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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A57212	Abstracts of some letters written by Mr. Robert Rich treating mostly of spiritual matters and here transmitted to posterity and recommended to the sober and serious enquirer for promoting of universal love amongst all sorts of people without respect of persons, parties, or sects : together with a friendly letter of Dr. Jer. Taylor to the said R.R. in answer to one of his / published by J.P.	Rich, Robert, d. 1679.; Pennyman, John, 1628-1706.	1680 (1680)	Wing R1354; ESTC R26429	24,390	27

ABSTRACTS OF SOME LETTERS WRITTEN BY Mr. ROBERT RICH Treating mostly of Spiritual Matters Are here transmitted to Posterity and recommended to the sober and serious Enquirer FOR Promoting of Universal Love amongst all sorts of People without respect of Persons Parties or Sects Together with a friendly Letter of Dr. Jer. Taylor to the said R. R. in Answer to one of his Published by a Lover of RIGHTEOUSNES But an utter Enemy to Deceit and Wickedness in whomsoever J. P. LONDON Printed for Benjamin Billingsley at the Printing-Press near the ●●●al-Exchange in Cornhill 1680. The PREFACE I Having had the perusal of divers of Mr. R. Rich's Letters by reason of his late Decease found several things scattered up and down amongst them of a sublime and Divine Nature some of which I picked and culled out and now expose to publick view chiefly for the sake of those whose Hearts and Minds are set Sion-wards to be kept upon Record for their Posterity even the Generations of all the just and righteous Ones of what Nation Kindred Tongue or People soever they be For the sincere single and upright-hearted in whom there is no Guile who seek not the Praise of Men but the Glory of the Lord only were are and for ever will be acted and guided by one and the same Spirit of Purity Holiness and Self-denial throughout all Ages and Generations He that can receive the Testimony of this Truth as did the Apostle Peter of old and as do the Servants of the Lord now let him but withal let him know unless his Life and Conversation be harmless and blameless amongst Men all his Notion of Truth in words will but add to his greater Condemnation For he that talks of his Master's Will and is not a doer of the same must expect to be beaten with many stripes Wherefore my Advice is before any talk of or intermeddle with the Secrets or Mysteries of the Great GOD they first see Justice Righteousness and Love to Equity set up in their own Souls for till that be resolvedly and fixedly established within all Knowledg and Profession without will avail little For what doth the Lord require of thee O Man but to do justly to love Mercy and to walk humbly before Him Therefore let these things in which the Kingdom of God consists and not in Meats or Drinks Habits Times or Places which at best were but shadows of good things to come be first sought after and all other things needful will be added as hath been fully and truly experienced by one who hath learned not only to forgive Enemies but can with delight reward Evil with Good Which Lesson that the Reader may learn press after and attain unto is the desire of him who seeks the Good and Weal of all Mankind J. P. Mr. Rich's Letter to Doctor Taylor of the 9th of Feb. 1657. Together with the Doctor 's Answer SIR BEing in my Heart persuaded that there are many of late years which have suffered much in their Persons Estates and good Names of those People called Malignants especially some that were in the Ministry that were not only put out of their Livings but by an Act made uncapable of that Emploiment their Education best fitted them for viz. the keeping of Schools And altho perhaps some might suffer justly for their Offences yet I do believe many of them did suffer for the Testimony of a good Conscience not daring to make shipwrack of it nor to act against that Light or Knowledg which to them was made manifest from the Lord to be just and right Towards such have I great Love notwithstanding the different Dispensations Manifestations Operations and Administrations wherein we are cast knowing the Root and Ground to be from the one Spirit and that in my Father's House there are many Mansions in which as every one abides to act and do the things that are just and right they are accepted with him of what Nation Kindred or People soever whether Jew or Gentile they are all one in Christ Jesus God's Talent and Gift to the World who doth enlighten every one freely by his Grace both to will and to do of his good pleasure And therefore as a Testimony of that Love the Lord hath begot in my Heart to all Men especially to them that improve my Lord's Talent and who are of his Houshold and abide in the Faith that keeps clean the Heart which is held in a pure Conscience have I by this Bearer sent unto you Ten Pounds to bestow amongst them you know to be in want under that Form called Episcopal And this I feel to be well-pleasing to God and hath a Reward from him altho it should be condemned by Man So desiring you in this thing to act as Truth in the inward parts shall direct I commit you to the Grace and Love of God where I rest Your Friend and Servant R. R. The Doctor 's Answer SIR I Received from you by the hands of your Nephew a Letter and Ten Pounds to be given to such godly Ministers of the Episcopal Persuasion who are in want and suffer for the Testimony of their Consciences Sir I do in their behalf return my humble thanks to God who hath put it into your Heart to do so good so charitable an Action for the relief of his afflicted Servants And I return hearty thanks to You also and do very much rejoice in that Piety and godly Sincerity of your Spirit by which you endeavour by your Love unto the Brethren to testify your Love and Duty to our dearest Lord. I see you are no respecter of Persons nor Opinions but that you enquire after the Power of Godliness and I am very much delighted to consider that you make a charitable Judgment of your Brethren who are under another Dispensation As long as the Understandings of Men differ there will be variety of Judgments but the Work of God and of Religion goes forward while we have but one Heart and one Spirit Sir I hope you will have great cause to rejoice when you shall hear that God is glorified on your behalf and that you by your liberal Alms cause humble Thanksgivings to be made to God For my own particular I shall by God's assistance do the Office of a faithful Steward in the ministring of your Liberality and I pray God to accept it at your hands and to reward it sevenfold into your Bosom Sir I humbly take my leave and rest Your very affectionate Friend and Servant in the Lord Jesus JER TAYLOR Feb. 13. 1657. This following is a Preamble of a Letter R. R. writ to the Earl of Windsor Jan. 10. 1662. My Lord FOr some time I scrupled and durst call no Man Lord or Master which proceeded from Tradition received from Elders from the Letter of the Scripture which saith Call no Man Master But having since that in my self felt a more sure Word viz. the Image or Talent of God to wit Truth in the inward

be glorious and inherit the Blessing and could wish his last end in it Mark O Balak and Balaam who are but one from thy own Mouth and Practice is thy Condemnation Thus Man's Spirit the Witch of Endo● being raised to its height and received into the Consciences of others and upheld there first began the Apostacy and in this Spirit doth the Apostacy still stand and subsist even to this very day in every Sect and if any one of them could obtain their Will they would be as great as the Pope and make all others bow and come in to them else neither buy nor sell nor live in Love and Peace with any But this bitter envying is not so with the God-like and true Christians such bless and not curse Nothing will be acceptable but what proceeds from the Root of Jesse and is the Off-spring of the pure Movings of Love all else is but as the Offering of Cain and as the Repentance of Esau which must be rejected and cannot inherit the Blessing And now Joseph being delivered out of Prison and the deep Pit wherein his Brethren had put him where he passed through divers Trials and Temptations both of Soul and Body I say being now risen with Christ and made Lord over that Earth which held him can with boldness speak what he hath seen and heard And considering how contrary to my Life which was Peace and good Will to all I have been acted in Strife and Contention for near these seven years ever since the difference first brake forth betwixt G. F. and J. N. the which I call my strange Work as to Man and to my self But the Lord who doth in Heaven and Earth what he pleaseth in that day shewed me that was the least able for this Work of War of all my Brethren Many things that began to appear and to wax strong which were for destruction and the one thing needful viz. Love in Truth even amongst Brethren much neglected so as the Lord commanded I sold my Coat of Peace and good Will to all and bought a Sword the which I girded upon my Thigh and in the strength of God's Command drew it and therewith spared neither small nor great yet my chief Aim ever were against Agag the fat and fairest the King and Head of that bitter Spirit Amalek which would not suffer them to pass peaceably through his Land whom the Light guided out of their received Traditions and notwithstanding their Talk of Light and Love such soon selt and found the Dragon's Power and Herod viz. G F. with his Men of War to stand in the cross Ways ready to cut off all the Innocent that would not own him King and call him Master receive their Mark and Number of their Name against which Spirit the Sword of the Lord hath been sharp and will most certainly chop the same in pieces as Herbs for the Pot. And though this was War indeed yet forasmuch as the ground and root thereof had the Command of God and Love to Truth such Weapons are Spiritual I say it was a War in Heaven Well Friends Joseph hath been with the Lord in the Deep and hath there seen his Wonders wherefore receive these things kindly and friendly from his Treasury they may prove a supply to you in this Day of Famine not of Bread but of the Loving-kindness of the Lord towards one another And be not offended at what is spoken tho it tend to the throwing down of Man into the Dust yet if God and his Grace be hereby exalted give up Self to the Death of the Cross It is good to die with the Lord tho Flesh and Blood see not this Neither be you troubled nor offended at him that declares these things tho he seems sometimes to appear as a Man walking on the Sea which is rough foaming and tempestuous Joseph is now out of Prison and hath no more Conscience of an Idol to him no Idol is anything neither Paul nor Apollos no nor Christ after the Flesh he knows no more neither their Circumcision nor Baptism nor any outward thing nothing but Grace that works by Love I have no dependence nor Worship nor Fear nor Care for any thing save that I worship the only alone true LORD GOD who is Love any thing acted out of that I value not And I clearly see that such a People the Lord will bring forth as the praise of his new Creation that in the quietness and stilness of their Spirits which is Jacob's Ladder do patiently wait for the immediate Movings of Love which is Joseph's Cup wherein he prophesied freely resigned to the Will of God in all things relying on his Grace for their only Guide and not so much as lift up a Tool or make any Noise or Complaint in his Work nor with Vzzah hold up a hand of Fear or Care that it should fall or that his Will should not be accomplished and brought to pass in its due time and season No Friends those that have hitherto attained are not of them that look back to see what others will do but have pressed on to the Mark Christ the Love of God in their Hearts his Stature and Fulness where they see their Souls saved and have learned always to pray Thy Will be done whose Will is their Sanctification Salvation and Glorification c. An Abstract of some of R. Rich's Letters to G.F. J.C. and several others IT is written of Jeroboam that he set up two Calves much like Thee Thou and the Hat putting also a necessity of bowing down to them and worshipping as ye do saying These are thy Gods which brought thee out of Egypt that so the Kingdom might not return to David which is the Love of God I urge not this by way of Censure as rashly judging any even the meanest appearances which God draws out the Spirits of his People in but rather to shew you the Idolatry of such Limitations which in these outward things you lay upon the boundless variety of that unspeakable Spirit of Truth for I have heard some of the chief Rulers amongst you say That if any return to the Hat again meaning putting it off in Salutation then all their Profession is lost as if this or such like were the God that redeemed them And indeed who is there upon the Face of the whole Earth that fears God and worketh Righteousness if he receive not your Mark of Thee and Thou and the Hat may be accepted or owned as a Brother amongst you And what is your Form of Words in Thee and Thou but a customary Singularity in Speech another Mode of speaking than is commonly used which no way respects the Truth of what is spoken Pray tell me is not Truth where understood the Language of Canaan in what Speech or Dialect soever exprest Or did the Disciples of Christ in their Declarations of Truth to every Man in his own Language refuse the Dialect either of the Medes Persians Egyptians or

helpeth the Lord in his VVork for it doth not beget to love And is it not most just that that Name or Form should be left for a Curse that despiseth the Innocent for these outward things but I trust and am assured that the Lord will in his due time free the Earth from this Curse Thou askest me How I could compare or liken thy Friends Actions to the Pope or to them in New-England calling them your Forefathers seeing as thou sayest thy Friends bear their Testimony against the Pope's Idolatry and Persecution and also have suffered Deach for a Testimony against the New-England Oppression To all which I answer and say That the Spirit of Persecution is but one throughout all Generations and Forms tho never so refined for he that murders in New-England is the same that imprisons at Rome yet each bear a Testimony against one anothers Forms The same Spirit of Persecution have I seen and observed amongst those which thou callest Friends who for a Song of Zion or a Shout of inward Gladness or any other thing that suites not with their Traditions or Forms can with the same Spirit of Persecution cast out of their Synagogues smite with the Fist of VVickedness and wound with the venomed Arrow of their Reproaches those who cannot submit or join with them in their way And this is not falsly to accuse the Brethren as thou chargest me withal for any to tell you what they have heard and seen amongst you but rather a just return of your own Money into your own Sacks that you may measure your dealings with the Innocent by your own Practices and when the Witness of God ariseth amongst you and sheweth you your Transgressions and wherein you have offended those that have been otherwise acted than our selves then will you know that these things are Truth and the Desolation that shall be in your House at that day shall testify to your Faces that a Prophet hath been amongst you When mark what I say it shall so come to pass that the same Wrath and Vengeance shall break out upon you from others which you have heaped upon the Backs of those who were justified in their Hearts and Ways before the Lord then know and you shall assuredly that I have not spoken Lies unto you or forged a false Divination amongst you What I have here charged upon some I would not be understood to lay it upon all that have been called and are known by the Name of Quakers I know the Lord hath his People amongst them as in all Forms both of Jews and Gentiles such as love and fear the Lord doing the thing which is just and right and such are accepted with me as Bone of my Bone and as my Brother Benjamin that came of the Free-Woman and are in that Freedom fitted to act in all Forms as the Lord their Light shall lead them that they may replenish the Earth And those who are come to this Freedom viz. to give the Light its Liberty of leading according as it enlightens every Man that comes into the World in all Forms and Appearances the Curse is taken away the Enmity is departed and the Earth become the Lord's and his Christ's Let him that can receive it as doth R. R. And when your Work is done and come to an end then shall the Stone from Sion you stumbled at be set up with shouting crying Grace Grace unto it Zech. 4.7 THere are divers Operations and Dispensations yet all good as having their beginning and End in God And why therefore may not God enjoin that as an Ordinance to day and give his power to it also which to morrow he will lay aside as useless and by his withdrawing his Power from it leave it no better than an Idol Such was the Brazen Serpent such was the Temple and Tabernacle such were the Legal Offerings the Jewish Ceremonies and Sacrifice and such also are many things at this day both amongst the Quakers and other Sects which have been Forms and Figures of good things to come which were beautiful in their season whilst the Presence of God filled them but that being withdrawn are become dead and cold as Idols of no use Wherefore my advice is that all Men walk as they see and have received from the Lord and none to look out at others or to call any Man Master or Father of their Spirits save God only And if the Lord commands any to forsake Father or Mother the Forms and Traditions they were brought up in ought not all rather to obey God than Man Consider this G. F. and whether to forsake our own Guide and to follow thee or any Number of People that call themselves a Church who take upon them to impose upon their Brethrens Consciences be not Apostacy And whether this Usurpation did not at first lead the Church of Rome into the Apostacy And whether it will not the second time lead the Quakers to apostatize from the true Faith once delivered to them let the wise in Heart judg J. C. THou accusest me of being fallen and deeply revolted from the Truth and of being brutish and uncivil at your Meetings c. What thou hast here laid to my Charge is not so much by far as thy Generation at sundry times hath also cast on the Innocent and upright-hearted even all manner of Evil for bearing record to the Truth as made manifest in the Light viz. by witnessing to small and great that the Lord is my Shepherd and Teacher alone and that I needed no Man to teach me save him only and that to those who had received the Anointing it was sufficient to bring to Peace and Rest with God and Man and to preserve Union and Communion with Him in all his Creation And for this and my rejoycing which daily I have in Christ Jesus my Lord have I suffered all these things at your hands and been set at nought by Herod and his Men of War even by those amongst you that would be accounted Some-body who desire preheminence and to have Dominion over the Faith of others and that glory in making Proselytes and to have a Multitude to follow them calling you Masters or Teachers For by such and in this manner have I long and oft received your Arrows even bitter Words and Writings which sometimes as I saw cause I have returned back again into your own Bosoms and this you call a wrangling and unruly Spirit At present I have little more to say than that I am resolved to be faithful to what is committed unto me and to declare the same to day and to morrow and also the third day even till the Body be perfected and Him set upon the Throne even that Light that is in true Love whose right it is to reign which thing tell Herod that Fox your King so that all may have Peace and Rest in Him who is only worthy of Praise Honour and Glory alone even so saith my Spirit Amen