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
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
him Upon this occasion I writ a Letter to the Justices and to the Judge of the Assize which was then at hand And I imployed some Friends to carry it to the Justices first The Justice to whom the Clerk belonged rebuked his Clerk and the others also for disturbing and abusing us upon the High-Way So that those Men were glad to come and make Intreaty to Friends not to appear against them at the Assize which upon their Submission and Acknowledgment of their Fault Friends granted And this thing was of good Service in the Country for it stopt many rude People that before had been forward to abuse Friends 1667. Herefordshire We passed into Herefordshire where we had several blessed Meetings and we had a General Mens-Meeting also where all the Monthly Meetings were settled There was about this time a Proclamation against Meetings and as we came through Herefordshire we were told of a great Meeting there was of the Presbyterians who had engaged themselves to stand and give up all rather than forsake their Meetings But when they heard of this Proclamation the People came but the Priest was gone and then they were at a loss Then they met in Lemster privately and provided Bread and Cheese and Drink in readiness that if the Officers should come they would put up their Bibles and fall to Eating The Bayliff found them out and came in among them and said Their Bread and Cheese should not cover them but he would have their Speakers They cried What then would become of their Wives and Children But he took their Speakers and kept them a while This the Bayliff told our Friend Peter Young and said They were the veriest Hypocrites that ever made a Profession of Religion The like Contrivance they had in other places For there was one Pocock at London that married Abigail Darcy who was called a Lady and she being Convinc'd of Truth I went to his House to see her This Pocock had been one of the Triers of the Priests and being an high Presbyterian and envious against us he used to call our Friends House-Creepers Now I going to visit his Wife and he being present she said to me I have something to speak to thee against my Husband ' Nay said I thou must not speak against thy Husband Yes said she but I must in this Case The last First-Day said she He and his Priests and People the Presbyterians met and they had Candles and Tobacco-Pipes and Bread and Cheese and Cold Meat on the Table and they agreed before-hand that if the Officers should come in upon them then they would leave their Preaching and Praying and would fall to their Cold Meat Oh said I to him is not this a Shame to you who Persecuted and Imprisoned us and spoiled our Goods because we would not follow you and be of your Religion and called us House-Creepers and now ye do not stand to your own Religion your selves Did ye ever find our Meetings stufft with Bread and Cheese and Tobacco-pipes Or did ye ever read in the Scriptures of any such Practice among the Saints Why said the Old Man We must be as wise as Serpents Then said I This is the Serpent's Wisdom indeed But who said I would ever have thought that you Presbyterians and Independents who persecuted and imprisoned others and spoiled their Goods and whipped such as would not follow your Religion should now flinch your selves and not dare to stand to and own your own Religion but cover it with Tobacco-pipes Flagons of Drink Cold Meat and Bread and Cheese But this and such like deceitful Practices I understood afterwards were too Common amongst them in times of Persecution Now after we had travelled through Herefordshire and Meetings were well settled there Monmouthshire we passed into Monmouthshire where I had several blessed Meetings and at Walter Jenkins who had been a Justice of the Peace we had a large Meeting where were some Convinced This Meeting was quiet But at another Meeting that we had before this there came the Bayliff of the Hundred 1667. Monmouthshire almost drunk pretending he was to take up the Speakers There was a mighty Power of God in the Meeting so that although he raged the Power of the Lord limited him that he could not break up the Meeting When the Meeting was over I staid a while and he staid also but after some time I spake to him and so passed quietly away At Night some rude People came and shot off a Musket against the House but did not hurt any body Thus the Lord's Power came over all and chained down the unruly Spirits so that we escaped them and came to Ross that Night and had a Meeting there at James Merricks Ross After this we came into Gloucestershire Glouâ—estershire and had a General Mens-Meeting at Nathaniel Crips's House where all the Monthly Meetings were settled in the Lord 's Everlasting Power and the Heirs of Salvation were exhorted to take their Possessions of the Gospel the Power of God which was and is the Authority of their Meetings Many blessed Meetings we had up and down in that Country before we came to Bristol whither also we went Briâ—tol And after we had had several powerful Meetings there the Mens and Womens-Meetings were settl'd there also Now as I was lying in Bed at Bristol the Word of the Lord came to me that I must go back to London Next Morning Alexander Parker and several others came to me and I asked them What they felt They in like manner asked me What was upon me I told them I felt I must return to London and they said the same was upon them So we gave up to return to London for which Way the Lord moved and led us thither we went in his Power Wherefore leaving Bristol we passed into Wiltshire Wiltshire and established the Mens-Monthly-Meetings in the Lord's Power there and then passed through the Countries visiting Friends till we came to London London After we had visited Friends in the City and had staid there a while I was moved to exhort them to bring all their Marriages to the Mens and Womens-Meetings that they might lay them before the Faithful there that so Care might be taken to prevent those Disorders that had been committed by some For many had gone together in Marriage contrary to their Relations minds and some young raw People that came among us had mixed with the World and Widows had married and had not made provision for their Children by their former Husbands before their Second Marriage And although I had given forth a Paper concerning Marriages about the Year 1653 when Truth was but little spread over the Nation Advising Friends who might be concerned in that Case That they might lay it before the Faithful in time before any thing were Concluded and afterward publish it in the end of a Meeting or in a Market as they were moved thereto
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
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
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
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
of Blood running down the Streets and the Market-Place appeared like a Pool of Blood Now when I had declared what was upon me and felt my self Clear I went out of the Town in Peace and returning to the Shepherds gave them some Money and took my Shoos of them again But the Fire of the Lord was so in my Feet and all over me 1651. Lichfield that I did not matter to put on my Shoos any more and was at a stand whether I should or no till I felt freedom from the Lord so to do and then after I had washed my Feet I put on my Shoes again After this a deep Consideration came upon me Why or for what reason I should be sent to Cry against that City and call it THE BLOODY CITY For though the Parliament had the Minster one while and the King another while and much Blood had been shed in the Town during the Wars between them yet that was no more than had befallen many other Places But afterwards I came to understand that in the Emperor Diocletian's Time a Thousand Christians were Martyred in Lichfield So I was to go without my Shoos through the Channel of their Blood and into the Pool of their Blood in the Market-Place that I might Raise up the Memorial of the Blood of those Martyrs which had been shed above a Thousand Years before and lay Cold in their Streets So the Sense of this Blood was upon me and I obeyed the Word of the Lord. Ancient Records testify how many of the Christian Britains suffered there And much I could write of the Sense I had of the Blood of the Martyrs that hath been shed in this Nation for the Name of Christ both under the Ten Persecutions and since but I leave it to the Lord and to his Book out of which all shall be Judged For his Book is a most certain true Record and his Spirit a true Recorder Then passed I up and down through the Countries having Meetings amongst friendly People in many Places But my Relations were offended at me Nottinghamshire Mansfield Darbyshire Yorkshire Doncaster Balby Wakefield So after some Time I came into Nottinghamshire again and to Mansfield and went into Darbyshire visiting Friends Then passing into Yorkshire I preached Repentance through Doncaster and several other Places and after came to Balby where Richard Farnsworth and several others were convinced So traveling through the Countries to several Places preaching Repentance and the Word of Life to the People I came into the Parts about Wakefield where James Naylor lived and he and Thomas Goodyear came to me and were both Convinced and received the Truth William Dewsbury also and his Wife with many more came to me who were Convinced and received the Truth From thence I passed through the Country towards Captain Pursloe's house by Selby Selby and visited one John Leek who had been to visit me in Darby-Prison and was Convinced I had an Horse but was fain to leave him not knowing what to do with him for I was moved to go to many great Houses to admonish and exhort the People to turn to the Lord Thus passing on Beverly I was moved of the Lord to go to Beverly-Steeple-house which was then a Place of high Profession And being very Wet with Rain I went first to an Inn and as soon as I came to the Door a Young-woman of the House came to the Door and said What! is it you Come in said she as if she had known me before for the Lord's Power bowed their Hearts So I refreshed my self and went to Bed And in the Morning my Cloaths being still wet I got ready and having paid for what I had had in the Inn I went up to the Steeple-house where was a Man preaching And when he had done I was moved to speak to him and to the People in the mighty Power of God and turned them to their Teacher Christ Jesus 1651. Yorkshire And the Power of the Lord was so strong that it struck a mighty Dread amongst the People And the Major came down to me and spake a few Words to me but none of them had any Power to meddle with me So I passed away out of the Town And in the Afternoon went to another Steeple-house about Two Miles off And when the Priest had done I was moved to speak to him and to the People very largely shewing them the Way of Life and Truth and the Ground of Election and Reprobation The Priest said he was but a Child and could not dispute with me I told him I did not come to dispute but to hold forth the Word of Life and Truth unto them that they might all know the One Seed which the Promise of God was to both in the Male and in the Female Here the People were very loving and would have had me come again on a Week-day and preach among them But I directed them to their Teacher Christ Jesus and so passed away and the next Day went to Crantsick Crantsick to Captain Pursloe's who accompanied me to Justice Hotham's This Justice Hotham was a pretty tender Man one that had had some Experiences of God's Workings in his Heart After I had had some Discourse with him of the things of God he took me into his Closet where sitting together he told me he had known that Principle these Ten Years and was glad that the Lord did now publish it abroad to the People After a while there came a Priest to visit him with whom also I had some Discourse concerning Truth But his Mouth was quickly stopt for he was nothing but a Notionist and not in Possession of what he talked of While I was here there came a Great Woman of Beverly to speak with Justice Hotham about some Business and in Discourse she told him That the last Sabbath-day as she called it there was an Angel or Spirit came into the Church at Beverly and spake the wonderful things of God to the astonishment of all that were there And when it had done it passed away and they did not know whence it came nor whither it went But it astonished all both Priest Professors and Magistrates of the Town This Relation Justice Hotham gave me afterwards and then I gave him an Account how I had been that Day at Beverly-Steeple-house and had declared Truth to the Priest and People there There was in the County thereabouts some Noted Priests and Doctors that Justice Hotham had acquaintance with and he would fain have them speak with me and offered to send for them under pretence of some Business he had with them but I wish'd him not to do so Now when the First Day of the Week was come Justice Hotham walked out with me into the Fields and then Captain Pursloe coming up after us Justice Hotham left us and returned home but Captain Pursloe went with me into the Steeple-house And when the Priest had done I spake to
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
more a Quaker than the Priest that printed it but was one of their own People But notwithstanding this wicked Slander by which the Adversary designed to defame us and turn Peoples Minds against the Truth we held forth many in Lincolnshire received the Gospel being Convinced of the Lord 's Everlasting Truth and sate down therein under the Lord 's heavenly Teaching Yorkshire Warnsworth After this I passed in the Lord's Power into Yorkshire and came to Warnsworth and went to the Steeple-house in the Fore-noon but they shut the Door against me Yet after a while they let in Thomas Aldam and then shut it again and the Priest fell upon him asking him Questions At last they opened the Door and I went in and as soon as I was come in the Priests sight he left Preaching though I said nothing to him for he was in a great Maze and asked me What have you to say and presently Cried out Come come I will prove them false Prophets in Matthew But he was so Confounded he could not find the Chapter Then he fell on me asking me many Questions and I stood still all this while not saying any thing amongst them At last I said Seeing here are so many Questions asked I may Answer them But as soon as I began to speak the People violently rushed upon me and thrust me out of the Steeple-house again and lockt the Door on me And as soon as they had done their Service and were come forth the People ran upon me and knockt me sorely with their Staves threw Clods and Stones at me and abused me much the Priest also being in a great rage laid violent Hands on me himself But I warned them and him of the Terrible Day of the Lord and exhorted them to Repent and turn to Christ And being filled with the Lord's refreshing Power I was not sensible of much hurt I had received by their Blows In the Afternoon I went to another Steeple-house but the Priest had done before I got thither So I preached Repentance to the People that were left and directed them to their inward Teacher Jesus Christ. Balby Doncaster From hence I went to Balby and so to Doncaster where I had formerly preach'd Repentance on the Market-day which had made a Noise and Alarm in the Country On the First-day I went to the Steeple-house and after the Priest had done I spake to him and the People what the Lord God had Commanded me And they were in a great Rage and hurried me out and threw me down and haled me before the Magistrates and a long Examination they made of me and much Work I had with them And they threatned my Life if ever I came there again and that they would leave me to the Mercy of the People Nevertheless I declared Truth amongst them and directed them to the Light of Christ in them testifying unto them That God was come to teach his People himself 1652. Doncaster whether they would hear or whether they would forbear After a while they put us out for some Friends were with me among the rude Multitude and they stoned us down the Streets And there was an Inn-keeper that was a Bayliff came and took us into his House and they brake his Head that the Blood ran down his Face with the Stones that they threw at us So we stay'd a while in his House and shewed the more sober People the Priest's Fruits Then we went away to Balby Balby about a Mile off and the rude People laid wait for us and stoned us down the Lane But blessed be the Lord we did not receive much hurt The next first-Day I went to Tickhill Tickhill whither the Friends of that Side gathered together and there was a Meeting and a mighty Brokenness by the Power of God there was amongst the People I went out of the Meeting being moved of God to go to the Steeple-house And when I came there I found the Priest and most of the Chief of the Parish together in the Chancel So I went up to them and began to speak but they immediately fell upon me and the Clark up with his Bible as I was speaking and struck me on the Face with it so that my Face gushed out with Blood and I bled exceedingly in the Steeple-house Then the People cried Let us have him out of the Church And when they had got me out they beat me exceedingly and threw me down and threw me over an Hedge And afterwards dragged me through an House into the Street stoning and beating me as they dragged me along so that I was all-over besmeared with Blood and Dirt. And they got my Hat from me which I never got again Yet when I was got upon my Legs again I declared to them the Word of Life and shewed them the Fruits of their Teacher and how they dishonoured Christianity So after a while I got into the Meeting again amongst Friends And the Priest and People coming by the House I went forth with Friends into the Yard and there I spake to the Priest and People and the Priest scofed at us and called us Quakers But the Lord's Power was so over them and the Word of Life was declared in such Authority and Dread to them that the Priest fell a Trembling himself and one of the People said Look how the Priest trembles and shakes he is turned a Quaker also So when the Meeting was over Friends departed and I went without my Hat to Balby about Seven or Eight Miles Balby And Friends were much abused that Day by the Priest and his People Insomuch that some moderate Justices hearing of it Two or Three of them came and sate at the Town to hear and examine the Business And he that had shed my Blood was afraid of having his Hand cut off for striking me in the Church as they called it but I forgave him and would not appear against him In the beginning of this Year Yorkshire West-Riding 1652 great Rage got up in Priests and People and in some of the Magistrates in the West-Riding of Yorkshire against the Truth and against Friends insomuch that the Priest of Warnsworth procured a Warrant from the Justices against me and Thomas Aldam which was to be executed in any part of the West-Riding of Yorkshire ☜ At the same Time I had a Vision of a Bear and Two great Mastiff-Dogs that I should pass by them and they should do me no hurt and it proved so 1652. West-Riding For the Constable took Thomas Aldam and carried him to York and I went with Thomas Aldam Twenty Miles towards York and the Constable had the Warrant for me also and said He saw me but he was loth to trouble Men that were Strangers but Thomas Aldam was his Neighbour So the Lord's Power restrained him that he had not Power to meddle with me And we came to Lieutenant Roper's where we had a great Meeting of many
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
Company went their way to Hallifax The People asked them Why they did not kill me according to the Oath they had sworn And they maliciously Answered That I had so bewitched them that they could not do it Thus was the Devil chained at that time Friends told me that they used to come at other times and be very rude and unruly and sometimes break their Stools and Seats and make fearful work amongst them But the Lord's Power had now bound them Shortly after this that Butcher that had been accused of killing a Man and a Woman before and who was one of them that had then bound himself by an Oath to kill me killed another Man and was thereupon sent to York-Jail Example Another of those rude Butchers who had also sworn to kill me having accustomed himself to Thrust his Tongue out of his Mouth in derision of Friends when they passed by him had his Tongue so swollen out of his Mouth that he could never draw it in again but died so Several strange and sudden Judgments came upon many of these Conspirators against me which would be too large here to declare God's Vengeance from Heaven came upon the Blood-thirsty who sought after Blood for all such Spirits I laid before the Lord and left them to him to deal with them who is stronger than them all in whose Power I was preserved and carried on to do his Work The Lord hath raised a fine People in those Parts whom he hath drawn to Christ and gathered in his Name who feel Christ amongst them and sit under his Teaching After this I passed through the Countries till I came to Balby Balby Lincolnshire from whence several Friends went with me into Lincolnshire where I had formerly been of whom some went to the Steeple-houses and some to private Meetings There came to the Meeting where I was the Sheriff of Lincoln and several with him who made a great Contention and Jangling for a time But at length the Lord's Power struck him that he was Convinced of the Truth and received the Word of Life as did several others also that did Oppose and continued among Friends till they died Great Meetings there were and a large Convincement in those Parts Many were turned to the Lord Jesus and came to sit under his Teaching leaving their Priests and their superstitious Ways and the Day of the Lord flourished over all Amongst them that came to our Meetings in that Country there was one called Sir Richard Wrey and he was Convinced as was also his Brother and his Brother's Wife who abode in the Truth and died therein though he afterwards Run out Having visited those Countries I came into Darbyshire Darbyshire and the Sheriff of Lincoln who was lately Convinced came with me In one Meeting we had some Opposition 1654. Derbyshire but the Lord 's glorious Power gave dominion over all At Night there came a Company of Bayliffs and Serving-men and called me out so I went out to them having some Friends with me When I was come out they were exceeding Rude and Violent for they had it seems Complotted together and intended To have Carried me away with them in the dark of the Evening by force and then to have done me a Mischief But the Lord's Power went over them and chained them so that they could not effect their Design and at last they went away The next day Thomas Aldam understanding that the Serving-men belonged to one called a Knight who lived not far off went to his House and laid before him the bad Carriage of his Servants And the Knight seemed to Rebuke them and did not allow of their Evil Carriage towards us Nottingham-shire Skegby After this we came into Nottinghamshire to Skegby where we had a great Meeting of all sorts of People and the Lord's Power went over them and all was quiet and the People were turned to the Spirit of God by which many came to receive his Power and to sit under the Teaching of Christ their Saviour A great People the Lord hath that a ways Kidsley-Park Then I passed towards Kidsley-park where there came many Ranters but the Lord's Power checkt them From thence I went up into the Peak-Country Peak Country towards Thomas Hammersly's where there came the Ranters of that Country and many high Professors The Ranters opposed me and fell a Swearing And when I reproved them for Swearing they would bring Scripture for it and said Abraham and Jacob and Joseph swore and the Priests and Moses and the Prophets swore and the Angels swore Then I told them I did confess all these did so as the Scripture records but said I Christ who said Before Abraham was I am saith Swear not at all And Christ ends the Prophets and the Old Priesthood and the Dispensation of Moses and reigns over the House of Jacob and of Joseph and he says Swear not at all And God when he bringeth in the First-begotten into the World saith Let all the Angels of God worship him to wit Christ Jesus who saith Swear not at all And as for the Plea that Men make for Swearing to end their Strife Christ who says Swear not at all destroys the Devil and his Works who is the Author of Strife for that is one of his Works And God said This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased hear ye him So the Son is to be heard who forbids Swearing And the Apostle James who did hear the Son of God and followed him and preached him forbids all Oaths Jam. 5.12 So the Lord's Power went over them and his Son and his Doctrine was set over them and the Word of Life was fully and richly preached and many were Convinced that day This Thomas Hammersly being summoned to serve upon a Jury was admitted to serve without an Oath and he being Fore-man of the Jury when he brought in the Verdict the Judge did declare That he had been a Judge so many Years but never heard a more upright Verdict than that Quaker had then brought in Much might be written of things of this nature which time would fail to declare But the Lord's blessed Power and Truth was exalted over all who is worthy of all Praise and Glory for ever Thus travelling through Darbyshire I visited Friends Leicestershire Swanington till I came to Swanington in Leicestershire where there was a General Meeting to which many Ranters came and Baptists and other Professors for great Contests there had been with them and with the Priests in that Town To this Meeting several Friends came from several Parts as John Audland and Francis Howgil and Edward Pyot from Bristol and Edward Burrough from London and several were Convinced in those Parts The Ranters that came to the Meeting made a disturbance and were very rude but at last the Lord's Power came over them and they were Confounded The next Day Jacob Bottomley a great Ranter came from
and his Marshal to the Meeting and were Convinced for the glorious powerful Day of the Lord was exalted over all and many were Convinced that day at that Meeting There were at that Meeting Two 1655. Whetston that came out of Wales who were Justices of Peace their Names were Peter Price and Walter Jenkin who came both to be Ministers of Christ I went from thence to Sileby to William Smith's Sileby where was a great Meeting to which several Baptists came and one of them a Baptist-Teacher was Convinced and came to sit under the Lord 's Teaching by his Spirit and Power This Baptist said he had Baptized Thirty in a day From thence I went to Drayton my Native Town Drayton where so many Priests and Professors had formerly gathered together against me but now never a Priest nor Professor did appear I asked some of my Relations Where were all the Priests and Professors now They said The Priest of Non-Eaton was dead and there were Eight or Nine of them seeking to get into his Benefice They will let you alone now said they for they are like a Company of Crows when a rotten Sheep is dead they all gather together to pull out the Puddings and so do the Priests for a fallen Benefice These were some of their own Hearers that said so of them But they had spent their Venom against me and the Lord delivered me by his Power out of their Snares Then I went to Badgley Badgley where there was a great Meeting from many parts many came far to it and many were Convinced and turned to the Lord And they that were Convinced came under Christ's Teaching and were settled upon him their Foundation and their Rock From thence I passed into Nottinghamshire Nottingham-shire Darbyshire and had large Meetings there and so into Darbyshire where the Lord's Power came over all and many were turned from the Darkness to the Light and from the Power of Satan unto God and came to receive the Holy Ghost And great Miracles were wrought in many Places by the Power of the Lord through several In Darbyshire James Nailer met me and told me Seven or Eight Priests had challenged him to a Dispute I had a Travel in my Spirit for him and the Lord answered me and I was moved to bid him Go on and God Almighty would be with him and give him the Victory in his Power And the Lord did so insomuch that the People saw the Priests were foiled and they cried A Nailer a Nailer hath confuted them all After the Dispute was over he came to me again praising the Lord. Thus was the Lord's Day proclaimed and set over all their Heads and People began to see the Apostacy and Slavery they had been under to their Hireling-Teachers for Means and they came to know their Teacher the Lord Jesus who had bought them and purchased them and made their Peace betwixt God and them While we were here Friends came out of Yorkshire to see us and were glad of the Prosperity of Truth After this I passed into Warwickshire through Friends Warwickshire Worcestershire Birmingham visiting their Meetings and so into Worcestershire and had a Meeting at Brummingham as I went where several were Convinced and turned to the Lord. At length I came to one Cole's House in Worcestershire near Chattan 1655. Near Chattan This Cole had given an Independent-Preacher a Meeting-place and the Independent came to be Convinced and after he was Convinced he laid aside his Preaching Whereupon the Old Man Cole gave him an hundred Pounds a Year I had a Meeting at that Meeting-place and a very great Meeting it was insomuch that the Meeting-place would not hold the People and many were turned to the Lord that day Afterwards when the time of Trials came this Independent did not stand to that which had Convinced him but turned back Whereupon the Old Man took away his 100 l. a Year from him again But this Old Man Cole himself died in God's Truth Now I heard that at Evesholme the Magistrates had cast several Friends into Prison in several Prisons and that hearing of my coming they made a pair of high Stocks So I sent for Edward Pittaway a Friend that lived near Evesholme and asked him the Truth of the thing and he said It was so Then I went that Night with him to Evesholme Evesholme and in the Evening we had a large precious Meeting wherein Friends and People were refreshed with the Word of Life and with the Power of the Lord. Next Morning I got up and rid to one of the Prisons and visited Friends there and encouraged them Then I rid to the other Prison where there were several Prisoners and amongst them one Friend that had been a Priest but was now become a free Minister of Christ his Name was Humphrey Smith So when I had visited the Friends at both Prisons and was turned away from the Prison to go out of Town I espied the Magistrates coming up the Town to have seized me in Prison But the Lord frustrated their Intents that the Innocent escaped their Snare and the Lord God's blessed Power came over them all But exceeding Rude and Envious were the Priests and Professors about this time in those Parts Worcester I went from Evesholme to Worcester and had a precious Meeting there and quiet But after the Meeting as we came down the Street towards our Inn some of the Professors fell to discourse with Friends and were like to have made a Tumult in the City and as we went into the Inn they all cluttered into the Yard but I went among them and got them quieted The next day I walked forth into the Town and had a great deal of Discourse with some of the Professors concerning Christ and the way of Truth One of them denied That Christ was of Abraham according to the Flesh and that he was declared to be the Son of God according to the Spirit But I proved from Rom. 1. that he was of the Seed of Abraham being made of the Seed of David according to the Flesh and that according to the Spirit he was declared to be the Son of God Afterwards I writ a Paper concerning it Tewksbury From Worcester we went to Tewksbury where in the Evening we had a great Meeting And there came in the Priest of the Town with a great Rabble of rude People and the Priest boasted That he would see whether he or I should have the Victory I turned the People to the Divine Light which Christ the heavenly and spiritual Man had enlightned them withal that with that Light they might see their Sins and that they were in Death and Darkness and without God in the World 1655. Tewksbury And with the same Light they might see Christ from whom it came their Saviour and Redeemer who had shed his Blood for them and died for them and who was the Way to God
at our Meeting in the Orchard As I was going along into the Orchard the People told me That Paul Gwin the rude jangling Baptist was going to the Meeting But I bid them Never heed It was nothing to me who went to it When I was come into the Orchard I stood upon the Stone that Friends used to stand on when they spake and I was moved of the Lord to put off my Hat and to stand a pretty while and let the People look at me for some Thousands of People were there While I thus stood silent this Rude Baptist began to find Fault with my Hair but I said nothing to him Then he run on into Words and at last Ye wise men of of Bristol said he I strange at you that you will stand here and hear a Man speak and affirm that which he cannot make good Then the Lord opened my Mouth for as yet I had not spoken a Word And I asked the People Whether they ever heard me speak before or ever saw me before And I bid them ' Take notice what kind of Man this was amongst them that should so Impudently say That I spake and Affirmed that which I could not make good and yet neither he nor they ever heard me or saw me before Therefore that was a lying envious malicious Spirit that spake in him and it was of the Devil and not of God Therefore I charged him in the Dread and Power of the Lord to be silent And the Mighty Power of God came over him and all his Company And then a glorious peaceable Meeting we had and the Word of Life was divided amongst them and they were turned from the Darkness to the Light and to Jesus their Saviour And the Scriptures were largely opened to them and the Traditions and Rudiments and ways 1656. Bristol and Doctrines of Men were laid open before the People which they had been in and they were turned to the Light of Christ that with it they might see them and see him to lead them out of them I opened also to them the Types and Figures and Shadows of Christ in the time of the Law and shewed them That Christ was come and had ended the Types and Shadows and Tithes and Oaths and put down Swearing and had set up Yea and Nay instead of it and a free Ministry for he was now come to Teach People himself and his heavenly Day was springing from on high So for many hours did I declare the Word of Life amongst them in the Eternal Power of God that by him they might come up into the Beginning and be Reconciled to him And having turned them to the Spirit of God in themselves that would lead into all Truth I was moved to pray in the mighty Power of God and the Lord's Power came over all But when I had done this Fellow began to babble again and John Audland was moved to bid him Repent and fear God So his own People and Followers being ashamed of him he passed away and never came again to disturb the Meeting And the Meeting brake up quietly and the Lord's Power and Glory shined over all a blessed Day it was and the Lord had the Praise After a while this Paul Gwin went beyond the Seas and many Years after I met with him again at Barbado's of which in its Place From Bristol we returned to Edward Pyot's where we had a great Meeting and the Lord's Power was over all and Truth was declared and spread abroad and many were turned to Christ Jesus their Life their Prophet to teach them their Shepherd to feed them and their Bishop to oversee them After the Meeting was done I had some Reasoning with some Professors and the Lord's Truth and Power came over them Slattenford From Edward Pyot's we passed to Slattenford where we had a very large Meeting Edward Pyot and another Friend being still with me and a great turning of People there was to the Lord Jesus Christ their Teacher and People were glad that they were brought to know their Way and their free Teacher and their Saviour Christ Jesus Wiltshire On the First-day following we went to Nathaniel Crips his House who had been a Justice of Peace in Wiltshire where it was supposed there were between Two and Three Thousand People at a Meeting and all was quiet And the mighty Power of God was manifest and People were turned to the Grace and Truth in their Hearts that came by Jesus Christ which would Teach them to deny all Vngodliness and wordly Lusts and to live soberly and godly in this present world So that every Man and Woman might know the Grace of God which had appeared to all Men and which was saving and sufficient to bring their Salvation This was to be their Teacher the Grace of God which would teach them how to live what to do and what to deny and would season their Words and establish their Hearts And this was a free Teacher to every one of them so that they might come to be Heirs of this Grace and of Christ by whom it came who hath ended the Prophets and the Priests that took Tithes and the Jewish Temple And as for these Hireling-Priests that take Tithes now 1656. Wiltshire and their Temples which Priests were made aâ— Schools and Colledges of Man's setting up and not by Christ they with all their Inventions were to be denied For the Apostles denied the true Priesthood and Temple which God had commanded after Christ had put an End thereto So the Scriptures and the Truths therein contained were largely opened and the People turned to the Spirit of God in their Hearts that by it they might be led into all Truth and understand the Scriptures and know God and Christ and come to have Unity with them and one with another in the same Spirit And the People went away generally satisfied and were glad that they were turned to Christ Jesus their Teacher and Saviour The next day we went from thence to Marlborough Marleborough where we had a little Meeting And the Sessions being in that Town that day they were granting forth a Warrant to send for me But one Justice Stooks being at the Sessions stopt them telling them There was a Meeting at his House yesterday at which were several Thousands So the Warrant was stopt and our Meeting was quiet and several received Christ Jesus their Teacher and came into the New Covenant and abode in it From hence we went to Newberry where we had a large Newberry blessed Meeting and several were Convinced there Thence we passed on to Reading where we had a large Reading precious Meeting in the Lord's Power amongst the Plants of God and many of the World came in and were reached and added to the Meeting and all was quiet and the Lord's Power was over all Kingston upon Thames We went from Reading to Kingston upon Thames where a few came in to
coming away to Friends At last when he had so very few left he would come to Pardsey-Crag where Friends had a Meeting of several hundreds of People who were all come to sit under the Lord Jesus Christ's Teaching and he would walk about the Meeting on the first-Days like a man that went about the Commons to look for Sheep Now during this time I came to this Pardsey-Crag-meeting and he with three or four of his followers that were yet left to him came to the Meeting that Day and they were all throughly Convinced After the Meeting was done Priest Wilkinson asked me two or three Questions which I answered him to his Satisfaction and from that time he came amongst Friends to their Meetings and became an Able Minister and preached the Gospel freely and turned many to Christ's free Teaching And after he had continued many Years in the free Ministry of Christ Jesus he died in the Truth SCOTLAND I had for some time felt Drawings on my Spirit to go into Scotland and had sent to one Colonel William Osborn of Scotland desiring him to come and meet me and he with some others with him were come out of Scotland to this Meeting So after the Meeting was over which he said was the most-glorious Meeting that ever he saw in his life I passed with him and those others that were with him into Scotland having Robert Widders with me who was a Thundring man against Hypocrisy and Deceit and the Rottenness of the Priests The first Night we came into Scotland we lodged at an Inn and the Inn-keeper told us There was an Earl lived about a Quarter of a Mile off who had a desire to see me and had left word at his House that if ever I came into Scotland he should send him word He told us there were three Draw-bridges to his House and that it would be Nine a Clock before the third Bridge was drawn So finding 1657. Scotland we had time in the Evening we walked down to his House He received us very lovingly and said He would have gone with us on our Journey but that he was before engaged to go to a Funeral After we had spent some time with him we parted very friendly and returned to our Inn. Next Morning we travelled on and passing through Dumfreeze Dumfreez Douglass we came to Douglas where we met with some Friends and from thence we passed to the Heads Heads where we had a blessed Meeting in the Name of Jesus and felt him in the midst Leaving Heads we went to Badcow and had a Meeting there Badcow to which abundance of People came and many were Convinced amongst whom there was one that was called a Lady Convinced Highlands From thence we passed towards the High-lands to William Osburn's House where we gathered up the Sufferings of Friends and the Principles of the Scotch Priests which may be seen in a Book called The Scotch-Priests Principles Afterwards we came back again to Heads and Badcow Heads Badcow Garshore and Garshore where the said Lady Margaret Hambleton was Convinced who afterwards went to warn O. Cromwel and Charles Fleetwood of the Day of the Lord that was coming upon them On the First-day we had a great Meeting and several Professors came to it Now the Priests had frighted the People with the Doctrine of Election and Reprobation telling them That God had ordained the greatest part of Men and Women for Hell and that let them Pray or Preach or Sing and do what they could it was all to no purpose if they were ordained for Hell And that God had a certain Number which were Elected for Heaven and let them do what they would as David an Adulterer and Paul a Persecutor yet elected Vessels for Heaven So the fault was not at all in the Creature less or more but God had ordained it so Now I was lead to open to the People the falseness and folly of their Priests Doctrines and shewed them How the Priests had abused those Scriptures which they had brought and quoted to them as in Jude and other Places For whereas they said There was no fault at all in the Creature I shewed them that they who Jude speaks of to wit Cain Core and Balaam who he says were ordained of old to Condemnation the fault was in them For did not God warn Cain and Balaam and gave a Promise to Cain If he did well he should be accepted And did not the Lord bring Core out of Egypt and his Company And yet did not he gainsay both God and his Law and his Prophet Moses So here People might see that there was a fault in Cain Corah and Balaam and so there is in all them that go in their ways For if they who are called Christians resist the Gospel as Core did the Law and err from the Spirit of God as Balaam did and if they do Evil as Cain did is not here a fault Which fault is in themselves and is the Cause of their Reprobation and not God Doth not Christ say Go preach the Gospel to all Nations Which is the Gospel of Salvation He would not have sent them out into all Nations to preach the Doctrine of Salvation if the greatest part of Men had been ordained for Hell Was not Christ a Propitiation for the sins of the whole World for those that become Reprobates as well as for the Saints He died for all Men the Vngodly as well as the Godly as the Apostle bears witness 2 Cor. 5.15 Rom. 5.6 And he enlightens every Man that cometh into the World that through him they might all believe And Christ bids them believe in the Light But all they that hate the Light which Christ bids all believe in they are Reprobated Again The Manifestation of the Spirit of God is given to every Man to profit withal But they that vex quench and grieve it are in the Reprobation and the fault is in them as it is also in them that hate his Light The Apostle saith The grace of God which brings Salvation hath appeared unto all Men teaching us saith he that denying Vngodliness and worldly Lusts we should live soberly righteously and godly in this present World Tit. 2.11.12 Now all those Men and Women that live Vngodly and in the Lusts of the World that turn this grace of God into Wantonness and walk despitefully against it and so deny God and the Lord Jesus Christ that bought them the fault is in all such that turn the grace into Wantonness and walk despitefully against that which would bring their Salvation and save them out of the Reprobation But the Priests it seems can see no fault in such as deny God and the Lord Jesus Christ that hath bought them such as deny his Light which they should believe in and his grace which should teach them to live godly and which should bring them their Salvation Now all that believe in the Light of
me Many of them lived in the Country and he could not tell how to send to them I told him He might acquaint them about the Town of it and send to as many in the Country as he could So the next Day we Met at the Castle there being about fourscore People to whom I declared the Truth for about the space of two Hours And the Lord's Power was over them all so that they had not Power to open their Mouths in Opposition When I had done one of them asked me a Question which I was loth to have answered for I saw it might lead into Jangling and I was unwilling to go into Jangling 1657. Nottingham for some of the People were tender yet I could not tell how well to escape it Wherefore I answered the Question and was moved forthwith to speak to Rice Jones and lay before him How that he had been the Man that had scattered such as had been Tender and some that had been Convinced and had been led out of many Vanities of the World which he had formerly judged but now he judged the Power of God in them and they being simple turned to him and so he and they were turned to be vainer than the World for many of his Followers were turned to be the greatest Foot-ball-players and Wrestlers in the Country So I told him it was the Serpent in him that had scattered and done hurt to such as were Tender towards the Lord. Nevertheless if he did wait in the Fear of God for the Seed of the Woman Christ Jesus to bruise the Serpent's Head in him that had scattered and done the hurt by the Seed Christ Jesus he coming into him he might come to gather them again by this heavenly Seed though it would be an hard work for him to gather them again out of those Vanities he had led them into At this Rice Jones said Thou liest it is not the Seed of the Woman that bruises the Serpent's Head No! said I What is it then I say it is the Law said he But said I the Scripture speaking of the Seed of the VVoman saith It shall bruise thy Head and thou shalt bruise his Heel Now hath the Law an Heel said I to be bruised Then Rice Jones and all his Company were at a stand and I was moved in the Power of the Lord to speak to him and say This Seed Christ Jesus the Seed of the VVoman which should bruise the Serpent's Head shall bruise thy Head and break you all to pieces Thus I did leave on the Heads of them the Seed Christ and not long after he and his Company scattered to pieces and several of them came to be Friends and stand to this Day For many of them had been Convinced about eight Years before but had been led aside by this Rice Jones For they denied the Inward Cross the Power of God and so went into Vanity And it was about eight Years since I had been formerly amongst them in which time I was to pass over them and by them seeing they had slighted the Lord's Truth and Power and the Visitation of his Love unto them But now was the time that I was moved to go to them again and it was of great Service for many of them were brought to the Lord Jesus Christ and were settled upon him sitting down under his Teaching and Feeding where they were kept fresh and green and the others that would not be gathered to him soon after withered This was that Rice Jones that some Years before had said I was then at the highest and should fall But poor Man he little thought how near his own Fall was We left Nottingham and went into Warwickshire 1658. Warwicksh Northamptonshire Leicestersh Bedfordsh Yearly Meeting and thence passing through some parts of Northamptonshire and Leicestershire visiting Friends and having Meetings with them as we travelled we came into Bedfordshire where we had large Gatherings in the Name of Jesus After some time we came to John Crook's House where a General Yearly Meeting for the whole Nation was appointed to be held This Meeting lasted Three Days and many Friends from most Parts of the Nation came to it so that the Inns and Towns round thereabouts were filled for many Thousands of People were at it And although there were some Disturbance by some rude People 1658. Bedfordshire Yearly Meeting that had run out from Truth yet the Lord's Power came over all and a glorious Meeting it was And the Everlasting Gospel was preached and many received it for there were many sorts of Professors came to the Meeting which Gospel brought Life and Immortality to Light in them and shined over all Then was I moved by the Power and Spirit of the Lord to open unto them the Promise of God how that it was made to the Seed not to Seeds as many but to One which Seed was Christ And that all People both Males and Females should feel this Seed in them which was Heir of the Promise that so they might all witness Christ in them the Hope of Glory the Mystery which had been hid from Ages and Generations which was revealed to the Apostles and is revealed again now after this long Night of Apostacy So that all might come up into this Seed Christ Jesus and walk in it and sit down together in the heavenly Places in Christ Jesus who was the Foundation of the Prophets and Apostles and the Rock of Ages and is our Foundation now And all sitting down in him sit down in the Substance the First and the Last that changes not the Seed that bruises the Serpent's Head and was before he was who ends all the Types Figures and Shadows and is the Substance of them all in whom there is no Shadow Now these things were upon me to open unto all that they might mind and see what it is they sit down in For First They that sit down in Adam in the Fall sit down in Misery in Death in Darkness and Corruption Secondly They that sit down in the Types Figures and Shadows and under the first Priesthood Law and Covenant sit down in that which must have an End and which made nothing perfect Thirdly They that sit down in the Apostacy that hath gotten up since the Apostles Days sit down in spiritual Sodom and Egypt and are drinking of the Whore's Cup under the Beast's and Dragon's Power Fourthly They that sit down in the State in which Adam was before he fell sit down in that which may be fallen from for he fell from that State though it was perfect Fifthly They that sit down in the Prophets sit down in that which must be fulfilled And they that sit down in the Fellowship of Water Bread and Wine these being temporal things they sit down in that which is short of Christ and of his Baptism Sixthly To sit down in a Profession of all the Scriptures from Genesis to the Revelations and not be
though they be Enemies to God to themselves and to me And I can say It is of the Lord that he is come in to bring down many unrighteously set up of which I had a Sight Three Years before he came in It is much he should say I am an Enemy to the King for I have no reason so to be he having done nothing against me But I have been often Imprisoned and Persecuted these Eleven or Twelve Years by them that have been against both the King and his Father even the Party that Porter was made a Major by and bore Arms for but not by them that were for the King I was never an Enemy to the King nor to any Man's Person upon the Earth but I am in the Love that fulfils the Law which thinks no Evil but loves even Enemies and would have the King saved and come to the Knowledge of the Truth and be brought into the Fear of the Lord to receive his Wisdom from above by which all things were made and created that with that Wisdom he may order all things to the Glory of God by whom they were Created Whereas he calleth me A Chief Vpholder of the Quakers Sect. I Answer The Quakers are not a Sect but are in the Power of God which was before Sects were and witness the Election before the World began and are come to live in the Life which the Prophets and Apostles lived in who gave forth the Scriptures Therefore are we hated by envious wrathful wicked and persecuting Men. But God is the Vpholder of us all by his mighty Power and preserves us from the Wrath of the Wicked that would swallow us up And whereas he saith That I together with others of my Fanatick Opinion as he calls it have of late endeavoured to raise Insurrections and to imbroil the whole Kingdom in Blood I say this is altogether false to these things I am as a Child and know nothing of them The Postures of War I never learned My Weapons are Spiritual and not Carnal for with Carnal Weapons I do not fight I am a Follower of him who said My Kingdom is not of this World And though these Lies and Slanders are raised upon me I deny drawing of any Carnal Weapon against the King or Parliament or any Man upon the Earth For I am come to the end of the Law To love Enemies and wrestle not with Flesh and Blood but am in that which saves Men's Lives And a Witness I am against all Murderers Plotters and all such as would Imbrue the Nation in Blood for it is not in my Heart to have any Man's Life destroyed And as for the Word Fanatick which signifies furious foolish mad c. He might have considered himself before he had used that Word and have learned the Humility which goes before the Honour For we are not furious foolish or Mad but through Patience and Meekness have born Lies and Slanders and Persecutions many Years and undergone great Sufferings The Spiritual Man that wrestles not with Flesh and Blood and the Spirit that reproves Sin in the Gate which is the Spirit of Truth Wisdom and sound Judgment this is not mad foolish furious which Fanatick signifies But all are of a mad furious foolish Spirit that wrestle with Flesh and Blood with Carnal Weapons in their Furiousness Foolishness and Rage This is not the Spirit of God but of Error that persecutes in a mad blind Zeal like Nebuchadnezer and Saul Now inasmuch as I am ordered to be kept Prisoner till I be delivered by Order from the King or Parliament therefore have I written these things to be laid before you the King and Parliament that ye may Consider of them before ye act any thing therein that ye may weigh in the Wisdom of God the Intent and End of Men's Spirits lest ye act the thing that will bring the hand of the Lord upon you and against you as many have done before you who have been in Authority whom God hath overthrown in whom we trust whom we fear and cry unto Day and Night Who hath heard us and doth hear us and will hear us and avenge our Cause For much Innocent Blood hath been shed and many have been persecuted to Death by such as have been in Authority before you whom God hath vomited out because they turned against the Just Therefore consider your Standing now that ye have the Day 1660. Lancaster-Castle and receive this as a Warning of Love to you From the Innocent a Sufferer in Bonds and close Prisoner in Lancaster-Castle called GEORGE FOX Upon my being taken and forcibly carried away from Margaret Fell's House and charged with things of so high a Nature she was concerned as looking upon it to be an Injury offered to her Whereupon she writ the following Lines and sent them abroad directed thus To all Magistrates concerning the wrong taking up and Imprisoning of George Fox at Lancaster I Do Inform the Governours of this Nation that Henry Porter Major of Lancaster sent a Warrant with Four Constables to my House for which he had no Authority nor Order They searched my House and apprehended George Fox in it who was not guilty of the Breach of any Law or of any Offence against any in the Nation After they had taken him and brought him before the said Henry Porter there was Bail offered what he would demand for his Appearance to Answer what could be laid to his Charge But he contrary to Law if he had taken him lawfully denied to accept of any Bail and clapt him up in Close Prison After he was in Prison a Copy of his Mittimus was demanded which ought not to be denied to any Prisoner that so he may see what is laid to his Charge But it was denied him a Copy he could not have only they were suffered to read it over And every thing that was there charged against him was utterly false he was not guilty of any one Charge in it as will be proved and manifested to the Nation So let the Governours consider of it I am concerned in this thing inasmuch as he was apprehended in my House and if he be guilty I am so too So I desire to have this searched out MARGARET FELL After this Margaret Fell determined to go to London to speak with the King about my being taken and to shew him the manner of it and the Vnjust Dealing and Evil Vsage I had received Which when Justice Porter heard of he vapoured that he would go and meet her in the Gap But when he came before the King he having been a Zealous Man for the Parliament against the King several of the Courtiers spake to him concerning his plundering of their Houses So that he had quickly enough of the Court and soon returned into the Country Mean while the Jailer seemed very fearful and said he was afraid Major Porter would hang him because he had not put me in the Dark-House But when
against another we say these are of the World and have their Foundation from this Unrighteous World from the Foundation of which the Lamb hath been slain which Lamb hath redeemed us from this unrighteous World and we are not of it but are Heirs of a World in which there is no End and of a Kingdom where no corruptible thing enters And our Weapons are Spiritual and not Carnal yet Mighty through God to the pulling down of the Strong Holds of Sin and Satan who is Author of Wars Fighting Murder and Plots and our Swords are broken into Plow shares and Spears into Pruning-hooks as Prophesied of in Micah 4. Therefore we cannot learn War any more neither rise up against Nation or Kingdom with outward Weapons tho' you have numbred us amongst the Transgressors and Plotters the Lord knows our Innocency herein and will plead our Cause with all Men and People upon Earth at the day of their Judgment when all Men shall have a Reward according to their Works Therefore in love we warn you for your Souls good not to wrong the Innocent nor the Babes of Christ which he hath in his Hand which he tenders as the Apple of his Eye neither seek to destroy the Heritage of God neither turn your Swords backward upon such as the Law was not made for i. e. the Righteous but for the Sinners and Transgressors to keep them down For those are not the Peace-makers neither the Lovers of Enemies neither can they overcome Evil with Good who wrong them that be Friends to You and All Men and wish Your Good and the good of all People on the Earth If you oppress us as they did the Children of Israel in Egypt and if you oppress us as they did when Christ was Born and as they did the Christians in the Primitive Times we can say The Lord forgive you and leave the Lord to deal with you and not revenge our selves And if you say as the Council said to Peter and John You must speak no more in that Name and if you serve us as they served the Three Children spoken of in Daniel God is the same as ever he was that lives for Ever and Ever who hath the Innocent in his Arms. Oh Friends Offend not the Lord and his Little Ones neither afflict his People but consider and be moderate And do not run hastily into things but mind and consider Mercy Justice and Judgment that is the way for you to prosper and get the Favour of the Lord. Our Meetings were stopped and broken up in the days of Oliver in pretence of Plotting against him and in the days of the Committee of Safety we were looked upon as Plotters to bring in KING CHARLES and now our Peaceable Meetings are termed Seditious Oh that Men should lose their Reason and go contrary to their own Conscience knowing that we have suffered all things and have been accounted Plotters all along though we have declared against them both by Word of Mouth and Printing and are clear from any such thing Though we have suffered all along because we would not take up Carnal Weapons to fight withal against any and are thus made a Prey upon because we are the Innocent Lambs of Christ and cannot avenge our selves These things are left upon your Hearts to consider But we are out of all those things in the Patience of the Saints and we know that as Christ said He that takes the Sword shall perish with the Sword Mat 26.52 Rev. 13.10 This is given forth from the People called Quakers to satisfie the King and his Council and all those that have any Jealousie concerning Vs that all occasion of Suspicion may be taken away and our Innocency cleared Given forth on the behalf of the whole Body of the Elect People of God who were called Quakers in the Year 1660. POSTSCRIPT THough we are numbred amongst Transgressors and so have been given up to all Rude Merciless Men by which our Meetings are broken up in which we Edified one another in our Holy Faith and prayed together to the Lord that lives for ever yet he is our Pleader for us in this Day The Lord saith They that feared his Name spake often together as in Malachy which were as his Jewels And for this Cause and no Evil-doing are we cast into Holes Dungeons Houses of Correction Prisons they sparing neither Old nor Young Men nor Women and made a Prey on in the sight of all Nations under pretence of being Seditious c. so that all rude People run upon us to take Possession For which we say The Lord forgive them that have thus done to us who doth and will enable us to suffer and never shall we lift up hand against any Man that doth thus use us But that the Lord may have mercy upon them that they may consider what they have done For how is it possible for them to requite us for the Wrong they have done to us Who to all Nations have sounded us abroad as Seditious or Plotters who were never found Plotters against any Power or Man upon the Earth since we knew the Life and Power of Jesus Christ manifested in us who hath redeemed us from the World and all Works of Darkness and Plotters that be in it by which we know our Election before the World began So we say The Lord have Mercy upon our Enemies and forgive them for that they have done unto us Oh! do as you would be done by and do unto all Men as you would have them do unto you for this is but the Law and the Prophets And all Plots Insurrections and Riotous Meetings we do deny knowing them to be of the Devil the Murtherer which we in Christ who was before they were Triumph over them And all Wars and Fightings with Carnal Weapons we do deny who have the Sword of the Spirit and all that wrong us we leave them to the Lord. And this is to clear our Innocency from that Aspersion cast upon us That we are Seditious or Plotters Added in the Reprinting Courteous Reader THis was our Testimony above Twenty Years ago and since then we have not been found Acting contrary to it nor ever shall For the Truth that is our Guide is unchangeable And this is now Reprinted to the Men of this Age many of whom were then Children and doth stand as our certain Testimony against all Plotting and Fighting with Carnal Weapons And if any by departing from the Truth should do so this is our Testimony in the Truth against them and will stand over them and the Truth will be clear of them This Declaration did somewhat clear the Dark Air that was over the City and Country And soon after the King gave forth a Proclamation That no Soldiers should go to search any House but with a Constable But the Jails were still full many Thousands of Friends being in Prison in the Nation Which Mischief was occasioned by that wicked Rising of
People And said It was great pity that they did not return to the Holy Mother Church Thus they made a Busz among the People and said They would willingly discourse with Friends But Friends were loth to meddle with them because they were Jesuits looking upon it to be both dangerous and scandalous But when I understood it I said to Friends Let us discourse with them be they what they will So a time being appointed at Gerrard Roberts his House there came two of them like Courtiers When we were come together they asked our Names which we told them But we did not ask their Names for we understood they were called Papists and they knew we were called Quakers I asked them the same Question that I had formerly asked a Jesuit namely Whether the Church of Rome was not degenerated from the Church in the Primitive Times from the Spirit and Power and Practice that they were in in the Apostles times He to whom I put this Question being subtile said He would not Answer it I ask'd him Why But he would shew no Reason His Companion said he would answer me and he said They were not degenerated from the Church in the Primitive times I asked the other Whether he was of the same Mind And he said Yes Then I told them that for the better understanding one another and that there might be no Mistake I would repeat my Question over again after this manner Whether the Church of Rome now was in the same Purity Practice Power and Spirit that the Church in the Apostle's time was in When they saw we would be exact with them they flew off and denied that saying It was Presumption in any to say they had the same Power and Spirit which the Apostles had But I told them It was Presumption in them to meddle with the Words of Christ and his Apostles and make People believe they succeeded the Apostles and yet be forced to Confess They were not in the same Power and Spirit that the Apostles were in This said I is a Spirit of Presumption and rebuked by the Apostles Spirit Then I shewed them how different their Fruits and Practices were from the Fruits and Practices of the Apostles Then got up one of them and said Ye are a Company of Dreamers Nay said I ye are the filthy Dreamers who dream ye are the Apostles Successors and yet Confess Ye have not the same Power and Spirit which the Apostles were in And are not they Defilers of the Flesh who say It is Presumption for any to say they have the same Power and Spirit which the Apostles had Now said I if ye have not the same Power and Spirit which the Apostles had then it is manifest that ye are led by another Power and Spirit than the Apostles and Church in the Primitive times were led by Then I began to tell them how that Evil Spirit which they were led by had led them to Pray by Beads and to Images and to set up Nunneries and Frieries and Monasteries and to put People to Death for Religion and this Practice of theirs I shewed them was below the Law and far short of the Gospel in which is Liberty They were soon weary of this Discourse and went their way and gave a Charge as we heard to the Papists That they should not dispute with us nor read any of our Books So we were rid of them But we had Reasonings with all the other Sects as Presbyterians Independents Seekers Baptists Episcopal-men Socinians Brownists Lutherans Calvinists Arminians Fifth-Monarchy-Men Familists Muggletonians and Ranters none of which would Affirm they had the same Power and Spirit that the Apostles had and were in So in that Power and Spirit the Lord gave us Dominion over them all As for the Fifth-Monarchy-Men I was moved to give forth a Paper to them to manifest their Error to them For they looked for Christ's Personal Coming in an outward Form and Manner and they fixed the time of it to the Year 1666 at which time some of them did prepare themselves when it Thundered and Rained thinking Christ was then come to set up his Kingdom and then they imagined they were to kill the Whore without them But I told them the Whore was alive in them and was not burnt with God's Fire nor judged in them with the same Power and Spirit the Apostles were in And their looking for Christ's Coming outwardly to set up his Kingdom was like the Pharisees Lo here and Lo there But Christ was come and had set up his Kingdom above Sixteen Hundred Years ago according to Nebuchadnezzar's Dream and Daniel's Prophecy and he had dash'd to pieces the Four Monarchies the great Image with its Head of Gold Breast and Arms of Silver Belly and Thighs of Brass Legs of Iron and Feet part of Iron part of Clay and they were all blown away with God's Wind as the Chaff in the Summer-threshing-Floor And when Christ was on Earth he said his Kingdom was not of this World If it had been his Servants would have fought but it was not therefore his Servants did not fight And therefore all the Fifth-Monarchy-Men that be Fighters with Carnal Weapons are none of Christ's Servants but the Beast's and the Whore's Christ said All Power in Heaven and in Earth is given to me So then his Kingdom was set up above Sixteen Hundred Years ago and he Reigns And we see Jesus Reign said the Apostle and he shall Reign till all things be put under his Feet though all things are not yet put under his Feet nor subdued This year several Friends were moved to go beyond the Seas to publish Truth in Forreign Countries John Stubbs and Henry Fell and Richard Costrop were moved to go towards China and Prester John's Country but no Masters of Ships would carry them With much ado they got a Warrant from the King but the East-India-Company found ways to avoid it and the Masters of their Ships would not carry them Then they went into Holland hoping to have got Passage there but no Passage could they get there neither Then John Stubs and Henry Fell took Shipping to go to Alexandria in Egypt intending to go by the Carravans from thence Mean while Daniel Baker being to go to Smirna he drew Richard Costrop contrary to his own Freedom to go along with him And in the passage Richard falling sick D. Baker left him sick in the Ship where he died But that hard-hearted Man afterwards lost his own Condition John Stubbs and Henry Fell got to Alexandria in Egypt but they had not been long there before the English Consul banished them from thence Yet before they came away they dispersed many Books and Papers there for the opening the Principles and Way of Truth to the Turks and Grecians They gave the Book called The Popes Strength broken to an Old Frier for him to give or send to the Pope which Book when the Frier had perused he clapped his Hand
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
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
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
at Finchcomb where were several of the Opposit Spirit who it was thought Intended to have made some disturbance amongst Friends but the Lord's Power was over and kept them down and good Service for the Lord we had at that Meeting We returned from Finchcomb to Nailsworth again Nailsworth and had another very precious Meeting there to which Friends came from the several Meetings thereabouts which made it very large also We went from Nailsworth on the First day of the First Month 1677 8 and travelled through the Country visiting Friends and having many Meetings amongst them at Cirencester Crown-Allins Cirencester Crown-Allins Cheltonham Stoke-Orchard Tewksbury c. Worcester Parshow Evesham Warwickshire Ragley Cheltonham Stoke-Orchard Tewksbury c. so went to Worcester where I had formerly suffered Imprisonment above a Year for the Truth 's sake and Friends rejoiced greatly to see me there again Here I stay'd several days and had many very precious Meetings in the City and much Service amongst Friends After which travelling through the Country I had Meetings at Parshow and Evesham and then struck to Ragley in Warwickshire to visit her that was called the Lady Conway who I understood was very desirous to see me and whom I found tender and loving and willing to have detained me longer than I had freedom to stay About Two miles from hence I had Two Meetings at a Friend's house whose name was John Stangley Stratford Lamcoat Armscott Oxfordshire Sibbard North-Newton Banbury Adderbury c. Buckinghamshire Long-Crendon Ilmer Mendle Weston Cholsberry Chesham c. Hartfordshire Charlewood Watford Hempsted Market-street Bedfordshire Luton Albans South-Mims Barnet Hendon London whither William Dewsbury came to me and stay'd with me about half a day Afterwards I visited Friends in their Meetings thereabouts at Stratford Lamcoat and Armscott from whence it was that I was sent Prisoner to Worcester in the Year 1673 and thence passed into Oxfordshire visiting Friends and having Meetings at Sibbard North-Newton Banbury Adderbury c. Then visiting Friends through Buckinghamshire at Long-Crendon Ilmer Mendle Weston Cholsberry Chesham c. having several Meetings amongst them I came to Isaac Pennington's where I stay'd a few days And then turning into Hartfordshire visited Friends at Charlewood Watford Hempstead and Market-street at which places I had Meetings with Friends From Market-street I went in the Morning to Luton in Bedfordshire to see John Crook with whom I spent good part of the day and went towards Evening to Albans where I lay that night at an Inn. And visiting Friends at South-Mims and at Barnet and Hendon where I had Meetings I came to London on the Eighth day of the Third Month. And it being the Fourth-day of the Week I went to Gracious-street-Meeting which was peaceable and well and many Friends not knowing I was come to Town were very Joyful to see me there and the Lord was present with us refreshing us with his living Vertue blessed be his holy Name The Parliament was sitting when I came to Town and Friends having laid their Sufferings before them were Waiting on them for Relief against the Laws made against Popish Recusants which they knew we were not though some malicious Magistrates took Advantages against us 1678. London to prosecute us in several parts of the Nation upon those Statutes So Friends being Attending on that Service when I came I Joined with them therein and some probability there was that something might have been obtained towards Friends Ease and Relief in that Case many of the Parliament-men being tender and loving towards us as believing we were much mis-represented by our Adversaries But when I went down one Morning with George Whitehead to the Parliament-house to Attend upon them on Friends hehalf on a sudden they were Prorogued though but for a short time Yearly Meeting About two weeks after I came to London the Yearly Meeting began to which Friends came up out of most parts of the Nation and a glorious heavenly Meeting we had Oh the Glory Majesty Love Life Wisdom and Vnity that was amongst us the Power reigned over all and many Testimonies were born therein against that ungodly Spirit which sought to make Rents and Divisions amongst the Lord's People but not one Mouth was opened amongst us in its defence or on its behalf Good and Comfortable Accounts also we had for the most part from Friends in other Countries of which I find a brief Account in a Letter which soon after I writ to my Wife the Copy whereof here follows Dear Heart TO whom is my Love in the Everlasting Seed of Life that reigns over all Great Meetings here have been and the Lord's Power hath been stirring through all the like hath not been And the Lord hath in his Power knit Friends wonderfully together and the glorious Presence of the Lord did appear among Friends And now the Meetings are over blessed be the Lord in quietness and peace From Holland I hear that things are well there Some Friends are gone that way to be at their Yearly Meeting at Amsterdam At Embden Friends that were banished are gotten into the City again At Dantzick Friends are in Prison and the Magistrates threatned them with harder Imprisonment but the next day the Lutherans rose and plucked down or defaced the Popish Monastery so they have work enough among themselves The King of Poland did receive my Letter and read it himself and Friends have since printed it in High-Dutch By Letters from the Half-yearly-Meeting in Ireland I hear that they be all in Love there And at Barbados Friends are in quietness and their Meetings settled in peace At Antego also and Nevis Truth prospers and Friends have their Meetings orderly and well Likewise in New-England and other places things concerning Truth and Friends are well and in those places the Mens and Womens-Meetings are settled blessed be the Lord. So keep in God's Power and Seed that is over all in whom ye all have Life and Salvation for the Lord reigns over all in his Glory and in his Kingdom Glory to his Name for ever Amen So in haste with my Love to you all and to all Friends London the 26th of the 3d Month 1678. G. F. The Letter to the King of Poland before mentioned is as followeth To Johannes III. KING of Poland c. O King WE desire thy Prosperity both in this Life and that which is to come And we desire that we may have our Christian Liberty to Serve and Worship God under thy Dominion For our Principle leads us not to do any thing prejudicial to the King or his People For we are a People that do exercise a good Conscience towards God through his holy Spirit and in it do serve and worship and honour him and towards Men in the things that be equal and just doing to them as we would have them do unto us and looking unto Jesus who is the Author and Finisher of our Faith which Faith
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
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
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
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
the Reformed Churches from the Papists Jews and Heathen and the Scriptures to be your Rule and are Professors of the New Covenant where do you prove out of the Scriptures of the New Testament that the Apostles and the Primitive Church practised or forced any such thing or that Christ and his Apostles gave any such Command to the Churches that they should practise and observe any such Days Let us see where this Command is written For did not the Apostle say unto the Galatians in the fourth Chapter But now after that ye have known God or rather ye are known of God how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly Elements whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage Ye observe Days and Months and Times and Years I am afraid of you lest I have bestowed upon you Labour in vain And in the Third of Galatians it is said O foolish Galatians who hath bewitched you that you should not obey the Truth c. And in Galatians the Fifth the Apostle exhorts them to stand fast in the Liberty wherewith Christ had made them free and moreover said Be not entangled again with the Yoke of Bondage Now doth not this manifest that there were some Teachers that were drawing the Church of the Galatians into these beggarly Elements and bringing them again into Bondage in observing of Days Months Times and Years for it was the Apostle's Work to bring them out of those Bondages and beggarly Elements and therefore when they were going back again into observing Days Months Times and Years he was afraid that he had bestowed his Labour upon them in vain and he Exhorts them to stand fast in the Liberty wherewith Christ Jesus hath made them free and not to be entangled again with the Yoke of Bondage and Again signifies That they had been once entangled with that Yoke of Bondage and beggarly Elements But O! how are People called Christians since the Apostles Days gone again under this Yoke of Bondage and these beggarly Elements in observing Days Months Times and Years let their practice declare Nay do not both Papists and Protestants force People to observe Days Months and Times c. And therefore is not the Apostle's Labour and Travel bestowed upon Christendom in vain which was to bring People from under such beggarly Elements and that Yoke of Bondage which the Law did require to stand fast in the Liberty wherewith Christ hath made them free and not to be entangled again with the Yoke of Bondage So it was and is Christ that hath made and doth make his People free from these things and beggarly Elements And therefore they that are Redeemed are to stand fast in that Liberty wherewith Christ hath made them free And this Liberty which all true Christians are to stand fast in they are made free by Christ and not by Man for Man with out the Spirit and Mind of Christ seeks to force and compel Christ's Followers and such as he hath made free from the Yoke of Bondage to outward things that the Law commanded and to the observing of Days Months Times Feasts and Years such weak beggarly Elements them that know God or are known of God and Christ are to stand fast in their Liberty and not come under nor be entangled with the Yoke of Bondage of such things again seeing he hath made them free For they that are in such things and would force others to them are gone from that which gives them the knowledge of God and have not stood fast in the Liberty wherewith Christ makes free And now concerning Prayer we do not read that ever Christ or his Apostles did Compel by force any to Fast or Pray and make a Law to strain the Goods of such as would not observe Days to fast and pray with them But Christ taught them how they should pray and be distinct from the Hypocrites and Christ's words are as followeth When thou prayest thou shalt not be as the Hypocrites are for they love to stand praying in the Synagogues and in the Corners of the Streets that they may be seen of Men c. But when thou prayest enter into thy Closet and when thou hast shut thy door pray to thy Father which is in secret and thy Father that seeth in secret will Reward thee openly But when you pray use not vain Repetitions as the Heathen do for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking Be not ye therefore like them for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of before ye ask him c. So as the Apostles and Saints did so do we we pray in secret and we pray in publick as the Spirit gives us utterance which helps our Infirmities as it did the Apostles and true Christians and after this manner we pray for our selves and pray for all Men both high and low Concerning Fasting Christ saith Moreover when ye fast be not as the Hypocrites of a sad Countenance for they disfigure their Faces that they may appear unto Men to fast But when thou fastest anoint thy Head and wash thy face that thou appear not unto Men to fast 1677. Harlingen in Frietzland but unto thy Father which is in secret and thy Father which seeth in secret shall Reward thee openly And likewise you may see in Isaiah the 58th what the true Fast is the Lord requires where it is said to the Prophet Cry aloud and spare not lift up thy Voice like a Trumpet and shew my People their Transgression and the House of Jacob their sins yet they seek me daily and delight to know my ways as a Nation that did Righteousness and forsook not the Ordinance of their God they ask of me the Ordinances of Justice they take delight in approaching to God Wherefore have we fasted say they and thou seest not wherefore have we afflicted our Soul and thou takest no knowledge Behold in the day of your Fast ye find pleasure and exact all your Labours Behold ye fast for strife and debate and to smite with the Fist of Wickedness ye shall not fast as ye do this day to make your Voice to be heard on high Is it such a Fast that I have chosen A day for a Man to afflict his Soul Is it to bow down his Head as a Bull-rush and to spread Sackcloth and Ashes under him Wilt thou call this a Fast and an acceptable Day to the Lord Is not this the Fast that I have chosen saith the Lord To loose the Bands of Wickedness to undo the heavy Burdens and to let the Oppressed go free and that ye break every Yoke ' So this Fast that the Lord requires is not to lay Yokes and Oppress and lay Heavy Burdens and to make fast the Bands of Wickedness but to loose and to break such things And further Concerning the true Fast the Lord requires Is it not to deal thy Bread to the Hungry and that thou bring the Poor that are cast out to thy
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