and to the People To the Constables I declared That we were a peaceable People who meet to wait upon God and worship him in Spirit and in Truth and therefore I told them they needed not to come with their Staves amongst us who were met in a peaceable manner desiring and seeking the good and salvation of all People Then turning my Speech to the People again I declared what further was upon me to them and while I was speaking the Constables drew out towards the door and the Souldiers stood with their Muskets in the Yard When I had done speaking I kneeled down and prayed desiring the Lord to open the Eyes and Hearts of all People both high and low that their minds might be turned to God by his holy Spirit that he might be glorified in all and over all After prayer the Meeting rose and Friends passed away the Constables being come in again but without the Souldiers and indeed both they and the Souldiers carried themselves Civilly William Penn and I went into a Room hard by as we used to do and many Friends went with us and lest the Constables should think we would shun them a Friend went down and told them That if they would have any thing with us they might come where we were if they pleased One of them came to us soon after but without his Staff which he chose to do that he might not be observed for he said The People told him he busied himself more than he needed We desired to see his Warrant and therein we found that the Informer was one Hilton a North-Country-man who was reputed to be a Papist The Constable was asked Whether he would Arrest us by his Warrant on that day it being the First-day of the Week which in their Law was called the Lord's-day and he said He thought he could not He told us also That he had charged the Informer to come along with him to the Meeting but he had run away from him We shewed the Constable that both he and we were Clear yet to free him from all fear of danger we were free to go to the Alderman that granted the Warrant Then a Friend that was present said He would go with the Constable to speak with the Alderman which they did and came presently back again the Alderman being gone from home We seeing the Constable in a strait and finding him to be a tender Man bid him set an hour to come to us again or send for us and we would come to him So he appointed the fifth hour in the Afternoon but neither came nor sent for us and a Friend meeting him afterwards in the Evening the Constable told him He thought it would come to nothi g and therefore did not look after us So the Lord's Power was over all to him be the Glory On the Fourth day following it was upon me to go to Gracious-street-Meeting again for I had heard that they would come to break up the Meeting that day The Neighbours it seems were Informed so and a Justice had granted a Warrant for that purpose and the Constable told a Friend that Hilton the Informer had been with him about it The Constable would have had the Informer to have gone with him to the Meeting but the Informer would not but would have the Constable go without him Whether that put the Constable by from coming I know not but he did not come I was in a Travel of Spirit in the power of God and was moved in it to go to the Meeting and the Lord's Power did chain all down And though they threatned to bring the Red-Coats yet none came nor was there any disturbance but a glorious powerful Meeting it was and very peaceable Glory and Honour and Praises be to the Lord over all for ever Amen During the time I thus abode at London as I had leisure between Meetings and from other Publick Services I writ divers Books and Papers some of which were printed and others were spread about in Manuscript Of these One was directed To the Bishops and others that did stir up Persecution to shew them from the holy Scriptures that they did not walk therein according to the Royal Law To love their Neighbour as themselves and to do to others as they would be done unto Another was ' To all the several sorts of professed Christians as well Protestants as Papists whose Religion and Worship stands in outward Observances and Ceremonies pressing them from those words of the Apostle Paul to the Galatians chap. 5. vers 2 3 4. Behold I Paul say unto you that if ye be Circumcised Christ shall profit you nothing For I testifie again to every man that is Circumcised that he is a Debter to the whole Law Christ is become of no effect unto you whosoever of you are justified by the Law ye are fallen from Grace to Consider Whether they being gone back into legal Observations and shadowy Ceremonies in upholding Tithes Offerings First-Fruits Priests-Garments outward Altars Temples Lamps Lights c. and in Observing Days Months Times Years with many other things commanded by the Law were not gone into the same state that the Galatians were running into and so were fallen from Grace and become Debtors to the whole Law Another was ' To direct and turn all People to the Spirit of God that they might thereby receive a right understanding and be able to distinguish between Right and Wrong Truth and Error that under pretence of punishing Evil-doers they might not themselves do Evil in persecuting the Righteous That Paper being short is here inserted The Spirit of God which he hath poured upon all giveth an Vnderstanding to all that are led by it and who do not quench the Motions of it it doth give them Knowledge and Understanding to distinguish Good from Evil and Light from Darkness Christ from Antichrist and the Old Testament or Covenant from the New and the Old Way from the New and living Way and the Sheep and Lambs from the Goats and from the Wolves the Worship of God which Christ set up above sixteen hundred years ago from the Dragon 's and Beast's Worship and all them that worship the Works of Mens hands and the Will Worshippers from them that Worship God in his Spirit and in his Truth in which God's People do worship him which Worship is over all false Worships and Worshippers And who believe in the Light which is the Life in Christ do become the Children of Light and are the Lambs of Jesus And the Lambs do follow the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the World and they will not follow the Hirelings nor the Strangers to be led into strange Ways and Doctrines and Religions and Churches for the Lambs of Christ follow Christ the Lamb of God and do know his heavenly Voice And they do know also that they who are without Christ are Dogs and Wolves Adulterers Idolaters Liars and Vnbelievers who would devour
right understanding thereof and be gathered thereunto Several Epistles also to Friends I writ in this time on divers Occasions and Subjects whereof one was to the Friends of the Yearly Meeting which was held in London this year 1679. a Copy of which here follows My Dear Friends and Brethren WHO are Assembled together in the Name and Power of the Lord Jesus Christ Grace Mercy and Peace from God the Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ fill all your hearts and establish you in his Grace Mercy and Peace upon Christ the holy living Rock and Foundation who is the First and Last and over all the Foundations and Rocks in the whole world a Rock and Foundation of Life for all the Living to build upon which stands sure in his heavenly divine Light which is the Life in him by whom all things were made who is the precious Stone laid in Sion and not in the World which all the Wise Master-Builders rejected who pretended to build People up to Heaven with the Words of the Prophets and the Law from Mount Sinai but out of the Life of both and therefore such Builders could not receive the Law of Life from Christ the precious Stone laid in Sion nor the Word from heavenly Jerusalem But you My Dear Friends that have received this Law from heavenly Sion and the Word from heavenly Jerusalem in the New Covenant where the Life and Substance is enjoyed you do see the end and abolishing of the Jews Law and Ceremonies from Mount Sinai And therefore my desire is that you all may keep in the Law of Life and Love 1679. Swarthmore which ye have in Christ Jesus by which Love the Body is edified and knit and united together to Christ Jesus the Head Which Love doth bear all things and fulfils the Law and will preserve all in Humility and in it to be of one mind heart and soul so that all may come to drink into that One Spirit that doth Baptize them and Circumcise them Plunging down and Cutting off the Body of the Sins of the Flesh that is gotten up in Man and Woman by their transgressing of God's Commands So that in this holy pure Spirit all may serve and worship the pure God in Spirit and in Truth which is over all the Worships that are out of God's Spirit and his Truth And in this Spirit ye will all have a Spiritual Unity and Fellowship over all the Fellowships of the Unclean Spirits which be out of Truth in the World And so by this holy Spirit all your hearts minds and souls may be knit together to Christ from whence it comes and by the Grace and Truth which is come by Jesus Christ which all should be under the Teachings of in the New Covenant and not under the Law as the outward Jews were in the Old Covenant So that by this Grace and Truth in the New Covenant all may be made God's free Men and Women to serve God in the new Life and in the new and living Way shewing forth the Fruits of the new heart and new spirit in the New Covenant over death and darkness and before it was Glory be unto the Lord for ever And now Friends in this Grace and Truth is your heavenly gracious and true Liberty to every Spiritual Mind that makes you free from him that is out of Truth where your bondage was Also your Liberty in the holy divine and precious Faith which gives you Victory over that that hath separated you from God and Christ and through which Faith ye have Access to God again through Jesus Christ So in this divine and holy Faith ye have divine holy and precious Liberty yea and Victory over him that separated you from God and this Faith is held in a pure Conscience So the Liberty in the Spirit of God is in that which baptizes and plunges down Sin and Iniquity and puts off the Body of Death and Sins of the Flesh that is gotten up by transgressing of God's Command as I said before And also the Liberty of the Gospel which is sent from Heaven by the Holy Ghost which is the Power of God which was and is again to be preached to all Nations In this Gospel the Power of God which is over the Power of Satan is the true Liberty and the Gospel-Fellowship and Order So that the Evil Spirit or Conscience or false dead Faith and that which is ungracious and out of Truth and not in the Spirit of God nor in his Gospel nor in the divine Faith its Liberty is in the Darkness For all the true Liberty is in the Gospel and in the Truth that makes free and in the Faith and in the Grace and in Christ Jesus who destroys the Devil and his Works that hath brought all Mankind into Bondage So in this heavenly peaceable Spirit and Truth and Faith which works by Love and in the Gospel of Peace and in Christ Jesus is all the Saints Peace and pure true and holy Liberty in which they have Salt and Sense and Feeling Discerning and Savour yea and Unity and Fellowship one with another yea and with the Son and the Father that heavenly eternal Fellowship So all being subject to the Grace and Truth and to the Faith and Gospel the Power of God and to his good Spirit in this they distinguish all true pure and holy Liberty from that which is false And this will bring all to sit low for Patience runs the Race and the Lamb must have the Victory and not the rough unruly and vain Talkers unbaptized uncircumcised and unsanctified For such travel not in the way of Regeneration but in the way of unregeneration Neither go they down into the Death with Christ by Baptism and therefore such are not like to Reign with him in his Resurrection who are not buried with him in Baptism Therefore all must go downward into the Death of Christ and be crucified with him if they will Arise and follow him in the Regeneration before they come to Reign with him And Friends Many may have precious Openings but I desire all may be comprehended in that thing which doth open to them And that they may all keep in the daily Cross then they keep in the Power that doth kill and crucifie that which would lead them amongst the Beasts and Goats to leaven them into their rough unruly spirit But that through the Cross the Power of God That may be crucified and they in the Power might follow the Lamb. For the Power of God keeps all in Order and in Subjection and in Humility in that which is lovely and vertuous decent comely temperate and moderate that their Moderation comes to appear to all men So my desire is that all your Lights may shine as from a City set upon a Hill that cannot be hid And that ye may be the Salt of the Earth to salt and season it and make it savoury to God and you all seasoned with it Then
Idolatry of the Jews who forsook the Lord and compares them to an Harlot And in Chap. 8. ye may see the Destruction threatned against the Jews for their Impiety and Idolatry In Chap. 9. also the Distress and Captivity of the Jews is threatned for their sins and Idolatry And again they are reproved and threatned for their Impiety and Idolatry Hos 10. And this was for forsaking the Lord and his Way and following the ways of their own Inventions and the Ways of the Heathen And doth not Isaiah say That the Lord would visit Tyre and that she should commit Fornication with all the Kingdoms of the World upon the face of the Earth and therefore the Lord threatned Destruction upon her Chap. 23. And in Chap. 57. you may see how the Lord reproved the Jews for their Whorish Idolatry and said Vpon an high and lofty Mountain hast thou set thy Bed even thither wentest thou up to offer Sacrifices Thou hast enlarged thy Bed and made a Covenant with them thou lovedst their Bed where thou savest it This was a Joining to the Heathens Religions Altars and Sacrifices and a forsaking the Lord's Altar and Sacrifices which he commanded in the Law And therefore that was committing Whoredom with the Heathen and a going into their Beds from the Living God that made them And now in the New Testament God having poured his Spirit upon all Flesh that by his Spirit all might come to be a Royal Priesthood to offer up spiritual Sacrifices to God by Jesus Christ All that err from the Spirit of God and rebel against it they are not like to offer spiritual Sacrifices to God and such their Sacrifice God doth not accept no more than he did the Heathens and the Jews who rebelled against his good Spirit that he gave them to Instruct them And ye may see in the 17th 18th and 19th Chapters of the Revelation the Punishment of the great Whore Babylon the Mother of Harlots and the Victory of the Lamb and how he calleth God's People out of Babylon For in her was found the Blood of the Prophets and of the Saints and of all that were slain upon the Earth But there ye may read her Judgment and her Downfal And this Whore are they that are whored from the Spirit of God and so from God and from his holy Worship in Spirit and Truth and from the pure undefiled Religion that keeps from the Spots of the World and from the new and living Way Christ Jesus and so are whored from the Spirit of God into false Religions Ways and Worships and so corrupted the Earth with her Abominations But her Judgment and Downfal is seen over whom Christ hath the Victory And the Marriage of the Lamb is come Glory to the Lord for ever And God's pure Religion and pure Worship in Spirit and Truth Christ hath set up as it was in the Apostles days Hallelujah G. F. London I soon returned to London but made no long stay there at this time my Body not being able to bear the Closeness of the City long together While I was in Town besides the usual Services of visiting Friends and taking care about their Sufferings to get them eased I Assisted the Friends of the City in distributing certain Sums of Money which our Friends of Ireland had charitably and very liberally raised and sent over hither for the Relief of their Brethren who suffered for the Testimony of a good Conscience here which Monies were distributed amongst poor suffering Friends in the several Counties in proportion according as we understood their Need. Before I left the City also I heard of a great Doctor that was lately come from Poland whom I invited to my Lodging and had a great deal of discourse with him And after I had informed my self by him of such things as I had a desire to know I writ a Letter to the King of Poland on behalf of Friends at Dantzick a Town belonging to him who had long been under grievous Sufferings A Copy whereof here follows To JOHN the Third King of Poland 1685. London Great Duke of Lithuania Russia and Prussia Defender of the City of Dantzick c. Concerning the Innocent and Afflicted People in scorn called Quakers who are now fed with Bread and Water in Bridewell of the aforesaid City under close Confinement where their Friends Wives and Children are hardly suffered to come to see them O King THE Magistrates of the City of Dantzick say That it is thy Order and Command that these Innocent and Afflicted People should suffer such Oppression Now this Punishment is Inflicted upon them only and alone because they come together in the Name of Jesus Christ their Redeemer and Saviour who died for their Sins and is risen from the dead for their Justification who is their Prophet whom God hath raised up like unto Moses whom they ought to hear in all things in this day of the Gospel and the New Covenant who went astray like scattered Sheep but now are returned to the Chief Shepherd and Bishop of their Souls 1 Pet. 2.25 Who has given his Life for his Sheep and they hear his Voice and follow him who leads them into his Pastures of Life John 10. And now O King I understand that thou openly professest Christianity and the great and mighty Name of Jesus Christ who is King of Kings and Lord of Lords To whom is given all Power in Heaven and in Earth who rules all Nations with a Rod of Iron Therefore O King it seems hard to us that any that openly confesses Christ Jesus yea the Magistrates of Dantzick do the same should Inflict those Punishments upon an Innocent and Harmless People by reason of their Tender Consciences only and alone because they come together to serve and worship the Eternal God who made them in Spirit and in Truth which worship Christ Jesus has set up Sixteen hundred years ago as we read in John 4.23 24. Therefore I beseech the King that he would Consider Whether Christ in the New Testament ever gave such a Command to his Apostles that they should shut up any in Prison and feed them with Bread and Water who was not Conformable in every particular to their Religion Faith and Worship Or where did the Apostles exercise such things in the true Church after Christ's Ascension For is not this the Doctrine of Christ and the Apostles that Christ's Followers should Love their Enemies and pray for them that hate them and persecute and despitefully use them Matth. 5. And now Is it not a shame to Christendom among the Turks and others That one Christian should persecute another for the Doctrine of Faith Worship and Religion And they cannot prove that Christ ever gave them such a Command whom they profess to be their Lord and Master For Christ says that his Believers and Followers should love one another and by this they shall be known to be his Disciples And did not Christ
harmless and separate from Sinners and is a Priest made higher than the Heavens This is the Priest that gives power to all that receive him to become the Sons and Daughters of God And Jerusalem that is above is the Mother of all the Sons and Daughters of God which is free but Jerusalem that is below is in bondage with her Children And they that are the Children of Jerusalem that is above do not look down at Jerusalem that is below but they look at Jerusalem that is above which is their Mother Christ said Neither at Outward Jerusalem nor in the Mountain of Samaria should God be worshipped but God should be worshipped in Spirit and in Truth for he is a Spirit and such he seeks to worship him John 4. This is the Worship that Christ set up above Sixteen hundred years ago And therefore the Idolatrous Jews must never think to Offer their outward Offerings and Sacrifices nor set up their outward Worship at Jerusalem in the holy Land of Canaan more For Christ by the Offering up of himself once for all for the Sins of the whole World hath ended all the Jews Offerings and changed the Priesthood and the Law by which it was made and hath blotted out the Hand-writing of Ordinances which commanded both Priests and Offerings and triumphed over them And so he is the Offering and Sacrifice of all the Children of the New Testament and New Covenant and heavenly new Jerusalem that is above and he is their Prophet that openeth to them and Shepherd that feeds them and Bishop that oversees them and Priest that died for their Sins and is risen for their Justification and sanctifies them and presents them to God So he is the one Mediator betwixt God and Man even the Man Christ Jesus Kingston the 9th of the 10th Month 1687. G. F. Guilford After this I went from Kingston to Guilford to visit Friends there and stay'd three days with them and had a large and very good Meeting there on the First-day of the Week After which I came back to Kingston again Kingston and tarried there about Two Weeks longer visiting the Friends and having Meetings amongst them both at their Publick Meeting-house and in their Families Many things I writ while I was now at Kingston amongst which the following Paper was one GOD so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him shall not perish mark not perish but have everlasting life John 3.16 And again he saith He that believeth on the Son of God hath mark hath everlasting Life ver 36. So these Believers have Everlasting Life while they are upon the Earth And he that believeth on Christ is not condemned but he that believeth not is condemned already and the wrath of God abideth on him And He that heareth Christ 's word and believeth on God that sent him hath mark hath everlasting life and shall not come into Condemnation but is passed from death the death in the first Adam to life the life in Christ the second Adam John 5.24 And that Meat which Christ doth give endureth unto Everlasting Life as in John 6.27 And the Water that Christ doth give shall be in him that drinks it a Well of water springing up into everlasting life John 4.14 Christ said to the Jews Search the Scriptures for in them ye think ye have eternal life and they are they which testifie of me And ye will not come to me that ye might have life John 5.39 40. Here ye may see the Eternal Life is to be found in Christ and not in the Scriptures which testifie of him the Life Christ's Sheep that hear his Voice and know and follow him he gives unto them Eternal Life and they shall not perish neither shall any pluck them out of his hand They shall not pluck Christ's Sheep to whom he hath given Eternal life out of his Eternal hand Christ said to Martha I am the Resurrection and the Life he that believeth in me though he were dead mark though he were dead yet shall he live mark live though he were dead and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die Believest thou this Martha said Yea Lord John 25.26 This is the true and substantial Belief which they that do believe shall not perish but have Everlasting life John saith This is the Record That God hath given to us Eternal Life and this Life is in his Son 1 John 5.11 The Life was manifested and we saith he have seen it and bear witness and shew unto you that Eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested unto us 1 John 1.2 So these were the Believers that had Eternal Life in the Son of God and shewed it unto others He that hath the Son hath life saith John and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life 1 John 5.12 Christ saith Every one that hath forsaken Houses or Brethren or Sisters or Father or Mother or Wife or Children or Lands for my Names sake shall receive an hundred fold and shall inherit everlasting life Matth. 19.29 And the Wicked that do not receive Christ shall go into everlasting punishment but the Righteous into everlasting life And the true Servants of God have their fruits unto holiness and their End is everlasting life For the Wages of Sin is death but the Gift of God is everlasting life through Jesus Christ our Lord. And such have a Building of God an House not made with hands eternal in the Heavens Therefore I desire that God's People may endure all things that they may obtain this Salvation which is in Christ Jesus with Eternal Glory a Glory which is Eternal For Christ being made perfect became the Author of Eternal Salvation to all them that obey him And this Eternal Salvation is above an External Salvation for they come to receive an Eternal Inheritance and live in the possession of the everlasting Gospel of Joy Comfort Peace and Salvation having eternal and everlasting life in Christ Jesus which shall never die Kingston the 6th of the 11th Month 1687. G. F. Another Paper I writ there Concerning the Stone spoken of by Daniel Chap. 2. which became a great Mountain and filled the whole Earth shewing that thereby was set forth the Kingdom and Power of Christ WHen Christ the Stone that became a great Mountain and filled the whole Earth had broke to pieces the Head of Gold and the Breast of Silver and the Belly of Brass and the Legs of Iron and the Feet part Iron part Clay which were the four Monarchies to wit the Babylonian and Mede the Persian the Grecian and the Roman and had ended the outward Jews Typical Kingdom Daniel saith In the days of these Kings shall the God of Heaven set up a Kingdom which shall never be destroyed Dan. 2.44 Christ saith All Power is given unto me in Heaven and in Earth Matth. 28.18 And he saith My Kingdom is not of this
A JOURNAL OR Historical Account OF THE Life Travels Sufferings Christian Experiences and Labour of Love in the Work of the Ministry OF THAT Ancient Eminent and Faithful Servant of JESUS CHRIST George Fox Who departed this Life in great Peace with the LORD the 13th of the 11th Month 1690. The First Volume Dan. 12.3 And they that turn many to Righteousness shall shine as the Stars for ever and ever Verse 4. Many shall run to and fro and Knowledge shall be Encreased 2 Tim. 2.12 If we suffer we shall also reign with him i. e. with Christ LONDON Printed for Thomas Northcott in George-Yard in Lombard-Street MDCXCIV THE TESTIMONY OF Margaret Fox Concerning her Late Husband GEORGE FOX TOGETHER With a brief Account of some of his Travels Sufferings and Hardships endured for the Truth 's sake IT having pleased Almighty God to take away my Dear Husband out of this Evil Troublesome World who was not a Man thereof being Chosen out of it and had his Life and Being in another Region and his Testimony was against the World that the Deeds thereof were evil and therefore the World hated him So I am now to give in my Account and Testimony for my Dear Husband whom the Lord hath taken unto his blessed Kingdom and Glory And it is before me from the Lord and in my View to give a Relation and leave upon Record the Dealings of the Lord with us from the Beginning He was the Instrument in the Hand of the Lord in this present Age which he made use of to send forth into the World to preach the Everlasting Gospel which had been hid from many Ages and Generations the Lord Revealed it unto him and made him open that New and Living Way that Leads to Life Eternal when he was but a Youth and a Stripling And when he Declared it in his own Country of Leicestershire and in Darbyshire Nottinghamshire and Warwickshire and his Declaration being against the Hireling-Priests and their Practices it raised a Great Fury and Opposition amongst the Priests and People against him yet there was always some that owned him in several places but very few that stood firm to him when Persecution came on him There was he and one other put in Prison at Darby His first Imprisonment but the other declined and left him in Prison there where he continued almost a whole Year and then he was Released out of Prison And went on with his Testimony abroad Second Imprisonment and was put in Prison again at Nottingham and there he continued a while and after was Released again And then he Travelled on into Yorkshire and passed up and down that Great County and several received him as William Dewsbury Richard Farnsworth Thomas Aldam and others who all came to be faithful Ministers of the Spirit for the Lord. And he continued in that Country and Travelled thorow Holderness and the Wowlds and abundance were Convinced and several were brought to Prison at York for their Testimony to the Truth both Men and Women So that we heard of such a People that were Risen and we did very much inquire after them And after a while he Travelled up farther towards the Dales in Yorkshire as Wensdale and Sedbur and amongst the Hills Dales and Mountains he came on and Convinced many of the Eternal Truth And in the Year 1652. it pleased the Lord to draw him towards us so he came on from Sedbur and so to Westmorland as Firbank-Chappel where John Blaykling came with him and so on to Preston and to Grarig and Kendal and Vnder-barrow and Poobank and Cartmel and Staveley and so on to Swarthmore my Dwelling-House whither he brought the blessed Tideings of the Everlasting Gospel which I and many Hundreds in these parts have cause to praise the Lord for My then Husband Thomas Fell was not at home at that time but gone the Welch Circuit being one of the Judges of Assize And our House being a Place open to entertain Ministers and Religious People at one of George Fox his Friends brought him hither where he stayed all Night And the next day being a Lecture or a Fast-day he went to Ulverston-Steeple-house but came not in till People were gathered I and my Children had been a long time there before And when they were singing before the Sermon he came in and when they had done singing he stood up upon a Seat or Form and desired That he might have liberty to speak And he that was in the Pulpit said he might And the first words that he spoke were as followeth He is not a Jew that is one outward neither is that Circumcision which is outward But he is a Jew that is one inward and that is Circumcision which is of the heart And so he went on and said How that Christ was the Light of the World and ligheth every Man that cometh into the World and that by this Light they might be gathered to God c. And I stood up in my Pew and I wondered at his Doctrine for I had never heard such before And then he went on and opened the Scriptures and said The Scriptures were the Prophets words and Christ 's and the Apostle 's words and what as they spoke they enjoyed and possessed and had it from the Lord And said Then what had any to do with the Scriptures but as they came to the Spirit that gave them forth You will say Christ saith this and the Apostles say this but what canst thou say Art thou a Child of Light and hast walked in the Light and what thou speakest is it inwardly from God c. This opened me so that it cut me to the Heart and then I saw clearly we were all wrong So I sat me down in my Pew again and cried bitterly And I cried in my Spirit to the Lord We are all Thieves we are all Thieves we have taken the Scriptures in Words and know nothing of them in our selves So that served me that I cannot well tell what he spake afterwards but he went on in declaring against the false Prophets and Priests and Deceivers of the People And there was one John Sawrey a Justice of Peace and a Professor that bid the Churchwarden Take him away And he laid his hands on him several times and took them off again and let him alone and then after a while he gave over and came to our House again that night And he spoke in the Family amongst the Servants and they were all generally Convinced as William Caton Thomas Salthouse Mary Askew Anne Clayton and several other Servants And I was stricken into such a sadness I knew not what to do my Husband being from home I saw it was the Truth and I could not deny it and I did as the Apostle saith I Received the Truth in the Love of it And it was opened to me so clear that I had never a Tittle in my Heart against it but I desired the Lord that
the Year 1653. George's drawings was into Cumberland by Milholm Lampley Embleton and Brigham Pardsey and Cockermouth where at or near Embleton he had a Dispute with some Priests as Larkham and Benson but chiefly with John Wilkinson a Preacher at Embleton and Brigham who after was Convinced and owned the Truth and was a serviceable Minister both in England Ireland and Scotland And then he went to Coldbeck and several places till he came to Carlisle and went to their Steeple-house And they beat and abused him and had him before the Magistrates who Examined him The third Imprisonment and put him in Prison there in the Common-Goal among the Thieves And at the Assizes one Anthony Pearson who had been a Justice of Peace and was Convinced at Appleby when he was upon the Bench by James Naylor and Francis Howgil who were then Prisoners there and brought before him so Anthony Pearson spake to the Justices at Carlisle he being acquainted with them having married his Wife out of Cumberland and after a while they Released him And after he went into several parts in Cumberland and many were Convinced and owned the Truth and he gathered and settled Meetings there amongst them and up and down in several Parts there in the North. And in the Year 1654. he went Southward to his own Country of Leicestershire visiting Friends And then Colonel Hacker sent him to Oliver Cromwel The fourth Imprisonment and after his being kept Prisoner a while he was brought before Oliver and was Released And then he stayed a while visiting Friends in London and the Meetings therein and so passed Westward to Bristol and visited Friends there and after went into Cornwal where they put him in Prison at Launceston The fifth Imprisonment and one Edward Pyot with him where he had a bad long Imprisonment And when he was Released he passed into many parts in that County of Cornwal and settled Meetings there And then he Travelled thorow many Counties visiting Friends and settling Meetings all along and so came into the North and to Swarthmore and to Cumberland And so for Scotland he passed in the Year 1657. and there went with him Robert Widders James Lancaster John Grave and others And he Travelled thorow many places in that Nation as Douglas Heads Hambleton Glascow and to Edenborough where they took him and carried him before General Monk and the Council and Examined him and asked him his Business into that Nation who Answered He came to visit the Seed of God And after they had threatned him and charged him to depart their Nation of Scotland they let him go And then he went to Linlithgow and Sterling and Johnstons and many places visiting the People and several were Convinced And after he had stayed a pretty while and settled some Meetings he returned into Northumberland and into the Bishoprick of Durham visiting Friends and settling Meetings as he went and then returned back again to Swarthmore and stayed amongst Friends a while and so returned South again And in 1658. Judge Fell died And in 1660. he came out of the South into the North and had a Great General Meeting about Balby in Yorkshire and so came on visiting Friends in many places till he came to Swarthmore again And King Charles then being come in the Justices sent out Warrants The sixth Imprisonment and took him at Swarthmore charging him in their Warrants That he drew away the King 's Liege People to the endangering the embruing the Nation in Blood and sent him Prisoner to Lancaster-Castle And I having a Great Family and he being taken in my House I was moved of the Lord to go to the King at Whitehall and took with me a Declaration and an Information of our Principles And a long time and much ado I had to get to him But at last when I got to him I told him If he was Guilty of those things I was Guilty for he was taken in my House And I gave him the Paper of our Principles and desired that he would set him at Liberty as he had promised That none should suffer for tender Consciences and we were of tender Consciences and desired nothing but the Liberty of our Consciences And then with much ado after he had been kept Prisoner near half a Year at Lancaster we got a Habeas Corpus and Removed him to the King's Bench where he was Released And then would I gladly have come home to my great Family but was bound in my Spirit and could not have Freedom to get away for a whole Year And the King had promised me several times that we should have our Liberty And then the Monarchy-Men rose and then came the Great and General Imprisonment of Friends the Nation thorow And so could I not have Freedom nor Liberty to come home till we had got a General Proclamation for all our Friends Liberty and then I had Freedom and Peace to come home And in 1663. he came North again and to Swarthmore And then they sent out Warrants and took him again and had him to Holcrof before the Justices and tendered him the Oath of Allegiance and sent him Prisoner to Lancaster-Castle The seventh Imprisonment And about a Month after the Justices sent for me also out of my House and tendered me the Oath and sent me Prisoner to Lancaster And the next Assizes they tendered the Oath of Allegiance and Supremacy to us again both and Premunired me But they had missed the Date and other things in his Indictment and so it was quasht but they tendered him the Oath again and kept him Prisoner a Year and an half at Lancaster-Castle And then they sent him to Scarborough-Castle in Yorkshire where they kept him Prisoner close under the Soldiers much of a Year and an half so that a Friend could scarcely have spoken to him yet after that it pleased the Lord that he was Released But I continued in Prison and a Prisoner four years at that time And an Order was procured from the Council whereby I was set at Liberty And in that time I went down into Cornwall with my Son and Daughter Lower and came back by London to the Yearly Meeting and there I met with him again And then he told me The time was drawing on towards our Marriage but he might first go into Ireland The eithth Imprisonment And a little before this time was he Prisoner in his own Country at Leicester for a while and then Released And so into Ireland he went and I went into Kent and Suffex and came back to London again And afterward I went to the West towards Bristol in 1669. and there I stay'd till he came over from Ireland And then it was Eleven years after my former Husband's Decease And in Ireland he had had a great Service for the Lord and his Eternal Truth amongst Friends and many People there but escaped many Dangers and Times of being taken Prisoner they having
laid in Wait afore-hand for him in many places And then he being return'd at Bristol he declared his Intentions of Marriage and there also was our Marriage solemnized And then within ten Days after I came homewards and my Husband stayed up and down in the Countries amongst Friends visiting them And soon after I came home there came another Order from the Council to cast me into Prison again and the Sheriff of Lancashire sent his Bailiff and pulled me out of my own House and had me Prisoner to Lancaster-Castle upon the Old Premunire where I continued a whole Year And most part of all that time was I sick and weakly and also my Husband was weak and sickly at that time And then after a while he Recovered and went about to get me out of Prison and a Discharge at last was got under the Great Seal and so I was set at Liberty And then I was to go up to London again for my Husband was intending for America And he was full two years away before he came back again into England and then he arrived at Bristol and then came to London and he intended to have come to the middle of the Nation with me But when we came into some parts of Worcestershire they got there Information of him and one Justice Parker by his Warrant sent him and my Son Lower to Worcester-Gaol The ninth Imprisonment and the Justices there tendered him the Oath and Premunired him but Released my Son Lower who stayed with him most of the time he was Prisoner there And after some time he fell sick in a long lingering Sickness and many times was very ill so they writ to me from London That if I would see him alive I might go to him which accordingly I did And after I had tarried Seventeen Weeks with him at Worcester and no Discharge like to be obtained for him I went up to London and writ to the King an Account of his long Imprisonment and how he was taken in his Travel homewards and how he was weak and sick and not like to live if they kept him long there And I went with it to Whitehall my self and I met with the King and gave him the Paper And he said I must go to the Chancellour he could do nothing in it Then I writ also to the Lord Chancellour and went to his House and gave him my Paper and spoke to him That the King had left it wholly to him and if he did not take pity and Release him out of that Prison I feared he would end his days there And the Lord Chancellour Finch was a very tender Man and spoke to the Judge who gave out an Habeas Corpus presently And when we got it we sent it down to Worcester and they would not part with him at first but said he was Premunired and was not to go out on that manner And then we were forced to go to Judge North and to the Attorney General and we got another Order and sent down from them and with much ado and great Labour and Industry of William Mead and other Friends we got him up to London where he Appeared in Westminster-Hall at the King 's Bench before Judge Hales who was a very honest tender Man and he knew they had Imprisoned him but in Envy So that which they had against him was Read and our Counsel pleaded That he was taken up in his Travel and Journey And there was but a little said till he was quitted And this was the Last Prison that he was in being freed by the Court of King's Bench. And when he was at Liberty he Recovered again And then I was very desirous to go home with him which we did And this was the first time that he came to Swarthmore after we were Married and so he stayed here much of two years And then went to London again to the Yearly Meeting and after a while went into Holland and some parts of Germany where he stayed a pretty while and then Returned to London again at the next Yearly Meeting And after he had stayed a while in and about London he came into the North to Swarthmore again and stayed that time nigh two years And then he grew weakly being troubled with Pains and Aches having had many sore and long Travels Beatings and hard Imprisonments But after some time he rid to York and so passed on thorow Nottinghamshire and several Counties visiting Friends till he came to London to the Yearly-Meeting and stayed there and there-aways till he finished his Course and laid down his Head in Peace And though the Lord had provided an outward Habitation for him yet he was not willing to stay at it because it was so remote and far from London where his Service most lay And my Concern for God and his holy Eternal Truth was then in the North where God had placed and set me and likewise for the Ordering and Governing of my Children and Family so that we were very willing both of us to live a-part some years upon God's Account and his Truth 's Service and to deny our selves of that Comfort which we might have had in being together for the sake and Service of the Lord and his Truth And if any took Occasion or Judged hard of us because of that the Lord will Judge them for we were Innocent And for my own part I was willing to make many long Journies for taking away all Occasion of evil Thoughts And though I lived Two hundred Miles from London yet have I been Nine times there upon the Lord and his Truth 's Account and of all the times that I was at London this last time was most Comfortable that the Lord was pleased to give me Strength and Ability to travel that great Journey being Seventy six years of Age to see my Dear Husband who was better in his Health and Strength than many times I had seen him before I look upon that that the Lord 's special Hand was in it that I should go then for he lived but about half a Year after I left him Which makes me admire the Wisdom and Goodness of God in Ordering my Journey at that time And now he hath finished his Course and his Testimony and is entered into his Eternal Rest and Felicity I trust in the same powerful God that his holy Arm and Power will carry me thorow whatever he hath yet for me to do and that he will be my Strength and Support and the Bearer up of my Head unto the End and in the End For I know his Faithfulness and Goodness and I have Experience of his Love To whom be Glory and Powerful Dominion for ever Amen M. F. The Testimony of some of the AUTHOR'S Relations NEither Days nor Length of Time with us can wear out the Memory of our Dear and Honoured Father George Fox whom the Lord hath taken to himself And though his Earthly House of this Tabernacle be dissolved
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
that of Angels as the Scriptures of the Old Testament do in many places express as to Abraham Jacob c. The next was that of the Law by Moses which was also delivered by Angels as the Apostle tells us This Dispensation was much outward and suited to a low and servil State called therefore that of a School-Master to point out and prepare that People to look and long for the Messiah who would deliver them from the servitude of a Ceremonious and imperfect Dispensation by knowing the Realities of those Misterious Representations in themselves In this time the Law was written on Stone the Temple built with Hands attended with an outward Priest-hood and External Rites and Ceremonies that were Shadows of the Good Things that were to come and were only to serve till the Seed came or the more excellent and general manifestation of Christ to whom was the Promise and to all Men only in him in whom it was Yea and Amen even Life from Death Immortality and Eternal Life This the Prophets foresaw and comforted the believing Jews in the certainty of it which was the Top of the Mosaical Dispensation and which ended in John's Ministry the Forerunner of the Messiah as John's was finished in him the Fullness of all And God that at sundry Times and in divers manners had spoken to the Fathers by his Servants the Prophets Spoak then by his Son Chrâ—st Jesus Who is Heir of all things being the Gospel-Day which is the Dispensation of Sonship Bringing in thereby a nearer Testament and a better hope even the beginning of the Glory of the latter days and of the Restitution of all things yea the Restoration of the Kingdom unto Israel Now the Spirit that was more sparingly communicated in former Dispensations began to be Poured forth upon all Flesh according to the Prophet Joel and the Light that shined in Darkness or but dimly before the most gracious God caused to Shine out of Darkness and the Day-star began to arise in the Hearts of Believers giving unto them the knowledge of God in the Face or Appearance of his Son Christ Jesus Now the Poor in Spirit the Meek the true Mourners the Hungry and Thirsty after Righteousness the Peace-makers the Pure in Heart the Merciful and the Persecuted came more especially in Remembrance before the Lord and were sought out and blessed by Israel's true Shepherd Old Jerusalem with her Children grew out of Date and the New Jerusalem into Request the Mother of the Sons of the Gospel-Day Wherefore no more at Old Jerusalem nor at the Mountain of Samaria will God be worshipped above other places for behold he is declared and preached a Spirit and he will be known as such and worshipped in the Spirit and in the Truth He will come nearer then of old time and he will write his Law in the Heart and put his Fear and Spirit in the inward parts according to his promise Then Signs Types and Shadows flew away the Day having discovered their Insufficiency in not reaching to the inside of the Cup to the cleansing of the Conscience and all Elementary services were expired in and and by him that is the substance of all And to this Great and Blessed End of the Dispensation of the Son of God did the Apostles Testifie whom he had chosen and anointed by his Spirit to turn the Jews from their Prejudice and Superstition and the Gentiles from their Vanity and Idolatry to Christ's Light and Spirit that shined in them that they might be quickned from the Sins and Trespasses in which they were Dead to serve the Living God in the Newness of the Spirit of Life and walk as Children of the Light and of the Day even the Day of Holiness For such put on Christ the Light of the World and make no more Provision for the Flesh to fulfil the Lusts thereof So that the Light Spirit and Grace that comes by Christ and appears in Man was what the Apostles ministred from and turned Peoples Minds unto and in which they gathered and built up the Churches of Christ in their Day For which cause they advised them not to quench the Spirit but wait for the Spirit and Speak by the Spirit and Pray by the Spirit and Walk in the Spirit too as that which approved them the truly begotten Children of God born not of Flesh and Blood or of the will of Man but of the will of God by doing his will and denying their own by drinking of Christ's Cup and being Baptized with his Baptism of Self-denial The Way and Path that all the Heirs of Life have trod to Blessedness But alas even in the Apostles Days those bright Stars of the first Magnitude of the Gospel Light some Clouds foretelling an Eclipse of this Primitive Glory began to appear and several of them gave early Caution of it to the Christians of their Time that even then there was and yet would be more and more a falling away from the Power of Godliness and the Purity of that Spiritual Dispensation by such as sought to make a fair shew in the Flesh but with whom the offence of the Cross ceased Yet with this comfortable Conclusion that they saw beyond it a more glorious Time than ever to the true Church Their sight was true and what they foretold to the Churches gathered by them in the Name and Power of Jesus came so to pass For Christians degenerated a-pace into outsides as Days and Meats and divers other Cerimonies And which was worse they fell into Strife and Contention about them separating one from another then Envying and as they had Power Persecuting one another to the shame and scandal of their common Christianity and grievous stumbling and offence of the Heathen among whom the Lord had so long and so marvellously preserved them And having got at last the Worldly Power into their Hands by Kings and Emperors embracing the Christian Profession they changed what they could the Kingdom of Christ which is not of this World into a Worldly Kingdom or at least stiled the Worldly Kingdom that was in their Hands the Kingdom of Christ and so they became Worldly and not true Christians Then Humane Inventions and Novelties both in Doctrine and Worship crowded fast into the Church a Door being opened thereunto by the Grossness and Carnality that appeared then among the generality of Christians who had long since left the Guidance of God's meek and heavenly Spirit and given themselves up to Superstition Will-worship and Voluntary Humility And as Superstition is Blind so it is Heady and Furious for all must stoop to its blind and boundless Zeal or Perish by it In the Name of the Spirit persecuting the very appearance of the Spirit of God in others and opposing that in them which they resisted in themselves viz. the Light Grace and Spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ but always under the Notion of Innovation Heresie Schism or some such plausible Name Though Christianity
Practice they have been taught to dislike by their extream Sufferings as well as their known Principle for an universal Liberty of Conscience On the other hand they equally dislike an Independency in Society An unaccountableness in Practice and Conversation to the Terms of their own Communion and to those that are the Members of it They distinguish between Imposing any Practice that immediately regards Faith or Worship which is never to be done nor suffered or submitted unto and requiring Christian Compliance with those Methods that only respect Church Business in its more Civil part and Concern and that regard the Discreet and Orderly Maintenance of the Character of the Society as a Sober and Religious Community In short what is for the Promotion of Holiness and Charity that Men may Practice what they profess live up to their own Principles and not be at Liberty to give the Lie to their own Profession without Rebuke They compell none to them but oblige those that are of them to walk Suitably or they are denyed by them That is all the Mark they set upon them and the Power they Exercise or Judge a Christian Society can Exercise upon those that are the Members of it The way of their Proceedings against such as have Lapst or Transgrest is this He is visited by some of them and the matter of Fact laid Home to him be it any evil Practice against known and general Virtue or any Branch of their Particular Testimony which he in Common professeth with them They labour with him in much Love and Zeal for the good of his Soul the Honour of God and Reputation of their Profession to own his Fault and condemn it in as ample a Manner as the Evil or Scandal was given by him which for the most part is performed by some Written Testimony under the Partys Hand and if it so happen that the Party prove Refractory and is not willing to clear the Truth they profess from the Reproach of his or her evil doing or Unfaithfulness they after repeated Entreaties and due waiting for a Token of Repentance give forth a Paper to disown such a Fact and the Party offending recording the same as a Testimony of their care for the Honour of the Truth they profess And if he or she shall clear their Profession and themselves by sincere Acknowledgment of their Fault and Godly sorrow for so doing they are received and looked upon again as Members of their Communion For as God so his true People upbraid no Man after Repentance This is the account I had to give of the People of God called Quakers as to their Rise Appearance Principles and Practices in this Age of the World both with Respect to their Faith and Worship Discipline and Conversation And I Judge it very proper in this place because it is to Preface the Journal of the first Blessed and Glorious Instrument of this Work and for a Testimony to him in his singular Qualifications and Services in which he abundantly excelled in this day and are worthy to be set forth as an Example to all succeeding Times to the Glory of the Most High God and for a just Memorial to that Worthy and Excellent Man his Faithful Servant and Apostle to this Generation of the World I am now come to the Third Head or Branch of my Preface viz. The Instrumental Author For it is Natural for some to say Well here is the People and Work but where and who was the Man the Instrument he that in this Age was sent to begin this Work and People I shall as God shall enable me declare who and what he was not only by report of others but from my own long and most inward Converse and intimate knowledge of him for which my Soul blesseth God as it hath often done and I doubt not but by that time I have discharged my self of this part of my Preface my serious Readers will believe I had good Cause so to do The Blessed Instrument of and in this day of God and of whom I am now about to Write was George Fox distinguished from another of that Name by that Other 's addition of Younger to his Name in all his Writings not that he was so in Years but that he was so in the Truth but he was also a Worthy Man Witness and Servant of God in his time But this George Fox was Born in Leicestershire about the Year 1624. He descended of Honest and Sufficient Parents who endeavoured to bring him up as they did the rest of their Children in the Way and Worship of the Nation especially his Mother who was a Woman accomplisht above most of her Degree in the place where she lived But from a Child he appeared of another Frame of Mind than the rest of his Brethren being more Religious Inward Still Solid and Observing beyond his Years as the Answers he would give and the Questions he would put upon occasion manifested to the Astonishment of those that heard him especially in Divine Things His Mother taking Notice of his Singular Temper and the Gravity Wisdom and Piety that very early shined through him refusing Childish and Vain Sports and Company when very Young she was Tender and Indulgent over him so that from her he met with little Difficulty As to his Employment he was brought up in Country Business and as he took most delight in Sheep so he was very skillful in them an Employment that very well suited his mind in several Respects both for its Innocency and Solitude and was a just Figure of his after Ministry and Service I shall not break in upon his own Account which is by much the best that can be given and therefore desire what I can to avoid saying any thing of what is said already as to the perticular Passages of his coming forth but in general when he was somewhat above Twenty he left his Friends and visited the most Retired and Religious People in those Parts and some there were short of few if any in this Nation who waited for the Consolation of Israel Night and Day as Zacherias Anna and good Old Simeon did of Old Time To these he was sent and these he sought out in the Neighbouring Countrys and among them he Sojourned till his more ample Ministry came upon him At this time he taught and was an Example of Silence endeavouring to bring them from Self-performances Testifying and turning to the Light of Christ within them and encouraging them to wait in Patience to feel the Power of it to stir in their Hearts that their Knowledge and Worship of God might stand in the Power of an Endless Life which was to be found in the Light as it was obeyed in the Manifestation of it in Man For in the Word was Life and that Life is the Light Men. Life in the Word Light in Men and Life in Men as the Light is obeyed the Children of the Light living by the Life of the Word by
which the word begets them again to God which is the Regeneration and New Birth without which there is no coming unto the Kingdom of God and which whoever comes to is greater than John that is than John's Dispensation which was not that of the Kingdom but the Consummation of the Legal and Forerunning of the Gospel Times Accordingly several Meetings were gathered in those Parts and thus his Time was employed for some Years In 1652. He being in his usual Retirement to the Lord upon a very High Mountain in some of the hither parts of Yorkshire as I take it his Mind exercised towards the Lord he had a Vision of the great Work of God in the Earth and of the way that he was to go forth to begin it He saw People as thick as Motes in the Sun that should in time be brought Home to the Lord that there might be but one Shepherd and one Sheepfold in all the Earth There his Eye was directed Northward beholding a great People that should receive him and his Message in those Parts Upon this Mountain he was moved of the Lord to sound out his Great and notable Day as if he had been in a great Auditory and from thence went North as the Lord had shown him and in every place where he came if not before he came to it he had his particular Exercise and Service shown to him so that the Lord was his Leader indeed for it was not in vain that he Travailled God in most places sealing his Commission with the Convincement of some of all sorts as well Publicans as sober Professors of Religion Some of the first and most Eminent of them which are at Rest were Richard Farnsworth James Nayler William Dewsberry Francis Howgil Edward Burroughs John Camm John Audland Richard Hubberthorn T. Taylor John Aldam T. Holmes Alexander Parker William Simpson William Caton John Stubbs Robert Widders John Burnyeat Robert Lodge Thomas Salthouse and many more Worthies that cannot be well here Named together with divers yet living of the first and great Convincement who after the knowledge of God's purging Judgments in themselves and some time of waiting in silence upon him to feel and receive Power from on High to speak in his Name which none else rightly can though they may use the same Words They felt the Divine Motions and were frequently drawn forth especially to visit the Publick Assemblies to reprove inform and exhort them sometimes in Markets Fairs Streets and by the High-way-side calling People to Repentance and to turn to the Lord with their Hearts as well as their Mouths directing them to the Light of Christ within them to see and examine and consider their ways by and to eschew the Evil and do the Good and Acceptable Will of God And they suffered great Hardships for this their Love and Good-will being often Stockt Stoned Beaten Whipt and Imprisoned though Honest Men and of Good Report where they lived that had left Wives and Children and Houses and Lands to visit them with a living Call to Repentance And though the Priests generally set themselves to oppose them and write against them and insinuated most False and Scandalous Stories to Defame them stirring up the Magistrates to suppress them especially in those Northern Parts yet God was pleased so to fill them with his living Power and give them such an open Door of utterance in his Service that there was a mighty Convincement over those Parts And through the tender and singular Indulgence of Judge Bradshaw and Judge Fell who were wont to go that Circuit in the Infancy of things the Priests were never able to gain the point they laboured for which was to have proceeded to Blood and if possible Herod like by a Cruel exercise of the Civil Power to have cut them off and rooted them out of the Country Especially Judge Fell who was not only a Check to their Rage in the Course of Legal Proceedings but otherwise upon occasion and finally countenanced this People for his Wife receiving the Truth with the First it had that Influence upon his Spirit being a Just and Wise Man and seeing in his own Wife and Family a full Confutation to all the popular Clamours against the Way of Truth that he covered them what he could and freely opened his Doors and gave up his House to his Wife and her Friends not valuing the Reproach of Ignorant or Evil Minded People which I here mention to His and her Honour and which will be I believe an Honour and a Blessing to such of their Name and Family as shall be found in that Tenderness Humility Love and Zeal for the Truth and People of the Lord. That House was for some Years at first till the Truth had opened its way in the Southern parts of this Island an Eminent Receptacle of this People Others of good Note and Substance in those Northern Countrys had also opened their Houses with their Hearts to the many Publishers that in a short time the Lord had raised to declare his Salvation to the People and where Meetings of the Lord's Messengers were frequently held to communicate their Services and Exercises and Comfort and Edify one another in their Blessed Ministry But least this may be thought a Digression having touched upon this before I return to this Excellent Man And for his Personal Qualities both Natural Moral and Divine as they appeared in his Converse with Brethren and in the Church of God take as follows I. He was a Man that God endued with a Clear and Wonderful Depth a discerner of others Spirits and very much a Master of his own And though the side of his Vnderstanding which lay next to the World and especially the Expression of it might sound Vncouth and Vnfashionable to Nice Ears his matter was nevertheless very profound and would not only bear to be often considered but the more it was so the more Weighty and Instructing it appeared And as abruptly and brokenly as sometimes his Sentences would fall from him about Divine Things it is well known they were often as Texts to many fairer Declarations And indeed it showed beyond all Contradiction that God sent him that no Arts or Parts had any share in his matter or manner of his Ministry and that so many Great Excellent and Necessary Truths as he came forth to Preach to Mankind had therefore nothing of Man's Wit or Wisdom to recommend them So that as to Man he was an Original being no Man's Copy And his Ministry and Writings show they are from one that was not Taught of Man nor had Learned what he said by Study Nor were they Notional or Speculative but sensible and Practical Truths tending to Conversion and Regeneration and the setting up the Kingdom of God in the Hearts of Men and the way of it was his Work So that I have many times been overcome in my self and been made to say with my Lord and Master upon the like Occasion I thank
thee O Father Lord of Heaven and Earth that thou hast hid these things from the Wise and Prudent of this World and revealed them to Babes For many times hath my Soul bowed in an Humble Thankfulness to the Lord that he did not choose any of the Wise and Learned of this World to be the first Messenger in our Age of his blessed Truth to Men but that he took one that was not of High Degree or Elegant Speech or learned after the way of this World that his Message and Work he sent him to do might come with less Suspicion or Jealousie of Humane Wisdom and Interest and with more Force and Clearness upon the Consciences of those that sincerely Sought the way of Truth in the Love of it I say beholding with the Eye of my mind which the God of Heaven had opened in me the Marks of God's Finger and Hand visibly in this Testimony from the Clearness of the Principle the Power and Efficacy of it in the Exemplary Sobriety Plainness Zeal Steadiness Humility Gravity Punctuality Charity and Circumspect care in the Government of Church Affairs which shined in his and their Life and Testimony that God employed in this Work it greatly confirmed me that it was of God and engaged my Soul in a Deep Love Fear Reverence and Thankfulness for his Love and Mercy therein to Mankind in which Mind I remain and shall I hope to the end of my Daies II. In his Testimony or Ministry he much laboured to open Truth to the Peoples Vnderstandings and to bottom them upon the Principle and Principal Christ Jesus the Light of the World that by bringing them to something that was of God in themselves they might the better know and judge of him and themselves He had an Extraordinary Gift in opening the Scriptures He would go to the Marrow of things and show the Mind Harmony and Fullfilling of them with much Plainness and to great Comfort and Edification The Mistery of the first and second Adam of the Fall and Restoration of the Law and Gospel of Shadows and Substance of the Servant and Sons State and the fullfiling of the Scriptures in Christ and by Christ the True Light in all that are his through the Obedience of Faith were much of the Substance and Drift of his Testimonies In all which he was witnessed to be of God being sensibly felt to speak that which he had received of Christ and was his own Experience in that which never Ers nor Fails But above all he excelled in Prayer The Inwardness and Weight of his Spirit the Reverence and Solemnity of his Address and Behaviour and the Fewness and Fulness of his Words have often struck even Strangers with Admiration as they used to reach others with Consolation The most Awfull Living Reverent Frame I ever Felt or Beheld I must say was his in Prayer And truly it was a Testimony he knew and lived neerer to the Lord than other Men for they that know him most will see most reason to approach him with Reverence and Fear He was of an Innocent Life no Busie Body nor Self Seeker neither Touchy nor Critical What fell from him was very Inoffensive if not very Edifying So Meek Contented Modest Easie Steady Tender it was a pleasure to be in his Company He exercised no Authority but over Evil and that every where and in all but with Love Compassion and Long Suffering A most Merciful Man as ready to Forgive as unapt to take or give an Offence Thousands can truly say he was of an Excellent Spirit and Savour among them and because thereof the most Excellent Spirits loved him with an unfained and unfading Love He was an Incessant Labourer for in his Younger time before his many great and deep Sufferings and Travels had enfeebled his Body for Itinerant Services he laboured much in the Word and Doctrine and Discipline in England Scotland and Ireland turning many to God and confirming those that were convinced of the Truth and setling Good Order as to Church Affairs among them And towards the Conclusion of his Travelling Services between the Years Seventy One and Seventy Seven he Visited the Churches of Christ in the Plantations in America and in the Vnited Provinces and Germany as his following Journal Relates to the Convincement and Consolation of many After that time he chiefly resided in and about the City of London and besides the Services of his Ministry which were Frequent and Serviceable he writ much both to them that are within and those that are without the Communion But the care he took of the Affairs of the Church in General was very great He was often where the Records of the Affairs of the Church are kept and the Letters from the many Meetings of God's People over all the World where settled come upon Occasions which Letters he had read to him and Communicated them to the Meeting that is Weekly held there for such Services he would be sure to stir them up to discharge them especially in Suffering Cases Showing great Sympathy and Compassion upon all such Occasions carefully looking into the Respective Cases and endeavouring Speedy Relief according to the Nature of them So that the Churches and any of the Suffering Members thereof were sure not to be forgotten or delayed in their Desires if he were there As he was Vnwearied so he was Vndaunted in his Services for God and his People he was no more to be moved to Fear than to Wrath. His Behaviour at Darby Litchfield Appleby before Oliver Cromwell at Launston Scarborough Worcester and Westminster-Hall with many other Places and Exercises did abundantly evidence it to his Enemies as well as his Friends But as in the Primitive Times some rise up against the blessed Apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ even from among those that they had turned to the Hope of the Gospel and who became their greatest Trouble so this Man of God had his share of Suffering from some that were convinced by him who through prejudice or mistake run against him as one that sought Dominion over Conscience because he prest by his Presence or Epistles a ready and zealous compliance with such good and wholesome things as tended to an Orderly Conversation about the Affairs of the Church and in their walking before Men. That which contributed much to this ill Work was in some a begrudging of this Meek Man the love and esteem he had and deserved in the Hearts of the People and weakness in others that were taken with their groundless Suggestions of Imposition and blind Obedience They would have had every Man Independent that as he had the Principle in himself he should only stand and fall to that and no Body else not considering that the Principle is One in all and though the Measure of Light or Grace might differ yet the Nature of it was the same and being so they struck at the Spiritual Vnity which a People guided by the same Principle are
Souls Friend William Penn. London Printed and Sold by T. Sowle at the Crooked Billet in Holly-well-lane Shoreditch and near the Meeting-House in White-hart-court in Grace-church-street 1694. A JOURNAL OR Historical Account OF THE Life Travels Sufferings And CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCES c. OF GEORGE FOX THAT all may know the Dealings of the Lord with me and the various Exercises Trials and Troubles through which he led me in order to prepare and fit me for the Work unto which he had appointed me and may thereby be drawn to admire and glorify his Infinite Wisdom and Goodness I think fit before I proceed to set forth my Publick Travels in the Service of Truth briefly to mention how it was with me in my Youth and how the Work of the Lord was begun and gradually carried on in me even from my Childhood I was born in the Month called July in the Year 1624. Drayton in Leicestershire the Place of G. F's Birth at Drayton in the Clay in Leicestershire My Father's Name was Christopher Fox He was by Profession a Weaver an honest Man and there the was a Seed of God in him The Neighbours called him Righteous Christer My Mother was an upright Woman her Maiden-name was Mary Lago of the Family of the Lago's and of the Stock of the Martyrs In my very Young Years I had a Gravity and stayedness of Mind and Spirit not usual in Children insomuch that when I have seen Old Men carry themselves lightly and wantonly towards each other I have had a Dislike thereof risen in my Heart and have said within my self If ever I come to be a Man surely I should not do so nor be so wanton When I came to Eleven Years of Age I knew Pureness and Righteousness For while I was a Child I was taught how to walk to be kept pure The Lord taught me to be faithful in all Things and to act faithfully two ways viz. Inwardly to God and Outwardly to Man and to keep to Yea and Nay in all Things For the Lord shewed me that though the People of the World have Mouths full of Deceit and changeable Words yet I was to keep to Yea and Nay in all Things and that my Words should be few and savory seasoned with Grace And that I might not Eat and Drink to make my self Wanton but for Health using the Creatures in their Service as Servants in their Places to the Glory of him that harh created them they being in their Covenant and I being brought up into the Covenant as sanctified by the Word which was in the Beginning by which all things are upheld wherein is Vnity with the Creation But People being Strangers to the Covenant of Life with God they Eat and Drink to make themselves wanton with the Creatures devouring them upon their own Lusts and living in all Filthiness loving foul ways and devouring the Creation and all this in the World in the Pollutions thereof without God And therefore I was to shun all such Afterwards as I grew up my Relations thought to have made me a Priest but others perswaded to the Contrary Whereupon I was put to a Man that was a Shoo-maker by Trade and that dealt in Wooll and used Grazing and sold Cattel and a great deal went through my Hands While I was with him he was blest But after I left him he broke and came to nothing I never wronged Man or Woman in all that Time For the Lord's Power was with me and over me to preserve me While I was in that Service I used in my Dealings the Word Verily and it was a common Saying among People that knew me If George says verily there is no altering him When Boys and rude People would laugh at me I let them alone and went my Way But People had generally a Love to me for my Innocency and Honesty When I came towards Nineteen Years of Age I being upon Business at a Fair one of my Cousins whose Name was Bradford being a Professor and having another Professor with him came to me and asked me to drink part of a Jug of Beer with them and I being Thirsty went in with them For I loved any that had a Sense of Good or that did seek after the Lord. And when we had drunk a Glass a piece they began to drink Healths and called for more Drink agreeing together That he that would not drink should pay all I was grieved that any that made Profession of Religion should offer to do so They grieved me very much having never had such a thing put to me before by any sort of People Wherefore I rose up to be gone and putting my Hand into my Pocket I took out a Groat and laid it down upon the Table before them and said If it be so I 'll leave you So I went away And when I had done what Business I had to do I returned home But did not go to Bed that Night nor could not Sleep but sometimes walked up and down and sometimes prayed and cryed to the Lord who said unto me Thou seest ☜ how Young People go together into Vanity and Old People into the Earth and thou must forsake all both Young and Old and keep out of all and be as a Stranger unto all Then at the Command of God on the Ninth Day of the Seventh Month 1643. I left my Relations Lutterworth Northampton Newport-pagnel in Bucks Barnet and brake off all Familiarity or Fellowship with Young or Old And I passed to Lutterworth where I stay'd some Time And from thence I went to Northampton where also I made some stay Then passed from thence to Newport-Pagnel in Buckinghamshire where after I had stay'd a while I went unto Barnet and came thither in the Fourth Month called June in the Year 1644. And as I thus travelled through the Countries Professors took notice of me and sought to be acquainted with me but I was afraid of them For I was sensible they did not Possess what they Profess'd Now during the time that I was at Barnet a strong Temptation to Despair came upon me and then I saw how Christ was Tempted and mighty Troubles I was in And sometimes I kept my self retired in my Chamber and often walked solitary in the Chace there to Wait upon the Lord. And I wondered why these Things should come to me and I looked upon my self and said Was I ever so before Then I thought because I had forsaken my Relations I had done amiss against them So I was brought to call to Mind all my Time that I had spent and to consider whether I had wrong'd any But Temptations grew more and more and I was tempted almost to Despair And when Satan could not effect his Design upon me that way then he laid Snares for me and Baits to draw me to commit some Sin whereby he might take advantage to bring me to Despair I was about Twenty Years of Age when these Exercises came upon me
and nourished thy Heart as in a Day of Slaughter thou hast killed the Just O look where thou art and how thou hast spent thy Time O remember thy self and now while thou hast Time prize it and do not slight the free Mercy of God and despise the long-suffering of God which is great Salvation But mind that in thee which doth Convince thee and would not let thee Swear nor Lie nor take God's Name in vain Thou knowest thou shouldest do none of these Things Thou hast learned that which will Condemn thee Therefore obey the Light which doth Convince thee and forsake thy Sins and look at the Mercies of God and prize his Love in sparing thee till now The Lord saith Look unto me all ye Ends of the Earth and be ye saved and Cease from Man whose Breath is in his Nostrils And Friend prize thy Time and see whom thou servest For his Servant thou art whom thou dost obey whether of Sin unto Death or Obedience unto Righteousness If thou servest God and fearest him thou wilt not blaspheme his Name nor Curse nor Swear nor take his Name in vain nor follow Pleasures and Wantonness Whoredom and Drunkenness or Wrath or Malice or Revenge or Rashness or Headiness Pride or Gluttony Greediness Oppression or Covetousness or foolish Jesting or vain Songs God doth forbid these things and all Unrighteousness If thou professest God and actest any of these Things thou takest him for a Cloak and servest the Devil Consider with thy self and do not love that which God doth hate He that loveth God keepeth his Commandments The Devil will tell thee It is an hard thing to keep God's Commandments but it is an easie thing to keep the Devil's Commandments and to live in all Unrighteousness and Ungodliness turning the Grace of God into Wantonness But let the Unrighteous Man forsake his Ways and turn unto me saith the Lord and I will have Mercy Turn ye why will ye die saith the Lord. Howl ye Great Ones for the Plagues are pouring out upon you Howl ye Oppressors for Recompence and Vengeance is coming upon you Wo unto them that Covetously Join one House to another and bring one Field so nigh unto another that the Poor can get no more Ground and that ye may dwell upon the Earth alone These things are in the Ears of the Lord of Hosts Wo unto him that Covetously getteth evil-gotten Goods into his House that he may set his Nest on high to escape from the Power of Evil. While I was yet in the House of Correction there came unto me a Trooper and said As he was sitting in the Steeple-house hearing the Priest exceeding great Trouble came upon him and the Voice of the Lord came to him saying Dost thou not know ☜ that my Servant is in Prison Go to him for direction So I spake to his Condition and his Understanding was opened And I told him That which shewed him his Sins and troubled him for them would shew him his Salvation For he that shews a Man his Sin is the same that takes it away Now while I was speaking to him the Lord's Power opened him so that he began to have a good Understanding in the Lord's Truth and to be sensible of God's Mercies and began to speak boldly in his Quarters amongst the Souldiers and to others concerning Truth for the Scriptures were very much opened to him insomuch that he said His Colonel was as Blind as Nebuchadnezar to cast the Servant of the Lord into Prison Upon this his Colonel had a Spight at him and at Worcester-Fight the Year after when the Two Armies lying near one another Two came out from the King's Army and challenged any Two of the Parliament-Army to fight with them his Colonel made Choice of him and another to Answer the Challenge And when in the Encounter his Companion was slain he drave both his Enemies within Musquet-shot of the Town without firing a Pistol at them This when he returned he told me with his own Mouth But when the Fight was over he saw the Deceit and Hypocrisy of the Officers And being sensible how wonderfully the Lord had preserved him and seeing also to the End of Fighting he laid down his Arms. Now the Time of my Commitment to the House of Correction being very neat out and there being many new Souldiers Raised the Commissioners would have made me Captain over them And the Soldiers cried They would have none but me So the Keeper of the House of Correction was Commanded to bring me up before the Commissioners and Souldiers in the Market-place and there they proffered me that Preferment as they called it asking me If I would not take up Arms for the Common-wealth against Charles Steward I told them I knew from whence all Wars did arise even from the Lust according to James his Doctrine and that I lived in the Vertue of that Life and Power that took away the Occasion of all Wars But they courted me to accept of their Offer and thought I did but Complement with them But I told them I was come into the Covenant of Peace which was before Wars and Strifes were They said They offered it in Love and Kindness to me because of my Vertue and such like flattering Words they used But I told them If that was their Love and Kindness I trampled it under my Feet Then their Rage got up and they said Take him away Jailer and put him into the Dungeon amongst the Rogues and Fellons Darby-Dungeon So I was had away and put into a lousy stinking Place without any Bed amongst thirty Fellons where I was kept almost half a Year unless it were at Times For they would sometime let me walk in the Garden having a Belief of me that I would not go away Now when they had gotten me into Darby-Dungeon it was the Belief and saying of People that I should never come out But I had Faith in God and believed I should be delivered in his Time For the Lord had said to me before That I was not to be removed from that Place yet being set there for a Service which he had for me to do After it was bruited abroad That I was in Darby-Dungeon my Relations came to see me again and they were much troubled that I should be in Prison For they looked upon it to be a great shame to them for me to lie in Jail It was a strange thing then to be Imprisoned for Religion And some thought I was Mad because I stood for Purity and Righteousness and Perfection Among others that came to see me and discourse with me there came a certain Person from Nottingham a Souldier and that had been a Baptist as I understood and with him came several others And in Discourse this Person said to me Your Faith stands in a Man that died at Jerusalem and there was never any such thing I was exceedingly grieved to hear him say so and I said to
and not living in that which they spake of they were now become DRY They had some kind of Meetings still but they took Tobacco and drank Ale in their Meetings and were grown light and loose But my Message unto them from the Lord was 1651. Cleaveland That they should all come together again and Wait to feel the Lord's Power and Spirit in themselves to gather them to Christ that they might be taught of him who says Learn of me For when they had declared that which the Lord had opened to them then the People were to receive it and both the Speakers and Hearers were to live in that themselves But when these had no more to declare but went to seek Forms without Life that made themselves dry and barren and the People also and from thence came all their Loss for the Lord renews his Mercies and his Strength to them that Wait upon him The Heads of these People came to nothing but most of the People came to be Convinced and received God's everlasting Truth and continue a Meeting to this day sitting under the Teaching of the Lord Jesus Christ their Saviour Upon the First day of the next Week the Word of the Lord came to me to go to the Steeple-house there which I did And when the Priest had done I spake the Truth to him and the People and directed them to their Teacher within Christ Jesus their free Teacher that had bought them The Priest came to me and I had a little Discourse with him but he was soon stopt and silent Then being Clear of the Place I passed away having had several Meetings amongst those People Though at this time the Snow was very deep yet I kept traveling And going through the Country came to a Market-Town where I met with many Professors with whom I had much Reasoning and I asked them many Questions which they were not able to Answer but said They had never had such deep Questions put to them in all their Lives Stath From them I went to another Place called Stath where also I met with many Professors and some Ranters I had great Meetings amongst them and a great Convincement there was and many received the Truth amongst whom One was an Ancient Man of an hundred Years of Age Another was a Chief Constable and a third was a Priest whose Name was Philip Scafe Him the Lord by his free Spirit did afterwards make a free Minister of his free Gospel The Priest of this Town was a lofty Priest and did much Oppress the People for his Tithes for if they went a Fishing many Leagues off he would make them pay the Tithe-Money of what they made of their Fish though they catched them at a great distance and carried them as far as Yarmouth to sell Now I was moved to go to the Steeple-house there to declare the Truth and lay open the Priest And when I had spoken to the Priest and laid his Oppressing of the People upon him he fled away The Chief of the Parish were very light and vain So after I had spoken the Word of Life to them I turned away from them because they did not receive it and left them But the Word of the Lord which I had declared amongst them stuck with some of them so that at Night some of the Heads of the Parish came to me and most of them were Convinced and satisfied and confest to the Truth Thus the Truth began to spread up and down that Country and great Meetings we had at which the Priest began to rage 1651. Stath and the Ranters began to be stirred and they sent me word that they would have a Dispute with me both the Oppressing Priest and the Leader of the Ranters A day was set and the Ranter came with his Company and another Priest a Scotch Man came but not the Oppressing Priest of Stath Philip Scafe who had been a Priest and was Convinced was with me and a great Number of People were met When we were setled the Ranter whose Name was T. Bushel told me He had had a Vision of me that I was sitting in a great Chair and that he was to come and put off his Hat and bow down to the Ground before me and he did so and many other flattering Words he spake I told him It was his own Figure and said unto him Repent thou Beast He said it was Jealousy in me to say so Then I asked him the Ground of Jealousy and how it came to be bred in Man And the Nature of a Beast what made it And how that was bred in Man For I saw him directly in that Nature of the Beast and therefore I would have known of him how that Nature came to be bred in him I told him He should give me an Account of things done in the Body before we came to discourse of things done out of the Body So I stopt up his Mouth that he could say no more and all his Fellow Ranters were silenced for he was the Head of them Then I called for the Oppressing Priest but he came not Only the Scotch Priest came but his Mouth was soon stopt with a very few Words he being out of the Life of what he did profess Then had I a good Opportunity with the People and I laid open the Ranters ranking them with the old Ranters in Sodom And the Priests I manifested to be of the same stamp with their Fellow Hirelings the false Prophets of old and the Priests that then bore rule over the People by their Means seeking for their Gain from their Quarter Divining for Money and Teaching for filthy Lucre and so I brought all the Prophets and Christ and the Apostles over the Heads of the Priests shewing how the Prophets Christ and the Apostles had long since discovered them by their Marks and Fruits Then I directed People to their Inward Teacher Christ Jesus their Saviour and I preached up Christ in the Hearts of his People when all these Mountains were laid low The People were all quiet and the Gainsayers Mouths were stopped for though they broiled inwardly yet the Power bound them down that they could not break out After the Meeting was over this Scottish Priest desired me to walk with him a top of the Cliffs Whereupon I called a Brother-in-Law of his who was in some measure Convinced and desired him to go with me telling him I was willing to have some Body by to hear what we said lest the Priest when I was gone should report any thing of me which I did not say So we went together and as we walked the Priest asked me many things concerning the Light and concerning the Soul To all which I answered him fully When he had done questioning we parted and he went his way and as he wâ—nt meeting with the other Priest Philip Scafe that was Convinced he brake his Cain against the Ground in Madness and said If ever he met with me
again he would have my Life or I should have his adding that he would give his Head if I was not knockt down within a Month. By this Friends suspected his intent was in desiring me to walk with him alone either to have Thrust me down from off the Cliff or to have done me some other Mischief And that when he saw himself frustrated in that by my having one with me that made him rage so But I feared neither his Prophecies nor his Threats for I feared God Almighty But some Friends through their Affection to me feared much that this Priest would do me some Mischief or set on Others to do it Yet after some Years this very Scotch Priest and his Wise also came to be Convinced of the Truth and about Twelve Years after this I was at their House After this there came another Priest to a Meeting where I was one that was in Repute above all the Priests in the Country and as I was speaking in the Meeting That the Gospel was the Power of God and how it brought Life and Immortality to Light in Men and so was turning People from Darkness to the Light this high-flown Priest said The Gospel was Mortal I told him The true Minister said The Gospel was the Power of God and would he make the Power of God Mortal Upon that the other Priest Philip Scafe that was Convinced and had felt the Immortal Power of God in himself took him up and reproved him and so a great Dispute arose between them the Convinced Priest holding that the Gospel was Immortal and the other Priest holding that it was Mortal But the Lord's Power was too hard for this Opposing Priest and stopp'd his Mouth And many People were Convinced seeing the Darkness that was in the Opposing Priest and the Light that was in the Convinced Priest Then another Priest sent to have a Dispute with me and Friends went with me to the House where he was But when he understood we were come he slipt out of the House and hid himself under an Hâ—dge The People went to seek him and found him but could not get him to come to us Then I went to a Steeple-house hard by there where the Priest and People were in a great rage This Priest had threatned Friends what he would do but when I came there he would not stand but fled for the Lord's Power came over him and them Yea the Lord 's Everlasting Power was over the World and did reach to the Hearts of People and made both Priests and Professors tremble It shook the earthly and airy Spirit in which they held their Profession of Religion and Worship ☞ so that it was a dreadful thing unto them when it was told them The Man in Leathern Breeches is come At the hearing thereof the Priests in many Places would get out of the way they were so struck with the dread of the Eternal Power of God and Fear surprized the Hypocrites Whitby Scarborough Wowls Malton From this Place we passed to Whitby and Scarborough where we had some Service for the Lord and there are large Meetings settled there since From thence I passed over the Wowls to Malton where we had great Meetings as we had also at the Towns thereabouts At one of those Towns there was a Priest sent me a Challenge to dispute with me But when I came he would not come sorth So I had a good Opportunity with the People and the Lord's Power seized upon them And one who had been a Wild drunken Man was reached therewith so that he came to me as lowly as a Lamb though he and his Companions had before sent for Drink 1651. Yorkshire to make the rude People drunk on purpose that they might abuse us So when the Priest would not come forth I was moved to go to the Steeple-house there and the Priest was Confounded and the Lord's Power came over all On the First-day following there came one of the highest Independent-Professors a Woman who had let in such a Prejudice against me that she said before she came She could willingly have gone to see me hang'd But when she came she was Convinc'd and remains a Friend Then I turned to Malton again Malton and very great Meetings there were to which several People more would have come but durst not for fear of their Relations for it was thought a strange thing then to preach in Houses and not go to the Church as they call'd it so that I was much desired to go and speak in the Steeple-houses One of the Priests writ to me and invited me to preach in his Steeple-house calling me his Brother Another Priest a noted Man kept a Lecture there Now the Lord had shewed me while I was in Darby-Prison That I should speak in Steeple-houses to gather People from thence and a Concern sometimes would come upon my Mind about the Pulpits that the Priests lolled in For the Steeple-houses and Pulpits were offensiâ—e to my Mind because both Priests and People called them the Hâ—use of God and Idolized them reckoning that God dwelt there in the outward House whereas they should have looked for God and Christ to dwell in their Hearts and their Bodies to be made the Temples of God for the Apostle said God dwelleth not in Temples made with Hands But by reason of the People's Idolizing those Places it was counted an heinous thing to declare against them Now when I came into the Steeple-house there were not passing Eleven Hearers and the Priest was preaching to them But after it was known in the Town that I was in the Steeple-house it was soon filled with People When the Priest that preacht that day had â—one he sent the other Priest that had Invited me thither to bring me up into the Pulpit but I sent back Word to him that I needed not to go into the Pulpit Then he sent to me again desiring me to go up into it for he said it was a better Place and there I might be seen of the People I sent him Word again I could be seen and heard well enough where I was and that I came not there to hold up such Places nor their Maintenance and Trade Upon my saying so they began to be angry and said These False Prophets were to come in the last Times Their saying so grieved many of the People and some began to murmur at it Whereupon I stood up and desired all to be quiet and stepping upon an High Seat I declared unto them the Marks of the false Prophets and shewed That they were already come and set the true Prophets and Christ and his Apostles over them and manifested these to be out of the Steps of the true Prophets and of Christ and his Apostles And I directed the People to their Inward Teacher Christ Jesus who would turn them from the Darkness to the Light And having opened divers Scriptures to them I directed them to the Spirit
Considerable Men and the Truth was powerfully declared amongst them and the Scriptures wonderfully opened and the Parables and Sayings of Christ were expounded and the State of the Church in the Apostles Days was plainly set forth and the Apostacy since from that State discovered And the Truth had great Dominion that Day so that those Great Men that were present did generally Confess to it saying They believed that this Principle must go over the whole World There were at this Meeting James Naylor Thomas Goodyear and William Dewsbury who had been Convinced the Year before and Richard Farnsworth also And the Constable stay'd with Thomas Aldam till the Meeting was over And then went towards York-prison but did not meddle with me Wakefield From hence I went to Wakefield and on the First Day after I went to a Steeple-house where James Naylor had been a Member of an Independent-Church but upon his receiving Truth he was Excommunicated When I came in and the Priest had done the People called upon me to come up to the Priest which I did But when I began to declare the Word of Life to them and to lay open the Deceit of the Priest they rushed upon me on a suddain and thrust me out at the other Door and fell a punching and beating me and Cried Let us have him to the Stocks But the Lord's Power was over them and restrained them that they were not suffered to put me in So I passed away to the Meeting where were a great many Professors and friendly People gathered and a great Convincement there was that Day For the People were mightily satisfied that they were directed to the Lord 's Teaching in themselves Here we got some Lodging for Four of us had lain abroad under an Hedge the Night before there being then few Friends in that Place The same Day Richard Farnsworth went to another great Steeple-house belonging to a great High-priest and declared the Word of Truth unto the People and a great Service he had amongst them For the Lord 's Dread and Power was mightily over all The Priest of that Church which James Naylor had been a Member of whose Name mas Marshal raised many Wicked Slanders upon me as That I carried Bottles about with me and made People drink of my Bottles and that made them follow me And That I rid upon a great Black Horse and was seen in one Country upon my Black Horse in one Hour and in the same Hour in another Country Threescore Miles off and That I should give a Fellow Money to follow me when I was on my Black Horse With these Hellish Lies he fed his People to make them think Evil of the Truth which I had declared amongst them But by these Lies of his he preached many of his Hearers away from him For I was then on Foot and travelled on foot and had no Horse at that Time and that the People generally knew But the Lord soon after met with this Envious Priest 1652. High-town and Cut him off in his Wickedness After this I came to a Town called High-Town where dwelt a Woman who had been Convinced a little before and we went to her House and had a Meeting and the Towns-people gathered together and we declared the Truth to them and had some Service for the Lord amongst them and they passed away again peaceably But there was a Widow-woman in the Town whose Name was Green who being filled with Envy went to one that was called a Gentleman in the Town who was reported to have killed Two Men and One Woman and Informed him against us though he was no Officer The next Morning we drew up some Queries to be sent to the Priest And when we had done and were just going away some of the Friendly People of the Town came running up to the House where we were and told us That this Murdering Man had sharpened a Pike to stab us and was coming up with his Sword by his Side We were just passing away and so missed him But we were no sooner gone but he came to the House where we had been and the People generally Concluded If we had not been gone he would have murdered some of us That Night we lay in a Wood and were very Wet for it Rained exceedingly In the Morning I was moved to come back to that Town again and then they gave us a full Relation of this wicked Man From hence we passed to Bradford and came to an House Bradford where we met with Richard Farnsworth again from whom we had parted a little before When we came in they set Meat before us but as I was going to Eat the Word of the Lord came to me saying Eat not the Bread of such as have an Evil Eye Immediately I arose from the Table and ate nothing The Woman of the House was a Baptist So after I had exhorted the Family To turn to the Lord Jesus Christ and hearken to his Teachings in their own Hearts We departed thence And as we travelled through the Country preaching Repentance to the People we came into a Market-town on the Market-day and there was a Lecture there that Day And I went into the Steeple-house where were many Priests and Professors and People The Priest that preached took for his Text those Words of Jeremiah Chap. 5. ver 31. My People love to have it so Leaving out the foregoing Words viz. The Prophets prophesy falsly and the Priests bear Rule by their Means So I shewed the People his Deceit and directed them to Christ the true Teacher within declaring unto them that God was come to Teach his People himself and to bring them off from all the World's Teachers and Hirelings that they might come to receive freely from him Then warning them of the Day of the Lord that was coming upon all Flesh I passed from thence without much Opposition At Night we came to a Country-house and there was no Ale-house near They desired us to stay there all Night which we did and had good Service for the Lord declaring his Truth amongst them 1652. Yorkshire The next Day we passed on For the Lord had said unto me If but one Man or Woman were Raised up by his Power to stand and live in the same Spirit that the Prophets and Apostles were in who gave forth the Scriptures ☞ that Man or Woman should shake all the Country in their Profession for Ten Miles round For People had the Scriptures but were not in that same Light and Power and Spirit which they were in that gave forth the Scriptures and so they neither knew God nor Christ nor the Scriptures aright nor had they Vnity one with another being out of the Power and Spirit of God Therefore as we passed along we Warned all People where-ever we met them of the Day of the Lord that was coming upon them Pendle-hill As we travelled on we came near a very great and high
Robinson spake so much in Commendation of amongst many of the Parliament Men I told him I had been with Justice Robinson and with Justice Hotham in Yorkshire who were very Civil and Loving to me and that they were Convinced in their Judgments by the Spirit of God that the Principle which I bore Testimony to was the Truth and they did see over and beyond the Priests of the Nation So that they and many others were now come to be wiser than their Teachers After we had discoursed a pretty Time together Judge Fell himself was satisfied also and came to see by the Openings of the Spirit of God in his Heart over all the Priests and Teachers of the World and did not go to hear them for some Years before he died for he knew it was the Truth that I declared and that Christ was the Teacher of his People and their Saviour And he would sometimes wish that I were a while with Judge Bradshaw to discourse with him There came to Judge Fell's that Captain Sands before-mentioned endeavouring to Incense the Judge against me for he was an evil-minded Man and full of Envy against me And yet he could speak high things and use the Scripture-words and say Behold I make all things new But I told him Then he must have a New God for his God was his Belly Besides him thither came also that envious Justice John Sawrey And I told him His Heart was rotten and he was full of Hypocrisy to the Brim Several other People also came whose States the Lord gave me a discerning of and I spake unto their Conditions And while I was in those Parts Richard Farnsworth and James Naylor came thither to see me and the Family and Judge Fell being satisfied that it was the Way of Truth notwithstanding all their Opposition let the Meeting be kept at his House And a great Meeting was settled there in the Lord's Power to the tormenting of the Priests and Professors which hath continued there near Forty Years until the Year 1690. that a New Meeting-house was erected near it Now after I had stay'd a while Underbarrow and the Meeting there was well settled I departed from thence and went to Vnderbarrow where I had a great Meeting From thence I went to Kellet Kellet and had a great Meeting at Robert Withers to which several came from Lancaster and some from York and many were Convinced there Then on the Market-day I went to Lancaster Lancaster and spake through the Market in the dreadful Power of God declaring the Day of the Lord to the People and crying out against all their deceitful Merchandize And I preached Righteousness and Truth unto them which they should all follow after and walk and live in directing them how and where they might find and receive the Spirit of God to guide them there-into After I had cleared my self in the Market I went to my Lodging whither several People came to me and many were Convinced there who have stood faithful to the Truth On the First-Day following in the Forenoon I had a great Meeting in the Street at Lancaster amongst the Souldiers and People unto whom I declared the Word of Life and the Everlasting Truth And I opened unto them That all the Traditions they had lived in and all their Worships and Religions and the Profession they made of the Scriptures was good for nothing while they lived out of the Life and Power which they were in who gave forth the Scriptures And I directed them to the Light of Christ the heavenly Man and to the Spirit of God in their own Hearts that they might come to be acquainted with God and with Christ and receive him for their Teacher and know his Kingdom set up in them In the Afternoon I went up to the Steeple-house at Lancaster and declared the Truth both to the Priest and People laying open before them the Deceits they lived in and directing them to the Power and Spirit of God which they wanted But they haled me out and stoned me along the Street till I came to John Lawson's House On another First-Day I went to another Steeple-house by the Water-side where one Whitehead was Priest to whom and to the People I declared the Truth in the dreadful Power of God And there came to me a Doctor who was so full of Envy that he said He could find in his Heart to run me through with his Rapier though he was hanged for it the next Day Yet this Man came afterwards to be Convinced of the Truth so far as to be loving to Friends And some People were Convinced there-abouts who willingly sate down under the Ministry of Christ their Teacher And a Meeting was settled there in the Power of God which has continued to this Day After this I returned into Westmorland Westmorland Kendal and spake through Kendal upon a Market-day And so dreadful was the Power of God that was upon me that People flew like Chaff before me into their Houses I warned them of the Mighty Day of the Lord and exhorted them to hearken to the Voice of God in their own Hearts who was now Come to Teach his People himself And when some Opposed many People took my part insomuch that at last some of the People fell to Fighting about me but I went to them and spake to them and they parted again And several were Convinced On the First-Day after I had a very large Meeting in Vnder-barrow at Miles Bateman's House where I was moved to declare That all People in the Fall were gone from the Image of God Righteousness and Holiness and were become as Wells without the Water of Life as Clouds without the heavenly Rain as Trees without the heavenly Fruit and were degenerated into the Nature of Beasts and of Serpents and of tall Cedars and of Oaks and of Bulls and of Heifers So that they might read the Natures of these Creatures within as the Prophet described them to the People of Old that were out of Truth I opened unto them how some were in the Nature of Dogs and Swine biting and rending some in the nature of Briars Thistles and Thorns some like the Owls and Dragons in the Night some like the wild Asses and Horses snuffing up the Wind and some like the Mountains and Rocks and crooked and rough Ways Wherefore I exhorted them to read these things within in their own Natures as well as without And that when they read without of the wandring Stars they should look within and see how they have wandred from the bright and Morning-Star And they should consider that as the Fallow Ground in their Fields must be plowed up before it would bear Seed to them so must the Fallow Ground of their Hearts be plowed up before they could bear Seed to God Now all these Names and Things I shewed them were spoken of and to Man and Woman since they fell from the Image of God but as
are too many and large to be inserted in this Place Now after I had cleared my Conscience at that Time to the Priests and People in those Parts near Swarthmore I went again into Westmorland Westmorland And a Company of Men with Pikes and Staves laid wait for me at a Bridge in the Way and they light on some Friends but missed me Afterwards they came to the Meeting with their Pikes and Staves But Justice Benson being there and many considerable People besides they were prevented from doing that Mischief they intended So they went away in a great Rage but did not hurt any Body 1652. Grayrigg I went from the Meeting to Grayrigge and had a Meeting there at Alexander Dixon's House where the Priest who was a Baptist and a Chappel-Priest came to the Meeting to oppose but the Lord Confounded him by his Power And some of the Priest's People tumbled down some Milk-Pales which stood upon the Side of the House the House being much crowded whereupon the Priest after he and his Company were gone away raised a Slander That the Devil frighted him and took away a Side of the House while he was in the Meeting And though this was an apparent and known Falshood yet it served the Priests and Professors to feed on for a while And so shameless they were that they Printed it in a Book Another Time this Priest came to another Meeting and fell to Jangling First he said The Scriptures were the Word of God I told him They were the Words of God but not Christ who is the Word and bid him prove by Scripture what he said Then he said It was not the Scripture that was the Word and setting his Foot upon the Bible he said It was but Copies bound up together Many unsavory Words came from him But after he was gone we had a blessed Meeting and the Lord's Power and Presence was preciously manifested and felt among us Soon after he sent me a Challenge to meet him at Kendal I sent him Word He need not go so far as Kendal for I would meet him in his own Parish So the Hour being set we Met and abundance of rude People were gathered there together besides the baptized People who were his own Members and they had intended to have done Mischief that Day but God prevented them Now when we were Met I declared the Day of the Lord to them and directed them to Christ Jesus Then the Priest out with his Bible and said It was the VVord of God I told him it was the VVords of God but not God the VVord His Answer was He would prove the Scriptures to be the God before all the People So I let him go on having a Man there that could take down in writing both what he said and what I said And when he could not prove it for I kept him to Scripture-Proof Chapter and Verse for it the People gnashed their Teeth for Anger and said He would have me anon But in going about to prove that one Error he run into many And when at length he saw he could not prove it then he said He would prove it a God So he toiled himself afresh till he sweat again but could not Prove what he had Affirmed And he and his Company were full of wrath For I kept his Assertions on the Head of him and them all and told them I owned what the Scriptures said of themselves namely That they were the Words of God but Christ was the Word So the Lord's Power came over all and they being confounded went away and the Lord disappointed their mischievous Intentions against me and Friends were established in Christ and many of the Priests Followers saw the Folly of their Teacher After this as I came through the Country visiting Friends Priest Bennet of Cartmel sent a Challenge to dispute with me Whereupon I came to his Steeple-house on the First-Day and there found him Preaching When he had done I spake to him and his People but the Priest would not stand the Trial but went his Way After he was gone I had a great deal of Discourse with the People And when I was come forth into the Steeple-house-yard and was discoursing further with the Professors and declaring Truth unto them One of them set his foot behind me and Two of them ran against my Breast and threw me down backwards against a Grave-stone wickedly and maliciously seeking to have spoiled me But I got up again and was moved of the Lord to speak to them Then I went up to the Priest's House and desired him to come forth that I might discourse with him seeing he had Challenged me But he would not at all come out or be seen So the Lord's Power came over them all which was greatly manifested at that Time There was amongst the Priest's Hearers one Richard Roper one of the bitterest Professors the Priest had and he was very fierce and hot in his Contention but afterwards he came to be Convinced of God's Eternal Truth and became a Minister thereof and continued faithful to his Death It was now about the beginning of the Year 1653 when I returned to Swarthmore And going to a Meeting at Gleeston Swarthmore a Professor there challenged a Dispute with me Whereupon I went to the House where he was and called him to come forth but the Lord's Power was over him so that he durst not meddle Then I departed thence and went and visited the Meetings of Friends in Lancashire Lancashire and so came back to Swarthmore again Swarthmore And great Openings I had from the Lord not only of Divine and Spiritual Matters but also of Outward Things relating to the Civil Government For being one Day in Swarthmore-Hall when Judge Fell and Justice Benson were talking of the News in the News-Book and of the Parliament that then was sitting which was called the Long-Parliament I was moved to tell them That before that Day Two Weeks the Parliament should be broken up and the Speaker pluck'd out of his Chair And that Day Two Weeks Justice Benson coming thither again told Judge Fell That now he saw George was a true Prophet for Oliver had broken up the Parliament by that Time About this Time I was in a Fast for about Ten Days my Spirit being greatly exercised on Truth 's behalf for James Milner and Richard Myer went out into Imaginations and a Company followed them This James Milner and some of his Company had true Openings at the first but getting up into Pride and Exaltation of Spirit they run out from Truth I was sent for to them and was moved of the Lord to go and shew them their Goings forth And they came to see their Folly and Condemned it and came into the Way of Truth again After some Time I went to a Meeting at Arn-side Arnside where Richard Myer was Now he had been long Lame of one of his Arms And I was moved
old so that they were able to confound a Priest that might come to the Grates to dispute But the Jailer was very Cruel and the Vnder-Jailer very abusive both to me and to Friends that came to see me For he would beat Friends with a great Cudgel that did but come to the Window to look in upon me I could get up to the Grate where sometimes I took in my Meat at which the Jailer was often offended One Time he came in a great Rage and fell a beating me with his great Cudgel though I was not at the Grate at that time and as he beat me he cried Come out of the Window though I was then far enough from it Now while he struck me I was made to sing in the Lord's Power and that made him Rage the more Then he went and fetched a Fiddler and brought him in where I was and set him to play thinking to vex me thereby But while he played I was moved in the everlasting Power of the Lord God to sing and my Voice drowned the Noise of the Fiddle and struck and confounded them and made them give over Fiddling and go their ways Justice Benson's Wife was moved of the Lord to come to visit me and to Eat no Meat but what she Eat with me at the Bars of the Dungeon-Window She was afterwards herself Imprisoned at York when she was great with Child for speaking to a Priest and was kept in Prison and not suffered to go out when the time of her Travail was come so she was delivered of her Child in the Prison She was an honest tender Woman and continued faithful to the Truth until she died Whilst I was in the Dungeon at Carlisle one James Parnel a little Lad of about Sixteen Years of Age came to see me and was Convinced And the Lord quickly made him a powerful Minister of the Word of Life and many were turned to Christ by him though he lived not long For travelling into Essex in the Work of the Ministry in the Year 1655 he was Committed to Colchester-Castle where he endured very great Hardships and Sufferings being put by the Cruel Jailer into a Hole in the Castle-wall called the Oven so high from the Ground that he went up to it by a Ladder which being six Foot too short he was fain to climb from the Ladder to the Hole by a Rope that was fastned above And when Friends would have given him a Cord and a Basket to have drawn up his Victuals in the Inhuman Jailer would not suffer them but forced him to go down and up by that short Ladder and Rope to fetch his Victuals which for a long time he did or else he might have famished in the Hole At length his Limbs being much benummed with lying in that Place yet being constrained to go down to take up some Victuals as he came up the Ladder again with his Victuals in one hand and catched at the Rope with the other he missed the Rope and fell down from a very great height upon the Stones by which Fall he was exceedingly wounded in his Head and Arms and his Body much bruised and he died in a short Time after And when he was dead the wicked Professors to cover their own Cruelty writ a Book of him and said He fasted himself to Death Which was an abominable Falshood and was manifested so to be by another Book which was written in Answer to that and was called The Lamb's Defence against Lies Now when I saw that I was not like to be brought forth to a publick Hearing and Trial although I had before Answered in Writing the particular Matters charged against me at the Time of my first Examination and Commitment I was moved to send forth the following Paper as a publick Challenge to all those that did belie the Truth and me behind my Back to come forth and make good their Charge IF any in Westmorland or Cumberland or elswhere that profess Christianity and pretend to love God and Christ are not satisfied concerning the things of God which I who am called George Fox have spoken and declared let them declare and publish their Dissatisfaction in Writing and not back-bite nor lie nor persecute in secret This I demand of you all in the presence of the living God as ye will answer it to him For the Exaltation of the Truth and the Confounding of the Deceit is this given forth To that of God in your Consciences I speak declare or write your Dissatisfactions to any of them whom you call Quakers that Truth may be exalted and All may come to the Light with which Christ hath enlightned every one that cometh into the World that nothing may be hid in Darkness in Prisons Holes or Corners but that all things may be brought to the Light of Christ and by the Light of Christ may be tried This am I moved of the Lord to write and send forth to be set upon the Market-Crosses in Westmorland and elswhere To the Light of Christ in you I speak that none of you may speak evil of the things of God which you know not nor act contrary to the Light that gave forth the Scriptures lest you be found Fighters against God and the Hand of the Lord be turned against you G. F. While I thus lay in the Dungeon at Carlisle the Report that was raised at the time of the Assize That I should be put to Death was gone out far and near insomuch that the Parliament then sitting which I think was called the Little-Parliament hearing That a Young-man at Carlisle was to die for Religion caused a Letter to be sent down to the Sheriff and Magistrates concerning me And much about the same Time I writ also to the Justices at Carlisle that had cast me into Prison and that persecuted Friends at the Instigation of the Priests for Tithes expostulating the Matter with them thus Friends Thomas Craston and Cuthbert Studholm YOur Noise is gone up to London before the sober People What Imprisoning what Gagging what Havock and Spoiling the Goods of People have you made within these few Years unlike Men as though you had never read the Scriptures or had not minded them Is this the End of Carlisle's Religion is this the End of your Ministry and is this the End of your Church and of your Profession of Christianity you have shamed it by your Folly and Madness and blind Zeal Was it not always the Work of the blind Guides Watchmen Leaders and false Prophets to prepare War against them that would not put into their Mouths And have not you been the Priests Pack-horses and Executioners When they spur you up to bear the Sword against the Just do not you run on against the Creatures that cannot hold up such as the Scriptures did always testify against Yet will you lift up your unholy Hands and call upon God with your polluted Lips and pretend a Fast who are full of Strife and
could not make good by Scripture that which he had said So he was shamed and fled out of the House and his People were generally Convinced for his Spirit was discovered and he came no more amongst them And when his People were Convinced and settled in God's Truth they gave forth a Book against him and denied his Spirit and his false Discoveries Many were turned to Christ Jesus that day and came to sit under his Teaching insomuch that the Judges were in a great Rage and many of the Magistrates in Bedford-shire because there were so many turned from the Hireling-Priests to the Lord Jesus Christ's free Teaching But John Crook was kept by the Power of the Lord Yet he was turned out from being a Justice After some time I turned up through the Country to London again where Friends were finely established in the Truth and great Comings in there were And about this time several Friends went beyond the Seas to declare the everlasting Truth of God Now when I had stay'd a while in the City Kent Rochester I went into Kent And when I came to Rochester there was a Guard kept to examin Passengers Cranbrook but we passed by and were not stopped So I went to Cranbrook where there was a great Meeting and several Souldiers were at it and many were turned to the Lord that day After the Meeting some of the Souldiers were somewhat Rude but the Lord's Power came over them One Thomas Howsigoe an Independent-Preacher who lived not far from Cranbrook was Convinced and became a faithful Minister for the Lord Jesus Some Friends had traveled into Kent before as John Stubbs and William Caton and the Priests and Professors had stirred up the Magistrates at Maidstone to Whip them for declaring God's Truth unto them as may be seen at large in the Journal of William Caton's Life There was also one Captain Dunk Convinced in Kent Sussex Ry. and he went with me to Ry where we had a Meeting to which the Mayor and Officers and several Captains came and they took what I said in Writing which I was well pleased with All was quiet and the People affected with the Truth Rumney From Ry I went to Rumney where the People having had notice of my Coming some time before there was a very large Meeting Thither came Samuel Fisher who was an Eminent Preacher among the Baptists and had had a Parsonage reputed worth about Two hundred Pounds a Year which for Conscience-sake he had given up And there was also the Pastor of the Baptists and abundance of their People And the Power of the Lord was so mightily over the Meeting that many were reached by the Power of God and one greatly shaken and the Life sprang up in divers One of the Pastors of the Baptists being amazed at the Work of the Lord's Power bid one of our Friends that was so wrought upon Have a good Conscience Whereupon I was moved of the Lord to bid him Take heed of Hypocrisy and Deceit and he was silent A great Convincement there was that day and many were turned from the Darkness to the divine Light of Christ and came to see their Teachers Errors and to sit under the Lord Jesus Christ's Teaching and to know him their Way and the Covenant of Light which God had given to be their Salvation And they were brought to the One Baptism and to the One Baptizer Christ Jesus When the Meeting was done Samuel Fisher's Wife said Now we may discern this day betwixt Flesh and Spirit and distinguish Spiritual Teaching from Fleshly The People were generally well satisfied with what had been declared but the Two Baptist-Teachers and their Company when they were gone from the Meeting fell to Reasoning amongst the People Samuel Fisher with divers others reasoned for the Word of Life which had been declared that day and the other Pastor and his Party reasoned against it So it divided them asunder and cut them in the midst A Friend came and told me that the Baptists were disputing one with another 1655. Rumney and desired me to go up to them but I said Let them alone the Lord will divide them and they that Reason for Truth will be too hard for the other And so it was This Samuel Fisher received the Truth in the Love of it and became a faithful Minister of it and preached Christ freely and laboured much in the Work and Service of the Lord being moved of the Lord to go and declare the word of Life at Dunkirk and in Holland and in divers parts of Italy as Leghorn and Rome it self And yet the Lord preserved him and his Companion John Stubbs out of their Inquisitions From Rumney I passed to Dover and had a Meeting there Dover where several were Convinced And near unto Dover there was a Governour and his Wife Convinced who had been Baptists and the Baptists thereabouts were much offended and grew very envious but the Lord's Power came over all Luke Howard of Dover was Convinced sometime before and became a faithful Minister of Christ Returning from Dover I went to Canterbury Canterbury where there were a few honest-hearted People turned to the Lord who sate down under Christ's Teaching Thence I passed to Cranbrook again Cranbrook where I had a great Meeting A Friend that was with me went to the Steeple-house and was cast into Prison But the Lord's Power was manifested and his Truth spread From thence I passed into Sussex and lodged near Horsham Sussex Horsham where there was a great Meeting and many were Convinced Also at Stenning we had a great Meeting in the Market-House Stenning and several were Convinced there and thereaways for the Lord's Power was with us Several Meetings I had thereabouts and among the rest there was a Meeting appointed at a Great Man's House and he and his Son went to fetch several Priests that had threatned to come and dispute But when the time came none of them came for the Lord's Power was mighty in us A glorious Meeting we had and the Man of the House and his Son were vext because none of the Priests would come So the Hearts of People were opened by the Spirit of God and they were turned from the Hirelings to Christ Jesus their Shepherd who had purchased them without Money and would feed them without Money or Price Many that came expecting to hear a Dispute were Convinced that day amongst which Nicholas Beard was one Thus the Lord's Power came over all and his Day many came to see There were abundance of Ranters in those parts and Professors that had been so Loose in their Lives that they began to be Weary of it and had thought to have gone into Scotland to have lived privately But the Lord's Net catched them and their Understandings were opened by his Light Spirit and Power through which they came to receive the Truth and to be settled upon the Lord and so
Religion Such as be in the Religion that is Vain whose Tongues are not bridled I believe the Quakers are a Grief to but are not a Grief to such as be in the pure Religion which keepeth unspotted of the World which sets not up Bills nor Watches to maintain it by the World for they are not of the World which be in the pure Religion which keeps them unspotted of the World Mark the pure Religion which keeps unspotted of the World But such as be in the Religion that is not pure which have a Form of Godliness and not the Power such as you call Pious the Truth it self to such was always a Grief and so it is in this Age. And now your Fruits do appear the End of your Religion and Profession and what you do possess But you are in the Error and have been but in the Profession out of the Possession of the Spirit who are not in the Spirit of Truth For where did ever it set Stints and Bounds and number the Just and Innocent with the Wicked But the Wicked set Stints and Bounds and Limits to the Just and number them among the Wicked yea speak all manner of Evil they did of them as ye are doing now of us they did so who did profess that which ye do profess in Words Nay according as it was foretold in the Scripture such as tremble at the Word of God you cast out and hate you that have your Temple-worship and you say The Quakers come to disturb you in your Churches as you call them Was it not the Practice of the Apostles to go into the Synagogues and Temples to witness against the Priesthood that took Tithes And was it not the Practice of the Jews to hale them out and persecute them and stone them that witnessed Christ the Second Priest and went to bring People off from the First Priesthood Was it not the practice of the Prophets to go and cry against the High Places And was it not the Practice of the Jews when they were back-slidden and of the Heathen to Imprison and Persecute the Prophets and send after them into other Countries And is not this the Practice of you now who are holding up your High-Places which the Papists set up which ye now call your Churches where ye beat and persecute What Religious People are you that are filled with so much Madness Did not Paul Confess he was Mad while he was in your Practice haling beating prisoning putting out of the Synagogues having his Authority from the Chief Priests And are not the Chief Priests the cause of this Was there ever such a Cry made in any Age past as there is now in the Pulpits Railing against an Innocent People whom ye in scorn call Quakers who lift not up an Hand against you and who are indeed the Pious that are of the pure Religion who fear God and worship him in the Spirit and in the Truth but cannot Join with you in your Religion And do not the Ministers of God say That the Scriptures are a Declaration which you call the Word Do not you rob Christ of his Title and of his Honour and give it to the Letter and shew your selves out of the Doctrine of the Ministers of God who called the Scriptures by the name of Writings and Treatises and Declarations and said Christ's Name is called the Word of God Are not you here in the Error you speak of which is your Common Talk among you There was talk among some of you of your Gospel-shining Doth your Gospel which you profess persecute Did ever any of them that did possess it cast into Prison and not suffer others to go to Visit them Are you like Christians in this or like Heathen who set Bounds and Watches over the Land that they should not pass to Visit them that be in Prison Was ever the like heard in any Age Search and see if you have not out-stript them all in your Watches if not in your manner of Persecution and in your Imprisonments And oh never talk that we are a Grief to them that are in the pure Religion And whereas in your Warrant we are represented as Dis-affected to Government I say the Law that is a Terror to the Evil-Doer we own the Higher Power to which the Soul must be subject But we deny the Evil-Doer the malicious Man reigning and the Envious Man seeking for his Prey whose Envy is against the Innocent who raiseth up the Country against honest Men and so becomes a Trouble to the Country in raising them up to take the Innocent but that we leave to the Lord to Judge Your false Accusations of Heresy and Blasphemy we do deny you should have laid them down in Particulars what they had been that People might have seen them and not have slandered behind our Backs The Law saith The Crime should be mentioned in the Warrant Then for your saying We deny the godly Ministers to be a true Ministry of Christ that is false for we say that the Godly Ministers are the Ministers of Christ But which of your Ministers dare say that they are truly Godly And for your charging us with seducing many weak People that is false also for we seduce none But you that deny the Light which lighteth every Man that cometh into the World are seduced from the Anointing which should Teach you and if ye would be Taught by it ye would not need that any Man should Teach you But such as are taught by the Anointing which abideth in them and deny Man's Teaching these ye call Seducers quite contrary to John's Doctrine 1 Joh. 2. You speak quite contrary to him that which is Truth ye call Seducing and that which he calls Seducing you call Truth Read the latter part of the Chapter And beware I warn you all from the Lord God of Glory set not any Bound against him Stint him not Limit not the Holy one of Israel for the Lord is rising in Power and great Glory who will rule the Nations with a Rod of Iron which to him are but as the drop of a Bucket he that measures the Waters in the Hollow of his Hand will dash Nations together as a Potter's Vessel And know you that are found in this his day blaspheming his Work that God hath brought forth calling it Blasphemy fighting against it setting up your Carnal Weapons making your Bonds strong God will break asunder that which your Carnal Policy hath invented and which by your Carnal Weapons ye would uphold and make you to know there is a God in Heaven who carries his Lambs in his Arms which are come among Wolves and are ready to be torn in pieces in every place yea in your Steeple-houses where are People without Reason and that have not natural Affection Therefore all ye Petty-Constables Sheriffs and Justices take Warning and take heed what ye do against the Lambs of Christ for Christ is come and coming who will give to every
Visit Prisoners whom you have Imprisoned Doth this shew you to have a Spirit like Paul yea or nay or are you not quite contrary like to them that persecuted Paul The Day hath declared it To that of God in you all I speak which shall witness it at the Last Day in the Day of Judgment Persecution was blind in all Ages and Madness and Folly led it Yet Persecution got always a Form or Presence of Godliness or to talk of Religion as in the Days of Moses in the Days of Jeremy in the Days of Christ and of the Apostles Come saith the Council Let us crush them while they are Young they have almost over-spread the Nation in every Corner This is as much as to say Let us put this Birth to Death as Pharaoh and Herod did the Children But the Lord caused his Truth the more to spread For you may read what Numbers came out of Egypt and what Multitudes followed Christ Therefore with Consideration read these Lines and not with Fury and let not Foolishness appear But consider in Humility your Ways you act in and your Paths you go in and what Spirit you are of and what the End of your Conversation is now see For in Love to your Souls I write that in the Day of your Visitation you may consider it From him who loveth Righteousness and the establishing of it and Truth and Peace and Faith which is by Christ Jesus Mercy and Peace be multiplied among such But a Witness against all Hypocrites and all who have a Profession but live out of the Possession who are in an Hypocritical Religion in the Lusts and Fashions of the World having a Form of Godliness but standing against the Power with might and main Sword and Staff Which things declare your Conversation and Practices to be out of Christ 's Life against the Gospel-practice and contrary to the Manner and Order of the Saints G. F We were continued in Prison till the next Assize 1656. Lanceston Assize before which time divers Friends both Men and Women were sent to Prison that had been taken up by the Watches When the Assize was come several of these were called before the Judge and Indicted and tho' the Jailer brought them into Court yet they Indicted them that they came in by Force of Arms and in an hostile manner And the Judge fined them because they would not put off their Hats But we were not called before the Judges any more but they let us alone Great Work we had and Service for the Lord both between the Assizes and after amongst the Professors and People of all sorts for many came to see us and to reason with us And Elizabeth Trelawny of Plimouth who was the Daughter of one called a Baronet being Convinced as was formerly mentioned the Priests and Professors and some great Persons of her Kindred were in a great Rage concerning her and writ Letters to her And she being a Wise and Tender Woman and fearing to give them any Advantage sent their Letters to me and I answered them and returned them to her again for her to send the Answers to them Which she did till growing in the Power and Spirit and Wisdom of God she came her self to be able to Answer the wisest Priest and Professor of them all and had a Dominion over them all in the Truth through the Power of the Lord by which she was kept faithful to her Death Now while I was in Prison here Lanceston Gaol the Baptists and Fifth-Monarchy-Men prophesied That this Year Christ should come and Reign upon Earth a Thousand Years And they looked upon this Reign to be Outward When as he was come inwardly in the Hearts of his People to Reign and Rule there and these Professors would not Receive him there So they failed in their Prophecy and Expectation and had not the Possession of him But Christ is come and doth dwell in the Hearts of his People and Reigns there And Thousands at the Door of whose Hearts he hath been knocking have opened to him and he is come in and doth Sup with them and they with him the heavenly Supper with the heavenly and spiritual Man So many of these Baptists and Monarchy-People turned the greatest Enemies to the Possessors of Christ But he Reigns in the Hearts of his Saints over all their Envy At the Assize divers Justices came to us and were pretty Civil and Reasoned of the things of God pretty soberly expressing a Pity to us There came also Capt. Fox who was Governour of Pendennis-Castle and lookt me in the Face and said never a word but went his ways to his Company and told them He never saw a simpler Man in his Life I called after him and said Stay Man we will see who is the simpler Man But he went his way A light Chaffy Man There came also at the Assize one Thomas Lower to Visit us and he offered to give us Money which we refused accepting nevertheless of his Love He asked us many Questions concerning our denying the Scriptures to be the Word of God and concerning the Sacraments and such like To all which he received Satisfaction And I spake unto him and he afterwards said 1656. Lanceston Gaol My Words were as a flash of Lightning they ran so through him And he said He never met with such wise Men in his Life for they knew the Thoughts of his Heart and were as the wise Master-Builders of the Assemblies that fastned their Words like Nails He came to be Convinced of the Truth and remains a Friend to this Day When he came home to his Aunt Hambley's where he then lived and made Report to her concerning us She with her Sister Grace Billing hearing the sound of Truth came afterwards to Visit us in Prison and was Convinced also And great Sufferings and Spoilings of Goods both he and his Aunt have undergone for the Truth 's sake About this time I was moved to give forth the following Paper to Friends in the Ministry Friends IN the Power of life and wisdom and dread of the Lord God of life and Heaven and Earth dwell that in the wisdom of God over all ye may be preserved and be a Terror to all the Adversaries of God and a Dread answering that of God in them all spreading the Truth abroad awakening the VVitness confounding the Deceit gathering up out of Transgression into the Life the Covenant of Light and Peace with God Let all Nations hear the sound by Word or Writing Spare no Place spare no Tongue nor Pen but be obedient to the Lord God go through the VVork and be valiant for the Truth upon Earth tread and trample all that is Contrary under Ye have the Power do not Abuse it and Strength and Presence of the Lord eye it and the VVisdom that with it you may all be ordered to the Glory of the Lord God Keep in the Dominion keep in the Power over all Deceit
tread over them in that which lets you see to the VVorlds End and the utmost Parts of the Earth Reign and Rule with Christ whose Scepter and Throne is now set up whose Dominion is over all to the Ends of the Earth whose Dominion is an everlasting Dominion Throne an everlasting Throne Kingdom an everlasting Kingdom Power above all Powers Therefore this is the Word of the Lord God to you all Keep in the wisdom of God that spreads over all the Earth the wisdom of the Creation that is Pure from Above not destructive For now shall Salvation go out of Zion to Judge the Mount of Esau and now shall the Law go forth from Jerusalem to Answer the Principle of God in all to hew down all Inventors and Inventions For all the Princes of the Earth is but as Air to the Power of the Lord God which you are in and have tasted of Therefore Live in it that is the Word of the Lord God to you all and do not Abuse it And keep down and Low and take heed of false Joys that will Change Bring all into the Worship of God Plow up the fallow Ground thresh and get out the Corn that the Seed the Wheat may be gathered into the Barn that to the Beginning all People may come to Christ that was before the VVorld was made For the Chaff is come upon the VVheat by Transgression he that treadeth it out is out of Transgression and fathoms Transgression and puts a difference between the precious and the vile and can pick out the Wheat from the Tares and gather into the Garner so brings to the lively Hope the Immortal Soul into God out of which it came And none worships God but who comes to the Principle of God which they have transgressed and none are plowed up but who comes to the Principle of God in him that he hath transgressed then he doth service to God then is the planting and the watering and the Increase from God cometh So the Ministers of the Spirit must minister to the Spirit that is in Prison which hath been in Captivity in every one that with the Spirit of Christ People may be led out of Captivity up to God the Father of Spirits and do service to him and to have Vnity with him with the Scriptures and one with another And this is the Word of the Lord God to you all and a Charge to you all in the presence of the living God Be Patterns be Examples in all Countries Places Islands Nations where-ever you come that your Carriage and Life may preach among all sorts of People and to them then you will come to walk Chearfully over the World Answering that of God in every one whereby in them ye may be a Blessing and make the Witness of God in them to bless you Then to the Lord God you will be a sweet Savour and a Blessing Spare no Deceit lay the Sword upon it go over it Keep your selves clear of the Bloods of all Men either by Word or Writing or Speaking and keep your selves clean that you may stand in your Throne and every one have his Lot and stand in the Lot in the Ancient of Days And so the Blessing of the Lord be with you and keep you over all the Idolatrous Worships and Worshippers let them know the Living God for Teachings Churches Worships must be thrown down with the power of the Lord God set up by Man's earthy Vnderstanding Knowledge and Wills For this all must be thrown down with that which gave forth Scripture and who be in that Reigns over it all That is the Word of the Lord God to you all In that is God Worshipped that brings to declare his Will and brings to the Church in God the Ground and Pillar of Truth for now is the mighty Day of the Lord appeared and the Arrows of the Almighty gone forth which shall stick in the Hearts of the Wicked Now will I Arise saith the Lord God Almighty to trample and Thunder down Deceit which hath long reigned and stained the Earth Now will I have my Glory out of every one The Lord God Almighty over all in his Strength and Power you keep to his Glory that you may come to Answer that of God in every one in the World Proclaim the mighty Day of the Lord of Fire and Sword who will be worshipped in Spirit and in Truth and keep in the Life and Power of the Lord God that the Inhabitants of the Earth may tremble before you That the Lord God's Power and Majesty may be Admired among the Hypocrites and Heathens and ye in the Wisdom Dread Life Terror and Dominion Preserved to his Glory that nothing may Rule or Reign but Power and Life it self and in the Wisdom of God ye may be preserved in it And this is the Word of the Lord God to you all and the Call is now Out of Transgression the Spirit bids Come and the Call is now from all false Worships and Gods and from all Inventions and dead Works to serve the living God and the Call to Repentance to the Amendment of Life whereby Righteousness may be brought forth which shall go throughout the Earth Therefore ye that be Chosen and Faithful which are with the Lamb go through your Work faithfully and in the Strength and Power of the Lord and be obedient to the Power for that will save you out of the Hands of unreasonable Men and preserve you over the World to himself hereby you may live in the Kingdom that stands in Power which hath no end where glory and life is For Tho. Mounts G. F. After the Assize the Sheriff with some Souldiers came to guard a Woman to Execution that was sentenced to die and we had a great deal of Discourse with them One of them wickedly said That Christ was as passionate a Man as any that lived upon the Earth for which wicked Saying we rebuked him Another time we asked the Jailer what Doings there were at the Sessions and he said Small Matters only about Thirty for Bastardy We thought it very strange that they who professed themselves Christians should make small Matters of such things But this Jailer was very bad himself and I often admonished him to Sobriety but he would Abuse People that came to Visit us Edward Pyot had a Cheese sent him from Bristol from his Wife and the Jailer took the Cheese from him and carried it to the Mayor to search it for Treasonable Letters as he said And though they found no Treason in the Cheese they kept it from us This Gaoler might have been made Rich if he had carried himself Civilly but he sought his own Ruin Which soon after came upon him For the next Year he was turned out of his Place and for some wickedness was cast into the Jail himself and there begged of our Friends And for some Vnruliness in his Carriage he was by the succeeding Jailer put into Doomsdale and
open your Understandings that you may see this great Power of the Lord which he is now manifesting among his Children in this his Day that ye may not withstand it in our Friends that are come into the Power of God and to God and know him by whom the world was made by whom all things were Created that were created and there was not any thing made of all that was made but what was made for him and to him and by him who is the Power of God who doth Enlighten every Man that cometh into the world Now our Friends being come to this Light which cometh from Christ and having received Power from him by whom all things were Created who hath all Power in Heaven and Earth given to him who is the wisdom of God we have received wisdom and power from him by which the Lord doth give us to know how to use and order the Creatures to the glory of him who is the Creator of all things So our Friends here are taught of the Lord to be diligent serving him and who come into the Life the Scriptures were given forth from are given up to serve the Lord And of this I have in all your Consciences a Witness So if thou open the Prison-Door we shall not stay there If thou send a Liberate and set us free we shall not stay in Prison for Israel is to go out free whose freedom is purchased by the Power of God and the Blood of Jesus But who goeth out of the Power of God loseth his Freedom The 13th of the 6th Month. 1656. George Fox and the rest who are Sufferers for the Truth in Lanceston-Gaol After this Major Desborow came to the Castle-green and there plaid at Bowles with the Justices and others And several Friends were moved to go to him and admonish him and them of their spending their Time so vainly bidding them Consider That though they professed themselves to be Christians yet they gave themselves up to their Pleasures and kept the Servants of God mean while in Prison and told them The Lord would plead with them and visit them for such things But notwithstanding what was writ or said unto him he went away and left us in prison Yet we understood afterwards that he left the Business to Colonel Bennet who had the Command of the Gaol For sometime after Bennet would have set us at Liberty if we would have paid his Gaoler's Fees But we told him We could give the Gaoler no Fees for we were innocent Sufferers and how could they expect Fees of us who had suffered so long wrongfully After a while this Colonel Bennet coming to Town sent for us to an Inn and insisted again upon Fees which we refused And at last the Power of the Lord came so over him that he freely set us at Liberty It was on the Thirteenth Day of the Seventh Month 1656. that we were set at Liberty and we had been Prisoners Nine Weeks at the first Assize called the Lent-Assize which was in the Spring of the Year Observing while I was here a Prisoner how much the People they especially who were called the Gentry were addicted and given to Pleasures and vain Recreations I was moved before I left the Place to give forth several Papers as a Warning unto them and unto all that so Mispend their Time One of which was thus directed This to go abroad among them who are given to Pleasures and Wantonness SOdom and Gomorrah their Sins were Pride Fulness of Bread and abundance of Idleness whose filthy Conversation vexed the righteous Soul of the Just Lot Day by Day and would not take Warning on whom God sent Fire and turned them into Ashes And in Spiritual Sodom and Egypt was our Lord Jesus Christ crucified And it is written The People sate down to eat and to drink and rose up to play with whom God was not well-pleased and there fell three and twenty thousand in one Day These the Apostle commanded the Saints that they should not follow for these things happened to them for Examples and are written for our Admonition And God spared not the Old World but reserving Noah a Preacher of Righteousness brought the Flood upon the World of the Ungodly making them an Example to all that after should live Vngodly Mark ye Vngodly ones who are as natural brute Beasts who speak great swelling Words of Vanity alluring through the Lusts of the Flesh through much Wantonness as they that count it Pleasure to Riot in the Day-time sporting your selves with your own deceivings ye shall receive the Reward of Vnrighteousness Ye are as Dogs and Swine turned to the Vomit and wallowing in the Mire speaking evil of things that ye know not and unless ye Repent ye shall utterly perish in your own Corruptions Ye have lived in Pleasure on the Earth and been wanton ye have nourished your Hearts as in a Day of Slaughter ye have condemned and killed the Just and he doth not resist you Go to Weep and Houl for the Misery that is coming upon you and she that liveth in Pleasures is dead while she liveth God condemned the Cities of Sodom and Gomorrah making them an Example to all those that after should live Vngodly in the wicked filthy Conversation Mark here is your Example Hear this ye that are given to Pleasures and read your Examples G. F. Another Paper upon my taking Notice of the Bowlers that came to sport themselves in the Castle-green was as followeth THE VVord of the Lord to all you vain and idle-minded People who are Lovers of Sports Pleasures and foolish Exercises and Recreations as you call them Consider of your Ways what it is you are doing Was this the End of your Creation Did God make all things for you and you to serve your Lusts and Pleasures Did not the Lord make all things for you and you for himself to fear and worship him in Spirit and in Truth in Righteousness and true Holiness But where is your Service of God so long as your Hearts run after Lusts and Pleasures ye cannot serve God and the foolish Pleasures of the World as Bowling Drinking Hunting Hawking and the like If these have your Hearts God will not have your Lips Consider for 't is true Therefore from the Lord must you all witness VVo and Misery Tribulation and VVrath who continue in the Love and Practice of your vain Sports Lusts and Pleasures Now is the Day when all every-where are exhorted to Repentance O foolish People wicked and slow of Heart to believe the Threatnings of the Great Jehovah against the wicked What will you do in the Day of the Lord 's fierce wrath that makes haste to Come upon the world of ungodly Men And what good have your foolish Sports and Delights done you now they are past Or what good will they do you when the Lord calls for your Souls Therefore all now Awake from Sleep and see where you are And let the Light
make Havock of Ship and Goods with the World but rather that ye do run to save the Men and the Goods for them and so deny your selves and do unto them as ye would they should do unto you G. F. This Paper had a good Service among People 1660. And Friends have endeavoured much to save the Lives of the Men in times of Wracks and to preserve the Ships and Goods for them And when some that have suffered Shipwrack have been almost dead and starved some Friends have taken them to their Houses to succour them and recover them which is an Act to be practised by all true Christians Now turned I back again from the Lands-End and after I had had many precious and blessed living Meetings in Cornwall several Eminent People being Convinced in that County whom neither Priests nor Magistrates by spoiling Goods or Imprisonments could make to forsake their Shepherd the Lord Jesus Christ that had bought them and all Friends who were turned to Christ their Teacher and Saviour being setled in Peace and Quietness upon him their Fundation we left them unto the Lord Jesus Christ's Teaching and Ordering fresh and green and Thomas Lower who had accompanied me through all that County brought me over Horse-Bridge into Devonshire again Devonshire And after several Meetings up and down in Devonshire we came into Somersetshire where we had divers large and peaceable Meetings Somersetshire and so passing through the County visiting Friends till we came to Bristol 1660. Bristol I came into Bristol on the Seventh Day of the Week and the Day before the Souldiers came with their Muskets into the Meeting and were exceeding rude beating and striking Friends with their Muskets and drove them out of the Orchard in a great Rage threatning what they would do if Friends came there again For the Mayor and the Commander of the Souldiers had it seems combined together to make a Disturbance amongst Friends Now when I came to Bristol and Friends told me what a Rage there was in the Town how they were threatned by both the Mayor and Souldiers and how unruly the Souldiers had been to Friends the day before I sent for several Friends as George Bishop Thomas Gouldney Thomas Speed and Edward Pyot and desired them to go to the Mayor and Aldermen and desire them seeing he and they had broke up our Meetings to let Friends have the Town-Hall to Meet in and for the use of it Friends would give them Twenty Pounds a Year to be distributed amongst the Poor and when the Mayor and Aldermen had business to do in it Friends would not Meet in it but only on the First Days Those Friends were astonished at this and said The Mayor and Aldermen would think that they were Mad But I said Nay for they should offer them a considerable Benefit to the Poor And it was upon me from the Lord to bid them Go and at last they Consented and went though in the Cross to their own Wills When they had laid the thing before the Mayor it came so over him that he said For his part he could consent to it but he was but one And he told Friends of another Great Hall they might have but that they did not accept of it being inconvenient So Friends came away leaving the Mayor in a very loving Frame towards them For they felt the Lord's Power had come over him When they came back I spake to them to go also to the Colonel that Commanded the Souldiers and lay before him the rude Carriage of his Souldiers how they came Armed amongst naked innnocent People who were waiting upon and worshipping the Lord But they were backward to go to him Next Morning being the First Day of the Week we went to the Meeting in the Orchard where the Souldiers had so lately been so rude And after I had declared the Truth a pretty while in the Meeting there came in many rude Souldiers and People some with Drawn Swords The In-keepers had made some of them drunk and one of them had bound himself with an Oath to cut down and kill the Man that spoke So he came pressing in through all the Crowd of People to within two Yards of me and stopt at those Four Friends before-mentioned who should have gone to the Colonel as I would have had them and fell a jangling with them On a sudden I saw his Sword was put up and gone For the Lord's Power came over all and chained him and the rest and we had a blessed Meeting and the Lord 's Everlasting Power and Presence was felt amongst us On the Day following those Four Friends went and spake with the Colonel and he sent for the Souldiers and Cut and Slasht some of them before the Friends Faces Which when I heard of I blamed the Friends for letting him do so and also for that they did not go on the Seventh Day as I would have had them which might have prevented this Cutting of the Souldiers and the Trouble they gave at our Meeting But thus the Lord's Power came over all those persecuting bloody Minds and the Meeting there was settled in Peace for a good while after without Disturbance I had then also a General Meeting at Edw. Pyot's near Bristol at which it was judged there were divers Thousands of People For besides Friends from many parts thereabouts some of the Baptists and Independents with their Teachers came to it and very many of the sober People of Bristol insomuch that the People that staid behind said The City looked naked there were so many gone out of it to this Meeting It was a very quiet Meeting and many glorious Truths were opened to the People and the Lord Jesus Christ was set up who was the End of all Figures and Shadows and the Law and the first Covenant And it was declared to the People how that all Figures and Shadows were given to Man after Man fell and how that all the Rudiments and Inventions of Men which have been set up in Christendom many of which were Jewish and Heathenish Ceremonies were not set up by the Command of Christ and all Images and Likenesses Man has made to himself or for himself whether of things in Heaven or things in Earth have been since he lost the Image and Likeness of God which God made him in But now Christ was come to Redeem Translate Convert and Regenerate Man out of all these things that he hath set up in the Fall and out of the true Types Figures and Shadows also and out of Death and Darkness up into the Light and Life and Image and Likeness of God again which Man and Woman were in before they fell Therefore all now should come and all might come to receive Christ Jesus the Substance by his Light Spirit Grace and Faith and should live and walk in him the Redeemer and Saviour And whereas we had had a great deal of work with the Priests and
those Fifth-Monarchy-Men But when those of them that were taken came to be executed they did us that Right to clear us openly from having any hand in or knowledge of their Plot. And after that the King being continually Importuned thereunto Issued forth a Declaration That Friends should be set at liberty without paying Fees But great Labour and Travel Care and Pains was taken in it before this was obtained for Thomas Moor and Margaret Fell went often to the King about it Much Blood was shed this Year many of them that had been the Old King's Judges being hanged drawn and quartered And amongst them that so suffered Col. Hacker was one he who sent me Prisoner from Leicester to London in Oliver's time of which an Account is given before A sad Day it was and a Repaying of Blood with Blood For in the time of O. Cromwel when several Men were put to Death by him being hanged drawn and quartered for pretended Treasons I felt from the Lord God that their Blood would not be put up but would be required And I said as much then to several And now upon the King's Return when several of them that had been against the King were put to Death as the others that were for the King had been before by Oliver This was sad Work destroying of People contrary to the Nature of Christians who have the Nature of Lambs and Sheep But there was a Secret Hand in bringing this Day upon that Hypocritical Generation of Professors who being got into Power grew Proud Haughty and Cruel beyond others and persecuted the People of God without pity Therefore when Friends were under cruel Persecutions and Sufferings in the Common-wealth's time I was moved of the Lord to write unto Friends to draw up their Sufferings and lay them before the Justices at their Sessions And if they would not do them Justice then to lay it before the Judges at the Assize And if they would not do them Justice then to lay it before the Parliament and before the Protector and his Council that they might all see what was done under their Government And if they would not do Justice then to lay it before the Lord who would hear the Cries of the Oppressed and of the Widows and Fatherless that they had made so For that which we suffered for and which our Goods were spoiled for it was for our Obedience to the Lord in his Power and in his Spirit who was able to help and to succour and we had no Helper in the Earth but him And he did hear the Cries of his People and did bring an overflowing Scourge over the Heads of all our Persecutors which brought a Quaking and a Dread and a Fear amongst and on them all So that they who had nick-named us who are the Children of Light and in scorn called us Quakers the Lord made them Quake and many of them would have been glad to have hid themselves amongst us and some of them through the Distress that came upon them did at length come to Confess to the Truth Oh! the daily Reproaches Revilings and Beatings we underwent amongst them even in the High-ways because we could not put off our Hats to them and for saying Thou and Thee to them Oh! the Havock and Spoil the Priests made of our Goods because we could not put into their Mouths and give them Tithes Besides casting into Prisons and besides the great Fines laid upon us because we could not Swear But for all these things did the Lord God plead with them Yet some of them were so hardened in their Wickedness that when they were turned out of their Places and Offices they said If they had Power they would do the same again And when this Day of overturning was come upon them they said It was all long of us Wherefore I was moved to write to them and to ask them Did we ever resist them when they took away our Ploughs and Plough-Gears our Carts and Horses our Corn and Cattel our Kettles and Platters from us and whipt us and set us in the Stocks and cast us into Prison and all this only for serving and worshipping God in Spirit and Truth and because we could not Conform to their Religions Manners Customs and Fashions Did we ever resist them Did we not give them our Backs to beat and our Cheeks to pull off the Hair and our Faces to spit on Had not their Priests that prompted them on to such Work plucked them with themselves into the Ditch Why then would they say It was all long of us when it was long of themselves and their Priests their blind Prophets that followed their own Spirits and could fore-see nothing of these times and things that were come upon them which we had long forewarned them of as Jeremiah and Christ had forewarned Jerusalem And they thought to have wearied us out and undone us but they undid themselves Whereas we could praise God notwithstanding all their plundering of us that we had a Kettle and a Platter and an Horse and Plow still Many ways were these Professors warned both by Word by Writing and by Signs but they would believe none till it was too late William Sympson was moved of the Lord to go at several times for Three Years Naked and Bare-foot before them as a Sign unto them in Markets Courts Towns Cities to Priest's Houses and to Great Men's Houses telling them So should they be all stripped Naked as he was stripped Naked And sometimes he was moved to put on Hair-Sack-cloth and to besmear his Face and to tell them So would the Lord God besmear all their Religion as he was besmeared Great Sufferings did that poor Man undergo sore Whippings with Horse-whips and Coach-whips on his bare Body grievous Stonings and Imprisonments in three years time before the King came in that they might have taken Warning but they would not but rewarded his Love with cruel Vsage Only the Major of Cambridge did nobly to him for he put his Gown about him and took him into his House Another Friend one Robert Huntington was moved of the Lord to go into Carlisle-Steeple-house with a White Sheet about him amongst the great Presbyterians and Independents there to shew them that the Surplice was coming up again and he put an Halter about his Neck to shew them That an Halter was coming upon them which was fulfilled upon some of our Persecutors not long after Another whose Name was Richard Sale living near West-Chester and being Constable of the place where he lived had a Friend sent to him with a Pass whom those wicked Professors had taken up for a Vagabond because he travelled up and down in the Work of the Ministry and this Constable being convinced by the Friend that was thus brought to him gave him his Pass and Liberty and was afterwards himself cast into Prison After this on a Lecture-day this Richard Sale was moved to go to the Steeple-house in the time
were a People that fled out of Old England thither from the Persecution of the Bishops here But when they had got Power into their hands they so far exceeded the Bishops in Severity and Cruelty that whereas the Bishops had made them pay Twelve Pence a Sunday so called for not coming to their Worship here they imposed a Fine of Five Shillings a Day upon such as should not conform to their Will-Worship there and spoiled the Goods of Friends that could not pay it Besides many they Imprisoned divers they Whipt and that most Cruelly of some they Cut off Ears and some they Hanged as the Books of Friends Sufferings in New-England largely shew particularly A Book written by Geo. Bishop of Bristol Entituled New-England judged In Two Parts Some of the old Royalists were earnest with Friends to have prosecuted them but we told them we left them to the Lord to whom Vengeance belonged and he would Repay it And the Judgments of God have since fallen heavy on them For the Indians have been raised up against them and have Cut off many of them About this time I lost a very good Book being taken in the Printer's Hands It was a useful teaching Book containing the Signification and Explanation of Names Parables Types and Figures in the Scriptures They who took it were so affected with it that they were loth to have destroyed it but thinking to have made a great Advantage of it they would have let us have had it again if we would have given them a great Sum of Money for it which we were not free to do And some time before this while I was Prisoner in Lancaster-Castle the Book called the Battledoor came forth which was written to shew that in all Languages Thou and Thee is the proper and usual Form of Speech to a Single Person and You to more than one This was set forth in Examples or Instances taken out of the Scriptures and out of Books of Teaching in about Thirty Languages John Stubbs and Benjamin Furly took great Pains in the Compiling of it which I put them upon and some things I added to it When it was finished some of them were presented to the King and his Council to the Bishops of Canterbury and London and to the Two Vniversities one a piece and many bought of them The King said It was the proper Language of all Nations And the Bishop of Canterbury being asked what he thought of it was so at a stand that he could not tell what to say to it For it did so Inform and Convince Pâ—ople that few afterward were so Rugged towards us for saying Thou and Thee to a single Person which before they were exceeding fierce against us for For this Thou and Thee was a sore Cut to proud Flesh and them that sought Self-honour who though they would say it to God and Christ would not endure to have it said to themselves So that we were often Beaten and Abused and sometimes in danger of our Lives for using those Words to some proud Men who would say What you ill-bred Clown do you Thou me as though there lay Breeding in saying You to one which was contrary to all their Grammars and Teaching-Books by which they had taught and instructed their Youth Now the Bishops and Priests being busie and eager to settle and 〈◊〉 up their Form of Worship and Compel all to come to it I was mâ—â—â—d to give forth the following Paper to open unto People the Nature of the True Worship which Christ set up and which God accepts Thus CHrist's Worship is free in the Spirit to all Men and such as Worship in the Spirit and in the Truth are they that God seeks to Worship him for he is the God of Truth and is a Spirit and the God of the Spirits of all Flesh And he hath given to all the Nations of Men and Women Breath and Life to live and move and have their Being in him and hath put into them an Immortal Soul So all the Nations of Men and Women are to be Temples for him to dwell in and they that defile his Temple them will he destroy Now as the outward Jews while they had their outward Temple at outward Jerusalem were to go up thither to Worship which Temple God hath long since thrown down and destroyed that Jerusalem the Vision of Peace and cast off the Jews and their Worship and in the room thereof hath set up his Gospel-Worship in the Spirit and in the Truth so now all are to Worship in the Spirit and in the Truth And this is a free Worship for where the Spirit of the Lord is and ruleth there is Liberty and the Fruits of the Spirit are seen and will manifest themselves and the Spirit is not to be limited but to be lived and walked in that the Fruits of it may appear The Tares are such as hang upon the Wheat to weigh it down and thereby to draw it down to the Earth yet the Tares and the Wheat must grow together till the Harvest lest they that take upon them to pluck up the Tares should pluck up the Wheat with the Tares The Tares are such as Worship not God in the Spirit and in the Truth but do grieve the Spirit and vex it and quench it in themselves and walk not in the Truth yet will scraul and hang about the Wheat the true Worshippers in the Spirit and in the Truth Christ's Church was never established by Blood nor held up by Prisons neither was the Foundation of it laid by Carnal Weaponed Men nor is it preserved by such But when Men went from the Spirit and Truth then they took up Carnal Weapons to maintain their outward Forms and yet cannot preserve them with their Carnal Weapons For one plucketh down another's Form with his outward Weapons And this Work and Doing hath been among the Christians in Name since they lost the Spirit and Spiritual Weapons and the true Worship which Christ set up that is in the Spirit and in the Truth which Spirit and Truth they that Worship in are over all the Tares All that would be plucking up the Tares are forbidden by Christ who hath all Power in Heaven and Earth given to him for the Tares and the Wheat must grow together till the Harvest as Christ hath commanded The Stone that smote the Image became a great Mountain and filled the whole Earth Now if the Stone do fill the whole Earth all Nations must be Temples for the Stone And all that say they do travel for the Seed and yet bring forth nothing but a Birth of Strife and Contention and Confusion their Fruit shews their Travel to be wrong for by the Fruit the End of every one's Work is seen of what sort it is G. F. About this time many Papists and Jesuits began to fawn upon Friends and talk'd up and down where they came that of all the Sects the Quakers were the best and most self-denying
upon his Breast and confess'd What was written therein was Truth but said he if I should confess to it openly they would burn me So John Stubs and Henry Fell not being suffered to go farther returned to England and came to London again And John had a Vision that the English and Dutch who had joined together not to carry them would fall out one with the other And so it came to pass Having now stay'd in London some time I felt drawings to visit Friends in Essex Essex Colchester Cogshall So I went down to Colchester where I had very large Meetings and from thence to Cogshall not far from which there was a Priest Convinced and I had a Meeting at his House And so travelling a little up and down in those Parts and visiting Friends in their Meetings there-aways London I returned pretty quickly to London where I found great Service for the Lord For a large Door was opened and many flocked in to our Meetings and the Lord's Truth spread mightily this Year Yet Friends had great Travels and sore Labours the rude People having been so heightned by the Monarchy-Men's Rising a little before But the Lord's Power was over all and in it Friends had Dominion though we had not only those Sufferings without but Sufferings within also by John Perrot and his Company who giving heed to a Spirit of Delusion sought to introduce and set up among Friends that evil and uncomely Practice of keeping on the Hat in time of publick Prayers Now Friends had spoken to him and divers of his Followers about it and I had written to them concerning it but He and some others rather strengthened themselves against Friends therein Wherefore feeling the Judgment of Truth rise against it I gave forth the following Lines as a Warning to all that were concerned therein WHosoever is tainted with this Spirit of John Perrot it will perish Mark theirs and his End that are turned into those outward things and Janglings about them and that which is not savoury all which is for perpetual Judgment and is to be swept and cleansed out of the Camp of God's Elect. This is to that Spirit that is gone into Jangling about that which is below the Rotten Principle of the old Ranters and gone from the Invisible Power of God in which is the Everlasting Fellowship and so many are become like the Corn on the House-top and like the untimely Figs and now clamour and speak against them that be in the Power of God O consider the Light and Power of God goes over you all and leaves you in the fretting Nature out of the Unity which is in the Everlasting Light Life and Power of God Consider this before the Day be gone from you and take heed that your Memorial be not rooted out from among the Righteous G. F. Among the Exercises and Troubles that Friends had from without one was concerning Friends Marriages which sometimes were â—â—lled in question And in this Year there happened to be a Cause Tryed at the Assize at Nottingham concerning a Friend's Marriage The Case was thus Some Years before Two Friends were joined together in Marriage amongst Friends and lived together as Man and Wife about two Years Then the Man died leaving his Wife with Child and leaving an Estate in Lands of Copy-hold When the Woman was delivered the Jury presented the Child Heir to its Father's Lands and accordingly the Child was admitted Afterwards another Friend married the Widow And after that a Man that was Near of Kin to her former Husband brought his Action against the Friend that had last married her endeavouring to dispossess them and deprive the Child of the Inheritance and to possess himself thereof as next Heir to the Woman's first Husband And to effect this he endeavoured to prove the Child Illegitimate alledging The Marriage was not according to Law In opening the Cause the Plaintiff's Counsel did use unseemly Words concerning Friends saying That they went together like Brute Beasts with other ill Expressions After the Counsels on both sides had pleaded the Judge viz. Judge Archer took the matter in hand and opened it to the Jury telling them That there was a Marriage in Paradise when Adam took Eve and Eve took Adam and that it was the Consent of the Parties that made a Marriage And for the Quakers he said he did not know their Opinions but he did not believe they went together as Brute Beasts as had been said of them but as Christians and therefore he did believe the Marriage was lawful and the Child lawful Heir And the better to satisfie the Jury he brought them a Case to this purpose A Man that was weak of Body and kept his Bed had a desire in that Condition to Marry and did declare before Witnesses that he did take such a Woman to be his Wife and the Woman declared that she took that Man to be her Husband This Marriage was afterwards called in Question and as the Judge said all the Bishops did at that time conclude it to be a Lawful Marriage Hereupon the Jury gave in their Verdict for the Friend's Child and against the Man that would have deprived it of its Inheritance About this time the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy were tendred unto Friends as a Snare because it was known we could not Swear and thereupon many were Imprisoned and divers Premunired Upon that occasion Friends published in Print the Grounds and Reasons why they refused to swear Besides which I was moved to give forth these few Lines following to be given to the Magistrates THE World saith Kiss the Book But the Book saith Kiss the Son lest he be angry And the Son saith Swear not at all but keep to Yea and Nay in all your Communications for whatsoever is more than this cometh of Evil. Again the World saith Lay your hand on the Book but the Book saith Handle the Word And the Word saith Handle not the Traditions nor the Inventions nor the Rudiments of the World And God saith This is my beloved Son hear him who is the Life and the Truth and the Light and the Way to God G. F. Now there being very many Frionds in Prison in the Nation Richard Hubberthorn and I drew up a Paper concerning them and got it delivered to the King that he might understand how we were dealt with by his Officers It was directed thus For the KING FRiend who art the Chief Ruler of these Dominions here is a List of some of the Sufferings of the People of God in scorn called Quakers that have suffered under the Changeable Powers before thee by whom there have been Imprisoned and under whom there have suffered for good Conscience-sake and for bearing Testimony to the Truth as it is in Jesus Three Thousand One Hundred Seventy Three Persons And there lie yet in Prison in the Name of the Commonwealth Seventy Three Persons that we know of And there have died in Prison
Streets and to turn his Horse loose in the Streets and to untie the Knees of his Britches and let his Stockings fall down and to unbutton his Doublet and told the People So should they run up and down scattering their Money and their Goods half undrest like mad People as he was a Sign to them And so they did when the Fire brake out and the City was burning Thus hath the Lord exercised his Prophets and Servants by his Power and shewed them Signs of his Judgments and sent them to fore-warn the People but instead of Repenting they have beaten and cruelly entreated some and some they have Imprisoned both in the former Power 's days and since 1666. Scarborough But the Lord is just and happy are they that obey his Word Some have been moved to go Naked in their Streets in the other Power 's days and since as Signs of their Nakedness and have declared amongst them That God would strip them out of their Hypocritical Professions and make them as bare and naked as they were But instead of considering it they have many times whipt or otherwise abused them and sometimes Imprisoned them Others have been moved to go in Sack cloth and to denounce the Woes and Vengeance of God against the Pride and Haughtiness of the People But few regarded it And in the other Powers days the Wicked Envious Professing Priests put up several Petitions both to Oliver and Richard called Protectors and to the Parliaments Judges and Justices against us stuft full of Lies and vilifying Words and Slanders but we got Copies of them and through the Lord's Assistance answered them all and cleared the Lord's Truth and our selves of them But oh the Body of Darkness that rose against the Truth in them that made Lies their Refuge But the Lord swept them away and in and with his Power Truth Light and Life hedged his Lambs about and did preserve them as on Eagle's Wings Therefore we all had and have great Encouragement to Trust the Lord whom we did see by his Power and Spirit how he did overturn and bring to nought all the Confederacies and Counsels that were hatched in the Darkness against his Truth and People and by the same Truth gave his People Dominion that in it they might serve him And indeed I could not but take notice how the Hand of the Lord turned against those my Persecutors who had been the cause of my Imprisonment or had been Abusive or Cruel to me in it For the Officer that fetched me to Houlker-Hall wasted his Estate and soon after fled into Ireland And most of the Justices that were upon the Bench at the Sessions when I was sent to Prison died in a while after as Old Tho. Preston Rawlinson and Porter and Matthew West of Borwick And though Justice Fleming did not die yet his Wife died and left him thirteen or fourteen Motherless Children who had Imprisoned Two Friends to Death and thereby made several Children Fatherless Col. Kirby never prospered after And the Chief Constable Richard Dodgson died soon after and Mount the Petty-Constable and the other Petty-Constable John Ashburnham his Wife who railed at me in her House died soon after And William Knipe that was the Witness they brought against me died soon after also And Hunter the Jailer of Lancaster who was very wicked to me while I was his Prisoner he was cut off in his Young Days And the Vnder-Sheriff that carried me from Lancaster-Prison towards Scarborough he lived not long after And one Joblin the Jailer of Durham who was Prisoner with me in Scarborough-Castle and had often incensed the Governour and Souldiers against me though he got out of Prison yet the Lord cut him off in his Wickedness soon after When I came into that Country again most of these that dwelt in Lancashire were dead and others ruined in their Estates So that though I did not seek Revenge upon them for their actings against me contrary to the Law yet the Lord had executed his Judgments upon many of them Being now set free from my Imprisonment in Scarborough-Castle I went about three Miles to a large General Meeting at a Friend's House that had been a Chief-Constable and all was quiet and well On the Fourth Day after I came into Scarborough again and had a Meeting in the Town at Peter Hodgson's House To this Meeting came one called a Lady and several other Great Persons also a Young-man that was Son to the Bayliff of the Town and had been Convinced while I was there in Prison That Lady so called came to me and said I spake against the Ministers I told her Such as the Prophets and Christ declared against formerly I declared against now From hence I went to Whitby and having visited Friends there Whitby I passed thence to Burlington where I had another Meeting Burlington Oram and from thence to Oram where I had another Meeting and from thence to Oram where I had another Meeting and from thence to Marmaduke Stor's and had a large Meeting at a Constable's House Mar. Stor on whom the Lord had wrought a great Miracle Next Day Two Friends being to take each other in Marriage there was a very great Meeting which I was at And I was moved to open to the People the State of our Marriages declaring How the People of God took one another in the Assemblies of the Elders and how that it was God that did Join Man anâ— Woman together before the Fall And though Men had taken upon them to Join in the Fall yet in the Restoration it was God's Joining that was the right and honourable Marriage But never any Priest did Marry any that we read of in the Scriptures from Genesis to the Revelations Then I shewed them the Duty of Man and Wife how they should serve God being Heirs of Life and Grace together After the Meeting I passed from thence to Grace Barwick G. Barwick where I had a General Meeting which was very large and when that was over I came to Richard Shipton's where I had another Meeting Whitby and so to a Priest's House whose Wife was Convinced and himself grown very Loving and glad to see me This was that Priest that in the Year 1651. threatned If ever he met with me again he would have my Life or I should have his and said He would lose his Head if I were not knockt down in a Month But now he was partly Convinced and become very kind I went from his House towards the Sea where several Friends came to visit me and amongst others one Philip Scarff who had formerly been a Priest but having received the Truth was now become a Preacher of Christ freely and continued so Passing on I called to see an Ancient Man who was Convinced of Truth and was above an Hundred Years old Then came I to a Friend's House where I had a great Meeting and quiet Near Malton And
Fair at which I met with many Friends Then passing through the Forrest in a mighty thundering and rainy day Nottingham I came to Nottingham and so great was the Tempest that day that many Trees were torn up by the Roots and some People killed but the Lord preserved us On the First-Day following I had a large Meeting in Nottingham very quiet and Friends were come to sit under their Teacher the Grace of God which brought them Salvation and were established upon the Rock and Foundation Christ Jesus After the Meeting I went to visit the Friend that had been Sheriff about the Year 1649 whose Prisoner I had then been 1666. Leicestershire Syleby Leicester From Nottingham I passed into Leicestershire and came to Syleby where we had a large blessed Meeting After which I went to Leicester to visit the Prisoners there and then came to John Penford's where we had a General Meeting large and precious From thence I passed through the Country visiting Friends and my Relations till I came into Warwickshire and to Warwick where having visited the Prisoners Warwickshire Warwick Badgley Northamptonshire Bedfordshire Buckinghamshire Oxfordshire London I passed from thence to Badgley and had a precious Meeting there Then I travelled through Northamptonshire Bedfordshire Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire visiting Friends in each County In Oxfordshire the Devil had laid a Snare for me but the Lord brake it and his Power came over all and his blessed Truth spread and Friends were Increased therein Thus after I had passed through many Counties visiting Friends and had had many large and precious Meetings amongst them I came at last to London But I was so weak with lying almost Three Years in cruel and hard Imprisonments and my Joints and my Body were so stiff and benummed that I could hardly get on my Horse or bend my Joints nor well bear to be near the Fire or to eat Warm Meat I had been kept so long from it Being come to London I walk't a little among the Ruins and took good notice of them and I saw the City lying according as the Word of the Lord came to me concerning it several Years before Now after I had been a time in London and had visited Friends Meetings through the City I went into the Country again and had large Meetings in the Countries Kingston Reading Wiltshire Bristol as I went at Kingston Reading and in Wiltshire till I came to Bristol At Bristol also I had many large Meetings and Thomas Lower came thither out of Cornwal to meet me and Friends were there from several parts of the Nation it being then the Fair-time After I was clear of Bristol I left that City and went to Nath. Crips's N. Crips's London and so through the Countries till I came back to London again having large Meetings in the way and all quiet blessed be the Lord. And thus though I was very Weak yet I travelled up and down in the Service of the Lord and the Lord enabled me to go through in it About this time some that had run out from Truth and clashed against Friends were reached unto by the Power of the Lord which came wonderfully over and made them Condemn and Tear their Papers of Controversies to pieces Several Meetings we had with them and the Lord 's Everlasting Power was over all and set Judgment on the Head of that that had run out And in these Meetings which lasted whole Days several that had Run out with John Perrot and others came in again and Condemned that Spirit that led them to Keep on their Hats when Friends prayed and when they themselves prayed and some of them said That Friends were more righteous than they and that if Friends had not stood they had been gone and had fallen into Perdition And thus the Lord's Power was wonderfully manifested and came over all Then was I moved of the Lord to recommend the setting up of Five Monthly Meetings of Men and Women in the City of London besides the Womens-Meetings and the Quarterly Meetings to take care of God's Glory and to admonish and exhort such as walked disorderly or carelesly and not according to Truth For whereas Friends had had only Quarterly Meetings now Truth was spread 1667. London and Friends were grown more Numerous I was moved to Recommend the setting up of Monthly Meetings throughout the Nation And the Lord opened to me and let me see What I must do and how the Mens and Womens Monthly and Quarterly Meetings should be ordered and established in this Nation and in other Nations and that I should Write to them where I came not to do the same So after things were well settled at London and the Lord's Truth and Power and Seed and Life reigned and shined over all in the City then I passed forth into the Countries again and went down into Essex Essâ—x Suffolk Norfolk And after the Monthly Meetings were settled in that County I went from thence into Suffolk and Norfolk Thomas Dry being with me And when we had Visited Friends in their Meetings in those parts and the Monthly Meetings were settled there we pass'd from thence and went into Huntingtonshire Huntingtoâ—shire where we had very large and blessed Meetings and though we met with some Opposition there yet the Lord's Power came over all and the Monthly Meetings were established there also Bedfordshire When we came into Bedfordshire we had great Opposition but the Lord's Power came over it all Afterwards we went into Nottinghamshire Nottinghamshire where we had many precious Meetings and the Monthly Meetings were settled there Then passing into Lincolnshire Lincolnshire we had a Meeting of some Men-Friends of all the Meetings in the County at his House who had been formerly Sheriff of Lincoln and all was quiet Trent Nottinghamshire After this Meeting we passed over Trent into Nottinghamshire again he that had been the Sheriff of Lincoln being with me where we had some of all the Meetings in that County together and our Meeting was glorious and peaceable And many precious Meetings we had in that County At that time William Smith was very Weak and Sick and the Constables and others had seized upon all his Goods to the very Bed he lay upon for Truth 's sake These Officers threatned to come and break up our Meeting but the Lord's Power chained them so that they had not power to meddle with us blessed be his Name After the Meeting was over I went to visit William Smith and there were the Constables and others watching his Corn and his Beasts that none of them might be Removed From thence we passed into Leicestershire and so into Warwickshire Leicestershire Warwickshire where many blessed Meetings we had and the Order of the Gospel was set up and the Men's Monthly Meetings established in all those Counties Then we went into Darbyshire Darbyshire where we had several
Gospel-Order established amongst us is not of Man nor by Man but of and by Jesus Christ in and through the Holy Ghost And this Order of the Gospel which is not of Man nor by Man but from Christ the Heavenly Man is above all the Orders of Men in the Fall whether Jews Gentiles or Apostatized Christians and will be when they are gone For the Power of God which is the Everlasting Gospel was before the Devil was and will be and remain for ever And as the Everlasting Gospel was Preached in the Apostles days to all Nations that all Nations might come into the Order of it through the Divine Power which brings Life and Immortality to Light that they who were Heirs of it might inherit the Power and Authority of it So now since all Nations have drunk the Whore's Cup and all the World hath Worshipped the Beast but they whose Names are written in the Book of Life from the Foundation of the World who have worshipped God in Spirit and Truth as Christ commanded the Everlasting Gospel is to be and is preached again as John the Divine foresaw it should to all Nations Kindreds Tongues and People And this Everlasting Gospel torments the Whore and makes her and the Beast to rage even the Beast that hath Power over the Tongues which are called the Original to order them by which they make Divines as they call them But all that receive the Gospel the Power of God which brings Life and Immortality to Light they come to see over the Beast Devil Whore and False Prophet that hath darkned them and all their Worships and Orders and come to be Heirs of the Gospel the Power of God which was before the Beast Whore False Prophet and Devil were and will be when they are all gone and cast into the Lake of Fire And they that be Heirs of this Power and of this Gospel they inherit the Power which is the Authority of this Order and of our Meetings Every Man and Woman that be Heirs of the Gospel are Heirs of this Authority and of the Power of God which was before the Devil was and which is not of Man nor by Man These come to inherit and possess the joyful Order of the joyful Gospel the comfortable Order of the comfortable Gospel the glorious Order of the glorious Gospel and the everlasting Order of the everlasting Gospel the Power of God which will last for ever and will out-last all the Orders of the Devil and that which is of Men or by Men. And these shall see the Government of Christ who hath all Power in Heaven and Earth given to him and of the Increase of his glorious righteous holy just Government there is no end but his Government and his Order will remain for he who is the Author of it is the First and the Last the Beginning and Ending the Foundation of God which over all stands sure Christ Jesus the Amen After I had travelled amongst Friends through most parts of the Nation and the Monthly-Meetings were settled being returned to London London I stay'd some time there visiting Friends Meetings in and about the City While I was in London I went one day to Visit him that was called Esq Marsh who had shewed much Kindness both to me and to Friends and I happened to go when he was at Dinner He no sooner heard my Name but he sent for me up and would have had me sit down with him to Dinner 1668. London but I had not freedom to do so There were several Great Persons at Dinner with him and he said to one of them who was a great Papist Here is a Quaker which you have not seen before The Papist askt me Whether I did own the Christening of Children I told him There was no Scripture for any such Practice What! said he Not for Christening Children I said Nay I told him the one Baptism by the one Spirit into one Body we owned but to throw a little Water on a Child's Face and say that was Baptizing and Christening it there was no Scripture for that Then he asked me Whether I did own the Catholick Faith I said Yes but added That neither the Pope nor the Papists were in that Catholick Faith for the true Faith works by Love and purifies the Heart and if they were in that Faith that gives Victory by which they might have Access to God they would not tell the People of a Purgatory after they were dead So I undertook to prove That neither Pope nor Papists that held a Purgatory hereafter were in the true Faith For the true precious Divine Faith which Christ is the Author of gives Victory over the Devil and Sin that had separated Man and Woman from God And if they the Papists were in the true Faith they would never use Racks Prisons and Fines to persecute and force others to their Religion that were not of their Faith For this was not the Practice of the Apostles and Primitive Christians who witnessed and enjoyed the true Faith of Christ but it was the Practice of the Faithless Jews and Heathens so to do But said I to him seeing thou art a great and leading Man among the Papists and hast been taught and bred up under the Pope and seeing thou say'st There is no Salvation but in your Church I desire to know of thee What it is that doth bring Salvation in your Church He answered A Good Life And nothing else said I Yes said he Good Works And is this it that brings Salvation in your Church a good Life and good Works Is this your Doctrine and Principle said I Yes said he Then said I neither Thou nor the Pope nor any of the Papists know what it is that brings Salvation Then he askt me What brought Salvation in our Church I told him That which brought Salvation to the Church in the Apostles Days the same brought Salvation to us and not another Namely The Grace of God which the Scripture says brings Salvation and hath appeared to all men which taught the Saints then and teaches us now and this Grace which brings Salvation teaches To deny Vngodliness and worldly Lusts and to live godly righteously and soberly So it is not the good Works nor the good Life that brings the Salvation but the Grace What! said the Papist Doth this Grace that brings Salvation appear unto all men Yes said I. Then said he I deny that But I said All that deny that are Sect-makers and are not in the Universal Faith Grace and Truth which the Apostles were in Then he spake to me about the Mother-Church and I told him The several sorts of Sects in Christendom had accused us and said We forsook our Mother-Church The Papists charged us with forsaking their Church and they said Rome was the only Mother-Church The Episcopalians taxed us with forsaking the old Protestant Religion and they said Theirs was the Reformed Mother-Church The Presbyterians and Independents
blamed us for leaving them and each of them said Theirs was the right-Reformed-Church But I said if we could own any outward City or Place to be the Mother Church we should own outward Jerusalem where the Gospel was first preached by Christ himself and the Apostles where Christ suffered where the great Conversion to Christianity by Peter was where were the Types Figures and Shadows which Christ ended and where Christ commanded his Disciples To wait until they were endued with Power from high So if any outward place deserved to be called the Mother that was the place where the first great Conversion to Christianity was But the Apostle saith Gal. 4.25 26. Jerusalem which now is in Bondage with her Children But Jerusalem which is above is free which is the Mother of us all For it is written Rejoyce thou barren that bearest not break forth and cry thou that travailest not for the Desolate hath many more Children than she that hath an Husband ver 27. Now this we do see that Jerusalem below which was the highest Place of Worship and all that be like her in Profession without Possession have more Children than the Free Woman that hath an Husband which is Jerusalem that is above the Mother of us all that be true Christians So the Apostle doth not say Outward Jerusalem was the Mother though the first and great Conversion to Christianity was there And therefore there is less Reason for the Title Mother to be given to Rome or to any other outward Place or City by the Children of Jerusalem that is above and free and they are not Jerusalem's Children that is above and free who give â—he Title of Mother either to outward Jerusalem or to Roâ—â— or to any other Place or Sect of People And though this Title Mother hath been given to Places and Sects amongst and by the degenerate Christians yet we say still as the Apostle said of Old Jerusalem that is above is the Mother of us all and we can own no other neither outward Jerusalem nor Rome nor any Sect of People for our Mother but Jerusalem which is above which is free the Mother of us all that are born again and become true Believers in the Light and who are grafted into Christ the Heavenly Vine For all who are born again of the Immortal Seed by the Word of God which lives and abides for ever feed upon the Milk of the Word the Breasts of Life and grow by it in Life and cannot acknowledge any other to be their Mother but Jerusalem which is above Oh! said Esq Marsh to the Papist You do not know this man If he would but come to Church now and then he would be a Brave Man After some other Discourse together I went aside with this Justice Marsh into another Room to speak with him concerning Friends for he was a Justice of Peace for Middlesex and being a Courtier the other Justices put much of the Management of matters upon him Now when we Two were alone together he told me He was in a streight how to Act between us and some other Dissenters For said he You cannot Swear and the Independents Baptists and Fifth-Monarchy-People say also They cannot Swear and therefore said he how shall I know how to distinguish betwixt you and them seeing they and you all say It is for Conscience sake that you cannot Swear Then said I I will shew thee how to distinguish For they or most of them thou speakest of can and do Swear in some Cases but we cannot Swear in any Case If a Man should steal their Cows or Horses and thou should'st ask them whether they would Swear they were theirs Many of them would readily do it But if thou try our Friends they cannot Swear for their own Goods Therefore when thou puttest the Oath of Allegiance to any of them ask them Whether they can Swear in any other case as for their Cow or Horse Which if they be really of us they cannot do though they can bear Witness to the Truth Hereupon I gave him a Relation of a Trial in Barkshire which was thus A Thief stole Two Beasts from a Friend of ours the Thief was taken and cast into Prison and the Friend appeared against him at the Assizes But some body having Informed the Judge that the Man that Prosecuted was a Quaker and could not Swear the Judge before he heard what the Friend could say said Is he a Quaker And will he not Swear Then tender him the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy So he cast the Friend into Prison and Premunired him and let the Thief go at Liberty that had stolen his Goods When I had related this Case Justice Marsh said That Judge was a wicked Man But said I If we could Swear in any Case we would take the Oath of Allegiance to the King who is to preserve the Laws that preserve every man in his Estate Whereas others that can Swear in some cases to preserve a part of their Estates if they be robbed will not take this Oath to the King who is to preserve them in their whole Estates and Bodies also So that thou may'st easily distinguish and put a difference betwixt us and other People This Justice Marsh was afterwards very serviceable to Friends in this and other Cases for he kept several both Friends and others from being premunired in those parts where he was a Justice And when Friends have been brought before him in the times of Persecution he set many of them at Liberty And when he could not avoid sending to Prison he sent some for a few Hours or for a Night At length he went to the King and told him He had sent some of us to Prison contrary to his Conscience and he could not do so any more Wherefore he removed his Family from Lime-house where he lived and took Lodgings near James's Park He told the King That if he would be pleased to give Liberty of Conscience that would quiet and settle all for then none could have any pretence to be uneasie And indeed he was a very serviceable man to Truth and Friends in his day We had great Service at London this year and the Lord's Truth came over all and many that had been out from Truth came in again this Year Confessing and Condemning their former Outgoings Now after I had stay'd some time in London I went forth into the Countries again visiting Friends in Surry and Sussex Surry Sussex and in other places that way and afterwards travelled Northward having Leonard Fell with me We visited Friends till we came to Warwick Warwick where many Friends were in Prison and we had a Meeting in the Town After that I passed from thence to Birmingham and to Badgely Birmingham Badgely At Badgely I had a large Meeting After which I passed through the Country visiting Friends till I came to Nottingham Nottingham where on the first day we had a precious
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
abroad through the Island Whereupon I with some other Friends drew up a Paper to go forth in the Name of the People called Quakers for the clearing Truth and Friends from those false Reports It was directed thus For the Governour of Barbados with his Council and Assembly and all others in Power both Civil and Military in this Island from the People called Quakers WHereas many scandalous Lies and Slanders have been cast upon us to render us odious as that We do deny God and Christ Jesus and the Scriptures of Truth c. This is to Inform you that all our Books and Declarations which for these many Years have been published to the World do clearly testifie the contrary Yet notwithstanding for your Satisfaction we do now plainly and sincerely declare That we do Own and Believe in God the only-Wise Omnipotent and Everlasting God who is the Creator of all things both in Heaven and in the Earth and the Preserver of all that he hath made who is God over all blessed for ever To whom be all Honour and Glory Dominion Praise and Thanksgiving both now and for evermore And we do Own and Believe in Jesus Christ his beloved and only begotten Son in whom he is well-pleased Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost and born of the Virgin Mary in whom we have Redemption through his Blood even the Forgiveness of Sins Who is the Express Image of the Invisible God the First-born of every Creature by whom were all things created that are in Heaven and that are in Earth visible and invisible whether they be Thrones or Dominions or Principalities or Powers All things were created by him And we do Own and Believe that he was made a Sacrifice for Sin who knew no Sin neither was Guile found in his Mouth And that he was Crucified for us in the Flesh without the Gates of Jerusalem and that he was Buried and Rose again the Third Day by the Power of his Father for our Justification And we do Believe that he Ascended up into Heaven and now sitteth at the Right Hand of God This Jesus who was the Foundation of the Holy Prophets and Apostles is our Foundation and we do believe that there is no other Foundation to be laid but that which is laid even Christ Jesus who we believe tasted Death for every Man and shed his Blood for all Men and is the Propitiation for our Sins and not for ours only but also for the Sins of the whole World According as John the Baptist testified of him when he said Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the Sins of the World Joh. 1.29 We believe that he alone is our Redeemer and Saviour even the Captain of our Salvation who saves us from Sin as well as from Hell and the Wrath to come and destroys the Devil and his Works who is the Seed of the Woman that bruises the Serpent's Head to wit Christ Jesus the Alpha and Omega the First and the Last That he is as the Scriptures of Truth say of him our Wisdom and Righteousness Justification and Redemption neither is there Salvation in any other for there is no other Name under Heaven given among Men whereby we may be saved It is he alone who is the Shepherd and Bishop of our Souls He it is who is our Prophet whom Moses long since testified of saying A Prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your Brethren like unto me him shall ye hear in all things whatsoever he shall say unto you And it shall come to pass that every Soul that will not hear that Prophet shall be destroyed from among the People Acts 2.22 23. He it is that is now Come and hath given us an Vnderstanding that we may know him that is true and he rules in our Hearts by his Law of Love and of Life and makes us free from the Law of Sin and Death and we have no Life but by him for he is the quickning Spirit the Second Adam the Lord from Heaven by whose Blood we are cleansed and our Consciences sprinkled from Dead Works to serve the Living God And he is our Mediator that makes Peace and Reconciliation between God offended and us offending he being the Oath of God the New Covenant of Light Life Grace and Peace the Author and Finisher of our Faith Now this Lord Jesus Christ the Heavenly Man the Emanuel God with us we all own and believe in him whom the High-Priest raged against and said he had spoken Blasphemy whom the Priests and the Elders of the Jews took Counsel together against and put to Death the same whom Judas betrayed for Thirty Pieces of Silver which the Priests gave him as a Reward for his Treason who also gave large Money to the Souldiers to broach an Horrible Lie namely That his Disciples came and stole him away by Night whilst they slept And after he was Risen from the Dead the History of the Acts of the Apostles sets forth how the Chief-Priests and Elders persecuted the Disciples of this Jesus for Preaching Christ and his Resurrection This we say is that Lord Jesus Christ whom we own to be our Life and Salvation And as concerning the Holy Scriptures we do believe That they were given forth by the Holy Spirit of God through the Holy Men of God who as the Scripture it self declares 2 Pet. 1.21 spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost We believe they are to be Read Believed and Fulfilled He that fulfils them is Christ and they are profitable for Doctrine for Reproof for Correction and for Instruction in Righteousness that the Man of God may be perfect throughly furnished unto all good Works 2 Tim. 3.16 and are able to make wise unto Salvation through Faith in Christ Jesus And we do believe that the Holy Scriptures are the Words of God for it s said in Exod. 20.1 God spake all these Words saying c. meaning the Ten Commandments given forth upon Mount Sinai And in Rev. 22.18 saith John I testifie to every man that heareth the Words of the Prophecy of this Book If any man addeth unto these and if any Man shall take away from the Words of the Book of this Prophecy not the Word c. So in Luke 1.20 Because thou believest not my Words And so in John 5.47 and John 15.7 John 14.23 John 12.47 So that we call the Holy Scriptures as Christ and the Apostles called them and Holy Men of God called them viz. the Words of God Another Slander and Lye they have cast upon us namely That we should teach the Negroes to Rebell A thing we utterly abhor and detest in our Hearts the Lord knows it who is the Searcher of all Hearts and knows all things and so can witness and testifie for us that this is a most Abominable Vntruth For that which we have spoken and declared to them is To exhort and admonish them to be sober and to fear God and
and set over all and they were all brought down and bowed under which was of great Service to Truth and great Satisfaction and Comfort to Friends Glory to the Lord for ever After this Meeting were over and Friends were gone to their several Habitations we staid some Days upon the Island and had several Meetings in several parts thereof and had good Service for the Lord. Oister-bay And when we were clear of the Island we returned to Oister-Bay waiting for a Wind to carry us to Road-Island which was computed to be about two hundred Miles As soon as the Wind served we set Sail ROAD-ISLAND and arrived in Road-Island on the thirtieth Day of the Third Month where we were gladly received by Friends We went to Nicholas Easton's House who at that time was Governour of the Island and there we lay being very weary with travelling by Land and Sea On the First-Day of the Week following we had a large Meeting to which the Deputy-Governour and several Justices came and were mightily affected with the Truth The Week following the Yearly Meeting for all the Friends of New-England Yearly Meeting and the other Colonies adjacent was held in this Island to which besides very many Friends who lived in those parts came John Stubbs from Barbados and James Lancaster and John Cartwright from another way This Meeting lasted Six Days of which the first four Days were general publick Meetings for Worship to which abundance of the World's People came For they having no Priests in the Island and so no Restriction to any particular Way of Worship and both the Governour and Deputy-Governour with several Justices of the Peace daily frequenting the Meetings this did so encourage the People that they flocked in from all parts of the Island Very good Service we had amongst them and Truth had a good Reception with them And indeed to give them their due I have rarely observed a People in the State wherein they stood to hear with more Attention Diligence and Affection than generally they did during the four Days together which also was taken notice of by other Friends After these publick Meetings were over the Mens-Meeting began which was large 1672. Road-Island Yearly-Meeting precious and weighty and the day following was the Womens-Meeting which also was large and very solemn and these two Meetings being for the Ordering the Affairs of the Church many weighty things were opened and communicated to them by Way of Advice Information and Instruction in the Services relating thereunto that all might be kept clean sweet and savoury amongst them In these two Meetings several Mens and Womens Meetings for other parts were agreed and settled to take Care of the Poor and other Affairs of the Church and to see that all who profess Truth walk according to the glorious Gospel of God Now when this great and General Meeting in Road-Island was ended it was somewhat hard for Friends to part For the glorious Power of the Lord which was over all and his blessed Truth and Life flowing amongst them had so knit and united them together that they spent two Days in taking leave one of another and of the Friends of the Island and then being mightily filled with the Presence and Power of the Lord they went away with joyful Hearts to their several Habitations in the several Colonies where they lived When this General Meeting was fully over and Friends had taken their Leaves one of another to depart home we who travelled amongst them dispersed our selves into our several Services according as the Lord ordered us John Burneyate with John Cartwright and George Pattison went into the Eastern parts of New-England in Company with the Friends that came from thence to visit the particular Meetings there whom John Stubbs and James Lancaster intended to follow a while after in the same Service of Truth but they were not yet Clear of this Island Robert Widders and I staid some time longer also upon this Island finding Service still here for the Lord through the great Openness of the People and the daily Coming in of Fresh People in Sloops from other Colonies for some time after the General Meeting was over So that we had many large and serviceable Meetings among them for several Days after During the time that we abode here there was a Marriage celebrated amongst Friends in this Island and we were at it It was at a Friend's House who had formerly been Governour of the Island and three Justices of the Peace and many others of the World's People were there and both they and Friends said They never saw such a Solemn Assembly on such an Occasion and so weighty a Marriage and so comely an Order Thus Truth was set over all and this might serve for an Example to others for there were some present from many other places After this I had a great Travel in Spirit concerning the Ranters for there were many of them in those parts and they had been rude at a Meeting which I was not at Wherefore I appointed a Meeting amongst them and I believed the Lord would give me Power over them and he did so to his Praise and Glory blessed be his Name for ever There were at this Meeting many Friends and divers of the World's People some of whom were Justices of the Peace and other Officers and they were generally well affected with the Truth But one of the Justices who had been a Justice twenty Years was Convinced 1672. Providence and spake highly of the Truth and more highly of me than is fit for me to mention or take notice of Then we had a Meeting at a place called Providence which was very large as consisting of many Sorts and Sects of People and I had a great Travel upon my Spirit concerning the Meeting that it might be preserved quiet and that Truth might be brought over the People and might gain an Entrance and have a Place in them For they were generally above the Priests in high Notions and some of them came on purpose to dispute But the Lord whom we waited upon was with us and his Power went over them all and his blessed Seed was exalted and set above all and the Disputers were silent and the Meeting was quiet and ended well praised be the Lord And the People went away mightily satisfied much desiring another Meeting This place called Providence was about Thirty Miles from Road-Island and we went to it by Water The Governour of Road-Island and many others went with me thither and we had the Meeting in a great Barn which was throng'd with People so that I was exceeding hot and in a great Sweat but all was well the glorious Power of the Lord shined over all Glory to the great God for ever Narraganset After this we went to another place called Narraganset about Twenty Miles from Road-Island and the Governour went with us There we had a Meeting at a Justice's House
Men and Women that be Heirs of this Power of God it is their Possession and Portion and they are to labour in their Possession and Portion and to do God Almighty's business and Service in the Possession of the Power of God the Gospel which is a Joyful Glorious Everlasting Order And here is the Authority of our Men and Women's Meetings and other Meetings in the Name of Jesus the Gospel of Christ the Power of God which is not of Man nor by Man and in this they are all to Meet and to Worship God and by this they are all to act and in this Power they have all Fellowship a Joyful Fellowship a Joyful and Comfortable Assembly And so this is the Day in the Eternal Light that all are to take their Possessions of the Gospel and its Order that Power of God which they are Heirs of And all the Faithful Men and Women in every Country City and Nation whose Faith stands in the Power of God the Gospel of Christ and have received this Gospel and are in the Possession of this Gospel the Power of God they have all Right to the Power in these Meetings for they be Heirs of the Power which is the Authority of the Mens and Womens-Meetings So here is God's Choice and not Man's by his Power of his Heirs and they have all Freedom in this Gospel the Power of God to go to the Meetings the Men to the Mens and the Women to the Womens for they are Heirs of the Power which Power is the Gospel not of Man nor by Man but from Heaven sent by the Holy Ghost and received in the Holy Ghost which hath brought Life and Immortality to Light in them and they see over Enmity and before it was by the Light and the Life and Immortality which is brought to Light in them So the Devil the Author of Enmity cannot get into this Authority and Power nor Order nor Fellowship of the Gospel nor Life nor Light nor the Fellowship in the Holy Spirit nor into the Vnity of the Faith which gives Victory over him that hath separated Man from God by which Faith they have Access to God and into the Vnity of this Faith the Serpent cannot come nor into the Worship of God in Spirit and Truth into this Worship the Devil cannot come nor any Enmity So I say that the Serpent the Devil is out of the Fellowship of the Gospel out of the Vnity of the Faith and out of the Order of the Gospel and out of the Worship in Spirit and Truth And they that be in this be in Vnity over him And therefore as I said before let every one's Faith stand in the Power of God the Glorious Gospel and all to walk as becomes the Gospel and the Order of it and as every one hath received Christ Jesus the Lord so walk in him and let him be their Lord and Orderer For they that do preach the Gospel of Christ Jesus it is to the Intent that all might come to be Heirs of the Gospel and into the Possession of it and to be Heirs of Christ and of his Government the Encrease of which there is no end who is over all in his Righteousness and over all in his Light Life Power and Dominion And therefore know one another in his Power his Gospel which is the Authority of your Meetings And know one another in Christ Jesus who is able to restore Man out of the State of the Fall into the Image of God as he was in before he fell and into that Power and Dominion that Man had before he fell and into himself that never fell where they shall go no more forth And here is the Rock and Foundation of God that stands sure And Friends be Tender to the Tender Principle of God in all and shun the Occasion of Vain Disputes and Janglings both amongst your selves and others for that many times is like a blustering Wind that hurts and bruises the tender Buds and Plants For the World though they have the Words yet they be out of the Life and the Apostle's Disputing with them were to bring them to the Life And those Disputes that were amongst the Christians about Genealogies and Circumcision and the Law and Meats and Drinks and Days those came to be the worst sort of Disputers whom the Apostles Judged for such destroyed People from the Faith And therefore did the Apostles exhort the Churches That every ones Faith should stand in the Power of God and to Look at Jesus which was the Author of it and there every Graft stands in Christ the Vine quiet where no blustring Storms could hurt them and there is the Safety And there all are of one Mind one Faith one Soul one Spirit Baptized into one Body with the one Spirit and made all to drink into one Spirit one Church one Head that is Heavenly and Spiritual one Faith in this Head Christ who is the Author of it and hath the Glory of it one Lord to order all who is the Baptizer into this one Body So Christ hath the Glory of this Faith out of every Man and Woman and God through him hath his Glory the Creator of all in his Power the Gospel that hath brought Life and Immortality to Light in them and their Faith standing in it they know the Immortal God and Serve and Worship him in his Spirit and in his Truth by which they are made God's free Men and Women from him that is out of the Truth And now Friends all you that have been Ancient Labourers and have known the Dealings of the Lord these Twenty Years more or less as I have often said to you to draw up what you can of that which the Lord hath carried you through by his Power the Passages and Sufferings and how by the Lord ye have been supported from the first So that the Lord may be Exalted by his Power now and in the Ages to come who hath been the only Support Defence and Stay or his People all along over all to himself to whom be all Glory and Praise for ever and ever Amen Who deserves it in his Church throughout all Ages from his living Members who return the Praise to the living God who lives and reigns over all blessed for ever who is the Life and Strength and Health and Length of the Days of all his People And therefore let there be no Boasting but in the Lord and in his Power and Kingdom and that keeps all in the Humility And Friends In the Lord's Power and Truth what Good you can do for Friends that be in Prison or Sufferers as to the Informing of them or helping of them Every one bend your selves to the Lord's Power and Spirit to do his Will and his Business and in that all will have a fellow-Feeling of one anothers Conditions in Bonds or in what Trials and Tribulations soever you will have a fellow-Feeling one of another having one Head and one
Gospel-Order and it belongs to them Then take your Possessions and Practise in it and be not Talkers only but Live and Walk in the Gospel the Power of God which is the Authority of your Meetings Swarthmore the 28th of the Third Month 1676. G. F. Read at the Yearly Meeting in London the 17th of the Third Month 1676. During this time also I Collected together as many as I could of the Epistles I had written in former Years to Friends I made a Collection too of the several Papers that I had written to O. Cromwel and his Son Richard in the time of their Protectorships and to the Parliaments and Magistrates that were in their times And after I had gathered them together I Collected also the Papers I had written to King Charles the Second since his Return and to his Council and Parliaments and the Justices or other Magistrates under him I made also another Collection of Certificates which I had received from divers Governours of Places Judges Justices Parliament-Men and others for the Clearing of me from many Slanders which the Envious Priests and Professors both here and beyond the Seas had cast upon me And this I did for the Truth's-sake as knowing that their Design in Slandering me was to defame the Truth published by me and hinder thereby if they could the Spreading thereof amongst the People Besides these I made Two Books of Collections the one was A List or Catalogue of the Names of those Friends who went first forth out of the North of England when Truth first brake forth there to proclaim the Day of the Lord through this Nation The other was of the Names of those Friends that went first forth to Preach the Gospel in other Nations Countries and Places and in what Years and to what Parts they went I made also another Collection in Two Books one of Epistles and Letters from Friends and others on several Occasions to me The other of Letters of mine to Friends and others I writ also a Book of the Types and Figures of Christ with their Significations and many other things which will be of Service to Truth and Friends in times to come I took notice also of those who had run out from Truth and drawn others out after them and turned against Truth and Friends at several times since the First Breaking forth of Truth in this latter Age and what became of them noting particularly the Repentance and Return of such of them as came back to Truth again But some ran quite out and never returned again but were Cut off in their Gainsaying and Rebellion for the Word and Power of God hath blasted and is blasting them and the Holy Seed hath ground and is grinding them to pieces And this I have observed that they who have been Convinced and have not lived and walked in the Truth have been the Worst Enemies to the Truth and done most Hurt amongst Friends in the Truth and to others And in these I have seen fulfilled what the Lord did long since shew me That such should be greater Deceivers than all the Priests and Professors For such as came as far as Cain and Balaam and Corah and Dathan and could preach Christ and say They had preached in his Name and such as came to be Apostles and had tasted of the Power of Christ and then turned from it such could yet speak their Old Experiences and have the good Words like Corah and Balaam but not keeping in the Life and Truth such Deceived the Hearts of the Simple both then and now and such come to be of the Devil who abode not in the Truth as Cain and and all the Jews that abode not in the Truth were For though Cain did Sacrifice to God and did talk with God and the Jews could talk of Abraham Moses and the Prophets yet Christ told them They were of their Father the Devil In like manner though they who are called Christians can talk of Christ and use his and his Apostles and Disciples Words yet not abiding in the Truth and Power and Spirit that the Apostles were in they are of the Devil out of Truth and do his Work And so are all these that have been Convinced of God's Eternal Truth since it sprang up in this Nation that have not abode in the Light and in the Spirit and Power of Christ Jesus but have turned against the Power and have opposed the Work thereof though they may retain their former Experiences and be able to speak many good Words yet not living in the Life and Power that gave them those Experiences they live in the Power of Darkness which is of the Devil and by the Light and Truth both he and they are Condemned and must own their Condemnations if ever they come to Truth again For to Resist the Heavenly Power and to oppose the Workings and Divine Manifestations thereof through any is not a light Matter And as I had been moved of the Lord to travel in his Power round about this Nation and in other Parts to preach the Everlasting Gospel and to declare the Word of Life which was in the Beginning through many Imprisonments Hardships Sufferings and Trials so I was afterwards moved to Travel in the same Heavenly Power about the Nation again and to write to such Places where I came not to recommend unto Friends the setting up of the Quarterly and Monthly Meetings in all Counties for the looking after the Poor and taking Care for Orderly Proceedings in Marriages and other matters relating to the Church of Christ Though some Meetings for this end were settled in the North of England in the Year 1653. And after this also Truth still spreading further over the Nation and Friends encreasing in number I was moved by the same Eternal Power to recommend the setting up the Womens-Meetings also that all both Male and Female that had received the Gospel the Word of Eternal Life might come into the Order of the Gospel brought forth by the Power of God and might act for God in the Power and therein do Business and Service for him in his Church All the Faithful must labour in God's Vineyard they being his Hired Servants and he having given them the Earnest of his Spirit For a Master that hires a Servant and gives him the Earnest of his Hire expects he should do his Work after he knows his Will in the outward Creation So all God's Prople that be of the new Creation and have received the Earnest of his Spirit ought to labour with by and in his Spirit Power and Grace and Faith in the Light in God's Vineyard that they may have their Wages every one Male and Female when they have done God's Work and Business in his Day which is Eternal Life But none can labour in his Vineyard and do his Work and Will but as they walk in the Heavenly Divine Light Grace and Spirit of Christ which is hath been and is my Travel and
if ye lose it and let another Spirit get over you ye will not so soon regain it again For I knew the Devil would bestir himself in his Instruments when Mens and Womens-Meetings came to be set up and all in the Power Light and Truth and Heirs of the Gospel to take their Possession of it in every County and City in it to walk and to watch one over another and in it to take Care of God's Glory and Honour and his precious Truth and to see that all did walk in the Truth and as becomes the Gospel and to see that nothing was lacking and so whatsoever was decent modest virtuous lovely comely righteous and of good Report to follow after and to admonish and exhort all that was not faithful and to rebuke all that did Evil I knew that this would give such a Check to all loose Speakers Talkers and Walkers I did not expect but that there would be an Opposition against such Meetings But never heed Truth will come over them all and is over them all and Faith must have the Victory for the Gospel and its Order is Everlasting and the Seed Christ is the Beginning and the Ending and will out-last all the Amen in whom ye have Peace I say all that do oppose the Mens and Womens-Meetings or that Marriages should be laid before them or of Recording of Condemnations of Sin and Evil or Admonishing or Exhorting such as walk not in the Truth they are of a loose Spirit and their Spirits tend to Looseness and let them take them that will for Truth will not have them nor will have none of their Sacrifice For nothing is accepted of God but what is done in Truth and in his Spirit which is peaceable And the Authority of our Mens and Womens-Meetings is the Power of God and all the Heirs of the Gospel are Heirs of that Authority and Dignity and this is of God and shall Answer the Witness of God in all And the greatest Opposers of this Practice and Work will be and are such as have been Convinced of God's Truth but have not lived in it and such were the greatest Troublers of the Church in Moses's Day and in the Days of the Apostles But mark their End and read what became of them all And therefore all keep your Habitation in Truth and therein ye may see what became of all the Opposers of it for Twenty Years past They are all gone and the Truth lives and reigns and the Seed is over all and all is One in it in Rest Peace and Life Everlasting and therein they sit down together in the Heavenly Places in Christ Jesus the Amen Swarthmore the 5th of the 8th Month 1676. G. F. In this Year while I was at Swarthmore died William Lampit the old Priest of Vlverstone which is the Parish that Swarthmore is in He was an Old Deceiver and Perverter of the Right Way of the Lord and a Persecutor of the People of God and much Contest I had with him when I first came into those parts He had been an old false Prophet for in the Year 1652. he Prophesied and said he would Wage his Life upon it That the Quakers would all vanish and come to nought within half a year But he came to nought himself For he continued in his Lying and false Accusing of God's People till a little before he died and then he cried for a little Rest And to one of his Hearers that came to visit him before he died he said I have been a Preacher a long time 1677. Swarthmore and thought I had lived well but I did not think it had been so hard a Thing to die Now after I had finished those Services which lay upon me then to do feeling my Spirit drawn again towards the South though I was yet but weakly and not able to Travel far in a Day I left Swarthmore on the Twenty Sixth Day of the First Month 1677. Westmorland Powbank Camsgill and went to Thomas Pearson's at Powbank in Westmorland where I had a Meeting the next Day and went from thence to Thomas Cam's at Cam's-Gill whither Robert Widders with his Wife and several other Friends came to see me before I left the Country and to be at the Meeting there the next Day which was very large and in which I was largely drawn forth in Testimony to the Truth After the Meeting I had much Discourse with some of that Meeting who at that time were not in Vnity with Friends of the Quarterly Meeting they belonged to but afterwards several of them that were somewhat Tender came to see their Error and gave forth Condemnations against themselves Next day John Blaykling came to Tho. Cam's Yorkshire Sedberg Drawell to bring me to his House at Drawell in Sedberg in Yorkshire whither I went with him visiting Friends in the way I staid at Drawel two or three Nights having Meetings there and thereabouts For while I was there the Men and Womens-Meetings were held there which were very large and precious And on the First Day following I had a Meeting at Brigflats not far off Brigflats where were most part of the Friends from the several Meetings round about and a great Concourse of other People also so that it was thought there were Five or Six Hundred People and a very good Meeting it was wherein Truth was largely declared and preciously opened to the comforting and refreshing the Faithful and the drawing near them that were afar off After this I had another Meeting at John Blaykling's Drawell where were many Friends that were going to the Quarterly Meeting at Kendal With them my Wife went back who with her Daughter Rachel had accompanied me thus far and I having Leonard Fell with me passed on through Sedberg and Garsdale and into Wensydale Sedberg Garsdale Wensydale Counterside visiting Friends as we went And at Night I reached to Richard Robinson's at Counterside where several Friends came to me that Evening and some of them went with me next Day over the Hills to the Widow Tenant's at Scarhouse in Langstroth-dale Langstrothdale Scarhouse whither we had much ado to get the Snow lay so deep though it was a Week in the Second Month. Here on the next Day which was the First Day of the Week we had a large Meeting Friends coming to it from several parts round about and the Lord gave me a very seasonable Testimony to bear amongst them which I did for several Hours to their great Satisfaction and Comfort Thence passing on through Bishopsdale Bishopsdale Mildum Barton Bedal Northallerton Burrowby Mildum Barton and so through the Country by Bedal and North-allerton I came to George Robinson's at Burrowby where also Friends coming out of several parts we had a very large and good Meeting and very Peaceable But not long after an envious Justice who lived not far off hearing that I had a great Meeting there troubled Friends about it
from men and to receive the Gospel from him and their Vnction from him the Word and as they receive him they declare him freely as his Command was to his Disciples and is so still to the Learners and Receivers of him For he Lord God and his Son Jesus Christ is come to teach his People and to bring them from all the Worlds Ways to Christ the Way the Truth and the Life who is the Way to the Father and from all the Worlds Teachers and Speakers to him the Speaker and Teacher as Hebr. 1.1 and from all the Worlds Worshippers to worship God in the Spirit and in the Truth which the Devil the Destroyer is out of which Worship Christ set up above Sixteen hundred years ago when he put down the Jews Worship at the Temple at Jerusalem and the Worship at the Mountain where Jacob's Well was and to bring People from all the World's Religions which they have made since the Apostles days to the Religion that was set up by Christ and his Apostles which is Pure and Undefiled before God and keeps from the Spots of the World And to bring them out of all the Worlds Churches and Fellowships that they have made and set up since the Apostles days to the Church that is in God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ Thess 1.1 and to bring to the Unity and Fellowship in the holy Spirit that doth mortifie and circumcise and baptise to plunge down Sin and Corruption that has got up in Man and Woman by Transgression and in this holy Spirit there is a holy Fellowship and Unity yea it is the Bond of the Prince of Princes and King of Kings and Lord of Lords Peace which heavenly Peace all the true Christians are to maintain with Spiritual Weapons not with Carnal And now my Friend the holy Men of God did speak forth the Scriptures as they were moved by the holy Ghost and all Christendom are on heaps about those Scriptures because they are not led by the same holy Ghost as they were that gave forth the Scriptures which holy Ghost they must come to in themselves and be led by if they come into All the Truth of them and to have the Comfort of God and Christ and Them For none can call Jesus Lord but by the holy Ghost and all they that do call Christ Lord without the holy Ghost take his Name in vain And likewise all that name his Name are to depart from Iniquity then they name his Name with Reverence in Truth and Righteousness And O therefore feel the Grace and Truth in thy heart that is come by Jesus Christ which is a Teacher that will teach thee how to live and what to deny and it will establish thy heart and season thy words and bring thy Salvation and will be a Teacher unto thee at all times and by it thou may'st Receive Christ from whence it comes and as many as Receive him to them he gives power not only to stand against sin and evil but to become the Sons of God if Sons then Heirs of a Life and a World and Kingdom that is Everlasting without end and of the Eternal Riches and Treasures thereof So in haste with my Love in the Lord Jesus Christ that has tasted death for every man and bruises the Serpents head that has been betwixt Man and God that through Christ Man may come to God again and so can praise God through Jesus Christ the Amen who is the spiritual and heavenly Rock and Foundation for all God's People to build upon to the praise and glory of God who is over all blessed for Evermore Amsterdam the 7th of 6th Month 1677. George Fox POSTSCRIPT THE Bearer hereof is a Daughter-in-law of mine that comes with Gertrude Dirick Nieson and George Keith's Wife to give thee a Visit G. F. The Princess Elizabeth her Answer to the aforesaid LETTER Dear Friend I Cannot but have a tender Love to those that love the Lord Jesus Christ and to whom it is given not only to believe in him but also to suffer for him Therefore your Letter and your Friends Visit have been both very welcome to me I shall follow their and your Counsel as far as God will afford me Light and Unction Remaining still Hertfort the 30th of August 1677. Your loving Friend ELIZABETH Buyckslote Purmerent Next day John Claus and I took Boat and passed to Buyckslote and thence to Purmerent where having stayed awhile and refreshed our selves at an Inn we went by Wagon through the Country to Alcmaer Alcmaer about Thirty Miles from Amsterdam We went to a Friend's house there whose name was Willem Willems where I had a Meeting that night I had also another Meeting there next day which was larger for several Professors came to the Meeting and all was quiet and well When the Meeting was done I went and visited some Friends and then taking Boat Hoorn North-Holland passed-by several places to Hoorn which is counted the chief City in North-Holland We lodged at an Inn there that night and taking Wagon again early next Morning we passed through the Country to Enckhuysen Enckhuysen Friezland Workum where we took Ship for Friezland and landing in the Afternoon at Workum took Wagon there again and rode along upon the high Bank of the Friezen Seas till we met Two Friends coming with a Wagon to meet us Mackum with whom discharging our Wagon at Mackum a Village hard by we went Harlingen in their Wagon to Harlingen the chief Sea-port-Town in Friezland We went to a Friend's house whose Name was Hessel Jacobs whither several Friends came to Visit us that night Next day we went among the Friends of the place and Visited them and I wrote a Paper directed To all them that persecute Friends for not observing their Fast-day The day following was the First-day of the Week and Friends had a Meeting there to which we went and many Professors came to it I declared the Everlasting Gospel amongst them John Claus interpreting and they were all very Civil and heard attentively and when the Meeting was done departed peaceably without making any Opposition After Meeting I went to Hessel Jacobs his house again whither after a while came a Calvinist to ask me some Questions which I answered to his satisfaction and he departed friendly Soon after he was gone a Preacher of the Collegians came to discourse with me 1677. Harlingen and he seemed well satisfied also and we parted lovingly That Evening I had another Meeting with the Friends there and next Morning when we had taken our Leave of them we passed to Leuwarden the chief City in Friezland Leuwarden and lodged that night at a Friend's house there whose Name was Sybrand Dowes Next Morning early taking Boat we passed to Dockum Dockum Strobus and walking through the City took Boat again to Strobus which is the utmost part of Friezland There we baited at a
de Bemise Disp fol. 71. Irenaeus affirmed That all forcing of Conscience though it was but a forbidding of the Exercise which is esteemed by one or another to be necessary to Salvation is in no wise right nor fitting He also affirmed That through the diversity of Religions the Kingdom should not be brought into any disturbance Constantius the Emperour said That it was enough that he preserved the Vnity of the Faith that he might be excusable before the Judgment-seat of God and that he would leave every one to his own Vnderstanding according to the Account he will give before the Judgment-seat of Christ Here-to may we stir up People said he not Compel them beseech them to come into the Unity of the Christians but to do Violence to them we will not in any wise Sebast Frank Chron. fol. 127. Augustinus said Some disturbed the Peace of the Church while they went about to root out the Tares before their time and through this Error of Blindness said he are they themselves separated so much the more from being united unto Christ Retnaldus testified That he who with Imprisoning and Persecuting seeketh to spread the Gospel and greaseth his hands with Blood shall much rather be looked upon for a wild Hunter than a Preacher or a Defender of the Christian Religion I have for a long season determined said Henry the IV. K. of France in his Speech to the Parliament 1599. to Reform the Church which without Peace said he I cannot do and it is impossible to Reform or Convert People by Violence I am King as a Shepherd said he and will not shed the Blood of my Sheep but will gather them through the Mildness and Goodness of a King and not through the Power of Tyranny and I will give them that are of the Reformed Religion right Liberty to live and dwell free without being examined perplexed molested or compelled to any thing contrary to their Consciences for they shall have the free Exercise of their Religion c. Vid. Chron. Van de Underg 2. deel p. 1514. Ennius said Wisdom is driven out when the Matter is acted by Force And therefore the best of Men and most glorious of Princes were always ready to give Toleration Euseb in his Second Book of the Life of Constantine reports these words of the Emperour Let them which err with Joy receive the like fruition of Peace and Quietness with the Faithful sith the restoring of Communication and Society may bring them into the right Way of Truth let none give Molestation to any let every one do as he determines in his Mind And indeed there is great reason for Princes to give Toleration to disagreeing Persons whose Opinions cannot by fair means be altered for if the Persons be Confident they will serve God according to their Perswasions and if they be publickly prohibited they will privately Convene and then all those Inconveniencies and Mischiefs which are Arguments against the permission of Conventicles are Arguments for the publick permissions of differing Religions c. they being restrained and made miserable endears the discontented Persons mutually and makes more hearty and dangerous Confederations The like Counsel in the Divisions of Germany at the first Reformation was thought reasonable by the Emperour Ferdinand and his excellent Son Maximilian for they had observed that Violence did exasperate was unblest unsuccessful and unreasonable and therefore they made Decrees of Toleration The Duke of Savoy repenting of his War undertaken for Religion against the Piedmontans promised them Toleration and was as good as his Word Also it is remarkable that till the time of Justinian the Emperour Anno Domini 525. the Catholicks and Novatians had Churches indifferently permitted even in Rome it self And Paul preached the Kingdom of God teaching those things which concerned the Lord Jesus Christ with all confidence and no man forbad him and this he did for the space of two years in his own hired house at Rome and received all that came to him NOW O KING seeing these Noble Testimonies concerning Liberty of Conscience of Kings Emperours and others and the Liberty that Paul had at Rome in the days of the Heathen-Emperour our desire is that we may have the same Liberty at Dantzick to Meet together in our own hired Houses which cannot be any prejudice either to the King and the City of Dantzick for us to meet together to wait upon the Lord and pray unto him and to serve and worship him in Spirit and Truth in our own hired Houses seeing our Principle leads us to hurt no Man but to Love our Enemies and to pray for them yea them that do persecute us And therefore O King Consider and the City of Dantzick would you not think it hard for others to force you from your Religion to another contrary to your Consciences And if it be so that you would think it hard to you then do you unto others as you would have them do unto you do not you that unto others which you would not have men do unto you for that is the Royal Law which ought to be obeyed And so in Love to thy Immortal Soul and for thy Eternal Good this is written G. F. POST-SCRIPT BLessed be the Merciful for they shall obtain Mercy And remember O King Justin Martyr's two Apologies to the Roman Emperours in the Defence of the persecuted Christians and that notable Apology which was written by Tertullian upon the same Subject which are not only for the Christian Religion but against all Persecution for Religion Dear Peter Hendricks and John Claus and J. Rawlins and all the rest of Friends in Amsterdam Friezland and Rotterdam to whom is my Love in the Seed of Life that 's over all I Received thy Letter with a Letter from Dantzick I have written something to you to the King of Poland which you may translate into High-Dutch and send it to Friends there to give it to the King or you may print it after it be delivered in Manuscript which may be serviceable to other Princes So in haste with my Love And the Lord God Almighty over all give you dominion in his Eternal Power and in it over all preserve you and keep you to his Glory that you may answer that of God in all People Amen London the 13th of 9th Month 1677. George Fox I continued yet in and about London some Weeks the Parliament sitting again and Friends Attending upon them to get some Redress of our Sufferings which about this time were very great and heavy upon many Friends in divers parts of the Nation they being very unduly prosecuted upon the Statutes made against Popish Recusants Though our Persecutors could not but know that Friends were utterly against Popery having born Testimony against it in Word and Writing and suffered under it But though many of the Members of Parliament in either House were kind to Friends and willing to have done something for their Ease yet having much
World Who is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords and all Power in Heaven and in Earth is given to him who will reward every Man according to his Words and Works ALL you bearing the Name of Christian Magistrates my desire is that you may all be found in Christ and not only have the Name but be made Partakers of his Divine Nature that ye may be not only Sayers of the Word but Doers of the Word not only Professors of Christ and Talkers of Christ but let Christ rule in your hearts by Faith and be Walkers in Christ For as Christ's great Apostle saith As every one hath received the Lord Jesus Christ so let him walk in him 1680. Kingston for in him there is peace And if all that do Profess Christ did Walk in Christ they would all Walk in Peace and be in Unity For the Apostle exhorted the Christians in his day to keep the Vnity of the Spirit which is the Bond of Peace yea of Christ the King of Kings Peace And all Christians who have the Scriptures and are not in this Spirit of Christ they are not in Unity one with another and so have broken this Bond of Peace which should knit and unite them together And likewise all that do profess the Truth of Christ should live in it for it is peaceable and the Gospel is the Gospel of Peace which if all Christians that do profess it lived in they would be at peace one with another and in the glorious Fellowship of the Gospel And also if all Christians kept in the Fear of God which is the beginning of the pure heavenly peaceable and gentle Wisdom which is easie to be entreated above that Wisdom which is earthly sensual devillish and destroying then there would be no difference and destroying about Matters of Religion I do declare the mighty Day of the Lord is Come and Coming and the Lord God is come to Teach his People himself by his Son Hebr. 1. whose Son Christ Jesus bruises the Serpent's Head that false Teacher that led Adam and Eve from God their Teacher So God will Teach his People by his Son who was the Teacher of Adam and Eve in Paradise before they fell and disobeyed the Lord and forsook him and followed the Serpent whose Head Christ does bruise and renews Man and Woman up again into the Image of God which Adam and Eve was in before they fell Glory and Honour be to God through Jesus Christ who hath called us by his Son into his glorious Image to serve and worship him in his Spirit and Truth which holy Spirit and Truth the Devil is out of and cannot come into it And now I desire all Christian Magistrates to take heed of Persecuting any though they differ from you in Matters of Faith Worship and Religion For Christ saith Let the Tares and the Wheat grow together till the Harvest and he forbad such as would be plucking up Tares The Reason was Lest they should pluck up the Wheat also for that Christ said should be his Angels work to separate the Tares from the Wheat Moreover Christ said They should go into everlasting Punishment that did not Visit him in Prison in his Members Then what will become of them that Cast him into Prison where he is made manifest in his Members Oh lay these things to heart A Day of Judgment will come Vengeance and Recompence upon every one according to their Works And Christ said to his Disciples who would have had Fire to come down from Heaven to consume them that would not receive him He turned him about and rebuked them and told them They did not know what spirit they were of for he came not to destroy mens Lives but to save them And therefore let all the Magistrates and the Priests in that which is called Christendom consider who have destroyed Mens and Womens Lives since the Apostles days because they could not Receive their Religions Ways and Worships or Conform to them which they have made and set up Have they known what Spirit they have been of Are they not all reproved by and come under the Judgment of Christ Therefore let all Persecution be laid away concerning Religion and let Love bear the sway to overcome Evil and Enemies and let Patience over-sway Passion in all such doings that all may retain the heavenly Reason and the pure Understanding that your Moderation in true Christianity may be known to all Men. For have you not the Turks Jews Tartars Indians and Atheists Eyes upon you and upon Christendom And therefore be in Unity and let not the Name of God and Christ be blasphemed amongst them by means of any that bear the Name of Christians So that God may be glorified by all and in all through Jesus Christ who is over all who calls all to Peace who is blessed for ever And now I would have you to be as Noble as the Bereans and search the Scriptures of Christ and the Apostles where-ever he or they did give any Command to Imprison Banish Persecute or put to Death any that would not receive or conform to them or that were contrary-minded to them in Religion or differ'd from them in Matters of Worship Again I desire all Christian Magistrates to search both Scriptures and Chronicles and see what was the End of all Persecutors and what Judgments came upon them What came to Cain who was the first Persecutor for Matters of Faith and Sacrifice Did not he become a Runnagade a Vagabond and a Fugitive in the Earth What became of the Old World that grieved God and Noah a Preacher of Righteousness What became of Sodom that vex'd Just Lot What became of Pharaoh that persecuted God's People in Egypt though the more he persecuted them the more they grew What became of Ahab and Jezabel that persecuted the Lord's Prophets And what became of Haman that would have destroyed the Jews What became of the Jews and Jerusalem that persecuted Christ and the Apostles What was the End of all these Are they not become Vagabonds in the Earth and driven away from their native Country Therefore I beseech you in the Love and Fear of God be so Noble as to search both Scripture and History and let not your divine understanding be clouded What will become of the Beast and Whore spoken of in the Revelations with their false Prophets that have drunk the blood of the Saints Martyrs and Prophets of Jesus must they not all go with the Devil who is a Murderer Destroyer an Enemy and Adversary of Mankind into the Lake of Fire that burns with Brimstone And ye may be sure that Spirit that stirs you up to Persecution let it be in whomsoever it will is not of Christ and of his Lamb-like Nature who takes away the Sins of the World not the Lives of Men. Paul was a Persecutor and a Haler to Prison before he was converted to Christianity but never after And therefore are not all
in Saul's nature let them be of what Name or Profession soever they be that are Persecutors and unconverted into Paul's Life of Christianity He said the Life that he did live after he was Converted was by the Faith in the Son of God And that He lived yet not He but Christ lived in him who came to save mens Lives and not to destroy them Which Life should be the Life of all Christians now which Paul in his converted state lived in And the Apostle saith The Law is good if a man use it lawfully knowing this that the Law is not made for a righteous man but for the Lawless and for the Ungodly and Sinners and for Unholy and Prophane and for Murtherers of Fathers and Mothers and for Manslayers for Whoremongers and for them that defile themselves with Mankind for Menstealers Liars and Perjured Persons 1 Tim. 1. So the Law in its place is good against such Again the Apostle says The Law was added because of Transgression Gal. 3.19 Now here all Magistrates may see what the Law in its place is good against and what it was made for and against and what Evils the Apostle says it takes hold upon He does not say the Law should be laid upon Men that differed from them in their Religion and Judgment nor upon the Righteous men And so you may see in what condition the Law is good and what it was made against not against Righteous men against whom they have nothing in their Lives and Conversations only because they differ from them in Matters of Religion and let Manslayers Whoremongers Perjured Persons Vngodly Prophane Persons Liars c. go unpunished Such do not use nor execute the Law lawfully as the Apostle says The Law is good if a man use it lawfully Therefore it ought to be used lawfully which Law the Apostle says is for the punishment of the Evil-Doers and a praise for them that do well as may be seen Rom. 13. And so as the Apostle said We do not break the Law nor make it void but we establish the Law Rom. 3.31 Kingston upon Thames the 4th of the first Month 1680 1. This is from him who desires the Eternal Good and Salvation of you all in Christ Jesus Amen G. F. After I had finished these Services there I returned to London where I stay'd about a Month London labouring amongst Friends in the Work of the Lord both in publick Meetings for Worship and in the Meetings relating to the outward Affairs of the Church Waltham-Abbey Flamsteadend Edmunton Enfield Winchmore-hill Then feeling my Spirit drawn to visit Friends about Enfield-side I went down to Waltham-Abbey where I had a very precious Meeting and another at Flamstead-Heath not far from thence And having spent some time amongst Friends there and thereabouts and had divers good Meetings at Edmunton Enfield Winchmore Hill 1681. London Yearly Meeting and other places there aways I came back to London a little before the Yearly Meeting which was in the Third Month 1681 it was a very precious Meeting in which the Glorious Presence and Power of the Lord was eminently felt and enjoyed Some time after the Yearly Meeting was over it came upon me to write the following Epistle which I directed To the Quarterly Mens and Womens Meetings that are gathered in the Name and Power of Jesus CHrist the second Adam who is both Head and Husband of his Church and Redeemer and Purchaser and Saviour and Sanctifier and Reconciler of his Sons and Daughters his Church to God I say his Presence to wit Christ's feel among you to exercise his Prophetical Office in opening of you with his Light Grace Truth Power and Spirit and to exercise his Office as he is a Bishop to Oversee you with his Light Grace Power and Spirit that ye do not go astray from God And as Christ is a Shepherd feel see and hear him exercising that Office who has laid down his Life for his Sheep and is feeding them in his living Pastures of Life and makes them to drink of his living Eternal Springs And let him rule and govern in your Hearts as he is King that his heavenly and spiritual Government all may live under as true Subjects of his righteous peaceable Kingdom which stands in Righteousness and Power and Joy in the Holy Ghost over Satan and his Power and the unclean unholy Ghost and all unrighteousness So all ye Subjects to Christ's Kingdom of Peace if ye want Wisdom or Knowledge or Life or Salvation Christ is the Treasure feel him the Treasure among you And every one among you as ye have received Christ walk in him in whom ye have all Peace who bruises the Head of the Serpent that is the Author of all Strife Distraction and Confusion yea you have Peace with God and one with another though the Trouble be from the World and the World's Spirit And therefore My dear Friends Brethren and Sisters Love one another with the Love that is of God shed in your hearts that ye may bear the Maâ—ks of Christ's Disciples and it may appear that Christ is in you and ye in him so that God Almighty may be glorified among you And whatever ye do let it be done in the Name of Jesus to the praise of God the Father keeping in Vnity in the Holy Spirit of God which was before the unholy Spirit was Which holy Spirit is your Bond of Peace yea the holy King of Kings and Lord of Lords his peace And in this holy pure Spirit is your eternal Vnity and Fellowship in which Spirit of Truth ye do serve and worship the God of Truth who is God over all blessed for ever Amen So the Lord guide you all with his Word of Patience Word of Life Power and Wisdom in all your Actions Lives Conversations and Meetings to God's glory 1681. London My Love to you all in the Lord Jesus Christ by whom all things were made and who is over all the First and the Last London the 9th of the 4th Month 1681. G. F. About this time I had occasion to go to several of the Judges Chambers upon a Suit about Tithes For both I and my Wife and several other Friends were sued in Cartmel-Wapentake-Court in Lancashire for small Tithes and we had demurred to the Jurisdiction of that Court. Whereupon the Plaintiff prosecuted us into the Exchequer-Court at Westminster where they run us up to a Writ of Rebellion for not Answering the Bill upon Oath and got an Order of Court to the Sergeant to take me and my Wife into Custody This was a little before the Yearly Meeting at which time it was thought they would have taken me up and according to outward appearance it was likely indeed that he would and very easie for him to have done it I lodging at the same places where I used to lodge and being very publick in Meetings But the Lord's Power was over them and restrained them so
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
let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly in all Wisdom teaching and admonishing one another c. Col. 3. And whatsoever ye do in Word or Deed do all in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ giving thanks to God and the Father by him And above all things put on Charity which is the Bond of Perfectness And the Apostle saith to Timothy Be not thou ashamed of the Testimony of our Lord nor of me his Prisoner but be thou Partaker of the Afflictions of the Gospel according to the Power of God who hath saved us and called us with an holy Calling not according to our works but according to his own purpose and grace which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began 2 Tim. 1.8 9. So here it concerns every one not to be ashamed of the Testimony of our Lord who hath called them by his Grace and not to be ashamed of any of Christ's Prisoners and afflicted Ones for Christ's and his Gospels sake who abolishes Death and brings Life and Immortality to Light through his Gospel You that believe in the Light know it And Peter saith in his General Epistle to the Church of Christ As every man mark every man hath received the Gift so minister the same one to another as good Stewards of the manifold Grace of God If any man speak let him speak as the Oracles of God so not of Men If any man minister let him do it as of the Ability which God gives so not of the Ability of mens Arts and Sciences that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ c. For these Gifts and Grace come from Jesus into the hearts of the Members of his Church whom he is in the midst of And if any man suffer as a Christian let him not be ashamed but let him glorifie God c. And every true Christian hath the presence of Christ who hath all power in Heaven and in Earth given him to support them with his power light and life And Christ saith to his Believers Beware of men for they will deliver you up to the Councils and they will scourge you in the Synagogues and you shall be brought before Governours and Kings for my Names sake for a Testimony against them and the Gentiles But when they deliver you up take no thought how or what ye shall speak for it shall be given you in the same hour what ye shall speak for it is not you that speak but the Spirit of your Father that speaketh in you And ye shall be hated of all men for my Names sake but he that endureth to the end shall be saved The Disciple is not above his Master nor the Servant above his Lord It is enough for the Disciple that he be as his Master and the Servant as his Lord for if they have called the Master of the house Beelzebub what will they do to his Servant Fear not them which kill the Body but are not able to kill the Soul c. A Sparrow shall not fall to the ground without your heavenly Father c. The hairs of your head are all numbred ye are of more value than many Sparrows Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven But whosoever shall deny me before Men him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven And whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words of him shall the Son of Man be ashamed c. Matth. 10. And again Christ saith Whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful Generation of him also shall the Son of Man be ashamed when he comes in the Glory of his Father with his holy Angels Mark 8.38 And Christ saith to his Disciples He that receiveth you receiveth me and he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me He that receiveth a Prophet in the name of a Prophet shall receive a Prophet's reward And he that receiveth a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man's reward And whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a Cup of cold water only in the name of a Disciple verily I say unto you he shall in no wise lose his reward Matth. 10.40 41 42. Here ye may see how Christ encourages his Disciples and them that receive them And John saith Among the chief Rulers of the Jews many believed in Christ but because of the Pharisees they did not confess him lest they should be put out of the Synagogue John 12.42 Too many such Believers are now a-days who dare not Confess Christ lest they should lose the favour of men But Christ encourages the faithful Disciples and told them They would put them out of their Synagogues yea that the time should come that whosoever killed them would think they did God service And these things said he will they do unto you because they have not known the Father nor me But these things have I told you that when the time shall come ye may remember that I told you of them John 16.2 3 4. Here ye may see what Christ told his Disciples should come to pass to them And Saul before he was Converted did Compel the Christians to blaspheme and made havock of the Church of Christ Acts 8. and chap. 22. and 26. And did not the Beast in the Revelations Compel both small and great to worship him and his Image And did not all worship it but they who had their Names written in the Lamb's Book of Life before the Foundation of the World And did not Nebuchadnezzar set up an Image sixty Cubits high and six Cubits broad And then did not he cause an Herauld to cry aloud It is commanded that all People and Nations and Languages fall down and worship the golden Image that Nebuchadnezzar hath set up And whoso falleth not down and worshippeth shall the same hour be cast into the midst of the fiery Furnace And were not Shadrach Meshach and Abednego cast into the Furnace Dan. 3. But God delivered them Therefore it is good to be faithful to God and his Worship in Spirit and Truth And the Jews had agreed that if any man should Confess Christ he should be put out of their Synagogue John 9.22 So it was for Christ's sake they were Excommunicated out of their Synagogues But as it is written Behold I lay in Sion a Stumbling-stone and a Rock of Offence and who so believes on him shall not be ashamed So Christ is a Stumbling-stone and a Rock of Offence to all the Unbelievers in the Light which is the Life in Christ whether they be Jews Christians or Gentiles The Jews did believe a Christ was To come from the Scriptures And the Christians believe He is come by the Scriptures but do not believe in the Light which is the Life in Christ as Christ commands and so do not become the
well as Men. And Deborah was a Judge and a Prophetess and do not You make use of Deborah's and Miriam's words in your Service and Worship as you may see Judg. 5. v. 1 31. Deborah's large Speech or Song And Barak did not forbid her nor none of the Jewish Priests And did not she make this Speech or Song in the Congregation or Church of Israel And in the Book of Ruth there are good Speeches of those good Women which were not forbidden And Hannah prayed in the Temple before Ely and the Lord Answered her prayer And see what a Speech Hannah makes and a praising of God before Ely the High-Priest and he did not forbid her 1 Sam. 2. v. 1. to 10. And Josiah the King sent his Priest with several others to Ask Counsel of Huldah the Prophetess who dwelt at Jerusalem in the Colledge 2 King 22.14 2 Chron. 34.22 So here the King and his Priests did not despise the Counsel of this Prophetess and she did prophesie to the Congregation of Israel as may be seen in these Chapters And in Luke 1.41 to 55. there see what a godly Speech Elizabeth made to Mary and what a large godly Speech Mary made also And Mary said That the Lord did regard the Low Estate of his Hand-maid c. And don't you make use in your Worship and Service of Mary's and Elizabeth's words from Luke 2.41 to 55. who were holy Women in your Churches and yet forbid Womens speaking in your Churches and to be in silence yet all sorts of Women speak in your Churches when they sing and say Amen And in Luke the second there was one Anna a Prophetess she was a Widow of about fourscore and four years which departed not from the Temple but served God with Fasting and Prayer night and day Did not she Confess Christ Jesus in the Temple and gave thanks to the Lord and spake of Christ to all that looked for Redemption in Jerusalem Luke 2.36 37 38. So such holy Women were not forbidden to speak in the Church neither in the Law nor Gospel And was it not Mary Magdalen and other Women that first preached Christ's Resurrection to the Apostles The Woman indeed namely Eve was first in Transgression and so they were Women that first preacht the Resurrection of Christ Jesus for Christ said to Mary c. Go to my Brethren and say unto them I Ascend unto my Father and to your Father and to my God and to your God John 20.17 And Luke 24.10 it was Mary Magdalen and Johanna and Mary the Mother of James and other Women that were with them which told the Apostles that Christ was risen from the dead and their words and these Womens words were as Idle Tales to the Apostles and they believed them not Ibid. vers 11. And vers 22. Certain Women also of our Company made us astonished they said So here it may be seen that the Womens preaching the Resurrection of Christ did Astonish the Apostles and Christ sent these Women to preach his Resurrection so it is no shame for such Women to preach Christ Jesus neither were they to be silent when Christ sends them And the Apostle says Every Tongue shall Confess to God Rom. 14.11 and Every Tongue shall Confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the Glory of God the Father Philip. 2.11 So Here 't is Clear that Women must Confess Christ as well as men if Every Tongue must Confess And the Apostle saith There 's neither Male nor Female for ye are all one in Christ Jesus Gal. 3.28 And whereas 't is said Women must ask their Husbands at home c. Now the Duke knows very well Virgins have no Husbands nor Widows for Anna the Prophetess was a Widow And if Christ be the Husband Men must ask Counsel of him at home as well as Women before they Teach And set the Case that a Turk's Wife should be a Christian or a Papist's Wife should be a Lutheran or a Calvinist must they Ask and Learn of their Husbands at home before they confess Christ Jesus in the Congregation of the Lord Their Counsel will be to them to turn Turks or Papists I Intreat the Duke to Consider these things And again I Intreat him to mind God's Grace and Truth in his heart that is come by Jesus that by his Spirit of Grace and Truth he may come to serve and worship God in his Spirit and Truth so that he may serve the Living Eternal God that made him in his Generation and have his Peace in Christ that the World cannot take away And I do desire his Good Peace and Prosperity in this World and his Eternal Comfort and Happiness in the World that is Everlasting without End Amen London the 26th of the 8th Month 1684. G. F. Besides the fore-going I writ also Epistles to Friends one of which the following is a Copy FRiends and Brethren in the Lord Jesus Christ in whom you have all life peace and salvation Walk in him who is your heavenly Rock and Foundation that stands sure who hath all Power in Heaven and Earth given unto him So his Power is over all And let your Faith stand in his Power which is over all from everlasting to everlasting and so is over the Devil and his power that in the holy heavenly Wisdom of God ye may be all preserved and kept to God's glory out of all snares and temptations so that God's Wisdom may be justified of all his Children in this day of his power and they all may be faithful serving and worshipping God in his Spirit and Truth and valiant for it upon the Earth For as the Apostle saith They that believe are entred into their rest and have ceased from their own works as God did from his Now this Rest is an Eternal Rest in Christ the Eternal Son of God in whom every true Believer hath everlasting Life in Christ Jesus their Rest and everlasting Day For Christ the Rest bruiseth the Serpent's head and through Death destroyeth Death and the Devil the power of Death and his works And he is the eternal Rest that giveth eternal Life to his Sheep And Christ fulfilleth the Prophets and all the Figures Shadows and Ceremonies as in the Old Testament and all the Promises are Yea and Amen in Christ their and our Eternal Rest who was the Eternal Rest to all the true Believers in the Apostles days and ever since and is so now And Christ is the Beginning and the Ending the First and Last who is ascended above all Principalities Powers Thrones and Dominions that he might fill all things For by Jesus Christ all things were made and created whether they be things in Heaven or things in the Earth and he is the eternal Rest and they that believe are entred into Christ their Eternal Rest in whom they have as I said before Eternal Life and peace with God Wherefore I say again in him who is your Rest live and abide for in
Reprove those who would have fire to come down from Heaven to destroy them who would not receive him and did not he tell them They did not know what spirit they were of And therefore all who have persecuted Men or taken away their Lives because they would not receive their Religion have they known what spirit they were or are of Therefore is it nor good for all to know by the Spirit of Christ what spirit they are of For the Apostle says Rom. 8.9 If any Man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his And does not the Apostle say 2 Cor. 10.4 The Weapons of our Warfare are not Carnal but Spiritual c. And we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against spiritual wickedness c. Thus we can see here that the Fight of the first Christians and their Weapons in the days of the Apostles were spiritual in matters of Faith Religion and Worship in the Church of Christ Now would not the King and the Magistrates of Dantzick think that it was contrary to their Consciences if they should be forced by the Turk to his Religion Would it not in like manner seem hard to the Magistrates of Dantzick and contrary to their Consciences if they should be forced to the Religion of the King of Poland or the King of Poland if he should be compelled to the Religion of the Magistrates of Dantzick And if they would not be subject thereunto that then they should be banished from their Wives and Families and out of their Native Country or otherwise be fed with Bread and Water under a strict Confinement Therefore we beseech the King with all Christian Humility and the Magistrates of Dantzick that they would order their proceedings in this matter according to the Royal Law of God which is To do unto others as they would have others do unto them and to love their Neighbour as themselves For we have this Charity that we hope and believe that the King of Poland and his People with the Magistrates of Dantzick own the Writings of the New Testament as well as of the Old And therefore we beseech the King and the Magistrates of Dantzick to take heed that their Work of Imprisoning an Innocent People for nothing but their meeting together in Tenderness of Conscience to serve and worship God their Creator may not be contrary and opposite to the Royal Law of God and to the Glorious and Everlasting Gospel of Truth So we desire the King in Christian Love earnestly and weightily to Consider these things and to give Order to set the Innocent Prisoners our Friends called Quakers at Liberty from their strict Confinement in Dantzick that they may have freedom to serve and worship the living God in Spirit and in Truth and go home to their outward Habitations and follow their Trades and Calling to maintain their Wives Children and Families And we believe that the King in doing such a Noble Glorious yea Christian Work will not go unrewarded from the Great God who made him whom we serve and worship who has the hearts of Kings and their lives and length of days in his hands From him who desires that the King and all his Ministers may be preserved in the Fear of God and receive his Word of Wisdom by which all things were made and created that by it he may come to order all things to the Glory of God which God has put under his hand That the King both He and They may enjoy the Comforts and Blessings of the Lord in this Life and in that which is to come Life Eternal Amen London in England the 10th of the 3d Month commonly called May 1684. G. F. Post-script The King may please to Consider that His and all Mens Consciences is the Prerogative of God After this I went to Enfield where Enfield and in the Country thereabouts several Friends had Country-houses not very far from one another amongst whom I tarried some time visiting and being visited by Friends and having Meetings with them Several things I writ in this time relating to the Service of Truth One whereof was concerning Judging For some who were departed from the Truth were so afraid of Truth 's Judgment that they made it much of their business to Cry out against Judging Wherefore I writ a Paper proving by the Scriptures of Truth that the Church of Christ hath power and ability to Judge those that profest to be of it not only with respect to outward things relating to this World but with respect to Religious Matters also A Copy of which follows Concerning Judging THE Natural Man receiveth not the Things of the Spirit of God for they are foolishness to him neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned but he that is spiritual judgeth all things mark all things yet he himself is judged of no Man 1685. Enfield 1 Cor. 2.14 15. So here the Natural Man cannot judge of those things he receives not for they are foolishness to him but he is comprehended by the Spiritual Man and his foolishness and is Judged though he cannot judge the Spiritual Man Do not ye judge them that are within saith the Apostle this Power the Church had and hath therefore put away from amongst your selves that wicked person And did not this Wicked person think you profess and plead for Liberty for his Wickedness and his Freedom as he was a Christian who was lookt upon as a Member of the Church And the Apostle saith For I verily as absent in body yet present in spirit have judged already as though I were present concerning him that hath done this wicked deed 1 Cor. 5.3 12. Here the Apostle did Judge though afar off and set up Judgment in the Church against false Liberty under what pretence soever it was And the Apostle saith Dare any of you having a matter against a Brother go to Law before the Vnjust and not before the Saints Here the Saints the Church are to Judge of things amongst themselves and not for the Unjust to Judge of their Matters Do ye not know the Saints shall judge the World So the Saints are to judge the Unjust and not the Vnjust to judge their Matters And farther the Apostle saith If the World shall be judged by you to wit the Saints are you unworthy to judge the smaller matters amongst you So here it is clear that the Saints have a Judgment given them of Christ by his Power and Spirit Light and Wisdom to judge the World and not to carry their Matters before the Vnjust but to judge of them amongst themselves and if they carry them before the Unjust they shew their unworthiness of the Saints Judgment And further the Apostle saith Know ye not that we shall Judge the Angels and Angels are Spirits how much more the things which pertain to this life If ye then have Judgment of things pertaining to this life set them up to judge who have least
Members of Christ Jesus of which he is the Spiritual Head Rock and Foundation And in the midst of his Church of living Members Christ exercises his Spiritual Prophetical Office to open to them the Mysteries of his Kingdom And is a Spiritual Bishop to oversee them that they do not go astray from the living God that made them and a Shepherd that feeds them with Bread and Water of Life from Heaven and none is able to pluck his Sheep out of his hands and he is a Priest that died for them and sanctifieth them and presents them to God who ruleth in their Hearts by the Divine Faith which he is the Author and Finisher of And his living Members do praise God through Jesus Christ in whom they have Life and Salvation who reconciles them to God that they can say they have Peace with God through Jesus Christ and so praise God through him that was dead and is alive again and reigns over all and liveth for evermore blessed for ever Hallelujah Amen! Greet one another with an holy Kiss of Charity and this Kiss of Charity is above all the Kisses of the World for Love and Charity beareth all things believeth all things hopeth all things and endures all things It envieth not and Charity vaunteth not it self nor is puffed up nor doth it behave it self unseemly It rejoices not in Iniquity but rejoices in the Truth And Charity is not easily provoked and thinks no Evil but suffereth long and is kind And Charity never faileth I say Greet one another with this holy Kiss of Charity and Peace be with you all that are in Christ Jesus your Life and Salvation The 30th of the 3d Month 1686. G. F. I remained for the most part of this Year in London save that sometimes I got out to Bednal-Green for a Night or two Bednal-Green Enfield Chiswick and some times went as far as Enfield and thereabouts amongst Friends and once or twice to Chiswick where an Ancient Friend had set up a School for the Educating of Friends Children in all which places I found Service for the Lord. London And when I was at London I spent my time amongst Friends either in Publick Meetings as the Lord drew me or visiting Friends that were not well and in looking after the Sufferings of Friends For though very many Friends were released out of Prisons yet some remained Prisoners still for Tithes c. and Sufferings of several sorts lay heavy yet on Friends in many places Yet inasmuch as many Friends that had been Prisoners were now set at Liberty I felt a Concern upon me that none might look too much at Man but might Eye the Lord therein from whom deliverance comes Wherefore I writ an Epistle to Friends and sent it abroad to be read amongst them as followeth Friends THE Lord by his Eternal Power hath opened the heart of the King to open the Prison-doors by which about Fifteen or Sixteen hundred are set at Liberty and hath given a Check to the Informers so that in many places our Meetings are pretty quiet So my desires are that both Liberty and Sufferings all may be sanctified to his People and Friends may prize the Mercies of the Lord in all things and to him be thankful who stilleth the Raging Waves of the Seas and allayeth the Storms and Tempests and maketh a Calm And therefore it is good to trust in the Lord and cast your Care upon him who careth for you For when ye were in your Gaols and Prisons Then the Lord did by his Eternal Arm and Power uphold you and sanctified them to you and unto some he made them as a Sanctuary and tried his People as in a Furnace of Affliction both in Prisons and spoiling of Goods And in all this the Lord was with his People and taught them to know that The Earth is the Lord's and the Fulness thereof 1686. London and that he was in all places who crowneth the year with his goodness Psal 65. Therefore let all God's People be diligent and careful to keep the Camp of God holy pure and clean and to serve God and Christ and one another in the glorious peaceable Gospel of Life and Salvation which Glory shines over God's Camp and his great Prophet and Bishop and Shepherd is among or in the midst of them exercising his heavenly Offices in them so that you his People may Rejoice in Christ Jesus through whom you have Peace with God For he that destroyeth the Devil and his Work and bruises the Serpent's Head is all God's Peoples heavenly Foundation and Rock to build upon which was the holy Prophets and Apostles Rock in days past and is now a Rock of our Ages which Rock and Foundation of God standeth sure And upon this the Lord God establish all his People Amen London the 25th of the 7th Month 1686. G. F. Divers other Epistles and Papers relating to Friends and Truth I writ this Year whereof one was by way of Exhortation to Friends to keep in Vnity in the Truth in which there is no Division nor Separation And thus it was DEar Friends and Brethren in the Lord Jesus Christ in whom ye have all Peace and Life and in him there is no Division nor Schism nor Rent nor Strife nor Separation for Christ is not divided and there can be no Separation in the Truth nor in the Light Grace Faith and Holy Ghost but Unity and Fellowship and Communion For the Devil was the first that went out of the Truth and separated from it and tempted Man and Woman to disobey God and to go from the Truth into a false Liberty to do that which God forbad And so it is the Serpent now that leads Men and Women into a false Liberty even the God of the World from which Man and Woman must be separated by the Truth that Christ the Truth may make them free and then they are free indeed And then they are to stand fast in that Liberty in which Christ hath made them free and in him as I said before there is no Division nor Schism nor Rent nor Separation but Peace and Life and Reconciliation to God and to one another So that in Christ Male and Female are all one for whether they be Male or Female Jew or Gentile Bond or Free they are all one in Christ And there can be no Schism Rent or Division in him nor in the Worship of God in his holy Spirit and Truth nor in the pure and undefiled Religion that keeps from the Spots of the World nor in the Love of God that beareth and endureth all things nor in the Word of God's Grace for it is pure and endureth for ever Many you see have lost the Word of Patience and the Word of Wisdom that is pure and peaceable and gentle and easie to be intreated Then they run into the Wisdom that is below that is earthly sensual and devilish and very uneasie to be intreated And they
said You have nothing to do with us to build an House unto our God Ezra 4.2 3. So here ye may see that God's People refused their building with them and their sacrifice And Solomon saith The Sacrifice of the Wicked is an Abomination to the Lord Prov. 15.8 See also Isa 1.11 and chap. 66.3 Solomon also saith Better is a dry Morsel and quietness therewith than an house full of Sacrifices with strife Prov. 17.1 Now let all People Consider what Good your house full of Sacrifices doth with strife when a dry Morsel and Quietness therewith is better And Consider all People If ye live in Wickedness your Sacrifice is an Abomination to the Lord. Again Solomon speaking of the Sacrifice of Fools saith They consider not that they do evil Eccles 5.1 Fools are such as do not walk in the Spirit of God or begin in the Spirit and end in the Flesh like the foolish Galatians for the Spirit of God is the Spirit of Wisdom and Understanding and cannot Join with the Sacrifices of the Dead nor of the Fools nor of the Wicked whose Sacrifice is Abominable who grieve and quench the Spirit of God by which Spirit of God the Spiritual and Righteous offer up Spiritual Sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ The Apostle Paul saith he was the Minister of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles ministring the Gospel of God that the offering up of the Gentiles might be acceptable being sanctified by the Holy Ghost Rom. 15.16 So ye may see that all the acceptable Offerings and Sacrifices to God must be sanctified by the Holy Ghost The same Apostle saith to the Corinthians Ye are bought with a price therefore glorifie God in your Body and in your Spirit which are God's 1 Cor. 6.20 And to the Romans he saith I beseech you Brethren by the Mercies of God that you present your Bodies a living Sacrifice holy acceptable unto God which is your reasonable Service Rom. 12.1 Now this is the duty of all true Christians Peter also saith in his general Epistle to the Church of Christ Ye also as lively stones are built up a spiritual house an holy Priest-hood to offer up spiritual Sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ 1 Pet. 2.5 So every Man and Woman must come to the Spirit of God in their own hearts if they do offer up spiritual Sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ For as Christ saith Every Sacrifice shall be salted with salt Mark 9.49 And in the Old Testament ye may see All their outward Offerings they were to season them with salt Levit. 2.13 a Type and Figure of Christ who gave himself for us an Offering and a Sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savour Ephes 5.2 Therefore all his People must be baptized with the Holy Ghost and with Fire that they may be salted with Fire and every Sacrifice salted with salt with the Spirit of Grace that is poured upon all so that they may offer up this spiritual Sacrifice acceptable to God by Jesus Christ Samuel said to King Saul Hath the Lord as great delight in Burnt-offerings and Sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord behold to obey is better than Sacrifice and to hearken than the fat of Rams 1 Sam. 15.22 So ye may see All Offerings and Sacrifices are nothing if there be not an hearkening to the Lord in his Spirit and an obeying of his voice And Christ told the Jews that were outward Sacrificers that he would have Mercy and not Sacrifice and bid them Go and learn what that meaneth Matth. 9.13 Gooses the 28th of the 2d Month 1687. G. F. The beginning of the Third Month I returned to London London Yearly-Meeting and continued there till after the Yearly-Meeting which began on the sixteenth of the same and was very large Friends having more freedom to come up out of the Countries to it by reason of the general Toleration and Liberty now granted The Meeting lasted several days and at the Close thereof it was upon me to write the following Lines to be dispersed amongst Friends every where as A Word of Counsel and Caution to them to walk circumspectly in this time of Liberty Dear Friends and Brethren in the Lord Jesus Christ THE Lord by his Eternal Arm and Power having supported you in all your Sufferings and great spoiling of Goods and tedious Imprisonments only for serving and worshipping the living God that made you who gave up Wife and Children and Goods and suffered the spoil of them and Imprisonment for his Truth and Name 's sake And now the Lord by his Infinite Power and Mercy having been pleased to open the King's heart towards you by which you are set at Liberty from the Gaols and the Spoilers of your Goods are stopt whereby ye may follow your Callings and Husbandry and confess Christ Jesus and call him Lord by the Holy Ghost in your Assemblies and Meetings without being cast into Gaols or having your Goods spoiled And now Dear Brethren a great Concern lies upon me from the Lord to Write unto you That none may abuse this Liberty nor the Mercies of the Lord but prize them for there is great danger in time of Liberty of getting up and getting into Ease and Looseness and false Liberty And now seeing that ye have not the outward Persecutors to War withal in sufferings with the spiritual Weapons keep down that which would not be subject to Christ that he the Holy One may reign in your hearts So that your Lives Conversations and Words may preach Righteousness and Truth 1687. London Yearly-Meeting That ye may all shew forth good Ensamples of true Believers in Christ in Vertue and Holiness Answering that which may be known of God in all People that ye are the Sons and Daughters of God Standing fast in that righteous holy Liberty in Christ that just and holy One that has made you free over the loose or false shunning the occasions of vain Disputes and foolish Questions of Men of corrupt Minds For the Serpent was the first Questioner of Eve who drew her and Adam out of the Truth Therefore as ye have received Christ all Live and Walk in him who bruises the Serpent's Head who is your safe Sanctuary in whom ye have Election Reconciliation and Peace with God And therefore live in the Peace which ye have from Christ which is not of this World and be at peace one with another and seek the peace of all Men in Christ Jesus for blessed are the Peace-makers And labour to exercise a good Conscience towards God in obedience to him in what he requires and in doing to all Men the thing that is just and honest in your Conversations and Words giving no Offence to Jew nor Gentile nor to the Church of God So that ye may be as a City set on God's Sion-Hill which cannot be hid and may be Lights to the dark World that they may see your good Fruits and Works Righteous and
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
and to God's Spirit and to the Grace and Truth in your hearts that comes by Jesus Christ that with it ye may search your hearts And so do not grieve nor vex nor quench God's good Spirit in your hearts and walk not despitefully against the Spirit of Grace nor turn from it into Wantonness and yet make a Profession of God and Christ in Words 1677. Amsterdam when your hearts are afar off and living in Pleasures and wantonly upon the Earth sporting your selves killing the Just and Crucifying to your selves Christ afresh and putting him to open shame And so dishonouring God and Christ and Christianity and making a Profession and a Trade of the Scriptures keeping People always Learning that they may be always paying Therefore Cease from Man whose Breath is in his Nostrils and look unto the Lord all ye ends of the Earth and be saved for the Lord God of Heaven and Earth is come to teach his People himself by his Light Spirit Grace and Truth and to bring them off all the World's Teachers And God hath raised up Christ Jesus his Prophet whom People should hear and saith This is my beloved Son hear ye him and Christ saith Learn of me I am the Way the Truth and the Life and no Man comes to the Father but by me And there is no Salvation by any other Name under the whole Heaven but by the Name of Jesus who saith I am the good Shepherd and have laid down my Life for my Sheep and my Sheep hear my voice and follow me and will not follow the Hireling For Christ feeds them in the Pastures of Life that will never wither And God hath anointed Christ Jesus to preach if you will hear him and God hath given Christ for a Counsellor and a Leader if you will be Led and Counselled by him and God hath given Christ for a Bishop to Oversee you and a King to Rule you if you will be Overseen and Ruled by him And you that will not have Christ to Rule over you who never sinned nor Guile was found in his Mouth you may read his Sentence in the New Testament upon such And is not Christ a sufficient Teacher whose Blood was shed for you and tasted Death for every Man And doth not Christ say to his Ministers Freely ye have received freely give And the Apostle saith We covet no Man's Gold Silver or Apparel but Laboured with their Hands and kept the Gospel without Charge Have they that are called Ministers amongst you done the same and kept this Command of Christ Jesus Let them be Examined and Examine themselves And have you not trimmed your Outsides but look within with the Light and Spirit of Christ Jesus and see if your Insides be not black and foul For Christ Jesus who doth Enlighten every Man that cometh into the World with the Life in himself who is the Word he saith Believe in the Light that ye may become Children of the Light and with the Light ye may see all the Evil Deeds ye have done and all your ungodly Deeds that ye have acted and committed and all your ungodly Words you have spoken and all your ungodly Thoughts ye think that ye may turn from them and turn to Christ from whence the Light comes who is your Saviour and Redeemer who hath given you a Light to see your Sin and how that you are dead in Adam that with the same Light you may see Christ the quickening Spirit who makes you alive to God and saves you from your sin But if you hate the Light which is the Life in Christ the Prince of Life and Love the Darkness and the Prince of Darkness more than the Light or the Life in Christ whose Deeds be Evil and because it will Reprove you Christ tells you This Light will be your Condemnation John 3. And therefore be Warned now in your Day and while you have Time turn to the Lord and do not quench the Spirit of the Father by which he draws to his Son nor hate the Light of Christ for if you do you hate the Life in Christ and so remain under Condemnation from God and Christ with the Light who now speaks to his People by his Son as he did in the Apostles Days so the same God that was the Speaker by the Prophets to the Fathers and Speaker to Adam and Eve in Paradise And happy had Adam and Eve and the Jews and all Christians been if they had kept to this Speaker and not have followed the Serpent that false Speaker and his Instruments And now God is the true Speaker by his Son who bruises the Head of the Serpent the false Teacher who is the Head of all false Ways and false Prophets and false Churches and false Religions and Worships And so God and Christ is bringing People to the pure and undefiled Religion that will keep them from the Spots of the World and into the new and living Way Christ Jesus and to the Church in God which Christ is the Head of as he was in the Apostles Days and to worship God in the Spirit and Truth which Worship Christ set up above Sixteen hundred years since And therefore must all People come to the Grace and Spirit of Truth in their own hearts to know the God of Truth who is a Spirit and in the Spirit and Truth to worship and serve and honour and glorifie the Living God who is over all and Worthy of all Blessed for evermore Amen And ye Magistrates and Officers read this in all your Assemblies and cause all your Priests to read it in their Churches that they and you and all People may hear and fear the God of Heaven as you will Answer it at the Great and Terrible Day of Judgment and Vengeance of the Lord God Almighty And this is in Love to your Souls and for your Temporal and Eternal Good Amsterdam the 19th of the 7th Month 1677. G. F. 1677. Harlingen in Friezland An Epistle concerning true Fasting true Prayer true Honour and against Persecution and for the true Liberty in Christ Jesus To pag. 438 and that all may have a care that the Apostle hath not bestowed his Labour in vain upon you in your observing of Days Months Times Feasts and Years and of coming under the beggarly Elements and the Yoke of Bondage again and of bringing and forcing People into them WHere did ever Christ or his Apostles Command any Believers or Christians to observe Holy-Days or Feast-Days and let us see where it is written in the Scriptures of the New Testament in the Four Evangelists or the Epistles or the Revelation that ever Christ or his Apostles gave the Christians any such Command that they should observe the Time called Christmas or a Day for Christ's Birth or that they should observe the Time called Easter or Whitsuntide or Peter or Paul's or Mark or Luke's Days or any other Saints Day Now you that profess your selves to be
worship God in Spirit and in Truth which Christ set up above Sixteen hundred years since So all Men and Women must come to the Spirit and Truth in their hearts by which they must know the God of Truth who is a Spirit and then in the Spirit and Truth they will Worship him and know what and who they Worship And also the Lord is come to bring his People off all the World's Temples that with the Spirit they may know â—â—at their Bodies are the Temples of the Holy Ghost And the Lord is come to bring his People off all the World's Crosses and Pictures and Images and Likenesses to know that the Power of God is the Cross of Christ which Crucifies them to the World and brings them up into the Likeness and Image of God as Man and Woman was in before they fell and so to Christ that never fell And this Work of Christ must all know in their hearts by the Light of Christ Jesus who is the true Light that lighteth every Man that cometh into the World It is called the Light in Man and Woman and the Life in Christ the Word and Christ saith Believe in the Light that ye may become Children of the Light And the Light lets you see all your Evil Actions that you have done and committed and your ungodly Ways you have walked in and your ungodly Words and Thoughts and now if you do hate this Light and love the Darkness and the Prince of it more than this Light which is the Life in Christ the Prince of Life and will not come to it because your Deeds be Evil and it will reprove you Christ tells you This Light is your Condemnation And then what is all your Profession good for when you remain under the Condemnation of the true Light in which you should believe and so become Children of Light and out of Condemnation And therefore every one must believe in the Light if they do receive Christ Jesus and as many as receives him he gives them Power to become the Sons of God So he that hath the Son of God hath Life and they that have not the Son of God have not Life and then if you have not Life what good doth all your Profession of the Scriptures from Genesis to Revelations do you any more than the Jews Scribes and Pharisees that would not receive Christ the Life upon whom God brought his overflowing Scourge And therefore do you take heed of that for your Strength will be no better than theirs if you have not God and Christ's supporting Power when God's Scourge comes upon you and you are filled with Horrours and Fears But my desires are that you may all Repent even from the Highest to the Lowest and not grieve nor quench nor vex nor rebel against God's good Spirit in you nor walk despitefully against the Spirit of Grace nor turn from it unto Wantonness which would teach you and bring your Salvation Which if you do how can you escape the over-flowing Scourge of the Almighty and the Wrath of the Lamb But my desires are that you may all obey God's good Spirit of Truth which will lead you out of all Evil into all Truth and reprove you for your Righteousness and for your own Judgment and Sin c. and it will bring you to cleave to that which is good and forsake that which is evil and to turn to the Lord who will receive you in his Mercy and Kindness By which Means you may escape the over-flowing Scourge in the Day of Vengeance which dreadful Day is coming upon all Evil-doers And this as a Warning to you both for your Temporal and Eternal Good and for you to Read it in your Assemblies and your Priests to Read it in their Churches so that all People may hear and fear as you will Answer it at the Terrible and Dreadful Day of Judgment Amsterdam the 19th of the 7th Month 1677. G. F. For the Embassadors that are Met to Treat for Peace at the City of Nimmeguen in the States Dominions To pag. 448 CHrist Jesus saith Blessed are the Peace-makers for they shall be called the Children of God Matth. 5.9 so all Christian men are to forsake Evil and do Good and seek Peace and follow it if they will love Life and see good Days 1 Pet. 3.11 for God hath called all true Christians unto Peace 1 Cor. 7. and therefore all Christians ought to follow this Peace which God calls them to and they should let the Peace of God rule in all their Hearts which is above the Peace of this World that is so soon broken For the Apostle Commands the Christians to let the Peace of God rule in their Hearts to which all Christians should be subject Now the Practice of this should be among Christians that profess Christianity and this Peace is above that which Christ takes from the Earth Rev. 6. which is the Peace of the Wicked And the Apostle saith to the Christians Be at Peace among your selves 1 Thess 5. Now all Christians should obey this Command and be at Peace among themselves and not in Wars and Strife And further the Apostle exhorts the Christians to keep the Vnity of the Spirit in the Bond of Peace so this Vnity and this Bond of Peace should be kept and not be broken by all that bears that Noble Name Christian and they should keep the Unity of the Spirit of Christ in the Bond of the Prince of Princes and King of Kings and Lord of Lords Peace which is the Duty of all true Christians to keep In which they may honour Christ in bringing forth the Fruits of Peace which is Love and Charity For the Apostle tells you The fruits of the good Spirit is Love Joy and Peace Long-suffering Gentleness Goodness c. Gal. 5. And the Apostle exhorts the Christians and saith If it be possible as much as lieth in you live peaceable with all Men and this should be the Endeavour of all Christians For it is no honour to Christ that Christians should war and destroy one another that do profess the Name of Christ who saith He came to save Mens lives and not to destroy them For Christians have Enemies enough abroad without them and therefore they should Love one another as Christ commands who saith By this ye shall be known to be my Disciples if ye Love one another For Christians are commanded to love Enemies therefore much more one another And Christ saith As the Father hath loved me so I have loved you Continue ye in my Love John 15.8 and By this shall all Men know that ye are my Disciples if ye Love one another John 13.35 But if Christians do war and destroy one another this will make both Jews Turks Tartars and Heathens to say That you are not Disciples of Christ. And therefore as you love God and Christ and Christianity and its Peace All make Peace as far as you have power among Christians that
I might be kept in it and then I desired no greater Portion And then he went on to Dalton Aldingham Dendrum and Ramsyde-Chappels and Steeple-houses and places several up and down and the People followed him mightily and abundance were Convinced and saw that which he spoke was Truth But the Priests were all in a Rage And about two Weeks after James Naylor and Richard Farnsworth followed him and enquired him out till they came to Swarthmore and there stayed a while with me at our House and did me much Good for I was under great Heaviness and Judgment But the Power of the Lord entred upon me within about two Weeks that he came and about three Weeks-end my Husband came home And many were in a mighty Rage And a deal of the Captains and Great Ones of the Country went to meet my then Husband as he was coming home and informed him That a Great Disaster was befallen amongst his Family and that they were Witches and that they had taken us out of our Religion and that he might either set them away or all the Country would be undone But no Weapons formed against the Lord shall prosper as you may see hereafter So my Husband came home greatly offended And any may think what a Condition I was like to be in that either I might displease my Husband or offend God for he was very much troubled with us all in the House and Family they had so prepossest him against us But James Naylor and Richard Farnsworth were both then at our House and I desired them to come and speak to him and so they did very moderately and wisely But he was at first displeased with them but they told him They came in Love and good Will to his House And after that he had heard them speak a while he was better satisfied and they offered as if they would go away but I desired them to stay and not to go away yet for George Fox will come this Evening And I would have had my Husband to have heard them all and satisfied himself farther about them because they had so prepossest him against them of such dangerous fearful things in his coming first home And then was he pretty moderate and quiet and his Dinner being ready he went to it and I went in and sate me down by him And whilst I was sitting the Power of the Lord seized upon me and he was stricken with Amazement and knew not what to think but was quiet and still And the Children were all quiet and still and grown Sober and could not play on their Musick that they were learning and all these things made him quiet and still And then at Night George Fox came And after Supper my Husband was sitting in the Parlour and I asked him If George Fox might come in and he said Yes So George came in without any Complement and walked into the Room and began to speak presently and the Family and James Naylor and Richard Farnsworth came all in and he spoke very excellently as ever I heard him and opened Christ and the Apostles Practices which they were in in their Day And he opened the Night of Apostacy since the Apostles Days and laid open the Priests and their Practices in the Apostacy that if all in England had been there I thought they could not have denied the Truth of those things And so my Husband came to see clearly the Truth of what he spoke and was very quiet that Night and said no more and went to Bed And next Morning came Lampit Priest of Ulversion and got my Husband into the Garden and spake much to him there But my Husband had seen so much the Night before that the Priest got little Entrance upon him And when the Priest Lampit was come into the House George spoke sharply to him and asked him When God spake to him and called him to go and preach to the People But after a while the Priest went away This was on a Sixth-day of the Week about the Fifth Month 1652. And at our House divers Friends were speaking one to another how there was several Convinced here aways and we could not tell where to get a Meeting My Husband also being present he over-heard and said of his own Accord You may Meet here if you will And that was the First Meeting we had that he offered of his own Accord And then Notice was given that Day and the next to Friends and there was a good large Meeting the First-day which was the First Meeting that was at Swarthmore and so continued there a Meeting from 1652 till 1690. And my Husband went that Day to the Steeple-house and none with him but his Clerk and his Groom that rid with him and the Priest and People were all fearfully troubled But praised be the Lord they never got their Wills upon us to this day And then after a few Weeks George went to Ulverston-Steeple-house again and the said Justice Sawrey with others set the Rude Rabble upon him and they beat him so that he fell down as in a Swoon and was sore bruised and black'ned in his Body and on his Head and Arms. Then my Husband was not at home but when he came home he was displeased that they should do so and spoke to Justice Sawrey and said It was against Law to make Riots And after that he was sore beat and stoned at Walney till he fell down And also at Dalton was he sore beat and abused so that he had very hard Usage in divers places in these parts And then when a Meeting was settled here he went again into Westmorland and settled Meetings there and there was a great Convincement and abundance of brave Ministers came out there-aways as John Camm John Audland Francis Howgil Edward Burrough Miles Halhead and John Blaykling with divers others He also went over Sands to Lancaster and Yelland and Kellet where Robert Widders Richard Hubberthorn and John Lawson with many others were Convinced And about that time he was in those parts many Priests and Professors rose up and falsly accused him for Blasphemy and did endeavour to take away his Life and got People to swear at a Sessions at Lancaster that he had spoken Blasphemy But my then Husband and Colonel West having had some Sight and Knowledge of the Truth withstood the two Persecuting Justices John Sawrey and Thompson and brought him off and cleared him for indeed he was Innocent And after the Sessions there was a great Meeting in the Town of Lancaster and many of the Towns People came in and many were Convinced And thus he was up and down about Lancaster Yelland Westmorland and some parts of Yorkshire and our parts above one Year in which time there was above Twenty and four Ministers brought forth that were ready to go with their Testimony of the Eternal Truth unto the World And soon after Francis Howgil and John Camm went to speak to Oliver Cromwel And in
I had not been long at Swarthmore e're a Concern came upon me to visit the Churches of Christ in London and elsewhere by an Epistle which was as followeth Dear Friends TO whom is my Love in the heavenly Seed in whom all Nations are blessed Oh keep all in this Seed in which ye are blessed and in which Abraham and all the Faithful were blessed without the Deeds of the Law for the Promise was and is to and with the Seed and not with the Law of the First Covenant In this Seed all Nations and ye are blessed which bruiseth the Head of the Seed that brought the Curse and separated between Man and God This is the Seed which reconciles you to God and this is the Seed in which ye are blessed both in Temporals and Spirituals through which ye have an Inheritance among the Sanctified that cannot be defiled neither can any defiled thing enter into its Possession for all defilements are out of this Seed This is that which leavens up into a New Lump and bruiseth the Head of the Wicked Seed that leavens into the Old Lump upon whom the Sun of Righteousness goes down and sets but never goes down and sets to them that walk in the Seed in which all Nations are blessed by which Seed they are brought up to God which puts down that Seed which separated betwixt them and God so that there comes to be nothing betwixt them and God Now all my Dear Friends my desires are that ye may all be Valiant in this heavenly Seed for God and his Truth upon the Earth and spread it abroad answering that of God in all that with it the Minds of People may be turned towards the Lord that he may come to be known and served and worshipped and that ye may all be the Salt of the Earth to make the unseasoned savoury And in the Name of Jesus keep your Meetings who are gathered into it in whose Name ye have Salvation he being in the midst of you whose Name is above every Name under the whole Heaven And so ye have a Prophet and Bishop Shepherd Priest and Counsellor above all the Counsellors and Priests Bishops Prophets and Shepherds under the whole Heaven to exercise his Offices among you in your Meetings that are gathered in his Name For Christ's Meeting and Gathering is above all the Meetings and Gatherings under the whole Heaven And his Body his Church and he the Head of it is above all the Bodies and Churches and Heads under the whole Heaven And the Faith that Christ is the Author of and the Worship that he hath set up and his Fellowship in the Gospel is above all Historical Faiths and the Faith 's that Man hath made together with their Worships and Fellowships under the whole Heaven And now Dear Friends keep your Men and Womens-Meetings in the Power of God the Gospel the Authority of them which brings Life and Immortality to Light in you and this Gospel the Power of God will preserve you in Life and in Immortality which hath brought it to Light in you that ye may see over him that hath darkned and kept from the knowledge of the things of God for it is he and his Instruments which hath darkned you from Life and Immortality that would throw down your Men and Womens-Meetings which were set up in the Power of God the Gospel and would darken you again from this Life and Immortality which the Gospel hath brought to Light and will preserve you in as your Faith stands in this Power of God the Gospel in which every one sees your Work and Service for God And every Heir in the Power of God the Gospel hath right to this Authority which is not of Man nor by Man which Gospel the Power of God is everlasting an everlasting Order an everlasting Fellowship and in the Gospel is everlasting Joy Comfort and Peace which will out-last all those Joys Comforts and Peaces that will have an end and that Spirit also that opposes its Order and the glorious Fellowship Peace and Comfort in it And My Dear Friends my desire is that ye may keep in the Unity of the Spirit that baptizes you all into one Body which Christ is the heavenly and spiritual Head of so that ye may see and bear witness to your heavenly and spiritual Head and so all drink into the One Spirit Which all People upon the Earth are not like to do while they grieve quench and rebel against it nor to be baptized into one Body and to keep the Unity of the Spirit which is the Bond of Peace yea the King of Kings and Lord of Lords his Peace which it is the duty of all true Christians to keep who are inwardly united to Christ So with my Love to you all in the everlasting Seed Swarthmore the 26th of the 7th Month 1678. G. F. There were about this time several Friends in Prison for bearing Testimony to the Truth To whom I was moved to write a few Lines to comfort strengthen and encourage them in their Sufferings having a true sense of their Sufferings upon my spirit and a sympathizing with them therein And that which I writ was after this manner My Dear Friends WHO are Sufferers for the Lord Jesus sake and for the Testimony of his Truth the Lord God Almighty with his Power uphold you and support you in all your Trials and Sufferings and give you Patience and Content in his Will that yâ— may stand valiant for Christ and his Truth upon the Earth over the persecuting and destroying Spirit which makes to suffer in Christ who bruises his Head in whom ye have both Election and Salvation And for God's Elect sake the Lord hath done much from the Foundation of the World as may be seen throughout the Scriptures of Truth and they that touch them touch the Apple of God's Eye they are so tender to him And therefore it is good for all God's suffering Children to trust in the Lord and to wait upon him for they shall be as Mount Sion that cannot be removed from Christ their Rock and Salvation who is the Foundation of all the Elect of God of the Prophets and the Apostles and of God's People now and to the End Glory to the Lord and the Lamb over all Remember my dear Love to all Friends and do not think the time long for all Time is in the Father's hand his Power And therefore keep the Word of Patience and exercise that Gift and the Lord strengthen you in your Sufferings in his holy Spirit of Faith Amen Swarthmore the 5th of the 12th Month 1678. G. F. I abode in the North at this time above a year having Service for the Lord amongst Friends there and being much taken up in writing Books and Papers some in Defence of Truth in Answer to Books published by Adversaries and some for the opening the Principles and Doctrines of Truth to the World that they might come to have a