ABSTRACTS OF SOME LETTERS WRITTEN BY Mr. ROBERT RICH Treating mostly of Spiritual Matters Are here transmitted to Posterity and recommended to the sober and serious Enquirer FOR Promoting of Universal Love amongst all sorts of People without respect of Persons Parties or Sects Together with a friendly Letter of Dr. Jer. Taylor to the said R. R. in Answer to one of his Published by a Lover of RIGHTEOUSNES But an utter Enemy to Deceit and Wickedness in whomsoever J. P. LONDON Printed for Benjamin Billingsley at the Printing-Press near the â—â—â—al-Exchange in Cornhill 1680. The PREFACE I Having had the perusal of divers of Mr. R. Rich's Letters by reason of his late Decease found several things scattered up and down amongst them of a sublime and Divine Nature some of which I picked and culled out and now expose to publick view chiefly for the sake of those whose Hearts and Minds are set Sion-wards to be kept upon Record for their Posterity even the Generations of all the just and righteous Ones of what Nation Kindred Tongue or People soever they be For the sincere single and upright-hearted in whom there is no Guile who seek not the Praise of Men but the Glory of the Lord only were are and for ever will be acted and guided by one and the same Spirit of Purity Holiness and Self-denial throughout all Ages and Generations He that can receive the Testimony of this Truth as did the Apostle Peter of old and as do the Servants of the Lord now let him but withal let him know unless his Life and Conversation be harmless and blameless amongst Men all his Notion of Truth in words will but add to his greater Condemnation For he that talks of his Master's Will and is not a doer of the same must expect to be beaten with many stripes Wherefore my Advice is before any talk of or intermeddle with the Secrets or Mysteries of the Great GOD they first see Justice Righteousness and Love to Equity set up in their own Souls for till that be resolvedly and fixedly established within all Knowledg and Profession without will avail little For what doth the Lord require of thee O Man but to do justly to love Mercy and to walk humbly before Him Therefore let these things in which the Kingdom of God consists and not in Meats or Drinks Habits Times or Places which at best were but shadows of good things to come be first sought after and all other things needful will be added as hath been fully and truly experienced by one who hath learned not only to forgive Enemies but can with delight reward Evil with Good Which Lesson that the Reader may learn press after and attain unto is the desire of him who seeks the Good and Weal of all Mankind J. P. Mr. Rich's Letter to Doctor Taylor of the 9th of Feb. 1657. Together with the Doctor 's Answer SIR BEing in my Heart persuaded that there are many of late years which have suffered much in their Persons Estates and good Names of those People called Malignants especially some that were in the Ministry that were not only put out of their Livings but by an Act made uncapable of that Emploiment their Education best fitted them for viz. the keeping of Schools And altho perhaps some might suffer justly for their Offences yet I do believe many of them did suffer for the Testimony of a good Conscience not daring to make shipwrack of it nor to act against that Light or Knowledg which to them was made manifest from the Lord to be just and right Towards such have I great Love notwithstanding the different Dispensations Manifestations Operations and Administrations wherein we are cast knowing the Root and Ground to be from the one Spirit and that in my Father's House there are many Mansions in which as every one abides to act and do the things that are just and right they are accepted with him of what Nation Kindred or People soever whether Jew or Gentile they are all one in Christ Jesus God's Talent and Gift to the World who doth enlighten every one freely by his Grace both to will and to do of his good pleasure And therefore as a Testimony of that Love the Lord hath begot in my Heart to all Men especially to them that improve my Lord's Talent and who are of his Houshold and abide in the Faith that keeps clean the Heart which is held in a pure Conscience have I by this Bearer sent unto you Ten Pounds to bestow amongst them you know to be in want under that Form called Episcopal And this I feel to be well-pleasing to God and hath a Reward from him altho it should be condemned by Man So desiring you in this thing to act as Truth in the inward parts shall direct I commit you to the Grace and Love of God where I rest Your Friend and Servant R. R. The Doctor 's Answer SIR I Received from you by the hands of your Nephew a Letter and Ten Pounds to be given to such godly Ministers of the Episcopal Persuasion who are in want and suffer for the Testimony of their Consciences Sir I do in their behalf return my humble thanks to God who hath put it into your Heart to do so good so charitable an Action for the relief of his afflicted Servants And I return hearty thanks to You also and do very much rejoice in that Piety and godly Sincerity of your Spirit by which you endeavour by your Love unto the Brethren to testify your Love and Duty to our dearest Lord. I see you are no respecter of Persons nor Opinions but that you enquire after the Power of Godliness and I am very much delighted to consider that you make a charitable Judgment of your Brethren who are under another Dispensation As long as the Understandings of Men differ there will be variety of Judgments but the Work of God and of Religion goes forward while we have but one Heart and one Spirit Sir I hope you will have great cause to rejoice when you shall hear that God is glorified on your behalf and that you by your liberal Alms cause humble Thanksgivings to be made to God For my own particular I shall by God's assistance do the Office of a faithful Steward in the ministring of your Liberality and I pray God to accept it at your hands and to reward it sevenfold into your Bosom Sir I humbly take my leave and rest Your very affectionate Friend and Servant in the Lord Jesus JER TAYLOR Feb. 13. 1657. This following is a Preamble of a Letter R. R. writ to the Earl of Windsor Jan. 10. 1662. My Lord FOr some time I scrupled and durst call no Man Lord or Master which proceeded from Tradition received from Elders from the Letter of the Scripture which saith Call no Man Master But having since that in my self felt a more sure Word viz. the Image or Talent of God to wit Truth in the inward
I might have said much more in return to thine but that I see and know that Words and Declarations tho never so true unless the Life it self speak them and go along with them have but little strength And I could also tell thee that to forsake your Form yea and to speak against it too were not to forsake Truth as thou chargest And is it not strange that you should so complain of my disturbing your Meetings in a Song or few words of Truth when as your selves have gone to others assembled even with railing Accusations calling them Dumb Dogs Liars Hirelings Baal's Priests c. yet cannot bear with such as come to admonish you O that the time were come that those who desired Liberty of Conscience would give it to others I know you cannot believe the Truth when told you nor cease from reproaching judging and condemning it neither will you let the Innocent go free to serve the Lord according as their Light shall lead them till the Judgments you have pronounced against the Innocent fall upon your own Heads For I know that the Lord hath poured out upon you a deep Spirit of Slumber which hath so blinded your Eyes and hardened your Hearts that in seeing you should not see neither perceive the Truth in things that differ And there is yet a Treasure a Dispensation of Grace where you have as yet by reason of your Self-exaltation and bitter Spirit seen but little into the which some have seen felt and handled To this you must all stoop and bow tho never so high before you find Peace and Rest to your Souls or be free from vain Contention and Strife R. R. to M. B. and other Quakers THis I have to say unto thee or rather to G. F. who hath begot many of you into his Image That you no longer tempt any of the innocent Lambs of Christ to withdraw from the leading and teaching of the Unction of God which is Christ to follow the Letter or your Teachings or Traditions wherein you must and shall perish in the dark Wilderness of your own Imaginations for the Lord hath sworn in his Wrath that you who call your selves Good old Friends and the Israel of God who have so falsly accused condemned and bitterly persecuted your innocent Brethren for those things the Lord hath and doth justify shall never inhabit the good Land I know G. F. is raised of God for this very end to try refine and purify many as Pharaoh was and tho many fall in the Trial under his Power yet many will be delivered into the glorious Liberty of the Sons of God I likewise see that daily more and more will fall off from that Body and that some that separate from them will with Daniel stand in their Lot and follow the Lord in the Spirit of the Lamb more fully than they have done whilst they that oppose shall stand with Lot's Wife turned into a Pillar of Salt continuing their preaching up Truth in Words without Power whilst others baptize with the Holy-Ghost and with Fire Thou writest of my going to the Steeple-house To which I answer Blessed are those that have Rest Peace and Satisfaction in themselves for they that look forth are like to find but little in this the day of God's searching Jerusalem with Candles wherein he will stain the Pride and Glory of all Flesh R. R. in Answer to some Friends not Quakers YOu judg me to be a Ranter and to hold their Principles I can truly say I have been but little acquainted with that People or with their Principles I would not be thought to be an Advocate for the loose and licentious Practices of any sort of People much less for Them who from the itching ☜ Notions of Liberty have run without their Guide into the excess of all Riot and Prophaneness who while they greedily catch at the Bait are caught with the Hook till a Dart strike through their Liver and they are led with the Fool to the Correction of the Stocks and there plagued with their own Iniquities I desire this may be shewn to Mr. Bacon as to all others who seem to stumble at my Love to this dark Beelzebub this mad ranting Crew THe time is coming and now is that we shall not know and own each other as we are of one Sect or outward way but as the Grace and Principle of God appears in each other the Love of God shed abroad in our Hearts and where this is witnessed thither will the Upright resort and gather If you see any dividing among the Religious Parties take you notice of that I know every one must divide till all unite in the Word in the Heart My Love flows to all that in uprightness of Heart serve the Lord in any Form For as all Forms are alike to me so is the Substance the Power of Godliness also and altho Uprightness God accepted in all Forms and suffered all Sects to walk in them yet now calleth all Men to reject the evil in each Form and to wait on Him to be their Teacher from henceforth and for ever J. N. and J. P. tho dead yet speak who declared they were to cease from words even of Truth spoken from the comprehending part of Man's Understanding and from thus speaking in set Meetings and so to give way for a greater Glory viz. the Spirit 's teaching leading and speaking in the Saints Also they declared that they had received greater Wounds from the House of their Friends than from the House of their Enemies And I can assure you they who meddle with the Quakers had need be fenced within and without with the whole Armor of God Truth and love to Righteousness David â—s Sling and Stone and enabled to use both hands the left as well as the right the Wisdom of the Serpent as the Innocency of the Dove And truly till the Spirit of Love and Reconciliation be brought forth wherewith every Christian shall willingly leave each other to the guidance of God's holy Spirit of Grace in that Form or Way they are persuaded to walk in the Strife which is occasioned by outward Traditional Observations will never cease And I have this further to declare to all the World to Jew Gontile Barbarian and Christian tho I know it will be an Offence and Stone of stumbling to G. F. and all Masters of Assemblies in every Sect who prescribe impose and would have Dominion over the Faith of others that the Eternal God who wills not the death of any Sinner hath sent his dear Son Emanuel his Light and Spirit of Grace into the World his everlasting Covenant a Divine Law writ in every Man's Heart that whosoever believeth in Him and followeth Him shall have Eternal Life And this Divine Law and Word in the Heart is the Ensign to gather together all things into Himself and to present every Man perfect in God being thereby sanctified justified and saved from their Sins To which Word
through the fellowship of his sufferings despising the shame of being cast out of your Synagogues and of being disown'd of their Mother's Children who in Patience and great Tribulations will follow the Lamb and possess his Crown And these are the true Tribe of Joseph or Jesus that are fit to make Princes in all Lands And whereas one of you asked me Whether I would have you one with the World and turn Drunkards Cheaters c. I replied Canst thou not see a middle Path to walk in betwixt these two Extremes of open Prophaneness and close spiritual Wickedness in high places nor put a difference between the true Christ that filleth all and is the First-born in every Creature and the false Christ that is only here or there in that Mountain or in this secret Chamber covered over with appearing righteous before Men yet inwardly ravening and with Simon Magus in the bitter Spirit giving Wormwood with Gall to drink pushing with the side and shoulder and piercing all those innocent Ones that can call neither you nor no Man Master of their Spirits save God only nor receive your Mark nor yet the Number of your Name And is not this the Abomination that maketh desolate and standeth in the holy Place the Heart where Love and Innocency should dwell And Proselytes thus begot and made tho appearing never so righteous whether such be not seven-fold more the Children of Hell than before let the wise in Heart judg Well my Friends when you come to understand how an Habitation may be built for the Devil by your Anger Wrath Backbiting evil Surmises c. and by your hearkening to and following after Men observing of Days and appointed Meetings together with other Traditions and outward Observations which the Power of Love leads not to but are begotten and continued either by the Letter or else Man's vain Philosophy or Example in which having once lost your Guide viz. the pure and single movings of the Lord as by a great and strong Wind ye are whirled about and left to your own Thoughts and Imaginations where the Lord is not felt so you run again into those outward Observations where once his presence was and there are struck blind as the Assyrians Egyptians Israelites c. were and as Saul was that ye utterly lose the Door and Way that leads to Life Read that can understand And here in this Spirit is the silly Woman led captive ever learning and talking of Truth Light and Love to Enemies and brotherly Kindness Meekness Gentleness and of patient bearing and suffering of all things but never able to come into the things talked of no nearer than in shew or in self-imagination and outward appearance only And in Truth I have been oft made to cry out amongst you how that I saw Christ must suffer and that he must die or disappear and then afterwards rise and enter into Glory Which thing I now see you have not rightly understood And if these my words seem to you as a Dream yet why are you angry with me for my Dream's sake But these things I leave to the Judgment of the Great Day near at hand wherein many will be smitten with Sickness VVeakness and the Sleep of Death because they discerned not Love to be the Lord's Body and could not patiently wait for the Resurrection thereof but have set up other Idols in their Hearts instead of him yet as for the innocent harmless merciful meek loving and kind hearted amongst you and of every Nation such shall obtain and inherit the Blessing of Peace Plenty and Rest which none can disturb but not till the last Enemy or Enmity which is the Sting of Death be destroyed and put underfoot Thus by the Life of Love Death loseth its Sting the Grave its Victory the Law its Strength and all resigned to the Conquest of Love unfeigned Then are the Kingdoms of this VVorld become the Kingdoms of our Lord and his Christ and he alone reigneth Go ye with all Sects and learn what this meaneth Oft-times many amongst you in much contempt have asked me Whom I have coverted and where the Fruit of my Ministry is To whom I now answer That my Work is with the Lord having delivered up my Kingdom unto him my self can do nothing but as Love moveth so I either go or come speak or am silent And I am not sent to call the Righteous or to gather into Sects or Opinions nor is it the ground of my rejoycing to have a Multitude follow me or to flock about the outward Court or that Devils themselves are made subject no I know no true Happiness nor a Kingdom everlasting in these things neither see I any reason to prefer one Sect above another only such whose Names are written in the Book of Love and by it are gathered into the Life thereof those to me are most choice and precious My Ministry is neither Lo here nor Lo there I am not so sent to preach but as a Light to the Gentiles and to open Mysteries interpret Dreams and hard Sayings that have lain hid ever since the World that lies in the Apostacy began that so the blind in Heart may see the things that belong to their Souls Peace and VVelfare that so every one in all Forms may sit under his present Attainment as his proper Vine and drink VVaters of Life from his own Cistern without the least spot or defilemenr of Enmity in their Feasts of Charity both with the Lord and with one another And who will be offended at the foolishness of this Preaching except it be the Scribes and Fair-sayers in every Sect that are highly exalted in themselves and in others because of their Gifts both in praying and speaking and in their Zeal earnestness and fervent working of their own Spirit where sits that painted and well-favoured Harlot upon all Waters or Sects speaking as with the Tongue of Men and Angels the Words of Truth and of the Fame of Life and Love but from that Principle which leadeth into the Chambers of Death in all which things the Good Man not being at home nor endowing with Power from on high great Abominations Murders and Adulteries are committed in Spirit and Heart as in the matter of Peor in the days of Balak and Balaam Figures of this untoward Generation whose Ear being once opened heard the words of God and with the single eye saw and knew the secret Counsel of the Most High but afterwards falling into a Trance mark into his own Imaginations he then opened the double Eye for he had two and this saw Evil and loved the Wages of Unrighteousness yet nevertheless what he had once seen with the single Eye he could talk of as you do and so speak of exceeding high and great Mysteries as one having all Knowledg mark that puffs up so could speak of the Seed of God its beginning and end and of the Light or Way through which it passeth and that it should
any other by which they could only convey the Truth to their Understandings Or is Thou more acceptable to God than You in the declaration of Truth I believe those Words and that Language which proceeds from the Spirit of Love is best and most acceptably received by them that are in the same Spirit And what is there in refusing to swear after that manner the Magistrate commands while in the mean time you will call God to witness to what you affirm for Truth Is it any more than to oppose the Magistrates Form by your own Doth not he that speaks the Truth and calleth God and Man to witness the same swear by Christ Jesus the Truth and Oath of God Doth true swearing consist in the meer Ceremony of kissing the Book or standeth it not rather in calling God to record to the Truth which we declare And yet this manner of swearing is owned by G. F. and his Friends and frequently practised by them both by Word and Writing And what is all this but to swallow the Camel and swear substantially while you strain at a Gnat of some small Ceremony which the Magistrate thinks fit to enjoyn perhaps more to obtain Credit from those who have Conscience in such a Form of Swearing rather than to offend them that know how to distinguish between the Ceremony and the Substance And is not Verily verily an Asseveration and kind of Oath and more than Yea and nay And doth not St. Paul say who had Christ in him that he call'd God to record c. And is not this a great Oath And whether you have any other thing to rule and guide you in not swearing save the * Which tho it saith Swear not at all yet no where forbids laving on the hand or kissing the Book the only thing you scruple Letter And whether that be not more against you than with you let the wise in Heart who are acquainted with the Scriptures judg in this Case Thou sayest That the Gospel of Christ is Yea and Amen and that it leads not back to what it led from I say This hath been a Principle long received and taught by your Teachers and indeed hath occasioned much Persecution to the Innocent amongst you to call your outward Observations and Traditions the Gospel or Truth for when any have bin carried out of the way of your received Traditions into any new Appearance how have you upon this ground risen up against them with Floods of Reproaches to devour them To which Principle or rather Opinion of yours I answer and say That the Gospel Truth or Kingdom stands not in any outward Observations for why may not the Lord do both in Heaven and Earth whatsoever he pleaseth and lead his People howsoever or wheresoever he will How dare any find fault with him And who shall say unto him What dost thou He leadeth Abraham Joseph and all Israel into Egypt yea Jesus of Nazareth into the Wilderness and doth when he pleaseth turn the Course of his Dispensation leading them back again from whence they came Why may not God command Moses to set up a Brazen Serpent yea and give power to it also and then again withdraw his power from it and by his Light lead Hezekiah to pull it down and call it Nebushtan which is an Idol or nothing altho to the very day of its dissolution the Children of Israel burnt Incense to it supposing it may be as you also do that the Lord would not relinquish that Appearance once established by Himself The Lord hath had his sundry ways of appearing to his People as in the Mount of Samaria and at Jerusa em and yet she that was limited in her self was led by the Light from all this to worship the Father every where and in all places and things in the Spirit and Truth Christ appeared in divers Forms as the Scripture testifies yet no other save them only that saw him would believe the report of him according to their Testimony but counted their Words as Joseph's Brethren did his Dreams idle Fables as ye do while you judg your Brethren whom the Lord hath visited in a different manner from your selves What if the Lord will so strangely appear as to leave the Jew and turn to the Gentile to call them a People that were not a People What if God will make you that have been first and highest in Profession last and lowest in the Kingdom What if Capernaum now exalted to the Heavens should be brought down to Hell It will then be manifest that the Almighty is not confined to either Persons or Appearances But further why may not the Lord lead Mordecai openly to withstand the Pride and Oppression of Haman and at the same time lead Hester in a clean contrary work to feast him hereby overcoming Evil with Good If one Person should act these two parts which seem so contrary to each other as is Light to Darkness being led thereto by the Light whether that may not be accepted of God tho all Men should therefore condemn it And why may not one abstain from Meats to day and to morrow see a liberty to eat or have Conscience of an Idol now and anon know it to be nothing VVere not some led to sacrifice circumcise and baptize as being all beautiful while the Power of God was in them but that being departed the Practisers of those things may now tell you that they avail and profit nothing Surely did but all Sects knowingly consider that in my Fathers House are many Mansions and that his Commands are exceeding broad and various that there are diversities of Administrations and Operations yet the same Spirit working all and in all and was the Substance which is the Grace appearing to all more minded by Professors and the Form less also were the weightier Matters of the Law as Mercy Justice Truth and Love more in estimation than the lesser which only stand in outward Observations and are but the outside of the Dish and Platter in all Forms there would not be such tearing one another for the Form's sake For in the Substance and weightier Matters all People of all sorts do without controversy agree yet every one in and for the House of his Imagery rends and devours his Brother not equally fashioned and made up in the same proportion of Understanding as touching our outward Behaviour in the Truth 's Profession by which the Image of the Heavenly is indeed so defaced that the pure Love which thinks no ill amongst all Professors of Godliness is very rarely and hardly found These are indeed the bitter VVaters that cause the Curse upon all Sects Nations Tongues and Peoples as at this day this devours the Earth and makes all desolate this profanes the Lord 's own Sanctuary and the Princes thereof and causeth Jacob to be given to the Curse and Israel to Reproaches For this kind of Spirit of bitter envying is indeed that City Meroz which no way
of Truth such he will save and preserve as his Jewels in the hollow of his hand Wherefore to your Tents O Israel you that are circumcised in Heart and Ears enter ye into your Master's Joy the Love of God shed abroad in your Hearts the Ark and Tabernacle which God not Man hath pitched in all the Sanctified and be therein at Peace with that of God in all his Creation So will you come to the everlasting Sabbath of Rest which God hath prepared for all that love him and wait for his Appearance An. 1678. More Abstracts of Letters to particular Friends I Received yours which I accepted as an ample Testimony of your endeared Union with the Bridegroom of our Souls in which I greatly rejoice to meet you one in the footsteps of his Companions enquiring where He maketh his Flocks to rest at Noon as not willing to shade your self under any false Rest or Security but waiting in the Patience and Faith of the Saints till his Power of Grace from on high more abundantly shines forth and overshadows the whole Earth with the Glory of his Immanuel This Spirit of Love is the Tree of Life whose Leaves are for the healing of the Nations and under the infinite spreading Branches thereof we may all of every Nation Sect or People sit down together the Wolf with the Lamb in safety and peace In the humble expectation and patient waiting of my Spirit for the full manifestation of this all-saving Grace I dearly salute you together with all Saints in whose Bodies as in the Clouds I see the Lord coming to reconcile all things to Himself through the death of Sin by nailing the Enmity to his Cross which is the Power of Love and by that Life swallow up Death into Victory As for my self it hath pleased the Lord to lead me through various Changes and Operations shewing me the Wonders of his Power Many years since I heard a Voice in the Wilderness preaching Repentance for the Remission of Sins and to prepare a Way for the Lord by putting off the Old Man with his deeds under which Dispensation of the Quakers as that of Elias and John I was baptized in that Cloud and there abode till Judgment was brought forth into Victory Afterwards being called up higher by receiving a double measure of the Spirit sate down in Heavenly Places with Christ Jesus whence I heard a Voice saying In whomsoever I saw the Spirit descending like a Dove and abiding viz. the Spirit of Meekness of Innocency and of universal Charity that this was and is the Son of God in whom He is always well pleased And Him not my self I preach for Salvation to the ends of the Earth Him who was before Abraham was and is now and for ever the same throughout all Generations From which root of Jesse did proceed the Salutation of me R. R. to the seven Churches of Christendom that all of every Form or Sect of People in the World might cease from Man and all other Idols look up unto Him and be saved I see the Multitude of all Sâ—cts standing at this day with Moses in the Mount each under their proper Attainments contending with one another and condemning all others both Persons and Things that suit not with their Laws and legal Discoveries of Truth every one in their Tribes highly pretending to the Glory of God but in truth only tending to crucify the Son of God afresh and put him to open shame c. July 2. 1670. To another Friend WHerefore ye Sons and Daughters of Sion ye Inhabitants of the New Jerusalem blow ye the Trumpet of God say ye The Lord reigneth make ye a joyful Noise that the whole World and all therein may ring and sing forth his Praise whose Name Worship and Nature is one and the same most excellent yea whose Name is also Truth in the inward parts the Word in the Heart that whosoever walketh in the Truth and Light manifested in every Conscience of all or any Religion shall be saved To other Friends Dear Hearts I Lately saw you sent forth as Sheep amongst Wolves therefore be ye as wise as Serpents and as innocent as the Dove In the Power that sends you forth stand and for it wait then as any thing is to be done it will arise And when you are before those that would rule over your Conscience take no thought neither be at all careful what you shall speak for it shall be given you at that instant Thus will you come to witness the Lilly which is more glorious than Solomon Behold I go before you into Galilee of the Gentiles whither our Lord the Power is gone to gather all things into Himself for out of Egypt will he bring his Son But wait you at Jerusalem the Mother of us all for the Power which is the Father that begat us of his own good will and pleasure into which and by which the gathering of the People will be and not by Words or Sounds neither into Sects or Opinions but whosoever is Servant to the Power will be accepted of what Nation Kindred or People soever he be This is a true and faithful Saying blessed is he that can receive it such an one comes to cease from his own Labours and hath rest and peace in God to which I commend you and in it abide Your Brother R. R. These are the Days of Vengeance wherein none can live in Peace that cannot pass by an Injury love their Enemies and reward Evil with Good The END Pag. 11. lin 30. for were read was P. 16. l. 25. for our read your
helpeth the Lord in his VVork for it doth not beget to love And is it not most just that that Name or Form should be left for a Curse that despiseth the Innocent for these outward things but I trust and am assured that the Lord will in his due time free the Earth from this Curse Thou askest me How I could compare or liken thy Friends Actions to the Pope or to them in New-England calling them your Forefathers seeing as thou sayest thy Friends bear their Testimony against the Pope's Idolatry and Persecution and also have suffered Deach for a Testimony against the New-England Oppression To all which I answer and say That the Spirit of Persecution is but one throughout all Generations and Forms tho never so refined for he that murders in New-England is the same that imprisons at Rome yet each bear a Testimony against one anothers Forms The same Spirit of Persecution have I seen and observed amongst those which thou callest Friends who for a Song of Zion or a Shout of inward Gladness or any other thing that suites not with their Traditions or Forms can with the same Spirit of Persecution cast out of their Synagogues smite with the Fist of VVickedness and wound with the venomed Arrow of their Reproaches those who cannot submit or join with them in their way And this is not falsly to accuse the Brethren as thou chargest me withal for any to tell you what they have heard and seen amongst you but rather a just return of your own Money into your own Sacks that you may measure your dealings with the Innocent by your own Practices and when the Witness of God ariseth amongst you and sheweth you your Transgressions and wherein you have offended those that have been otherwise acted than our selves then will you know that these things are Truth and the Desolation that shall be in your House at that day shall testify to your Faces that a Prophet hath been amongst you When mark what I say it shall so come to pass that the same Wrath and Vengeance shall break out upon you from others which you have heaped upon the Backs of those who were justified in their Hearts and Ways before the Lord then know and you shall assuredly that I have not spoken Lies unto you or forged a false Divination amongst you What I have here charged upon some I would not be understood to lay it upon all that have been called and are known by the Name of Quakers I know the Lord hath his People amongst them as in all Forms both of Jews and Gentiles such as love and fear the Lord doing the thing which is just and right and such are accepted with me as Bone of my Bone and as my Brother Benjamin that came of the Free-Woman and are in that Freedom fitted to act in all Forms as the Lord their Light shall lead them that they may replenish the Earth And those who are come to this Freedom viz. to give the Light its Liberty of leading according as it enlightens every Man that comes into the World in all Forms and Appearances the Curse is taken away the Enmity is departed and the Earth become the Lord's and his Christ's Let him that can receive it as doth R. R. And when your Work is done and come to an end then shall the Stone from Sion you stumbled at be set up with shouting crying Grace Grace unto it Zech. 4.7 THere are divers Operations and Dispensations yet all good as having their beginning and End in God And why therefore may not God enjoin that as an Ordinance to day and give his power to it also which to morrow he will lay aside as useless and by his withdrawing his Power from it leave it no better than an Idol Such was the Brazen Serpent such was the Temple and Tabernacle such were the Legal Offerings the Jewish Ceremonies and Sacrifice and such also are many things at this day both amongst the Quakers and other Sects which have been Forms and Figures of good things to come which were beautiful in their season whilst the Presence of God filled them but that being withdrawn are become dead and cold as Idols of no use Wherefore my advice is that all Men walk as they see and have received from the Lord and none to look out at others or to call any Man Master or Father of their Spirits save God only And if the Lord commands any to forsake Father or Mother the Forms and Traditions they were brought up in ought not all rather to obey God than Man Consider this G. F. and whether to forsake our own Guide and to follow thee or any Number of People that call themselves a Church who take upon them to impose upon their Brethrens Consciences be not Apostacy And whether this Usurpation did not at first lead the Church of Rome into the Apostacy And whether it will not the second time lead the Quakers to apostatize from the true Faith once delivered to them let the wise in Heart judg J. C. THou accusest me of being fallen and deeply revolted from the Truth and of being brutish and uncivil at your Meetings c. What thou hast here laid to my Charge is not so much by far as thy Generation at sundry times hath also cast on the Innocent and upright-hearted even all manner of Evil for bearing record to the Truth as made manifest in the Light viz. by witnessing to small and great that the Lord is my Shepherd and Teacher alone and that I needed no Man to teach me save him only and that to those who had received the Anointing it was sufficient to bring to Peace and Rest with God and Man and to preserve Union and Communion with Him in all his Creation And for this and my rejoycing which daily I have in Christ Jesus my Lord have I suffered all these things at your hands and been set at nought by Herod and his Men of War even by those amongst you that would be accounted Some-body who desire preheminence and to have Dominion over the Faith of others and that glory in making Proselytes and to have a Multitude to follow them calling you Masters or Teachers For by such and in this manner have I long and oft received your Arrows even bitter Words and Writings which sometimes as I saw cause I have returned back again into your own Bosoms and this you call a wrangling and unruly Spirit At present I have little more to say than that I am resolved to be faithful to what is committed unto me and to declare the same to day and to morrow and also the third day even till the Body be perfected and Him set upon the Throne even that Light that is in true Love whose right it is to reign which thing tell Herod that Fox your King so that all may have Peace and Rest in Him who is only worthy of Praise Honour and Glory alone even so saith my Spirit Amen
in the Heart God's Preacher his Law and Covenant of Grace to all the World do I recommend all Sects and Opinions as the only Rule of their Souls Progress into everlasting Peace and Rest R. R. G. H. Barbadoes Novemb. 25. 1662. LAst seventh day I was at the Bridge Town visiting those Friends in Prison as I parted from them I spake to H. Fell to consider wherein I might be serviceable to them in supplying any of their Wants and told him I was very willing in some small proportion to bear a part in their Sufferings and therefore desire thee to supply them with what may be needful to the value of 2000 or 3000 Pound of Sugar For as I then told H. F. altho I have some difference with them as to their Form and Practice yet notwithstanding in the Principle of Love and Light I am one with them yea and all Men in suffering for the Testimony of a good Conscience towards God altho that thing for which they suffer in my Light be rendred as a meer Idol which indeed is nothing For I well know and have long seen that Mens Consciences are variously guided some by the Spirit of Love under whose Leadings is the truest and most perfect Liberty others by the Law or Letter where with the outward Jew they are held in Bondage to Meats Drinks set-Days of Meetings and divers Forms and other carnal Ordinances Others may be led barely by the Traditions of their Fathers in and after the Laws and Customs of Nations or by the Authority of that Church or Fellowship under which they have been educated and herein may be zealously devoted to those Rudiments which in themselves are poor and beggarly nay such as the Reason of Man if not captivated would abhor to be brought under But in and amongst all these he that fears God and doth the thing that is just and right towards Man is accepted with Him and is one with whom I am in perfect Union And if any because he thinks himself wiser and higher than such an one presume to be his Judg or Law-giver this is that which exalteth it self above all that is called God and dishonoureth Christ his Head that true Light wherewith every one is enlightned that comes into the World And indeed if we will not allow the Light as it is received to lead every one we shall never be free from smiting our Fellow-servants and slaying that innocent and just one in each other whom the Lord hath set up as a Ruler over the Nations and for an Ensign of Light in every Man's Conscience Thus indeed and in truth I am for the free Leadings of the Light in all that profess the same but wherein their Practice falls short of this their Profession I do confess I stand therein at a distance from them For I allow not that any creep into Houses to wit the Conciences of others and impose there for this is to lead captive silly Women or to force upon the weak Understanding a Conformity to those things which the Light of Love never moved to but is rather acted from a Principle of Fear lest they should be call out of the Synagogue by those who usurp Authority and are called by them Masters The consideration of the freeness of thy Mind occasioned me to impart to thee a taste of my Understanding in these things which thou mayest either accept or refuse as the Light in thee shall make manifest I am a Friend to thee and the whole Creation of God in the Principle of Light which is Love unfeigned R. R. To William Lord Willoughby Governor of the Barbadoes c. My Lord YOu were pleased to express a tender regard to the People called Quakers also to require my advice how best they might be preserved as Subjects with equal regard to Justice and the Safety of this Place Yesterday I acquainted one of those People with your Lordship's care of them and after put several Questions to him touching their Freedom also urged the Necessity of a Militia to defend and preserve from those that came to rob and to steal After many Words pro and con I find them setled in this viz. That Wars proceed as St. James chap. 4.1 saith from Mens Lusts the which they would not help to uphold and maintain that they were to love their Enemies and to have Peace with all Men. In fine my Lord I perceive it is matter of Conscience with them not to use a carnal Sword in their own Defence and do believe that some of them will sooner lose their Estates and Lives than sin against their Consciences But to answer your Lordship's Commands for advice how this People may be preserv'd in this Island with equal regard to Justice and the Safety of this Place My humble advice is That seeing for Conscience sake many of them cannot make use of carnal Weapons your Lordship would nevertheless protect them they paying for their Protection what is just and equal that the State and Common-weal be not hindred but rather bettered and advanced by them This way the States of Holland took with the Anabaptists who held the Scriptures to be their Rule neither to swear nor yet to fight First As to swearing the Magistrate accommodated them by taking their Testimony with only declaring the Truth as in God's Presence with Hands lifted up as in token thereof and this was sufficient without further Testimony or Words and these kind of Witnesses they being conscientious have been found the best for discovery of the Truth And as to the maintaining of Wars and other Exigencies of State those People paying Scot and Lot as their Neighbours have quiet and peaceable Protection And if all that are able in this Island must of necessity bear Arms to defend the same and Quakers for Conscience sake cannot if the Magistrate cause them to be taxed for their default so much and no more than will find Horse and Foot in their room they paying also the just Charge and Trouble of gathering in the same I cannot see but such a Course would not only preserve them but also answer all just ends of Government All which I humbly presume under your Lordship's Favour and Command to present unto your Honour's View and Consideration R. R. These two foregoing Letters shew the Tenderness of his Spirit towards all even to those that were the most bitter against him Abstracts of some Letters to the Lady F. V. IN the Year 1654 I became a Quaker which Dispensation of John I was truly Baptiz'd into Repentance and amendment of Life which blotted out all my former Sins and for two years time was in the strength of that Baptism carried with delight both to do and to suffer even above and beyond my equals all which time I lived after the Mode of that Sect a severe strict life a Pharisee of the Pharisees till in the year 1656 when my dear Brother J. N. suffer'd for confessing to Christ in
be glorious and inherit the Blessing and could wish his last end in it Mark O Balak and Balaam who are but one from thy own Mouth and Practice is thy Condemnation Thus Man's Spirit the Witch of Endoâ— being raised to its height and received into the Consciences of others and upheld there first began the Apostacy and in this Spirit doth the Apostacy still stand and subsist even to this very day in every Sect and if any one of them could obtain their Will they would be as great as the Pope and make all others bow and come in to them else neither buy nor sell nor live in Love and Peace with any But this bitter envying is not so with the God-like and true Christians such bless and not curse Nothing will be acceptable but what proceeds from the Root of Jesse and is the Off-spring of the pure Movings of Love all else is but as the Offering of Cain and as the Repentance of Esau which must be rejected and cannot inherit the Blessing And now Joseph being delivered out of Prison and the deep Pit wherein his Brethren had put him where he passed through divers Trials and Temptations both of Soul and Body I say being now risen with Christ and made Lord over that Earth which held him can with boldness speak what he hath seen and heard And considering how contrary to my Life which was Peace and good Will to all I have been acted in Strife and Contention for near these seven years ever since the difference first brake forth betwixt G. F. and J. N. the which I call my strange Work as to Man and to my self But the Lord who doth in Heaven and Earth what he pleaseth in that day shewed me that was the least able for this Work of War of all my Brethren Many things that began to appear and to wax strong which were for destruction and the one thing needful viz. Love in Truth even amongst Brethren much neglected so as the Lord commanded I sold my Coat of Peace and good Will to all and bought a Sword the which I girded upon my Thigh and in the strength of God's Command drew it and therewith spared neither small nor great yet my chief Aim ever were against Agag the fat and fairest the King and Head of that bitter Spirit Amalek which would not suffer them to pass peaceably through his Land whom the Light guided out of their received Traditions and notwithstanding their Talk of Light and Love such soon selt and found the Dragon's Power and Herod viz. G F. with his Men of War to stand in the cross Ways ready to cut off all the Innocent that would not own him King and call him Master receive their Mark and Number of their Name against which Spirit the Sword of the Lord hath been sharp and will most certainly chop the same in pieces as Herbs for the Pot. And though this was War indeed yet forasmuch as the ground and root thereof had the Command of God and Love to Truth such Weapons are Spiritual I say it was a War in Heaven Well Friends Joseph hath been with the Lord in the Deep and hath there seen his Wonders wherefore receive these things kindly and friendly from his Treasury they may prove a supply to you in this Day of Famine not of Bread but of the Loving-kindness of the Lord towards one another And be not offended at what is spoken tho it tend to the throwing down of Man into the Dust yet if God and his Grace be hereby exalted give up Self to the Death of the Cross It is good to die with the Lord tho Flesh and Blood see not this Neither be you troubled nor offended at him that declares these things tho he seems sometimes to appear as a Man walking on the Sea which is rough foaming and tempestuous Joseph is now out of Prison and hath no more Conscience of an Idol to him no Idol is anything neither Paul nor Apollos no nor Christ after the Flesh he knows no more neither their Circumcision nor Baptism nor any outward thing nothing but Grace that works by Love I have no dependence nor Worship nor Fear nor Care for any thing save that I worship the only alone true LORD GOD who is Love any thing acted out of that I value not And I clearly see that such a People the Lord will bring forth as the praise of his new Creation that in the quietness and stilness of their Spirits which is Jacob's Ladder do patiently wait for the immediate Movings of Love which is Joseph's Cup wherein he prophesied freely resigned to the Will of God in all things relying on his Grace for their only Guide and not so much as lift up a Tool or make any Noise or Complaint in his Work nor with Vzzah hold up a hand of Fear or Care that it should fall or that his Will should not be accomplished and brought to pass in its due time and season No Friends those that have hitherto attained are not of them that look back to see what others will do but have pressed on to the Mark Christ the Love of God in their Hearts his Stature and Fulness where they see their Souls saved and have learned always to pray Thy Will be done whose Will is their Sanctification Salvation and Glorification c. An Abstract of some of R. Rich's Letters to G.F. J.C. and several others IT is written of Jeroboam that he set up two Calves much like Thee Thou and the Hat putting also a necessity of bowing down to them and worshipping as ye do saying These are thy Gods which brought thee out of Egypt that so the Kingdom might not return to David which is the Love of God I urge not this by way of Censure as rashly judging any even the meanest appearances which God draws out the Spirits of his People in but rather to shew you the Idolatry of such Limitations which in these outward things you lay upon the boundless variety of that unspeakable Spirit of Truth for I have heard some of the chief Rulers amongst you say That if any return to the Hat again meaning putting it off in Salutation then all their Profession is lost as if this or such like were the God that redeemed them And indeed who is there upon the Face of the whole Earth that fears God and worketh Righteousness if he receive not your Mark of Thee and Thou and the Hat may be accepted or owned as a Brother amongst you And what is your Form of Words in Thee and Thou but a customary Singularity in Speech another Mode of speaking than is commonly used which no way respects the Truth of what is spoken Pray tell me is not Truth where understood the Language of Canaan in what Speech or Dialect soever exprest Or did the Disciples of Christ in their Declarations of Truth to every Man in his own Language refuse the Dialect either of the Medes Persians Egyptians or