1671. Jamaica and many received the Truth some of which were People of Account in the World We had many Meetings there which were large and very quiet For indeed the People were Civil to us so that not a Mouth was opened against us I was twice with the Governour and some other of the Magistrates who all carried themselves lovingly towards me About a Week after we landed in Jamaica Elizabeth Hooton who went with us from England to Barbados and from Barbados thither being a Woman of a great Age and who had travelled much in Truth 's Service and suffered much for it departed this Life She was well the Day before she died and departed in Peace like a Lamb bearing Testimony to Truth at her Departure When we had been about Seven Weeks in Jamaica and had brought
you may have the Blessing For you read that Christians were called the Houshold of Faith the houshold of God a holy Nation a peculiar People and they are commanded to be Zealous for good Works not for bad and Christians are also commanded not to bite and devour one another lest they be consumed one of another And is it not a sad thing for Christians to be biting and consuming one another in the sight of the Turks Tartars Jews and Heathens when they should Love one another and do unto all Men as they would have them do unto them And such Work and Devouring as this will open the Mouths of Jews and Turks Tartars and Heathens to Blaspheme the Name of Christ who is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords and cause them to speak evil of Christianity for them to see how the Unity of the Spirit is broken among such as profess Christ and Christ's Peace And therefore all Christians are to mind God and Christ's Teaching who teacheth Christians to Love one another yea Enemies and perswade all Kings and Princes to give Liberty to all tender Consciences in Matters of Religion and Worship they living peaceable under every Government so that for the time to come there may be no more Imprisonment and Persecution among the Christians for Matters of tender Consciences about Matters of Faith Worship and Religion that the Jews Turks Tartars and Heathens may not see how Christians are Persecuting one another for Religion And seeing from Christ and the Apostles Christians have no such Command but on the contrary to Love one another and knowing that Christ said to such as would have been plucking up Tares Let the Tares and the Wheat grow together till the Harvest which is the End of the World lest they plucked up the Wheat and at the End of the World Christ would send forth his Angels and they should sever the Wheat from the Tares So Christ tells you that it is the Angels work at the End of the World and not Mens work before the Harvest at the End of the World Hath not all this Persecution Banishing and Imprisoning and putting to Death concerning Religion been the pretence of plucking up Tares and hath not all this been before the Harvest and before the End of the World And therefore have not all these been the Actors against the Express Command of Christ the King of Heaven which all Kings and Rulers especially they that call themselves Christians should obey their Lord and Saviour's Command which he expresly Commands Let the Tares and the Wheat grow together till the Harvest and the Harvest is the End of the World and then Christ will send his Angels and they shall sever the Wheat from the Tares c. And also Christ told some of his Disciples that would have had Fire to come down from Heaven to destroy such as would not receive him in their Zeal That they did not know what Spirit they were of and rebuked them and said He came not to destroy Mens Lives but to save them And therefore all such that have destroyed Mens Lives concerning Religion and Worship of God have they known what Spirit they have been of Have they not done that they should not do and done that which Christ forbad who saith Lest ye should pluck up the Wheat with the Tares and saith It is the Angels work at the End of the World And hath not God shewed unto Man what is Good and his Duty To Love Mercy and to do Justly and to walk Humbly with his God which Man is to mind And the Apostle exhorts the Christians to Follow Peace with all Men and Holiness without which no Man shall see the Lord Hebr. 12.14 And why should Christians War and Strive one with another seeing they all do own in words one King and Lord and Saviour Christ Jesus whose Command is That they should Love one another which is a Mark that they shall be known by to be Christ's Disciples as I said before And Christ who is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords saith As I have Loved you so love one another John 15.12 and John 13. And the Apostle saith Christians ought to be patient towards all Men 1 Thess 5.14 From him who is a Lover of Truth and Righteousness and Peace and desires your Temporal and Eternal Good and desires that in the Wisdom of God that is pure and gentle and peaceable from above with that you may be Ordered and Order all things that God hath Committed to you to his Glory and stop those things among Christians so far as you have power which dishonour God Christ and Christianity Amsterdam the 21th of the 7th Month 1677. G. F. THE FIRST TABLE CONTAINING The Names of the Countries Cities Towns and Places mentioned in the Author's Journal of his Travels and Labours on Truth 's Account in England c. and beyond the Seas Note The Pages with a Star refer to the like Pages with a Star to begin p. 189* 190* 200* 201* c. these Pages being double A. ABbyholm 268* Aberdeen Scotl. 407 Acton 141 Adderbury 388. 457 Addingworth 430 Albans 171. 430. 457. 479 Alborough Castle 522 Aldenham 78 Alexandria in Egypt 248. 253 Alkmaer Holl. 438. 522 America 408 Amersham 455 Amoroca River Amer. 380 Ampthill 430 Amsterdam 433-438 446-451 452. 520-522 594. 617-619 627-632 Anamessy River Amer. 380 Anderigo Friezl 444 Antego 356 357. 458 Apledon 318 319 Appingdalen F. 439 Applebye 91 Apre Denmark 440 Arnside 103. 215 216. 269. 470 Armscot 388 389. 457 Arundel 171 Ashford 259 Ashwell 469 Atherston 30. 132 Aylesbury 388 B. BAdcow Scotl. 269* 271* 276* Badgesley 167. 170. 225* 213. 310. 325. 429 Baghurst 341 Bagworth 29 Balby 54. 67. 69. 129. 213 214. 326. 429 Baldock 170 171. 316. 469 Ballowfield 429 Banbury 316 Bandon Irel. 328 Bandon-Bridge Irel. ibid. Barbados 351-361 379. 382. 599 Barking 570 Barnet 3. 430. 457. 479. 584 Barnet-hills 254 255 Barnstaple 318 Barrow 28. 254 Barton 423 Barton-Abbey 215 Basingstoke 244* Battersea 480 Beavor Vale 16. 18-26 Becliff 79 Bedall 423 Bedfordshire 149. 166. 170. 282* 259. 310 311. 430. 457. 469. 479 Bednalgreen 536-538 550 Bentham 297 Berkshire 254. 335. 342. 456 Berry-street 568 569 Berwick 281* Beverley 54 Beumaris Wales 258* 259* Biddlesden 479 Birmingham 167. 325 Bishopsdale 423 Bishop-starford 156 Black-Rock Chesh 327 Bletchington 480 Block-Island Amer. 369 Bodmin 178 179 Bohemia-River Amer. 365. 372 Bonners-Creek Amer. 376 377 Boston Lincolnsh 225* Boston New Eng. 242. 379 Boulton 280 Bowden mag 469 Bowtell 104 105 Bradforth 71 Braintrie 457 Brecknock 246* 247* Bremen Germ. 440 443 Bremer-Haven Germ. 443 Bridge-Town Barb. 356 Bridport 244 Briell Holl. 433. 453. 520. 522 Brigflats 423 Bristol 221* 222* 245* 210. 212. 253 254. 266. 310. 315. 332. 334. 456 Bristol-Harbour 383-386 Buckinghamshire 3. 224* 196. 310. 316. 341. 387. 430. 455. 457. 479 488 489 Bugbrook 479 Bullocks-Hill 430 Burlington 307 Burnt-Island 276* Burroby 57.
the Love of God and in his Righteousness that will preserve you above all Changeable Spirits that be foul and unclean and that dwell not in the Truth but in Quarrels Avoid such and keep your Habitations in the Truth and dwell in the Truth and in the Word of God by which ye are reconciled to God And keep your Meetings in the Name of Jesus Christ that never fell and then ye will see over all the Gatherings of Adam's Sons and Daughters you being Met in the Life over them all in which is your Vnity and Peace and Fellowship with God and one with another in the Life in which ye may enjoy God's Presence among you So remember me to all Friends in the everlasting Seed of God And all they that are gotten into Fellowship in outward things their Fellowship will corrupt and rot and wither away Therefore live in the Gospel the Power of God which Power of God the Gospel was before the Devil was And this Fellowship in the Gospel the Power of God is a Mystery to all the Fellowships in the World So look over all outward Sufferings and look at the Lord and the Lamb who is the First and Last the Amen in whom farewell G. F. Lancaster Assizes In the Sixth Month the Assizes were held again at Lancaster and the same Judges Twisden and Turner came that Circuit again but Judge Turner then sate on the Crown-Bench and so I was brought before him But before I was called to the Bar I was put among the Murderers and Fellons for about the space of two hours the People the Justices and the Judge also gazing upon me After they had Tried several others they called me to the Bar and impanneled a Jury And then the Judge asked the Justices Whether they had tendered me the Oath at the Sessions And they said They had Then he bid Give them the Book that they might swear they had tendered me the Oath according to the Indictment Some of the Justices refused to be Sworn but the Judge said he would have it done to take away all Occasion of Exception Now when the Jury were sworn and the Justices had sworn That they had tendered me the Oath according to the Indictment then the Judge asked me Whether I had not refused the Oath at the last Assizes I said I never took Oath in my Life and Christ the Saviour and Judge of the World said Swear not at all The Judge seemed not to take notice of my Answer but asked me Whether or no I had not refused to take the Oath at the last Assize I said The Words that I then spake to them were That if they could prove either Judge Justices Priest or Teacher that after Christ and the Apostle had forbidden Swearing they commanded that Christians should Swear I would Swear The Judge said He was not at that time to dispute whether it was lawful to Swear but to Inquire whether I had refused to take the Oath or no. I told him Those things mentioned in the Oath as Plotting against the King and owning the Pope's or any other Forreign Power I utterly deny Well said he You say well in that but did you deny to take the Oath What say you What would'st thou have me to say said I for I have told thee before what I did say Then he asked me If I would have these Men to Swear that I had taken the Oath I asked him ' If he would have those Men to Swear that I had refused the Oath At which the Court burst out into Laughter I was grieved to see so much Lightness in a Court where such Solemn Matters are handled and thereupon asked them If this Court was a Play-house Where is Gravity and Sobriety said I 1664. Lancaster Assizes for this Behaviour doth not become you Then the Clerk read the Indictment and I told the Judge I had something to speak to it for I had Informed my self of the Errors that were in it He told me He would hear me afterward any Reasons that I could alledge why he should not give Judgment Then I spake to the Jury and told them That they could not bring me in Guilty according to that Indictment for the Indictment was wrong laid and had many gross Errors in it The Judge said I must not speak to the Jury but he would speak to them and he told them I had denied to take the Oath at the last Assizes and said he I can tender the Oath to any Man now and Premunire him for not taking it And he said They must bring me in Guilty seeing I refused to take the Oath Then said I what do ye do with a Form Ye may throw away your Form then And I told the Jury it lay upon their Consciences as they would answer it to the Lord God before his Judgment-Seat Then the Judge spake again to the Jury and I bid him do me Justice So the Jury brought me in Guilty Whereupon I told them That both the Justices and they too had forsworn themselves and therefore they had small cause to laugh as they did a little before Oh the Envy and Rage and Malice that was there against me and the Lightness But the Lord confounded them and they were wonderfully stopt So they set me aside and called up Margaret Fell who had a great deal of good Service amongst them and then the Court brake up near the Second Hour In the Afternoon we were brought up again to have Sentence passed upon us And Margaret Fell desired that Sentence might be deferred till the next Morning I desired nothing but Law and Justice at his hands for the Thieves had Mercy Only I desired the Judge to send some to see my Prison which was so bad they would put no Creature they had in it and I told him that Col. Kirby who was then on the Bench said I should be locked up and no Flesh alive should come to me The Judge shook his Head and said When the Sentence was given he would leave me to the favour of the Jailer Now most of the Gentry of the Country were gathered together expecting to hear the Sentence and the Noise among the People was That I should be Transported But they were all crossed at that time for the Sentence being deferred till next Morning I was had back as I came to Prison again Upon my complaining of the badness of my Prison some of the Justices with Col. Kirby went up to see it But when they came to it they durst hardly go into it the Floor was so bad and dangerous and the place so open to Wind and Rain and some that came up said Sure it was a Jakes-house When Col. Kirby saw it and heard what others said of it he excused the matter as well as he could and said I should be removed from that place ere it was long to some more convenient place Next day towards the Eleventh Hour we were called forth