to the Justification and Salvation of the Righteous which of the Lord is to turn the sons of men from ungodliness now after this long night of Apostacy and also as it were to awaken the eternal Light of our Lord Jesus which is the witness of God in every conscience yea and to answer the same in all men which is to guide Nations the Sons and Daughters of men into all truth against which they have rebelled and from the same they are fallen by transgression And behold the Lord God that lives for ever as in the ancient dayes is doing this and much more and accomplishing his own work not according to mans way will or time in these latter dayes but as in the dayes of old is he provoking of Nations to jealousie to anger and to wrath by those which are not a people he is provoking them to anger and to wrath with a foolish Nation forasmuch as they have provoked him the everlasting Lord of Heaven and Earth to anger with their vanities for saith the Lord a fire is kindled in mine anger and it shall burn unto the lowest hell it shall consume the Earth with her increase and set on fire the foundations of the Mountains Listen ye great Mountains and inhabitants of the Earth what will become of you where will you hide or sly when your foundations is set on fire wherefore give ear ye lofty trees and strong oaks the Lords controversie is with you for saith he A fire is kindled in mine anger which will burn unto the lowest Hell mark that I will heap mischiefs upon them I will spend mine Arrows upon them they shall be burnt with hungâ—â— and destroyed with burning heat bitter destruction And friend as sure as God hath given thee breath know that so sure are we his Servants and Messengers freely given up into his hand to suffer his Will and Pleasure and to do the same in Earth as it is in Heaven as thou thy self prayest but it would be well if thy actions did not speak the contrary as certainly they do concerning this matter And behold the time will certainly come to pass that the true witness of the Everlasting Light in thy Conscience will answer to thy understanding that we are men of truth fearing God and sent of him and not of or by man whom thou hast so reproached and defied together with many more Alas poor man I pitty thee and as for my part I am honestly perswaded that King Charles whom thou calls Lord and Master would not have given forth such a ridiculous vile and reproachful Sentence against the guiltless an innocent harmless people as thou hast done under thy hand and seal peradventure in thy hast in a strange Land howso ever we pray the Lord that the same may not be laid to thy charge when thou hast most need of mercy if happily repentance unto life thou may witness and albeit we may freely forgive thee by what we do or may suffer because of thee yet we know that the Lord will not hold you guiltless after so clear a warning from his mouth that liveth for ever as you have had in your day that are guilty in the same thing and God Almighty will be clear of thee and so also will his Servant if in your sins you dye and therefore behold I yet cease not to cry Repent Repent And seeing that the Everlasting Lord and King of Eternal Life laid a necessity on me more especially to preform this service if Sathan hindred not and to try thee also and the English Nation together in Asia concerning the same for your good and not otherwise but behold how you have joyned together with one consent to reject and defie the same message of life and salvation through letting up the dark spirit of prejudice and evil surmisings against the Lord the Innocent and guiltless and thus to your greater condemnation have you been permitted by the everlasting God so far to have your own hearts desire and to expell the Friends and Messengers of Christ out of your Coasts or Borders once and again and not only so but as much as in you concerns not to suffer them to come within the extent of your Authority in the Turks Dominion in which you are as saith the Warrant but will you bear with me if I question with you saying what are they contrary to all men as a rebellious Generation said to the holy Apostles And what do they bear Testimony not for but against the World because the deeds thereof are evil and can they not neither receive the Honour and Glory of it nor give the same to any man according to the compleat example of their Lord and Master the life of man the true Christ for which end Christ is come in the flesh as he did many hundred years since who hath by his grace of life manifest in us freely redeemed us from the same vanities and pollutions which we witness and testifie against in others And will you blame me if I say what are not you of the same generation as Job saw rebel against the Light who know not the wayes thereof neither abide in the paths thereof Job 24.13 and Job 21. Alas poor men are you the men also that are without a good and noble understanding and are wise to do evil and hate to be reformed to discern between the pretious and the vile Alas for you yea woe and alas for you what have ye done cannot you smite upon your thigh and say on this wise how shall we account with the Lord of life of eternity for these things and much more when his mighty hand and the weight thereof you feel heavy upon your Consciences in the day that shall burn as an Oven according to the Prophesie of the Eternal Spirit by Mallachi Mal. 3. Behold and know ye O ye great men of the Earth ye high Mountains Strong Oakes and lofty Trees this I with a clean mind declare unto you if I be no more viz. that our Consciences are clear in the sight of God that lives for ever who with a pure eternal eye perfectly beholds the intents and uprightness of our hearts though hid from you concerning this service and the living testimony of life answereth in us to the same and therefore have I bouldness in the Truth to stand and also to write on this wise And again I say we are clear from the guilt which remains upon your Consciences And furthermore know ye that our service is so far accepted and we are also clear of the same in and by Jesus Christ our Lord and Master who moved us hereunto and sent us freely to and among you in the Turks Borders and Dominion the which by your actions its manifest ye would have stand but God Almighty hath otherwise determined with a notwithstanding and surely it would be well with you could you witness and savour the answer of a good Conscience the which in the truth
verily and certainly we do in the sight of God concerning this our service whether you believe the same or not its even so And again I say we are clear of your guilt and condemnation before the Lord God of Judgement the Judge of all and be it known unto you that he who sent us is true whose witnesses we are Albeit some of you as the same Generation in the daies of old contemptuously and maliciously said to him that he was mad and had a devil and what else yet we have in the Lord held fast our integritie in the Truth in Life and Conversation to confess him before men and bear his reproaches in the fellowship of his Sufferings following his harmless and compleat example as the Sons of God in the midst of a crooked and perverse Generation unto which we are called and are his living witnesses and testifie of his undefiled life manifest in us and that he also is arisen from the dead and liveth for ever in the everlasting Light the which is your condemnation and not salvation whatsoever you profess in words whilst you are found setting your selves against his appearance now in this second coming a quickning spirit who is the Lord from Heaven without sin unto salvation in his Friends and Messengers as who hath drawn so near you with his visitation of Salvation in such clouds of witnesses in and with his mighty pure power of holiness yet with them eyes that are Adulterated from his undefiled life and truth which cannot cease from sin with which you see therewith cannot you behold him who is and is to be glorified in his Saints and also admired in all them that believe who will certainly render vengeance as saith the Holy Scripture not onely on them that know not God but also on them that obey not the Gospel of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ the Light and Life of men who tasted death for every man and as certain he lighteth every man that cometh into the World to the end that all men in him who is the Light might believe and be saved by the Light who is the Author of Eternal Salvation not onely from sin which worketh guilt and condemnation but also from the wrath to come but wo will be to them that not onely withstand his Appearance his Truth and People who are not according but contrary to the World its Wayes Worships Honours and Glory Traditions and Lusts and herein neither enter your selves but also as much as in them is hinder others who are as it were ready to enter from going in but behold Publicant Harlots are and come to be converted and so to enter the Kingdom whilest men of high degree themselves are shut out And will you bear with me if I ask you saying Have you been at all careful and not forgetful to entertain strangers Or have you not wilfully and despitefully shut the same out of your remembrance And how have you obeyed the perfect Doctrine of the Gospel of God But what hath not Christ in his Friends in his Lambs and Messengers been as Strangers and Pilgrims Yea hath not he been as a Prisoner and Captive despised in and among you but how at all have you visited him or entertained him that beareth the iniquity and liveth for ever He right well knoweth and in the day of God so shall you and it may be well if the same will appear to your justification Poor men my heart pitieth you woe and alass for you but the Scripture not to your justification do we witness fulfilled And what if I say your unchristian-like dealing against us the same turns to us for a Testimony albeit we rejoyce not as your reward will be evil unto your selves but mourn over you and if this we did not witnesse in our integrity sure of all men most miserable should we be and as he saith who is the Resurrection and the Life viz If they have persecuted me they also will persecute you if they had kept my sayings they would keep yours also but these things will they do unto you why because they know not him that sent me saith Jesus John 15. And have ye not read these sayings Now I tell you before it come to pass that when it is come to pass you might believe that I am he Verily verily he that receiveth whomsoever I send receiveth me and he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me John 13. But consider have you received him or do you know what is the thing or whom you have rejected and defied in what you have done to them whom he hath assuredly sent whether you can believe the same or not And do you not know that he saith on this wise He that heareth you heareth me and he that despiseth you despiseth me and he that despiseth me despiseth him that sent me Luke 10.16 And do you think it had not been better your hand had been laid upon your month and to have manifested silence in the fear of the Lord rather then to have proceeded so far as this to your own hurt Woe and alas for you how can you truly say to the contrary in the Day of God and is it not your sins and your iniquities which keeps back good things from you And can you say that the words of our Living Testimony have been at any time against any thing that 's of the nature of God that 's Equitable and Just And what must all your strength and wisdom with what else you have be stirred up to keep up the strong holds of darkness its Works and Fruits even of the man of sin and Satans Kingdom is it not even so Bear with me if I ask you what ye think of such that were to depart from the presence of the King of Eternal life into everlasting fire with the Devil and his Angels who visited noâ— Christ though sick and in prison and when he was a stranger and naked took him not in neither cloathed him nor nourished him with either meat or drink when hungry and thirsty cold and naked but bowels of compassion was shut up such took him not in nay there is no room for the Babe of Glory in the Inn but a Manger where the beasts feed over him there the Virgins first born must lie Oh that any of you having ears to hear may hear but what think you will be the portion of such that not onely dease not to do such things to him in his Members but also speak all manner of evil against him and are not content therewith but he must be banished as a Rogue or Vagabond out of their Coasts and Borders whose carriage also must be as it is deemed and termed Ridiculous and capable to bring dishonour to a Nation because his Kingdom Honour and Glory is not of this World as some one saith being possessed with fear even as they were who said of him whom the Nations abhoreth viz. If we let him thus alone
Gods Truth for their eternal good freely albeit they hated us without cause as it befell our Lord and Master I also was moved in the fear of the Lord to write and give the Ambassadour an honest and true information of the intent of our hearts to the end he might be honestly warned of receiving any evil and false intelligence that he may not consent with the same nor with the ground of it to joyn or stretch forth his hand therewith against the Lord his Truth and innocent People THE Copy of the Letter is seen meet to be inserted here following seeing the same was made leight of and rejected as a thing of nought as many have done to their own hurt and condemnation namely O. C. and the many Parliaments in their dayes past in which the Eternal God tryed them what if I say to the uttermost before he smote and broke and shattered them to pieces as Potters Vessells and wherled them up and down as Clouds of Tempests and Darkness as it were from one end of the Land to the other in his sore displeasure in the sight of the Nations to the final destruction of many of them that turned the back Albeit they seemed to have their face towards the good Day of their Visitation from on High which they wofully sinned away and the just recompence of reward as a fruit of their own doings even in the sight of the Nations fell upon them as a weight too heavy for them to bear and as great judgements from the same Hand of God is reserved in store and is ready to be revealed and executed upon the Heads of them that walk in the same wayes and paths of unrighteousnesse which provokes the Lord to his Face I speak not on this wise to upbraid without the Fear of the Lord the generation that 's passed away and seems to be laid in the dust of the Earth but rather that the present generation of men of what Name or Denomination they were are or may be under that have but somewhat of the Fear and Zeal of the God of Truth in their Hearts thereby to be warned in their day and not to make the evil example of any to be so to them as evil to follow it nay but contrariwise which is so far acceptable to God for Sodom and Gomorah and the old World were and are evident examples of the sore displeasure of the Eternal God of vengeance to whom it peculiarly and properly belongeth and he will certainly repay Fury to his Adversaries and Recompence to his Enemies when he awakes and stirs up his strength as a MIGHTY ONE the KING the Lord of Hosts is his Name to bend his Bow and whet his glittering Sword he will cast up cut down and overturn and not spare to spend his Arrows of famine and destruction and let them fly with his outstretched Arm of strength to smite and strike into the Hearts of the double-minded so that his anger shall smoak in the fiery Zeal of his Eternal Majesty against such a one that being often reproved goeth on still in his iniquities he shall suddenly be destroyed and that without remedy as saith one in a certain place Prov. 29. yet the Nations of men may certainly understand that the most High holds forth his Eternal Name as he is the Lord God long suffering and of great goodness neither delighteth he in the destruction of any but rather in their return unto the Wisdom of the Just unto Eternal Life in it to live for ever and not to die in their sins for as he is the Light of Israel and his Holy One for a flame and a consuming fire to burn up Bryars and Thorns against the workers of Iniquity so is he a God of Judgement and blessed are all they that wait for his Salvation and put their trust in him he will shew them his Covenant and establish them in the same in which they shall not be confounded neither be ashamed nor yet shall any make them afraid but quietness and assurance for ever shall be their reward in Eternal Peace and Blessedness together with him and the Spirits of Just men made perfect on this wise my Soul in life breatheth and travels for the Restauration of all things into the Glorious Liberty and Freedom of the harmless Sons of God Verily the Eternal love of my God that 's shed abroad within my heart it s much enlarged to stream forth Universally even to the whole Creation that travels in pain under the Bondage of Corruption over which mine eyes have poured forth many tears and in the brokennesse of my very heart have I dolefully Lamented and Mourned for the same but at present I am necessitated to proceed on to what is before mine eye as I have began concerning this little Treatise The Copy of the Letter FRIEND THy Everlasting Honour and Wel-being with the Lord and with the Spirits of just men our soul wisheth right well so peace be unto thee This is that thou may according to the Just Noble Principle of God in thee have a right understanding of somewhat of the Truth Innocency and Vprightness of our hearts who are the Servants of the One True and Living God and Father of all Truth and called by his grace of life which in our hearts we have received gladly to Declare to the Nations even the same grace that hath brought Salvation to us the same also that appeareth unto all men without respect of persons that they may be saved from the wrath to come by which grace of life I say we are called to peace and good will to all men as our Fathers were in the same to forsake the Pollutions of the World and our Native Country Kindred and Fathers House to do and suffer the will of God and keep his Commandments which are not grievous to us in the life of our Obedience to his Blessed Will who called and sent us into these parts whether the Sons of men believe us or not or hear or forbear And seeing the God of our Life hath blessed and prospered us hitherto in our journey we have the Living Testimony of the Spirit of Life witnessing to the same in our Consciences and to the Truth of what is here written unto thee And forasmuch as we understand from the Consul here that we shall not by him be admitted to pass further without thy advice or consent therefore have we freedom and in the fear of the Lord seen meet to let thee know somewhat from our hands as to the present service of our God whose Power Favour and life in his Covenant of Eternal Light and Peace we possesse Glory to his Name for which our lives are not dear unto us which are also in our hands to serve the Lord his Truth and People and to the end thou may not in any wise be as an Instrument to stop or let the work of God from going on by the hand of his Messengers and
all men will believe on him and the Romans will come and take away our Place and Nation And so had they not respect to their persons and places and outward vain Honour and Glory of their Nation which was and is to be defaced and brought into contempt more then to Christ the Light and saving Truth of all Nations and true Honour thereof and therefore justly condemned and there houses left desolate as the Holy Scriptures witnesseth but will you blame me yet if I ask you saying What will you condemn a hard-hearted Generation and justifie your selves whilest you are walking in the steps and doing the same things like the Gaderenes and unbelieving Jews in the dayes of Christ put it not far from you it s even so whether you hear or forbear wherefore out of your Coasts and Borders and else where the extent of your Authority or Dominion doth reach or extend must he the Lamb be expelled or banished Woe and alas for you woe and alas for you that know not what you do who shall bewail you when no hiding place will be found from his Eternal Light and Everlasting Wrath to hide Behold whether you hear or forbear how the Scriptures of Truth is fulfilled not to your justification as saith Christ our Lord and Master viz. in as much as ye did it not Concerning Receiving Visiting and Communicating to one of the least of these ye did it not unto me Mat. 23. and these shall go into Everlasting punishment but the Righteous into Life Eternal whom you have wilfully rejected and unjustly condemned and think not that this is to justifie our selves but the Grace of God which is our life and strength which of a truth we have gladly received and it s set up in our Hearts otherwise at this day we had not been but Glory Blessing and Salvation to the Lord our God over all Amen And will you bear with me yet a little if I proceed to query what is the Crimes that are or tend to be so Rediculous that 's so capable to bring dishonour to the Nation Was not Nicodemus a master in Israel somewhat Noble when he would not have the Law to judge a man before it hear him Doth our Law Judge a man before it hear him saith he and saith King AGRIPPA I would hear the man my self and it s well known what he was a Heathen termed who was so Noble in such a Matter as to hear the Accused as well as the Accusers And if thou O Ambassador for King Charles of Great Britane in the Turks Dominion hadest manifested the Nobility of a good understanding so Nobly in the first place before such a hasty sentence was given forth under thy Hand and Seal by thee to have suffered us to come and appeared before thee to the end that thou mightest have enquired honestly into the Nature and Ground of the Matter as a man of God in the place of Judicature and so according as thou hadst found us either Clear or Guilty of unjust Crimes which indeed are Ridiculous and tends to the Dishonour Destructiveness of a Kingdom or Nation then to have clered thy Conscience in laying the Sword in its due place as a terror to evil doers and not upon the head of the Innocent and Guiltless to whom he that bears the Sword of the Righteousness as a Minister of God should be a praise and our Bodies would also have been ready either to do or suffer accordingly but behold herein thou also hast been wanting and the Guiltless Cause thou hast not pleaded but contrariwise condemned the same and hereby they have suffered the more but the reproaches of Christ they esteem as great Riches though accounted they be even as the vilest off scouring of all things yet what is their Ridiculous Crimes what is it because they are scornfully called Quakers or because they are the Elect of God Redeemed from a vain Conversation and conform not to the Vanities Traditions Lusts and Customs of the World which are not of the Father of all Truth or is it because all men speak not well but evil of them and separate them from their Company as Christ Prophesied should befal them Luke 6.22 Mat. 10.22 or is it because they cannot Swear at all neither Lye nor Dissemble but speak the truth from the heart to every man in plainnesse without respect of Persons Nations or Places or is it because for Conscience sake and not in any evil surmising or contempt to any mans person they honestly wear their Hats as the rest of their plain and useful Garments and cannot receive neither give the honour that 's beneath the Son with flattering Titles either to themselves or to any man which is not contrary but according to the Perfect and Compleat Example of Christ their Lord and Master and Captain of Salvation who receives not honour from man and saith How can you believe which receive honour one of another Mat. 5 But I demand as a Christian in truth and indeed as a free born English man yet further what is the evil these that are so contrary to the World its Friendship Honour and Glory that they have at all done Or what are they guilty of that they are deemed so Ridiculous and so capable to bring Dishonour to a Nation who shall become a blessing to all Nations with a notwithstanding this and that which letteth that 's to be taken out of the way What must people believe Accusations to be true without instancing or making the Cause manifest to their understandings because its the pleasure of men of high degree to say they are so and so is this sufficient to stand before the God of Judgement and good men of understanding who have they been chargeable unto or who have they defrauded or have they eaten any mans bread for nought or wherein is their carriage Ridiculous or what is any manner of their Crimes or Behaviour or Deportment otherwise then Peace and Love that worketh no ill to its neighbour but good will to all men in Truth and Uprightness Temperence and Sobriety in Life and Conversation but what 's the matter with the Sons of men that they so burthen themselves with the Sons of Truth and blameless Servants of the Living God who do all things well in the Light through Christ the light that strengtheneth them let the Lords Witness the light in your Consciences arise to answer either to your Justification or Condemnation O ye men of England in Asia can you justly charge any evil against them let the same come forth and be manifest to the whole VVorld if Equity and Truth be on your side but if the savory Fruits of the Life of Eternal Righteousnesse in sound Doctrine with wholesom Communications that corrupteth not good manners with long-suffering meekness and gentleness of Christ brought forth by them who shine as lights in the world being redeemed from the vanities and evils thereof if these be the fruits
and manners or things ye call evil surely in so doing the same tends not to your justification and are these the Ridiculous Crimes that will bring dishonour to a Nation what will equity truth and uprightness and plainness of a heart temperance innocency and sobriety with savoury and wholesome Communications without guile fraud or deceit in life and good conversation doing the will of God from the heart in his fear and reverence and 〈◊〉 these the things that are deemed so Ridiculous and capable to bring Dishonour to the Nation to the King or his just Government or is it not the contrary even the hurtful lusts which men fulfil and walk after from whence wars and fightings ariseth together with evil Surmisings Strife and Debate and Violence and Spoile with flatterings and guile ariseth double-mindedness revealings pride of life and hypocrisie al arising from one and the same ground of iniquity in the Sons of men from whence also cometh so much Wasting Devouring and consuming the good Blessings and Creatures of God upon the ungodliness and hurtful lusts that wars against the Pretious and Immortal Soul and are not only hurtful and destructive to a man to his Body Soul Mind and Spirit but also to the greeving and provoking and wounding of the Just Eternal Lord God of Heaven and Earth and so becomes destructive also to a Family to a City to a Kingdom and Nation And what are not these and such like the noysom and unsavoury Fruits which is a shame to Christianity and utterly contrary to the most Wise Gentle Temperate Life of the Lord Jesus and his Saints upon Earth so frequently by the Apostate Christians and Christians by name only brought forth day by day among the Turks who excel many of them in uprightness steadfastness and temperance in things civil and in matters of communications and dealing between man and man to your condemnation who are guilty and so below them herein so that an ill savour hath ascended up to the Lord from the unwholesome conversation of the Christians by name and words out of the true Christians savoury meek gentle long-suffering life bringing forth contrary and unsavoury fruits and what are not these the things that is Ridiculous and also capable to bring dishonour to a Nation to God the King and to their own bodies and souls oppression men of clear understanding will not reject but consent and adhere to my Testimony by reason of such dishonourable fruits abounding in a strange Land among the Nations of men and thereby give occasion to them called Turks Heathens Jews and Infidels and what others among you not to win them to the most holy Faith of Gods elect but contrariwise to abide in their brutishness hardness of heart and infidelity and unbelief and not only so but also to blaspheme and dishonour the Lord God of Eternal Life and his Worthy Name by which ye are called and also to reject and defie both you and your Religion and Christianity in the generall Oh how often my very heart hath been grieved and my soul oppressed and wounded in me many a time from time to time yea over the men of my own Nation have I wept and mourned whilst they have magnified themselves in the pleasures of unrighteousness against their own souls and the people of the Lord of hosts my God knoweth because of these things And oh our Souls hath been wounded grieved and vexed from time to time and pressed down in us day by day even as truly as the soul of righteous Lot was in Sodom because of the unsavoury and unfruitful words and works of darkness brought forth by the Apostate Christians of all sorts among the Turks Oh the pride of life Oh the vanities Oh the excess and superfluites of noughtiness abounding together with flattery deceit and double-mindedness that abounds and superabounds among and over the false Christians which keeps back the Heavenly distillings of the early and latter rain from on high that the same desends not to reach to the lower parts of the Earth where the poor prisoners of hope and exiled captives are shut up but have any of you an ear to hear or eyes to see what 's the matter that hinders Stops the blessings of eternity by resisting that which is holy which checks and reproves for sin evil and vanity in your selves and others the same good thing is freely given of God to guide you and all men into all truth and from the contrary in which the false Christians excels the Turks even in unrighteousness and I am as it were constrained to write on this wise to their shame yet in love if happily the same may tend to their Salvation from the contrary effect and ground of oppression with its fruits so that they hereby have provoked the Eternal God of mercy and judgement not a little and have caused his anger to wax hot and to burn like a consuming fire against the root and ground of iniquity raigning in and over the Sons and Daughters of men and his wrath and sore displeasure from Heaven in the eternal Light is revealed against the same together with the vessels of wrath fitted for destruction and many of you may feel the same not to your justification or salvation who have been such an ill savour to the Lord and his Friends and crucifie his meek sweet and temperate life even of the Lamb the Light our Lord Jesus Christ day by day as if every day were a day of slaughter so that the noysome corrupt fruits which are not meet for repentance are a noy some smell even among the Turks as I have truly said and many of you will find it so in one day notwithstanding God eternal time after time hath not been wanting with visitations in visiting you both with judgemens and mercies yet may it not be said for all this will they not learn righteousness but rather wax worse and worse and are ready to say who shall reprove or be Lord over us and to the most high as them that rebel against the Light did saying depart from us for we desire not the knowledge of thy wayes but to take pleasure not in the Truth but in unrighteousnes whose reward must be according to the unfruitful works of darkness and God Almighty may yet plead with you concerning these things and happily to try you yet more Messengers of Righteousness may he send to visit you together with the Jews Turks and Heathens that if happily your end may be peace and not otherwise which we chiefly seek and travel in love and good will for the same whether you will hear or forbear either to your eternal salvation or condemnation But will you not count me your Enemy and despise me If I in the truth tell you the truth saying misery and destruction oppression with hard-heartednesse is yet in your wayes take heed and beware least the same arise up so high and at last overcome you to eternal perdition and
and whether you hear or forbear the Scripture do I witness fulfilled in me in the answer of a Good Conscience according to the Compleat and Perfect Example of my Lord and Master whom I Fear and follow and serve in the Fellowship of his Reproaches Sufferings in the Gospel Life and Peace viz. The Lord God hath opened mine ear Blessed be his Glory Amen and I was not Rebellious against him neither turned away back I gave my back to the smiter and my check to them that plucked off the Hair I hid not my face from shame and spitting my God knoweth right well in obedience to his will the same is done being called to the Fellowship of the same Sufferings and Glory of Gods Lamb and to indure the contradictions of ungodly sinners as he did yea the Lord God will help me therefore shall I not be confounded thou hast made my face like a â—line and I know that I shall not be ashamed he is near that justifieth who shall contend with me Behold all ye that kindle a fire and compass your selves about with sparks of your own kindling walk in the light of your fire and in the sparks that ye have kindled this shall ye have of my hand ye shall lie down in sorrow This following was sent in a Letter from the English Consul at Grand Caire to an English Merchant in Legorne in Italy concerning Henry Fell and John Stubs SIR I Forgot to advise you how that the Quakers at their departure going down to the Marine did throw Pamphlets about the Streets in â—atine Hebrew and Arabique which might have set them a burning had they stayed a little longer Therefore I beseech you if you hear hereafter of any such people that intend to come this way to prevent them what you can for they may do me a great prejudice Rich. Bendish Grand Caire 20th Septem 1661. A Loving Visitation tendred to the English Merchants in Genoa who received it not Friends Read and Honestly consider with the Spirit of Moderation for whether you will hear or forbear this is that you may well understand that in the first place THE most Holy Faith of Gods Elect without which its impossible to please God it s not of that Nature to Respect Persons neither to give flattering Titles to any man which are of the vain inventions of vain man but to honour or well esteem all men in the Truth Fear and Reverence of God the which is to have the Peculiar and Supream Preheminence in every mans Conscience and so to rule over the whole Creation of God that the Eternal Blessing of the Invisible and Immortal God by Jesus Christ the True Light of the world may come upon all in the true Seed which is ordained to bruise the Serpents Head and to destroy the Devil and his unfruitful works of Darkness in man the which captivateth and defileth and also is destructive to the Creation over which the true Seed is to Rule who is the True Light which lighteth every man and is the Way the Life the Truth a manifestation of the same is in every man in Male and in Female it shines in darkness in man and the same would guide them out of and from every unjust way word thought and action yea and from all unequitableness into truth and uprightnesse wherein the Riches of Eternal Peace and Felicity may come and in the same be possessed within the heart of every particular even in the midst of the sons of men to the Glory of the Everlasting Fountain of Life from whence the true Property and pure nature of every good thing receiveth vertue to subsist according to the excellent and unsearchable wisdom and decree of the Divine Substance or Eternal Being of the Majesty of the Heavenly Power of the Everlasting Light who is the True and Living God over all blessed for ever Amen Now to the end that prejudice and evil surmisings which are not of God the Father of all Truth may be removed out of the minds of the men of my own Nation viz. English or any others that burthen themselves because I cannot give neither receive the honour of the world with its Ceremonies and flattering Titles either to my self or to any man and I am willing to testifie that it s not in any contempt to the persons which are the workmanship of the Eternal God of the sons of men but for Conscience sake that I use not the same as in times past and because I am well perswaded in the Grace of God and perfectly satisfied in the same measure in my own particular therefore in that love which thinks no evil I am moved to give forth some reasonable and true words to a good end as aforesaid which are not contrary to God neither to the example of just and honourable men nor to the Holy Scriptures of Truth which saith to the True Christians If you respect persons ye commit sin and are convinced by the Law as Transgressors saith the Apostle James James 2.9 And there is no respect of persons with the Lord who will judge righteously according to every mans work saith Peter 1 Pet. 1.17 And ye shall do no unrighteousnesse in judgement Thou shalt not respect the person of the poor nor honor the person of the Mighty mark that but in Righteousnesse shalt thou judge thy Neighbour saith the Lord Deut. 19.15 And I say unto you that for every idle word that men shall speak they shall give account thereof in the day of judgement for by thy words thou shalt be justifiâ—d and by thy words thou shalt be condemned saith Jesus Mat. 12.36 37. I testifie that the light of Christ Jesus in every mans Conscience will clearly shew or manifest to mans understanding what words thoughts and intentions are justifiable and what are also condemnable wherefore my spirit of life is ready to say Blessed is and shall the man be who suffereth his mind to be guided by the pure and true manifestation of the Eternal light which is of the Nature of God manifest within as it is written Rom. 1.19 20. 1 Cor. 12.7 For the manifestation of the Spirit which is true is given to every man to profit withall and they that profit not by the same shall certainly receive the unprofitable servants portion not to Salvation but contrariwise unto perdition which is the just reward of them which not onely reject the Truth and receive it not in the love of the same but also take pleasure in unrighteousness and so provoke the Lord to his Face and defie and condemn the just in themselves and the Generation of the Righteous also in the General but yee shall not walk in the manners of the Nations which I cast out before you saith God to the true Seed for they committed all these things and therefore I abhorred them saith the Lord Levit. 20. let not me I pray you respect the person of any neither let me give flattering
A CLEAR VOICE OF TRUTH Sounded forth And as an Ensign lifted up and displayed in answer to the proceedings of the Christians by name in Asia by way of Controversie and Expostulation together with Savoury and Wholesome Admonishments which may become of good use and profitable to all that read with a single eye and understand with an upright heart Also the same somewhat tends by way of gentle reproof to their hasty and unequitable proceedings against the Innocent Servants Messengers and living Witnesses of the Living and True God Yet with the tendernesse of an upright Heart and Spirit not onely of a free born English-man but also of a True Christian from the same hand it s principally directed to the Lord Embassador so called in Constantinople and to the English Company of Merchants and Factors in Smyrna with somewhat to the Merchants in Genoa tendred again by way of Visitation and that from God for them and others in Italy to consider and not reject to their own hurt Blessed are they which are persecuted for Righteousnesse sake for theirs is the Kingdâ—m of Heaven Mat. 5.10 Printed in the year 1662. AN EPISTLE TO THE READER THere is certainly a very Pretious Noble Royal Long-Suffering Seed of the Eternal God of Heaven and Earth the which in these latter dayes of our age since the long night of Apostacy from Christ and his Holy Apostles and Saints life to which the Eternal Arm of the Lord God is manifestly revealed unto eternal Salvation and perfect Redemption in and by the Light of the Lord Jesus the Immanuel who as truly lighteth every man as he tasted Death for every man that cometh into the World and this pretious Seed which is the Light that is sown for the Righteous * And the People become perfectly Righteous that believe in and obey the same light of Jesus and are thereby made partakers of the Righteousness and so of the same nature of God which comes to be revealed from faith to saith in Male and Female for which end the light which is the Seed is sown in the heart is the Light shines in darkness which comprehends not that which is the treasure in the earthen Vessel as a pearl hid in a field and is the good thing which can give the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ 2 Cor. 4.2 Pet. 2.19 Rom. 1.19 1 Cor. 6.2 Cor. 11. the same hath been visited from on high as a thing hid in obscurity in many under the Region and Shaddow of Death and Destruction so that it hath been quickned and revived mightily to the amazement and astonishment of Kindreds Nations Tongues and peoples because of the arm of the Lords Salvation with which he hath arisen in his Majesty and shaken terribly the Earth and Heavens also and made the Keepers of the strong Mans House to tremble and by his power of holiness to bind him and spoile his goods So that the everlasting Light hath sent his Word of Power into Jacob and it hath lighted upon Poor distressed Israel in whose house he the Lord God that Spirit hath promised to dwell in the midst for ever as in the Antient dayes and many of the Eternal Off-spring of Life which is the Light of men having gladly received the Word of Life not from man nor by man that shall dye but from his mouth that was dead and is alive and behold he liveth for evermore that leads his Flock like a good Shepherd to Living Springs and Fountains which are as wells springing up into everlasting Life in them that believe as the Scripture hath said John 4. John 7.38.30 And these as Lambs among Wolves having the blessed Life and Salvation to Proclaim in Faithfulness travelling in their innocent integrity on this wise as our Brethren the Prophets and Fathers of old did from one Nation to another People Now why are the Nations angry and why do the Mighty and Potentates of the Earth combine and take Counsel together against the Lord and his Anointed Is it not because the Eternal God is provoking them to jealousie and to anger with a foolish Nation with them which are deemed not a People who are Poor Afflicted Despised Destressed on every hand yet not forsaken of the Lord their Rock their Strength Deut. 32. Now it came to pass that after the Lord God who formeth the Mountains and Createth the Wind which obeyeth him Amos. 4. last had given three more of my Brethren together with me a good passage from the Land of our Nativity to Italy namely to Legorne where two of us to wit John Stubs and Henry Fell was ordered of the Lord to passe from thence towards Alexandria and they became obedient and it came to pass also by the permission of God who suffered the men of our own Nation to Banish and expel them away from that Region and Coast where they gave a sound of the Mighty Day of Gods visitation and saith Christ as they have done unto me so will they do unto you c. The Gadarenes loved their Swine and besought Christ to depart out of their Coast and them that Rebel against the Light saith depart from us even to the most High for we desire not the knowledge of thy wayes Job 21. Job 24. 13 14. And furthermore my Dear Brother Richard Scostrope my Companion in Tribulation and in the Power of God by which we were also ordered having no imposition from any mortal man on our Consciences God is witness was ordained of God to pass Eastward towards Asia namely to Smyrna intending also to travel further if the Lord suffered not Sathan to hinder and behold when we came there having enjoyed the benefit of a good passage that the Merchants and Great men and others of our own Nation did not a little perplex and burthen themselves not only at our bodily presence but also with our faithful and true innocent and harmless message of life and glad tidings of Salvation to the Nations and verily they cannot deny but that our behaviour and deportment if they speak truth was such as we professed in Words and Doctrine in all good Conversation whilest we abode among them as examples in the manifold Dispensations of the grace of God Almighty to whom be the Glory over all Amen We being at our first coming sent for before the Consul of the Nation gave him a good and sober information of the intent of our hearts as God had ordered and determined in some measure to try them and he said that he must give account to the Lord Ambassadour and send tidings to Constantinople to him and he could not suffer us to pass further till he had received information in answer c. Now we saw not of our departure from Smyrna imediately and seeing that they did intend to write many of them being evil affected with prejudice and such like surmisings against us that loved them and travelled in the love and Spirit of