Day of this instant 11th Month 1690 After which he said I am glad I was here now I am clear I am fully clear Then he was the same Day taken with some Illness or Indisposition of Body more than usual and continued weak in Body for two days after at our Friend Henry Goldney's House in the same Court close by the Meeting-House in much Contentment and Peace and very sensible to the last In which time he mentioned divers Friends and sent for some in particular to whom he exprest his Mind for the spreading Friends Books and Truth in the World and through the Nations thereof as his Spirit in the Lord's Love and Power was universally set and bent for Truth and Righteousness and the making known the Way thereof to the Nations and People afar off signifying also to some Friends That all is well and the Seed of God reigns over all and over Death it self That though he was weak in Body yet that the Power of God is over all and the Seed reigns over all disorderly Spirits which were his wonted sensible Expressions being in the living Faith and Sense thereof which he kept to the End And the Thirteenth Instant between the Ninth and Tenth Hour in the Night he quietly departed this Life in Peace being two days after the Lord enabled him to Publish and Preach the Blessed Truth in the Meeting as aforesaid So that he clearly and evidently ended his days in his faithful Testimony in perfect Love and Unity with his Brethren and Peace and Good-will to all Men being about Sixty and six Years of Age as we understand when he departed this Life And on the Sixteenth of this Instant being the day appointed for his Funeral a very great Concourse of Friends and People assembled at our Meeting-House in White-Hart-Court aforesaid about the Mid-day in order to attend his Body to our Burying-place near Bunhill-Fields to be Interred as Friends last Office of Love and Respect due on that Account The Meeting was held about two Hours with great and heavenly Solemnity manifestly attended with the Lord's Blessed Power and Presence and divers living Testimonies given from a lively Remembrance and Sense of this his Dear Ancient Servant his Blessed Ministry and Testimony of the breaking forth of this Gospel-day his Innocent Life long and great Travels and Labours of Love in the Everlasting Gospel for the turning and gathering many Thousands from Darkness to the Light of Christ Jesus the Foundation of true Faith also of his manifold Sufferings Afflictions and Oppositions which he met withal for his faithful Testimony both from his open Adversaries and false Brethren and his Preservations Dominion and Deliverances out of them all by the Power of God To whom the Glory and Honour was and is ascribed in raising up and preserving this his faithful Witness and Minister to the End of his Days whose blessed Memorial will Everlastingly remain He loved Truth and Righteousness and bore faithful Testimony against Deceit and Falshood and the Mystery of Iniquity and often of late time especially warned Friends against Covetousness Earthly-mindedness against getting into the Earth and into a brittle Spirit and the younger sort against Loosness and Pride of Life c. A few days before he died he had a great Concern upon his Mind concerning some in whom the Lord's Power was working to lead them into a Ministry and Testimony to his Truth who through their too much entangling themselves in the things of this World did make themselves unready to answer the Call and Leadings of the Power of God and hurt the Gift that was bestowed upon them and did not take that regard to their Service and Ministry as they ought And mentioned the Apostle's Exhortation to Timothy To take heed to his Ministry and to shew himself approved c. And exprest his Grief concerning such as preferred their own Business before the Lord's Business and sought the advancing worldly Concerns before the Concerns of Truth And concluded with a tender and fatherly Exhortation to all to whom God had imparted of his Heavenly Treasure that they would improve it faithfully and be diligent in the Lord's Work that the Earth might be sown with the Seed of the Kingdom and God's Harvest might be minded by those whom he had called and enabled to labour therein and that such would commit the Care of their outward Concerns to the Lord who would care for them and give a Blessing to them However this is not mentioned to encourage any to run unsent or without being called of God Many are living Witnesses that the Lord raised him up by his Power to proclaim his mighry Day to the Nations and made him an Effectual Instrument in our Day to turn many from Darkness to Light and from Satan's Power to God and freely to suffer and bear all Reproaches and the manifold Persecutions Buffetings Halings Stonings Imprisonments and Cruelties that were in the Beginning and for some time inflicted on him and others for the Name of Christ Jesus He was in his Testimony as a fixed Star in the Firmament of God's Power where all that be truly wise and that turn many to Righteousness shall shine as the brightness of the Firmament and as the Stars for ever and ever He knew and Preached the Mystery of Christ Revealed the Life and Substance and the Power of Godliness above all Shadows and Forms The Lord endued him with a hidden Wisdom and Life He loved Peace and earnestly laboured for universal Love Unity Peace and good Order in the Churches of Christ And wherever he met with the contrary it was his great Grief and Burthen He was greatly for the Encouragement of faithful Labourers in the Lord's Work and it was a great Offence and Grief to him to have their Testimony weakned or Labours slighted through Prejudice in any professing Truth And inasmuch as the Lord suffered him not to be delivered up to the Will of his Enemies and Persecutors who often heretofore breathed out Cruelty against him and designed his Destruction but in his good Pleasure so fairly and quietly took him away in his own time when his Testimony was so blessedly finished and his Work accomplished This is all remarkable and worthy of serious and due Observation as being by a special and Divine Providence and Wisdom of God to whom we ascribe the Glory of all and not unto Man or Creatures Though we must needs allow and own that good Report and due Esteem which faithful Elders Ministers and Servants of God and Christ have by Faith obtained to the Praise of that blessed Power that upheld them in every Age in their day many whereof are even of late taken away from the Evil to come and are at Rest in the Lord out of the Reach of all Envy and Persecution where the Wicked cannot trouble them any more And we must patiently bear our Parting with them and our Loss and Sorrow on that Account with respect to their unspeakable
the World scornfully calls Quakers But all Scoffers and Persecutors Railers and Scorners Stockers and Whippers we deny by that Power which throweth down all that Nature as seeing that all who act such things without Repentance shall not inherit the Kingdom of God but are for Destruction So Rejoice all ye Righteous ones who are persecuted for Righteousness sake for great is your Reward in Heaven Rejoice ye that suffer for Well-doing for ye shall not lose your Reward And wait you in the Light that you may grow up in the Life that gave forth the Scriptures that with it ye may see the Saints Conditions and with it ye may see all that which they testified against and there with it ye will see the state of those that did reproach and scoff them and did mock them and persecute them and did whip and stock them and haled them out of the Synagogues before Magistrates So to you who are in the same Light and Life the same things do they now that they may fill up the measure of their Fathers With the Light now they are seen where the Light and Life and Power of God is made manifest for as they did unto them so will they do unto you Here is our Joy and the Scripture is fulfilled and fulfilling and with the Light which was before the World was which is now made manifest in the Children of Light with it they see the World and comprehend it and the Actions of it for he that loves the World and turns from the Light is an Enemy to God he turneth into VVickedness for the whole VVorld lieth in VVickedness He who turns from the Light turns into the VVorks of Evil which the Light of Christ testifies against And by this Light where it is made manifest all the VVorks of the VVorld are seen and made manifest G. F. This is to go abroad among the scattered Ones and among the World Great was the Rage and Enmity of the People Professors as well as Prophane against the Truth and People of God at this time and great the Contempt and Disdain they shewed of Friends plainness Wherefore I was moved to write the following Paper and send it forth directed as An Epistle to gathered Churches into outward Forms upon the Earth ALL ye gathered Churches into outward Forms upon the Earth the Son of God is come to Reign and he will tread and trample and will shake and make you Quake and Quiver you that be found without his Life out of his Light and without his Power His Day hath appeared Morter and Clay will you be found Breaking and Shaking and Quaking is coming among you Your high Building is to be laid desolate your professed Liberty shall be your Bondage the Mouth of the Lord of Hosts hath spoken it Tremble ye Hypocrites ye Notionists The fenced Cities shall be laid desolate the fruitful Fields shall become a VVilderness your false Joy shall become your Heaviness the time of VVeeping and Desolation draweth nigh Come ye witty Ones see how ye can stand before the Almighty who is now come to plead with you you 'll fall like Leaves and wither like VVeeds Come you that have boasted of my Name saith the Lord and have gloried in the Flesh ye shall fade like a Flower who have slain my VVitness yet boast of my VVords which have been as a Song unto you Come ye Novelty-Ones who love Novelties changeable Suits of Apparel who be in the Fashions outward and inward putting on one thing this day and another the other day I 'll strip thee saith the Lord I 'll make thee bare I 'll make thee naked and thou shalt know that I am the Lord. What! hast thou profest the Prophets words hast thou profest the Apostles words and my Son's words hast thou Covered thy self with their Expressions thinkest thou not that I see thee out of my Life thinkest thou thou witty One to hide thy self where none can see thee thinkest thou if thou fliest to the uttermost parts of the Earth that I am not there Is not the Earth mine and the fulness of it saith the Lord Come all ye that have trusted in your own conceited Notions and Knowledge and VVisdom who were never yet out of the Earth and the Lusts of it and never yet got the Load of thick Clay off you and never were out of the drunken Spirit whose Imperfection appears who must be come upon as a Potter's Vessel broken Cisterns and ye that have been made VVise in your own Conceit and wise in your own Eyes in which Pride hath lifted you up and not the Humility you must be Abased You have run on with every one after his own Invention and every Man hath done that thing that was right in his own Eyes and that which did please himself This hath been the Course of People upon Earth Ye have run on without a King without Christ the Light of the World which hath enlightened every one that is come into the World but now is Truth risen now are your Fruits withering And you that are fortified and have fortified your strong Houses called your Churches make you your Cords strong the Lord will break you asunder ye that are gathering in and ye that are gathered For the Lord is risen to scatter you his Witness is risen in the Hearts of his People they will not be fed with dead Words nor with that which dies of it self nor will they be satisfied with the Husk which the Swine seeds upon And all ye Priests in the Nation and Teachers that now stand against the Light your Envy shews that ye be in Cain's Way your Greediness shews that ye be in Balaam's Way your standing against the Light which hath enlightned every man that cometh into the world doth manifest that you are in Core's Way that spoke the great high Words of Vanity ye whose Consciences are seared as with an hot Iron whose Judgment doth not linger whose Damnation doth not slumber who serve not the Lord Jesus Christ but your own Bellies who are the Evil Beasts spoken of which have destroyed many Families taken away their Cattel their Horses their Goods even their Household-Goods destroyed many poor men even whole Families taking their whole Estates from them whom you do no Work for O! the grievous Actions that are seen done by you the Ministers of Vnrighteousness whose fruits declare to the whole Nation that you are the Devil's Messengers your Actions declare it your taking Tithes Augmentations treble Dammages Midsummer-Dues as ye call them of them ye do no Work for nor Minister to And all ye Powers of the Earth beware of holding such up that be Vnrighteous Let not the Words of the Vnrighteous overcome you lest the righteous Judge the righteous God the Judge of Heaven and Earth upon you take hold whose Judgment is according to that of God in you which will let you see when you Transgress Come you proud and lofty ones who
I was hardly able to stay in a Meeting the whole Time thereof and often after a Meeting was fain to lye down upon a Bed Yet did not my Weakness of Body take me off from the Service of the Lord but I continued to labour in Meetings and out of Meetings in the work of the Lord as the Lord gave me Opportunity and Ability I had not been long in London before a great Weight came upon me and a sight the Lord gave me of the great Bustles and Troubles Revolution and Change which soon after came to pass In the sense whereof and in the movings of the Spirit of the Lord I writ a few Lines as A general Epistle to Friends to fore-warn them of the approaching Storm 1688. London that they might all retire to the Lord in whom safety is That Epistle was as followeth ALL my Dear Friends and Brethren every where who have received the Lord Jesus Christ and he has given you power to become his Sons and Daughters In him ye have both life and peace and in his Everlasting Kingdom that is a stablished Kingdom and cannot be shaken but is over all the World and stands in his Power and in Righteousness and Joy in the Holy Ghost into which no unrighteousness nor the foul unclean Spirit of the Devil in his Instruments can enter And therefore Dear Friends and Brethren every one in the Faith of Jesus that he is the Author and Finisher of stand in his Power who has all power in Heaven and Earth given to him and will Rule the Nations with his Rod of Iron and dash them to pieces like a Potter's vessel that are not Subject and Obedient to his Power Whose Voice will shake the Heavens and the Earth that that which may be shaken may be Removed and that which cannot be shaken may Appear And stand in him and all things shall work together for good to them that love him And now Dear Friends and Brethren though these Waves and Storms and Tempests be in the World yet you may all appear the harmless and innocent Lambs of Christ walking in his peaceable Truth and keeping in the Word of Power and Wisdom and Patience and this Word will keep you in the Day of Trials and Temptations that will come upon the whole World to Try them that dwell upon the Earth For the Word of God was before the World and all things were made by it It is a Tried Word which gave all God's People in all Ages Wisdom Power and Patience And therefore let your dwelling and walking be in Christ Jesus who is called The Word of God and in his Power which is over all And set your Affections on things that are above where Christ sits at the right hand of God mark on those things which are above where Christ sits and not those things that are below which will change and pass away And blessed be the Lord God who by his Eternal Arm and Power hath gathered a People to himself and by his Eternal Arm and Power hath preserved his Faithful to himself through many Troubles Trials and Temptations His Power and Seed Christ is over all and in him ye have life and peace with God Therefore in him all stand and see your Salvation who is First and Last and the Amen God Almighty preserve and keep you all in him your Ark and Sanctuary for in him you are safe over all Floods Storms and Tempests for he was before they were and will be when they are all gone London the 17th of the 8th Month 1688. G. F. About this time great Exercise and Weights came upon me as hath usually done before great Revolutions and Changes of Government and my strength departed from me so that I reeled and was ready to fall as I went along the Streets And at length I could not go abroad at all I was so Weak for a pretty while till I felt the Power of the Lord to spring over all and had received an Assurance from him that he would preserve his faithful People to himself through all In the time that I kept in I writ a Paper shewing How Moses as a Servant was faithful in all his House in the Old Testament and Christ as a Son is over his House in the New Testament THE House of Israel was called God's Vineyard in Isa 5.7 and all the Israelites were called the House of Israel Israel signifies A Prince with God and a Prevailer with Men Gen. 32.28 And when Peter did preach Christ to the House of Israel he said Let all the House of Israel know assuredly that God hath made the same Jesus whom ye have crucified both Lord and Christ Acts 2.36 So they were all called the House of Israel And it is said Moses was faithful in all his House to wit this House of Israel as a Servant for a Testimony of those things which were to be spoken after But Christ as a Son over his own House which House are we if we hold fast the Confidence and the Rejoycing of the hope firm unto the end Hebr. 3.5 6. Here it is manifest that Moses was faithful in all his house as a Servant viz. in the house of Israel in the Old Testament but Christ Jesus the Son of God is over his house in his New Testament and Covenant and all his true Believers are of his House The Apostle tells the Ephesians who were the Church of Christ They were Fellow-Citizens with the Saints and of the Houshold of God Eph. 2.19 And the Saints are called The Houshold of Faith Gal. 6.10 And Peter in his general Epistle tells the Church of Christ They were a Chosen Generation a Royal Priesthood a holy Nation a peculiar People 1 Pet. 2.9 And that as lively Stones they were built up a spiritual House an holy Priesthood to offer up spiritual Sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ ver 5. And the Apostle saith to the Church of Christ at Corinth If our earthly House of this Tabernacle were dissolved we have a building of God an house not made with hands eternal in the Heavens 2 Cor. 5.1 And Christ said to his Disciples Let not your hearts be troubled ye believe in God believe also in me In my Father's house are many Mansions a Mansion is a Dwelling or Abiding-place If it were not so I would have told you I go to prepare a place for you And if I go and prepare a place for you I will come again and receive you unto my self that where I am there ye may be also John 14.1 2 3. The Psalmist saith Those that be planted in the House of the Lord shall flourish in the Courts of our God They shall bring forth fruit in old Age they shall be fat and flourishing Psal 92.13 14. And again Holiness becomes thine house O Lord for ever Psal 93.5 Isaiah also said by way of Prophecy It shall come to pass in the last days that the Mountain of the Lord's
time amongst Friends thereabouts and had Meetings at all those places Then being a little refreshed with being in the Country I went back to London where I tarried labouring in the Work of the Ministry till the middle of the Ninth Month at which time I went down with my Son Mead to his House in Essex and abode there all the Winter Essex Gooses During which time I stirred not much abroad unless it were sometimes to the Meeting to which that Family belonged which was about half a Mile from thence but I had Meetings often in the House with the Family and those Friends that came thither Many things also I writ while I was there some of which follow here One was an Epistle to the Quarterly and Yearly-Meetings of Friends in Pensylvania New-England Virginia Maryland the Jerseys Carolina and other Plantations in America And it was thus MY Dear Friends and Brethren in the Lord Jesus Christ who by believing in his Light are become Children of his Light and of his Day my desires are that you may all walk in his Light and in his Day and keep the Feast of Christ our Passover who is sacrificed for us not with Old Leaven neither with the Leaven of Malice and Wickedness but let all that be purged out that ye may be a New Lump keeping the Feast of Christ our Passover with the unleavened Bread of Sincerity and Truth Therefore let no leavened Bread be found in your Houses nor in your Meetings nor in the Camp of God or Houshold of Faith which are the Houshold of Christ But all that sour old Leaven which makes Peoples hearts sour and to burn one against another all that must be purged out of the Camp of God and kept out For the Feast of Christ our Passover must be kept in the New Covenant with his heavenly unleavened Bread of Life The Jews in the Old Testament their Feast was kept with outward unleavened Bread And now in the New Testament in the Gospel-Day our Feast is to be kept with the heavenly unleavened Bread of Sincerity and Truth Therefore Friends I desire you seriously to consider and to keep this Feast which the Apostle directed the Church of Christ to keep Do not you see Christendom 1689. Gooses so called keep their Feasts with the leavened Bread of Malice and Wickedness which makes them so sour and their hearts to burn one against another that they have destroyed and do destroy one another about Religion Therefore all live in the love of God which keeps above the love of the World so that none of your Hearts may be choaked or surfeited with these outward Things or with the Cares of the World which will pass away But mind ye the World and the Life that is without end that ye may be heirs of it And Friends you should strive to Excel all both Professor and Prophane both in Morality Humanity and Christianity Modesty Sobriety and Moderation and in a good godly righteous Life and Conversation shewing forth the Fruits of the Spirit of God and that you are the Children of the living God and Children of the Light and of the Day and not of the Night And serve God in Newness of Life for it is the Life and a living and walking in the Truth that must Answer the Witness of God in all People that they seeing your good Works may glorifie our Father which is in Heaven Therefore be valiant for God's holy pure Truth and spread it abroad among both Professors and Profane and the Indians And you should write over once a year from all your Yearly-Meetings to the Yearly-Meeting here concerning your Diligence in the Truth and of its spreading and of Peoples receiving it both Professors and Profane and the Indians and concerning the Peace of the Church of Christ amongst your selves For blessed be the Lord Truth doth get ground in these Parts and many are made very loving to Friends and the Lord's Power and Seed is over all In which God Almighty keep all his People to his Glory Amen Gooses the 28th of the 11th Month 1689. G. F. While I was in the City I had a Concern upon my Spirit with respect to a Twofold Danger that attended some who profest Truth one was of Young Peoples running into the Fashions of the World and the other was of Old Peoples going into the Earth And that Concern coming now again weightily upon me I was moved to give forth the following Paper as a Reproof to such and an Exhortation and Warning to all Friends to beware of and keep out of those Snares To all that do Profess the Truth of God MY desires are that you may walk in Humility in it For when the Lord first called me forth he let me see That Young People grew up together in Vanity and the Fashions of the World and Old People went downwards into the Earth raking it together and to both these I was to be a stranger And now Friends I do see too many Young People that do profess the Truth 1690. Gooses do grow up into the Fashions of the World and too many Parents indulge them And amongst the Elder some are growing downwards and raking after the Earth Therefore take heed that you are not making your Graves while you are Alive outwardly and loading your selves with thick Clay Hab. â— 6 For if you have not power over the Earthly Spirit and that which leadeth into a Vain Mind and the Fashions of the World and into the Earth though you have often had the Rain fall upon your Fields you will but bring forth Thistles Briars and Thorns which is for the Fire And such will become brittle peevish fretful Spirits that will not abide the heavenly Doctrine and the Admonitions Exhortations and Reproofs of the Holy Ghost or heavenly Spirit of God which would bring you to be Conformable to the Death of Christ and to his Image that ye might have Fellowship with him in his Resurrection And therefore it is good for all to bow to the Name of Jesus their Saviour and that all may Confess him to the Glory of God the Father For I have had a Concern upon me in a sense of the Danger of Young Peoples going into the Fashions of the World and Old Peoples going into the Earth and many going into a loose and false Liberty till at last they go quite out into the Spirit of the World as some have done Such their House hath been built upon the Sand on the Sea shore not upon Christ the Rock that they are so soon in the World again under a pretence of Liberty of Conscience But it is not a pure Conscience nor in the Spirit of God nor in Christ Jesus for in the Liberty in the Spirit there is the Vnity which is the Bond of Peace and all are one in Christ Jesus in whom is the true Liberty And this is not of the World for He is not of the World And
to go to Meetings and Exercise an ordinary Charity in the Church and an honest Behaviour in the World and limit your selves within those Bounds feeling little or no concern upon your Spirits for the Glory of the Lord in the prospirity of his Truth in the Earth more than to be glad that others succeed in such Service Arise ye in the Name and Power of the Lord Jesus Behold how white the Fields are unto Harvest in this and other Nations and how few Able and Faithful Labourers there are to work therein Your Country Folks Neighbours and Kindred want to know the Lord and his Truth and to Walk in it Does nothing lie at your Door upon their Account Search and see and loose no time I beseech you for the Lord is at Hand I do not Judge you there is one that Judgeth all Men and his Judgment is true You have mightily increased in your outward Substance may you equally increase in your inward Riches and do good with both while you have a day to do Good Your Enemies would once have taken what you had from you for his Names Sake in whom you have believed wherefore he has given you much of the World in the Face of your Enemies But Oh let it be your Servant and not your Master your Diversion rather than your Business Let the Lord be chiefly in your Eye and ponder your Ways and see if God has nothing more for you to do and if you find your selves short in your Account with him then wait for his Preparation and be ready to receive the word of Command and be not weary of well doing when you have put your Hand to the Plow and assuredly you shall Reap if you faint not the Fruit of your Heavenly Labour in God's Everlasting Kingdom And you Young Convinced Ones be you Entreated and Exhorted to a Diligent and Chast waiting upon God in the way of his Blessed Manifestation and appearance of himself to you Look not out but within Let not anothers Liberty be your Snare Neither Act by Imitation but Sense and Feeling of God's Power in your selves Crush not the tender Buddings of it in your Souls nor over run in your desires and your warmness of Affections the Holy and Gentle Motions of It. Remember it is a still Voice that Speaks to us in this Day and that it is not to be heard in the Noises and Hurries of the Mind but is distinctly understood in a retired Frame Jesus loved and chose out Solitudes often going to Mountains to Gardens and Sea-sides to avoid Crowds and Hurries to shew his Disciples it was good to be Solitary and sit loose to the World Two Enemies lie near your States Imagination and Liberty but the plain practical Living Holy Truth that has convinced you will preserve you if you mind it in your selves and bring all Thoughts Imaginations and Affections to the Test of it to see if they are wrought in God or of the Enemy or your own selves So will a true Tast Discerning and Judgment be preserved to you of what you should do and leave undone And in your diligence and Faithfulness in this way you will come to inherit Substance and Christ the Eternal Wisdom will fill your Treasury And when you are Converted as well as Convinced then confirm your Brethren and be ready to every good Word and Work that the Lord shall call you to that you may be to his Praise who has chosen you to be partakers with the Saints in Light of a Kingdom that cannot be shaken an Inheritance incorruptible in Eternal Habitations And now as for you that are the Children of God's People a Great Concern is upon my Spirit for your good and often are my Knees Bowed to the God of your Fathers for you that you may come to be partakers of the same Divine Life and Power that has been the Glory of this Day that a Generation you may be to God an Holy Nation and a Peculiar People Zealous of Good Works when all our Heads are laid in the Dust Oh you Young Men and Women let it not suffice you that you are the Children of the People of the Lord you must also be born again if you will inherit the Kingdom of God Your Fathers are but such after the Flesh and could but beget you into the likeness of the first Adam but you must be begotten into the likeness of the second Adam by a Spiritual Generation And therefore look carefully about you Oh ye Children of the Children of God Consider your Standing and see what you are in Relation to this Divine Kindred Family and Birth Have you obeyed the Light and received and walked in the Spirit that is the incorruptible Seed of the Word and Kingdom of God of which you must be born again God is no respecter of Persons The Father cannot save or answer for the Child the Child for the Father but in the Sin thou Sinnest thou shalt die and in the Righteousness thou doest through Christ Jesus thou shalt live for it is the Willing and Obedient that shall eat the Good of the Land Be not deceived God is not mocked such as all Nations and People Sow such they shall reap at the hand of the just God And then your many and great Priviledges above the Children of other People will add weight in the scale against you if you choose not the way of the Lord. For you have had Line upon Line and Precept upon Precept and not only good Doctrine but good Example and which is more you have been turned to and acquainted with a Principle in your selves which others have been ignorant of and you know you may be as Good as you please without the Fear of Frowns and Blows or being turned out of doors and forsaken of Father and Mother for God's Sake and his Holy Religion as has been the Case of some of your Fathers in the day they first entred into this Holy Path And if you after hearing and seeing the Wonders that God has wrought in the deliverance and perservation of them through a Sea of Troubles and the manifold Temporal as well as spiritual Blessings that he has filled them with in the sight of their Enemies you should neglect and turn your backs upon so great and so near a Salvation you would not only be most ungreatful Children to God and them but must expect that God will call the Children of those that knew him not to take the Crown out of your Hands and that your lot will be a dreadful Judgment at the hand of the Lord. But Oh that it may never be so with any of you The Lord forbid saith my Soul Wherefore Oh ye Young Men and Women look to the Rock of your Fathers chuse the God of your Fathers There is no other God but him no other Light but his no other Grace but his nor Spirit but his to Convince you Quicken and Comfort you to Lead Guide and
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
dear Love unto you all desiring you may be kept stedfast in the Lord Jesus Christ and in the power of his Love boldly to witness forth the Truth as it is revealed in you by the mighty working of the Father To him alone be everlasting Praise and Honour for evermore Dear Friends the Lord doth much manifest his Love and Power in these Parts Upon the second day of the last Week my Brother George and I were at Lancaster There were abundance of Friends from all parts and a great sort which sided with the Priests giving out They now hoped to see a stop put to that great Work which had gone on so fast and with such Power that their Kingdom is much shaken We were called before Judge Fell Colonel West Justice Sawrey c. to Answer what was charged against George There were Three Witnesses to Eight Particulars but they were much Confused in themselves which gave much Light to the Truth whereby the Justices did plainly see that it was Envy and they divers times told them so One of the Witnesses was a young Priest who Confessed He had not meddled had not another Priest sent for him and set him on Work The other VVitnesses were two Priests Sons It was proved there by many that heard one of them say If he had power he would make George deny his Profession and that he would take away his Life This was a single VVitness to one of the greatest Vntruths that was charged against George And the Justices told him That they saw because he could not take away his Life he went about to take away his Liberty There was one Priest chosen out of the whole number as an Orator to plead against us who spared no pains to shew forth his Envy against the Truth And when he could not prevail he went down in a Rage and there came up a Pack of them into the Room among whom was one Jacus George was then speaking in the Room one of the Justices having wished him if he had any thing to say he would speak at which the said Priest Jacus was in such a Rage that he brake forth into many high Expressions against the Truth spoken by my dear Brother George amongst which this was one That the Letter and the Spirit were inseparable Hereupon the Justices stood up and bid him prove that before he went any further Then he seeing himself caught would have denied it and when he could not get off so the rest of the Priests would have helped him to a Meaning for his VVords But the Justices would admit no other Meaning than the plain sense of the VVords but told him He had laid down a Position and it was fit he should prove it pressing the Matter close upon him Whereupon the Priests being put to silence went down in a greater Rage than before and some of them after they were gone down being asked what they had done Lyed and said They could not get into the Room thereby to hide their Shame and keep the People in blindness The Justices Judge Fell and Colonel VVest were much Convinced of the Truth and did set up Justice and Equity and have much silenced the Rage of the People Many bitter Spirits were at Lancaster to see the Event but went home and cried The Priests had lost the day Everlasting Praises be to him who fought the Batttel for us who is our King for ever There were Others called who the VVitnesses confessed were in the Room when the things charged on George were said to have been spoken but they all as one Man denied that any such Words were spoken Which gave much Light to the Justices and they durst trust what they witnessed for they said they knew many of them to be honest Men. There was a VVarrant granted out against us at Appleby but Justice Benson told them It was not according to Law and so it ceased As I hear he is a faithful Man to the Truth The Priests began to preach against the Justices and said They were not to meddle in these things but to end Controversy betwixt Neighbour and Neighbour They are not pleased with the Law because it is not in the Statute to Imprison us as the Priest that pleaded against us said The Justices bid him Go put it into the Statute if he could he said It should want no will of his They are much afraid that they shall loose all They are much discontented in these parts and some of them cry All is gone Dear Friends dwell in Patience and wait upon the Lord who will do his own VVork Look not at Man in the VVork nor at Man who opposeth the VVork but rest in the Will of the Lord that so ye may be furnished with Patience both to do and to suffer what ye shall be called unto that your End in all things may be his Praise And take up his Cross freely which keeps low the fleshly Man that Christ may be set up and honoured in all things and so the Light advanced in you and the Judgment set up which must give Sentence against all that opposeth the Truth That the Captivity may be led Captive and the Prisoner set free to seek the Lord that Righteousness may rule in you and Peace and Joy may dwell in you wherein consisteth the Kingdom of the Father to whom be all Praise for ever Dear Friends Meet often together and take heed of what Exalteth it self above its Brother but keep low and serve one another in Love for the Lord's sake Let all Friends know how it is with us that God may have the Praise of all Written from Kellet the 30th Day of the 8th Month 1652. J. N. At this Time I was in a Fast and was not to Eat until this Work of God which then lay weighty upon me was accomplished But the Lord's Power was wonderfully set over all and gave Truth and Friends Dominion therein over all to his Glory And his Gospel was freely preached that Day over the Heads of about Forty Hireling-Priests I stayed Two or Three Days afterwards in Lancaster and had some Meetings there And the rude and baser sort of People plotted together to have drawn me out of the House and to have thrown me over Lancaster-Bridge but the Lord prevented them Then they invented another Mischief which was this After a Meeting at Lancaster they brought down a distracted Man and another with him with Bundles of Birchen-Rods bound together like Besoms with which they should have whipped me But I was moved to speak to them iâ— the Lord 's mighty Power which chained down the distracted Man and the other also and made them calm and quiet Then I biâ— him throw his Rods into the Fire and burn them and he did so Thus the Lord's Power being over them they departed quietly But the Priests fretting to see themselves overthrown at the Sessions at Lancaster got some of the Envious Justices to join with them and at the
to see the Candle lighted and the House sweeping and swept Then afterward the pure Pearl ariseth and then the Eternal God is exalted The same Light that calls in your minds out of the World that are abroad the same turns them to God the Father of Lights Here in the pure mind is the pure God waited upon for Wisdom from above and the pure God is seen Night and Day and the Eternal Peace of which there is no end enjoied People may have Openings and yet their minds go into the Lusts of the Flesh but there the Affections are not mortified Therefore hearken to that and take heed to that which calls your minds out of the Affections and Lusts of the World to have them renewed The same will turn your minds to God the same Light will set your Affections above and bring you to wait for the pure Wisdom of God from on high that it may be justified in you VVait all in that which calls in your minds and turns them to God Here is the true Cross that mind shall feed upon nothing that is earthly but be kept in the pure Light of God up to God to feed upon the living Food which comes from the living God So the Lord God Almighty be with you all Dear Babes and keep you all in his Strength and Power to his Glory over all the world ye whose minds are called out of it and turned to God to worship the Creator and serve him and not the Creature And the Light of God which calls the mind out of the Creatures and turns it to God brings into a Being of Endless Joy and Peace And here is alway a Seeing God present which is not known to the world whose minds are in the Creatures whose Knowledge is in the Flesh whose minds are not renewed Therefore all Friends the Seed of God mind and dwell in to reign over the Vnjust and the Power of the Lord dwell in to keep you clear in your Understandings that the Seed of God may reign in you all the Seed of God which is but one in all which is Christ in the male and in the female which the Promise is to VVait upon the Lord for the Just to reign over the Vnjust and for the Seed of God to reign over the Seed of the Serpent and be the Head and all that is mortal may die for out of that will rise Presumption So Fare ye well and God Almighty bless and guide and keep you in his VVisdom G. F. About this time Friends that were moved of the Lord to go to the Steeple-houses and Markets to reprove Sin and warn People of the Day of the Lord suffered much hardship from the rude People and also from the Magistrates being commonly pulled down buffeted and beaten and many Times sent to Prison Wherefore I was moved to give forth the following Paper to be spread abroad amongst People to shew them How contrary they acted therein to the Apostles Doctrine and Practice and to bring them to more moderation Thus it was IS it not better for you that have cast into Prison the Servants and Children of the Lord God for speaking as they are moved in Steeple-houses or Markets Is it not better I say for you to Try all things and hold fast that which is good Is it not of more Honour and Credit to prove all things and try all things than to pluck down in the Steeple-houses and pull off the Hair of their Heads and cast them into Prison Is this an Honour to your Truth and Gospel you profess Doth it not shew that ye be out of Truth and are not they that are ready to Instruct the Gainsayers Hath not the Lord said He will pour out of his Spirit upon all Flesh and his Sons and his Daughters shall prophesy and old Men shall dream Dreams and young Men see Visions and on his Hand-maids he will pour forth of his Spirit Was not this Prophecy in Ages past stood against by the Wise learned Men in their own Wisdom and by the Synagogue-Teachers And were not such haled out of the Synagogues and Temple who witnessed the Spirit poured forth upon them Doth not this shew that ye have not received the pourings forth of this Spirit upon you who fill the Gaols with so many Sons and Daughters and hold up such Teachers as are bred up in Learning at Oxford and Cambridge and are made by the Will of Man Doth not this shew that ye that are bred up there and are made Teachers by the Will of Man and do persecute for Prophesying are Strangers to the Spirit that is poured forth upon Sons and Daughters by which Spirit they come to minister to the Spirits that are in Prison The Lord hath a Controversy with you who are found prisonings and persecuting such as the Lord hath poured forth of his Spirit upon Do not all your Fruits shew in all the Nation where ye come in Towns Cities Villages and Countries that ye are the Seeds-men made by the Will of Man who to the Flesh do sow of which nothing but Corruption is reaped in Nations Countries Cities and Villages Ye are looked upon and your Fruits and that which may be gathered is seen by all that be in the Light as they pass through your Countries Towns Cities and Villages that ye are all the Seeds-men that have sown to the Flesh Mark and of this take ye Notice who are of that Birth that is born of the Flesh and so ye sow to your own persecuting him that is born of the Spirit who sows to the Spirit and of the Spirit reaps Life Eternal Such ye who sow to the Flesh cast into Prison Do ye not hale out of the Synagogues and persecute and beat in the Synagogues and knock down Are not these the Works of the Flesh Have not many been almost murdered and smothered in your Synagogues And have not some been haled out of your Synagogues for but looking at the Priest and after cast into Prison Doth not all this make manifest what Spirit ye are of and your Fruits to be of the Flesh What Pleasures and Sports in every Town are to be seen among your Flocks that sow to the flesh and are born of it Whereas the Ministers of the Spirit cried against such as sported in the day-time and such as ate and drank and rose up to play and such as lived wantonly upon Earth in Pleasures and such as lived in fulness of Bread and Idleness such as defile the Flesh such did God overthrow and destroy and set them forth as Examples to all them that after should live Vngodly But are not the Fruits of this reaped in every Town Cannot we from hence see that here is sowing to the flesh Again what Scorning Scoffing Mocking Derision and Strife What Oaths Drunkenness Vncleanness and cursed Speaking What Lust and Pride is seen in the Streets These fruits we see are reaped of the flesh So here we see the
got a little Cheary and over it Many Friends and some considerable Persons of the World have been with me I tired out my Body much when amongst you in England it is the Lord's Power that helps me Therefore I desire you all to prize the Power of the Lord and his Truth I was but a Weak Man in Body when I came away from you after I had been in my great Travel amongst you but after that it struck all back again into my Body which was not well settled after so sore Travels in England And then was I so tired at Sea that I could not rest and have had little or no Stomach a long time Since I came into this Island my Life hath been very much burdened But I hope if the Lord give me Strength to manage his Work I shall work throughly and bring things that have been out of Course into better Order So Dear Friends live all in the peaceable Truth and in the Love of it serving the Lord in Newness of Life For glorious Things and precious Truths have been manifested among you plentifully and to you the Riches of the Kingdom have been reached I have been almost a Month in this Island but have not been able to go abroad or ride out only very lately I rid out twice a Quarter of a Mile at a time which wearied me much and almost tired me My Love in the Truth is to you all G. F. Now because I was not yet well able to Travel the Friends of the Island concluded to have their Men's-Meeting and their Womens-Meeting for the Service of the Church at Thomas Rous's where I lay by which means I was present amongst them at each of their Meetings and had very good Service for the Lord in both For they had need of Information in many things and divers Disorders were crept in for want of Care and Watchfulness Wherefore I exhorted them more especially at the Mens-Meeting to be watchful and careful with respect to Marriages to prevent Friends Marrying in near Kindreds and also to prevent over-hasty proceedings toward Second Marriages after the Death of a former Husband or Wife advising that a decent Regard were had in such Cases to the Memory of the Deceased Husband or Wife And as to Friends Children marrying too young as at Thirteen or Fourteen Years of Age I shewed them the Unfitness thereof and the Inconveniences and Hurts that attend such Childish Marriages And I admonished them all to purge the Floor throughly and to sweep their Houses very clean that nothing might remain that would defile And that all should take care that nothing be spoken out of their Meetings to the blemishing or defaming one of another Likewise concerning Registring of Marriages Births and Burials I advised them to keep Exact Records of each in distinct Books for that only use and also to Record in a Book for that purpose the Condemnations of such as went out from Truth into Disorderly Practices and the Repentance and Restoration of such of them as returned again Also I recommended to their Care the providing of convenient Burying Places for Friends which in some parts were yet wanting Some Directions also I gave them concerning Wills and the Ordering of Legacies left by Friends for publick Vses and other things relating to the Affairs of the Church Then as to their Blacks or Negro's I desired them to endeavour to train them up in the Fear of God as well them that were bought with their Money as them that were born in their Families that all might come to the Knowledge of the Lord that so with Joshua they might every Master of a Family say As for me and my House we will serve the Lord. I desired them also that they would cause their Overseers to deal mildly and gently with their Negro's and not use Cruelty towards them as the manner of some hath been and is And that after certain Years of Servitude they would make them free Many sweet and precious things were opened in these Meetings by the Spirit and in the Power of the Lord to the edifying confirming and building up of Friends both in the Faith and holy Order of the Gospel After these Meetings were over the Vessel that was bound for England not being yet gone I was moved to write another Epistle to Friends there the Copy whereof here follows DEar Friends and Brethren to whom is my Love in that which never changeth but remains in Glory which is over all the Top and Corner-stone In this all have Peace and Life as ye dwell in the blessed Seed wherein all is blest over that which brought the Curse where all Shortness and Narrowness of Spirit is and Brittleness and Peevishness is Therefore keep the Holy Order of the Gospel and keep in this blessed Seed where all may be kept in Temperance in Patience in Love in Meekness in Righteousness and Holiness and in Peace in which the Lord may be seen amongst you and no ways dishonoured but glorified by you all And so in all your Meetings in Cities Towns and Countries Mens-Meetings Womens-Meetings and others let Righteousness slow among you and the Holy Truth be uppermost and the pure Spirit your Guide and Leader and the holy Wisdom your Orderer that is pure and gentle and from above and easie to be entreated So keep in the Religion that keeps from the Spots of the World which is pure and undefiled in God's Sight And keep in the pure and holy Worship in which the pure and holy God is worshipped to wit in the Spirit and in the Truth which the Devil is out of who is the Author of all Vnholiness and of dishonouring of God So be all tender of God's Glory and tender of his Honour and of his blessed and holy Name in which ye are gathered And all who do profess the Truth see that ye Walk in it and in Righteousness and Godliness and Holiness For Holiness becomes the House of God the Houshold of Faith And that which becomes God's House God loves for he loves Righteousness and that is the Ornament which becomes his House and all his Family Therefore see that Righteousness do run down in all your Assemblies and that it flow to drive away all the Vnrighteousness This preserves your Peace with God for in Righteousness ye have all Peace with the righteous God of Peace and one with another And so every one that bears the Name of the Anointed that high Title of being a Christian named after the Heavenly Man see that ye be in the Divine Nature and made conformable unto his Image even the Image of the Heavenly Divine Man who was before that Image which Adam and Eve got in the Fall from the Devil So that in none of you that fallen Image may appear or be seen but his Image and you made Conformable unto him Here Translation is shewed forth in Life and Conversation not in Words only yea and Conversion and Repentance which
business upon them they were hindred from doing the good they would so that the Sufferings upon Friends were Continued But that which added much to the Grief and Exercise of Friends was that some who made a Profession of the same Truth with us being gone from the Simplicity of the Gospel into a fleshly Liberty and labouring to draw others after them did Oppose the Order and Discipline which God by his Power had set up and established in his Church and made a great noise and clamour against Prescriptions Whereby they easily drew after them such as were loosly Inclined and desired a broader Way than the Path of Truth to walk in Some also that were more simple but young in Truth or weak in Judgment were apt to be betrayed by them not knowing the Depths of Satan in these Wiles For whose sakes I was moved to write the following Paper for the undeceiving the Deceived and the opening the Understandings of the Weak in this matter ALL you that do deny Prescriptions without distinction you may as well deny all the Scriptures which were given forth by the Power and Spirit of God For do not they prescribe how men should Walk both to God and Man both in the Old Testament and in the New Yea from the very first Promise of Christ in Genesis what People ought to believe and trust in and all along till ye come to the Prophets Did not the Lord prescribe to his People both by the Fathers and then by his Prophets did he not prescribe to the People how they should Walk though they turned against the Prophets in the Old Covenant for declaring or prescribing to them the Way how they might Walk to please God and keep in favour with him And then after in the days of Christ did not he prescribe and teach how People should walk and believe And after him the Apostles did not they prescribe unto People how they might come to believe and receive the Gospel and the Kingdom of God directing unto that which would give them the Knowledge of God and how they should walk in the New-Covenant in the days of the Gospel and by what way they should come to the holy City And did not the Apostles send forth their Decrees by faithful Chosen Men them that had hazarded their Lives for Christ's sake to the Churches by which they were established And so you that deny Prescriptions given forth by the Power and Spirit of God do thereby oppose the Spirit that gave them forth in all the holy Men of God And were there not some all along in the days of Moses and in the days of the Prophets and in the days of Christ and in the days of his Apostles who did withstand that which they gave forth from the Spirit of God And hath there not been the same since the days of the Apostles And how many have risen since Truth appeared to oppose the Order which stands in the Power and Spirit of God who are but in the same Spirit which hath opposed the Spirit of God all along from the beginning And see what Names or Titles the Spirit of God gave that Opposing Spirit in the Old Covenant and also in the New which is the same now as was for after the Lord had given forth the Old Covenant there were some among themselves that did Oppose which were worse than publick Enemies And likewise after in the days of the New Covenant in the Gospel-times you may see what sort did Oppose both Christ and the Apostles after they came to some Sights of the Truth and how they turned against Christ and his Apostles And see what Liberty they pleaded for and ran into in the Apostles days who could not abide the Cross the Yoke of Jesus And therefore we see the same rough and high Spirit cries now for Liberty which the Power and Spirit of Christ cannot give and cries Imposition and yet is Imposing and cries Liberty of Conscience and yet is opposing Liberty of Conscience And cries against Prescriptions and yet is prescribing both in Words and Writing So with the Everlasting Power and Spirit of God this Spirit is fathomed its Rise Beginning and End and it is Judged And this Spirit cries We must not judge Conscience we must not judge Matters of Faith and we must not judge the Spirits nor Religions c. Yes They that be in the pure Spirit and Power of God which the Apostles were in they Judge of Conscience whether it be a seared Conscience or a tender Conscience They Judge of Faith whether it be a dead one or a living one They Judge of Religion whether it be vain or pure or undefiled They Judge of Spirits and try them whether they be of God or no They Judge of Hope whether it be of Hypocrites or the true Hope that purifies even as God is pure They Judge of Belief whether it be that which is born of God and overcometh the World or that which runs into the Spirit of the World which lusts to Envy and doth not overcome the World And they Judge of Worships whether they be Will-worships and the Worship of the Beast and Dragon or the Worship of God in Spirit and in Truth They Judge of Angels whether they be fallen or them that keep their Habitation And they Judge the World that grieves and quenches the Spirit and hates the Light and turns the Grace of God into wantonness and resists the Holy Ghost They Judge of the Hearts Ears and Lips which are Circumcised and which are Uncircumcised They Judge of Ministers and Apostles and Messengers whether they be of Satan or of Christ They judge of Differences in outward things in the Church or elsewhere yea the least Member of the Church hath Power to Judge of such things having the One true Measure and true Weight to weigh things and measure things withal without respect to Persons And this Judgment is given and all these things are done by the same Power and Spirit the Apostles were in And also such can Judge of Election and Reprobation and who keep their Habitation and who not And who are Jews and who are of the Synagogue of Satan And who are in the Doctrine of Christ and who are in the Doctrines of Devils And who prescribes and declares things from the Power and Spirit of God to preserve all in the Power and Spirit of God and who prescribes and declares things from a loose Spirit to let all loose from under the Yoke of Christ the Power of God into Loosness and Liberty And likewise can Judge and Discern who brings People into the Possession of the Gospel of Light and Life over Death and Darkness and into the Truth where the Devil cannot get in and who brings them into the Possession of Death and Darkness out of the glorious Liberty of the Gospel and of Jesus Christ and his Faith and Truth and Spirit and Light and Grace For there is no true Liberty but in
the Lord laid it upon me to write to both the great Turk and the King of Algier severally to Warn them both and the People under them to turn from their wickedness and fear the Lord and do justly lest the Judgments of God came upon them and destroyed them without Remedy But to the Algerines I writ more particularly concerning the Cruelty they exercised towards Friends and others whom they held Captives in Algiers Now when I had finished that Service and visited Friends in their Meetings at Kingston I went on further into the County and had Meetings amongst Friends in many places Worplesdon Guildford Eshing Capell Patchgate Worminghurst Bletchington Horsham Ifield Rygate Gaton c Kingston Hammersmith Battersea Wansworth Kensington Hendon London Edmunton Hartford as at Worplesdon Guildford Eshing Capell Patchgate Worminghurst Bletchington Horsham Ifield Rygate Gaton c. and so came back to Kingston again and from thence to Hammersmith And having spent some days in the Service of Truth amongst Friends at Hammersmith Battersea Wansworth and thereabouts I crossed over by Kensington to Hendon where I had a very good Meeting on the First-day of the Week And having spent about two Months time in this Journey went from thence to London When I had been about Ten days in London I was drawn forth again to visit Friends in the Country and went down to Edmunton to Christopher Taylor 's who kept a School in his House for the educating of Friends Children I had some Service here amongst the Youths and then went on towards Hartford visiting several Friends in the way At Hartford I met with John Story and some others of his Party but the Testimony of Truth went over them and kept them down so that the Meeting was quiet It was on a First-day of the week and the next day being the Mens and Womens Meeting for business I visited them also and the rather because some in that place had let in a Dis-esteem of them Wherefore I was moved to open the Service of those Meetings and the Usefulness and Benefit thereof to the Church of Christ as the Lord opened the thing in me and it was of good Service to Friends 1680. Hartford I had a Meeting also with some of them there that were gone into Strife and Contention to shew them wherein they were wrong and having cleared my self of them I left them to the Lord. Then after I had had another publick Meeting in the Town Waltham-Abby I returned towards London by Waltham-Abby where I had a publick Meeting on the First-day following and another with Friends in the Evening Next day I went to Christopher Taylor 's at Edmunton and stay'd there a day or two Edmunton having some things upon me to write which were for the Service of Truth When I had finished that Service Schacklewell I went to London by Shacklewell where was a School kept by Friends for the breeding up Young Maidens that were Friends Daughters I abode at London most part of this Winter London having much Service for the Lord there both in Meetings and out For as it was a time of great Sufferings upon Friends I was drawn forth in Spirit to visit Friends Meetings more frequently to encourage and strengthen them both by Exhortation and Example The Parliament also was sitting and Friends were diligent to wait upon them to lay their Grievances before them of which we received fresh Accounts almost every day of the sad Sufferings Friends underwent in many parts of the Nation In this Service of seeking Relief for my suffering Brethren I spent much time together with other Friends who were freely given up to that Service attending at the Parliament-House day by day for many days together and watching all Opportunities to speak with such Members of either House as would hear our just Complaints And indeed some of the Members of each House were very Courteous to us and appeared willing to help us if they could But the Parliament being then earnest in Examining the Popish Plot and contriving ways to discover such as were Popishly Affected our Adversaries took advantages against us because they knew we could not Swear nor Fight to Expose us to those Penalties that were made against Papists though they knew in their Consciences that we were no Papists and had had Experience of us that we were no Plotters Wherefore to clear our Innocency in those Cases and to stop the Mouths of our Adversaries I drew up a short Paper to be delivered to the Parliament which was as followeth IT is our Principle and Testimony to deny and renounce all Plots and Plotters against the King or any of his Subjects for we have the Spirit of Christ by which the have the Mind of Christ who came to save mens lives and not to destroy them and we would have the King and all his Subjects to be safe Wherefore we do declare that we will endeavour to our power to save and defend him and them by discovering all Plots and Plotters which shall come to our knowledge that would destroy the King or his Subjects This we do sincerely offer unto you But as to Swearing and Fighting which in tenderness of Conscience we cannot do ye know that we have suffered these many years for our Consciencious Refusal thereof 1680. London And now that the Lord hath brought you together we desire you to Relieve us and free us from those Sufferings and that ye will not put upon us to do those things which we have suffered so much and so long already for not doing for if you do ye will make our Sufferings and Bonds stronger instead of Relieving us G. F. About this time I received Two very envious Books written against Truth and Friends one of them by a Doctor so called of Bremen in Germany the other by a Priest of Dantzick in Poland They were both full of gross Falshoods and â—ad in them many reproachful Slanders I found it upon me to Answer them both and that I might not be over-much interrupted therein by other Business and Company I got out of London for a little while Kingston upon Thames and went down to Kingston upon Thames were I writ an Answer to each of them And also an Answer to some other Scandalous Papers which had been printed and scattered about to mis-represent Friends by While I was there I writ also the following Paper to perswade the Magistrates to Moderation towards Dissenters and take off their Edge to Persecution And because it should have its full Service I directed it To all the Rulers Magistrates and them that are in Authority and Law-makers in England Scotland and Ireland from the Highest to the Lowest and to all other Magistrates every where in that which is called Christendom Desiring their Health and Peace and Tranquillity and Life and Salvation in Christ Jesus the Lord of Glory and Lamb of God that takes away the Sins of the
Weapons which Faith is Victory or gives Victory by which ye lay hold on Eternal Life and have access unto God who will render to every man according to his Deeds to them who by patient continuing in well-doing seek for glory and honour and immortality Eternal Life but unto them that are contentious and do not obey the Truth but obey unrighteousness indignation and wrath Tribulation and Anguish upon every soul of man that doth evil but glory honour and peace to every man that worketh good Christ said to his Disciples If the world hate you ye know that it hated me before it hated you If ye were of the world the world would love it's own but because ye are not of the world but I have chosen you out of the world therefore the world hateth you And If they have persecuted me they will also persecute you And John in his general Epistle to the Church saith Marvel not my Brethren if the world hate you We know that we have passed from death to life because we love the Brethren And Christ in his Prayer to his Father saith of his Followers As thou hast sent me into the world even so have I also sent them iâ— the world And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them that they may be one even as we are one And therefore all ye that know God and Jesus Christ whom to know is Eternal Life and are Partakers of his Glory keep the Testimony of Jesus and be valiant for his Truth upon Earth that ye may be all settled upon Christ the Rock and Foundation Dolston the 3d of the 8th Month 1682. G. F. I made but little stay at Dolston but returned again to London London where I continued most part of the Winter labouring in the Service of Truth amongst Friends Save that I was a little while at Kingston in the Tenth Month this Year where I writ a Book Kingston setting forth The state of the Birth Temporal and the Birth Spiritual And the Duty and State of a Child Youth Young Men Aged Men and Fathers in the Truth c. But I staid not long at Kingston neither for the heat of Persecution still continuing I felt my Service to be most at London London where our Meetings were for the most part disturbed and broken up or Friends were forced to Meet without Doors being kept out of their Meeting-Houses by the Officers Yet sometimes beyond expectation we got a quiet and peaceable Meeting in the Houses One time I was minded to have gone a mile or two out of Town to visit a Friend that was not well But hearing that the King had sent to the Mayor to put the Laws in Execution against Dissenters and that the Magistrates thereupon intended to Nail up the Meeting-house-doors I had not freedom to go out of Town but was moved to go to the Meeting at Gracious-street And notwithstanding all the Threats a great Meeting it was and very quiet and the Glory of the Lord shone over all The same Week I went to the Meeting at the Peel in John's Street and the Sessions were holden the same day at Hicks's hall Peel-Meet I went to the Peel in the Morning and William Mead being to appear at the Sessions for not going to the Steeple-house-worship he came once or twice from Hicks's hall to me at the Peel which some Ill-minded-people observing went and Informed the Justices at the Bench that he was gone to a Meeting at the Peel Whereupon the Justices sent a Messenger to see if there were a Meeting but this being in the Forenoon there was no Meeting there then and so the Messenger when he had looked about went back and told them Then others Informed the Justices that there would be a Meeting there about three or four in the Afternoon Whereupon they sent for the Chief Constable and asked him Why he suffered a Meeting to be at the Peel so nigh him He told them He did not know of any Meeting there They asked him How he could but know it and live so nigh it He said He was never there in his life 1682. London and did not know that there was a Meeting there They would have perswaded him that he must needs know of it but he standing stedfast in the denial of it they said They should take order to have it look'd after in the Afternoon But a multitude of Business coming before them at the Sessions when Dinner-time came they hasted to their Dinner without giving order And when they came to the Bench again after Dinner the Lord put it out of their Minds so that they sent no Officer and so the Meeting was quiet beginning and ending in peace and a blessed Meeting we had the Lord's Presence being preciously amongst us Many Friends had a concern upon their minds when they saw me come into the Meeting lest I should have been taken But I was freely given up to suffer if it was the Lord's Will before I went into the Meeting and had nothing in my mind concerning it but the Lord's Glory And I do believe the Lord put it out of their minds that they should not send to break up our Meeting that day Yet the First-day after three or four Justices as I heard came to the Peel and put Friends out of their Meeting there and kept them out and inquired for William Mead but he was not there Grac. Meet That day I was moved to go to Gracious-street-Meeting and it was expected that the Officers would come to break up the Meeting or keep Friends out and many hundreds of People came to see what would be done to us But the Officers came not and so we were in peace and quietness and many of the People that came to look on staid all the time and a glorious precious Meeting we had for the Lord's Presence was plentifully amongst us and his Power came over all Glory to his Name for ever who is over all I had seen the Mayor's printed Speech for putting the Laws in Execution against Dissenters and it was much in my mind that we should draw up a Paper to send to the Mayor and Aldermen to clear our selves from being such as those Laws were made against and to set forth our peaceable Behaviour both towards the King and the Government Accordingly a Paper was drawn up and signed and delivered to the Mayor and Copies thereof to the Aldermen and to the Bishop of London also And they generally took it kindly and were Civil to the Friends that delivered it About this time I was moved to write the few Lines following to Friends Dear Friends FEel the Power of God in you all and over all and by it let all your hearts be united to one another and to the Lord God who hath gathered you to himself by his Power and Spirit to be a People to serve and worship him So that you may all strive to Excel
The Constable still called upon me to Come down and at length pluckt me down and bid another Man with a Staff Take me and carry me to Prison That Man had me to another Officer's house who was more Civil and after a while they brought in Four Friends more whom they had taken I was very Weary and in a great Sweat and several Friends hearing where I was came to me in the Constable's house but I bid them all go their ways lest the Constables and Informers should stop them After a while the Constables had us almost a Mile to a Justice who was a fierce passionate Man who after he had asked me my Name and his Clerk had taken it down in writing upon the Constable's informing him That I preached in the Meeting said in an angry manner Do not you know that it is contrary to the King 's Laws to preach in such Conventicles contrary to the Liturgy of the Church of England There was present one Shad a wicked Informer who was said to have broken Gaol at Coventry and to have been burnt in the hand at London who hearing the Justice speak so to me stept up to him and told him That he had Convicted them on the Act of the 22d of King Charles the Second What! You Convict them said the Justice Yes said Shad I have Convicted them and you must Convict them too upon that Act. With that the Justice was Angry with him and said You Teach me What are you I 'le Convict them of a Riot The Informer hearing that and seeing the Justice Angry went away in a Fret and so he was disappointed of his purpose I thought he would have sworn some body against me whereupon I said Let no man swear against me for it is my Principle Not to swear and therefore I would not have any man Swear against me The Justice thereupon asked me If I did not preach in the Meeting I told him I did Confess what God and Christ had done for my Soul and did praise God and I thought I might have done that in the Streets and in all Places viz. Praise God and Confess Christ Jesus and this I was not ashamed to Confess Neither was this contrary to the Liturgy of the Church of England The Justice said The Laws were against such Meetings as were contrary to the Liturgy of the Church of England I said I knew no such Laws against our Meetings but if he did mean that Act that was made against such as did Meet to Plot and Contrive and raise Insurrections against the King we were no such People but did abhor all such Actions and did bear true Love and Good-will to the King and to all Men upon the Earth The Justice then asked me If I had been in Orders I told him No. Then he took his Law-books and searched for Laws against us bidding his Clerk take the Names of the rest the mean time But when he could find no other Law against us the Clerk sware the Constable against us Some of the Friends bid the Constable Take heed what he swore lest he were perjured for he took them in the Entry and not in the Meeting Yet the Constable being an Ill Man swore That they were in the Meeting However the Justice said Seeing there was but one Witness he would discharge the rest but he would send me to Newgate and I might preach there he said I asked him If it stood with his Conscience to send me to Newgate for praising God and for Confessing Christ Jesus He cried Conscience Conscience but I felt my words toucht his Conscience He bid the Constable Take me away and he would make a Mittimus to send me to Prison when he had dined I told him I desired his peace and the good of his Family and that they might be kept in the fear of the Lord So I passed away And as we went the Constable took some Friends word that I should come to his house the next Morning by the ' eighth hour Accordingly I did go with those Friends and then the Constable told us That he went to the Justice for the Mittimus after he had dined and the Justice bid him Come again after the Evening-Service which he did and then the Justice told him He might let me go So said the Constable you are discharged I blamed the Constable for turning Informer and swearing against us and he said He would do so no more Next day the Justice meeting with Gilbert Laty asked him If he would pay Twenty pounds for George Fox 's Fine He said No. Then said the Justice I am disappointed for being but a Lodger I cannot come by his Fine and he having been brought before me and being of ability himself I cannot lay his Fine on any other After I was discharged I went up into the City And the same Week the Sessions coming on where many Friends were concerned some as Prisoners and some on Trials of Appeals upon the Conventicle-Act I went to a Friend's house not far off that I might be in readiness to Assist those Friends with Counsel or otherwise as occasion should offer and I found Service in it But as my Spirit was concerned on behalf of Friends with respect to their outward Sufferings by the Persecutors without so an Exercise also came weightily upon me at this time in the sense I had of the Mischievous Working of that Adulterated Spiritâ— which being gone out from the heavenly Vnity and having drawn out some that profest Truth into Enmity and Opposition against Friends endeavoured to trouble the Church of Christ with their janglings and contention And as a further discovery of the working of that seducing Spirit and a Warning to all Friends to beware of it I was moved to write the following Epistle directed thus To all the Elect Faithful Called and Chosen of God who are the Flock and Heritage of God who have been acquainted with the Dealings of the Lord and have kept your habitations in his Life Power and Truth being built upon the holy and heavenly Rock and Foundation Christ Jesus who was the Foundation of the Prophets and Apostles which Foundation stands sure MAny Foundations have been laid since the Apostles days by such as have gone from Christ the true and sure Foundation and their Foundations have proved rotten and come to nought and they themselves have come to Loss And many since the day of Christ and the Truth hath appeared in this Nation have come out and have had some Openings and Sights and come among us for a time and then gone out from us again who have been the Comers and Goers like such as were in the Apostles days Such have had an outward Profession of the Truth and such have gone from the true Foundation Christ Jesus and so from the heavenly Society and Unity of the Saints in Light And then they set up Foundations of their own and having a Form of Godliness but out of the
76. and 78. All the Figures and Shadows were and are in Time but Christ the Substance is the Beginning and the Ending And all Trials Troubles Persecutions and Temptations came up in Time but the Lord's Power which is Everlasting is over all such things in which is safety The black World of Darkness lieth in wickedness and by their Wisdom knoweth not God that made the World and all things therein for the God of the World and Prince of the Air ruleth in the hearts of all them that disobey the living God that made them And so the God of this wicked World hath blinded all the Eyes of the Infidels or Heathen so that this Wicked World by their Wisdom doth not know the living God In the Old Testament the Lord said With all thy Offerings thou shalt offer Salt Levit. 2.13 And Christ saith in his New Covenant Every one shall be salted with Fire and every Sacrifice shall be salted with Salt Salt is good but if the Salt have lost its saltness wherewith will you season it Have Salt in your selves and have peace one with another Mark 9.48 49 50. We have received the Earnest of the Spirit which is the Earnest of the Inheritance that fadeth not away For God poureth out of his Spirit upon all flesh So it is God's Spirit which is above our natural Spirit by which alone we do not know God for it is with the Spirit of God that we do know the things of God And the Spirit of God doth witness to our Souls and Spirits that this Spirit of God is the Earnest of an Eternal Inheritance God opens his Peoples Ears to Discipline and commands that they turn from Iniquity If they obey and serve him they shall spend their days in prosperity and their years in pleasure but if they obey him not they shall perish by the sword and they shall die without knowledge Job 36.10 11 12. So the Disobedient that do not turn from their Iniquity have not this prosperity and pleasure but die without the knowledge of God And such their Ears are shut to this Discipline which God opens to his People G. F. When I had been about Two Months in London I was sent for to my Son Rouse's at Kingston to visit a Daughter of his Kingston which at that time lay very sick but recovered Whilst I stay'd there I had several Meetings with Friends Hammersmith and returning by Hammersmith stay'd the First-day-Meeting there which was large and peaceable And having visited Friends thereabouts I came back â—o London again being very intent upon the business of getting Redress for suffering Friends In this and other Services for Friends and Truth I continued at London till the latter end of the Eleventh Month save that I went in this time to visit an Ancient Friend at Bednal-Green Bednal-Green with whom I tarried three or four days While I was there I was much exercised in the sense of the Enemy's Working to draw from the holy way of Truth into a false Liberty and so into the World's ways and worships again And the Example of the backsliding Jews coming before me I was moved to write the following Paper as a Warning to all such HEre you may see when the Jews Rebelled against the good Spirit of God which he gave them to Instruct them they forsook God and his Law Way and Worship and then they went a whoring after Balaam's Ways and became like the wild Ass-Colt snuffing up the wind as in Jer. 2.24 And in Jer. 3. see how Judah played the Harlot under every green Tree and upon every high Mountain And therefore the Lord divorced Judah as he had divorced Israel when she forsook his Ways and followed the Heathens Ways And though the Lord had fed them to the full yet they forsook him and committed Adultery and Assembled themselves together in Harlot's-houses Jer. 5.7 And with their Whoredom they defiled the Land and committed Adultery with Stocks and Stones Jer. 3.9 So here you may see when they forsook the living Eternal God they followed the Religions and Worships of other Nations whose Gods were made of Stocks and Stones which the Jews worshipped and committed Adultery withal When they forsook the living God and his way and worship they forsook the worship at Jerusalem at the Temple and followed the Heathens Worships in the Mountains and Fields and so it was called Adultery and Whoredom to join with other Religions and forsake God as in Jer. 13.27 And now if the Children of New Jerusalem that is above should forsake the Worship that Christ in his New Testament set up which is in Spirit and in Truth and follow the Worships of Nations which men have set up will not they that do so commit Adultery with them in forsaking God's Worship and Christ the new and living Way And in Jer. 44. ye may see how the Children of Judah provoked the Lord against them by worshipping the works of their own hands and following the Gods of the Land of Egypt In this they committed Adultery forsaking the living God their Husband and his Worship and there ye may see God's Judgments pronounced against them to their destruction And what will become of those that forsake the Worship in Spirit and Truth which Christ set up and worship the works of their own hands in spiritual Egypt and follow spiritual Egypt's Will-worship which they invented may not this be called Whoredom in them that forsake Christ the new and living Way and his pure Religion and his Worship that he hath set up And they that do forsake the Lord's way 1685. Bednal-Green and his worship that he set up and follow the Worlds ways and worships that they set up do not they whose Way they follow become at last their Enemies as in Lament 1. See how the Jews forsook the Lord's way and worship and doted on other Lovers the Assyrians c. and with all their Idols they were defiled and how they did not leave the Whoredoms brought from Egypt and how they were polluted with the Babylonians Bed as ye may read in Ezek 23. When they forsook the Lord his Way and Worship and followed the Way and Worship of the Heathen then it was said They went a Whoring after other Lovers and committed Adultery with them And ye may see in Ezek. 16. how the state of the Jews was likened unto that of their Sister Sodom and how that they had played the Harlot with the Assyrians and committed Fornication with the Egyptians and had increased their Whoredoms in following their abominable Idols And therefore the Lord carried away the Two Tribes that forsook him into Babylon as ye may see in Ezek. 17.20 And they that forsake Christ the new and living Way and the Worship of God in Spirit and Truth which Christ set up in his New-Testament they go into Captivity in spiritual Babylon And in Hosea 2. ye may see how he discovers the Whoredoms and