your Principle and then you will sell your Coat and buy a Sword and Fight for the Kingdom of Christ Answ As for this we say to you that Christ said to Peter Put up thy Sword in his place though he had said before he that had no Sword might sell his Coat and buy one to the fulfilling of the Law and Scripture yet after when he had bid him put it up he said He that taketh the Sword shall perish with the Sword And further Christ said to Pilate Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father and he shall presently give me more than twelve Legions of Angels And this might satisfie Peter Luke 22.36 after he had put up his Sword when he said to him He that took it should perish by it which satisfieth us Mat. 26.51 52 53. And in the Revelation it 's said He that kills with the Sword shall perish with the Sword and here is the Faith and the Patience of the Saints And so Christ's Kingdom is not of this World therefore do not his Servants Fight as he told Pilate the Magistrate who Crucified him and did they not look upon Christ as a Raiser of Sedition and did not he say Forgive them But thus it is that we are numbred amongst Transgressors and numbred amongst Fighters 1660. London that the Scriptures might be fulfilled That Spirit of Christ by which we are guided is not changeable so as once to command us from a thing as Evil and again to move unto it and we do certainly know and so testifie to the World That the Spirit of Christ which leads us into all Truth will never move us to Fight and War against any Man with outward Weapons neither for the Kingdom of Christ nor for the Kingdoms of this World First Because the Kingdom of Christ God will exalt according to his Promise and cause it to grow and flourish in Righteousness Not by Might nor by Power of outward Sword but by my Spirit saith the Lord Zech. 4.6 So those that use any Weapon to Fight for Christ or for the establishing of his Kingdom or Government both the Spirit Principle and Practice in that we deny Secondly We do earnestly desire and wait That by the Word of God's Power and its effectual Operation in the Hearts of Men the Kingdoms of this World may become the Kingdoms of the Lord and of his Christ that he might Rule and Reign in Men by his Spirit and Truth that thereby all People out of all different Judgments and Professions might be brought into Love and Vnity with God and one with another and that they might all come to witness the Prophets Words who said Nation shall not lift up Sword against Nation neither shall they learn War any more Isa 2.4 Mich. 4.3 So we whom the Lord hath called into the Obedience of his Truth have denied Wars and Fightings and cannot again any more learn it And this is a certain Testimony unto all the World of the Truth of our Hearts in this particular that as God perswadeth every Man's Heart to believe so they may receive it For we have not as some others gone about cunningly with devised Fables nor have we ever denied in Practice what we have professed in Principle but in Sincerity and Truth and by the Word of God have we laboured to be made manifest unto all Men that both we and our ways might be witnessed in the Hearts of all People And whereas all manner of Evil hath been falsly spoken of us we hereby speak forth the plain Truth of our Hearts to take away the occasion of that Offence that so we being Innocent may not suffer for other Men's Offences nor be made a Prey upon by the Wills of Men for that of which we were never Guilty but in the Uprightness of our Hearts we may under the Power ordained of God for the Punishment of Evil-doers and for the Praise of them that do well live a peaceable and godly Life in all Godliness and Honesty For although we have always suffered and do now more abundantly suffer yet we know that it 's for Righteousness sake For our rejoycing is this the Testimony of our Consciences that in Simplicity and godly Sincerity not with fleshly Wisdom but by the Grace of God we have had our Conversation in the World 2 Cor. 1.12 Which for us is a Witness for the convincing of our Enemies For this we can say to all the World we have wronged no Man's Persons or Possessions we have used no Force nor Violence against any Man we have been found in no Plots nor guilty of Sedition when we have been wronged we have not sought to revenge our selves we have not made resistance against Authority but wherein we could not obey for Conscience-sake we have suffered even the most of any People in the Nation We have been counted as Sheep for the Slaughter Persecuted and Despised Beaten Stoned Wounded Stocked Whipped Imprisoned Haled out of Synagogues cast into Dungeons and Noisom Vaults where many have died in Bonds shut up from our Friends denied needful Sustenance for many days together with other the like Cruelties And the Cause of all these our Sufferings is not for any Evil but for things relating to the Worship of our God and in obedience to his Requirings of us For which Cause we shall freely give up our Bodies a Sacrifice rather than disobey the Lord For we know as the Lord hath kept us Innocent so he will plead our Cause when there is none in the Earth to plead it So we in Obedience unto his Truth do not love our Lives unto Death that we may do his Will and wrong no Man in our Generation but seek the Good and Peace of all Men. And he that hath commanded us That we shall not Swear at all Matth. 5.34 hath also commanded us That we shall not Kill Matth. 5. So that we can neither Kill Men nor Swear for nor against them And this is both our Principle and Practice and hath been from the Beginning so that if we suffer as suspected to take up Arms or make War against any it is without any Ground from us For it neither is noâ— ever was in our Hearts since we owned the Truth of God neither shall we ever do it because it is contrary to the Spirit of Christ his Doctrine and the Practices of his Apostles even contrary to him for whom we suffer all things and endure all things And whereas Men come against us with Clubs Staves Drawn Swords Pistols cock't and do beat cut and abuse us yet we never resisted them but to them our Hair Backs and Cheeks have been ready But it is not an Honour to Manhoood or Nobility to run upon harmless People who lift not up an Hand against them with Arms and Weapons Therefore consider these things ye Men of Understanding For Plotters Raisers of Insurrections Tumultuous Ones and Fighters running with Swords Clubs Staves and Pistols one
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
for and shall be given by the Lord the Righteous Judge to all them that love his Appearance Ages to come and Peoples yet unborn shall call him Blessed and bless the Lord for raising of him up And Blessed shall we also be if we so walk as we had him for an Example for whom this Testimony lives in my Heart He liv'd and died the SERVANT of the LORD T. E. Advertisement FOrasmuch as many other Testimonies from divers Counties and Friends concerning George Fox and his Great Service for the Truth are sent up to London which cannot conveniently be printed with the Journal lest they should swell it too Bigg and many of them being of the same Import Therefore they are reserved for further Consideration to be disposed of as a future Service may be seen in the Wisdom of God for them when Way is made for his Epistles or any of his other Works to be published The Appearance of the Lord 's Everlasting Truth and Breaking forth again in his Eternal Power in this our Day and Age in ENGLAND WHerein the Lord 's mighty Power and Word of Life hath been Richly and Freely preached to the Gathering of many into Reconciliation with God by it to the Exaltation and Glory of the great God through the bringing forth of the Heavenly and Spiritual Fruits from such as have been Gathered by his Eternal Light Power and Spirit unto himself And by the Sowing to the Spirit in the hearts of People Life Eternal hath been Reaped That the Flocks have been Gathered which have the Milk of the Word plenteously That the Riches of the Word have flourished and mightily abounded and God's Heavenly Plow with his Spiritual Men hath gone on chearfully to the Overturning the Fallow Ground of the Hearts that had not borne Heavenly Fruit to God And God's Heavenly Threshers with his Heavenly Flail have with Joy and Delight Thresht out the Chaff and the Corruptions that have been a-Top of God's Seed and Wheat in Man and Woman And thus have they Thresht in Hope and are made Partakers of their Hope through which God's Seed is come into his Garner Oh! the Unutterable Glory and the Unexpressible Excellency of the Everlasting Glorious Truth Gospel and Word of Life that the Infinite Invisible and Wise God who is over all hath Revealed and Manifested And how have the Professors Priests and Powers risen up in Opposition against his Children that are born of the Immortal Seed by the Word of God! And Oh! how great have the Persecutions and Reproaches and Spoiling of Goods been that have been Executed upon them But they that have Touched them and Touches them which are as Dear to God as the Apple of his Eye how hath the Lord Manifested himself to stand by them in Overthrowing Powers Priests and States What Changes have there been since 1644 and 1650 and 1652 How have the Gaols been filled since then in this Nation with the Heirs of Life God's Chosen Ones who had no Helper in the Earth but the Lord and his Christ So that Truth 's Faithful Witnesses were scarcely to be found but in Gaols and Prisons where the Righteous were Numbred among the Transgressors who had neither Staff nor Bag from Man but the Staff the Bread of Life and the Bag that holds the Treasure that waxes not old But the Lord Jesus Christ that sent them forth was their Exceeding great Supporter and Upholder by his Eternal Power and Spirit both then and now G. F. THE PREFACE BEING A SUMMARY ACCOUNT Of the DIVERS Dispensations of God TO MEN FROM The Beginning of the World to That of our present Age by the Ministry and Testimony of his Faithful Servant George Fox as an Introduction to the ensuing Iournal DIVERS have been the Dispensations of God since the Creation of the World unto the Sons of Men But the Great End of all of them has been the Renown of his own Excellent Name in the Creation and Restauration of Man Man the Emblem of himself as a God on Earth and the Glory of all his Works The World began with Innocency All was then good that the good God had made And as he blessed the Works of his hands so their Natures and Harmony magnified him their Creator Then the Morning Stars Sang together for Joy and all parts of his Works said Amen to his Law Not a Jarr in the whole Frame but Man in Paradise the Beasts in the Field the Fowl in the Air the Fish in the Sea the Lights in the Heavens the Fruits of the Earth yea the Air the Earth the Water and Fire Worshipped praised and exalted his Power Wisdom and Goodness O Holy Sabbath O Holy Day to the Lord But this Happy State lasted not long For Man the Crown and Glory of the Whole being tempted to aspire above his place unhappily yielded against Command and Duty as well as Interest and Felicity and so fell below it lost the Divine Image the Wisdom Power and Purity he was made in By which being no longer fit for Paradise he was expelled that Garden of God his proper Dwelling and Residence and was driven out as a poor Vagabond from the presence of the Lord to wander in the Earth the Habitation of Beasts Yet God that made him had pitty on him for He seeing he was deceived and that it was not of Malice or an Original Presumption in him but through the Subtilty of the Serpent that had first fallen from his own State and by the Mediation of the Woman man 's own Nature and Companion whom the Serpent had first deluded in his infinite Goodness and Wisdom found out a way to Repair the Breach Recover the Loss and Restore fallen Man again by a Nobler and more Excellent Adam promised to be born of a Woman that as by means of a Woman the evil one had prevailed upon Man by a Woman also He should come into the World who would prevail against him and bruise his Head and deliver Man from his Power And which in a signal manner by the Dispensation of the Son of God in the Flesh in the fullness of Time was personally and fully accomplished by him and in him as Man's Saviour and Redeemer But his Power was not limitted in the Manifestation of it to that time for both before and since his blessed Manifestation in the Flesh He has been the Light and Life the Rock and Strength of all that ever feared God Present with them in their Temptations followed them in their Travels and Afflictions and supported and carried them through and over the Difficulties that have attended them in their Earthly Pilgrimage By this Abel's heart excelled Cains and Seth obtained the preheminence and Enoch walked with God It was this that strove with the Old World and which they rebelled against and which sanctified and instructed Noah to Salvation But the outward Dispensation that followed the benighted State of Man after his Fall especially among the Patriarcks was generally
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
is Invisible doth open you by his Invisible Power and Spirit and brings down the carnal Mind in you so the Invisible and Immortal things are brought to Light in you O therefore you that know the Light walk in the Light For there are Children of Darkness that will talk or the Light and of the Truth and not walk in it but the Children of the Light love the Light and walk in the Light But the Children of Darkness walk in Darkness and hate the Light and in them the earthly Lusts and the carnal Mind choke the Seed of Faith and that bringeth Oppression on the Seed and Death over them O therefore mind the pure Spirit of the Everlasting God which will reach you to use the Creatures in their right place and which iudgeth the Evil. To thee O God be all Glory and Honour who art Lord of all Visibles and Invisibles To thee be all Praise who bringest out of the Deep to thy Self O powerful God who art worthy of all Glory For the Lord who created all and gives Life and Strength to all is over all and Merciful to all So thou who hast made all and art over all to thee be all Glory In thee is my Strength Refreshments and Life my Joy and my Gladness my Rejoycing and Glorying for evermore So to live and walk in the Spirit of God is Joy and Peace and Life but the Mind going forth into the Creatures or into any Visible Things from the Lord this bringeth Death Now when the Mind is got into the Flesh and into Death then the Accuser gets within and the Law of Sin and Death that gets into the Flesh and then the Life suffers under the Law of Sin and Death And then there is straitness and failings For then the Good is shut up and then the Self-Righteousness is set a top and then Man doth work in the outward Law and he cannot Justify himself by the Law but is Condemned by the Light For he cannot get out of that State but by abiding in the Light and resting in the Mercy of God and believing in him from whom all Mercy doth flow For there is Peace in resting in the Lord Jesus This is the Narrow Way that leads to him the Life but few will abide in it Therefore keep in the Innocency and be obedient to the Faith in him And take heed of Conforming to the World and of Reasoning with Flesh and Blood for that bringeth Disobedience and then Imaginations and Questionings do arise to draw from Obedience to the Truth of Christ But the Obedience of Faith destroyeth Imaginations and Questionings and Reasonings and all the Temptations in the Flesh and Buffetings and lookings forth and fetching up things that are past But not keeping in the Life and Light and not crossing the Corrupt Will by the Power of God the Evil Nature grows up in Man and then Burdens will come and Man will be stained with that Nature But Esau's Mountain shall be laid waste and become a Wilderness where the Dragons lie But Jacob the second Birth shall be fruitful and shall arise For Esau is hated and must not be Lord but Jacob the second Birth which is perfect and plain shall be Lord for he is beloved of God G. F. I writ another Paper also much about the same time and sent it forth amongst the Convinced People as followeth THE LORD is KING over all the Earth Therefore all People praise and glorifie your King in the true Obedience in the Uprightness and in the beauty of Holiness O Consider in the true Obedience the Lord is known and an Understanding from him is received Mark and consider in silence in the Lowliness of Mind and thou wilt hear the Lord speak unto thee in thy Mind His Voice is sweet and pleasant His Sheep hear his Voice and they will not hearken to another And when they hear his Voice they Rejoice and are Obedient they also sing for Joy Oh their Hearts are filled with everlasting Triumph They sing and praise the Eternal God in Sion their Joy shall never Man take from them Glory to the Lord God for Evermore But many that had been Convinced of the Truth turned aside because of the Persecution that arose Whereupon I writ a few Lines for the Comfort and Encouragement of the Faithful thus COme ye Blessed of the Lord and Rejoice together Keep in Unity and Oneness of Spirit Triumph above the World Be joyful in the Lord reigning above the World and above all things that draw from the Lord that in Clearness Righteousness Pureness and Joy you may be preserved to the Lord. O hear O hearken to the Call of the Lord and come out of the World and keep out of it for evermore And come Sing together ye Righteous Ones the Song of the Lord the Song of the Lamb which none can learn but they who are Redeemed from the Earth and from the World Now while I was in the House of Correction my Relations came to see me and being troubled for my Imprisonment they went to the Justices that cast me into Prison and desired to have me home with them offering to be bound in One hundred Pounds and others of Darby in fifty Pounds a piece with them that I should come no more thither to declare against the Priests So I was had up before the Justices and because I would not consent that they or any should be bound for me for I was Innocent from any Ill Behaviour and had spoken the Word of Life and Truth unto them Justice Bennet rose up in a rage and as I was kneeling down to Pray to the Lord to forgive him he ran upon me and struck me with both his Hands Crying Away with him Jailer Take him away Jailer Whereupon I was had back again to Prison and there kept until the time of my Commitment for Six Months was Expired But I had now the Liberty of walking a Mile by my self which I made use of as I felt freedom And sometimes I went into the Market and Streets and warned the People to Repent of their Wickedness and so returned to Prison again And there being Persons of several sorts of Religion in the Prison I sometimes went and visited them in their Meetings on the First-days After I had been before the Justices and they had required Sureties for my good Behaviour which I could not Consent should be given to blemish my Innocency It came upon me to write to the Justices again which I did as followeth Friends SEE what it is in you that doth Imprison and see who is Head in you and see if something do not Accuse you Consider you must be brought to Judgment Think upon Lazarus and Dives the one fared sumptuously every day the other a Beggar And now you have time prize it while you have it Would you have me to be bound to my Good Behaviour I am bound to my Good Behaviour And do Cry for Good Behaviour
Priests came up to me and I warned them to Repent One of them said I was Mad and so they turned away But many People were Convinced there that day and were glad at the hearing of the Truth declared and received it with Joy Amongst these was one called Captain Ward who received the Truth in the love of it and lived and dyed in it Westmorland Firbank-Chappel The next First-day I came to Firbank-Chappel in Westmorland where Francis Howgill before named and one John Audland had been preaching in the Morning The Chappel was full of People so that many could not get in And Francis Howgill said He thought I lookt into the Chappel and his Spirit was ready to fail the Lord's Power did so surprize him But I did not look in They made haste and had quickly done at that time and they and some of the People went to their Dinners but abundance stay'd till they came again Now John Blakelin and others came to me and desired me not to Reprove them publickly for they were not Parish-Teachers but pretty Tender Men. I could not tell them whether I should or no though I had not at that time any Drawings to declare publickly against them but I said They must leave me to the Lord's Movings So while the others were gone to Dinner I went to a Brook and got me a little Water and then came and sate down on the Top of a Rock hard by the Chappel In the Afternoon the People gathered about me with several of their Preachers it was judged there were above a Thousand People amongst whom I declared God's everlasting Truth and Word of Life freely and largely for about the space of three Hours directing all to the Spirit of God in themselves that they might be turned from the Darkness to the Light and believe in it that they might become the Children of it and might be turned from the Power of Satan which they had been under unto God and by the Spirit of Truth might be led into all Truth and sensibly understand the words of the Prophets and of Christ and of the Apostles and might all come to know Christ to be their Teacher to instruct them their Counsellor to direct them their Shepherd to feed them their Bishop to oversee them and their Prophet to open divine Mysteries to them and might know their Bodies to be prepared sanctified and made fit Temples for God and Christ to dwell in And in the openings of the heavenly Life I opened unto them the Prophets and the Figures and Shadows and directed them to Christ the Substance 1652. Westmorland Firbank-Chappel Then I opened the Parables and Sayings of Christ and things that had been long hid shewing the intent and scope of the Apostles Writings how that their Epistles were written to the Elect. And when I had opened that State I shewed also the State of the Apostacy that hath been since the Apostles days how the Priests have gotten the Scripture but are not in that Spirit which gave them forth and have put them into Chapter and Verse to make a Trade of the Holy Mens Words And how that the Teachers and Priests now are found in the steps of the false Prophets Chief Priests Scribes and Pharisees of old and are such as the true Prophets Christ and his Apostles cried against and so are judged and condemned by the Spirit of the true Prophets and of Christ and of his Apostles and that none who was in that Spirit and guided by it now could own them Now there were many old People who went into the Chappel and looked out at the Windows thinking it a strange thing to see a Man preach on an Hill or Mountain and not in their Church as they called it whereupon I was moved to open to the People That the Steeple-house and the Ground whereon it stood was no more holy than that Mountain and that those Temples which they called the dreadful Houses of God were not set up by the Command of God and of Christ nor their Priests called as Aaron's Priesthood was nor their Tithes appointed by God as those amongst the Jews were but that Christ was come who ended both the Temple and its Worship and the Priests and their Tithes and all now should hearken unto him for he said Learn of me and God said of him This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased hear ye him So I declared unto them that the Lord God had sent me to preach the Everlasting Gospel and Word of Life amongst them and to bring them off from all these Temples Tithes Priests and Rudiments of the World which had gotten up since the Apostles days and had been set up by such as had erred from the Spirit and Power that the Apostles were in Very largely was I opened at this Meeting and the Lord 's Convincing Power accompanied my Ministry and reached home unto the Hearts of the People whereby many were Convinced that day and all the Teachers of that Congregation who were many were Convinced of God's everlasting Truth that day After the Meeting was over I went to John Audland's and from thence to Preston-Patrick-Chappel Preston-Patrick-Chappel where a great Meeting was appointed to which I went and had a large opportunity amongst the People to preach the Everlasting Gospel to them opening to them as to others on the like occasion that the End of my coming into that Place was not to hold it up no more than the Apostles going into the Jewish Synagogues and Temple was to uphold those But to bring them off from all such things as the Apostles brought the Saints of old from off the Jewish Temple and Aaron's Priesthood that they might come to witness their Bodies to be the Temples of God and Christ in them to be their Teacher 1652. Kendal From this Place I went to Kendal where a Meeting was appointed in the Town-Hall in which I declared the Word of Life amongst the People shewing them How they might come to the saving knowledge of Christ and to have a right Understanding of the Holy Scriptures and opening to them what it was that would lead them into the way of Reconciliation with God and what would be their Condemnation After the Meeting I stay'd a while in the Town and several were Convinced there and many appeared loving One whose Name was Cock met me in the Street and would have given me a Roll of Tobacco for People then were much given to smoking Tobacco I accepted his love but did not receive the Tobacco Under-barrow From thence I went to Vnder-barrow to one Miles Bateman's and several People going along with me great Reasonings I had with them especially with Edward Burrough At Night the Priest came and many Professors to the House and a great deal of Disputing I had with them Supper being provided for the Priest and the rest of the Company I had not freedom to eat with them
but told them If they would appoint a Meeting for the next day at the Steeple-house and acquaint the People with it I might meet them They had a great deal of Reasoning about it some being for it and some against it In the Morning I walked out after I had spoken again to them concerning the Meeting and as I walked upon a Bank by the House there came several poor People Travellers asking Relief who I saw were in Necessity and they gave them nothing but said they were Cheats It grieved me to see such hard-heartedness amongst Professors whereupon when they were gone in to their Breakfast I ran after the Poor People about a quarter of a Mile and gave them some Money Mean while some of them that were in the House coming out again and seeing me a quarter of a Mile off said I could not have gone so far in such an Instant if I had not had Wings Hereupon the Meeting was like to have been put by for they were filled with such strange Thoughts concerning me that many of them were against having a Meeting with me I told them I ran after those poor People to give them some Money being grieved at their hard-heartedness who gave them nothing Then came Miles and Stephen Hubbersty and they being more simple-hearted Men would have the Meeting held So to the Chappel at Vnder-barrow I went and the Priest came and a great Meeting there was and the Way of Life and Salvation was opened and after a while the Priest fled away And many of Crook and Vnder-barrow were Convinced that day and received the Word of Life and stood fast in it under the Teaching of Christ Jesus Now after I had declared the Truth to them for some Hours and the Meeting was ended the Chief-Constable and some other Professors fell to Reasoning with me in the Chappel-Yard Whereupon I took a Bible and opened to them the Scriptures and dealt tenderly with them as one would do with a Child And they that were in the Light of Christ and Spirit of God knew when I spake Scripture though I did not mention Chapter and Verse after the Priest's Form unto them From hence I went along with an ancient Man 1652. Under-barrow whose Heart the Lord had opened and he invited me to his House His Name was James Dickinson He was Convinced that day and received the Truth and lived and died in it From his House I came the next day to James Taylor 's of Newton in Cartmell in Lancashire And on the First-day of the Week Lancashire Newton in Cartmell I went to the Chappel wheâ—e one Priest Camelford used to preach and after he had done I began to speak the Word of Life to the People But this Priest Camelford was in such a Rage and did so fret and was so peevish that he had no patience to hear but stirred up the rude Multitude and they rudely haled me out and struck and punched me and threw me Headlong over a Stone-Wall yet blessed be the Lord his Power preserved me He that did this Violence to me was a wicked Man one John Knipe whom afterwards the Lord cut off But there was a Youth in the Chappel writing after the Priest and I was moved to speak to him and he came to be Convinced and received a part of the Ministry of the Gospel His Name was John Brathwait Then went I up to an Ale-house whither many People resorted betwixt the time of their Morning and Afternoon-Preaching and I had a great deal of Reasoning with the People there declaring to them That God was come to Teach his People himself and to bring them off from all false Teachers such as the Prophets Christ and the Apostles cryed against And many received the Word of Life at that time and abode in it In the Afternoon I went about two or three Miles to another Steeple-house or Chappel called Lyndal And when the Priest had done I spake to him and the People what the Lord commanded me and there were great Opposers but afterwards they came to be Convinced After this I went to one Captain Sands who with his Wife seemed somewhat affected with Truth and if they could have held the World and Truth together they would have received it but they were Hypocrites and he a very Chaffy light Man Wherefore I reproved him for his Lightness and for his Jesting telling him It was not seemly in a great Professor as he was Thereupon he told me He had a Son who upon his Death-bed had also reproved him for it and warned him of it But he neither regarded the Admonition of his dying Son nor the Reproofs of God's Spirit in himself From hence I went to Vlverstone Ulverstone Swarthmore and so to Swarthmore to Judge Fell's whether came up one Lampitt a Priest who I perceived had been and still was an high Notionist With him I had a great deal of Reasoning for he would talk of high Notions and Perfection and thereby deceived the People He would have owned me but I could not own nor join with him he was so full of Filth He said He was above John and made as though he knew all things But I told him Death reigned from Adam to Moses and that he was under Death and knew not Moses for Moses saw the Paradise of God but he knew neither Moses nor the Prophets nor John For that crooked and rough Nature stood in him and the Mountain of Sin and Corruptions and the Way was not prepared in him for the Lord. 1652. Swarthmore He confessed he had been under a Cross in things but now he could sing Psalms and do any thing I told him Now he could see a Thief and join Hand in Hand with him But he could not preach Moses nor the Prophets nor John nor Christ except he were in the same Spirit that they were in Now Margaret Fell had been abroad in the Day-time and at Night her Children told her that Priest Lampitt and I had dis-agreed which did some-what trouble her because she was in a Profession with him but he hid his dirty Actions from them At Night we had a great deal of Reasoning and I declared the Truth to her and her Family The next day Lampitt came again and I had a great deal of Discourse with him before Margaret Fell who then clearly discerned the Priest and a Convincement of the Lord's Truth came upon her and her Family Within a day or two there was a day to be observed for an Humiliation and Margaret Fell asked me to go with her to the Steeple-house at Vlverstone Ulverstone for she was not wholly come off from them I replied I must do as I am ordered by the Lord. So I left her and walked into the Fields and the Word of the Lord came to me saying Go to the Steeple-house after them When I came the Priest Lampitt was singing with his People But his Spirit was so foul
Robinson spake so much in Commendation of amongst many of the Parliament Men I told him I had been with Justice Robinson and with Justice Hotham in Yorkshire who were very Civil and Loving to me and that they were Convinced in their Judgments by the Spirit of God that the Principle which I bore Testimony to was the Truth and they did see over and beyond the Priests of the Nation So that they and many others were now come to be wiser than their Teachers After we had discoursed a pretty Time together Judge Fell himself was satisfied also and came to see by the Openings of the Spirit of God in his Heart over all the Priests and Teachers of the World and did not go to hear them for some Years before he died for he knew it was the Truth that I declared and that Christ was the Teacher of his People and their Saviour And he would sometimes wish that I were a while with Judge Bradshaw to discourse with him There came to Judge Fell's that Captain Sands before-mentioned endeavouring to Incense the Judge against me for he was an evil-minded Man and full of Envy against me And yet he could speak high things and use the Scripture-words and say Behold I make all things new But I told him Then he must have a New God for his God was his Belly Besides him thither came also that envious Justice John Sawrey And I told him His Heart was rotten and he was full of Hypocrisy to the Brim Several other People also came whose States the Lord gave me a discerning of and I spake unto their Conditions And while I was in those Parts Richard Farnsworth and James Naylor came thither to see me and the Family and Judge Fell being satisfied that it was the Way of Truth notwithstanding all their Opposition let the Meeting be kept at his House And a great Meeting was settled there in the Lord's Power to the tormenting of the Priests and Professors which hath continued there near Forty Years until the Year 1690. that a New Meeting-house was erected near it Now after I had stay'd a while Underbarrow and the Meeting there was well settled I departed from thence and went to Vnderbarrow where I had a great Meeting From thence I went to Kellet Kellet and had a great Meeting at Robert Withers to which several came from Lancaster and some from York and many were Convinced there Then on the Market-day I went to Lancaster Lancaster and spake through the Market in the dreadful Power of God declaring the Day of the Lord to the People and crying out against all their deceitful Merchandize And I preached Righteousness and Truth unto them which they should all follow after and walk and live in directing them how and where they might find and receive the Spirit of God to guide them there-into After I had cleared my self in the Market I went to my Lodging whither several People came to me and many were Convinced there who have stood faithful to the Truth On the First-Day following in the Forenoon I had a great Meeting in the Street at Lancaster amongst the Souldiers and People unto whom I declared the Word of Life and the Everlasting Truth And I opened unto them That all the Traditions they had lived in and all their Worships and Religions and the Profession they made of the Scriptures was good for nothing while they lived out of the Life and Power which they were in who gave forth the Scriptures And I directed them to the Light of Christ the heavenly Man and to the Spirit of God in their own Hearts that they might come to be acquainted with God and with Christ and receive him for their Teacher and know his Kingdom set up in them In the Afternoon I went up to the Steeple-house at Lancaster and declared the Truth both to the Priest and People laying open before them the Deceits they lived in and directing them to the Power and Spirit of God which they wanted But they haled me out and stoned me along the Street till I came to John Lawson's House On another First-Day I went to another Steeple-house by the Water-side where one Whitehead was Priest to whom and to the People I declared the Truth in the dreadful Power of God And there came to me a Doctor who was so full of Envy that he said He could find in his Heart to run me through with his Rapier though he was hanged for it the next Day Yet this Man came afterwards to be Convinced of the Truth so far as to be loving to Friends And some People were Convinced there-abouts who willingly sate down under the Ministry of Christ their Teacher And a Meeting was settled there in the Power of God which has continued to this Day After this I returned into Westmorland Westmorland Kendal and spake through Kendal upon a Market-day And so dreadful was the Power of God that was upon me that People flew like Chaff before me into their Houses I warned them of the Mighty Day of the Lord and exhorted them to hearken to the Voice of God in their own Hearts who was now Come to Teach his People himself And when some Opposed many People took my part insomuch that at last some of the People fell to Fighting about me but I went to them and spake to them and they parted again And several were Convinced On the First-Day after I had a very large Meeting in Vnder-barrow at Miles Bateman's House where I was moved to declare That all People in the Fall were gone from the Image of God Righteousness and Holiness and were become as Wells without the Water of Life as Clouds without the heavenly Rain as Trees without the heavenly Fruit and were degenerated into the Nature of Beasts and of Serpents and of tall Cedars and of Oaks and of Bulls and of Heifers So that they might read the Natures of these Creatures within as the Prophet described them to the People of Old that were out of Truth I opened unto them how some were in the Nature of Dogs and Swine biting and rending some in the nature of Briars Thistles and Thorns some like the Owls and Dragons in the Night some like the wild Asses and Horses snuffing up the Wind and some like the Mountains and Rocks and crooked and rough Ways Wherefore I exhorted them to read these things within in their own Natures as well as without And that when they read without of the wandring Stars they should look within and see how they have wandred from the bright and Morning-Star And they should consider that as the Fallow Ground in their Fields must be plowed up before it would bear Seed to them so must the Fallow Ground of their Hearts be plowed up before they could bear Seed to God Now all these Names and Things I shewed them were spoken of and to Man and Woman since they fell from the Image of God but as
Life and Immortality to Light And the day of the Lord was come and Christ was come to teach his People himself by his Light Grace Power and Spirit A fine opportunity the Lord gave me to preach Truth among the People that day for about three hours time and all was quiet And Many hundreds were Convinced that day And some of them praised God and said Now we know the first step to Peace The said Preacher also said privately to some of his Hearers that I had broken them and overthrown them 1653. A Village After this I went to a Village and many People accompanied me And as I was sitting in an House full of People declaring the Word of Life unto them I cast mine Eye upon a Woman and I discerned an Vnclean Spirit in her And I was moved of the Lord to speak sharply to her and told her she was a Witch Whereupon the Woman went out of the Room Now I being a Stranger there and knowing nothing of the Woman Outwardly the People wondred at it and told me afterwards that I had discovered a great thing for all the Country looked upon her to be a Witch The Lord had given me a Spirit of discerning by which I many times saw the States and Conditions of People and could Try their Spirits For not long before as I was going to a Meeting I saw some Women in a Field and I discerned them to be Witches and I was moved to go out of my way into the Field to them and declare unto them their Conditions telling them plainly They were in the Spirit of Witchcraft At another time there came such an one into Swarthmore-Hall in the Meeting-time and I was moved to speak sharply to her and told her she was a Witch And the People said afterwards she was generally accounted so There came also at another time another Woman and stood at a distance from me and I cast mine Eye upon her and said Thou hast been an Harlot for I perfectly saw the Condition and Life of the Woman The Woman answered and said Many could tell her of her Outward Sins but none could tell her of her Inward Then I told her Her Heart was not right before the Lord and that from the Inward came the Outward This Woman came afterwards to be Convinced of God's Truth and became a Friend From the aforesaid Village we came up to Thomas Bewley's near Coldbeck Coldbeck and from thence having had some Service for the Lord there At a Market-Town I passed to a Market-Town where I had a Meeting at the Cross and all was pretty quiet and when I had declared the Truth unto them and directed them to Christ their Teacher some received the Truth Then we passed further and had another Meeting upon the Borders in a Steeple-house-Yard to which many Professors and Contenders came but the Lord's Power was over all and when the Word of Life had been declared amongst them some received the Truth there also Carlisle From thence passing on we came to Carlisle and the Pastor of the Baptists with most of his Hearers came to me there to the Abbey where I had a Meeting and declared the Word of Life amongst them and many of the Baptists and of the Souldiers were Convinced After the Meeting was done the Pastor of the Baptists being an high Notionist and a flashy Man came to me and asked me What must be damned I was moved immediately to tell him That which spake in him was to be damned This stopt the Pastor's Mouth and the Witness of God was raised up in him and I opened to him the States of Election and Reprobation so that he said He never heard the like in his Life He also came afterward to be Convinced Then went I up to the Castle among the Souldiers who beat a Drum and called the Garrison together And I preached the Truth amongst them Directing them to the Lord Jesus Christ to be their Teacher and to the measure of his Spirit in themselves 1653. Carlisle by which they might be turned from the Darkness to the Light and from the Power of Satan unto God And I warned them all that they should do no Violence to any Man but should shew forth a Christian-Life telling them that he who was to be their Teacher would be their Condemnation if they were disobedient to him So I left them having no Opposition from any of them except the Serjeants who afterwards came to be Convinced On the Market-day I went up into the Market to the Market-Cross Now the Magistrates had both threatned and sent their Serjeants And the Magistrates Wives had said That if I came there they would pluck the Hair from off my Head and that the Serjeants should take me up Nevertheless I obeyed the Lord God and went upon the Cross and there declared unto them That the day of the Lord was coming upon all their deceitful Ways and Doings and deceitful Merchandize and that they should put away all Cozening and Cheating and keep to Yea and Nay and speak the Truth one to another So the Truth and the Power of God was set over them And after I had declared the Word of Life to the People the Throng being so great that the Serjeants could not get to me nor the Magistrates Wives come at me I passed away quietly Many People and Souldiers came to me and some Baptists that were bitter Contenders amongst whom one of their Deacons being an envious Man and finding the Lord's Power was over them Cried out for very Anger Whereupon I set my Eyes upon him and spake sharply to him in the Power of the Lord and he cried Do not pierce me so with thy Eyes keep thy Eyes off me On the first day following I went into the Steeple-house And after the Priest had done I preached the Truth to the People and declared the Word of Life amongst them The Priest got away and the Magistrates desired me to go out of the Steeple-house But I still declared the VVay of the Lord unto them and told them I came to speak the word of Life and Salvation from the Lord amongst them The Power of the Lord was dreadful amongst them in the Steeple-house so that the People trembled and shook and they thought the Steeple-house shook and some of them feared it would have fallen down on their Heads The Magistrates VVives were in a Rage and strove mightily to have been at me but the Souldiers and friendly People stood thick about me At length the rude People of the City rose and came with Staves and Stones into the Steeple-house crying Down with these Round-headed Rogues and they threw Stones Whereupon the Governour sent a File or two of Musketeers into the Steeple-house to appease the Tumult and commanded all the other Souldiers out So those Souldiers took me by the Hand in a friendly manner and said They would have me along with them then When we came
received at thy Hands thou hast given us to understand And here thou may'st think thou hast made thy self secure and sufficiently barr'd up our Way of Relief against whom tho' thou knew'st we had done nothing contrary to the Law or worthy of Bonds much less of the Bonds and Sufferings we had sustained thou hast proceeded as hath been rehearsed notwithstanding that thou art as are all the Judges of the Nation Intrusted not with a Legislative Power but to Administer Justice and to do Even Law and Execution of Right to all High and Low Rich and Poor without having regard to any Man's Person and art sworn so to do as hath been said And wherein thou dost Contrary art liâ—ble to Punishment as ceasing from being a Judge and becoming a Wrong-doer and an Oppressor which what it is to be many of thy Predecâ—ssors have understood some by Death others by Fine and Imprisonment And of this thou may'st not be Ignorant that to deny a Prisoner any of the Priviledges the Law allows him is to deny him Justice to Try him in an Arbitrary Way to rob him of that Liberty which the Law gives him which is his Inheritance as a Freeman And which to do is in effect To subvert the Fundamental Laws and Government of England and to Introduce an Arbitrary and Tyrannical Government against Law which is Treason by the Common Law and Treasons by the Common Law are not taken away by the Statutes of 25 Edw. III. 1 H. IV. 1 2. m. See O. St. Johns now Chief Justice of the Common Pleas his Argument against Strafford fol. 65. c. in the Case These things Friend We have laid before thee in all plainness to the End that with the Light of Jesus Christ who lighteth every one that cometh into the World a Measure of which thou hast which sheweth thee Evil and reproveth thee for Sin for which thou must be accountable thou being still and cool may'st consider and see what thou hast done against the Innocent and shame may overtake thee and thou may'st Turn unto the Lord who now calleth thee to Repentance by his Servants whom for witnessing his living Truth in them thou hast Cast into and yet continuest under Cruel Bonds and Sufferings From the Gaol in Lanceston the 14th day of the 5th Month 1656. Edw. Pyot By the foregoing Letter the Reader may Observe how contrary to Law we were made to suffer But the Lord who saw the Integrity of our Hearts to him and knew the Innocency of our Cause was with us in our Sufferings and bore up our Spirits through and made them Easie to us and gave us Opportunities of publishing his Name and Truth amongst the People so that several of the Town came to be Convinced and many were made Loving to us and Friends from many Parts came to visit us There came Two out of Wales who had been Justices of the Peace there Also Judge Hagget's Wife of Bristol came to visit us and she was Convinced and several of her Children and her Husband was very kind and serviceable to Friends and had a great Love to God's People which he retained to his Death Now in Cornwall Devonshire Dorsetshire and Somersetshire Truth began mightily to spread and many were turned to Christ Jesus and his free Teaching for many Friends that came to Visit us were drawn forth to declare the Truth in those Countries which made the Priests and Professors rage and they stirred up the Magistrates to ensnare Friends Then they set up Watches in the Streets and in the High-ways on pretence of taking up all suspicious Persons under which Colour they stopt and took up those Friends that travelled in and through those Countries coming to visit us in Prison which they did that the Friends might not pass up and down in the Lord's Service But that which they thought to have stopt the Truth by was the Means of spreading it so much the more for then Friends were frequently moved to speak to one Constable and t'other Officer and to the Justices they were brought before and this caused the Truth to spread the more amongst them in all their Parishes And when Friends were got among the Watches it would be a Fortnight or three Weeks before they could get out of them again for no sooner had one Constable taken them and carried them before the Justices and they had discharged them but another would take them up and carry them before other Justices Which put the Country to a great deal of needless Trouble and Charges As Thomas Rawlinson was coming up out of the North to visit us a Constable â—o Devonshire took him up and at Night took Twenty Shillings out of his Pocket And after they had thus robbed him he was cast into Exeter-Gaol They cast Henry Pollexfen also into Prison in Devonshire for being a Jesuit who had been a Justice of Peace for the most part of Forty Years before Many Friends were cruelly beaten many times by them Nay some Clothiers that were but going to Mill with their Cloth and other Men about their outward Occasions they took up and Whipt though Men of about Eighty or an hundred Pounds by the Year and not above four or five Miles from their Families The Mayor of Lanceston too was a very Wicked Man for he would take up all he could get and cast them into Prison And he would search substantial grave Women their Petticoats and their Head-cloaths There came a Friend a Young-Man to â—ee us who came not through the Town So I drew up all the Gross Inhuman and Vnchristian Actions of the Mayor for his Carriage was more like an Heathen than a Christian and I gave it the Young Man and bid him Seal it up and go out again the back-way and then come into the Town through the Gates He did so and the Watch took him up and carried him before the Mayor who presently searched his Pockets and found the Letter wherein he saw all his Actions Characterized Which shamed him so that from that time forward he meddled little with the Servants of the Lord. Now from the sense I had of the Snare that was laid and Mischief intended against the Servants of the Lord in setting up those Watches at that time to stop and take up Friends it came upon me to give forth the following Lines as An Exhortation and Warning to the Magistrates ALL ye Powers of the Earth Christ is come to Reign and is among you and ye know him not who doth Enlighten every one of you that are come into the World that ye all through him might believe who is the Light who treads the Wine-press alone without the City whose Feet are upon it Therefore see all and examin with the Light what ye are Ripe for for the Press is ready for you Before Honour is Humility And all you that would have Honour before ye have Humility mark before ye have Humility are ye not as the Heathen are
tread over them in that which lets you see to the VVorlds End and the utmost Parts of the Earth Reign and Rule with Christ whose Scepter and Throne is now set up whose Dominion is over all to the Ends of the Earth whose Dominion is an everlasting Dominion Throne an everlasting Throne Kingdom an everlasting Kingdom Power above all Powers Therefore this is the Word of the Lord God to you all Keep in the wisdom of God that spreads over all the Earth the wisdom of the Creation that is Pure from Above not destructive For now shall Salvation go out of Zion to Judge the Mount of Esau and now shall the Law go forth from Jerusalem to Answer the Principle of God in all to hew down all Inventors and Inventions For all the Princes of the Earth is but as Air to the Power of the Lord God which you are in and have tasted of Therefore Live in it that is the Word of the Lord God to you all and do not Abuse it And keep down and Low and take heed of false Joys that will Change Bring all into the Worship of God Plow up the fallow Ground thresh and get out the Corn that the Seed the Wheat may be gathered into the Barn that to the Beginning all People may come to Christ that was before the VVorld was made For the Chaff is come upon the VVheat by Transgression he that treadeth it out is out of Transgression and fathoms Transgression and puts a difference between the precious and the vile and can pick out the Wheat from the Tares and gather into the Garner so brings to the lively Hope the Immortal Soul into God out of which it came And none worships God but who comes to the Principle of God which they have transgressed and none are plowed up but who comes to the Principle of God in him that he hath transgressed then he doth service to God then is the planting and the watering and the Increase from God cometh So the Ministers of the Spirit must minister to the Spirit that is in Prison which hath been in Captivity in every one that with the Spirit of Christ People may be led out of Captivity up to God the Father of Spirits and do service to him and to have Vnity with him with the Scriptures and one with another And this is the Word of the Lord God to you all and a Charge to you all in the presence of the living God Be Patterns be Examples in all Countries Places Islands Nations where-ever you come that your Carriage and Life may preach among all sorts of People and to them then you will come to walk Chearfully over the World Answering that of God in every one whereby in them ye may be a Blessing and make the Witness of God in them to bless you Then to the Lord God you will be a sweet Savour and a Blessing Spare no Deceit lay the Sword upon it go over it Keep your selves clear of the Bloods of all Men either by Word or Writing or Speaking and keep your selves clean that you may stand in your Throne and every one have his Lot and stand in the Lot in the Ancient of Days And so the Blessing of the Lord be with you and keep you over all the Idolatrous Worships and Worshippers let them know the Living God for Teachings Churches Worships must be thrown down with the power of the Lord God set up by Man's earthy Vnderstanding Knowledge and Wills For this all must be thrown down with that which gave forth Scripture and who be in that Reigns over it all That is the Word of the Lord God to you all In that is God Worshipped that brings to declare his Will and brings to the Church in God the Ground and Pillar of Truth for now is the mighty Day of the Lord appeared and the Arrows of the Almighty gone forth which shall stick in the Hearts of the Wicked Now will I Arise saith the Lord God Almighty to trample and Thunder down Deceit which hath long reigned and stained the Earth Now will I have my Glory out of every one The Lord God Almighty over all in his Strength and Power you keep to his Glory that you may come to Answer that of God in every one in the World Proclaim the mighty Day of the Lord of Fire and Sword who will be worshipped in Spirit and in Truth and keep in the Life and Power of the Lord God that the Inhabitants of the Earth may tremble before you That the Lord God's Power and Majesty may be Admired among the Hypocrites and Heathens and ye in the Wisdom Dread Life Terror and Dominion Preserved to his Glory that nothing may Rule or Reign but Power and Life it self and in the Wisdom of God ye may be preserved in it And this is the Word of the Lord God to you all and the Call is now Out of Transgression the Spirit bids Come and the Call is now from all false Worships and Gods and from all Inventions and dead Works to serve the living God and the Call to Repentance to the Amendment of Life whereby Righteousness may be brought forth which shall go throughout the Earth Therefore ye that be Chosen and Faithful which are with the Lamb go through your Work faithfully and in the Strength and Power of the Lord and be obedient to the Power for that will save you out of the Hands of unreasonable Men and preserve you over the World to himself hereby you may live in the Kingdom that stands in Power which hath no end where glory and life is For Tho. Mounts G. F. After the Assize the Sheriff with some Souldiers came to guard a Woman to Execution that was sentenced to die and we had a great deal of Discourse with them One of them wickedly said That Christ was as passionate a Man as any that lived upon the Earth for which wicked Saying we rebuked him Another time we asked the Jailer what Doings there were at the Sessions and he said Small Matters only about Thirty for Bastardy We thought it very strange that they who professed themselves Christians should make small Matters of such things But this Jailer was very bad himself and I often admonished him to Sobriety but he would Abuse People that came to Visit us Edward Pyot had a Cheese sent him from Bristol from his Wife and the Jailer took the Cheese from him and carried it to the Mayor to search it for Treasonable Letters as he said And though they found no Treason in the Cheese they kept it from us This Gaoler might have been made Rich if he had carried himself Civilly but he sought his own Ruin Which soon after came upon him For the next Year he was turned out of his Place and for some wickedness was cast into the Jail himself and there begged of our Friends And for some Vnruliness in his Carriage he was by the succeeding Jailer put into Doomsdale and
Wickedness where was Debate where was bowing down the Head like a Bulrush for a day lifting their Voice on high and the bonds of wickedness yet standing and the Burthens unloosed and the Oppressed not let go free and the Yoke not broken the Nakedness not cloathed the Bread not dealt to the Hungry and this foundation of many Generations not raised up until these things before-mentioned be broken down on such the Light breaks not forth as the Morning and the Lord hears them not And such have their Reward and their Iniquities have separated them from their God and their Sins have hid his Face from them that he will not hear and such their Hands are defiled with Blood and their Fingers with Iniquity whose Lips have spoken Lies and Tongues have muttered Perversness None calleth for Justice nor any Plead for Truth they trust in Vanity and speak Lies they conceive Mischief and bring forth Iniquity They hatch Cockatrice-Eggs and weave the Spiders-Web he that eateth of their Eggs dies and that which is crushed breaks out into a Viper their Webbs shall not become Garments neither shall they cover themselves with their Works Mark and take notice Their works are works of Iniquity and the Act of Violence is in their Hands Their Feet run to do evil and they make haste to shed innocent Blood Their Thoughts are Thoughts of Iniquity Wasting and Destruction are in their Paths the way of Peace they know not and there is no Judgment in their Doings They have made them a crooked Path whosoever goes therein shall not know Peace Mark Such go from the Light therefore is Judgment far neither doth Justice overtake And here is Obscurity and here is the walking in Darkness and here is the groping like blind Men as though they had no Eyes and their stumbling at Noon-day in the desolate Places like blind Men. And here is the roaring like Bears and mourning sorely like Doves and here Judgment is looked for but there is none and Salvation is put far off For the Light is denied which gives to see it But here the multiplying of Transgression and their Sins testifying against them and the Transgression that was within them and their Iniquities which they knew in transgressing and lying against the Lord speaking the things they should not when that they knew with that of God in them they should not speak it So departing from the way of God speaking Oppression revolting conceiving and uttering forth from the Heart words of Falshood here is Judgment turned away backward and Justice stands afar off Truth is fallen in the Streets and Equity cannot enter Yea Truth faileth and he that departeth from Evil makes himself a Prey Yea the Lord saw it and it displeased him These are such that are in the Fast which God doth not accept and are not in the true fast whose Light breaks forth as the Morning but these are such that be in the false fast who grope like blind Men. And that which gives to know the true fast and the false fast is the Light which is the Eye that gives to see each fast where the true Judgment is and the Iniquity standeth not nor the Transgressor nor the Speaker of Lies but that is judged and condemned with the Light which makes it manifest And who be in this fast when they call upon the Lord the Lord will answer them here am I and here Truth is pleaded for and Falshood flies away But who be out of this fast in the Perverseness Tongues uttering perverse things are stumbling and groping like blind Men which be from the Light in the Iniquity which separates from God who hides his Face from them that he will not hear going from the Light goes from the Lord and his Face So this is it which must be fasted from for this is it which separates from God and here comes the Reward openly which condemns all that before-mentioned which is contrary to the Light Injustice Iniquity Transgression Vanity and that which brings forth Mischief which hatcheth the Cockatrice-Eggs and weaves the Spiders Web he that eateth of these Eggs dies Mark That which is crushed breaks out into a Viper mark again Their Web shall not become Garments neither shall they cover themselves with their Works of Vanity Acts of Violence are in their Hands This is all from the Light in the wickedness Their Feet run to do evil and they make haste to shed innocent blood their thoughts are thoughts of Vanity wasting and destruction is in their Path This is all from the Light Again The way of Peace they know not there is no Judgment in their Goings they have made them crooked Paths whosoever goes therein shall not know Peace Mark who goes in their way that know not the way of Peace shall they know Peace Whose Path is crooked where there is no Judgment in their Goings Take notice No Judgment in their Goings And this is all from the Light which manifesteth that which is to be judged where the Covenant of Peace is known where all that which is contrary to it before-mentioned is kept out Which all who live in those things before-mentioned contrary to the Light in the false fast they may mark their Path and behold their Reward who be out of the Light stumbling and groping like blind Men. Which they that be in the true fast are from all them separated their words their actions and fruits and their fast whose fast breaks the bonds of Iniquity and whom the Lord hears and to whom Righteousness springs forth and goes before them the Glory of the Lord is the Re-reward G. F. We passed up into Wales through Montgomeryshire Montgomeryshire Radnorshire and so into Radnorshire where there was a Meeting like a Leaguer for Multitudes I walked a little aside whilst the People were gathering and there came to me John ap John a Welch-man whom I spake to to go up to the People and if he had any thing upon him from the Lord to speak to them he might speak to them in Welch and thereby gather them more together Then came Morgan Watkins to me who was then become loving to Friends And said he the People lie like a Leaguer and the Gentry of the Country is come in I bad him go up also and leave me for I had a great Travel upon me for the Salvation of the People When they were well gathered together I passed up into the Meeting and stood upon a Chair about three Hours And I stood a pretty while before I began to speak After some time I felt the Power of the Lord went over the whole Assembly and the Lord 's Everlasting Life and Truth shined over all and the Scriptures were opened to them and the Objections they had in their Minds were Answered And they were every one directed to the Light of Christ the heavenly Man that by it they might all see their Sins and Christ Jesus to be their Saviour their
Hand and threw it on the Table before me to see whether I would speak against it or no I took no notice of it but declared the Truth to her and she was reached There came in many Baptists also who were very rude but the Lord's Power came over them so that they went away confounded Then there came in another sort and one of them said He would dispute with me and for Argument's sake would deny There was a God I told him He was one of those fools that said in his Heart There is no God but he should know him in the Day of his Judgment So he went his way and a fine precious time we had afterward with several People of Account and the Lord's Power came over all William Osburn was with me And Colonel Lidcot's Wife and William Welch's Wife and several of the Officers themselves also that were there were convinced at that Time Now Edward Billing and his Wife were at that time separated and lived apart and she being reached by Truth and become loving to Friends we sent for her Husband and he came and the Lord's Power reached unto them both and they joined together in it and agreed to live together in Love and Unity as Man and Wife After this we went back to Edenborough again where many Thousands of People were gathered together with abundance of Priests among them about burning of a Witch and I was moved to declare the Day of the Lord amongst them Which when I had done I went from thence to our Meeting whither many rude People and Baptists came The Baptists began to vaunt with their Logick and Syllogisms but I was moved in the Lord's Power to thresh their chaffy Edenborough light minds and shewed the People That after that fallacious way of discoursing they might make White seem Black and Black seem White as That because a Cock had two Legs And each of them had two Legs therefore they were all Cocks Thus they might turn any thing into Lightness and Vanity but it was not the Way of Christ or his Apostles to Teach Speak or Reason after that manner Hereupon those Baptists went their way and after they were gone we had a blessed Meeting in the Lord's Power which was over all I mentioned before that many of the Scotch Priests being greatly disturbed at the Spreading of Truth and Loss of their Hearers thereby were gone up to Edenborough to Petition the Council against me Now when I came back from the Meeting to the Inn where I lodged an Officer belonging to the Council came to me and brought me the following Order Thursday the 8th of October 1657. at his Highness's Council in Scotland Ordered THat George Fox do appear before the Council on Tuesday the 13th of October next in the Fore-noon E. Downing Clerk of the Council When he had delivered me the Order he asked me Whether I would Appear or no I did not tell him whether I would or no but asked him If he had not forged the Order He said No it was a real Order from the Council and he was sent as their Messenger with it When the Time came I Appeared and was had up into a great Room where many great Persons came and looked at me After a while the Door-keeper came and had me into the Council-Chamber Edenborough Council and as I was going in he took off my Hat I asked him Why he did so and who was there that I might not go in with my Hat on for I told him I had been before the Protector with my Hat on But he hung up my Hat and had me in before them When I was come in and had stood a while and they said nothing to me I was moved of the Lord to say Peace be amongst you and Wait in the Fear of God that ye may receive his Wisdom from above by which all things were made and created that by it ye may all be Ordered and may Order all things under your Hands to God's Glory After I had done speaking they asked me What was the Occasion of my coming into that Nation I told them I came to visit the Seed of God which had long lain in Bondage under Corruption and the Intent of my Coming was that all in the Nation that did profess the Scriptures the Words of Christ and of the Prophets and Apostles 1657. Scotland Edenborough Council might come to the Light Spirit and Power which they were in who gave them forth that so in and by the Spirit they might understand the Scriptures and know Christ and God aright and have fellowship with them and one with another They asked me Whether I had any outward Business there I said Nay Then they asked me How long I intended to stay in the Country I told them I should say little to that My Time was not to be long yet in my freedom in the Lord I stood in the Will of him that sent me Then they bid me withdraw and the Door-keeper took me by the Hand and led me forth In a little time they sent for me in again and told me I must depart the Nation of Scotland by that day Seven-night I asked them Why What had I done What was my Transgression that they passed such a Sentence upon me to depart out of the Nation They told me They would not dispute with me Then I desired them to hear what I had to say to them but they said They would not hear me I told them Pharaoh heard Moses and Aaron and yet he was an Heathen and no Christian and Herod heard John Baptist and they should not be worse than these But they cried Withdraw withdraw Whereupon the Door-keeper took me again by the Hand and led me out Then I returned to my Inn and continued still in Edenborough visiting Friends there and thereabouts and strengthning them in the Lord. And after a little time I writ a Letter to the Council to lay before them their Vnchristian Dealing in banishing me an innocent Man that sought their Salvation and Eternal Good A Copy of which Letter here followeth directed To the Council of Edenborough YE that sit in Council and bring before your Judgment-seat the Innocent the Just without shewing the least Cause what Evil I have done or convicting me of any Breach of any Law and afterward ye banish me out of your Nation and Country without telling me for what or what Evil I had done though I told you when ye asked me How long I would stay in the Nation That my Time was not long I spake it innocently and yet ye banish me Will not all think ye that fear God judge this to be wickedness Consider did not they sit in Council about Stephen when they stoned him to Death Did not they sit in Council about Peter and John when they haled them out of the Temple and put them out of their Council for a little Season and took Counsel together and then
out of the Truth for the Good will Overcome the Evil and the Light Darkness and the Life Death and Vertue Vice and Righteousness Vnrighteousness The False Prophet cannot overcome the True but the True Prophet Christ will overcome all the False So be Faithful and live in that which doth not think the time long G. F. But after some time it pleased the Lord to allay the Heat of this Violent Persecution and I felt in Spirit an overcoming of the Spirits of those Men-Eaters that had stirred it up and carried it on to that Height of Cruelty though I was outwardly very Weak And I plainly felt and those Friends that were with me and that came to Visit me saw and took notice that as the Persecution Ceased I came from under the Travels and Sufferings that had lain with such Weight upon me So that towards the Spring I began to Recover and to walk up and down beyond the Expectation of many who did not think I could ever have gone abroad again I had been so exceeding Weak through the Travel and Exercise that was upon my Spirit Whilst I was under this Spiritual Travel and Suffering the State of the City New Jerusalem which comes down out of Heaven was opened to me which some Carnal-minded People had looked upon to be like an outward City or Town that had dropt out of the Elements But I saw the Beauty and Glory of it the Length the Breadth and the Height thereof all in Compleat Proportion And I saw that all who are within the Light of Christ and in his Faith which he is the Author of and in the Spirit the Holy Ghost which Christ and the Holy Prophets and Apostles were in and within the Grace and Truth and within the Power of God that was before the Devil was which was the Walls of the City such are within the City such are Members of this City and have right to Eat of the Tree of Life which yields her Fruit every Month and whose Leaves are for the healing of the Nations But they that are out of the Grace out of the Truth out of the Light Spirit and Power of God such as Resist the Holy Ghost quench vex and grieve the Spirit of God and hate the Light and turn the Grace of God into Wantonness and do Despight to the Spirit of Grace such as have erred from the Faith and made Ship-wrack of it and of a Good Conscience and abuse the Power of God and despise Prophesying Revelation and Inspiration these are the Dogs and Vnbelievers that are without the City And these make up the great City Babylon Confusion and her Cage the Power of Darkness and the Evil Spirit of Error surround and cover them over And in this great City Babylon are the False Prophets in the false Power and false Spirit and the Beast in the Dragon's Power and the Whore that is gone a Whoring from the Spirit of God and from Christ her Husband But the Lord's Power is over all this Power of Darkness Cage Whore Beast Dragon False Prophets and their Worshippers who are for the Lake which burns with Fire Many things more did I see concerning the Heavenly City the New Jerusalem which are hard to be uttered and would be hard to be received But in short This Holy City is within the Light and all that are within the Light are within the City the Gates whereof stand open all the Day for there is no Night there that all may come in and Christ's Blood being shed for every Man and he tasted Death for every Man and enlightneth every Man that cometh into the World and his Grace that brings Salvation having appeared to all Men there is no Place or Language but there his Voice may be heard The Christians in the Primitive Times were called by Christ A City set upon an Hill and they were also called The Light of the World and The Salt of the Earth But when the Christians lost the Light and Salt and Power of God then they came to be trodden under foot like unsavoury Salt Even as the Jews who while they kept the Law of God were kept above all Nations but when they turned their Backs on God and his Law then were they trodden under foot of other Nations So Adam and Eve while they obeyed God were kept in his Image and in the Paradise of God in Dominion over all the Works of God's Hands but when they disobeyed God they lost the Image of God the Righteousness and the Holiness in which they were made they lost their Dominion and were driven out of Paradise and so fell under the dark Power of Satan and came under the Chains of Darkness But the Promise of God was That the Seed of the Woman Christ Jesus should bruise the Serpents Head should break his Power and Authority which had led into Captivity and had held Man in it So Christ who is the First and Last sets Man free and is the Resurrection of the Just and Vnjust the Judge of the Quick and Dead and they that are in him are invested with everlasting Rest and Peace out of all the Labours and Travels and Miseries of Adam in the Fall So he is sufficient and of Ability to Restore Man up into the State that Man was in before he fell and not into that State only but up into that State also that never fell even to himself I had also in this time a great Exercise and Travel of Spirit upon me concerning the Powers and Rulers of these Nations from the sense I had of the many tender Visitations and faithful Warnings that had been given them and of their great Abuse thereof who had refused to hear and had rejected the Counsel of the Lord. And though I knew Friends would be Clear of their Blood yet I could not but Mourn over them and gave forth these few Lines following concerning them WE have given them a Visitation and have faithfully Warned them and have declared to them our Innocency and Vprightness and that we never did any Hurt to the King nor to any of his People We have nothing in our Hearts but Love and Good-will to him and his People and desire their Eternal Welfare But if they will not hear then the Day of Judgment and of Sorrow of Torment and Misery and sudden Destruction will come from the Lord upon them that have been the Cause of the Sufferings of many Thousands simple innocent harmless People that have done them no hurt nor have had any Ill Will towards him or them but have desired their Eternal Good for the Eternal Truth 's sake Destruction will come upon them that turn the Sword backward Therefore do not blind your Eyes the Lord will bring swift Destruction and Misery upon you Surely he will do it and will relieve his Innocent People who have groaned for Deliverance from under your Oppression and have also groaned for your Deliverance out of Wickedness Blessed be
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
and the High-Sheriff with their Wives and several others And of Indians there was he who was called their Emperor and one of the Indian Kings and their Speaker who all sate very attentive and carried themselves very lovingly and an establishing settling Meeting it was This was on the Twenty third of the First Month. And on the Twenty fourth we went by Water ten Miles to the Indian Town where this same Emperor dwelt whom I had acquainted before with my Coming and desired him to get their Kings and Councils together In the Morning the Emperor came himself and had me to the Town and they were generally come together and had their Speaker and other Officers with them and the Old Empress sate among them And to give them their due they sate very grave and sober and were all very Attentive beyond many that are called Christians I had some with me that could interpret to them and we had a very good Meeting with them and of very good Service it was for it gave them a good Esteem of Truth and Friends blessed be the Lord After this we had many Meetings in several parts of that Country one at William Stephens's which was a general Meeting once a Month another at Tredhaven-Creek another at Wye another at Reconow-Creek and another at Thomas Taylor 's in the Island of Kent Most of these Meetings were large there being many of the World's People at them and divers of them of the most Considerable in the World's Account And the Lord's Power and living Presence was with us and plenteously manifested amongst the People by which their Hearts were tendred and opened to receive the Truth which had a good Savour amongst them blessed be the Lord God over all for ever Then being clear of that side we passed over the Bay about Fourteen Miles to a Friend's House where we met with several Friends and I sent for Thomas Thurston thither and had a Meeting with him to bring the Truth over his bad Actions Now having travelled through most parts of that Country and visited most of the Plantations thereabouts and had very good Service for the Lord in America having alarm'd the People of all sorts where we came and proclaimed the Day of God's Salvation amongst them we found our Spirits began to be clear of those parts of the World and to draw towards Old England again Yet we were desirous and felt Freedom from the Lord to stay till the General Meeting for that Province of Mary-land was over which drew nigh that we might see Friends generally together before we departed Wherefore spending our time in the interim partly in visiting Friends and Friendly People Clifts Pottuxon and in having Meetings about the Clifts and Pottuxon and partly in writing Answers to some Cavilling Objections which some of Truth 's Adversaries had raised and spread abroad to hinder People from receiving the Truth we were not idle but laboured in the Work of the Lord until that General Provincial Meeting came on which began on the Seventeenth Day of the Third Month The General Provincial Meeting and lasted four Days On the First of these days the Men and Women had their Meetings for Business wherein the Affairs of the Church of God were taken Care of and many things relating thereunto were opened unto them to their Edification and Comfort The other Three Days were spent in Publick Meetings for the Worship of God at which divers of considerable Account in the Government and many others of the World's People were present who were generally satisfied and many of them reached for it was a wonderful glorious Meeting and the mighty Presence of the Lord was seen and felt over all blessed and praâ—â—ed be his Holy Name for ever who over all giveth Dominion After this Meeting we took our Leave of Friends parting in great Tenderness in the sense of the Heavenly Life and vertuous Power of the Lord that was livingly felt amongst us and went by Water to the place where we were to take Shipping many Friends accompanying us thither and tarrying with us that Night Next Day which was the Twenty first of the Third Month 1673 and the Day following we set Sail for England At Sea The same Day Richard Covell came on Board our Ship having had his own taken from him by the Dutch We had foul Weather and contrary Winds which caused us to cast Anchor often so that we were till the Thirty first of the Third Month e'er we could get past the Capes of Virginia and come out into the main Sea But after this we made good Speed ENGLAND King's-Road and on the Twenty eighth of the Fourth Month cast Anchor at Kings-road which is the Harbour for Bristol We had in our Passage very high Winds and Tempestuous Weather which made the Sea exceeding rough the Waves rising like Mountains so that the Masters and Sailers wondred at it and said They never saw the like before But though the Wind was strong it sate for the most part with us so that we sailed away before it and the Great God who commands the Winds who is Lord of Heaven of Earth and the Seas and whose Wonders are seen in the Deep he steered our Course and preserved us from many imminent Dangers The same good Hand of Providence that went with us and carried us safely over watched over us in our Return and brought us safely back again Thanksgivings and Praises be to his holy Name for ever Many sweet and precious Meetings we had on Board the Ship during this Voyage commonly two a Week wherein the blessed Presence of the Lord did greatly refresh us and did often break in upon and tender the Company Bristol Harbour And when we came into Bristol Harbour there lay a Man of War and the Press-master came on Board us to press our men We had a Meeting at that time in the Ship with the Sea-men before we went to Shore and the Press-master sate down with us and staid the Meeting and was very well satisfied with it After the Meeting I spake to him to leave two of the Men he had Pressed in our Ship for he had pressed four one of which was a lame Man and he said At my Request he would We went on Shore that Afternoon and got to Shear-hampton Shear-hampton where we got Horses and rode to Bristol that Night where Friends received us with great Joy 1673. Bristol In the Evening I writ a Letter to my Wife to give her Notice of my Landing as followeth Dear Heart THis Day we came into Bristol near Night from the Seas Glory to the Lord God over all for ever who was our Convoy and steered our Course who is the God of the whole Earth and of the Seas and Winds and made the Clouds his Chariots beyond all Words blessed be his Name for ever Who is over all in his great Power and Wisdom Amen Robert Widders and James Lancaster
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
right understanding thereof and be gathered thereunto Several Epistles also to Friends I writ in this time on divers Occasions and Subjects whereof one was to the Friends of the Yearly Meeting which was held in London this year 1679. a Copy of which here follows My Dear Friends and Brethren WHO are Assembled together in the Name and Power of the Lord Jesus Christ Grace Mercy and Peace from God the Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ fill all your hearts and establish you in his Grace Mercy and Peace upon Christ the holy living Rock and Foundation who is the First and Last and over all the Foundations and Rocks in the whole world a Rock and Foundation of Life for all the Living to build upon which stands sure in his heavenly divine Light which is the Life in him by whom all things were made who is the precious Stone laid in Sion and not in the World which all the Wise Master-Builders rejected who pretended to build People up to Heaven with the Words of the Prophets and the Law from Mount Sinai but out of the Life of both and therefore such Builders could not receive the Law of Life from Christ the precious Stone laid in Sion nor the Word from heavenly Jerusalem But you My Dear Friends that have received this Law from heavenly Sion and the Word from heavenly Jerusalem in the New Covenant where the Life and Substance is enjoyed you do see the end and abolishing of the Jews Law and Ceremonies from Mount Sinai And therefore my desire is that you all may keep in the Law of Life and Love 1679. Swarthmore which ye have in Christ Jesus by which Love the Body is edified and knit and united together to Christ Jesus the Head Which Love doth bear all things and fulfils the Law and will preserve all in Humility and in it to be of one mind heart and soul so that all may come to drink into that One Spirit that doth Baptize them and Circumcise them Plunging down and Cutting off the Body of the Sins of the Flesh that is gotten up in Man and Woman by their transgressing of God's Commands So that in this holy pure Spirit all may serve and worship the pure God in Spirit and in Truth which is over all the Worships that are out of God's Spirit and his Truth And in this Spirit ye will all have a Spiritual Unity and Fellowship over all the Fellowships of the Unclean Spirits which be out of Truth in the World And so by this holy Spirit all your hearts minds and souls may be knit together to Christ from whence it comes and by the Grace and Truth which is come by Jesus Christ which all should be under the Teachings of in the New Covenant and not under the Law as the outward Jews were in the Old Covenant So that by this Grace and Truth in the New Covenant all may be made God's free Men and Women to serve God in the new Life and in the new and living Way shewing forth the Fruits of the new heart and new spirit in the New Covenant over death and darkness and before it was Glory be unto the Lord for ever And now Friends in this Grace and Truth is your heavenly gracious and true Liberty to every Spiritual Mind that makes you free from him that is out of Truth where your bondage was Also your Liberty in the holy divine and precious Faith which gives you Victory over that that hath separated you from God and Christ and through which Faith ye have Access to God again through Jesus Christ So in this divine and holy Faith ye have divine holy and precious Liberty yea and Victory over him that separated you from God and this Faith is held in a pure Conscience So the Liberty in the Spirit of God is in that which baptizes and plunges down Sin and Iniquity and puts off the Body of Death and Sins of the Flesh that is gotten up by transgressing of God's Command as I said before And also the Liberty of the Gospel which is sent from Heaven by the Holy Ghost which is the Power of God which was and is again to be preached to all Nations In this Gospel the Power of God which is over the Power of Satan is the true Liberty and the Gospel-Fellowship and Order So that the Evil Spirit or Conscience or false dead Faith and that which is ungracious and out of Truth and not in the Spirit of God nor in his Gospel nor in the divine Faith its Liberty is in the Darkness For all the true Liberty is in the Gospel and in the Truth that makes free and in the Faith and in the Grace and in Christ Jesus who destroys the Devil and his Works that hath brought all Mankind into Bondage So in this heavenly peaceable Spirit and Truth and Faith which works by Love and in the Gospel of Peace and in Christ Jesus is all the Saints Peace and pure true and holy Liberty in which they have Salt and Sense and Feeling Discerning and Savour yea and Unity and Fellowship one with another yea and with the Son and the Father that heavenly eternal Fellowship So all being subject to the Grace and Truth and to the Faith and Gospel the Power of God and to his good Spirit in this they distinguish all true pure and holy Liberty from that which is false And this will bring all to sit low for Patience runs the Race and the Lamb must have the Victory and not the rough unruly and vain Talkers unbaptized uncircumcised and unsanctified For such travel not in the way of Regeneration but in the way of unregeneration Neither go they down into the Death with Christ by Baptism and therefore such are not like to Reign with him in his Resurrection who are not buried with him in Baptism Therefore all must go downward into the Death of Christ and be crucified with him if they will Arise and follow him in the Regeneration before they come to Reign with him And Friends Many may have precious Openings but I desire all may be comprehended in that thing which doth open to them And that they may all keep in the daily Cross then they keep in the Power that doth kill and crucifie that which would lead them amongst the Beasts and Goats to leaven them into their rough unruly spirit But that through the Cross the Power of God That may be crucified and they in the Power might follow the Lamb. For the Power of God keeps all in Order and in Subjection and in Humility in that which is lovely and vertuous decent comely temperate and moderate that their Moderation comes to appear to all men So my desire is that all your Lights may shine as from a City set upon a Hill that cannot be hid And that ye may be the Salt of the Earth to salt and season it and make it savoury to God and you all seasoned with it Then
well as Men. And Deborah was a Judge and a Prophetess and do not You make use of Deborah's and Miriam's words in your Service and Worship as you may see Judg. 5. v. 1 31. Deborah's large Speech or Song And Barak did not forbid her nor none of the Jewish Priests And did not she make this Speech or Song in the Congregation or Church of Israel And in the Book of Ruth there are good Speeches of those good Women which were not forbidden And Hannah prayed in the Temple before Ely and the Lord Answered her prayer And see what a Speech Hannah makes and a praising of God before Ely the High-Priest and he did not forbid her 1 Sam. 2. v. 1. to 10. And Josiah the King sent his Priest with several others to Ask Counsel of Huldah the Prophetess who dwelt at Jerusalem in the Colledge 2 King 22.14 2 Chron. 34.22 So here the King and his Priests did not despise the Counsel of this Prophetess and she did prophesie to the Congregation of Israel as may be seen in these Chapters And in Luke 1.41 to 55. there see what a godly Speech Elizabeth made to Mary and what a large godly Speech Mary made also And Mary said That the Lord did regard the Low Estate of his Hand-maid c. And don't you make use in your Worship and Service of Mary's and Elizabeth's words from Luke 2.41 to 55. who were holy Women in your Churches and yet forbid Womens speaking in your Churches and to be in silence yet all sorts of Women speak in your Churches when they sing and say Amen And in Luke the second there was one Anna a Prophetess she was a Widow of about fourscore and four years which departed not from the Temple but served God with Fasting and Prayer night and day Did not she Confess Christ Jesus in the Temple and gave thanks to the Lord and spake of Christ to all that looked for Redemption in Jerusalem Luke 2.36 37 38. So such holy Women were not forbidden to speak in the Church neither in the Law nor Gospel And was it not Mary Magdalen and other Women that first preached Christ's Resurrection to the Apostles The Woman indeed namely Eve was first in Transgression and so they were Women that first preacht the Resurrection of Christ Jesus for Christ said to Mary c. Go to my Brethren and say unto them I Ascend unto my Father and to your Father and to my God and to your God John 20.17 And Luke 24.10 it was Mary Magdalen and Johanna and Mary the Mother of James and other Women that were with them which told the Apostles that Christ was risen from the dead and their words and these Womens words were as Idle Tales to the Apostles and they believed them not Ibid. vers 11. And vers 22. Certain Women also of our Company made us astonished they said So here it may be seen that the Womens preaching the Resurrection of Christ did Astonish the Apostles and Christ sent these Women to preach his Resurrection so it is no shame for such Women to preach Christ Jesus neither were they to be silent when Christ sends them And the Apostle says Every Tongue shall Confess to God Rom. 14.11 and Every Tongue shall Confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the Glory of God the Father Philip. 2.11 So Here 't is Clear that Women must Confess Christ as well as men if Every Tongue must Confess And the Apostle saith There 's neither Male nor Female for ye are all one in Christ Jesus Gal. 3.28 And whereas 't is said Women must ask their Husbands at home c. Now the Duke knows very well Virgins have no Husbands nor Widows for Anna the Prophetess was a Widow And if Christ be the Husband Men must ask Counsel of him at home as well as Women before they Teach And set the Case that a Turk's Wife should be a Christian or a Papist's Wife should be a Lutheran or a Calvinist must they Ask and Learn of their Husbands at home before they confess Christ Jesus in the Congregation of the Lord Their Counsel will be to them to turn Turks or Papists I Intreat the Duke to Consider these things And again I Intreat him to mind God's Grace and Truth in his heart that is come by Jesus that by his Spirit of Grace and Truth he may come to serve and worship God in his Spirit and Truth so that he may serve the Living Eternal God that made him in his Generation and have his Peace in Christ that the World cannot take away And I do desire his Good Peace and Prosperity in this World and his Eternal Comfort and Happiness in the World that is Everlasting without End Amen London the 26th of the 8th Month 1684. G. F. Besides the fore-going I writ also Epistles to Friends one of which the following is a Copy FRiends and Brethren in the Lord Jesus Christ in whom you have all life peace and salvation Walk in him who is your heavenly Rock and Foundation that stands sure who hath all Power in Heaven and Earth given unto him So his Power is over all And let your Faith stand in his Power which is over all from everlasting to everlasting and so is over the Devil and his power that in the holy heavenly Wisdom of God ye may be all preserved and kept to God's glory out of all snares and temptations so that God's Wisdom may be justified of all his Children in this day of his power and they all may be faithful serving and worshipping God in his Spirit and Truth and valiant for it upon the Earth For as the Apostle saith They that believe are entred into their rest and have ceased from their own works as God did from his Now this Rest is an Eternal Rest in Christ the Eternal Son of God in whom every true Believer hath everlasting Life in Christ Jesus their Rest and everlasting Day For Christ the Rest bruiseth the Serpent's head and through Death destroyeth Death and the Devil the power of Death and his works And he is the eternal Rest that giveth eternal Life to his Sheep And Christ fulfilleth the Prophets and all the Figures Shadows and Ceremonies as in the Old Testament and all the Promises are Yea and Amen in Christ their and our Eternal Rest who was the Eternal Rest to all the true Believers in the Apostles days and ever since and is so now And Christ is the Beginning and the Ending the First and Last who is ascended above all Principalities Powers Thrones and Dominions that he might fill all things For by Jesus Christ all things were made and created whether they be things in Heaven or things in the Earth and he is the eternal Rest and they that believe are entred into Christ their Eternal Rest in whom they have as I said before Eternal Life and peace with God Wherefore I say again in him who is your Rest live and abide for in
falsly and did not this Hananiah pretend to speak the Word of the Lord to the Priests and People as in Jeremiah the 28th And did not Isaiah judge in Divine Matters when he judged the Watchmen and the Shepherds Isa 56. And did not Micah judge in Divine and Spiritual Matters when he said he was full of the Power by the Spirit of the Lord and of Judgment did not he Judge both of Priests and Prophets and Judges though they would lean upon the Lord and say Is not the Lord amongst us and no evil can come unto us yet did not he let them see their States and Conditions and divided the precious from the vile Mich. 3. And so the rest of the Prophets you may see here they Judged for God in his Divine Matters who served him and who served him not and who lived in truth and who not and likewise the Apostles And this Divine Spiritual Heavenly Judgment was given of God to his holy Men and Women And they that do Judge in God's Divine Matters must live in his Divine Spirit and Power and Light now as they did then which Spiritual and Divine Judgment Christ has given to his Church that be the living Stones and living Members that makes up his spiritual Houshold to try Jews and to try Apostles and to try Prophets and to try Faith and to try Religions and to try Trees and Fruits and to try Shepherds and Teachers and to try Spirits So the living Members have a living and divine Judgment in the Church of Christ which he is the Head of the Judge of all Nay the Church has a Power given them which is farther then a Judgment for what they bind on Earth is bound in Heaven by the Power of God and what they loose on Earth is loosed in Heaven by the Power of God and this Power has Christ given to his living Members the Church The 20th of the 12th Month 1685 6. G. F. to Friends 1686. London I came back to London in the First Month 1686. and set my self with all diligence to look after Friends sufferings which we had now some hopes of getting Relief for The Sessions came on in the Second Month at Hicks's Hall where many Friends had Appeals to be Tried with whom I was from Day to Day to advise and see that no Opportunity were slipt nor Advantage lost and they generally succeeded well Soon after also the King was pleased upon our often laying our Sufferings before him To give order for the Releasing of all Prisoners that were imprisoned for Conscience sake and which were in his power to discharge Whereby the Prison doors were opened and many hundreds of Friends some of whom had been long in Prison were set at Liberty and some of them who had for many years been restrained in Bonds Yearly Meeting came now up to the Yearly-Meeting which was in the Third Month this Year Which caused great Joy to Friends to see our Ancient Faithful Brethren again at Liberty in the Lord's Work after their long Confinements And indeed a precious Meeting we had the refreshing Presence of the Lord appearing plentifully with us and amongst us After the Meeting I was moved to write a few Lines to be sent abroad amongst Friends the tenor whereof was thus Dear Friends MY Love is to you all in the holy Seed Christ Jesus that bruises the Serpent's head and destroys the Devil and his Works and who hath all Power in Heaven and Earth given to him Let every ones Faith stand in him and in his Power who is the Author and Finisher of your Faith And now ye who have been Partakers of his Power and are sensible of it in this Day of his Power that is over all whose day and power is over darkness and its power And by his Power the hearts of the King and Rulers have been opened by which your outward Prison-doors have been set open for your Liberty And therefore my desires are that all may be preserved in Humility and Thankfulness in the sense of the Mercies of the Lord and live in the peaceable Truth that is over all that ye may answer God's Grace and his Light and Spirit in all in a righteous godly Life and Conversation And let none be lifted up by their outward Liberty nor let none be cast down by Suffering for Christ's sake but all live in the Seed which is as Wheat which is not shaken nor blown away by the Winds and Storms as the Chaff is Which Seed of Life none below can make higher or lower for the Children of the Seed are the Children of the everlasting unchangeable Kingdom of Christ and God So in Christ Jesus whom God hath given you for a Sanctuary God Almighty keep you in whom ye have Life Everlasting and Wisdom which is from above pure peaceable gentle and easie to be intreated full of Mercy and good Fruits 1686. London Yearly Meeting that ye all now may be exercised in it and may practise this Wisdom in your godly holy Lives and Conversations so that this Wisdom may be justified of all her Children and they I say exercised and preserved in it in this day of the Power of Christ in which all his People are made a willing People to serve and worship God in Righteousness and Holiness and in the Spirit and Truth So that none may abuse the Power of the Lord nor grieve his Spirit by which you are sealed and kept to the day of Salvation and Redemption But always exercise your selves to have a good Conscience void of Offence towards God and towards all men being exercised in Holiness Godliness and Righteousness and in the Truth and in the Love of it that ye may all study to be approved unto God in Innocency Vertue Simplicity and Faithfulness and so labouring and studying to be quiet in the Will of God in all Conditions And whatsoever ye do in Word or Deed do all in the Name of the Lord Jesus giving Thanks to God the Father by him That he who is over all may have the Praise for all his Mercies and Blessings with which he doth and hath refreshed his People and by his Eternal Arm and Power hath kept and preserved his People to this day Glory to his Name over all for ever Amen! For Christ hath called you by his Grace into One Body to him the holy Head And therefore live in Charity and in the Love of God which is the Bond of Perfectness in his Body which Love edifies the Body of Christ which Body and all his Members are knit together and increased with the Increase of God from whom they receive Nourishment For by one Spirit we are all baptized into one Body and have been made all to drink into one Spirit in which Spirit the Body and all his Members have Fellowship with Christ the Head and one with another And so the Vnity of this holy Spirit is the Bond of Peace of all the living
Amen London the 27th of the 3d Month 1689. G. F. Being much Wearied and Spent with being at many large Meetings 1689. Kingston and in much Business with Friends during the time of the Yearly-Meeting and finding my health much impaired thereby I went out of Town with my Daughter Rouse to their Country-house near Kingston and tarried there most of the remaining part of the Summer In which time I sometimes visited Friends Meetings at Kingston and writ divers things for the Service of Truth and Friends Amongst those things that I writ there one was an Epistle to Friends in Barbados and it was as followeth To all Friends in Barbados that are Convinced of God's Truth MY Desires are that ye may live and walk in his peaceable Truth and shew forth that ye are Children of the Light and of the Truth for the heavenly gentle and peaceable Wisdom is justified of her Children But Debate Strife Wilfulness and laying open one another's Nakedness and Weakness that is not heavenly Wisdom's Children's doing but Ham's nor from the Spirit of Christ nor such as bite and tear one another That 's from a devouring Spirit and not from the Spirit of Jesus which cloaths and covers that which is uncomely and can forgive And now my Friends you profess that Truth which is beyond all the World's ways therefore see that you do Excel them in the heavenly gentle Wisdom that is easie to be intreated for the Wisdom of the World is not easie to be intreated and sometimes will not be intreated at all And now pray see how you do excel the World in Wisdom in Vertue in Kindness in Love that is over hatred in Meekness and Lowliness and Humility and in Sobriety Civility and Modesty and in Temperance and Patience and in all that which is called Morality and Humanity which will not act any thing below Men or unmanly and to shew forth true Christianity and that ye are the Converted and Translated Believers in Christ dwelling in the Love of God that beareth all things and endureth all things and is not puffed up and envies not For they that be out of this Love of God and Christian Charity are nothing but as a tinkling Cymbal and a sounding Brass and are discontented Murmurers and Complainers full of Doubts Questions and false Jealousies Keep that Spirit out of the Camp of God for do not you read in the Scriptures both of the New and Old Testament that the End of such was Misery Therefore in the Love of God build up one another for Love edifies the Body of Christ and he commands his Believers to love Enemies and to love one another By this they are known to be the Disciples of Christ But to live in Envy Strife and Hatred is a Mark they are no Disciples of Christ For he that loveth not his Brother abides in Death and whosoever hates his Brother is a Murderer and ye know that no Murderer hath eternal life abiding in him But they that do love the Brethren are passed from death to life 1 John 3.14 15. And If a Man say I love God and hateth his Brother he is a liar for he that loveth not his Brother whom he hath seen how can he love God whom he hath not seen And this Commandment have we from God that he who loveth God loveth his Brother also Chap. 4.20 21. Therefore love one another for Love is of God and Hatred is of the Devil and every one that loveth is born of God and knows God Now all are Children of God by Creation and therefore in that state they are to love their Neigbours as themselves and to do unto all Men as they would have them do unto them Secondly God pouring his Spirit upon all Flesh or all Men and Women all that are led by the Spirit of God are the Sons of God and Heirs of God and Joint-heirs with Christ and so are in Fellowship in the Everlasting Gospel and so are in Vnity in the Spirit the Bond of Peace And they that go out of this Unity and out of the Bond of Peace and do not keep it they break the King of Kings Peace but they that keep in the Unity and Fellowship in the Spirit and walk in the Light have Fellowship one with another and with the Father and the Son So it is not every one that talks of the Light and talks of the Word and of Righteousness and talks of Christ and of God but he that Doth the will of God And therefore My Friends all strive to excel one another in Love and in Vertue and in good Life and Conversation and strive all to be of one Mind Heart and Judgment in the Spirit of God for in Christ all are one and are in peace in him The Lord God Almighty preserve you in him who is your holy Rock and Foundation that is heavenly and stands sure that ye may all be Valiant for the Truth upon the Earth and for the Lord and his glorious Name so that ye may all come to serve him in your Generation and in his New Creation in Christ Jesus Amen And now that you are come into so much Favour with the Magistrates and Powers that they let you serve the Office of a Constable c. without swearing or taking any Oaths hereby Christ's Doctrine and Command and his Apostle's is set up And therefore I desire that you may double your diligence in your Offices in doing that which is just and true and righteous so that ye may excel and exceed all them that are tied shack'led or bound by Swearing or Oaths to perform their Offices and you can do it at Yea and Nay so say and so do according to Christ's Doctrine and Command For Adam and Eve by disobeying the Command of God fell under Condemnation and they that disobey the Command of Christ in taking Oaths and Swearing go into Evil and fall into Condemnation Matth. 5. and Jam. 5. So my Love in the Lord is to you all Kingston upon Thames the 10th of the 5th Month 1689. G. F. I stay'd at Kingston till the beginning of the Seventh Month where not only many Friends came to visit me but some Considerable People of the World with whom I discoursed about the Things of God Then leaving Kingston I went to London by Water visiting Friends as I went Hammersmith and taking Hammersmith-Meeting in my way And having recovered some strength by being in the Country when I was come to London London I went from Meeting to Meeting labouring diligently in the work of the Lord and opening the Divine Mysteries of the heavenly things as God by his Spirit opened them in me But I found my Body would not long bear the City wherefore when I had travelled amongst Friends there about a Month Tottenham-High-Cross Winchmore-hill Enfield I went to Tottenham-High-Cross and from thence to Edward Man's Country-house near Winchmore-hill and to Enfield spending a matter of Three Weeks
Thistles and sharp Rocks and Mountains and never be hurt nor never wear out their Shooes but their Feet are always beautiful upon the Mountains Moses a Captain the Servant of the Lord said unto the People of Israel I have led you forty years in the Wilderness your Cloths are not waxen old upon you and thy Shooe is not waxen old upon thy foot Deut. 29.5 Here ye may see the Jews in the Old Testament their Cloths and their Shooes did not wax old But they who are Christ's followers whom he shooeth with his Everlasting Gospel of Peace and Cloatheth with his fine Linnen his Righteousness and Arms with his Arms and Armour they are cloathed shod and armed with that which will never decay nor wax old nor canker nor rust nor corrupt nor grow blunt Now all whether Christians or Jews or Gentiles that hate the Light of Christ and close their Eyes and stop their Ears to it are not like to see Christ their Ensign and Captain of their Salvation but are blind And as there is no outward Captain would List a Company of blind and deaf men and cloath and arm them with outward Armour so such as are blind and deaf whose Eyes are closed and Ears stopped to the heavenly Light of Christ he is not like to cloath them with his fine Linnen and arm them with his heavenly and spiritual Armour nor are they like to be spiritually and heavenly disciplined and to see and know his holy and spiritual living Camp nor to follow him while they are deaf and blind and hate his Light which is the Life in Christ the heavenly Ensign and Captain of their Salvation For it is the Light that shines in the heart which gives the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ Jesus who is the Ensign and Captain of Mens Salvations and who hath brought and doth bring many Sons unto glory Praises Honour and Glory be unto the Lord over all who liveth for ever Amen Gooses the 14th of the 2d Month 1690. G. F. London A Week after this I return'd to London and after a little stay there Kingston went down to visit Friends at Kingston where I stay'd not long London but came back to London and remained there in the Lord's work Yearly-Meeting till after the Yearly-Meeting which was in the Fourth Month this Year in which the wonted Goodness of the Lord was witnessed and his blessed Presence enjoyed and his heavenly Power livingly felt opening the hearts of his People unto him and his Divine Treasures of Life and Wisdom in and unto them whereby many useful and necessary things relating to the safety of Friends and to the honour and prosperity of Truth were weightily treated of and unanimously concluded After the Meeting was over I writ the following Paper to Friends to be added to the Epistle which from the Yearly-Meeting was sent into the several Counties ALL Friends every where that are alive to God through Jesus Christ and are living Members of Christ the holy Head Be still and stand still in the Lord's Camp of Holiness and Righteousness and therein see the Salvation of God and your Eternal Life Rest and Peace and in it you may feel and see the Lord's Power is over all and how the Lord is at work in his Power and ruling the Nations with his Rod of Iron and is breaking in the Nations the old leaky Vessels and Cisterns to pieces like the Potter's Vessels that will not hold his living Water of Life who are erred from the Spirit But blessed be the Lord God of Heaven and Earth 1690. London Yearly Meeting who by his Eternal Arm and Power hath settled all his People upon the living holy Rock and Foundation that stands sure whom he hath drawn by his Spirit to his Son and gathered them into the Name of Jesus Christ his only begotten Son full of Grace and Truth who hath all Power in Heaven and Earth given to him Whose Name is above every Name under the whole Heaven and all his living Members know there is no Salvation given by any other Name under the whole Heaven but by the Name of Jesus and he their Salvation and their living Head is felt in the midst of them in his Light Life Spirit Grace and Truth and his Word of Patience Wisdom and Power who is his People's Prophet that God hath raised up in his New Testament and Covenant to open to them and their living Shepherd that hath purchased redeemed and bought them with his precious Blood And Christ the living One feeds his living Sheep in his living Pastures of Life and his living Sheep know their living Shepherd's voice with his living Bread and Water and follow him and will not follow any of the World's Hirelings nor Thieves nor Robbers nor Climbers that are without Christ the Door And likewise Christ's living Children know Christ the Bishop of their Souls to oversee them with his heavenly and spiritual Eye that they may be preserved in his Fold of Life and go no more forth And also they know Christ their holy Priest that by the Grace of God tasted Death for them and for every Man and is a Propitiation for their Sins and not for their Sins only but for the Sins of the whole World and by the one Offering up of himself he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified And such an High-Priest becomes Christ's Sheep in his New Covenant and Testament who is holy and harmless and separate from sinners and is made higher than the Heavens who is not made a Priest after the Order of Aaron with his Tithes Offerings c. but he makes an end of all those things and hath abolished them and is made an High-Priest after the Power of an endless life who ever liveth to make Intercession for his People and is able to save to the uttermost all that come to God through him Who is the one holy Mediator betwixt God and Man and who sanctifies his People his Church that he is Head of and presents them to God without spot or wrinkle or blemish or any such thing and makes them an holy royal Priesthood to offer up spiritual holy Sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ who is King of all Kings and Lord of all Lords in the Earth So an holy heavenly King who hath â—all power in Heaven and Earth given to him and rules in all the hearts of his Sheep and Lambs by his holy divine precious Faith that is held in all the pure Consciences of his People which holy Faith Christ the holy One is the Author and Finisher of By which holy Faith all the Just live and in which holy divine and precious Faith all the Just and holy Ones have Unity and by it they do quench all the fiery Darts of Satan and by this holy divine and precious Faith they have access to the pure God in which they do please him And Christ
in Wisdom and Glory in this Life or from Natural Infirmities or Death as some have with a weak or ill mind imagined and insinuated against them This they called a Redeemed State Regeneration or the New-Birth Teaching every where according to their Foundation that without this Work were known there was no inheriting the Kingdom of God Third To an acknowledgment of Eternal Rewards and Punishment as they have good Reason for else of all People certainly they must be the most Miserable Who for about Forty Years have been exceeding great Sufferers for their Profession and in some Cases treated worse then the worst of Men yea as the Refuge and Off-scowering of all things This was the Purport of their Doctrine and Ministry which for the most part is what other Professors of Christianity pretend to hold in Words and Forms but not in the Power of Godliness that has been long lost by Mens departing from that Principle and Seed of Life that is in Man and which Man has not regarded but lost the Sense of and in and by which he can only be quickned in his Mind to serve the living God in Newness of Life For as the Life of Religion was lost and the generality lived and Worshipped God after their own Wills and not after the Will of God nor the mind of Christ which stood in the Works and Fruits of the Holy Spirit so that which they prest was not Notion but Experience no Formality but Godliness as being sensible in themselves through the Work of God's Righteous Judgments that without Holiness no Man should ever see the Lord with Comfort Besides these Doctrines and out of them as the larger Branches there sprang forth several particular Doctrines that did exemplifie and further explain the Truth and Efficacy of the General Doctrine before observed in their Lives and Examples As I. Communion and loving one another This is a noted Mark in the Mouth of all sorts of People concerning them They will meet They will help and stick one to another Whence it is common to hear some say Look how the Quakers love and take care of one another Others less Moderate will say The Quakers love none but themselves and if loving one another and having an Intimate Communion in Religion and constant care to meet to Worship God and help one another be any Mark of Primitive Christianity they had it Blessed be the Lord in an ample manner II. To love Enemies This they both Taught and Practised For they did not only refuse to be revenged for Injuries done them and condemned it as of an Vnchristian Spirit but they did freely Forgive yea Help and Relieve those that had been Cruel to them when it was in their Power to have been even with them of which many and singular Instances might be given Endeavouring through Patience to overcome all Injustice and Oppression and Preaching this Doctrine as Christian for others to follow III. The Sufficiency of Truth speaking according to Christ's own form of Words of Yea Yea and Nay Nay among Christians without Swearing both from Christ's express Prohibition to Swear at all Mat. 5. And for that they being under the Tye and Bond of Truth in themselves there was both no Necessity for an Oath and it would be a Reproach to their Christian Veracity to Assure their Truth by such an Extraordinary way of Speaking But offering at the same time to be punnisht to the full for false Speaking as others for Perjury if ever guilty of it and hereby they exclude with all True all False and Prophane Swearing for which the Land did and doth Mourn and the great God was and is not a little offended with it IV. Not Fighting but Suffering is another Testimony peculiar to this People They affirm that Christianity teacheth People To beat their Swords into Plough Shears and their Spears into Pruning Hooks and to learn War no more that so the Wolf may lie down with the Lamb and the Lyon with the Calf and nothing that destroys be entertained in the Hearts of People exhorting them to employ their Zeal against Sin and turn their Anger against Satan and no longer War one against another because all Wars and Fightings come of Mens own Hearts Lusts according to the Apostle James and not of the Meek Spirit of Christ Jesus who is Captain of another Warfare and which is carried on with other Weapons Thus as Truth speaking succeeded Swearing so Faith and Truth succeeded Fighting in the Doctrine and Practise of this People Nor ought they for this to be Obnoxious to Civil Government since if they cannot Fight for it neither can they Fight against it which is no mean security to the State Nor is it reasonable that People should be blamed for not doing more for others than they can do for themselves And Christianity set aside if the Costs and Fruits of War were well considered Peace with its Inconveniencies is generally Preferable But though they were not for Fighting they were for submitting to Government and that not only for Fear but for Conscience Sake where Government doth not interfere with Conscience Believing it to be an Ordinance of God and where it is justly administred a great Benefit to Minkind Tho' it has been their Lot through blind Zeal in some and Interest in others to have felt the Strokes of it with greater Weight and Rigour than any other Perswasion in this Age whilst they of all others Religion set aside have given the Civil Magistrate the least occasion of Trouble in the Discharge of his Office V. Another part of the Character of this People is They refuse to pay Tythes or Maintenance to a National Ministry and that for two Reasons The one is that they believe all compelled Maintenance even to Gospel Ministers to be Vnlawful because expresly contrary to Christ's Command who said Freely you have received freely give At least that the Maintenance of Gospel Ministers should be free and not forced The other Reason of their Refusal is Because those Ministers are not Gospel ones in that the Holy Ghost is not their Foundation but Humane Arts and Parts So that it is not matter of Humor or Sullenness but pure Conscience towards God that they cannot help to support National Ministers where they dwell which are but too much and too visibly become ways of Worldly Advantage and Preferment VI. Not to respect Persons was another of their Doctrines and Practices for which they were often Buffeted and Abused They Affirmed it to be sinful to give Flattering Titles or to use Vain Gestures and Complements of Respect tho' to Virtue and Authority they ever made a Difference but after their Plain and Homely Manner yet sincere and substantial way well remembering the Example of Mordecai and Elihu but more especially the Command of their Lord and Master Jesus Christ who forbad his Followers to call Men Rabby which implies Lord and Master also the fashionable Greetings and Salutations of those
Reformation So that this People did not only in words more than equally press Repentance Conversion and Holiness but did it knowingly and experimentally and directed those to whom they preach'd to a sufficient Principle and told them where it is and by what Tokens they might know it and which way they might experience the Power and Efficacy of it to their Soul's Happiness Which is more then Theory and Speculations upon which most other Ministries depend for here is certainly a bottom upon which Man may boldly appear before God in the great Day of Account V. They reached to the Inward State and Condition of People which is an Evidence of the Virtue of their Principle and of their Ministring from it and not their own Imaginations Glosses or Comments upon Scripture For nothing reaches the Heart but what is from the Heart or pierces the Conscience but what comes from a living Conscience Insomuch as it hath often happened where People have under Secrecy revealed their State or Condition to some choice Friends for Advice or Ease they have been so particularly directed in the Ministry of this People that they have challenged their Friends with discovering their Secrets and telling the Preachers their Cases Yea the very Thoughts and Purposes of the hearts of many have been so plainly detected that they have like Nathaniel cryed out of this inward appearance of Christ Thou art the Son of God thou art the King of Israel And those that have embraced this Divine Principle have found this Mark of its Truth and Divinity that the Woman of Samaria did of Christ when in the Flesh to be the Messiah viz. It had told them all that ever they did showed them their insides the most inward secrets of their Hearts and laid Judgment to the Line and Righteousness to the Plummet of which Thousands can at this day give in their Witness So that nothing has been affirmed by this People of the Power and Virtue of this Heavenly Principle that such as have turned to it have not found true and more and that one half had not been told to them of what they have seen of the Power Purity Wisdom Mercy and Goodness of God herein VI. The Accomplishments with which this Principle fitted even some of the meanest of this People for their Work and Service Furnishing some of them with an Extraordinary Vnderstanding in Divine Things and an admirable Fluency and Taking way of expression which gave occasion to some to wonder saying of them as of their Master is not this such a Mechanick's Son how came he by this Learning As from thence others took occasion to suspect and insinuate they were Jesuites in Disguise who have had the Reputation of learned Men for an Age past though there was not the least ground of Truth for any such Reflection VII That they rise Low and Dispised and Hated as the Primitive Christians did and not by the help of Worldly Wisdom or Power as former Reformations in part did But in all things it may be said this People were brought forth in the Cross in a Contradiction to the Ways Worship Fashion and Customs of this World yea against Wind and Tide that so no Flesh might Glory before God They could have no design to themselves in this Work thus to expose themselves to Scorn and Abuse to spend and be spent Leaving Wife and Children House and Land and all that can be accounted dear to Men with their lives in their Hands being daily in Jeopardy to declare this Primitive Message 1 Jo. 1.5 revived in their Spirits by the good Spirit and Power of God viz. That God is Light and in him is no darkness at all and that he has sent his Son a Light into the World to enlighten all Men in order to Salvation and that they that say they have Fellowship with God and are his Children and People and yet walk in Darkness viz. in Disobedience to the Light in their Consciences and after the Vanity of this World they lie and do not the Truth But that all such as love the Light and bring their Deeds to it and walk in the Light as God is Light the blood of Jesus Christ his Son should cleanse them from all Sin VIII Their known great Constancy and Patience in Suffering for their Testimony in all the Branches of it and that sometimes unto Death by Beatings Bruisings long and crowded Imprisonments and Noisom Dungeons Four of them in New England Dying by the Hands of the Executioner purely for Preaching amongst that People besides Banishments and Excessive Plunders and Sequestrations of their Goods and Estates almost in all parts not easily to be expressed and less to be endured but by those that have the support of a good and glorious Cause refusing Deliverance by any indirect ways or means as often as it was offered to them IX That they did not only not show any disposition to Revenge when it was at any time in their Power but forgave their cruel Enemies shewing Mercy to those that had none for them X. Their Plainness with those in Authority not unlike the Antient Prophets not fearing to tell them to their Faces of their Private and Publick Sins and their Prophecies to them of their Afflictions and Downfall when in the Top of their Glory also of some National Judgments as of the Plague and Fire of London in express Terms and likewise particular ones to divers Persecutions which accordingly overtook them and which were very remarkable in the Places where they dwelt and in time they may be made publick for the Glory of God Thus Reader thou seest this People in their Rise Principles Ministry and Progress both their General and Particular Testimony by which thou maist be informed how and upon what foot they Sprung and became so considerable a People It remains next that I shew also their Care Conduct and Discipline as a Christian and Reformed Society that they might be found living up to their own Principles and Profession And this the rather because they have hardly suffered more in their Character from the Vnjust Charge of Error than by the false Imputation of Disorder Which Calumny indeed has not failed to follow all the true steps that were ever made to Reformation and under which Reproach none suffered more than the Primitive Christians themselves that were the Honour of Christianity and the great Lights and Examples of their own and succeeding Ages This People encreasing daily both in Town and Country an Holy Care fell upon some of the Elders among them for the Benefit and Service of the Church And the first Business in their View after the Example of the Primitive Saints was the Exercise of Charity to supply the Necessities of the Poor and answer the like Occasions Wherefore Collections were early and liberally made for that and divers other Services in the Church and intrusted with Faithful Men fearing God and of good Report who were not weary in
Notion as that you are in Christ whilst in your old fallen Nature For what Communion hath Light with Darkness or Christ with Belial Hear what the beloved Disciple tells you If we say we have fellowship with God and walk in Darkness we lie and do not the Truth That is if we go on in a sinful way are Captivated by our Carnal Affections and are not Converted to God we walk in Darkness and cannot possibly have any fellowship with God Christ Cloths them with his Righteousness that receive his Grace in their Hearts and deny themselves and take up his Cross daily and follow him Christ's Righteousness makes Men inwardly Holy of Holy Minds Wills and Practices It is nevertheless Christs because we have it for it is ours not by Nature but by Faith and Adoption It is the Gift of God But still tho' not ours as of or from our selves for in that Sense it is Christ's for it is of and from him yet it is ours and must be ours in Possession Efficacy and Enjoyment to do us any Good or Christ's Righteousness will profit us nothing It was after this manner That he was made to the primitive Christians Righteousness Sanctification Justification and Redemption and if ever you will have the Comfort Kernel and Marrow of the Christian Religion thus you must come to learn and obtain it Now my Friends by what you have Read and will Read in what Follows you may perceive that God has visited a Poor People among you with this saving Knowledge and Testimony whom he has upheld and encreased to this Day notwithstanding the fierce opposition they have met withal Despise not the meanness of this Appearance It was and yet is we know a day of small things and of small Account with too many and many hard and ill Names are given to it but it is of God it came from him because it leads to him This we know but we cannot make another know it as we know it unless he will take the same way to know it that we took The World talks of God but what do they do They pray for Power but reject the Principle in which it is If you would know God and Worship and serve God as you should do you must come to the means he has ordained and given for that purpose Some seek it in Books some in Learned Men but what they look for is in themselves but they overlook it The Voice is too still the Seed too small and the Light shineth in Darkness They are abroad and so cannot divide the Spoil but the Woman that lost her Silver found it at Home after she had light her Candle and swept her House Do you so too and you shall find what Pilate wanted to know viz. Truth The light of Christ within who is the Light of the World and so a Light to you that tells you the Truth of your Condition leads all that take heed unto it out of Darkness into God's marvellous Light for Light grows upon the Obedient It is sown for the Righteous and their way is a shining Light that shines forth more and more to the perfect day Wherefore O Friends Turn in Turn in I beseech you Where is the Poison there is the Antidote There you want Christ and there you must find him and blessed be God there you may find him Seek and you shall find I testifie for God But then you must seek aright with your whole Heart as Men that seek for their Lives yea for their Eternal Lives Diligently Humbly Patiently as those that can taste no Pleasure Comfort or Satisfaction in any thing else unless you find him whom your Souls want and desire to know and love above all O it is a Travail a Spiritual Travail Let the Carnal Profane World think and say as it will And through this Path you must walk to the City of God that has Eternal Foundations if ever you will come there Well! And what does this blessed Light do for you Why 1. it sets all your sins in order before you It detects the Spirit of this World in all its Bates and Allurements and shews how Man came to fall from God and the fallen Estate he is in 2. It begets a Sense and Sorrow in such as believe in it for this fearful Laps You will then see him Distinctly whom you have Pierced him and all the Blows and Wounds you have given him by your Disobedience and how you have made him to serve with your Sins and you will Weep and Mourn for it and your Sorrow will be a Godly Sorrow 3. After this it will bring you to the Holy Watch to take Care that you do so no more that the Enemy surprise you not again Then Thoughts as well as Words and Works will come to Judgment which is the way of Holiness in which the Redeemed of the Lord do Walk Here you will come to love God above all and your Neighbours as your selves Nothing Hurts Noâ—hing Harms Nothing makes Afraid on this Holy Mountain Now you come to be Christ's indeed for you are his in Nature and Spirit and not your own And when you are thus Christ's then Christ is yours and not before And here Communion with the Father and with the Son you will know and the Efficacy of the Blood of Cleansing even the Blood of Jesus Christ that Immaculate Lamb which speaketh better things than the Blood of Abel and which cleanseth from all Sin the Consciences of those that through the living Faith come to be sprinkled with it from dead Works to serve the living God To Conclude Behold the Testimony and Doctrine of the People called Quakers Behold their Practice and Discipline And behold the blessed Man and Men that were sent of God in this Excellent Work and Service All which will be more particularly expressed in the Ensuing Annals of the Man of God which I do heartily recommend to my Readers most serious Perusal and beseech Almighty God that his Blessing may go along with it to the Convincing of many as yet Strangers to this Holy Dispensation and also to the Edification of the Church of God in General Who for his manifold and repeated Mercies and Blessings to his People in this day of his great Love is worthy ever to have the Glory Honour Thanksgiving and Renown and be it rendred and ascribed with Fear and Reverence through him in whom he is well pleased his bloved Son and Lamb our Light and Life that fits with him upon the Throne World without End Amen Says One that God has long since Mercifully favoured with his Fatherly Visitation and who was not Disobedient to the Heavenly Vision and Call to whom the Way of Truth is more Lovely and Precious than ever and that knowing the Beauty and Benefit of it above all Worldly Treasure has chosen it for his Chiefest Joy and therefore recommends it to thy Love and Choice because he is with great Sincerity and Affection thy
Hill called Pendle-hill and I was moved of the Lord to go up to the Top of it which I did with much ado it was so very Steep and High When I was come to the Top of this Hill I saw the Sea bordering upon Lancashire And from the Top of this Hill the Lord let me see in what Places he had a Great People to be gathered As I went down I found a Spring of Water in the Side of the Hill with which I refreshed my self having eaten or drunk but little in several Days before At Night we came to an Inn and declared Truth to the Man of the House and writ a Paper to the Priests and Professors declaring the Day of the Lord and that Christ was come to teach People himself by his Power and Spirit in their Hearts and to bring People off from all the World's Ways and Teachers to his own free Teaching who had bought them and was the Saviour of all them that believed in him The Man of the House spread the Paper abroad and was himself mightily affected with the Truth Here the Lord opened unto me and let me see a Great People in white Raiment by a River-side coming to the Lord And the Place that I saw them in was about Wentzerdale and Sedbergh The next Day we travelled on and at Night got a little Fern or Brakins to lay under us and lay upon a Common Next Morning we reached to a Town and there Richard Farnsworth parted from me and then I travelled alone again Wentzerdale So I came up Wentzerdale and at the Market-Town in that Dale there was a Lecture on the Market-day and I went into the Steeple-house And after the Priest had done I Proclaimed the Day of the Lord to the Priest and People Warning them to turn from the Darkness to the Light and from the Power of Satan unto God that they might come to know God and Christ aright and to receive his Teaching who teacheth freely And largely and freely did I declare the Word of Life unto them and had not much Persecution there Afterwards I passed up the Dales Warning People to fear God and preaching the Everlasting Gospel to them And in my way I came to a Great House where there was a School-master and they got me into the House And I asked them Questions about their Religion and Worship and afterward I declared the Truth to them They had me into a Parlour and lockt me in pretending that I was a Young Man that was Mad and had got away from my Relations and that they would keep me till they could send to my Relations 1652. Wentzerdale But I soon Convinced them of their Mistake in that and they let me forth and would have had me to stay there But I was not to stay there Then having exhorted them to Repentance and directed them to the Light of Christ Jesus that through it they might come unto him and be saved I passed from them and came in the Night to a little Ale-house on a Common where there was a Company of Rude Fellows drinking And because I would not drink with them they got up their Clubs and were striking at me but I reproved them and brought them to be somewhat Cooler and then I walked out of the House upon the Common in the Night After some time one of these drunken Fellows came out and would have come close up to me pretending to whisper to me but I perceived he had a Knife wherefore I kept off from him and bid him Repent and fear God So the Lord by his Power preserved me from this Wicked Man and he went into the House again The next Morning I went on through other Dales Yorkshire Dales Warning and Exhorting People every where as I passed to Repent and turn to the Lord and several were Convinced At one House that I came to the Man of the House whom I afterwards found to be a Kinsman of John Blakelin's would have given me Money but I would not Receive it As thus I traveled on through the Dales I came to another Man's House whose Name was Tennant And I was moved to speak to the Family and declare God's Everlasting Truth to them And as I was turning away from them I was moved to turn again and speak to the Man himself And he was Convinced and his Family and lived and died in the Truth Thence I came to Major Bousfield's who received me as did also several others and some that were then Convinced have stood faithful ever since Grysedale I went also thro' Grysedale and several other of those Dales in which some were Convinced And I went into Dent where many were Convinced also Dent. But from Major Bousfield's I came to Richard Robinson's and declared the Everlasting Truth to him The next day I went to a Meeting at Justice Benson's where met a a People that were separated from the publick Worship This was the place that I had seen where a People came forth in white Raiment A large Meeting it was and the People were generally Convinced and continue a large Meeting still of Friends near Sedburgh Near Sedburgh Which was then first gathered through my Ministry in the Name of Jesus In the same Week there was a great Fair at which Servants used to be hired And I went and declared the day of the Lord through the Fair. And after I had done so I went into the Steeple-house-Yard and many of the People of the Fair came thither to me and abundance of Priests and Professors There I declared the Everlasting Truth of the Lord and the Word of Life for several Hours shewing that the Lord was come to Teach his People himself and to bring them off from all the World's Ways and Teachers to Christ the true Teacher and the true Way to God I laid open their Teachers shewing that they were like them that were of Old condemned by the Prophets and by Christ and by the Apostles And I exhorted the People to come off from the Temples made with Hands 1652. Near Sedburgh and Wait to receive the Spirit of the Lord that they might know themselves to be the Temples of God Not one of the Priests had power to open his Mouth against what I declared But at last a Captain said Why will you not go into the Church for this is not a fit place to preach in said he But I told him I denied their Church Then stood up one Francis Howgill who was a Preacher to a Congregation He had not seen me before yet he undertook to Answer that Captain and soon put him to Silence Then said this Francis Howgill of me This Man speaks with Authority and not as the Scribes After this I opened to the People That that Ground and House was no holier than another Place and that that House is not the Church but the People whom Christ is the Head of Then after a while the
and the Matter they sung so Vnsuitable to their States that after they had done singing I was moved of the Lord to speak to him and the People The Word of the Lord to them was He is not a Jew that is one Outward but he is a Jew that is one Inward whose Praise is not of Man but of God Then as the Lord opened further I shewed them That God was come to Teach his People by his Spirit and to bring them off from all their old Ways and Religions Churches and Worships for all their Religions and Worships and Ways was but talking of other Mens Words but they were out of the Life and Spirit which they were in who gave them forth Then cried out one called Justice Sawrey Take him away But Judge Fell's Wife said to the Officers Let him alone Why may not he speak as well as any other Lampitt also the Priest in Deceit said Let him speak So at length when I had declared a pretty while this Justice Sawrey caused the Constable to put me out and then I spake to the People in the Grave-yard Aldenham Upon the First-Day after I was moved to go to Aldenham-Steeple-house And when the Priest had done I spake to him but he got away Then I declared the Word of Life to the People and warned them to Return to the Lord. Ramside From thence I passed to Ram-side where was a Chappel in which one Thomas Lawson used to preach who was a high sort of a Priest and he very lovingly spake to his People in the Morning of my Coming in the Afternoon by which means very many People were gathered together When I came I saw there was no Place so Convenient to declare to the People there as the Chappel wherefore I went into the Chappel and all was quiet And the Priest Thomas Lawson went not up into his Pulpit but left all the Time to me And the Everlasting Day of the Eternal God was proclaimed that Day and the Everlasting Truth was largely declared which reached and entred into the Hearts of People and many received the Truth in the Love of it And this Priest came to be Convinced and left his Chappel 1652. Firbank Chappel and threw off his Preaching for Hire and came to preach the Lord Jesus and his Kingdom freely After that some rude People cast Scandals upon him and thought to have done him a Mischief but he was carried over all and grew in the Wisdom of God mightily and proved very serviceable in his Place Then returned I to Swarthmore again Swarthmore Dalton Steeple-house and on the next First-Day went to Dalton-Steeple-house where after the Priest had done I declared the Word of Life to the People that they might be turned from the Darkness to the Light and from the Power of Satan to God and might come off from their Superstitious Ways and from their Teachers made of Man to Christ the true and living Way to be taught of him From thence I went into the Island of Walnah Island of Walnah and after the Priest had done I spake to him but he got away Then I spake to the People and declared the Truth unto them but they were something Rude Then went I to speak with the Priest at his House but he would not be seen The People said he went to hide himself in the Hay-mow and they went to look for him there but could not find him Then they said he was gone to hide himself in the standing Corn but they could not find him there neither So I went to James Lancaster's who was Convinced in the Island and from thence I returned to Swarthmore again Swarthmore where the Lord's Power seized upon Margaret Fell and her Daughter Sarah and several of them Then I went to Becliff where Leornard Fell was Convinced Becliff and became a Minister of the Everlasting Gospel And several others were Convinced there and came into obedience to the Truth Here the People said They could not tell how to dispute and would fain have put on some other to hold Talk with me but I bid them Fear the Lord and not in a light way hold a Talk of the Lord's Words but put the Things in practice And I directed them to the Divine Light of Christ and his Spirit in their Hearts which would let them see all the Evil Thoughts Words and Actions that they had thought spoken and acted by which Light they might see their Sin and by which Light they might also see their Saviour Christ Jesus to save them from their Sins This I told them was their first Step to Peace even to stand still in the Light that shewed them their Sins and Transgressions by which they might come to see how they were in the fall of Old Adam in the Darkness and Death Strangers to the Covenant of Promise and without God in the World And by the same Light they might see Christ that died for them to be their Redeemer and Saviour and their Way to God After this I went to a Chappel beyond Gleaston which was built Chappel beyond Gleaston but never Priest had preached in it Thither all the Country up and down came and a quiet peaceable Meeting it was in which the Word of Life was declared amongst the People and many were convinced of the Truth about Gleaston 1652. Swarthmore Westmorland on Kendal-side From thence I returned to Swarthmore again where after I had staid a few Days and most of the Family were Convinced I went from thence back again into Westmorland where Priest Lampitt had been amongst the Professors on Kendal-Side and had mightily Incensed them against me telling them I held many strange Things So I met with them that he had so Incensed and sate up all Night with them at James Dickinson's and answered all their Objections And then they were both throughly satisfied with the Truth that I had declared and dissatisfied with him and his Lies that he had divulged so that he clearly lost the best of his Hearers and Followers who hereby came to see his Deceit and forsook him Then I passed on to John Audland's and Gervase Benson's and had great Meetings amongst those People that had been Convinced before And to John Blakelin's and Richard Robinson's and had mighty Meetings there and so up towards Grisedale Soon after Judge Fell being come home Margaret Fell his Wife sent to me desiring me to return thither And I feeling Freedom from the Lord so to do Swarthmore went back through the Country to Swarthmore Where when I came I found the Priests and Professors and that envious Justice Sawrey had much Incensed Judge Fell and Captain Sands against the Truth by their Lies But when I came to speak with him I answered all his Objections and so throughly satisfied him by the Scriptures that he was Convinced in his Judgment Then he asked me If I was that George Fox whom Justice
that I have sought your Eternal Good and written this in dear Love to you And then will you own your Condemnation which you must all own before ye can come into that blessed Life of which there is no End But ye who hate the Light because your Deeds are evil this Light is your Condemnation and will be And when your Condemnation is come upon you remember ye were warned O that ye would love this Light and hearken to it It would teach you both as you walk up and down about your Occasions and as you lie upon your Beds and would never let you speak a vain VVord In loving it you love Christ in hating it you bring the Condemnation thereof upon your selves And to you this is the VVord of God from under which you can never pass nor ever escape the Terror of the Lord in the state you are in who hate the Light G. F. Amongst those who were the Chief Hearers and Followers of this Priest Lampitt of Vlverston there was one Adam Sands who was a very wicked false Man and would have destroyed Truth and its Followers if he could To him I was moved to write thus Adam Sands TO the Light in the Conscience I appeal thou Child of the Devil thou Enemy of Righteousness the Lord will strike thee down though now for a while in thy wickedness thou may'st Reign And the Plagues of God are due to thee who hardenest thy self in thy wickedness against the pure Truth of God With the pure Truth of God which thou hast resisted and persecuted thou art to be threshed down which is Eternal and doth Comprehend thee and with the Light which thou despisest thou art seen and it is thy Condemnation Thou as one bruitish and thy VVife as an Hypocrite and you both as Murderers of the Just in that which is Eternal are seen and comprehended and your Hearts searched and tried and condemned by the Light The Light in thy Conscience will witness the Truth of what I write to thee and will let thee see that thou art not born of God but art from the Truth in the Beastly Nature And if ever thy Eye see Repentance thou wilt witness me a Friend of thy Soul and a seeker of thy Eternal Good G. F. This Adam Sands afterwards died miserably I was moved also to write to Priest Tatham THE Word of the Lord to thee Priest Tatham who art found out of the Doctrine of Christ having the chiefest Place in the Assembly and being called of Men Master and standing Praying in the Synagogue in the Steps of the Pharisees which our Lord Jesus Christ cried VVo against In his VVay thou art not but in the Way of the Scribes and Pharisees as thou mayest read Matth. 23. There Christ's VVords Judge thee and the Scriptures of Truth Condemn thee For thou art such an one as sues Men at the Law for Tithes and yet professest thy self to be a Minister of Christ which Christ never impowered his to do Neither did any of his Apostles or Ministers ever do so Here I charge thee in the presence of the Living God to be out of their Doctrine and that thou art one of those evil Beasts the Scripture speaks of that mindest Earthly Things which the Life of the Scriptures is against Thou art for Destruction in the State wherein thou standest and it will be thy Portion eternally if thou dost not Repent To that of God in thy Conscience I speak which will witness the Truth of what I say Thou art one that goest in Cain's Way in Envy an Enemy to God and from the Command of God Thou art one that goest in Balaam's Way from the Spirit of God for Gifts and Rewards the Wages of Unrighteousness Thou Son of Balaam thou art worse than thy Father for though he loved the VVages of Vnrighteousness yet he durst not take it but thou not only takest it but suest Men at the Law if they will not give it thee which never did Minister of Jesus Christ Therefore stop thy Mouth for ever and never make mention of them or profess thy self one of them With the Light thou art seen and comprehended who art light and vain and speakest a Divination of thy own Brain and deceivest the People That in thy Conscience will witness what I say and will Condemn thee who art one that bearest Rule by thy Means which the Lord sent Jeremiah to cry against Jer. 5. and so thou holdest up the horrible and filthy thing that is committed in the Land And they that do not Tremble at the VVord of the Lord they are the foolish People that hold thee up they are sottish Children and have no Understanding They are Wise to do Evil but not to do Good who are deceived by thee And such an one thou art that seekest for thy Gain from thy Quarter a greedy dumb Dog that never hath enough as thy Practice makes manifest which the Lord sent Isaiah to cry against Isa 56.11 12. And thou art such an one as the Lord sent Ezekiel to cry against who feedest of the Fat and Clothest with the VVooll and makest a Prey upon the People But the Lord is gathering his Sheep from thy Mouth that to thee they shall be a Prey no longer Thou Enemy of God here this Prophecy is fulfilled upon thee Ezek. 34. and thou art one of them I charge it upon thee in the presence of the living God A Hireling thou art and they that put not into thy Mouth thou preparest War against them Thou hatest the Good and lovest the Evil which the Lord sent Micah to cry against Mic. 3. Cover thy Lips and stop thy Mouth for ever thou Child of Darkness for with the Light thou art comprehended and seen to be among them which the holy Men of God cryed W O against and by the Spirit of the living God thou art judged In the Light which is thy Condemnation thou art comprehended thy Race is seen and thy Compass known who art out of the Commands of Christ and out of the Doctrine and Life of the Apostles Thou art proved and tryed and to thee this is the VVord of the Lord and to thee it shall be as an Hammer a Fire and a Sword and from under it thou shalt never come unless thou Repent who art with the Light to be Condemned in that State wherein thou standest And if ever thy Eye see Repentance this thy Condemnation thou must own G. F. I writ also to Burton Priest of Sedbergh much what to the same purpose he being in the same evil Ground Nature and Practice which the other Priests were in Many other Epistles also and Papers I writ about that Time as the Lord moved me thereunto which I sent abroad among the Priests Professors and People of all sorts for the laying their Evil ways open before them that they might see and forsake them and opening the Way of Truth unto them that they might come to walk therein which
unstopped the deaf Ears hath let the Oppressed go free and hath raised up the Dead out of the Graves Christ is now preached in and among the Saints the same that ever he was and because his heavenly Image is born up in this his faithful Servant therefore doth fallen Man Rulers Priests and Peopleâ— persecute him because he lives up out of the Fall and testifies against the Works of the VVorld that the Deeds thereof are Evil he suffers by you Magistrates not as an Evil-Doer For thus it was ever where the Seed of God was kept in Prison under the cursed Nature that Nature sought to imprison them in whom it was raised The Lord will make him to you as a burdensom Stone for the Sword of the Spirit of the Almighty is put into the Hands of the Saints which shall wound all the Wicked and shall not be put up till it hath cut down all corrupt Judges Justices Magistrates Priests and Professors till he hath brought his wonderful thing to pass in the Earth which is to make New Heavens and a New Earth wherein shall dwell Righteousness which now he is about to do Therefore fear the Lord God Almighty ye Judges Justices Commanders Priests and People ye that forget God suddenly will the Lord come and destroy you with an utter Destruction and will sweep your Names out of the Earth and will restore his People Judges as at the First and Counsellors as at the Beginning And all Persecutors shall partake of the Plagues of the VVhore who hath made the Kings of the Earth and the great Men drunk with the VVine of her Fornications and hath drunk the Blood of the Saints and therefore shall you be Partakers of her Plagues We are not suffered to go see our Friend in Prison whom we witness to be a Messenger of the Living God Now all People mind Whether this be according to Law oâ— from the wicked perverse envious Will of the envious Rulers and Magistrates who are of the same Generation that persecuted Jesus Christ for said he as they have done to me so will they do to you And as he took the love the kindness and service that was shewed and performed to any of his Afflicted Ones in their Sufferings and Distress as done unto himself so the Injuries and Wrongs that were done by any to any of his Little Ones he resented as done unto himself also Therefore you who are so far from visiting him your selves in his suffering Servant that ye will not suffer his Brethren to visit him ye must depart ye Workers of Iniquity into the Lake that burns with Fire The Lord is coming to thresh the Mountains and will beat them to Dust And all corrupt Rulers corrupt Officers and corrupt Laws the Lord will take Vengeance on by which the tender Consciences of his People are oppressed And he will give his People his Law and will judge his People himself not according to the sight of the Eye and hearing of the Ear but with Righteousness and with Equity Now are your Hearts made manifest to be full of Envy against the living Truth of God which is made manifest in his People who are contemned and despised of the World and scornfully called Quakers You are worse than the Heathens that put Paul in Prison for none of his Friends or Acquaintance were hindred to come to him by them therefore they shall be Witnesses against you Ye are made manifest to the Saints to be of the same Generation that put Christ to death and that put the Apostles in Prison on the same pretence as you act under in calling Truth Error and the Ministers of God Blasphemers as they did But the day is dreadful and terrible that shall come upon you ye Evil Magistrates Priests and People who profess the Truth in Words outwardly and yet persecute the Power of Truth and them that stand in and for the Truth While ye have Time prize it and remember what is written Isa 54.17 George Benson Anthony Pearson Not long after this the Lord's Power came over the Justices and they were made to set me at Liberty But sometime before I was set at Liberty the Governour and the said Anthony Pearson came down into the Dungeon to see the Place where I was kept and understand what Vsage I had And when they were come down to me they found the place so bad and the savour so ill that they cried shame of the Magistrates for suffering the Jailer to do such things And they called for the Jailers into the Dungeon and required them to find Sureties for their good Behaviour and the Vnder-Jailer who had been such a Cruel Fellow they put into the Dungeon with me amongst the Moss-Troopers 1653. Cumberland At T. B's Now after I was set at Liberty I went to Thomas Bewley's where there came a Baptist-Teacher to Oppose me and he was Convinced And Robert Widders being with me was moved to go to Coldbeck-Steeple-house and the Baptist-Teacher went along with him the same day And the People fell upon them and almost killed Robert Widders and took the Baptist's Sword from him and beat him sorely This Baptist had the Inheritance of an Impropriation of Tithes and he went home and gave it up freely Robert VVidders was sent to Carlisle-Jail where having lain a while he was set at Liberty again VVilliam Dewsberry also went to another Steeple-house hard by and the People almost killed him they beat him so but the Lord's Power was over all and healed them again At that day many Friends went to the Steeple-houses to declare the Truth to the Priests and People and great Sufferings they underwent but the Lord's Power sustained them Now I went into the Country and had mighty great Meetings and the Everlasting Gospel and VVord of Life flourished and Thousands were turned to the Lord Jesus Christ and to his Teaching And several that took Tithes as Impropriators denied the receiving of them any longer Westmorland and delivered them up freely to the Parishioners Then passing on into VVestmorland I had many great Meetings and at Strickland-Head I had a large Meeting Strickland head where a Justice of Peace out of Bishoprick whose Name was Henry Draper came up and many Contenders were there The Priests and Magistrates were in a great Rage against me in Westmorland and had a VVarrant to apprehend me which they renewed from time to time for a long time Yet the Lord did not suffer them to serve it upon me So I traveled on amongst Friends visiting the Meetings till I came to Swarthmore Swarthmore where I heard that the Baptists and Professors in Scotland had sent to me to have a Dispute with me Whereupon I sent them word Cumberland that I would meet them in Cumberland at Thomas Bewley's House whither accordingly I went but none of them came Some dangers at this time I underwent in my Travels to and fro Wighton for at one time as
Rejoyce in Iniquity but leads to Repent of it So this is the WORD OF THE LORD GOD to you all Friends every where abroad scattered Know the Power of God in one another and in that Rejoyce for then you Rejoyce in the Cross of Christ who is not of the World which Cross is the Power of God to all them that are saved So you that know the Power and feel the Power you feel the Cross of Christ you feel the Gospel which is the Power of God unto Salvation to every one that believeth Now he that believes in the Light believes in the Everlasting Covenant in the one Offering comes to the Life of the Prophets and Moses comes to see Christ the Hope the Mystery which Hope perisheth not but lets you see the Hope that perisheth which is not that Mystery and the Expectation in that perishing Hope fades And where this never-failing Hope is witnessed the Lord comes to be sanctified in the Heart and you come to the Beginning to Christ the Hope which perisheth not but the other Hope and the other Expectation that perisheth So all of you know the perishing of the Other and the failing of the Expectation therein and know that which perisheth not that you may be ready to give a Reason of this Hope with Meekness and Fear to every Man that asketh you Christ the Hope the Mystery that perisheth not the End of all perishing things the End of all changeable things the End of the decaying Covenant the End of that which waxeth old and doth decay the End of the first Covenant of Moses and of the Prophets the Righteousness of God Christ Jesus the Son his Throne ye will know Heirs with him ye will be who makes his Children Kings and Priests to him and brings them to know his Throne and his Power There is no Justification out of the Light out of Christ Justification is in the Light in Christ Here is the Doer of the Will of God here 's the Entring into the Kingdom He that believes in the Light becomes a Child of Light and here the Wisdom is received that is justified of her Children Here believing in the Light you shall not abide in Darkness but shall have the Light of Life and come every one to witness the Light that shines in your Hearts which Light will give you the Light of the Knowledge of the Glory of God in the Face of Jesus Christ With which Light you will see him reign who is the Prince of Life and of Peace which Light turns from him that is out of the Truth and abode not in it where the true Peace is not Friends Be not hasty For he that believes in the Light makes not Haste Here the Grace is received by which you come to be saved the Election is known which obtains the Promise The Will is seen that wills the Mind is known that runs which obtains not but stops and dulls Now that with the Light being seen and judged and stopt the Patience is here known which obtains the Crown and the Immortality is come to Light So all they now that act contrary to the Light and do not believe in it they do not come to Justification And all Friends if you go from the Light from wanting to have the Promise of God fulfilled to the Seed whereby you may know Christ Reign you thereby bring on your selves Changable Garments and come to wear the Changable Garments and the strange Flesh which leads to Adultery which the Law goes upon which shuts out of the Kingdom And out of this Will doth proceed the Work or Building that is for the Fire whereby you may come to suffer Less Therefore the Light love which doth that Condemn and receive the Power from the Lord with which you stand over that and do it Condemn feeling and seeing that which gives you the Victory over the World and to see out of Time to before Time And again Friends Know Abraham that must obey the Voice of Sarah that bears Seed which casts forth the Bond-woman and her Son Do not go forth there will the Wildness lodge Know that which bears the Wild Son and its Mother who is not Sarah for the Promise is to the Seed not of many but one which Seed is Christ And this Seed now you come to witness stand on the Top of all yea on the Head of the Serpent And so all as I said before who this come to feel and witness ceme to the Beginning and this to all the Seed of God the Church that it you all may come to know where there is no blemish nor spot nor Wrinkle nor any such thing which is that which is purchased by the Blood of Jesus and to the Father presented out of all that does defile which is the Pillar and Ground of Truth And none comes to this but such who come to the Light which doth come from Christ who purchased this Church They who go from the Light are shut out and condemned though they profess all the Scriptures declared forth from it Therefore walk in the Light that you may have Fellowship with the Son and with the Father and come all to witness his Image and his Power and his Law which is his Light which hath converted your Souls and brought them to submit to the higher Power above that which is out of the Truth that you may know here the Mercy and Truth and the Faith that works by Love which Christ is the Author of who lighteth every one of you which Faith gives the Victory Now that which gives the Victory is perfect and that which the Ministers of God received from God is that which is perfect and that which they are to Minister is for the perfecting of the Saints till they all come in the Unity of the Faith unto a Perfect Man So this is the Word of the Lord God to you all every one in the Measure of Life Wait that with it all your Minds may be guided up to the Father of Life the Father of Spirits all to receive Power from him and Wisdom that with it you may be ordered to his Glory to whom be all Glory for ever All keep in the Light and Life that judgeth down that which is contrary to the Light and Life So the Lord God Almighty be with you all And keep your Meetings every where being guided by that of God by that you may see the Lord God among you even him who lighteth every Man that cometh into the World by whom the World was made that Men that be come into the World might believe He that believeth not the Light condemns him He that believeth cometh out of Condemnation So this Light which lighteth every Man that cometh into the World which they that hate it stumble at this is the Light of Men. All Friends that speak abroad see that it be in the Life of God for that begets to God the Fruits of that shall never
were with me came in one Cob and a great Company of Ranters with him The Ranters began to call for Drink and Tobacco but I desired them to forbâ—ar it in my Room telling them If they had such a Mind to it they might go into another Room One of them cried All is ours and another of them said All is well I replied How is all well while thou art so peevish and envious and crabbed for I saw he was of a peevish Nature and so I spake to their Conditions and they were sensible of it and looked upon one another wondring Then Colonel Packer began to talk with a light chaffy Mind concerning God and Christ and the Scriptures That was a great Grief to my Soul and Spirit when I heard him talk so lightly so that I told him He was too light to talk of the things of God for he did not know the solidity of a Man Thereupon the Officers raged and said Would I say so of their Colonel This Packer was a Baptist and he and the Ranters bowed and scraped to one another very much for it was the manner of the Ranters to be exceeding Complemental as they call it so that Packer bid them Give over their Complements But I told them They were fit to go together for they were both of one Spirit This Colonel Packer lived at Theobald's near Waltham and was made a Justice of Peace He set up a great Meeting of the Baptists at Theobald's Park for he and some other Officers had purchased it They were exceeding High and railed against Friends and Truth and threatned to apprehend me with their Warrants if ever I came there Yet after I was set at Liberty I was moved of the Lord God to go down to Theobalds and appoint a Meeting hard by them Theobalds to which many of his People came and divers of his Hearers were Convinced of the Way of Truth and received Christ the free Teacher and came off from him and that made him Rage the more But the Lord's Power came over him so that he had not Power to meddle with me Then I went to Waltham hard by him Waltham and had a Meeting there but the People were very rude and gathered about the House and brake the Windows Whereupon I went out to them with the Bible in my Hand and desired them to come in and told them I would shew them Scripture both for our Principles and Practices And when I had done so I shewed them also That their Teachers were in the Steps of such as the Prophets and Christ and the Apostles cryed against Then I directed them to the Light of Christ and Spirit of God in their own Hearts that by it they might come to know their free Teacher the Lord Jesus Christ. The Meeting being ended they went away quieted and satisfied and a Meeting hath since been settled in that Town 1654. London But this was sometime after I was set at Liberty by O. Cromwel For when I came from White-hall to the Mermaid at Charing-Cross which had been my Prison I staid not long there but went into the City of London where we had great and powerful Meetings and so great were the Throngs of People that I could hardly get to and from the Meetings for the Crouds of People And the Truth spread exceedingly Thomas Aldam and Robert Craven who had been Sheriff of Lincoln and divers Friends came up to London after me but Alexander Parker abode with me Then after a while I went to White-hall again and was moved to declare the Day of the Lord amongst them White-Hall and that the Lord was come to teach his People himself So I preached Truth both to the Officers and to them that were called Oliver's Gentlemen who were of his Guard But there was a Priest that Opposed while I was declaring the Word of the Lord amongst them For Oliver had several Priests about him of which this was his News-monger an envious Priest and a light scornful chaffy man I bid him Repent and he put it in his News-book the next Week That I had been at White-hall and had bid a Godly Minister there Repent When I went thither again I met with him and abundance of People gathered about me Then I manifested the Priest to be a Liar in several things that he had affirmed and so he was put to Silence He put in the News-book That I wore Silver-Buttons which was false for they were but Alchimy Afterward he put in the News-book That I hung Ribbands on People's Arms which made them to follow me This was another of his Lies for I never wore nor used Ribbands in my Life Three Friends went to examine this Priest that gave forth this false Intelligence and to know of him where he had that Information He told them It was a Woman that told him so and that if they would come again he would tell them the Woman's Name When they came again he said It was a Man but would not tell them his Name then but if they would come again he said he would tell them his Name and where he lived They went the Third Time and then he would not tell who told him but offered If I would give it under my Hand that there was no such thing he would put that into the News-book Thereupon the Friends carried it to him under my Hand but when they came he brake his Promise and would not put it in but was in a Rage and threatned them with the Constable This was the deceitful doing of this Forger of Lies And these Lies he spread over all the Nation in the News-books to render Truth Odious and to put Evil into People's Minds against Friends and Truth of which a more large Account may be seen in a Book printed soon after this time for the clearing of Friends and Truth from the Slanders Lies and false Reports raised and cast upon them These Priests the News-Mongers were of the Independent Sect like them in Leicester But the Lord's Power came over all their Lies and swept them away and many came to see the Naughtiness of these Priests The God of Heaven carried me over all in his Power and his blessed Power went over the Nation Insomuch that many Friends about this time were moved to go up and down to sound forth the Everlasting Gospel in most parts of this Nation and also into Scotland 1654. White-Hall and the Glory of the Lord was felt over all to his Everlasting Praise And a great Convincement there was in London and some in the Protector 's House and Family I went to have seen him again but could not get to him the Officers were grown so Rude The Presbyterians Independents and Baptists were in a great Rage for many of their People came to be turned to the Lord Jesus Christ and sate down under his Teachings and received his Power and felt it in their Hearts and then they were
moved of the Lord to declare against the rest of them I appointed a Meeting in the Fields near Acton in which the Word of Life and the Saving Truth was declared freely and the Lord's Power was eminently manifested and his blessed Day exalted over all About this time I was moved to write a Paper and send it forth among the Professors a Copy of which here followeth To all Professors of Christianity ALL they that professed Jesus Christ in Words and yet heard him not when he was come they said he was a Deceiver and a Devil The Chief Priests were they that called him so So the Jews said He hath a Devil and is mad why do ye hear him But others said These are not the Words of him that hath a Devil Can a Devil open the Eyes of the Blind The Jews then doubted whether he were the Christ or no and so all like the Jews in the Knowledge in the Notion that profess a Christ without only where Christ is risen within they do not own him but do doubt of him though Christ be the same now and for ever Jesus Christ said I and my Father are one then the Jews took up Stones to stone him And where Jesus Christ is now spiritually come and made manifest the Jews such as are Christians in outward Profession only have the same hard Hearts inwardly now as they had then and do Cast Stones at him where he is Risen Jesus said For which of these good works do ye stone me The Jews answered for thy good works we stone thee not but for Blasphemy in that thou being a Man makest thy self God Jesus answered them Is it not written in your Law I said you are Gods and the Scripture cannot be broken Say ye of him whom the Father hath sanctified and sent into the World Thou blasphemest because I said I am the Son of God The Jews said to him say we not well that thou hast a Devil Jesus answered I honour my Father and ye dishonour me And they that were in the Synagogue rose up and thrust him out of the City and took him up to the edge of the Hill whereon their City was built to cast him down head-long The Pharisees said of him He casteth out Devils by the Prince of Devils Jesus Christ was called a Glutton and a Wine-bibber a Friend of Publicans and Sinners But Wisdom is justified of her Children The Officers when the High-priests and Pharisees asked them Why have ye not brought him said Never Man spake like this Man The Pharisees said Are ye also deceived Do any of the Rulers or of the Pharisees believe on him 1654. London but this People which know not the Law are accursed Nicodemus said unto them he that came unto Jesus by Night doth our Law judge any Man before it hear him When Stephen confessed Jesus the Substance of all Figures and Types and was brought before the Chief-Priests to his Trial he told them The Most-High dwelleth not in Temples made with Hands and brought the Prophets Words to witneâ—s and told them They were stiff-necked and uncircumcised in Heart and Ears and always resisted the Holy Ghost as their Fathers had done Stephen was full of the Holy Ghost and said he saw Jesus and they ran upon him and stoned him to Death as he was calling upon the Lord. When Paul Confessed Jesus Christ and his Resurrection Festus said he was Mad When Paul preached the Resurrection some mocked The Jews perswaded the People and they stoned him and drew him out of the City thinking he had been dead The Jews stirred up the Gentiles to make their Minds Evil-affected towards the Brethren The Jews stirred up the Devout and Honourable Women and the Chief of the City and raised up Persecution against Paul and Barnabas and expelled them out of their Coasts And there was an Assault made both of the Gentiles and of the Jews with their Rulers to use them despitefully and to stone them In like manner all in the nature of those Jews now whose Religion stands in Notions do stir up the Rulers and do stir up the ignorant People and incense them against Jesus Christ where he is risen to stone them all with one Consent in whom he is risen This is that the Scripture might be fulfilled and the blindness of the People might be discovered And the same Power now is made manifest and doth overturn the World as did overturn the World to the exalting of the Lord and to the pulling down of the Kingdom of Satan and of this World and setting up his own Kingdom to his everlasting Praise The Lord is now exalting Himself and throwing down Man's self The Proud one 's Head is aloft fearing he should lose his Pride and his Crown the Priests they incense the ignorant People for fear their Trade should go down and the Professors they shew forth what is in them being full of Rage which shews that Jesus Christ the Substance is not there but a stony Heart to stone the Precious where it is risen The Carnal Mind feeds upon the outward Letter and Earth feeds upon Earth and that Vine-yard is not dressed but is full of Briars and Nettles and Ravenous Beasts Swine and Dogs Wolves and Lions and all venemous Creatures lodge in that Habitation That House is foul and is not swept And these are the Persecutors of the Just and Enemies of the Truth and the Enemies of Christ These are Blasphemers of God and his Truth These are they that call upon God with their Lips but their Hearts are far from him These are they that feed on Lies Priests and People These are they that Incense all the People and stir up Envy for it begets its own one like it self These are they that are the Waves of the Sea foaming out their own Shame These are they that have double Eyes whose Bodies are full of Darkness These are they that paint themselves with the Prophets with Christ's and with the Apostles Words most fair whited Walls you are painted Sepulchres you are Murderers of the Just you are Your Eyes are double your Minds are double your Hearts are double Ye Flatterers Repent from your carnal Ends who are full of Mischief pretending God and Godliness taking him for your Cloke But he will uncover you and he hath uncovered you to his Children He will make you bare and discover your Secrets and take off your Crown and take away your Mantle and your Vail and strip you of your Cloathing that your Nakedness may appear and how you sit deceiving the Nations Your Abomination and your Falseness is now made manifest to them who are of God who in his Power Triumph over you Rejoice over you the Beast the Dragon the false Prophet the Seducer the Hypocrite the Mother of all Harlots now thou must have thy Cup double Give it to her double Sing over her ye Righteous Ones sing over them all ye Saints Triumph in Glory Triumph over
the Deceit Sing the Song of the Lamb Triumph over the World spread the Truth abroad Come ye Captive ones out of Prison and Rejoice with one accord for the Joyful Days are coming Let us be glad and Rejoice for ever Singleness of Heart is come Pureness of Heart is come Joy and Gladness is come The glorious God is exalting himself and Truth hath been talked of but now it is possessed Christ hath been talked of but now he is come and possessed The Glory hath been talked of but now it is possessed and the Glory of Man is defacing The Son of God hath been talked of but now he is come and hath given us an Understanding Vnity hath been talked of but now it is come Virgins have been talkt of but now they are come with Oil in their Lamps He will be glorified alone Where Pride is thrown down Earth and the fleshly Will is thrown down and the Pure is raised up there alone is the Lord Exalted Let the Heavens Bow down to him and the Earth Reel to and fro and Stagger up and down The Lord is setting up his Throne and his Crown and throwing down the Crown of Man and he alone will be glorified To whom be all Honour and Glory all Praises and all Thanks Who gives his Children Wisdom and Strength Knowledge and Vertue Power and Riches Blessings and durable Substance and an Eye to discern and an Ear to hear things singly and brings down the Pride of Man's Heart and turns the Wicked out of the Kingdom The Righteous Ones inherit Righteousness the Pure Ones Pureness the Holy Ones Holiness Praises Praises be to the Lord whose Glory now shines whose Day is broken forth which is hid from the World hid from all worldly wise Ones and from all the Prudent of this World hid from the Fowls of the Air hid from all Vultures Eyes and all venemous Beasts and all Liars and all Dogs and all Swine But to them that fear his Name the Secrets of the Lord are made manifest the Treasures of Wisdom are opened and the Fulness of Knowledge For thou O Lord dost make thy self manifest to thy Children G. F. My Spirit was greatly burdened to see the Pride that was got up in the Nation even amongst the Professors and in the sense thereof I was moved to give forth the following Paper directed To such as follow the World's Fashions WHAT a World is this How doth the Devil garnish himself and how obedient are People to do his Will and Mind that they are altogether carried away with Fooleries and Vanities both Men and Women that they have lost the hidden Man of the Heart and the meek and quiet Spirit which with the Lord is of great price They have lost the Adorning of Sarah they are putting on Gold and gay Apparel Women plaiting the Hair Men and Women powdering it making their Backs look like Bags of Meal They look so strange that they can scarce look at one another they are so lifted up in Pride Pride is flown up into their Head and hath so lifted them up that they Snuff up like Wild Asses and like Ephraim they seed upon Wind and are gotten to be like Wild Heifers who feed upon the Mountains Pride hath puffed up every one of them They are out of the Fear of God Men and Women Young and Old one puffs up another They must be in the Fashion of the World else they are not in esteem else they shall not be respected if they have not Gold or Silver upon their Backs or if his Hair be not powdered But if he have store of Ribbands hanging about his Waste and at his Knees and in his Hat of divers Colours Red or White or Black or Yellow and his Hair be powdered then he is a brave Man then he is accepted then he is no Quaker because he hath Ribbands on his Back and Belly and Knees and his Hair powdered This is the Array of the World But is not this from the Lust of the Eye the Lust of the Flesh or the Pride of Life Likewise the Women having their Gold their Spots on their Faces Noses Cheeks Fore-heads having their Rings on their Fingers wearing Gold having their Cuffs double under and above like unto a Butcher with his white Sleeves having their Ribbands tied about their Hands and three or four Gold-Laces about their Cloths This is no Quaker say they This is that that pleaseth the World this Array this Attire pleaseth the World and if they cannot get these things they are discontented But this is not the Attire of Sarah whose Adorning was in the hidden Man of the Heart of a quiet and meek Spirit This is the Adorning of the Heathen not of the Apostle nor of the Saints whose Adorning was not wearing of Gold nor plaiting of Hair but a meek and quiet Spirit which was and is of great price with the Lord. And here was the Sobriety and good Ornament which was of the Lord accepted This was Paul's Exhortation and Preaching But we see the Talkers of Paul's Words live out of Paul's Command and out of the Example of Sarah and are found in the steps of the great Heathen who comes to examin the Apostles in his gorgeous Apparel Now are not all these that have got their Ribbands hanging about their Arms Hands Back Waists Knees Hats like unto Fidlers-Boys Which shews that you are gotten into the basest and most contemptible Life who be in the Fashion of the Fidlers-Boys and Stage-Players quite out of the Paths and Steps of solid Men and in the very Steps and Paths of the wild Heads who give themselves up to every Invention and Vanity of the World that appears and is inventing how to get it upon their Backs Heads Feet and Legs and say If it be out of the Fashion it is nothing worth Are not these the Spoilers of the Creation who have the fat and the best of it and waste and destroy it Do not these Cumber God's Earth Let that of God in all Consciences Answer and who are in the Wisdom judge And further If one get a pair of Britches like a Coat and hang them about with Points and up almost to the Middle a pair of double Cuffs upon his Hands and a Feather in his Cap here 's a Gentleman bow before him put off your Hats bow get a Company of Fidlers a set of Musick and Women to dance This is a brave Fellow up in the Chamber up in the Chamber without and up in the Chamber within Are these your fine Christians Yea say they They are Christians Yea but say the serious People They are out of Christ's Life and out of the Apostles Command and out of the Saints Ornament And to see such as are before described as are in the Fashions of the World before-mentioned a Company of them playing at Bouls or at Tables or at Shovel-Board or Each taking his Horse that hath Bunches of Ribbands on his Head as
Visit Prisoners whom you have Imprisoned Doth this shew you to have a Spirit like Paul yea or nay or are you not quite contrary like to them that persecuted Paul The Day hath declared it To that of God in you all I speak which shall witness it at the Last Day in the Day of Judgment Persecution was blind in all Ages and Madness and Folly led it Yet Persecution got always a Form or Presence of Godliness or to talk of Religion as in the Days of Moses in the Days of Jeremy in the Days of Christ and of the Apostles Come saith the Council Let us crush them while they are Young they have almost over-spread the Nation in every Corner This is as much as to say Let us put this Birth to Death as Pharaoh and Herod did the Children But the Lord caused his Truth the more to spread For you may read what Numbers came out of Egypt and what Multitudes followed Christ Therefore with Consideration read these Lines and not with Fury and let not Foolishness appear But consider in Humility your Ways you act in and your Paths you go in and what Spirit you are of and what the End of your Conversation is now see For in Love to your Souls I write that in the Day of your Visitation you may consider it From him who loveth Righteousness and the establishing of it and Truth and Peace and Faith which is by Christ Jesus Mercy and Peace be multiplied among such But a Witness against all Hypocrites and all who have a Profession but live out of the Possession who are in an Hypocritical Religion in the Lusts and Fashions of the World having a Form of Godliness but standing against the Power with might and main Sword and Staff Which things declare your Conversation and Practices to be out of Christ 's Life against the Gospel-practice and contrary to the Manner and Order of the Saints G. F We were continued in Prison till the next Assize 1656. Lanceston Assize before which time divers Friends both Men and Women were sent to Prison that had been taken up by the Watches When the Assize was come several of these were called before the Judge and Indicted and tho' the Jailer brought them into Court yet they Indicted them that they came in by Force of Arms and in an hostile manner And the Judge fined them because they would not put off their Hats But we were not called before the Judges any more but they let us alone Great Work we had and Service for the Lord both between the Assizes and after amongst the Professors and People of all sorts for many came to see us and to reason with us And Elizabeth Trelawny of Plimouth who was the Daughter of one called a Baronet being Convinced as was formerly mentioned the Priests and Professors and some great Persons of her Kindred were in a great Rage concerning her and writ Letters to her And she being a Wise and Tender Woman and fearing to give them any Advantage sent their Letters to me and I answered them and returned them to her again for her to send the Answers to them Which she did till growing in the Power and Spirit and Wisdom of God she came her self to be able to Answer the wisest Priest and Professor of them all and had a Dominion over them all in the Truth through the Power of the Lord by which she was kept faithful to her Death Now while I was in Prison here Lanceston Gaol the Baptists and Fifth-Monarchy-Men prophesied That this Year Christ should come and Reign upon Earth a Thousand Years And they looked upon this Reign to be Outward When as he was come inwardly in the Hearts of his People to Reign and Rule there and these Professors would not Receive him there So they failed in their Prophecy and Expectation and had not the Possession of him But Christ is come and doth dwell in the Hearts of his People and Reigns there And Thousands at the Door of whose Hearts he hath been knocking have opened to him and he is come in and doth Sup with them and they with him the heavenly Supper with the heavenly and spiritual Man So many of these Baptists and Monarchy-People turned the greatest Enemies to the Possessors of Christ But he Reigns in the Hearts of his Saints over all their Envy At the Assize divers Justices came to us and were pretty Civil and Reasoned of the things of God pretty soberly expressing a Pity to us There came also Capt. Fox who was Governour of Pendennis-Castle and lookt me in the Face and said never a word but went his ways to his Company and told them He never saw a simpler Man in his Life I called after him and said Stay Man we will see who is the simpler Man But he went his way A light Chaffy Man There came also at the Assize one Thomas Lower to Visit us and he offered to give us Money which we refused accepting nevertheless of his Love He asked us many Questions concerning our denying the Scriptures to be the Word of God and concerning the Sacraments and such like To all which he received Satisfaction And I spake unto him and he afterwards said 1656. Lanceston Gaol My Words were as a flash of Lightning they ran so through him And he said He never met with such wise Men in his Life for they knew the Thoughts of his Heart and were as the wise Master-Builders of the Assemblies that fastned their Words like Nails He came to be Convinced of the Truth and remains a Friend to this Day When he came home to his Aunt Hambley's where he then lived and made Report to her concerning us She with her Sister Grace Billing hearing the sound of Truth came afterwards to Visit us in Prison and was Convinced also And great Sufferings and Spoilings of Goods both he and his Aunt have undergone for the Truth 's sake About this time I was moved to give forth the following Paper to Friends in the Ministry Friends IN the Power of life and wisdom and dread of the Lord God of life and Heaven and Earth dwell that in the wisdom of God over all ye may be preserved and be a Terror to all the Adversaries of God and a Dread answering that of God in them all spreading the Truth abroad awakening the VVitness confounding the Deceit gathering up out of Transgression into the Life the Covenant of Light and Peace with God Let all Nations hear the sound by Word or Writing Spare no Place spare no Tongue nor Pen but be obedient to the Lord God go through the VVork and be valiant for the Truth upon Earth tread and trample all that is Contrary under Ye have the Power do not Abuse it and Strength and Presence of the Lord eye it and the VVisdom that with it you may all be ordered to the Glory of the Lord God Keep in the Dominion keep in the Power over all Deceit
at our Meeting in the Orchard As I was going along into the Orchard the People told me That Paul Gwin the rude jangling Baptist was going to the Meeting But I bid them Never heed It was nothing to me who went to it When I was come into the Orchard I stood upon the Stone that Friends used to stand on when they spake and I was moved of the Lord to put off my Hat and to stand a pretty while and let the People look at me for some Thousands of People were there While I thus stood silent this Rude Baptist began to find Fault with my Hair but I said nothing to him Then he run on into Words and at last Ye wise men of of Bristol said he I strange at you that you will stand here and hear a Man speak and affirm that which he cannot make good Then the Lord opened my Mouth for as yet I had not spoken a Word And I asked the People Whether they ever heard me speak before or ever saw me before And I bid them ' Take notice what kind of Man this was amongst them that should so Impudently say That I spake and Affirmed that which I could not make good and yet neither he nor they ever heard me or saw me before Therefore that was a lying envious malicious Spirit that spake in him and it was of the Devil and not of God Therefore I charged him in the Dread and Power of the Lord to be silent And the Mighty Power of God came over him and all his Company And then a glorious peaceable Meeting we had and the Word of Life was divided amongst them and they were turned from the Darkness to the Light and to Jesus their Saviour And the Scriptures were largely opened to them and the Traditions and Rudiments and ways 1656. Bristol and Doctrines of Men were laid open before the People which they had been in and they were turned to the Light of Christ that with it they might see them and see him to lead them out of them I opened also to them the Types and Figures and Shadows of Christ in the time of the Law and shewed them That Christ was come and had ended the Types and Shadows and Tithes and Oaths and put down Swearing and had set up Yea and Nay instead of it and a free Ministry for he was now come to Teach People himself and his heavenly Day was springing from on high So for many hours did I declare the Word of Life amongst them in the Eternal Power of God that by him they might come up into the Beginning and be Reconciled to him And having turned them to the Spirit of God in themselves that would lead into all Truth I was moved to pray in the mighty Power of God and the Lord's Power came over all But when I had done this Fellow began to babble again and John Audland was moved to bid him Repent and fear God So his own People and Followers being ashamed of him he passed away and never came again to disturb the Meeting And the Meeting brake up quietly and the Lord's Power and Glory shined over all a blessed Day it was and the Lord had the Praise After a while this Paul Gwin went beyond the Seas and many Years after I met with him again at Barbado's of which in its Place From Bristol we returned to Edward Pyot's where we had a great Meeting and the Lord's Power was over all and Truth was declared and spread abroad and many were turned to Christ Jesus their Life their Prophet to teach them their Shepherd to feed them and their Bishop to oversee them After the Meeting was done I had some Reasoning with some Professors and the Lord's Truth and Power came over them Slattenford From Edward Pyot's we passed to Slattenford where we had a very large Meeting Edward Pyot and another Friend being still with me and a great turning of People there was to the Lord Jesus Christ their Teacher and People were glad that they were brought to know their Way and their free Teacher and their Saviour Christ Jesus Wiltshire On the First-day following we went to Nathaniel Crips his House who had been a Justice of Peace in Wiltshire where it was supposed there were between Two and Three Thousand People at a Meeting and all was quiet And the mighty Power of God was manifest and People were turned to the Grace and Truth in their Hearts that came by Jesus Christ which would Teach them to deny all Vngodliness and wordly Lusts and to live soberly and godly in this present world So that every Man and Woman might know the Grace of God which had appeared to all Men and which was saving and sufficient to bring their Salvation This was to be their Teacher the Grace of God which would teach them how to live what to do and what to deny and would season their Words and establish their Hearts And this was a free Teacher to every one of them so that they might come to be Heirs of this Grace and of Christ by whom it came who hath ended the Prophets and the Priests that took Tithes and the Jewish Temple And as for these Hireling-Priests that take Tithes now 1656. Wiltshire and their Temples which Priests were made aâ— Schools and Colledges of Man's setting up and not by Christ they with all their Inventions were to be denied For the Apostles denied the true Priesthood and Temple which God had commanded after Christ had put an End thereto So the Scriptures and the Truths therein contained were largely opened and the People turned to the Spirit of God in their Hearts that by it they might be led into all Truth and understand the Scriptures and know God and Christ and come to have Unity with them and one with another in the same Spirit And the People went away generally satisfied and were glad that they were turned to Christ Jesus their Teacher and Saviour The next day we went from thence to Marlborough Marleborough where we had a little Meeting And the Sessions being in that Town that day they were granting forth a Warrant to send for me But one Justice Stooks being at the Sessions stopt them telling them There was a Meeting at his House yesterday at which were several Thousands So the Warrant was stopt and our Meeting was quiet and several received Christ Jesus their Teacher and came into the New Covenant and abode in it From hence we went to Newberry where we had a large Newberry blessed Meeting and several were Convinced there Thence we passed on to Reading where we had a large Reading precious Meeting in the Lord's Power amongst the Plants of God and many of the World came in and were reached and added to the Meeting and all was quiet and the Lord's Power was over all Kingston upon Thames We went from Reading to Kingston upon Thames where a few came in to
came to a great Town and went to an Inn. And Edward Edwards went into the Market and declared the Truth amongst the People and the People followed him down to the Inn and filled the Inn-yard and were exceeding rude Yet a good Service he and we had for the Lord amongst them For the Life of Christianity and the Power of it tormented their chaffy Spirits and came over them so that some were reached and Convinced and the Lord's Power came over all and the Magistrates were bound they had no Power to meddle with us After this we passed away and came to another great Town on a Market day and John ap John declared the Everlasting Truth through the Streets and proclaimed the Day of the Lord amongst them In the Evening many People gathered about the Inn and some of them being drunk they would fain have had us forth into the Street again but we seeing their Design I told them If there were any that feared God and desired to hear Truth they might come into our Inn or else we might have a Meeting with them next Morning So some Service for the Lord we had amongst them both over Night and in the Morning And though the People was hard to receive the Truth yet the Seed was sown and thereabouts the Lord hath a People gathered to himself In that Inn also I turned but my Back to the Man that was giving Oats to my Horse and I looked back again and he was filling his Pockets with the Provender that was given to my Horse A wicked theevish People to rob the poor dumb Creature of his Food I had rather they had robbed me Leaving this Town and travelling on there was a Great Man overtook us on the Way and he purposed as he told us afterward to have taken us up at the next Town for High-way-men But before we came to the Town I was moved of the Lord to speak to him And what I spake reached to the Witness of God in the Man and he was so affected therewith that he had us to his House and entertained us very civilly And he and his Wife desired us to give them some Scriptures both for proof of our Principles and against the Priests We were glad of the Service and furnished him with Scriptures enough And he writ them down and was Convinced of the Truth both by the Spirit of God in his own Heart and by the Scriptures which were a Confirmation to him Afterwards he set us on in our Journey And as we travelled we came to an Hill which the People of the Country say is two or three Miles high from the Side of this Hill I could see a great Way And I was moved to set my Face several ways and to sound the Day of the Lord there And I told John ap John a faithful Welch Minister in what Places God would raise up a People to himself to sit under his own Teaching Those Places he took notice of and since there hath a great People arisen in those Places The like I have been moved to do in many other Places and Countries which have been rude Places and yet I have been moved to declare the Lord had a Seed in those Places and afterwards there hath been a brave People raised up in the Covenant of God and gathered in the Name of Jesus where they have Salvation and free Teaching Dalgelthly From this Hill we came down to a Place called Dalgelthly and we went to an Inn and John ap John declared through the Streets and the Town 's People rose and gathered about him And there being two Independent-Priests in the Town they both came out and discoursed with him both together I went up to them and finding them speaking in Welch I asked them What was the Subject they spake upon and why they were not more moderate and spake one by one For the things of God I told them were weighty and they should speak of them with Fear and Reverence Then I desired them to speak in English that I might discourse with them and they did so Now they affirmed That the Light which John came to bear witness of was a created natural made Light But I took the Bible and shewed them as I had done to others before That the Natural Lights which were made and created were the Sun Moon and Stars but this Light which John bare witness to and which he called the True Light that lighteth every Man that cometh into the World is the Life in Christ the Word by which all things were made and created The same that is called the Life in Christ is called the Light in Man and this is an heavenly divine Light which lets Men see their evil Words and Deeds and shews them all their Sins and if they would attend unto it would bring them to Christ from whom it comes that they might know him to save them from their Sin and to blot it out This Light I told them shined in the Darkness in their Hearts and the Darkness in them could not comprehend it but in those Hearts where God had commanded it to shine out of Darkness it gave unto such the Knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ Jesus their Saviour Then I opened the Scriptures largely to them and turned them to the Spirit of God in their Hearts which would reveal the Mysteries in the Scriptures to them and would lead them into all the Truth thereof as they became subject thereunto I directed them to that which would give every one of them the Knowledge of Christ who died for them that he might be their Way to God and might make Peace betwixt God and them The People were attentive and I spake to John ap John to stand up and speak it in Welch to them which he did and they generally received it and with Hands lifted up blessed and praised God The Priest's Mouths were stopt so that they were quiet all the while for I had brought them to be sober at the first by telling them That when they speak of the things of God and of Christ they should speak with Fear and Reverence Thus the Meeting brake up in peace in the Street and many of the People accompanied us to our Inn and rejoiced in the Truth that had been declared unto them that they were turned to the Light and Spirit in themselves by which they might see their Sin and know Salvation from it And when we went out of the Town the People were so affected that they lifted up their Hands and blest the Lord for our Coming A pretious Seed the Lord hath there-aways and a great People in those Parts is since gathered to the Lord Jesus Christ to sit down under his free Teaching and have suffered much for him From this place we passed to a City like a Castle Where when we had set up our Horses at an Inn and refreshed our selves John ap John went
brought them in again and threatned them and charged them To speak no more in that Name Was not this to stop the Truth from spreading in that Time And had not the Priests an hand in these things with the Magistrates and in examining Stephen when he was stoned to Death Was not the Council gathered together against Jesus Christ to put him to Death and had not the Chief Priests an hand in it When they go to persecute the Just and crucify the Just do they not then neglect Judgment and Mercy and Justice and the weighty Matters of the Law which is just Was not the Apostle Paul tossed up and down by the Priests and the Rulers and Prisoned And was not John Baptist cast into Prison 1657. Scotland Edenborough Are not ye doing the same Work shewing what Spirit ye are of Now do not ye shew the End of your Profession the End of your Prayers the End of your Religion and the End of your Teaching who are now come to banish the Truth and him that is come to declare it unto you Doth not this shew that ye be but in the Words out of the Life of the Prophets Christ and his Apostles for they did not use such Practice as to banish any How do ye receive Strangers which is a Command of God among the Prophets Christ and the Apostles some by that means have entertained Angels at unawares but ye banish one that comes to Visit the Seed of God and is not chargeable to any of you Will not all that fear God look upon this to be Spight and Wickedness against the Truth How are ye like to love Eemies that banish your Friend How are ye like to do Good to them that hate you when ye do Evil to them that love you How are ye like to heap Coals of Fire on their Heads that hate you and to Overcome Evil with Good when ye banish thus Do ye not manifest to all that are in the Truth that ye have not the Christian Spirit How did ye do Justice to me when ye could not convict me of any Evil yet banish me This shews that Truth is banished out of your Hearts and ye have taken part against the Truth with Evil-doers and the wicked envious Priests and Stoners Strikers and Mockers in the Streets with these ye that banish have taken part whereas ye should have been a Terror to these and a Praise to them that do well and Succourers of them that be in the Truth then might ye have been a Blessing to the Nation and not have banished him that was moved of the Lord to visit the Seed of God and thereby have brought your Names upon Record and made them to stink in Ages to come among them that fear God Were not the Magistrates stirred up in former Ages to persecute or banish by the corrupt Priests and did not the corrupt Priests stir up the rude Multitude against the Just in other Ages Therefore are your Streets like Sodom and Gomorrha Did not the Jews and the Priests make the Gentiles Minds envious against the Apostles And who were they that would not have the Prophet Amos to prophesie at the King's Chappel but bad him fly his way And when Jeremiah was put in the Prison in the Dungeon and in the Stocks had not the Priests an Hand with the Princes in doing it Now see all that were in this Work of banishing prisoning persecuting Whether they were not all out of the Life of Christ the Prophets and Apostles To the Witness of God in you all I speak Consider Whether or no they were not always the blind Magistrates which turned their Sword always backward that knew not their Friends from their Foes and so hit their Friends Such Magistrates were deceived by Flattery G. F. When this was delivered and read amongst them some of them as I heard were troubled at what they had done being made sensible that they would not be so served themselves But it was not long 1657. Scotland Edenborough Council before they that banished me were banished themselves or glad to get away who would not do good in the Day when they had Power nor suffer others that would After I had spent some time among Friends at Edenborough and thereabouts Heads I passed from thence to Heads again where Friends had been in great Sufferings for the Presbyterian Priests had Excommunicated them and given Charge That none should Buy or Sell with them nor Eat nor Drink with them So they could neither Sell their Commodities nor Buy what they wanted which made it go very hard with some of them for if they had bought Bread or other Victuals of any of their Neighbours the Priests threatned them so with Curses that they would run and fetch it from them again But Colonel Ashfield being a Justice of Peace in that Country put a stop to the Priests Proceedings This Colonel Ashfield was afterwards convinced himself and had a Meeting settled at his House and declared the Truth and lived and died in it After I had visited Friends at Heads and there-aways and had encouraged them in the Lord Glascow I went to Glascow where a Meeting was appointed but not One of the Town came to it As I went into the City the Guard at the Gates had me up before the Governour who was a moderate Man and a gread deal of Discourse I had with him but he was too light to receive the Truth yet he set me at Liberty and so I passed to the Meeting But seeing none of the Town 's People came to the Meeting we declared Truth through the Town and so passed away and visited Friends in their Meetings thereabouts Badcow and then returned towards Badcow Several Friends went and declared Truth in their Steeple-houses and the Lod's Power was with them And one time as I was going with William Osburn to his House there lay a Company of rude Fellows by the Way-side who had hid themselves under the Hedges and in Bushes and I spying them asked him What they were Oh said he they are Thieves Now Robert Widders being moved to go to speak to a Priest was left behind intending to come after So I said to William Osburn I will stay here in this Valley and do thou go look after Robert Widders But he was unwilling to go being afraid to leave me there alone because of those Fellows till I told him ' I feared them not Then I called to them asking them What they lay lurking there for and I bid them Come up to me but they were loth to come up I charged them to come up to me or else it might be worse with them Then they came trembling to me for the Dread of the Lord had struck them I admonished them to be honest and directed them to the Light of Christ in their Hearts that by it they might see what an Evil it was to follow after Theft and Robbery and the Power
own Spirit and gives it forth as he is moved but to the Harlots Judgment So Friends this is the Word of the Lord to you all be Watchful and Careful in all Meetings ye come into for where Friends are sitting together in silence they are many times gathered into their own measures Now when a Man is come newly out of the World from ministring to the World's People he cometh out of the Dirt and then he had need take heed that he be not Rash For now when he comes into a Silent Meeting that is another State then he must come and feel his own Spirit how it is when he comes to them that sit silent for if he be Rash they will judge him that having been in the World and amongst the World the Heat is not yet off him For he may come in the Heat of his Spirit out of the World whereas the others are still and cool and his Condition in that not being agreeable to theirs he may rather do them Hurt by begetting them out of the Cool State into the Heating State if he be not in that which commands his own Spirit and gives him to know it There is a great Danger too in Travelling abroad in the World The same Power that moves any to go forth is that which must keep them For it is the greatest Danger to go abroad except a Man be moved of the Lord and go in the Power of the Lord for then he keeping in the Power is kept by it in his Journey and in his Work and it will enable him to answer the Transgressed and keep above the Transgressor And every one feeling the Danger to his own particular in Travelling abroad there the pure Fear of the Lord will be placed and kept in For now though they that Travel may have Openings when thâ—y are abroad to Minister to others yet as for their own particular Growth they must dwell in the Life which doth open and that will keep down that which would boast For the Minister comes into the Death to that which is in the Death and in Prison and so returns up again into the Life and into the Power and into the Wisdom to preserve him clean So this is the Word of the Lord God to you all Feel that ye stand in the Presence of the Lord for every Man's Word shall be his Burden but the Word of the Lord is pure and answers the pure in every one The word of the Lord is that which was in the Beginning and brings to the Beginning It is an Hammer to beat down the Transgressor not the Transgressed and as a Fire to burn up that which is contrary to it So Friends come into that which is over all the Spirits of the world and fathoms all the Spirits of the world and stands in the Patience with that ye may see where others stand and reach that which is of God in every one So here is no Strife no Contention out of Transgression for he that goeth into the Strife and into the Contention he is from the ' pure Spirit For where any goeth into the Contention if any thing hath been begotten by him before then that contentious Nature doth get a top and spoil that which was begotten and qâ—encheth his own Prophesying So if that be not subjected by the Power in the Particular which would arise into the Strife that is dangerous Now if any one have a Moving to any Place and have spoken what they were moved of the Lord let them return to their Habitation again and live in the pure Life of God and in the Fear of the Lord and so will ye in the Life and in the solid and seasoned Spirit be kept and preach as well in Life as with Words for none must be light or wild For the Seed of God is weighty and brings to be solid and leads into the Wisdom of God by which the Wisdom of the Creation is known But if that Part be up which runs into the Imaginations and that Part be standing in which the Imaginations come up and the pure Spirit be not throughly come up to rule and reign then that will run out and that will glory and will boast and vapor and so will such an one spoil that which opened to him And this is for Condemnation So every one mind that which feels through and commands his Spirit whereby every one may know what Spirit he is of for he should first Trie his own Spirit and then he may Trie others and he should first know his own Spirit and then he may know others Therefore that which doth command all these Spirits where the Heats and Burnings come in and get up in that wait which chains them down and cools That is the Elect the Heir of the Promise of God For no hasty rash brittle Spirits though they have Prophecies have held our and gone through they not being subjected in the Prophecy The Earthly will not abide for it is brittle and in that State the Ministry was another's not the Son 's for the Son hath Life in himself and the Son hath the Power which Man being obedient to he may be serviceable but if he go from the pure Power then he falls and abuseth it Therefore let your Faith stand in the pure Power of the Lord God and do not abuse it but let that search through and work through and let every one stand in the Power of the Lord God which reacheth the Seed of God which is the Heir of the Promise of Life without End And let none be hasty to speak for ye have Time enough and with an Eye ye may reach the witness Neither let any be backward when ye are moved for that brings Destruction Now Truth hath an Honour in the Hearts of People which are not Friends so that all Friends being kept in the Truth they are kept in the Honour they are honourable and that will honour them but if any lose the Power they lose the Life they lose their Crown they lose their Honour they lose the Cross which should crucify them and they crucify the Just and by losing the Power the Lamb comes to be slain And as it is here so will it be in other Nations for all Friends here and there are as one Family the Seed the Plants they are as a Family Now all being kept in that which subjects all and keeps all under to wit the Seed it self the Life it self that is the Heir of the Promise and that is the Bond of Peace for there is the Vnity in the Spirit with God and with one another For he that in the Life is kept hears God and sees Man's Condition and with that he answers the Life in others that hear God also Thus one Friend that is come into that comprehends the world But that which Friends do speak they must live in so may they look that others may come into that which they speak to live in
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
are with me and we are well Glory to the Lord for ever who hath carried us through many Perils Perils by Water and in Storms Perils by Pirates and Robbers Perils in the Wilderness and amongst false Professors Praises to him whose Glory is over all for ever Amen Therefore mind the fresh Life and live all to God in it I do intend if the Lord will to stay a while this-away it may be till the Fair. So no more but my Love to all Friends Bristol the 28th Day of the 4th Month 1673. G. F. Between this and the Fair my Wife came out of the North to Bristol to me and her Son-in-Law Thomas Lower with two of her Daughters came with her And her other Son-in-Law John Rouse and W. Penn and his Wife and Gerrard Roberts came down from London and many Friends from several parts of the Nation came to the Fair and glorious powerful Meetings we had there at that time for the Lord 's Infinite Power and Life was over all In the fresh Openings whereof I was moved to declare of Three Estates and Three Teachers viz. That God was the first Teacher of Man and Woman in Paradise And as long as they kept to and under God's Teaching they kept in the Image of God and in his Likeness in Righteousness and Holiness and in Dominion over all that God had made in the blessed State in the Paradise of God But when they heark'ned to the Serpent's false Teaching who was out of Truth and disobeyed God and obeyed the Serpent in feeding upon that which God forbad them then they lost the Image of God the Righteousness and Holiness and came under the Power of Satan and were turned out of Paradise out of the Blessed into the Cursed State And then the Promise of God was That the Seed of the Woman should bruise the Serpent's Head and break his Power that Man and Woman were under and destroy his Works So here were Three States and Three Teachers God was the first Teacher in Paradise and whilst Man kept under his Teaching he was happy The Serpent was the Second Teacher and when Man followed his Teaching he came into Misery and into the Fall from the Image of God and Righteousness and Holiness and from the Power that he had over all that God had made and came under the Serpent whom he had Power over before Christ Jesus was the Third Teacher of whom God saith This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased hear ye him and who himself saith Learn of me This is the true Gospel-Teacher who bruises the Head of the Serpent that is the False Teacher and the Head of all False Teachers and of all False Religions False Ways False Worships and False Churches Now Christ who said Learn of me and of whom the Father said Hear ye him he said I am the Way to God I am the Truth I am the Life and the true Light So as Man and Woman come up again to God and are renewed up into his Image Righteousness and Holiness by Christ thereby they come up into the Paradise of God the State which Man was in before he fell and into an higher State than that to sit down in Christ that never fell Therefore the Son of God is to be heard in all things who is the Saviour and the Redeemer and hath laid down his Life and bought his Sheep with his precious Blood And we can challenge all the World Who hath any thing to say against our Way our Saviour our Redeemer who is our Prophet whom God hath raised up that we may hear and whom we must hear in all things Who hath any thing against our Shepherd Christ Jesus who leads and feeds us and we know his Heavenly Voice And who hath any thing against our Bishop in whose Mouth was never Guile found who doth Oversee us in his Pasture of Life that we do not go astray from God and out of his Fold And who hath any thing against our Priest Christ Jesus made higher than the Heavens who gives us freely and commands us to give freely And who hath any thing to say against our Leader and Counsellor Christ Jesus who never sinned but is holy and harmless and separate from Sinners God hath commanded us to hear him and he saith Learn of me and if we should disobey God's and Christ's Command we should be like our Father Adam and Mother Eve who disobeyed God's Command and hearkned to the Serpent's Teaching Now Man commands and would force us to hear the Hirelings who plead for Sin and the Body of Death to the Grave which Doctrine savours of the Devil 's Teaching not of Christ's But we resolve to hear the Son as both he and the Father command and in hearing the Son we hear the Father also as the Scripture testifies For the Author to the Hebrews says God who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the Fathers by the Prophets hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son Mark that God hath spoken unto us his Apostles Disciples Church by his Son And whereas some have objected That although Christ did speak both to his Disciples and to the Jews in the days of his Flesh yet since his Resurrection and Ascension he doth not speak now The Answer is That as God did then speak by his Son in the Days of his Flesh so the Son Christ Jesus doth now speak by his Spirit Wherefore John saith in the Revelations He that hath an Ear let him hear what the Spirit saith to the Churches Rev. 2. And Christ is said to speak from Heaven Heb. 12.25 See that ye refuse not him that speaketh for if they escaped not who refused him that spake on Earth much more shall not we escape if we turn away from him that speaketh from Heaven They that resisted Moses his Law who spake on Earth died for it without Mercy which was a Natural Death but they that refuse him that speaks from Heaven neglect and slight their own Salvation and so die a Spiritual Death through Unbelief and Hardness of Heart Therefore was the Exhortation given of old To day if ye will hear his Voice harden not your Hearts as in the Provocation c. Heb. 3.15 c. So that they who neglect or refuse to hear the Voice of Christ now speaking from Heaven in this his Gospel-Day harden their Hearts Therefore let all mark well thâ—se three States and Teachers The God of Truth was the first Teacher wâ—â—â—e Man was in Paradise and in Innocency The Serpent was the second Teacher the false Teacher who by his false Teaching came to be the God of the World which lies in Wickedneâ—s Christ Jesus that bruises the Serpent's Head is the third Teacher who saith Learn of me and of whom God saith This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased Hear ye him and of whom the Testimony of the Saints of Old was That
Gospel-Order and it belongs to them Then take your Possessions and Practise in it and be not Talkers only but Live and Walk in the Gospel the Power of God which is the Authority of your Meetings Swarthmore the 28th of the Third Month 1676. G. F. Read at the Yearly Meeting in London the 17th of the Third Month 1676. During this time also I Collected together as many as I could of the Epistles I had written in former Years to Friends I made a Collection too of the several Papers that I had written to O. Cromwel and his Son Richard in the time of their Protectorships and to the Parliaments and Magistrates that were in their times And after I had gathered them together I Collected also the Papers I had written to King Charles the Second since his Return and to his Council and Parliaments and the Justices or other Magistrates under him I made also another Collection of Certificates which I had received from divers Governours of Places Judges Justices Parliament-Men and others for the Clearing of me from many Slanders which the Envious Priests and Professors both here and beyond the Seas had cast upon me And this I did for the Truth's-sake as knowing that their Design in Slandering me was to defame the Truth published by me and hinder thereby if they could the Spreading thereof amongst the People Besides these I made Two Books of Collections the one was A List or Catalogue of the Names of those Friends who went first forth out of the North of England when Truth first brake forth there to proclaim the Day of the Lord through this Nation The other was of the Names of those Friends that went first forth to Preach the Gospel in other Nations Countries and Places and in what Years and to what Parts they went I made also another Collection in Two Books one of Epistles and Letters from Friends and others on several Occasions to me The other of Letters of mine to Friends and others I writ also a Book of the Types and Figures of Christ with their Significations and many other things which will be of Service to Truth and Friends in times to come I took notice also of those who had run out from Truth and drawn others out after them and turned against Truth and Friends at several times since the First Breaking forth of Truth in this latter Age and what became of them noting particularly the Repentance and Return of such of them as came back to Truth again But some ran quite out and never returned again but were Cut off in their Gainsaying and Rebellion for the Word and Power of God hath blasted and is blasting them and the Holy Seed hath ground and is grinding them to pieces And this I have observed that they who have been Convinced and have not lived and walked in the Truth have been the Worst Enemies to the Truth and done most Hurt amongst Friends in the Truth and to others And in these I have seen fulfilled what the Lord did long since shew me That such should be greater Deceivers than all the Priests and Professors For such as came as far as Cain and Balaam and Corah and Dathan and could preach Christ and say They had preached in his Name and such as came to be Apostles and had tasted of the Power of Christ and then turned from it such could yet speak their Old Experiences and have the good Words like Corah and Balaam but not keeping in the Life and Truth such Deceived the Hearts of the Simple both then and now and such come to be of the Devil who abode not in the Truth as Cain and and all the Jews that abode not in the Truth were For though Cain did Sacrifice to God and did talk with God and the Jews could talk of Abraham Moses and the Prophets yet Christ told them They were of their Father the Devil In like manner though they who are called Christians can talk of Christ and use his and his Apostles and Disciples Words yet not abiding in the Truth and Power and Spirit that the Apostles were in they are of the Devil out of Truth and do his Work And so are all these that have been Convinced of God's Eternal Truth since it sprang up in this Nation that have not abode in the Light and in the Spirit and Power of Christ Jesus but have turned against the Power and have opposed the Work thereof though they may retain their former Experiences and be able to speak many good Words yet not living in the Life and Power that gave them those Experiences they live in the Power of Darkness which is of the Devil and by the Light and Truth both he and they are Condemned and must own their Condemnations if ever they come to Truth again For to Resist the Heavenly Power and to oppose the Workings and Divine Manifestations thereof through any is not a light Matter And as I had been moved of the Lord to travel in his Power round about this Nation and in other Parts to preach the Everlasting Gospel and to declare the Word of Life which was in the Beginning through many Imprisonments Hardships Sufferings and Trials so I was afterwards moved to Travel in the same Heavenly Power about the Nation again and to write to such Places where I came not to recommend unto Friends the setting up of the Quarterly and Monthly Meetings in all Counties for the looking after the Poor and taking Care for Orderly Proceedings in Marriages and other matters relating to the Church of Christ Though some Meetings for this end were settled in the North of England in the Year 1653. And after this also Truth still spreading further over the Nation and Friends encreasing in number I was moved by the same Eternal Power to recommend the setting up the Womens-Meetings also that all both Male and Female that had received the Gospel the Word of Eternal Life might come into the Order of the Gospel brought forth by the Power of God and might act for God in the Power and therein do Business and Service for him in his Church All the Faithful must labour in God's Vineyard they being his Hired Servants and he having given them the Earnest of his Spirit For a Master that hires a Servant and gives him the Earnest of his Hire expects he should do his Work after he knows his Will in the outward Creation So all God's Prople that be of the new Creation and have received the Earnest of his Spirit ought to labour with by and in his Spirit Power and Grace and Faith in the Light in God's Vineyard that they may have their Wages every one Male and Female when they have done God's Work and Business in his Day which is Eternal Life But none can labour in his Vineyard and do his Work and Will but as they walk in the Heavenly Divine Light Grace and Spirit of Christ which is hath been and is my Travel and
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
fine Opportunity to open the Way of Truth amongst them After I was come to London London I was moved to write the following Paper concerning that Spirit which had led some who profest Truth into Strife and Division and to oppose the Way and Work of the Lord. Friends YOU that do keep your habitations in the Truth that is over all do see that it is the same Spirit that doth lead the Backsliders and Apostates now from the Spiritual Fellowship and Unity of God's People and the Church of Christ that led out Adam and Eve from God and the Jews from God and his Law to Rebel against his Spirit and so to turn against God and his Prophets And this Spirit was the same that was in the World which was got into the Jews when they were gone from the Spirit of God and then they turned against God and his Prophets and against Christ and his Apostles And that Spirit led them to be as bad as Pilate or worse The Enmity or Adversary was got within them against the Truth and them that walked in it and the Spirit of the Lord so that they killed and destroyed the Just. And this was the Spirit of the Devil the Destroyer who would seek not only to destroy the Truth but the Order of it and them that walk in it when true Christianity was planted among the Possessors of the Light 1681. London Grace and Truth and the Gospel-holy Faith and Spirit and they did enjoy Christ in their hearts But when some did begin to Err from the Spirit and Faith and hate the Light and disobey the Gospel and to turn the Grace of God into Wantonness and walk despitefully against the Spirit of Grace and turn from the Truth and Crucifie to themselves Christ afresh and put him to open shame These were they that let in the Spirit of the World who held the Form of Godliness but denied the Power thereof which troubled the Churches in the Apostles days And when the Spirit of Satan had got into such they were more troublesome to the Church than the open Persecutors that were without And these got into the Assemblies to deceive the hearts of the Simple having the good Words and fair Speeches and Sheep's-Cloathing Paul Peter John Jude and James had much to do with such and to keep them from troubling the Church of Christ For they are out of the Light Power and Spirit and therefore the Apostles of Christ did exhort the Saints to keep to the Word of Life within and to the Anointing and to the Grace and Truth and holy Spirit in their hearts This foul Spirit will profess all the Scriptures in words but by the Spirit of God which is holy that Spirit is tried and its fruits And so the Apostates went from the Power and Spirit of God and turned against the Prophets and the Martyrs of Jesus and became the Whore whose Cup all Nations drunk of And the Dragon with his Tail threw down many of the Stars and would have devoured the Woman with his Flood but the Woman the true Church was preserved and the Gates of Hell cannot prevail against her And then the Dragon made war with her Seed So the Dragon and the Whore and Beast and false Prophets all made war against the Lamb and the Saints but the Lamb and the Saints will overcome them all and will have the Victory And now the Everlasting Gospel is preached again to all Nations Tongues and Peoples and many are gathered into the Gospel the Power of God and are turned to the Light which is the Life in Christ and are grafted into him and are come to walk in the Order of the New Covenant of Light and Life in the Gospel of Peace and Salvation The same Spirit that opposed the Apostles and the Churches in their days opposes now yea it is the same that opposed Christ and disdained him that disdaineth God's Servants now And the same that did oppose the Prophets and rebelled against Moses opposes and rebels against God's Servants and People now And it is the same dark blind and disobedient faithless wilful jealous Spirit that doth persecute some with the Hands and others with the Tongue And it is the same Spirit of Enmity the Adversary and Destroyer that tempted Adam and Eve to disobey God and did deceive them which deceived the Jews and tempted them and deceived all those that went from the Church in the Apostles days And it is the same Spirit that is now going about sometimes like a roaring Lion sometimes like a twisting Serpent to tempt and to deceive 1682. London and to devour having the fair Speeches and good Words and Sheeps-Cloathing in a Form of Godliness and in pretence of the Light and Liberty but denies the Power thereof and inwardly are ravening Wolves and if it were possible they would deceive the very Elect. But the Elect are in the Covenant of Light and Life and in the Power of God over them and in Christ who will grind them to pieces and will slay all his Enemies with his spiritual Sword who will not have him to rule over or in them In Christ all his People have Rest and Peace who is their Sanctuary over all Storms and Tempests And in Christ the Sanctuary no Deceiver nor Destroyer can come for he is a place of sweet Rest and Safety Hallelujah Praise the Lord for his Sanctuary Amen G. F. Sufferings continuing still hard upon Friends at London I found my Service lay mostly here Wherefore I went but a little out of Town and not far being frequent at the most publick Meetings to encourage Friends both by Word and Example to stand fast in the Testimony to which God had called them And at other times I went about from house to house visiting those Friends that had their Goods taken away for their Testimony to Truth And because the wicked Informers were grown very audacious by reason that they had too much Countenance and Encouragement from some Justices who trusting wholly to their Information proceeded against Friends without hearing them whereby many Friends were made to suffer not only contrary to Right but even contrary to Law also I advised with some Friends about it and we drew up a Paper which was afterwards delivered to most of the Magistrates in and about the City which was as followeth WHereas some Informers have obtained Warrants of some Justices of Peace and have Convicted many of us without hearing us or once Summoning us to Appear before them by which proceedings many have had their Goods seized and taken away being generally fined Ten Pounds a piece for an unknown Speaker and some of those Persons so fined have not been that day at the Meetings they were fined for and the Speaker notwithstanding hath himself been fined for the same Meeting the same day the others were fined for the unknown Speaker By which the Justices may see the Wickedness of these Informers by whose false
one another in Vertue and in that Love that doth bear all things and doth edifie the Body of Christ the Body of the second Adam For the Body of old Adam in the Fall is full of Malice Envy and Vice And therefore you that are called out of Old Adam in the Fall and have put on Christ the second Adam that never fell Walk in him who is the Treasure of Life Wisdom and Knowledge in whom ye have peace with God who is the First and Last the Beginning and the Ending So let all be gathered up to God into him who reconcileth all things in one both things in Heaven and things in the Earth who is the faithful and true Witness both in Male and Female And in him sit down who is above the subtle Foxes in their holes and the Fowls of the Air in their nests I say sit down in Christ who hath no place among them to lay his head he is your rest So in him is my Love to you all London the 20th of the 11th Month 1682. G. F. It was not long after this that I received an Account by Letter from some Friends that were Prisoners in Denby in Wales by which I understood that many Friends there were under great Sufferings for the Testimony of a good Conscience In the tender sense whereof I was moved in the Love of God to Visit them with a few Lines as a Word of Consolation to them in their Sufferings and of Exhortation to stand fast in the Testimony committed to them And that which I writ was thus DEar suffering Lambs for the Name and Command of Jesus Be valiant for his Truth and faithful and ye will feel the Presence of Christ with you And look at him who suffered for you and hath bought you and will feed you who saith Be of good Comfort I have overcome the World who destroys the Devil and his Works and bruises the Serpent's head I say Look at Christ who is your Sanctuary in whom ye have rest and peace To you it is given not only to believe but to suffer for his Name 's sake And they that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer Persecution by the ungodly Professors of Christ Jesus who live out of him And therefore be valiant for God's Truth upon the Earth and look above that Spirit that makes you suffer up to Christ who was before it was and will be when it is gone Consider all the Prophets Christ and the Apostles who suffered and were persecuted but they never persecuted them as true men but as Deceivers and yet true And Christ is the same to day as he was yesterday a Rock and Foundation for your Age and Generation for you to build upon I have written concerning you after I heard your Letter to Friends in Cheshire to Visit you understanding that you belong to their Quarterly Meeting And therefore I desire that some Friends of your County would go and lay your suffering Condition before the Monthly or Quarterly Meeting in Cheshire I have written likewise to Richard Davis that some of that side may go and visit you and see how your Condition is So my Love is to you in the Lord who is your alone Support London the 27th of the 11th Month 1682. G. F. Now because the Magistrates were many of them unwilling to have Fines laid upon Meeting-houses they kept Friends out in many places setting Officers and Guards of Soldiers at the Doors and Passages And yet sometimes Friends were fined for Speaking or Praying though it were abroad One First-day it was upon me to go to Devonshire-house-Meeting in the Afternoon Dev. Meet and because I had heard Friends were kept out there that Morning as they were that Day at most Meetings about the City I went somewhat the sooner and got into the Yard before the Soldiers came to guard the Passages but the Constables were got there before me and stood in the Door-way with their Staves I asked them to let me go in They said They could not nor durst not for they were commanded the contrary and were sorry for it I told them I would not press upon them so I stood by and they were very Civil I stood till I was weary and then one gave me a Stool to sit down on and after a while the Power of the Lord began to spring up among Friends and one began to speak The Constables soon forbad him and said he should not speak and he not stopping they began to be wroth But I gently laid my hand upon one of the Constables and wisht him to let him alone The Constable did so and was quiet and the Man did not speak long When he had done after a while I was moved to stand up and speak and in my Declaration I said They need not come against us with Swords and Staves for we were a peaceable People and had nothing in our Hearts but Good-will to the King and Magistrates and to all People upon the Earth And we did not Meet under pretence of Religion to plot and contrive against the Government or to raise Insurrections but to worship God in Spirit and in Truth And we had Christ to be our Bishop and Priest and Shepherd to feed us and oversee us and he ruled in our hearts so we could all sit in silence enjoying our Teacher So to Christ their Bishop and Shepherd I did recommend them all And after I had spoken what was upon me at that time I sate down and after a while I was moved to pray and the Power of the Lord was over all Friends and the People and the Constable and Soldiers put off their Hats And when the Meeting was done and Friends began to pass away the Constable put off his Hat and desired the Lord to bless us for the Power of the Lord was over him and the People and kept them under After this I went up and down visiting Friends at their houses who had had their Goods taken from them for worshipping God and we took an account of what had been taken from them and some Friends met together about it and drew up the Case of the Sufferings of our Friends in writing and gave it to the Justices at their Petty-Sessions Whereupon they made an Order That the Officers should not sell the Goods of Friends which they had in their hands but keep them until the next Sessions which gave some discouragement to the Informers and put a little stop to their proceedings The next First-day it was upon me to go to the Meeting at the Savoy and by that time the Meeting was gathered Savoy Meet the Beadle came in and after him came in the wild People like a Sea but the Lord's Power chained them all The Spirit of the Lord went through and over all and they were quiet and we had a glorious peaceable Meeting blessed be the Lord for his unspeakable goodness This was in the Twelfth Month 1682. In the
the praise and glory of God and by the word of his Grace your words may be gracious and in your Lives and Conversations ye may shew forth Righteousness Holiness and Godliness That so God Almighty may be glorified in you all and through you all who is above all blessed and praised for ever Amen London the 11th of the 4th Month 1685. G. F. Several other Letters also I writ at this time to Friends in divers Forreign Countries from whom I had received Letters about the Affairs of Truth Which when I had dispatched the Yearly-Meeting being over and the Country-Friends for the most part gone out of Town I got a little way out of Town also being much spent with the Heat of the Weather South-street Throngs in Meetings and continual Business I went at first but to South-street where I abode some days And among other Services that I had there a great sense entred me of the Growth and Increase of Pride Vanity and Excess in Apparel and that not only amongst the People of the World but too much also amongst some that came among us and seem'd to make a Profession of the Truth And in the sense I had of the Evil thereof it came upon me to give forth the following Paper as a Reproof and Check thereunto THE Apostle Peter saith in 1 Pet. 3. of the Womens Adorning Let it not be mark Let it not be this is a positive Prohibition that outward adorning of plaiting the Hair and of wearing of Gold or of putting on of Apparel But let it be the hidden Man of the heart in that which is not corruptible even the Ornament of a meek and quiet Spirit which is in the sight of God of a great price for after this manner in the old time the holy women also who trusted in God adorned themselves Here ye may see what is the Ornament of the holy Women 1685. South-street which was in the sight of God of a great price and which the holy Women who trusted in God adorned themselves with But the unholy Women that trust not in God their Ornament is not a meek and a quiet Spirit They adorn themselves with plaiting the Hair and putting on of Apparel and wearing of Gold which is forbidden by the Apostle in his general Epistle to the Church of Christ the true Christians And the Apostle Paul saith 1 Tim. 2.9 10. In like manner also that Women adorn themselves in modest Apparel with shamefacedness and sobriety not with broidered Hair or Gold or Pearls or costly Array but which becometh Women professing Godliness with good Works Now here ye may see what the Women were not to Adorn themselves with who professed Godliness They were not to adorn themselves with broidered Hair nor Gold nor Pearls nor costly Array for this was not looked upon to be modest Apparel for holy Women that profest Godliness and good Works But this Adorning or Apparel is for the immodest and unshamefaced and unsober Women that profess not Godliness neither follow those good Works that God commands And therefore it doth not become Men and Women who profess true Christianity and Godliness to be adorned with Gold or Chains or Pearls or costly Array with broidered Hair for these things are for the Lust of the Eye the Lust of the Flesh and Pride of Life which is not of the Father And therefore all the holy Men and Women are to mind that which is more precious than Gold who are Redeemed not with corruptible things as Silver and Gold from your vain Conversation but with the precious Blood of Christ as of a Lamb without blemish and without spot Therefore as obedient Children to God not fashioning your selves according to your former Lusts in your Ignorance but as he which hath called you is holy so be ye holy in all manner of Conversation 1 Pet. 1.14 15. Christ saith The Life is more than Meat and the Body is more than Raiment Luke 12.23 I read of a Moral-wise Philosopher who meeting a Woman with her Neck and Breast bare laid his hand upon her and said Woman wilt thou sell this Flesh and she replying No. Then pray said he shut up your Shop meaning her bare Breasts and Neck So they were looked upon as Harlots that went with their Necks Breasts and Backs bare and not Civil People even among the Moral Heathens Therefore they that profess the Knowledge of true Christianity should be ashamed of such things You may see a Book written by the very Papists and another by Baxter the Presbyterian against bare Breasts and bare Backs and them that shewed their Flesh Vncovered They that were but in an outward Profession did declare against such things and therefore they which are in the Possession of Truth and true Christianity should be ashamed of such things Read I pray you the Third of Isaiah and there you may see how that holy Prophet was grieved with the foolish Womens vain Attire and how he was sent by the Lord to reprove them And envious persecuting Jezabel her Attired Head and Bravery like a painted Harlot out of the Truth did not keep her from the Judgments of God when the Lord stirred up Jehu against her Doth not Pride go before a Fall and a haughty Mind before Destruction And God resisteth the Proud and giveth Grace to the Humble And Solomon saith The Lord will destroy the House of the Proud Prov. 15.25 For the Day of the Lord shall be upon every one that is proud and lofty c. and he shall be brought low Isa 2.12 and Mal. 4. Therefore take heed of calling the Proud happy for The Lord will scatter the Proud in the Imaginations of their own hearts and exalt them of low degree And you may read in the Revelations Chap. 17.4 and 18.16 of the false Church how she was outwardly decked but full of Abomination and came to a Downfal at last And therefore it is good for all that profess the Truth to use this World as not abusing it for the fashion of this World passeth away but the Word of the Lord endureth for ever The Lord taketh pleasure in his People he will beautifie the Meek with Salvation Psal 149.4 Therefore all that know the Truth as it is in Jesus are to be beautified and cloathed with this Salvation which Salvation is a strong Wall or a Bulwark against that Spirit that would lead you down into the Fall from God or into those things which the fallen Man and Woman delight in and beautifie or adorn themselves with And therefore all that profess the Truth be circumspect sincere and fervent following the Lord Jesus Christ who is not of this World in whom ye have Life and Peace with God South-street the 24th of the 4th Month 1685. G. F. After I had been some weeks in the Country at Southstreet and at and about Enfield in which time I had several Meetings with Friends I returned to London Enfield London And
said You have nothing to do with us to build an House unto our God Ezra 4.2 3. So here ye may see that God's People refused their building with them and their sacrifice And Solomon saith The Sacrifice of the Wicked is an Abomination to the Lord Prov. 15.8 See also Isa 1.11 and chap. 66.3 Solomon also saith Better is a dry Morsel and quietness therewith than an house full of Sacrifices with strife Prov. 17.1 Now let all People Consider what Good your house full of Sacrifices doth with strife when a dry Morsel and Quietness therewith is better And Consider all People If ye live in Wickedness your Sacrifice is an Abomination to the Lord. Again Solomon speaking of the Sacrifice of Fools saith They consider not that they do evil Eccles 5.1 Fools are such as do not walk in the Spirit of God or begin in the Spirit and end in the Flesh like the foolish Galatians for the Spirit of God is the Spirit of Wisdom and Understanding and cannot Join with the Sacrifices of the Dead nor of the Fools nor of the Wicked whose Sacrifice is Abominable who grieve and quench the Spirit of God by which Spirit of God the Spiritual and Righteous offer up Spiritual Sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ The Apostle Paul saith he was the Minister of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles ministring the Gospel of God that the offering up of the Gentiles might be acceptable being sanctified by the Holy Ghost Rom. 15.16 So ye may see that all the acceptable Offerings and Sacrifices to God must be sanctified by the Holy Ghost The same Apostle saith to the Corinthians Ye are bought with a price therefore glorifie God in your Body and in your Spirit which are God's 1 Cor. 6.20 And to the Romans he saith I beseech you Brethren by the Mercies of God that you present your Bodies a living Sacrifice holy acceptable unto God which is your reasonable Service Rom. 12.1 Now this is the duty of all true Christians Peter also saith in his general Epistle to the Church of Christ Ye also as lively stones are built up a spiritual house an holy Priest-hood to offer up spiritual Sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ 1 Pet. 2.5 So every Man and Woman must come to the Spirit of God in their own hearts if they do offer up spiritual Sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ For as Christ saith Every Sacrifice shall be salted with salt Mark 9.49 And in the Old Testament ye may see All their outward Offerings they were to season them with salt Levit. 2.13 a Type and Figure of Christ who gave himself for us an Offering and a Sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savour Ephes 5.2 Therefore all his People must be baptized with the Holy Ghost and with Fire that they may be salted with Fire and every Sacrifice salted with salt with the Spirit of Grace that is poured upon all so that they may offer up this spiritual Sacrifice acceptable to God by Jesus Christ Samuel said to King Saul Hath the Lord as great delight in Burnt-offerings and Sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord behold to obey is better than Sacrifice and to hearken than the fat of Rams 1 Sam. 15.22 So ye may see All Offerings and Sacrifices are nothing if there be not an hearkening to the Lord in his Spirit and an obeying of his voice And Christ told the Jews that were outward Sacrificers that he would have Mercy and not Sacrifice and bid them Go and learn what that meaneth Matth. 9.13 Gooses the 28th of the 2d Month 1687. G. F. The beginning of the Third Month I returned to London London Yearly-Meeting and continued there till after the Yearly-Meeting which began on the sixteenth of the same and was very large Friends having more freedom to come up out of the Countries to it by reason of the general Toleration and Liberty now granted The Meeting lasted several days and at the Close thereof it was upon me to write the following Lines to be dispersed amongst Friends every where as A Word of Counsel and Caution to them to walk circumspectly in this time of Liberty Dear Friends and Brethren in the Lord Jesus Christ THE Lord by his Eternal Arm and Power having supported you in all your Sufferings and great spoiling of Goods and tedious Imprisonments only for serving and worshipping the living God that made you who gave up Wife and Children and Goods and suffered the spoil of them and Imprisonment for his Truth and Name 's sake And now the Lord by his Infinite Power and Mercy having been pleased to open the King's heart towards you by which you are set at Liberty from the Gaols and the Spoilers of your Goods are stopt whereby ye may follow your Callings and Husbandry and confess Christ Jesus and call him Lord by the Holy Ghost in your Assemblies and Meetings without being cast into Gaols or having your Goods spoiled And now Dear Brethren a great Concern lies upon me from the Lord to Write unto you That none may abuse this Liberty nor the Mercies of the Lord but prize them for there is great danger in time of Liberty of getting up and getting into Ease and Looseness and false Liberty And now seeing that ye have not the outward Persecutors to War withal in sufferings with the spiritual Weapons keep down that which would not be subject to Christ that he the Holy One may reign in your hearts So that your Lives Conversations and Words may preach Righteousness and Truth 1687. London Yearly-Meeting That ye may all shew forth good Ensamples of true Believers in Christ in Vertue and Holiness Answering that which may be known of God in all People that ye are the Sons and Daughters of God Standing fast in that righteous holy Liberty in Christ that just and holy One that has made you free over the loose or false shunning the occasions of vain Disputes and foolish Questions of Men of corrupt Minds For the Serpent was the first Questioner of Eve who drew her and Adam out of the Truth Therefore as ye have received Christ all Live and Walk in him who bruises the Serpent's Head who is your safe Sanctuary in whom ye have Election Reconciliation and Peace with God And therefore live in the Peace which ye have from Christ which is not of this World and be at peace one with another and seek the peace of all Men in Christ Jesus for blessed are the Peace-makers And labour to exercise a good Conscience towards God in obedience to him in what he requires and in doing to all Men the thing that is just and honest in your Conversations and Words giving no Offence to Jew nor Gentile nor to the Church of God So that ye may be as a City set on God's Sion-Hill which cannot be hid and may be Lights to the dark World that they may see your good Fruits and Works Righteous and
Holy and glorifie your Father which is in Heaven for he is glorified in your bringing forth good Fruits as ye abide in Christ the Vine in this his day of Life Power and Light thas shines over all And therefore all you that believe in the Light walk in the Light as Children of the Light and of Christ's everlasting Day that in the Light ye may have Fellowship with the Father and the Son and one with another keeping in the Unity of his holy Spirit in the Bond of his holy Peace in his Church that he is Head of And my desire is that God's Wisdom every where may be justified of her Children and that it may be shewed forth in Meekness and in the Fear of the Lord in this his Day Amen G. F. By that time the Yearly-Meeting was over I was very much wearied and spent wherefore about a Week after the Meeting I got out of Town to a Friend's House a little beyond Edmunton Edmunton South-street Winchmore-hill Berry-street where and at Southstreet I abode some time and had Meetings amongst Friends there and at Winchmore-hill and Berry-street And having my mind continually exercised in the Things of God the sense of his Infinite Goodness and Mercy to Mankind in visiting them after they had transgressed and rebelled against him and providing a Way and Means for their Return to him again was very much upon me And in the Opening of the Spirit of Truth I writ the following Paper on that Subject GOD who made all Men and Women 1687. Berry-street though they have transgressed his Commands and Laws and rebelled against him and hated his Light and grieved his Spirit and walked despitefully against his Spirit of Grace yet God who is merciful would have all to be saved and come to the knowledge of the Truth And all that come to the Knowledge of the Truth must know it in their inward parts I say the Grace and Truth which comes by Jesus all that do know and find do know and find it in their hearts and inward parts And such do find the hidden Man of the heart and the Pearl and the Leaven and the lost piece of Silver and the Kingdom of Heaven within For until all come to the Light and Truth in their hearts they have been strangers to these things in Adam in the Fall from the Image of God and his Light Power and Spirit and Kingdom But Christ that never fell brings Man and Woman again that follow him to know these things and to know the Truth him the Saviour and brings them into his Image and his everlasting Kingdom The Devil who is out of the Truth tempted Man and Woman to disobey God and so drew them into the Fall from the Truth So it is the Devil that hath stopped Mens Eyes and Ears and Hearts from the Truth who is called The God of the World who hath blinded the Eyes of Infidels or Heathen But Christ who bruises the Serpent's Head and destroys the Devil and his Works doth open Men's Hearts and Eyes and Ears who is their Saviour and Redeemer and giveth Life Eternal to his People that obey him and his Truth Blessed be the Lord for ever through Jesus Christ who hath tasted death for all Men to bring them out of the death of Adam and is a Propitiation for the sins of the whole World and gave himself a Ransome for all to be testified of in due time For as by Adam's transgression and disobedience Death and Condemnation came upon all Men so by Christ's Obedience unto Death Justification of Life is come upon all Men and He that believeth in Christ hath eternal life but he that doth not is condemned already But God would have all Men to be saved and come unto the knowledge of the Truth as it is in Jesus who is their Saviour and in him there is no Condemnation G. F. After I had been a while here I went to a Monthly-Meeting at Enfield and from thence with some Friends to Hartford Enfield Hartford where I stay'd three or four days visiting Friends both at their Publick Meetings on the First-day of the Week and at their Quarterly-Meetings both of Men and Women and good Service for the Lord I had amongst them Then passing from thence to Waltham-Abby I had a very good Meeting with Friends there Waltham-Abbey and the next day went from thence to another place to compose a Difference which for want of a right Understanding of each other had happened between some Friends I returned to Waltham that night 1687. Waltham Essex Gooses Wanstead Barking Gooses and the next day went with some Friends to Gooses which is William Mead's House in Essex Here I stay'd some Weeks yet was not Idle but often visited the Meetings thereabouts as at Wanstead Barking and at John Hardings And betwixt Meeting and Meeting I writ many things for spreading of Truth and for the opening Peoples Understandings to receive it One was a Paper proving from the Scriptures that People must Repent before they can receive the Gospel and the holy Spirit and the Kingdom of God or be baptized And this was it JOhn the Baptist came Preaching in the Wilderness of Judea saying Repent ye for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand Matth. 3.2 And when John the Baptist was cast into Prison Mark says That Jesus came into Galilee preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom of God and saying The time is fulfilled and the Kingdom of God is at hand Repent ye and believe the Gospel Mark 1.14 15. Matthew also says From that time Jesus began to preach and to say Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand Matth. 4.17 And when Christ sent forth his Twelve Disciples two and two they went out and preached that Men should Repent Mark 6.12 Christ said to the Jews Except ye Repent ye shall all likewise perish Luke 13.3 5. And when the Publicans and Sinners came to hear Christ and the Pharisees and Scribes murmured saying This Man receiveth sinners and eateth with them Luke 15.1 2. Christ reproved them by a Parable and then told them Joy shall be in Heaven over one sinner that Repenteth more than over ninety and nine just persons which need no Repentance ver 7. And adds There is Joy in the presence of the Angels of God over one sinner that Repenteth ver 10. And Christ after he was Risen said unto his Disciples That Repentance and Remission of sins should be preached in his Name among all Nations beginning at Jerusalem Luke 24.47 Peter said unto the Jews Repent and be baptized every one of you in the Name of Jesus Christ for the Remission of sins and ye shall receive the Gift of the Holy Ghost Acts 2.38 And Paul said The times of this Ignorance God winked at but now commandeth all Men every where to Repent Acts 17.30 Simon Magus was called to Repentance if he had regarded it Acts 8.22 And the Apostle Paul did
who is set on the right hand of the Throne of the Majesty in the Heavens in his New Testament and New Covenant is a Minister of the Sanctuary and true Tabernacle which the Lord hath pitcht and not Man And therefore all the Lambs and Sheep of Christ must feel this holy Minister in their Temple and Sanctuary who ministers spiritual holy and heavenly things to them in their Sanctuary and Tabernacle For all the Tabernacles and Sanctuaries that are built or pitcht by Man Men make Ministers for them and such Ministers are of Men and by Men with their worldly Sanctuaries and Tabernacles of Mens pitching by Mens hands And now all Dear Friends and Brethren every where that are the Flock of Christ Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us Therefore let us all keep this heavenly Feast of our Passover in his New Testament and Covenant not with Old Leaven neither of Malice nor Wickedness but let all that be purged out with the sour old leavened Bread that all may become a new Lump and so keep this heavenly Feast of Christ our heavenly Passover with the unleavened Bread mark with the unleavened Bread of Sincerity and Truth My desires are that all the Flock of Christ every where may keep this heavenly Feast of Christ our heavenly Passover with his heavenly unleavened Bread of Sincerity and Truth Amen G. F. I stay'd in Town between Three Weeks and a Month after the Yearly-Meeting was over and then went into the Country first to Tottenham-High-Cross Tottenham-High-Cross Ford-green Enfield where was a Meeting on the First-day of the Week which I was at and then went to Edward Man's House at Ford-Green near Winchmore-Hill and on the First-day following went from thence to the Meeting at Enfield where the Lord gave me many precious Openings to declare to the People Afterwards moving to and fro amongst Friends thereabouts I visited the Meetings at Chess-hunt Chess-hunt Waltham-Abbey Enfield Tottenham Winchmore-hill Hartford Waltham-Abbey Enfield Tottenham and Winchmore-hill frequently the Lord being with me and opening many deep and weighty Truths divine and heavenly Mysteries to his People through me to their great Refreshment and my Joy After some time I went to Hartford to visit the Friends there and was at their Meeting on a First-day And having something more particular upon me to the Ancient Friends of that place I had a Meeting with some of them the next day and imparted to them what the Lord had given me for them Ware Then passing thence to Ware I made a little stay amongst Friends there and was at their Meeting After which returning Edmunton Tottenham London amongst Friends about Edmunton-side and Tottenham and taking Meetings as I went I came back to London in the end of the Seventh Month. I remained now at London 1690. London till the beginning of the Ninth Month being continually exercised in the Work of the Lord either in Publick Meetings opening the Way of Truth to People and building up and establishing Friends therein or in other Services relating to the Church of God For the Parliament now sitting and having a Bill before them concerning Oaths and another concerning Clandestine Marriages several Friends did attend the House to see to get those Bills so worded that they might not be hurtful to Friends In this Service I also assisted attending on the Parliament and discoursing the Matter with several of the Members Having stay'd more than a Month in London and much spent my self in these Services I went out of Town to Tottenham Tottenham Ford-Green and sometime after to Ford-Green near London at which Places I continued several Weeks visiting Friends Meetings round about there at Tottenham Enfield and Winchmore-Hill Tottenham Enfield Winchmore-hill In this time several things came upon me to Write whereof One was an Epistle to Friends in the Ministry and was as followeth ALL Friends in the Ministry every where Ford-Green to whom God hath given a Gift of the Ministry and who use to Travel up and down in the Gift of the Ministry Do not hide your Talent nor put your Light under a Bushel Nor Cumber your selves nor entangle your selves with the Affairs of this World For the natural Soldiers are not to Cumber themselves with the World much less the Soldiers of Christ who are not of this World but are to mind the Riches and Glory of the World that is Everlasting And therefore stir up the Gift of God in you and Improve it and do not sit down Demas-like and embrace this present World that will have an end lest ye become Idolaters But be valiant for God's Truth upon the Earth and spread it abroad in the Day-light of Christ you who have sought the Kingdom of God and the Righteousness thereof and have received it and preached it which stands in Righteousness and Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost As Able Ministers of the Spirit sow to the Spirit that of the Spirit ye may reap Life Everlasting And go on in the Spirit plowing with it in the purifying Hope and threshing with the Power and Spirit of God the Wheat out of the Chaff of Corruption in the same Hope For he that looks back from the spiritual Plow into the World is not fit for the Spiritual and Everlasting Kingdom of God and then he is not like to press into it as the Faithful do Therefore you that are awakened and are come to Righteousness and to the Knowledge of the Truth keep your selves awakened in it then the Enemy cannot sow his Tares in your Field for Truth and Righteousness is over him and before he was So my desires are that all may fulfil their Ministry that the Lord Jesus Christ hath committed to them and then by the Blood or Life and Testimony of Jesus you will overcome the Enemy that opposes it within and without And all you that do preach the Truth do it as it is in Jesus in Love And all that are Believers in Jesus 1690. Ford-Green and receivers of him he gives them Power to become the Sons of God and so Joint-heirs with Christ whom he calleth Brethren and he gives them the Water of Life which shall be a Well in them springing as a River up to Eternal Life that they may water the spiritual Plants of the living God So that all may be spiritual Planters and spiritual Waterers and may see with the spiritual Eye the Everlasting Eternal God over all to give the Increase who is the Infinite Fountain So my desires are that you may be kept our of all the beggarly Elements of the World which is below the spiritual Region to Christ the Head and may hold him who bruiseth the Head of Enmity and was before it was So that ye may all be united together in love in your Head Christ and be ordered by his heavenly gentle peaceable Wisdom to the Glory of God For all that be in Christ are in love peace
and Vnity and in him they are strong and in a full Perswasion and in him who is the First and Last they are in a heavenly Resolution and Confidence for God's Everlasting Honour and Glory Amen From him who is Translated into the Kingdom of his Dear Son with all his Saints a heavenly Salutation And salute ye one another with a holy Kiss of Charity that never faileth G. F. Ford Green the 25th of the 9th Month 1690. Another Epistle I writ soon after more particularly to the Friends in the Ministry that were gone into America which was thus DEar Friends and Brethren that are Ministers and Exhorters and Admonishers that are gone into America and the Islands there-aways Stir up the Gift of God in you and the pure Mind and improve your Talents that ye may be the Light of the World a City set upon an Hill that cannot be hid and let your Light shine among the Indians and the Blacks and the Whites that ye may answer the Truth in them and bring them to their Standard and Ensign that God hath set up Christ Jesus For from the Rising of the Sun to the Going down of the same God's Name shall be great among the Gentiles and in every Temple or sanctified Heart Incense shall be offered up to God's Name And have Salt in your selves that ye may be the Salt of the Earth that ye may salt it that it may be preserved from Corruption and Putrefaction so that all Sacrifices offered up to the Lord may be salted and seasoned and be a good Savour to God And all grow in the Faith and Grace of Christ that ye may not be like Dwarfs for a Dwarf shall not come near to Offer upon God's Altar though he may eat of God's Bread that he may grow by it And Friends Be not negligent but keep up your Negroes-Meetings and your Family-Meetings and have Meetings with the Indian Kings 1690. Tottenham and their Councils and Subjects every where and with others and bring them all to the Baptizing and Circumcising Spirit by which they may know God and serve and worship him And all take heed of sitting down in the Earth and having your Minds in the earthly Things Coveting and Striving for the Earth for to be carnally minded brings death and Covetousness is Idolatry There is too much Strife and Contention about that Idol which makes too many go out of the Sense and Fear of God so that some have lost Morality and Humanity and the true Christian Charity O therefore be awakened to Righteousness and keep awakened for the Enemy soweth his Tares while Men and Women sleep in Carelesness and Security Therefore so many slothful Ones go in their filthy Rags and have not the fine Linnen the Righteousness of Christ but are stragling and plowing with their Ox and their Ass in their woollen and linnen Garments mixt Stuff feeding upon Torn food and that dieth of it self and drinking of the dregs of their old Bottle and eating the sour leavened Bread which makes their hearts burn one against another But all are to keep the Feast of Christ our Passover with the unleavened Bread of Sincerity and Truth And this unleavened Bread of Life from Heaven makes all Hearts and Souls glad and joyful and lightsome and cheerful to serve and love God and to love and serve one another in the peaceable Truth and to keep in the Vnity of God's Spirit which is the Bond of the Lord of Lords and the King of all Kings his Peace In this Love and Peace God Almighty keep and preserve all his People and make them valiant for his Truth upon the Earth to spread it abroad both in Doctrine and good Life and Conversation Amen All the Members of Christ have need one of another For the Foot hath need of the Hand and the Hand hath need of the Foot The Ear hath need of the Eye and the Eye of the Ear. So that all the Members are serviceable in the Body which Christ is the Head of and the Head sees their Service Therefore let none despise the least Member And have a Care to keep down that greedy earthly Mind that raveneth and coveteth after the Riches and Things of this World lest ye fall into the low Region like the Gentiles or Heathen and so lose the Kingdom of God that is Everlasting But seek that first and God knows what things ye have need of who takes care for all both in Heaven and in the Earth Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable Gifts both Temporal and Spiritual Tottenham the 11th of the 10th Month 1690. G. F. Not long after this I returned to London and was almost daily with Friends at Meetings 1690. London And when I had been near Two Weeks in Town The sense of the great Hardships and sore Sufferings that Friends had been and were under in Ireland coming with great weight upon me I was moved to write the following Epistle as a Word of Consolation unto them DEar Friends and Brethren in the Lord Jesus Christ whom the Lord by his Eternal Arm and Power hath upheld through your great Sufferings Exercises Trials and Hardships more I believe then can be uttered up and down that Nation which I am very sensible of and the rest of the faithful Friends that have been Partakers with you in your Sufferings and cannot but suffer with the Lord's People that suffer And my Confidence hath been in the Lord that he would and will support you in all your Sufferings and that he would preserve all the Faithful in his Wisdom that they would give no just Occasion to one nor other to make them suffer And therefore if that you did suffer wrongfully or unjustly the righteous God would assist you and uphold you and reward them according to their Works that opprest or wronged you And now my desire is unto the Lord that in the same holy and heavenly Wisdom of God ye may all be preserved to the End of your days to the Glory of God minding God Almighty's supporting Hand and Power who is God Al-sufficient to strengthen help and refresh in time of Need. And let none forget the Lord's Mercies and Kindnesses which endure for ever but always live in the sense of them And truly Friends when I consider the thing It is the great Mercy of the Lord that ye have not been all swallowed up seeing with what Spirits ye have been compassed about But the Lord carrieth his Lambs in his Arms and they are as tender to him as the Apple of his Eye And his Power is his Hedge about his Vineyard of heavenly Plants And therefore it is good for all his Children to be given up to the Lord with their Minds and Souls Hearts and Spirits who is a faithful Keeper that never slumbers nor sleeps but is able to preserve and keep you and to save to the utmost and none can hurt so much as an hair of your Heads except he suffer
and to God's Spirit and to the Grace and Truth in your hearts that comes by Jesus Christ that with it ye may search your hearts And so do not grieve nor vex nor quench God's good Spirit in your hearts and walk not despitefully against the Spirit of Grace nor turn from it into Wantonness and yet make a Profession of God and Christ in Words 1677. Amsterdam when your hearts are afar off and living in Pleasures and wantonly upon the Earth sporting your selves killing the Just and Crucifying to your selves Christ afresh and putting him to open shame And so dishonouring God and Christ and Christianity and making a Profession and a Trade of the Scriptures keeping People always Learning that they may be always paying Therefore Cease from Man whose Breath is in his Nostrils and look unto the Lord all ye ends of the Earth and be saved for the Lord God of Heaven and Earth is come to teach his People himself by his Light Spirit Grace and Truth and to bring them off all the World's Teachers And God hath raised up Christ Jesus his Prophet whom People should hear and saith This is my beloved Son hear ye him and Christ saith Learn of me I am the Way the Truth and the Life and no Man comes to the Father but by me And there is no Salvation by any other Name under the whole Heaven but by the Name of Jesus who saith I am the good Shepherd and have laid down my Life for my Sheep and my Sheep hear my voice and follow me and will not follow the Hireling For Christ feeds them in the Pastures of Life that will never wither And God hath anointed Christ Jesus to preach if you will hear him and God hath given Christ for a Counsellor and a Leader if you will be Led and Counselled by him and God hath given Christ for a Bishop to Oversee you and a King to Rule you if you will be Overseen and Ruled by him And you that will not have Christ to Rule over you who never sinned nor Guile was found in his Mouth you may read his Sentence in the New Testament upon such And is not Christ a sufficient Teacher whose Blood was shed for you and tasted Death for every Man And doth not Christ say to his Ministers Freely ye have received freely give And the Apostle saith We covet no Man's Gold Silver or Apparel but Laboured with their Hands and kept the Gospel without Charge Have they that are called Ministers amongst you done the same and kept this Command of Christ Jesus Let them be Examined and Examine themselves And have you not trimmed your Outsides but look within with the Light and Spirit of Christ Jesus and see if your Insides be not black and foul For Christ Jesus who doth Enlighten every Man that cometh into the World with the Life in himself who is the Word he saith Believe in the Light that ye may become Children of the Light and with the Light ye may see all the Evil Deeds ye have done and all your ungodly Deeds that ye have acted and committed and all your ungodly Words you have spoken and all your ungodly Thoughts ye think that ye may turn from them and turn to Christ from whence the Light comes who is your Saviour and Redeemer who hath given you a Light to see your Sin and how that you are dead in Adam that with the same Light you may see Christ the quickening Spirit who makes you alive to God and saves you from your sin But if you hate the Light which is the Life in Christ the Prince of Life and Love the Darkness and the Prince of Darkness more than the Light or the Life in Christ whose Deeds be Evil and because it will Reprove you Christ tells you This Light will be your Condemnation John 3. And therefore be Warned now in your Day and while you have Time turn to the Lord and do not quench the Spirit of the Father by which he draws to his Son nor hate the Light of Christ for if you do you hate the Life in Christ and so remain under Condemnation from God and Christ with the Light who now speaks to his People by his Son as he did in the Apostles Days so the same God that was the Speaker by the Prophets to the Fathers and Speaker to Adam and Eve in Paradise And happy had Adam and Eve and the Jews and all Christians been if they had kept to this Speaker and not have followed the Serpent that false Speaker and his Instruments And now God is the true Speaker by his Son who bruises the Head of the Serpent the false Teacher who is the Head of all false Ways and false Prophets and false Churches and false Religions and Worships And so God and Christ is bringing People to the pure and undefiled Religion that will keep them from the Spots of the World and into the new and living Way Christ Jesus and to the Church in God which Christ is the Head of as he was in the Apostles Days and to worship God in the Spirit and Truth which Worship Christ set up above Sixteen hundred years since And therefore must all People come to the Grace and Spirit of Truth in their own hearts to know the God of Truth who is a Spirit and in the Spirit and Truth to worship and serve and honour and glorifie the Living God who is over all and Worthy of all Blessed for evermore Amen And ye Magistrates and Officers read this in all your Assemblies and cause all your Priests to read it in their Churches that they and you and all People may hear and fear the God of Heaven as you will Answer it at the Great and Terrible Day of Judgment and Vengeance of the Lord God Almighty And this is in Love to your Souls and for your Temporal and Eternal Good Amsterdam the 19th of the 7th Month 1677. G. F. 1677. Harlingen in Friezland An Epistle concerning true Fasting true Prayer true Honour and against Persecution and for the true Liberty in Christ Jesus To pag. 438 and that all may have a care that the Apostle hath not bestowed his Labour in vain upon you in your observing of Days Months Times Feasts and Years and of coming under the beggarly Elements and the Yoke of Bondage again and of bringing and forcing People into them WHere did ever Christ or his Apostles Command any Believers or Christians to observe Holy-Days or Feast-Days and let us see where it is written in the Scriptures of the New Testament in the Four Evangelists or the Epistles or the Revelation that ever Christ or his Apostles gave the Christians any such Command that they should observe the Time called Christmas or a Day for Christ's Birth or that they should observe the Time called Easter or Whitsuntide or Peter or Paul's or Mark or Luke's Days or any other Saints Day Now you that profess your selves to be
not Banish him and Persecute him out of your Cities and Corporations And how can you enter into his Kingdom and have a share of his Kingdom though you may profess him in Words And do not they go into Everlasting Punishment that did not visit Christ in Prison Then what will become of you that do Banish and Imprison him where he is manifest in his Members nor suffer them to Meet together to enjoy him amongst them according to his Promise And therefore you that will not let Christ Reign in his People and have his Liberty in them in your Cities and Countries to Exercise his Offices you will not have your Liberty in Heaven and you that will not let Christ Reign in your Hearts nor suffer him to Reign in his People here upon the Earth in this World in your Kingdoms you will not Reign with Christ in Heaven in his Kingdom nor in the World without end And so you that banish the Truth out of your Cities or Countries or his People for its sake you do banish the Truth and Christ out of your hearts from Ruling there and so you your selves are not the Temples of God And then when you have banished Christ and his Truth out of your own hearts then you do banish such in whom he Rules out of your Estates and Country and then see what Judgments the Lord doth bring upon you when you are left to your selves yea Fears and Troubles and one Judgment after another that come upon you you are even filled with them But the Banished and Sufferers for Truth and Christ's sake have a peaceable habitation in the Truth which the Devil is out of and cannot get in which habitation will out-last all the habitations of the Wicked and Persecutors though they be never so full of Words without Life and Truth So the Life and the Truth will out-last all Airy Notions and Christ the Lamb and patient Seed will overcome the Devourer and the unpatient Seed and they that have the Garments the Righteousness of Christ which is the fine Linnen it will out-last all the Rags and Inventions of Men. For Christ saith to his Learners Be of good chear I have overcome the World the persecuting World and so he said unto his Disciples Marvel not if that the World hate you for it hated me before you And therefore let all that profess themselves Christians lay away Persecution about Religion Churches or Worship Fasting or Praying-Days for you have no Command from Christ and his Apostles to Persecute any For Christ who is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords when they called him a Deceiver and blasphemed him and said He had a Devil he did not Persecute any of them for it nor force or compel any to hear and believe him nor the Apostles after him but he bad them that would have been plucking up the Tares Let the Tares and the Wheat grow together until the Harvest So you have no Command from Christ or his Apostles to Persecute Imprison or Banish or Spoil the Goods of any for matter of pure Conscience and Religion Worship Faith and Church in the Gospel-times Harlingen in Friezland the 11th of the 6th Month 1677. G. F. A Warning to the Magistrates Priests and People of the City of Hamborough to Humble themselves before the Lord and not to be High-minded Friends YOU have painted and garnished the Inside of your outward Houses and High-places but look within your Hearts with the Light of Christ Amsterdam which he hath enlightned you and every Man that cometh into the World withal and with it you may see To pag. 448 how foul your Hearts and Insides are with Sin and Evil which Christ tells you ye should make clean who told the Pharisees how they painted the Sepulchres of the Righteous and they themselves were full of Rottenness and Corruption Therefore look into your selves 1677. Amsterdam and your own hearts what you are full of to paint out the Sepulchres of the Righteous Apostles and making a Trade and a Profession of their words without the same Holy Ghost and Power and Light and Truth which they were in will not stand at the Day of God's Vengeance And therefore Repent while you have Time and turn to the Lord with your whole hearts and do not think your selves to be secure without his Immediate Almighty Protection For it is not all your Works nor all your own Strength and Power and Defence that can protect you and you to look at them and think your selves secure and to sit down in your Security and in it let your hearts be merry and at rest and ease But then when the Lord brings a Scourge upon you that you are filled with Terrours and Fears remember you were Warned that you were set down but not in the true Rest and then all your own Strength and Force will stand you in no stead and you will acknowledge that it must be God that must protect you And therefore take Warning for your Priests and People are too high and are swallowed up too much in this World and the Vanities of it carry your Minds away from God and your Care is more for the World than for God and more after the Riches of the World than after the Riches of the World that has no end For know you not that all your Heaps of outward Treasure must have an end and that you must Leave them all behind you Therefore I am to Warn and Advice you both High and Low Priests and People to come to the Grace Light and Truth that comes by Jesus Christ and also to come to the Manifestation of the good Spirit of God which is given to you to profit withal that with This Grace and Truth and Light and Spirit of Christ you may turn to Christ Jesus from whence it comes who saith Learn of me and God saith This is my beloved Son hear ye him And so all the Children of the New Covenant that walk in the New and Living Way do hear Christ their Prophet that God has raised up who is their Teacher and Priest whom God hath anointed to Preach And so now God doth speak to his People by his Son as he did in the Apostles Days And so the Lord is come to Teach his People himself by his Grace Light Truth and Spirit and to bring them off all the Worlds Teachers that are made by Men since the Apostles days who have kept People always Learning that they may always be paying of them And is come to bring them off all the Worlds Religions to the Religion that he set up in the Apostles Days in the New Covenant which is pure and undefiled before God in his sight and keeps from the Spots of the World c. And the Lord is come to bring them off all the World's Churches to the Church in God which Christ the heavenly Man is Head of and to bring them off all the World's Worships to
worship God in Spirit and in Truth which Christ set up above Sixteen hundred years since So all Men and Women must come to the Spirit and Truth in their hearts by which they must know the God of Truth who is a Spirit and then in the Spirit and Truth they will Worship him and know what and who they Worship And also the Lord is come to bring his People off all the World's Temples that with the Spirit they may know â—â—at their Bodies are the Temples of the Holy Ghost And the Lord is come to bring his People off all the World's Crosses and Pictures and Images and Likenesses to know that the Power of God is the Cross of Christ which Crucifies them to the World and brings them up into the Likeness and Image of God as Man and Woman was in before they fell and so to Christ that never fell And this Work of Christ must all know in their hearts by the Light of Christ Jesus who is the true Light that lighteth every Man that cometh into the World It is called the Light in Man and Woman and the Life in Christ the Word and Christ saith Believe in the Light that ye may become Children of the Light And the Light lets you see all your Evil Actions that you have done and committed and your ungodly Ways you have walked in and your ungodly Words and Thoughts and now if you do hate this Light and love the Darkness and the Prince of it more than this Light which is the Life in Christ the Prince of Life and will not come to it because your Deeds be Evil and it will reprove you Christ tells you This Light is your Condemnation And then what is all your Profession good for when you remain under the Condemnation of the true Light in which you should believe and so become Children of Light and out of Condemnation And therefore every one must believe in the Light if they do receive Christ Jesus and as many as receives him he gives them Power to become the Sons of God So he that hath the Son of God hath Life and they that have not the Son of God have not Life and then if you have not Life what good doth all your Profession of the Scriptures from Genesis to Revelations do you any more than the Jews Scribes and Pharisees that would not receive Christ the Life upon whom God brought his overflowing Scourge And therefore do you take heed of that for your Strength will be no better than theirs if you have not God and Christ's supporting Power when God's Scourge comes upon you and you are filled with Horrours and Fears But my desires are that you may all Repent even from the Highest to the Lowest and not grieve nor quench nor vex nor rebel against God's good Spirit in you nor walk despitefully against the Spirit of Grace nor turn from it unto Wantonness which would teach you and bring your Salvation Which if you do how can you escape the over-flowing Scourge of the Almighty and the Wrath of the Lamb But my desires are that you may all obey God's good Spirit of Truth which will lead you out of all Evil into all Truth and reprove you for your Righteousness and for your own Judgment and Sin c. and it will bring you to cleave to that which is good and forsake that which is evil and to turn to the Lord who will receive you in his Mercy and Kindness By which Means you may escape the over-flowing Scourge in the Day of Vengeance which dreadful Day is coming upon all Evil-doers And this as a Warning to you both for your Temporal and Eternal Good and for you to Read it in your Assemblies and your Priests to Read it in their Churches so that all People may hear and fear as you will Answer it at the Terrible and Dreadful Day of Judgment Amsterdam the 19th of the 7th Month 1677. G. F. For the Embassadors that are Met to Treat for Peace at the City of Nimmeguen in the States Dominions To pag. 448 CHrist Jesus saith Blessed are the Peace-makers for they shall be called the Children of God Matth. 5.9 so all Christian men are to forsake Evil and do Good and seek Peace and follow it if they will love Life and see good Days 1 Pet. 3.11 for God hath called all true Christians unto Peace 1 Cor. 7. and therefore all Christians ought to follow this Peace which God calls them to and they should let the Peace of God rule in all their Hearts which is above the Peace of this World that is so soon broken For the Apostle Commands the Christians to let the Peace of God rule in their Hearts to which all Christians should be subject Now the Practice of this should be among Christians that profess Christianity and this Peace is above that which Christ takes from the Earth Rev. 6. which is the Peace of the Wicked And the Apostle saith to the Christians Be at Peace among your selves 1 Thess 5. Now all Christians should obey this Command and be at Peace among themselves and not in Wars and Strife And further the Apostle exhorts the Christians to keep the Vnity of the Spirit in the Bond of Peace so this Vnity and this Bond of Peace should be kept and not be broken by all that bears that Noble Name Christian and they should keep the Unity of the Spirit of Christ in the Bond of the Prince of Princes and King of Kings and Lord of Lords Peace which is the Duty of all true Christians to keep In which they may honour Christ in bringing forth the Fruits of Peace which is Love and Charity For the Apostle tells you The fruits of the good Spirit is Love Joy and Peace Long-suffering Gentleness Goodness c. Gal. 5. And the Apostle exhorts the Christians and saith If it be possible as much as lieth in you live peaceable with all Men and this should be the Endeavour of all Christians For it is no honour to Christ that Christians should war and destroy one another that do profess the Name of Christ who saith He came to save Mens lives and not to destroy them For Christians have Enemies enough abroad without them and therefore they should Love one another as Christ commands who saith By this ye shall be known to be my Disciples if ye Love one another For Christians are commanded to love Enemies therefore much more one another And Christ saith As the Father hath loved me so I have loved you Continue ye in my Love John 15.8 and By this shall all Men know that ye are my Disciples if ye Love one another John 13.35 But if Christians do war and destroy one another this will make both Jews Turks Tartars and Heathens to say That you are not Disciples of Christ. And therefore as you love God and Christ and Christianity and its Peace All make Peace as far as you have power among Christians that
by which you will feel his blessed and refreshing Presence among you and in you to your Comfort and God's Glory And now all Friends All your Meetings both Mens and Womens Monthly and Quarterly and Yearly c. were set up by the Power and Spirit and Wisdom of God and in them you do know that you have felt both his Power and Spirit and Wisdom and blessed refreshing Presence among you and in you to his Praise and Glory and your Comfort So that you have been a City set on a Hill that cannot be hid And although many loose and unruly Spirits have risen betimes to Oppose you and them both in Print and other ways but you have seen how they have come to Nought and the Lord hath blasted them and brought their Deeds to Light and made them Manifest to be the Trees without Fruit and Wells without Water and Wandering Stars from the Firmament of God's Power and the Raging Waves of the Sea casting up their Mire and Dirt And many of them are like the Dog turn'd to his Old Vomit and the Sow that was washed turned again to the Mire And this hath been the Condition of many God knoweth and his People And therefore all to stand Stedfast in Christ Jesus your Head in whom you are all one Male and Female and know his Government and of the Encrease of his Government and Peace there shall be no End but there will be an End of the Devil 's and of all them that be out of Christ and do Oppose it and him whose Judgment doth not linger and their Damnation doth not slumber And therefore in God and Christ's Light Life Spirit and Power live and walk that is over all and the Seed of it in Love and in Innocency and Simplicity and in Righteousness and Holiness dwell and in his Power and Holy Ghost in which God's Kingdom doth stand All Children of New and Heavenly Jerusalem that is from above and is free with all her Holy Spiritual Children To her keep your Eyes And as for this Spirit of Rebellion and Opposition that hath risen formerly and lately it is out of the Kingdom of God and Heavenly Jerusalem and is for Judgment and Condemnation with all its Books Words and Works And therefore Friends are to live and walk in the Power and Spirit of God that is over it and in the Seed that will bruise and break it to pieces In which Seed you have Joy and Peace with God and Power and Authority to Judge it and your Unity is in the Power and Spirit of God that doth Judge it and all God's Witnesses in his Tabernacle go out against it and always have and will And let no Man live to Self but to the Lord as they will die in him and seek the Peace of the Church of Christ and the Peace of all Men in him for Blessed are the Peace-makers And dwell in the pure peaceable Heavenly Wisdom of God that is Gentle and Easie to be entreated that is full of Mercy all striving to be of one Mind Heart Soul and Judgment in Christ having his Mind and Spirit dwelling in you building up one another in the Love of God which doth edifie the Body of Christ his Church who is the holy Head thereof So Glory to God through Christ in this Age and all other Ages who is the Rock and Foundation and the Emanuel God with us Amen over all the Beginning and the Ending in him Live and Walk in whom you have Life Eternal in whom you will feel me and I you All Children of New Jerusalem that descends from above the Holy City which the Lord and the Lamb is the Light thereof and is the Temple in it they are born again of the Spirit So Jerusalem that is above is the Mother of them that are born of the Spirit And so they that come and are come to Heavenly Jerusalem are them that receive Christ and he giveth them Power to become the Sons of God and are born again of the Spirit So Jerusalem that is their Mother And such do come to Heavenly Mount Sion and the innumerable Company of Angels and to the Spirits of just Men made perfect and are come to the Church of the Living God written in Heaven and have the Name of God and the City of God written upon them So here is a New Mother that bringeth forth a Heavenly and a Spiritual Generation There is no Schism nor Division nor Contention nor Strife in Heavenly Jerusalem nor in the Body of Christ which is made up of living Stones a Spiritual House And Christ is not divided for in him there is Peace Christ saith In me you have Peace And he is from above and not of this World but in the World below in the Spirit of it there is Trouble therefore keep in Christ and walk in him Amen G. F. And Jerusalem was the Mother of all the true Christians before the Apostacy and since the outward Christians are broken into many Sects and they have gotten many Mothers But all they that are come out of the Apostacy by the Power and Spirit of Christ Jerusalem that is above is their Mother and none below her who doth nourish all her Spiritual Children Read at the Yearly-Meeting in London 1691. G. F. Reader please to note That these following Papers and Epistles some of which being mention'd in the Journal page 452 c. and there omitted are found meet to be here inserted and are as followeth A Warning to the Magistrates and People of the City of Oldenborg Friends HAve you not seen and felt the Judgments of God upon your City the Lord sending Lightning from Heaven Amsterdam that destroy'd and burnt it And as I passed thorow your City on a First-day of the Week which you call your Sabbath To pag. 448 I saw some drinking and Soldiers playing at Shuffle-board and others with their Shops open and Trading when they should have been Waiting upon God and Worshipping him And your People were light and vain without any sense of God's Judgments or Repentance O therefore Repent lest the All-seeing God who sees all your Actions and is over all do bring swift Judgment upon you in his Wrath and Fury and Indignation And so Repent and lay away all manner of Evil and Wickedness and Ungodliness and Vnrighteousness for the Day of the Lord will come upon all that do Evil and the Workers of Iniquity and this mighty Day of the Lord will find them all out and will burn as an Oven and burn up all the Proud and Wicked and neither leave them Root nor Branch And therefore all ye Magistrates Priests and People search in your selves to find out the Cause and what Wickedness and Evil it has been you have Committed that has brought the Wrath and Vengeance and Judgments of God upon you and upon your City in burning of it And therefore all Return and come to the Light of Christ in your hearts